Showing posts with label Essie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Essie. Show all posts

Thursday, November 8, 2012

NO H8!! Are You Going To Give Their Words Power Over You?

Eradicate Hate was created after continued bullying in the nail polish blogger community. I am in full agreement with their stance. Having a sense of humor and the ability to take constructive criticism is necessary to survival when putting out anything in a public forum. The line is crossed when people start making comments that are purely mean and hateful for no other reason than just the joy of hurting someone else. We have all been on both sides of bullying whether we want to admit it or not. What is important is when you realized you were hurtful: did you learn from it and correct it? If the answer is yes, awesome. It means you are human and prone to mistakes. If it is no, and you are looking at all of these bloggers post as an overreaction to a "club" or "funny post," then you are probably still not aware that anything you do is wrong and everyone else needs to "toughen up." Fortunately there are those of us that do it for the fun and joy of sharing something we are excited about. I do it because I love nails, color, art, beauty, photography, writing, and the sheer enjoyment of connecting with others that think like me.

Showing support, bloggers are posting purple manicures on November 8th to stand up against bullying. This is Nfu Oh 51 layered over Orly Stone Cold (2 coats) and Essie No Place Like Chrome (tiger print stamping). I used the Bundle Monster Stamping Plate BM-223. I think the 51 gave a cool "blurple" effect.

This excerpt was created at Eradicate Hate  in response to all of the cyber-bulling in the blogger community.
"Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay. Most of us are, thankfully, residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.

As members of the nail polish blogging community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color...even to our polish application techniques. To marginalize anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people's view of "normal" dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community."


I am amazed, when reading others blogs how bulling has affected each one of us. We all have at least one story to tell and none of them are pretty. There will be no happy face at the end of the story. No, "that was a good memory" or fond reminiscing  Bullying stays with us. It "teaches" us not to like ourselves. I liken it to a virus. At first, it usually starts as a small comment, but then more negative comments come your way and it builds and builds with no foreseeable "cure," because there is no cure for a virus. The most important thing someone, who is being bullied, can do is talk about it. Silence gives the negativity power that will morph into self doubt and loathing, that can only lead down a very dark and lonely road. Negative people will always be in our lives bringing others down around them to their level. The important thing to consider is: Are you going to give their words power over you? NO!


If you or someone you know suffers from bullying, there is help available. Please visit the following sites for support and encouragement:

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween Blood Spatter! I say it's an A+ (bah ha ha ha)

Happy Halloween!!!! I just had a great Halloween with my family. Good food, fun watching my four year old get thrilled every time he got candy just by saying trick-or-treat, and having one of the goriest/creepiest/most awesome manicures I have had yet! I have been seeing the blood spatter manicures going around and I could not help myself. First, since I am a nurse at a hospital, I knew I could freak out a few co-workers with my "bloody nails." Second, It just looks BAD A$$! This was so much fun to do. I see myself using this technique over and over again. A quick tip that I should have followed, but I was hasty last night trying to get it done. Tape around your nails before spattering! It will help with clean up immensely. You can see in the pictures that I still have red all around my nails despite diligent clean up. Oh well, I think it adds to the effect. I used Sally Hansen White Out for my base, and Essie Blood Curdling, Orly Ma Cherie, and China Glaze Prey Tell for the blood. The "spatter effect" was created by using a coffee stirrer "straw" dipped in polish, then blown onto the nail. All of that bloody goodness was topped off with on coat of Out The Door. What do you think of this crime scene of a manicure? Have you tried spattering/splattering yet?

 Oh yeah, the mysteriously absent right hand makes an appearance!
 I was going for a Psycho pose here.
All I can think of is CSI when I look at this.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Mani!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. It has been a while since I last posted, but things have been a little crazy around here. On to the manicure. I tried my first glitter gradient manicure today and I think I did okay. It is by no means amazing, but I have seen worse (I hope.)I used Martian Salad by Pretty and Polished for my holographic green base, Essie  Gold as it Gets and China Glaze Blonde Bombshell for the glitter, and topped it all off with my beloved Seche Vite! My idea was I had my green color to start with, then the holographic shimmer in it would represent the rainbow, and finally the gold glitter would be the gold at the end of the rainbow. It looked perfect in my head! Reality quickly set in during my mani, real life would not be so perfect. I had a very hard time with Blonde Bombshell getting clumpy during the application process. The interesting thing was it wasn't getting gooped up on the nail, it was getting lumpy at the rim of the bottle which made applying it a nightmare! So, despite the difficulties, it turned out fair I think. Well, at least I can't get pinched tomorrow because of the green!




Unfortunately the sun isn't out right now, so I can't get a shot of the rainbow effect, but you get the idea. I will try and post more pictures later when and if the sun comes out. Have a great day!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Essie White Bright Nail Pen *UPDATE*

*Go to bottom of post for updated content.*

Essie White Bright Nail Pen is suppose to help whiten and brighten the appearance of natural nails. The unique formula using non-bleach technology dries in seconds leaving nails white, bright and beautiful according to the description on the box. It can be used alone or under your nail color. Of course, Essie recommends you still use a base coat with your manicure. So I thought I would do a test for you all seeing that nail yellowing is a BIG problem in the nail polish community. To my total embarrassment, of course, I will start with some before pictures that I am not too proud of. Beginning in the fall of last year, I was using a pretty crappy base coat and low and behold a dark color bled through the base coat and stained my nails (cue sad face and slow violin music here). After that I got on track and bought several good base coats and things were looking better. Then I did my Christmas manicure ... with the crappy base coat again (yes I know, shame on me). I did this stupid act thinking I was going to remove it in a day or two so not too much to be concerned about right? Wrong! My one to two days turned into 6 days and some very yellow (and green) nails. So here is the evidence of my nail blunder, minus the green (thank God for nail polish remover). Hope you all learned a valuable lesson from my mistake. Please don't judge my pictures too harshly. I will post updates over the next few weeks to show you the difference.

Now when you use the pen, you feel like your are using a felt tip marker that has clear ink. It does dry/absorb very quickly.
Please ignore the crack in my middle finger. That occurred a few days ago and tomorrow I will discuss the product that I used to fix it. :)
Ewwww. I don't know why I put the watermark there. It's not like anyone would want to steal these pictures LOL!


So, I used this product for roughly four weeks and did not see a big difference. I would use it in between manicures and if I had no polish on I would apply it daily. It was a BIG disappointment. I was really hoping it would work. Oh well, I hope it has worked for someone out there. Let me know if you have any tricks for whitening. I am about to start trying Orly Cutique to see if that works. Wish me luck.

Here are some before and after pictures for you to examine. Please don't judge the dried out fingers/cuticles, I had just removed some polish. :(
Before
After
 Before
 After
 After
So, can any of you see the difference. I sure can't!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Essie Meet Me at Sunset

Essie Meet Me at Sunset is a beautiful bright orange creme that dries almost to a jelly finish. It was a dream to apply with only two coats and no top coat. I almost didn't want to take it off, but I was in the middle of a swatching session. I can't wait to wear this color in the summer. Meet Me at Sunset came from Essie's 2011 Summer Collection.


 The bottom picture is the actual color but I thought you all might appreciate the close up to see the jelly finish.

This product was purchased by me.