How to use the Essence French Manicure Brush

Today I saw the Essence French Manicure Brush in the Essence display and being the curious woman, I immediately grabbed it...

Before becoming a nail addict, I mostly did French Manicures. I think it looks really elegant. I still prefer it from time to time, if I'm going to an event where funky nails are frowned upon... LOL

Anyway, I decided giving it a try as soon as I got home... So, without further ado, here's the French Manicure Brush... :)

It looks like a eyeliner brush but with a curve. The bristles are short and firm, but not hard...

Here's a closeup of the brush... It looks it has a small tip. In fact it only covers my pinkie. But I have large nails, you should keep that in mind...

Oh, and I hould apologize for the state of my nails... I just broke my thumb nail again(!!!)

Ok, the brush comes with instructions inside and the most important one is, do not dip the brush in the polish bottle to load it... Well, ok, I used my polish brush to paint my french brush...

See, the brush is loaded with paint now...

I lined the brush with my nail line and with a soft stroke, I painted id towards the nail tip...

One coat was not enough for me, so I repeated it the second time and this time I ended up with a nice tip paint.

 Like I said before, the brush covered my pinkie only. But I made multiple strokes with it for the remaining nails.

To clean the brush, you have to wet a cotton round with remover and brush your French Manicure Brush against it...

Here's the finished mani with a coat of milky white on top...

The whole process took 5 mintues, which is a miracle for me, because I never succeed making french with sticky strips... :) Sometimes I use Konad m19, the french plate but again, it takes a few tries to align the stamping... But this brush is easy to use... The above process was my first try... I bet I can do it better in time... :)

And it isn't just for french manicures... You can use it for halfmoon and color blocking manicures as well...

So, what do you think? Is it necessary to have this brush or not? Would you buy it?

Textured Heaven!!! - Part 1 - Zoya

Ok, if you are following me for some time,  you should know that I LOVE textured polish! I own various brands of textures and I decided to swatch them on my precious swatch sticks the other day...

Warning : This post will be full of pictures!!!

Here we go!

Let's start with Zoya Pixie Dusts...

I own 10 from the 18 Pixie Dust released so far!

The formula for these are nice. Some need two coats and some need three. Drying time is longer than regular polish, but hey, every rose has its thorn... :)

They dry to a gritty matte finish, but they have so much glitter in them, so you get to see many sparkles...

Btw, some people insist on wearing topcoats over these, which I really don't get. They are supposed to be gritty and matte people!!! :D

Anyway, out of the 10 I own, I only did not like Vespa and Nyx, because they were sheer, in my opinion... Solange was a little too warm for me, but I like it anyway. The rest, well, I am in love!!! Here they are..

                                     

Anddd here's a GIF I made... :) Because making GIF are sooooo enjoyable...

Hold tight, tomorrow I'm showing you the OPIs... :)

LA Girls 3D - Teal Dimension

I'm back with another LA Girls 3D polish and lots of photos!!!

Today I'm wearing Teal Dimension, again a polish with a name well deserved...

Like its sister (I don't know why but I keep thinking that polishes are feminine, so it is a "she"), this baby is a jelly based teal blue with lots of scattered holographic glitter... And yes, those glitter add dimension!!! And incredible shine...

The photos are color corrected, because my camera thought this one was a blue!!!! Again I have 2 coats and again the drying took a little longer, but this time I used my good old friend Seche, so we have no problems here... :)

So, what do you think? Blue one or teal one? Or both??? :D

LA Girls 3D Effects - Brilliant Blue

Well Hello there;

Do you remember last week I realized my big lemming? The LA Girls 3D polishes???

Well, today I'm wearing one of them...

Ladies and gentelmen, here's Brilliant Blue!!!!

I "may" have taken a lot of photos, so beware... Oh and I'm trying a new frame for my blog pictures... We'll see how they'll turn out... Please tell me your thoughts... :)

Anyway, on to the polish... Holly cow! This baby really deserves its name, folks!

I have 2 coats on my finger. Well, if you don't have problems with a little vnl, you can easily end up with one coat...

The polish is a jelly based deep blue color with scattered holographic effect... Believe me, the photos do not do any justice to its shine!!! It is totally blinding!!!

And I finally get what 3D effect is... It feels like you can dive into your nails!!! Can you tell I love this polish???

I was totally checking my nails all day!!!

The only downside, it dried a little slow... Maybe it was just me, maybe I did use a thick coat... IDK...

Look at that off focus photo!!! Totally forgivable!!! Slow drying problem totally forgotten... LOL

Essie Naughty Nautical and Zoya Maria Luisa

I have always loved chevron manis. And I have secretly wished I was able to freehand or do tape chevrons... Well, freehand is off the discussion and tape chevrons will be another day's story...

Anyway, one day, my dear friend Michele sent me the Cheeky Happy Nails stamping plate along with some fall Zoya Pixie Dusts... And suddenly, I wanted to make a chevron mani...

:)

:)

Big surprise huh? LOL

Here is the plate that made me realise my dreams...

I can hear you asking, both Pueen and Bundle Monster has chevron designs. Why didn't you use them? I am totally aware of that. But I was admiring the thick, fat chevrons, not the skinny ones... So, you finally get my problem??? :P

Lons story short, today, just before leaving the house, I wanted to use the Essie I just bought. It is Naughty Nautical... It is a gorgeous teal shade with a little hidden silver glass flecks... I used two coats of Naughty Nautical and then I wanted to stamp my new chevron with China Glaze Passion... And like all these were not enough, I used a coat of Zoya Maria Luisa on top...

Well, I have to admit, teal and gold really match, but I "think" this mani is a little crowded... I have to use Naughty Nautical again, but this time on its own... :)

What do you think? It is a go go or a no no ???