Essie Winter Collection 2011 Cocktail Bling

Good Afternoon Lacquered Lovers! I hope you all had a lovely October weekend! I spent my weekend doing a TON of swatching and even a few nail art tutorials for Halloween so get excited for this week! First up, I have the Essie Winter 2011 Collection which I was luckily enough to receive at the wonderful Glamour Magazine and Essie Blogger Breakfast I attended on October 11th. So today I am giving you all SIX shades, so get ready for a ton of pictures! Now, without further ado, on to the polish!





Above: 2 coats of Cocktail Bling

Above: Macro shot of Cocktail Bling

First of all, let me say how much I love the name of this polish! Cocktail Bling is just fairly hilarious to me. That being said, this polish is gorgeous! What a perfect grey! I love that all the polishes in this collection are blue-toned and Cocktail Bling is a stunning light grey for those of us with yellow toned skin! It just looks so pretty on! I also love that this is a color that could be worn all year round, not just in the winter time. I have it on my toes right now! The application was perfect, opaque in two coat with no streaks at all! If you are familiar with Essie Chinchilly, this is the more blue version of it.




Above: 2 coats of Bangle Jangle

Above: macro shot of Bangle Jangle

First, let me apologize for the weird bumpy things on my middle fingers in these pictures, it was not from the polish but it shows up in a few pictures before I realized and buffed it out! Now, Bangle Jangle (which reminds me of the bright red Essie color Bungle Jungle in name only) is a really pretty dusty lilac with overtones of blue. Unlike Lilacism, this polish had a great formula! It went on smoothly, no streaks, no patches, just perfect! It seems like an odd addition to a Winter collection to me but I'm always happy to have a new light purple to use! I thought this color was really pretty and by far the best applying light purple that they have put out!




Above: 2 coats of Brooch the Subject

Now I am not a nude nail polish kind of girl, I like my nails to make a statement, but if I were to ever want the "mannequin hands" look, Brooch the Subject would be my go to! This color actually looks like flesh! Like the others, it was perfectly opaque in 2 coats and if you are a nude kind of girl, then this is a polish you should have!





Above: 2 coats of School of Hard Rocks

Above: macro shot of School of Hard Rocks

I am in love with this nail polish. It is perfect! I would not change a thing! School of Hard Rocks is a stunning green based teal cream. It's just so pretty! It's the perfect Fall/Winter color. I can honestly say that in my nail polish hoard, I do not have a dupe for this! Most teal creams are more blue based so to have a more green based one is just gorgeous! Seriously, this is a must have! It has this great dusty quality that seems prevalent in this collection and I just love it!




Above: 2 coats of Size Matter

Above: Macro shot of Size Matters

Ok everyone, insert your own obligatory dirty joke here due to the name. Now when I asked the lovely Essie Weingarten if this name is supposed to be a little dirty and her response is that she was talking about diamonds, not anything that would cause your mind to go to the gutter! Size Matters is a really pretty blue toned red. I'm sure if I tried hard enough I could find a dupe, but I think it's really pretty and if you are looking for a darker red creme polish, then this one is perfect! Great application, highly pigmented, and perfect for a cocktail party this winter!





Above: 2 coats of Bobbing for Baubles

Above: macro shot of Bobbing For Baubles

Last and most certainly not least is Bobbing for Baubles. I want to describe this as almost a blackened Navy! It's not quite as blue as a normal navy would be but also has this black/slate grey quality that makes is really gorgeous. Sorry about the reflection of my apartment building in the macro shot but it shows you how gorgeous and shiny these colors are even without a top coat! This color is great for the winter, very rich and perfectly opaque in 2 coats.

All in all, this is one of the best collections I've seen this year! I love the rich creams and how many of the colors are actually unique! As much as I love crazy polishes, a good, rich cream is just so classic. Essie polishes retail for $8 and I've seen this collection start to pop up at drugstores so make sure you snag them up soon!

What did you all think of this collection? Any must haves? Any dupes?

Fun Friday Featuring OPI Designer,...De Better and a Konad Bow!

Good afternoon fellow Lacquered Lovers and happy Friday to you all! I hope you all have some fabulous plans for this lovely October weekend! I do have some special plans and it pertains to my manicure so you're going to have to hear my story! :)

Last week the amazing boyfriend and I celebrated 2 years of being together. Our actual anniversary fell on the 11th which was the day I got to go meet the lovely Essie at the Blogger Breakfast and by the end of the day we didn't really want to go out. Then last weekend we spent in Chicago so we couldn't actually celebrate until now! So, tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate so obviously I needed to do an extra fun manicure! So now, without further ado, I give you the polish!





Above: Designer,...De Better - 2 coats over 1 coat OPI Nail Envy

Ok I'm not going to go too in depth here since I'm planning a major Muppet Collection post next week but this polish is stunning! It's a silver foil that's packed with pink flakes! It almost looks like a rose gold and really is a stand out from this collection! Here is a quick little macro shot for you all:



Stunning! I'm really surprised by how much I love this polish! And now, for the fun little accent!






A bow! I have had this Konad Stamping plate for awhile and haven't used it yet and figured an anniversary was the perfect opportunity to use it! I used the Konad Blue Stamping Polish for it and I think it came out super cute! Just a little something fun.

What did you think of this manicure? Are you a fan of stamping?

Manicures + Moms = MOMMICURES!

Good morning my fellow Lacquered Lovers! I have such a treat for you this morning! But first, a little back story.

For as long as I can remember, my mom has been getting her nails done. I remember being really little, about 4 or 5, and this amazing woman Maggie would bring her caboodle to our house, filled with nail polish, to do my moms nails. I remember sitting at the kitchen table just looking at all of them! There was only one rule, NO ORANGE! I have no idea why but Maggie HATED orange nail polish! Luckily my mom was more of a pink or red kind of lady. I always loved it because for special events, she would get nail art! My favorite was when my parents would go to Atlantic City for the weekend with their friends, my mom would get cards, champagne bottles, all sorts of fun stuff!

However my mom stopped doing the crazy nail art many years ago and now, for the most part, she's a french manicure kind of lady (although she does take my suggestions for pedicures and even has OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys on her toes right now!) So, here is what my mom's fingers look like in 2011 with an LCN gel manicure and air brushed french tips:




Very classy Mom! A french tip is always classic (and matches everything!)

Now, on the fun side, my mom's dear friend Nona (Hi Nona!) has some of the most awesome and crazy nails ever! I've known Nona my entire life, and she's always had nails strictly in gold, silver, purple and blue. It's pretty awesome! She also wears the gel nails but she gets some pretty amazing nail art! Here is her current favorite look:




How amazing are these? And her toes match! I hope I will still be pulling off the gold and silver and blue polishes when I'm a mom!

Now I was a gel manicure girl for over a year, in fact, it's how I stopped biting my nails! I couldn't gnaw through the gels! But I finally kicked the habit and now I stopped getting manicures and do my own for this fabulous blog that you all have made such a great experience! So, here's a little pic of one of my favorite holographic tape manicures (and please excuse the picture, it's before I learned how to not get a shadow with the flash):




So there you have it, Mommicures! I love it! Just goes to show you that no matter what you do in life or what age you are, you can always have fabulous nails! Thanks Mom and Nona for the pictures!

What did you all think of the Mommicures? Are you a mom who loves her Mommicures? Is your mom a Mommicure babe? What are your favorite Mommicures?

Julep Emilie Swatch and Review

Good afternoon my fellow Lacquered Lovers! I hope you are all having a fabulous Tuesday. First of all, I want to apologize that this week, each of my posts will only have one color! That's because I was on vacation this past weekend and weekends is usually when I swatch and I simply didn't have the time! Also a bunch of my nails broke and it is not pretty! Hopefully by this weekend my hands won't look like a little kids anymore! Anyway, without further ado, on to the nail polish!





Above: 2 coats of Emilie

Holy cow that is GREEN! Julep Emilie is a bright green cream polish that was fully opaque in 2 coats. It's so green! Every time I see this color in my stash I just think "This will be perfect for St. Patty's Day!" I love that this green has a lot of blue in it so it doesn't make my skin look all yellow and gross like many green polishes can, instead, since it's cool toned, it looks great!

Now, a quick word about Julep. Here is a little blurb about them from their website:

We are a hand, nail and foot care brand with four boutique nail parlors in the Seattle area. Founded on the belief that beauty is a connection, not a competition, Julep was created to celebrate the bond between girlfriends and the beauty of the human spirit. We have created a line of the most effective, toxin-free “Mani & Pedi Care” products and the latest runway-inspired nail colors.

Girl power! I love it! Plus, Julep has this fabulous program called "Julep Maven" where for $20 a month, you get at least 1 (and sometimes 2) nail polishes and some full sized hand care products such as creams, cuticle oil, crystal files, etc. It's a great deal to get to try all sorts of fun colors and products! Plus you get to take a really fun quiz to find out what your "beauty profile" is. There are 5 different profiles. I'm an "it girl!" And they send you an email with the colors you will be receiving before they send it so if you already have a color or simply don't like one, you can request a shelf pull and you'll get a different box that month! It's genius! You can check out their website HERE.

All in all, I love the idea behind Julep and this green was gorgeous! Unfortunately, I do have a dupe for it with OPI Jade is the New Black, but since that polish is not so easy to find, I'm happy to have a back up! Plus I just love the rectangular Julep bottles!

What do you think of this color? Are you a Julep Maven as well?

A-England Tristam Swatch and Review!

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers! I hope you all had a great weekend! I spent this last weekend in Chicago with the bf and my family (and yes, I did get 4 new polishes thanks to my mom) AND the new iPhone 4s! It's so fun! But, enough about me! Today I have the last of my 3 new A-England polishes, the lovely Tristam, so without further ado, on to the polish!



Above: 2 coats of Tristam

Ah Tristam, (or as he's known more often in Arthurian Legend) was a sexy knight of the round table. The polish that uses his namesake is a gorgeous dark blue, almost a denim blue, that is packed full of shimmer. After 2 coats it was perfectly opaque, the formula was just wonderful as all the other A-England polishes I've tried, and I just love it. But wait! There is a surprise hidden in this polish!





In the light, it's holo! It's a scattered holo, not as strong as could be seen in Lady of the Lake, but it's so pretty! I love a good hidden holo, don't you? Here is a quick macro shot of Tristam:



All in all, I loved Tristam! It's definitely unique in my collection because I don't have too many scattered holos and certainly not a dark blue one! I absolutely love the formula on these A-England polishes, definitely worth the money.

What do you all think of Tristam? Do you like the hidden holos? Are there any other A-England polishes I should get?