Essie Garden Varity Spring 2015 with Accent Nail + Review.

G'day people!

Today's design is very simple and a little bit boring, but still looks good! Basically it's a fancy swatch. Haha.

Here we have Garden Variety from Essie's 2015 spring collection. It's a stunning colour and I absolutely love it!  This was gifted to me by a dear friend of mine, along with a bunch of other awesome nail supplies (she knows me so well). This, along with Blossom Dandy (also from the 2015 spring collection), was one of my first Essie colours.

I wasn't sure what to do with it because it's a very unique colour, and on its own it is just gorgeous. So, after painting all my nails in this majestic colour, I opted for something simple. I did a thick horizontal strip pattern on my accent nail. At this point I only had striping tape and I didn't want the lines to be so thin, so instead, I did two coats of OPI Alpine Snow and then I used Essie Garden Variety to do two straight(ish) lines horizontally across the nail. I had to use a decent amount because the white underneath made it a little less opaque, and since I was free handing I didn't think I'd be able to get a second coat quite as neatly.
And there you have it!
A super cute, super easy, accent nail!

 Indoor natural lighting with top coat.

Outdoor natural lighting with top coat.

Indoor natural lighting with top coat & the bottle.

I wanted to do a bit of a review on this one, so if you're interested, keep reading!

As I said before, I love this colour. Surprisingly, I managed to get a photo that's true to colour. I've looked at this polish online before and found that most pictures don't do it justice. I'd call this a deep green creme with undertones of blue. I feel that it's true to its name, it definitely reminds me of a garden!

It has a wide brush which I love! Always makes everything easier. The application is flawless and if I recall correctly, it was mostly opaque in just one coat (except over the white). I still did two coats for this one, though.
I honestly think that this is a year-round colour. You could use it in any season and it'd just be so fitting. 

I'm still not sure what other colours would go with this one, but I'd love to find out. I think a really nice deep purple would look stunning.

Got any ideas? Let me know, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Essie Blossom Dandy Spring 2015 Dry Brush

Howdy y'all!

Today I'm gonna share with you the first nail art that spiked my obsession. This is not the first one I've ever done, but the first one that turned into a snow ball effect. Admittedly, I have done this technique so many times because I love it. It's quick, easy, super cute and you can do so much with it! 

It's the dry brush technique. So basically, you choose your base colour, for me, its usually white, because what doesn't go with white? Then you grab your second colour and wipe off as much of the polish as you can, effectively making the brush "dry", and just swipe the brush across your nail in any way you see fit. The results are sort of a distressed abstract look. You can use as many colours as you like, but I just did the one this time. If you check out my last post there's a three toned version that I also love.

For this design I used BYS French White and Essie Blossom Dandy. I think these colours pair well together. At the time it was the middle of winter and we were receiving an unusual amount of rain, so I wanted to do something a to match those winter vibes, whilst still adding a splash of colour. Honestly this is still one of my favorite designs to date. It just wears so well and I could not stop looking at them!

Now I know my gap is HUGE and very uneven and inconsistent, but this was actually the first time I'd done it. I was getting sick of my polish chipping so easily, and only lasting a day or two, so I did some research which lead to the gap (as well as some other really useful tips) This will get slightly better over time, and then slightly worse again haha.

I know it's a little over done, but I totally understand why, its so awesome! I love it. I feel I need to get a little more adventurous with this one. Watch this space!

What are your thoughts on this technique? Have you done it before? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!