Pris' Nails: Essence

Showing posts with label Essence. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Winter Holiday Challenge: Festival of Lights

Quick post for the third and bright day of the Winter Holiday Challenge: Festival of Lights!

I chose to keep it simple, but colourful. One coat of Date in the Moonlight (Essence) composed the perfect dark night sky. The silver thread connecting all the lights was striped with Bring On The Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I.).

The colourful bulbs were dotted using several different polishes. Red (011), green (067), and orange (028) were Milano, that my grandma bought me in France. Blue was also Essence: Gleam In Blue. Yellow was a no name neon from Salomé on top of Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama). New Lilac (Pure Ice) was ~~imposed~~ chosen by my sister. Also upon her request were Bronze Sculpture (Finger Paints) and Morgan Le Fay (a england). The last touch of sparkly was Na Mira 3D (Impala).

I loved doing this mani. It was probably the quickest I've done in a long time, and it turned out so cute and cheerful! :-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Three Challenges, Two Manis

Cheating last time wasn't enough. This time I had to combine three challenges! However, it's two completely different manicures... :-p

First up is #PolishDays #BLINGnails edition! The lady running it all forgave my cheating last time, let's see if she'll accept it this time around. Hopefully the many sources of 'bling' will make up for it! (To read a bit more about Polish Days, check my debut!)

Hannah (aka Polly Polish) asked us to "get our bling on!" inspired by her recent engagement (Congrats, btw!). I started to Gleam in Blue (Essence)! But even before even thinking about the sparkle, the first thing that came to mind was my white gold wedding band. Perfect chance to try on Ninja Polish's He Went to Jarred, a 12K white gold flake top coat.

Onto the next blingy source: jewelry! Most of the jewelry I own were gifts from my grandma. There's this white gold heart with a light blue centre that I love (have I mentioned blue is my favourite colour?). The pendant was drawn in Bring On The Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I.) with a small brush.

Grandma recently gave me a (silver) bracelet full of pendants, among them an Eiffel Tower (Paris is her favourite place in the world). That transported me directly to the night hubby and I were admiring the sparkly tower. I reproduced it in Na Mira 3D (Impala) over Black Expressionism (Finger Paints), using a striper.

Enough bling!

Next up is the "Winter Holiday" Challenge - Snowflakes and Snowfall. It was represented above as a snow fall of white gold, and with the sOPI polish. Could there be a more appropriate name? ;-)

I'll redeem myself with the last up, which is also acceptable for the previous challenge: "Let It Snow!" Challenge - Snowflakes.

Base colour was Fire (Revlon) and I stamped the snowflakes from Bunny Nails Holiday edition plate HD05, using French White Tip (New York Color). It was the first time I was actually happy with a stamping attempt. Guess I'm finally getting the hang of it, although I'm still far from perfect!

Rounding up, I have a blingy mani (that ended up being sentimental as well), featuring a white gold flake snowfall, and a red wintery snowflake mani. How's that for kickstarting the challenges and the holiday season? :-D

Can't way to see the other ladies' manis in all three challenges!

xoxo

PRIS

Friday, November 9, 2012

Choose Me!

Still in love with Essence, the one I picked next was Choose Me.

I didn't expect it to be a sheer glitter polish, so I got disappointed at first. I needed 2 or 3 coats (can't remember exactly) for opacity, and removal was a nightmare (as with any glitter polish). But the colour is gorgeous!!

It's probably better as a layering polish than as a stand alone. Haven't tried it yet, but I'll post it here when I do. :-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Failed Frankening...

I know, I know... I haven't posted in a while and now I'm backdating to keep up with my anal self... :p

Now that the This Is Halloween Challenge is over, I can go back to posting my manis in the order they were done.

I started with one coat (yeah, it's a really quick drying one-coater!) of Gleam In Blue (Essence), before playing around with some 'frankened' top coats. I bought some glitter samplers at my local Michaels, but had a not so pleasant surprise once I started mixing it with some of my sheer polishes.

First I wanted to prepare a "chocolate chip" like top coat, so I used dark small glitters in the sheer base. After a while, I noticed the glitter bled quite a bit, making the whole thing darker...

The second attempt wasn't successful either. I used a few drops of blue (Jeans - Colorama) mixed with the sheer polish, and threw in small blue, red, and silver glitters, and a bigger silver glitter as well. Lots of bleeding again, making it purplish. Not bad, but not what I was aiming for...

I still have tons of sample glitter bags, and probably all have this bleeding problem. I'll keep playing with them for now, and maybe buy better supplies next time around.

At least I loved the Essence polish! Application was easy, drying time was super fast, and did I mention it's a one-coater?? ;-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

"This Is Halloween" - Graveyard

We're geting close to the end of the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

As I post twice a week (on Tuesdays and Fridays), my Monday entries have gone live on Tuesdays throughout this Challenge. This means that today's post should've been "Trick or Treat!" (which I'll publish on Friday), but I'm still on yesterday's prompt "Graveyard". (Yeah, I'm anal like that... :-p)

This theme has a bit of sentimental value (polish days?), even though some people may find it weird. Little sis likes cemeteries. Patty likes strolling along the tombstones, reading the inscriptions, admiring the crypts. During family vacations, we've joined her in this sightseeing more than once. It's definitely interesting!

OK, I know there's a difference between cemeteries and graveyards. But Patty likes them both the same, so I couldn't do tombstones on my nails without thinking of her! ;-)

Base colour is two coats of Date in the Moonlight (Essence). It could be a one coater, but I preferred dealing with thinner coats and doing it twice. This polish dries SO quickly!! There's a nice blue shimmer to it, but hubby couldn't see it at all and kept saying it was just a dark grey...

We didn't do a good job in capturing that shimmer, but I found a great picture by Lola in the Nail Polish Forum, and an awesome post by Les Ongles de Chamallow.

The tombstones were Carbonite (Revlon), which is a great one-coater, and black details were with my go-to black, Black Expressionism (Finger Paints). The sparkly round silver moon was Bring on the Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I), and the grass growing over the tombstones was High Line Green (New York Colors).

The grass-like look was achieved mixing two different shades of green flocking powder I bought in a 4-pack at Michaels. I'd already attempted plush nails before, and failed miserably, but I thought that trying it small could work better. And it did!! :-D

The sparkly glittery addition was Glitter Goblin (China Glaze). I loved the colours on this one, such a Halloweenie combination!!

Have you seen the spooky graveyards the other ladies in the challenge came up with?

xoxo

PRIS

Friday, October 19, 2012

"This Is Halloween" - Bats

The theme now is Bats, for the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

I didn't really think I could pull that off, so when I saw Halloween nail stickers at Dollarama, I picked up the package with the most little bats.

Then, ashamed of taking the easy way out, I started looking for tutorials online, and came across two good ones on youtube: Cute Bats from Dying 4 Chocolate and Spooky Bat Nails from Cute Polish.

Because it's Halloween, and I had just bought a new orange shade (and somewhat inspired by Cute Polish's design), the base colour was Gorgeous Bling Bling (Essence). One coat might've done it, but I ended up using two. For the bats, my usual suspects: Black Expressionism (Finger Paints) and Snow Me White (Sinful Colors). No nail art pen this time around, just dotting tools of mani different sizes.

I loved the cute little bats!! And I thought they were fairly easy to make, specially the Dying 4 Chocolate ones.

Are there gonna be more bats or batmans for this challenge? ;-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Polish Days: Olympic Nails

Here comes another edition of Polish Days! And this time, it's #PolishOlympics!!

Check out my debut, if you wanna know more about it!! :-)

Once again, Hannah (the lady behind Polly Polish) is doing an amazing job organizing this polish addicts round-up!

If you'd like to take part in the next Polish Days, check out how it works!

Onto the nails:

It all started with a blank canvas: Kate (Julep). One streaky coat, covered by a generous second coat.

The Olympic Rings were composed with dotting tools.

Jet Set To Paris (L'Oréal), Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama), Black Is Back (Essence), High Line Green (New York Color), Fire (Revlon) were used for the larger colourful dots.

Smaller dots with Kate on top gave the illusion of rings.

The flags are the story of my life: born in the US, raised in Brazil, living in Canada.

The red stripes were free-handed with the aid of long striping brush, using Big Apple Red Creme (New York Color).

Azul Biônico (Colorama) is responsible for the blue sky, and Kate sealed the deal with the stars.

For Brazil, the canvas was High Line Green (NYC), free handed over by Lexington Yellow (New York Color) and Azul Biônico (Colorama).

A hole punch through a film of Big Apple Red Creme (NYC) is responsible for the perfect Maple Leaf. Applying the tiny leaf is somewhat of a challenge, and a top coat is my best friend during the process! ;-)

Some themed glitter gave the sparkle this mani needed to shine. What, you don't remember the glitter? No problem, here's another pic! :-p

On my pinky, you can see America The Beautiful (Julep). Didn't pick up any stars, though. On the thumb, O Canada! (Julep). A (Canadian) friend said it reminded her of Christmas, and it made her happy! ;-)

I had so much fun with these Olympic Nails! A little bit was added each day, and by the end of the week I had the complete set.

Thanks again Hannah for organizing this. And thanks to all the ladies who are also taking part on #PolishOlympics! It wouldn't be a Polish Day without each and every one of us! :-)

Make sure you check 'em out!