Colorblocked: Essie's Boxer Shorts

Hey polished prisoners,

Today I've got another polish from Essie's Yogaga Collection. I don't have this entire collection, but when I see an Essie color I like I pick it up while I'm out and about.  If you follow my Instagram you'd have seen the swatch I posted earlier this week.  Boxer Shorts is a periwinkle creme finish polish described as a "winning blue" according to Essie's website, but to me it seems more like a blurple with very purple leanings.  Colors like these are universally flattering on my skin tone which is one of many reason why purple is one of my favorite colors. The formula on this one is excellent and opaque in two coats, but you could probably get away with one if it were applied in a careful thick coat.  Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone after all I prefer my boxer shorts to have a little character ;)

Orly's Gold Rush went perfectly with this color combo.

Mani-louge

Base color: Essie Boxer Shorts

Colorblocks: Orly's Gold Rush & Liquid Vinyl

Looking very purply here to me with a blue underpinning.  I love this color!

It's been a while since I've done a colorblock mani and even longer since the color black has graced my nails in any significan't proportion.  One of the things that struck me immediately which I'd forgotten was how dark black can be when it's taking up a lot of real estate on your nails. Lol! It makes me feel like fall and winter are definitely coming when I put on such dark colors.  Are you ready for fall yet? It's my favorite season and I could really use a break from the unrelenting heat!

So what do you ladies think? While this is a fairly straightforward manicure I am really pleased by how well these came out! I also love how the trio of colors play together so nicely.  Oddly right now I'm really on a gold kick so expect to see more gold on my blog in the future.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...

Appealing Oranges...

Hey polished prisoners,

I love a good orange and today I've got a gorgeous little glistening glitterbomb for you from none other than one of my fav indie polish makers - KBShimmer!  This one is a real beauty too!  Orange-A-Peel is a bright neon orange polish, part of a six piece summer neon set, packed with various sized orange, pink, and white hex and white bar glitters.  In a word OAP is DENSE as glitterbombs tend to be.  That said the formula is smooth like butter and easy to apply with no need for fishing for pieces of glitter.

Isn't this just such a fun bright nami? And look at all the pink glitters in OAP!

I layered this over Essie's Marshmallow to make the neon even MORE neon.  You do need to wait about 5 mins in between coats otherwise the polish drags.  I also did a little colorblocking using Essie's Lights and Action and finally added some microbeads and tiny little hot pink butterflies to the mix.  

This is three layers of Orange-A-Peel pictured here.

 I am not at all happy with how the microbeads turned out - I accidentally knocked my hand before the topcoat set and they moved (boo!).  I still thinks it's cute-ish though...

It's super bright in this pic! Lol!

So here we have it yet another indie brand that I love.  And yes, I know I really darn well need to get my haul posts done (cringe).  I keep popping up out of nowhere with these polishes, but I just can't help myself when so many unique brands keep appearing these days!

Indies come to me!

Photo Source: comedycentral.com

Are you dying of laughter over my Rick James photo with an orange halo of light surrounding his beckoning form? No? Coldblooded...Do you at least feel overcome with lust to acquire this pretty baby?  I know I was when I saw the swatches put up by Amy from Nailventurous. Well good news! Though KBShimmer polishes used to be pretty hard to come by these days you can access her entire collection with ease here on her storefront.  She also has an Etsy where limited editions are listed from time to time.  Speaking of LE's it just so happens our little miss will be giving away 5 of them that she made as part of a rainbow polish making challenge. The contest ends this Friday and you can enter to win here.  Here's hoping to scooping up a new pretty to play with! Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next time. Toodles...