This mani took more time and patience than most do, however, I am well pleased with the results!

 I used three coats of Essie Marshmallow for my underwear.

 Next, I added one and a half coats of Lynnderella Sweets to the Sweet.  I say one and a half because several nails only need one coat but some others I dabbed on a bit more (up to two coats of it in total).

 I finished everything with two coats of Gelous and then a coat of Seche Vite.

 It was not perfectly glassy smooth, but still smooth enough for me to enjoy.  I actually did a close variation of this combo right before this mani and I had trouble that time around with the white glitters in Sweets to the Sweet bunching up on each other and in little heaps.  I would say that this polish requires more patience and skill in application than many glitters...but then again, this is so delightfully delicious that I am more than happy to put up with some glitter shenanigans!

It looks like tasty funfetti cupcakes and I definitely had a few friends telling me that they wanted to lick my nails!  :)

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 This polish is SO HOT, oh my goodness!

 It's three coats of Essie's discontinued Ruby Slippers.

 I was lucky enough to get this off of a blog sale not too long ago.

 I have to say, it is all that, and then some!  The red jelly base is swimming with tiny shimmers.

 The glitter (which I am fairly certain is actually silver - I say this because as I removed it it definitely looked like silver and I was kind of surprised) perfectly disperses itself across the nail and just glows.

It reminds me of Essie's Love, Beverly Hills xx, which is a favorite warm-toned, gorgeous, glowy red of mine.  This is so much better, though, with all the shimmer and glittery goodness!

I tend to feel self-conscious in reds, but around this time of the year I definitely don't have a second thought about wearing them.  Hooray!!  Merry Christmas, I say!

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 For this manicure, I started with three coats of Essie Blood Curdling.  It's from the Addams Family Morticia's Nails set.

 I really wanted Blood Curdling to be good in two coats, and it almost was, but I had a few spots that needed more polish.  It's got that awesome creme but almost jelly finish.

 Then I added two coats of Lynnderella One Nutty Fruitcake.

 While I think this combination is ultimately very interesting, I was definitely sad that all the awesome black glitter got a bit lost in the fray, what with the lack of contrast between it and my base color.

I'm thinking that the next time around I might try it over a pastel color.

Very shortly now, Lynnderella polishes will be more easily available through llarowe.

I am not affiliated with Lynnderella or llarowe.

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 For your reading and (mostly) viewing pleasure, I present yesterday's deep space nails on MATTE.

 I used two coats of Essie's Matte About You.  I realize that they still don't look 100% completely matte in all places.  I think the lesson learned (thanks to asking friends on MUA) is to not be stingy when using matte top coats!  :)

 You probably know me well enough to understand how much I like the shiny and the sparkly, yet for reasons fully unknown to me, I felt compelled to try this matte.  

My camera chose to focus only on the bottle in the picture above.  Not a total loss.  I'm mesmerized by all that glitter in the bottle!

My overall verdict?  It's pretty cool!  I'm intrigued by how the glitters appear frozen in time...and space.

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Earlier this week at work, my buddy Jaysen came back from a little trip to NYC. He kindly brought me back this awesome set from The Addams Family musical! How flippin' cool is that? THANK YOU, JAYSEN!!

The back of the box is shown below.

Now for outdoor swatch pictures I took this evening before the sun set.

I used three coats with no base or top coat. The bottle shown above and below is Blood Curdling.

It's a gorgeous dark red creme with a squishy, shiny finish.

Don't mind my awful, dry skin (thank you pure acetone!). I was rushing to get these pictures before the sun disappeared.

Bone Chilling is pure clean white.

And here is Midnight Tango on the ring finger.

Dark navy blue with beautiful shimmer.

The bottle above and below is a mini Midnight Cami. It sure seems to be a dead-on dupe for Midnight Tango.

In the picture below, Midnight Tango is the top bottle and Midnight Cami is the bottom one.

I'm super happy to have this awesome set! I love the colors, box, clever names, and the formula seems great on all three.

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Last night I was pondering what to do about my awesome Smokin' Hot mani, which was slightly beaten up (more than I care for), and cleverly decided to look at my CND Effects collection.

I settled on Emerald Shimmer, added a coat, and voila!

It's SO nice. I absolutely love the result. I was worried that the shimmer might look streaky, but it applied so perfectly.

I also applied a coat of regular top coat over, and it took too long to dry, so I ended up with some dents and sheet marks. Sorry about that! In any case, I am definitely going to be playing with my CND Effects more in the near future. They rock my world. :)

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This is my second time wearing Smokin' Hot, by Essie. I didn't get pictures the first time around, though, because it was kind of a disaster.

I think it just had to do with the particular combination of base and top coat I used with it the previous time, but it took forever to dry and bubbled like crazy. It was massively fugly.

At any rate, this is two coats, and it applied so beautifully! This time I used two coats of BB Couture for Nails Hard On Nail Strengthener as my base, two coats of Smokin' Hot, and a coat of Seche Vite. Presto magico - everything turned out great this time.

I don't usually use Seche Vite as my top coat, but I decided to go for it because I wanted it to dry as fast as humanly possible (I had to hang up laundry and also needed to go to sleep soon) and also because I was worried about bubbles and SV seems to do a good job stopping, lessening, and/or preventing them.

I needed a good break from all the Christmas colors and glitter, too, so this was a very nice, refreshing change of pace. I adore this color! It's dark, but it's not black. It's almost gray and almost purple (two awesome colors), but not really clearly one or the other.

This mani pretty well survived a busy day at work, so that's great! I only have a small chip on the very edge of the tip of my right middle finger nail. I think it's passable enough that I might wear it again tomorrow.

Maybe I'll throw on a coat of glitter for funsies, though. We shall see.

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Hello, lovely friends! I have lots of gorgeous pictures for you. I hope you'll forgive my absence as of late. I'm not sure what my problem is, but I know I've been feeling stressed with new responsibilities at work. I also had family visit recently, which kept me preoccupied for about a week. My nieces are too cute for words, by the way!

This is my nail-of-the-day, Essie Van d'Go. I did three coats, just to be safe. I probably could have gotten away with two.

I really like this. It feels light and refreshing, like a break for me from what I usually wear.

I don't generally adore creams, but I do love this. It's so soft and pretty but not entirely girly and frilly.

Below is Illamasqua Insanity, three coats. It's pretty insane, yup.

Bright, mid-tone orange cream.

It's not quite traffic cone orange, but it does demand attention. It's fun and funky. I got a lot of compliments on it the day I wore it.

It's a UK exclusive color, unfortunately for those of us who live elsewhere.

I adore the next polish, Nubar Violet Sparkle. It's so freaking stunning and fabulous! Three coats of luscious, purple, sparkly, dreamy goodness. It's a bit warmer and more red in real life. The pictures are faking it out, making it look more blue-toned. Silly purple!

Ohhhh here's another winning fantabulous Nubar purple, Hyacinth Sparkle. Three coats. What's not to love? I highly recommend the entire Sparkle collection from Nubar. I wore a few others and neglected to photo them, but I will make a point to swatch them soon. They are terrific!!

Here's yet another fun one, Nubar Gem, three coats.

Three coats of NYX Girls Fig, an ambiguous vampy beaut!

It's more purply/blue/gray in real life, but still very dark and naughty.

Three coats of L.A. Girl Rockstar Head Banging with one coat of L.A. Girl Rockstar Live on Stage.

LOVE me some Rockstars!

This is three coats of LA Splash Golden Seahorse. Lovely, no?

Illamasqua Nudge, two coats, with two coats of Rococo Gold Leaf Lacquer. So much fun! I heart my Rococo Gold Leaf Lacquer so much...and it's so toxic stinky, just so ya know.

And last, but not least, is NYX Girls Boho, two coats. This is a gorgeous soft, cool green, with a metallic sort of shimmer.

I hope you enjoyed the show!! I keep acquiring polish at mind-boggling rates, so be assured that many more pictures and reviews will be on the way soon. :)

XOXO

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