Essie Splash of Grenadine & Konad M79

Good evening, Dear Reader!

It turned out that Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Midnight in NY was a complete failure for me.  As I'm sure you could tell from my last post, I wasn't thrilled with it.  I decided to fix it up a little with Chanel Illusion D'Or.  I added one coat and another coat of top coat.

Chanel Illusion D'Or over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Midnight in NY

That was sufficient for me, and I would have been happy with it, but a full hour after adding to it I took a nice Sunday nap, and woke up with the polish smudged all the way down several nails.  It would seem the formulas are not friends...

Rather than spend the rest of my day with squishy, smudgy nail polish, I changed it, and I'm thrilled to bits over the replacement which is why I'm showing it to you now.  I'll likely have to go into The Vault for something to show you tomorrow, I like this one so much - I want to keep it for at least a day.  As the title tells you, it's Essie Splash of Grenadine from The Resort Collection, which took two coats for a perfectly even, opaque, super glossy finish, to which I added a pattern from Konad plate M79.  I used the dotted net pattern in Konad Blue Pearl Special Polish (or Pearl Blue, whatever...), and added tips from plate M19.

Essie Splash of Grenadine, Two Coats, and Konad M79 and M19 in Konad Blue Pearl 

How fun is my new mani???  Since Splash of Grenadine is between pink and purple, I thought the blue would bring out the purple, and this is my other favorite Konad Special Polish, along with Psyche Pink.  Both were introduced with the Coraline Konad plates, and the two are far and away my favorites because they're glowy and striking.  I love many Konad polishes and likely use Black and White the most, but these two are my top picks, so I'm happy when I get to use one of them.

That's my new manicure and all I have for you today.  Fortunately, I have some stuff in The Vault to show you tomorrow, so until then, love and nail polish to you!  

Essie Turquoise & Caicos & Konad S2

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have another from the Essie Resort Collection for you: Turquoise & Caicos, stamped with a pattern from Konad plate S2.  I wanted a nautical theme, so I used the ship pattern, stamping the ships' bottom part (whatever it's called) in Konad Princess Gold Black then using a bunch of different Konad Special Polishes for the sails.  From thumb to pinky, they're Blue Pearl, Violet Pearl, Green, Psyche Pink, and Pastel Blue.

This time, I applied Turquoise & Caicos is a different place in my home, a non-nail polishing spot, so I did it differently and needed three coats.  It was still just as easy to work with, and a super shiny, gorgeous color.

Essie Turquoise & Caicos with Konad Plate S2

Essie Turquoise & Caicos with Konad S2, Closer View

I liked this one a lot, but am about to take it off.  That's it for today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Essie Lapis of Luxury & Konad Plate M54

Good morning, Dear Reader!

For today's Nails of the Day, I broke out a new-to-me Konad plate from my recent WSC order, plate M54.  It's a cool plate with a whole bunch of different floral patterns, so rather than go my usual route of using one patterns, I made a garden manicure using five from that plate.  Just to be extra fancy, I used more than one color for the stamps, using all Konad polishes.

The base color I used was Essie Lapis of Luxury.  Not exactly a garden color, but it's a sky color, and I needed my greens to show up on the base.  I took the pictures under artificial light at a lower light setting than I normally use to reduce glare.  The colors appear a bit darker than they actually are as a result.

Essie Lapis of Luxury and Konad Plate M54 in Various Konad Polishes

Essie Lapis of Luxury and Konad Plate M54, Closer View

Getting the colors right took a few tries - the order in which I applied them to the plate mattered, and they still aren't quite perfect - you can see my butterfly has bright pink legs rather than black, but if that's as bad as it gets, I can live with it.  After the effort involved in this one, I didn't want to risk smudging the stamps, so I used Konad top coat, then a coat of quick dry top coat.

That's my fancy-schmancy Konadicure, and I really like it.

That's also all I have for you this morning, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!