Essie Blue Rhapsody

Yesterday I asked which of my newest polish additions you wanted to see first and it seems like the new Essie Metallic polishes were the most wanted. So here's the first one, Blue Rhapsody, an icy blue foil. All swatch photos are shown two coats over one coat of Essie Grow Stronger (upcoming review of this nail treatment in a few days) with no top coat.

I was a little worried when the first coat on the first nail came out REALLY streaky and any attempt to correct it only made it worse. On the next nail I applied a thicker coat to start with and didn't seem to have the streak problem. On my thumb and middle finger I realized that this polish dries fast and you can't dally in your application. Once I figured these things out the rest of the application and the second coat were just fine.

This is definitely one you'll want to use some underwear for, maybe a ridge-filler if you have it. I noticed it shows all the flaws in my nail underneath, but that it pretty common for metallic polish.

Now how many of you saw these online or on the shelf and though what I did..."Metallic...hmm, I wonder if they stamp? " Well, I had huge hopes that they would, and I can't speak for the other colors yet but...this one does. Woo Hoo!!!

With top coat

I re-did my ring finger nail as an accent nail (Essie Grow Stronger - 1 coat, unnamed Cosmetic Arts pink creme - 2 coats and with one coat of Seche Vite). I used one of my new MASH stamp plates (Mash-49) for the star pattern.

So what do you think? Is this one you are going to add to your collection? Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Orly Spazmatic

 Today's polish is the last one in Orly's Flash Glam FX Collection, Spazmatic. Spazmatic is a lovely bright blue hex glitter with tons of bright blue micro glitter/shimmer in a clear base. This one was hard to photograph. I used one coat over a black creme and one coat of Gelous. I think I should have used one coat of Seche Vite for shine. This one also a little on the thick side with so much glitter but the application wasn't bad.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Orly Flash Glam FX Collection Teaser

Lightbox

 In my last post you saw that I managed to score Orly's new glitter collection from Sally Beauty. I decided to sample them before I choose my vacay mani and wow. Just wow! I couldn't believe how sparklie these were I just had to post some pics. I am going to attempt to squeeze the time to swatch these all over black before I go and use them as posts while I'm in Fort Bragg. So on to more pics!

Sunlight

On the nails, 2 coats of polish no undies. On rings, one coat over black. I haven't finished the rings I am making from this collection yet (still need to set stone) but keep an eye out for them either in a future giveaway or on Etsy or both. Hubby has been bugging me to do something to pay for this addiction to polish, LOL!

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Lightbox

Can't Be Tamed Macro

Spazmatic Macro

Mermaid Tale Macro

Be Brave Macro

Sashay My Way Macro

Stay tuned for more glitter-awesomeness! I'm swatching Be Brave first and I'll post that later today. The rest will come over the next four days! Don't forget to enter my current giveaway ending 5/31! Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Week 15: Easter Mani

For this week's challenge, the Easter mani, I decided to use the mani I did for my almost 12 year old daughter (her b-day is on Tuesday). She loved the little chickies but also wanted an accent nail with a bunny. Her nails are pretty small so I was worried about tried to fit a bunny with his ears on there, but hey, sometimes you just have to say, " I can always take it off and start over if I screw it up!" LOL! I think they turned out pretty cute and she absolutely LOVES them!

We painted her nails with 3 coats Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow and 2 coats China Glaze Bahamian Escape on the accent nail. For the chickies I used Wet n Wild Black creme (eyes) and Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up (toes/beaks). for the bunny I used Konad stamping polish in white (for it's opaqueness factor). I was actually able to just brush on the half circle face and ears. I then used China Glaze Dance Baby and my dotting tool for the nose and inner ears, and again used the Wet N Wild Black Creme for the eyes. I also used the dotting tool and Konad white to finish up the eyes. I then coated it all in Seche Vite - I did wait about a minute for the nail art to "dry" a bit so the Seche wouldn't smear it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I will leave you with this cute bunny pic I found the other day.

Happy Easter!

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Fellow Challengers:

**Again if you are doing this challenge and aren't on my list please leave a comment below with a link to you blog home page so I can add you and check out your designs too! ;)**

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Easter Mani #3 - Easter Chickies

I saw this adorable Chicken mani by Kelly @ Kelly's Kolors. I just had to try it out. I admit that although yellow was once one of my favorite colors, being a redhead it really just isn't my color. I didn't want to do 5 yellow chickies, so I thought I'd give you my 5 colored chickies instead.

Kind of like these:

I used China Glaze Dance Baby, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Color Club Twiggie, China Glaze Bahamian Escape, and Revlon Charming. Same base colors I used for my first Easter mani, the Easter eggs.

For the beaks and claws I used Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up (orange creme). For the eyes I used Wet n Wild Black creme.

 So here they are:

Then I added some sparkle with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Sorry, the sun was out wanted to see some sparklies after so much rain!

So, after seeing my chickies SOMEONE else wanted chickies. Sounded close to this, "Chickies! Chickies! Please! Cherry top!" Yes, the two year old wanted chickies enough to use the magic words Please with a cherry on top or at least her version. Now I want you to stop and think a minute about how small a two year old's fingernails really are. We are talking about 2/3 the size of a small polish brush, the pinky might be less than half. Those of you with kids or younger siblings know what I'm talking about. I should have posted this on it's own with the post title, "An Exercise in Patience." LMAO! She begged for these but would NOT hold still for them. Kept trying to lean over and see what I was doing. Oy!

The oldest also wanted some chickies and she wanted a bunny as an accent nail...we'll see how that goes and maybe I'll post it tomorrow. For now, goodnighty all and a great big thank you to all my followers for well, following! ;)

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

P.S. As I am previewing this Bug-bug is in my lap pointing at the screen and yelling, "Mine chickies." She actually scratched and peeled hers off hours ago. LOL