Essie Who Is The Boss

Essie Who Is The Boss is a greyed-out seafoam green. By that description alone, longtime readers should be able to guess that I love this color! Who Is The Boss, which was provided for me to try by etailer Beyond Polish, came out in Essie's 2011 Wedding Collection. It's kind of an unusual choice for the brand, as most of their bridal offerings are pinks and reds. I love me an unconventional polish and I especially adore greens, so this was a total winner for me.

The formula is streaky but self-levels fairly well. It took three to four coats to reach opacity on all of my nails. I wore this polish for four days, which is virtually a lifetime by my standards, but I really loved this color! The pictures you see here were actually taken on day four, so you can see it held up extremely well. I didn't have any chips and there was only very minimal tip wear.

The color itself reminds me of my boyfriend's 1977 Volkswagen bus. It's a rustbucket, but damn if it isn't fun to ride in. Currently it's sitting in storage (not a car that can survive in winter, plus my boyfriend has been overseas on study abroad since August) but I found some old shots from my phone to share.

The first owner took out the backseats to allow room for surfboards, then the second owner (the last person to own the car before my boyfriend) installed a bed...because hippies.

But I digress. I tend to wear a lot of Essie during springtime because they have so many great pastels and softer shades. Who Is The Boss is a prime example and I know it's a shade I'll be reaching for a lot this season!


Disclosure: This polish was provided to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Twinsie Tuesday: Sally Hansen Salon Effects In Don't Be Koi

For this week's Twinsie Tuesday, we're doing manicures inspired by a family member. I'm an only child so my immediate family is small: just Mom, Dad, the Corgis and me. :) I decided to take inspiration from my mom for my mani this week! My mom and I are opposites in certain ways but I still see a lot of her in myself and she is always there for me. Whether she realizes it or not, she set a strong example for me of a woman who is self-sufficient, independent, hard-working and intelligent.

One of the areas where my mom and I have very different philosophies is make-up. I have literally never seen her wear nail polish and she isn't big into make-up. She does, however, really enjoy the outdoors and one of her favorite hobbies is gardening. She is always working on some type of new project in the backyard and a few years back, she and my dad built a fish pond in the yard. At first, I played around with some floral manicure ideas to pay homage to my mom's love of gardening, but then I thought it might be fun to do something with fish instead. So I busted out some Sally Hansen Salon Effects in the design Don't Be Koi. I absolutely love this design and I thought it was a cool way to represent my mom and her garden!

I didn't really realize until after the mani was done how much lower the wrap on my middle finger was placed compared to the others. *sigh* But user error aside, Sally Hansen's nail wraps are some of the favorite because they're so easy to work with and there are always lots of beautiful designs to choose from. This one has got to be one of my favorite designs Sally Hansen has ever done for their wraps. It's really different from any other wrap patterns I've seen.

I hope you enjoyed my koi mani today! I'm looking forward to seeing what my fellow Twinsies did for their family manis this week. I have a feeling this is a theme that will bring out lots of great stories from everyone!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Casey at CaseyLane Loves Polish

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Erin at Paint Those Piggies

Heather at Peace, Love, & Polish

Kelly at Tuxarina

Lakeisha at Refined and Polished

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Rachel at Top Coat It

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les

Stephanie at A Little Polish

Tiffany at Polished To Precision

Traci at DrinkCitra

2014 Golden Globes Nail Round-Up

UPDATE: Now with more celebs!

Did you watch the Golden Globes? I am something of an awards show junkie, so of course I tuned in! I haven't seen as many of the nominated films and shows as I would like this year, but I was happy to see my girl Jennifer Lawrence win! Love her!

The other big draw of awards shows besides seeing who takes home the trophies is, of course, the fashion. So let's see what some of the night's leading ladies had on their nails! Enjoy!

Zooey Deschanel wearing nail art created with gold studs, L'Oreal Creme Puffs, L'Oreal True Gold and L'Oreal I Will!

Sarah Hyland

 

Kelly Osbourne

Lupita Nyong'o wearing a manicure done by Deborah Lippmann herself using Deborah Lippmann Diamonds And Pearls over Deborah Lippmann Naked

Zoe Saldana

 

Amy Adams wearing L'Oreal Eva's Nude

Lena Dunham wearing Red Carpet Manicure Only In Hollywood

Jennifer Lawrence wearing Deborah Lippmann Bitches Brew, polished by Deborah herself (looks to be the mystery mani DL teased on Instagram earlier today)

Camila Alves wearing Red Carpet Manicure The Night Is Young topped with Red Carpet Manicure Dripping In Luxury on every other nail

Julia Louis-Dreyfus wearing Essie Brooch The Subject

Elisabeth Moss (who created a bit of buzz by flipping off E's mani cam)

 

Tatiana Maslany wearing Red Carpet Manicure Thank U Mom & Dad over Red Carpet Manicure Lighter Shade of Grey

Kerry Washington

Drew Barrymore wearing Flower Beauty I Lavendare You, a polish from her own cosmetics line

Monica Potter wearing Essie Beyond Cozy and Essie Cashmere Bathrobe

 

Jessica Chastain

Michelle Dockery wearing Essie Penny Talk

Helen Mirren

 

Julia Roberts

Which of these looks is your favorite? Is there a particular celeb you look to for nail inspiration?

OPI Sheer Tints Preview

Spring is going to be a busy season for OPI with a whopping three collections (that we know of) hitting shelves: Spotlight On Glitter, Brazil and now we can add Sheer Tints to that list! Launching in February, the Sheer Tints Collection features four polishes that can be used as top coats to change up the look of a base polish or worn alone for a sheer wash of color. Take a look!

 L to R: I'm Never Amberrassed, Don't Violet Me Down, Be Magentale With Me, I Can Teal You Like Me

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I'm not a fan of sheers in general, so these probably won't be my type of thing, but I am still curious to see how the final product looks regardless. Will you be looking forward to the debut of Sheer Tints?

Born Pretty Store Gift Card Giveaway

It's been a while since I did a giveaway on here and I think this is one you're gonna like! I am very excited to announce that my favorite nail art shop, Born Pretty Store, is offering up a $20 voucher for their site to one lucky Nailed reader! Born Pretty is a virtual Candyland for nail lovers and they have every kind of nail art product imaginable, so I know you wouldn't have any trouble finding some new goodies for yourself with this gift card. ;)

The giveaway runs from now until 11:59 PM on Monday, January 20. Check out the Rafflecopter form below for the giveaway rules and to start earning entries! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lumina Lacquer The Snow King

Lumina Lacquer The Snow King is a purple and gold glitterbomb with iridescent elements and silver holo glitter pieces shaped like snowmen, stars and snowflakes. I adore purple and gold together and of course, it's also a fittingly regal color combination for this polish. This is two coats of The Snow King over one of my very favorite OPIs, My Vampire Is Buff.

I didn't have any issues with the formula and was able to find the special glitter pieces without fishing, although Tatiana did include a separate baggie of snowmen and snowflake glitters just in case. Thoughtful little customer service touches like that are one of the things I enjoy most about shopping indies--although glitter is also a huge draw, of course, and The Snow King has plenty of that! I think this polish works especially well with a neutral base. It really helps the individual colors pop.

You can purchase Lumina Lacquer from their website.

Essie Spring 2014 Preview

Essie's Spring 2014 Collection, Hide & Go Chic, is heavy on blue and blush tones. If you're anything like me, then you're totally over winter and ready to get some fresh spring shades on your tips, so I was excited to finally see some previews coming out for a lot of the spring collections!

And can I just take a moment to say how much I like Essie's ad campaign images? They always look really striking and the all-white background is a great way to showcase the new colors.

 

 

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I don't love it as much as last year's spring collection, Naughty Nautical, but there are still some shades here that look promising. I'm anxious to see swatches of Truth Or Flare and Fashion Playground--although the latter's mention of "subtle shimmer" makes me think this may be another shade with a case of Essie's infamous vanishing shimmer. But we'll have to find out for ourselves when the collection launches on March 1!