Essence Stamp Review

About a month ago, I discovered that Essence now has a huge display at the Fred Meyer near my house, and they have a bunch of nail art stuff for super cheap.  I picked up a bunch of stuff to try out, and one of the things I've been dying to try is stamping.  I haven't really wanted to spend the money to get stuff from Ebay, so I thought this would be a good way to try it out.  I definitely paid under $5 for both of these items together.  

I bought the Essence stamping polish in black, and honestly, it sucked.  I only tried it once and it dried before I could get the stamp onto my nail.  I didn't try it again.  For this mani, I used a base of Revlon Perfectly Plum then used Sally Hansen Black Pearl Chrome for the stamps.  From what I've seen, chrome and metallic polishes usually work really well for stamping.

I like how it turned out!  I used a flower design with some dots and a swirl, then I filled just the flower and stamped that on for a little extra pretty.  It was easy to fill only a part of the pattern to make that little accent.  One bad thing about this stamping kit is the scraper.  It sucks.  It's metal and not completely flat, it doesn't wipe the polish off clean and drags on the metal plate, plus it was leaving some scratch marks.  Not good.  I got out an old credit card and used that and it worked like a dream.

The only other downside to these stamping plates is that the designs on the rectangular plate are not very big.  I think I could get most of my nails covered with maybe little gaps on the sides that wouldn't be that noticeable, but they're definitely not big enough to cover my entire thumb.  It seems like everything Essence makes is kind of miniature.

All in all, I'm super glad I bought these.  I love stamping just as much as I thought I would, and I can't wait to get some more plates when my budget allows it!

Blue Ombre Nails

I've seen lots of photos of ombre manicures. Maybe this isn't a TRUE ombre since I didn't just use different shades of the same color, but I like how it turned out!

The colors I used for this one were Essie Go Overboard, Revlon Chic, Ulta Bam-blue-zled, China Glaze For Audrey, and a light blue Petites polish I picked up specifically for this.

Go Overboard and Chic are two of my favorite polishes in my collection, so it's always nice to get a chance to wear them!

Bottle Spam!

Sorry for the sudden absence from this blog!  I got to the end of my scheduled posts and then I got sick and had bare nails for over a week because I had to blow my nose every 5 minutes and couldn't have wet nails!  It was crazy.  So, I have some fun stuff coming up that I've been wearing and hopefully that will get me back on my regular schedule! 

Today I have some fabulous bottle spam... stuff I've gotten recently!  I got my hair cut last week at Hairmasters, and the location I went to had a bunch of OPI polishes 60% off AND buy 1 get 2 free... what?!  How could I resist?  I got Skull & Glossbones, I'm Suzi & I'm a Chocoholic, and Jade is the New Black.  I didn't have any idea it would happen, but I am in LOVE with Skull & Glossbones!  I will have some swatches of that coming up.

 

The other day I was in Big Lots and decided to check out the beauty section for polishes, and they had a whole bunch of two packs of Revlon polishes including the glittery scented polishes.  I got Grapefruit Fizz, Colada Fizz, Pineapple Fizz, and Apple-tini Fizz.  Each pack of 2 was only $2!

 

Lastly, I picked up one of the polishes from my wishlist - Zoya Ki.  Look how pretty that duochrome is!  And a boring old white from L.A. Colors since I didn't have one.

I was also shopping at Fred Meyer the other day and started looking at the Essence display there.  I did not have any Essence polishes, but I have heard they're not bad.  Then I realized that they have a bunch of nail art stuff.  It's super cheap, and I haven't really had a chance to try it out, but I thought it might let me see what things are like even if it doesn't work as well as the really quality stuff.

I picked up a gem-placer/dotting tool, a magnetic polish and magnet, two stamping plates and a stamp, and some stencil stickers with stars.  I'll post more about these as I use them!

 

In closing, here is a random shot of my polishes where I keep them now... I may need a new system soon, it's not very organized and the bins are getting full!

 

Blue Stripe Mani

This is another manicure inspired by Chloe's Nails, her striped mani.  It didn't turn out quite how I'd wanted because it was my first time doing it and my nail didn't get divided into 3 equal parts.  Learning where to place the tape when you're taping off to do each color takes a little practice, so my bottom sections ended up being biggest on most nails.  I still think it turned out okay though.

For this mani, I used Revlon Chic and Essie Go Overboard, which are both cremes and two of my favorite polishes.  The silver is Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.

 

Roman Opulence French

I have been interested in matte nail polishes since I saw a photo of a French manicure with matte black polish and glossy black tips.  I've kept my eye out for matte finishes since they're not available in regular stores all that often.  I have Essie's Matte About You topcoat, but there's just something about a polish that dries matte on it's own that's fun to me.

For today's nailsI used Revlon Ruby Ribbon Matte Suede with China Glaze Swing Baby tips.

Please excuse my messy cuticles, I applied the polish in a funky way, put on the gold first then taped off the tips and put on the red.  I don't usually do tips that way, but this is a pretty deep red and I was a little concerned about staining.  They look nicer from a little further away!

This manicure is really rich looking.  It reminds me of Ancient Rome - grapes, wine, golden wreathes and opulence.  I really like the suede finish, and I love this China Glaze polish.  It's gold, but it leans a little more bronzey than yellow.  

Revlon Whimsical

I had been keeping my eye out for Revlon Whimsical because I'd seen it on another blog and was curious about it.  I finally found it at Rite Aid, and I didn't love it in the bottle, but it was so different that I decided to buy it anyway.  It's got pink and blue hex glitter in a light blue jelly base, and some smaller blue and silver sparkles.

I went and got acrylic nails yesterday.  I had been thinking about it for a while for a couple of reasons.  I really like the square shape, but I just can't get my nails to do that.  I did it once, but within a day at least one of the corners had broken off.  I don't know what the trick is to natural, square nails.  I also like having some length, and once one of mine breaks, I have to cut them all because I can't stand uneven nails.

I'm still getting used to them, but it's kind of fun so far.  I don't love how thick they are, it makes for a rounder looking nail, but I do kind of like them.  I'd only had them one other time for my wedding, so I'll try them for a bit and see how I feel.

I've had some trouble with application with glitter polishes.  Several times, I've had a really hard time getting the glitter to stick without just following the brush off my nail.  This one has a pretty good formula and applies nice.  This is 3 coats, and the glitter stuck well.  I shook the bottle between each coat, which seemed to help.

Crackalackin'

One of my new favorites is Revlon Chic.  It's a greyish blue that I found at Target last week.  I put it on one nail in the store thinking it might be a matte polish (it was in with a couple other matte polishes and didn't have it's own spot).  It wasn't, and I put it back, but I didn't even get to the registers.  I kept looking down at it and knew I had to have it.

Last night, I wanted to do something more than plain polish, but keep it simple.  I put on the Revlon Chic with the Sally Hansen silver crackle.  Love it.

I want to get more crackle polishes, especially ones that are not metallic, but I was looking today and didn't feel like spending the money.  I may do some research online on cheaper crackles and how they compare to Sally Hansen and OPI.