There's a new flakey in town! Esse just released a collection that includes Luxeffects top coats. For this week's mani monday I used 2 coats of Illamasqua, Rampage; a rich, deep, dark semi-jelly cream emerald green. What's great about this particular green is it doesn't live in the forest! It's a dark warm-toned green which is kind of hard to find. It looks great with my neutral-warm-toned skin. I then topped the edges with Esse, Shine of the Times Luxeffects top coat; a multi-dimentional flakey glitter.

The shape of this flake is much smaller than the INGLOT flakies or Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. It's also a bit more condensed. You really don't need more than 1 coat. I used a tiny bit a the tips of my nails and then spread it down with a cleaned off brush. The effect is gorgeous! I completely obsessed with the Esse Luxeffects!

Top picture taken in indirect sunlight, bottom in direct sunlight. You can see the different colors at the different angles.

Bonus shots of Esse Luxeffects, Shine of the Times:

(direct sunlight)

(indirect sunlight)

Happy Monday, Kittens! This weeks manicure is a different take on ombre than what I usually do. I thought I would try out the individual nail color ombre as opposed to the faded, technique heavy gradient ombre. After I was finished with the whole thing I decided that the index finger color didn't really work quite right. Unfortunatelyly I don't have another medium green that had the correct finish to sub. Oh well.

From thumb to pinky: OPI, Jade is the new black; China Glaze In The Lime Light; OPI, Who The Shrek Are You; The Face Shop, YL 201 and The Face Shop YL701. Since In The Lime Light has a slightly different finish (shimmery neon) and the rest were flat/cream colors I decided to top them all off with a sheer shimmering top coat Rimmel, Jubilation. That way the neon color could play nice with the rest and not stand out too much.

Here it is. Enjoy!

Two manis in a week? YES! Here's my St. Patrick's Day manicure for you all! My background color is two coats of CND, Green Scene. I then then it topped with a coat of INGLOT, 203 which is a green-tone flakie in a clear base. Sally Girl, Chunky Gold Glitter finished off the look. I applied a coat of Seche Vite, Fast Dry Top Coat between the flakies and the gold glitter and two more on top. I included a close up picture to show the depth. Its a little on the blurry part, I should have lit it better and maybe used a tripod. oh well.

The inspiration was green for obvious reasons, the flakies add an essence of magic and the gold represents the pot of gold. Horray... now lets drink a green beer and call it a day. Cheers!

This holiday nail kind of happened as a happy accident. I pulled a bunch of festive polishes from my collection and just started layering. It ended up looking a little like a decorated christmas tree. Obviously not literally, but more like the essence of one. I used 4 polishes to create the final look. You can stop at any point. For example, the first two steps look a little like venetian marble and are really cool just on their own.

Step by step:

1. Apply 2 coats of OPI Jade is New Black. Let dry a few mintutes
2. Using a sponge (a piece of a clean dish sponge works perfectly) dab on Sephora By OPI Dark Room. Let dry 2 minutes.
3. Top with 1 coat of a Flakie polish. I used INGLOT #205. Let dry another 2 minutes
4. Add 1 or 2 coats of an irregular glitter polish. I used a Claire's sample polish. (I don't have an exact name, sorry.) What works really well for this is big flecks of glitter or strange shaped glitter. It gives the illusion of ornaments. Let dry a few minutes between coats. 
5. Top it all off with a few coats of clear top coat. I used Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

(click the picture to see detail)

Too much? Not enough? Should I put a star on the top of each nail? What do you think?