Review: Essie Sleek Sticks in Croc Madame

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A while back I purchased some Essie Sleek Stick nail appliques at the Dollar Tree and I finally got around to trying a pack of them out. I used the ones called Croc Madame, they are a beautiful minty teal green with a crocodile skin texture to them. The textured part also has a slight holographic effect to it.

The Sleek Stick nail appliques have been UV cured to provide long lasting wear with a high gloss finish. In the packaging you get 18 appliques, a cuticle stick and a nail file/buffer. They are super easy to apply, I prepped my nails by removing all existing nail polish and then wiping each nail down with some rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball. I then used the provided cuticle stick to push back my cuticles. Next I selected the correct appliques for each finger and applied them one by one. I did use my own file to file the excess off, instead of the one provided.

Usually when I use these types of nail nail products they don't tend to stick on very long, but these were a whole different story. I applied these on a Wednesday and by the following Wednesday they were still stuck to my nails! I did, as with all nail appliques, have some tip wear, this might could have been prevented if I had applied a top coat.  I feel like I could have wore these for another week, but I was just tired of looking at them so I removed them. The removal process is as easy as the application process, to remove you simply pull them off. They did leave a little glue residue on my nails, but all I had to do was wipe my nails down with some polish remover and it all came off.

I would use these again, but only if I found more of them at the Dollar Tree. To be honest I don't even know if you can find these at the drug store anymore, I looked on Essie's website and could not find them on there anywhere.

Have you tried Essie Sleek Sticks? Did you have good results?

Essie's I'm Addicted & Avon's Plum Illusion + Life Update

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Y'all this week has been a crazy one! First my nails then if you're still around I'll tell you all about it. 

Today I wanted to give Essie's I'm Addicted another try cause it is such a gorgeous color. I'm going to call this a neon sky blue! I decided to pair it with Avon's crackle polish called Plum Illusion for two reasons; one get two unworns out of the way at one time and secondly because of a mani I seen over on Lizzy's blog!

I used two coats of I'm Addicted and I feel that gave me pretty good coverage. Clean up was easy too and did not seem to stain my fingers and they dry time on this was pretty good too, around five minutes. On thing I didn't really like about it was the application was a little streaky and I had some dragging of the polish issues. The second coat did even out the streaky from the first coat

Next I tried re-creating the mani I mentioned above using striping tape. I think it came out quite nice and I think it is such a unique way to use crackle polish!

Okay if you stuck around that must mean you are interested in hearing about my week, yay :)

On Tuesday afternoon I got a phone call about the job I applied to and it turned out that I got the job. I was really excited about it, but also really nervous. On Tuesday evening I stepped out on our back porch to talk with my Father in Law and when I went to go back inside my foot snagged a little piece of wood that was sticking up and I got a good sized splinter stuck in my foot so deep that it required a trip to the ER, a shot to numb my foot and a tetanus shot!! Wednesday I went to my job and pretty much hated every minute of it. The guys I had to work with were super nice, but it was so hot and dusty in there, by the end of the day my clothes felt like I had got caught in a rain shower, there was so much dust stuck to my sweaty face it felt like sandpaper, I was smothering from all the dust and physically ill from the heat. I came home in tears called the next day and told them I would not be back. Now before you judge me, I don't mind getting out and working or getting dirty while doing it, but if it's gonna make me physically ill I just don't think it is worth it. So now I am back on the hunt for something else in a better environment. Preferably retail cause I'm good at that.

I hope you all had a great week and hope you have an even better weekend :)

I'm going to spend my weekend (hopefully) getting some blog post together for next week!

TIOT: Essie Vices Versa

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I'll go ahead and put it out there, I'm a little on the fence about Essie's 2014 neon collection *gasps* I know, sorry. I have 4 of the 6 polishes and the shades are amazing and they apply pretty decent, my issue is how fast they chip! I know neons do chip more than regular polishes, but the same day come on now.

I've used two of these, I'm Addicted a super pretty light neon blue, chipped the next day. I tried out Vices Versa next, it chipped the same day I painted them, not super bad chips but still chips. Hoping the other two that I have won't be like that, but we shall see. Still not sure if I will get the other two shades from this collection.

Okay let's get to Vices Versa, it is a super bright neon green! Love the shade, perfect for spring and summer manis. It dries to what I'm going to say is a semi-matte finish, not completely matte, but not really shiny either. It is slightly sheer, I applied 3 coats and you can still see my nail line, not a huge deal to me but I know some don't like that. Application was decent, no real issues, with it being a semi-matte finish it does dry a little faster than regular polish so you have to be careful and not take too much time or else you will start to drag the polish around.

I loved this color on it's on, but I wanted to add a little something to it. I had some 2mm Fluorescent Round Rhinestones from the Born Pretty Store that I thought would go great with this color! The set came with green, pink, orange and blue rhinestones. I decided to use the pink on my ring finger to make an accent nail, I did a simple French Tip type look, mostly because I had house work to do and didn't know how well these would stay on. I have to say I'm quite impressed, I only lost one yesterday and that was because I didn't get it coated well enough with my top coat and I was messing with it. I really like these rhinestones because they are pretty flat, so the won't get snagged over stuff. These come 400 pieces to a set for $3.12, free shipping and you can save 10% with the following code: SMBW10

I am trying so hard to get my unworns whittled down, but honestly we all know that is a never ending task because I can't stop buying new polishes LOL If any thing in there catches your eye and you want to see it let me know and I'll test them out first ;)

Alright that's all for today! Hope you all have a great day, we are expecting some storms over the next few days, hopefully nothing severe!

A Flakie Comparision + a Life Update

I'll tell you about the comparison first! The other week I used ELF's Fairy Dust in my mani and it made me remember that I had heard it's a dupe for Essie's Shine of the Times and since I have both  I wanted to see of it truly was. I had a really cute mani in mind to test them out, but the flakies did not want to show up well! It was so horrible that I didn't even keep the pictures. Then I thought flakies show up really good on black polish, so instead of painting my nails black, I just used a nail wheel.

We've got Essie Shine of the Times on the left and Elf Fairy Dust on the right. They are very very similar, but for me they have one tiny difference; I think the flakes in SOTT are finer than the flakes in FD, allowing you to grab more of them on the brush. Since the flakes in FD are a little bigger I feel like you are not able to get as many on the brush, causing me to have to use 2 coats of FD and just one of SOTT Other than that though they are pretty much identical to me, Essie is around $8.50 and the Elf is $2

I have looked at these swatches several times trying to figure out which one I like better and I'm still not really sure. Which every one you choose you can't go wrong, both are great flakie polishes!

Life Update
Y'all last week was such a crazy week for me, I felt like I had no time to blog at all. I've been on the hunt for a job :/ I had put in several applications over the past couple of weeks and was beginning to think I was not going to hear anything about any of them. Well Monday I drove the 200 mile round trip to visit my Mom and when I got home Monday night I had a message regarding one of the jobs I had applied to! Thursday I went for an interview then went back Friday to fill out some paper work. Supposed to find out Tuesday for sure if I got the job and when I start!!!! The whole process was a bit overwhelming for me, I have not filled out an application in seriously over 10 years and I've not worked outside the home since 2006! If I get it, I will most definitely be out of my comfort zone, it's a factory job and all I've ever done is retail, so fingers crossed I get it and I can keep up with everyone else :)

Tomorrow  I think I will have Essie's Vices Versa from the 2014 neon collection!

Do any of you watch the show Revenge? OMG

Essie Full Steam Ahead

Happy Friday! Today I was planning on posting a beauty product review, but since the weather has been so nice I could not stay indoors, had to get out and enjoy it and needless to say I didn't get around to writing up the review. So instead I'm sharing Essie Full Steam Ahead with you :)

Full Steam Ahead is the only actual nail color I have from Essie, I do have a couple of their Luxe Effects though. FSA was a super easy formula to work with, no streaking or other issues. It is a little on the sheer side, in the photos I used 2 coats and I feel like it could have benefited from a third coat. My photos make the polish look a shade or two darker that what it really is.

In any case, it is such a lovely lilac shade, would be great for a spring or Easter manicure. In the bottle it appears that it has a lot of silver shimmer, but once you have it on your nails it's not quite as noticeable.

For me this is just an okay polish, mostly because I wish that it wasn't so sheer and that the shimmer showed up better. It did dry fairly quick and wear time has been great too! I've been doing housework, been outside planting flowers and I only have minimal tip wear.

Imagine a shade darker than the photo below and that is the true color of Essie Full Steam Ahead.

Hope you have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday with a new post, just not sure on what yet. The weather is supposed to turn yucky again so I'll have plenty of time to get it sorted out :)

Mish Mash Challenge Week 1: Purple

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I'm so excited for today, as I am starting a new weekly nail challenge with some wonderful ladies! This challenge is called the Mish Mash Challenge, basically because it is 30 weeks of random nail challenges!

For week one the challenge was Purple. I chose a polish that I don't think I have worn before, Amethyst by Sinful Colors. It is a beautiful medium purple cream polish. I thought it was a bit blah by it's self so I added Essie's Luxe Effects in Shine of the Times on top of it. I really like the way it came out.

Be sure to stop by and see what the other ladies did for purple!

ABC Nail Challenge: Letter F

Today is Wednesday and that means another letter in the ABC Nail Challenge! Today we are on letter F and today F stands for Flakes! I used Flirt by Sally Hansen from the XtremeWear line. I topped that off with Essie Luxe Effects in Shine of the Times. I really love the way this came out. When you look at the flakes at first they may look one color then if I move my nails they are a different color. I have seen green, gold, red and orange.

Outside in direct sunlight

Also outside in direct sunlight

At the window on a cloudy day :)

Can not wait to see what the other ladies have done for letter F! Be sure to stop by and check them out too!

Nail of the Week

Simple nails for this week, NYC Peaches 'n Cream from the City Sweets Collection topped with Essie Luxe Effects in Shine of the Times. I have been wanting this Essie polish and never could find it, so happy I finally did! It's so much better than As Gold as it Gets.

Nail of the Week 5/20

This week I was feeling the need for a little sunshine :)
For this nail look I started out with my China Glaze strong adhesion base coat, then I used Sinful Colors Unicorn and topped that with my Essie luxeffects in as gold as it gets. I'm still not too sure how much I like the Essie Luxeffects, but I figured I paid $8 for it, so I better use it LOL. I wish I would have got it in Shine of the Times, but I could not find it.
What nail look did you rock this week?

Nail of the Week

This weeks nails were inspired by the shimmering body oil spray in my Avon haul! For this nail look I started out with my China Glaze strong adhesion base coat, then I used Sinful Colors Tahiti Breeze and topped that with my Essie luxeffects in as gold as it gets.