ABC Challenge: E is for Essie

Welcome back for my take on letter "E" in Kimber's ABC Challenge.

This challenge began with something of a quandry.

See, I've got a ridiculous amount of polish, but those with names that begin with "E", are few and far between.

After far too long a process, I lukewarmly went with elephant art.

Now, don't get me wrong.

I've nothing against elephants, and this particular tutorial is a gem.

I just feel a lot weird sporting elephants on my 56 year old nails.

You know what I'm saying?

That's when I had an "Aha!" moment.

via Wikipedia

"Who else, besides me" I asked myself, "is older than dirt, and seriously into nail polish?"

Why Essie Weingarten, of course.

You know, the lauded genius behind Essie polishes?

The original Essie, for crying out loud!

The woman is a polish-industry icon! And...

I've a slew of "Essies" in my stash, some of them grabbed before the company's sale in 2010 to L'Oreal (for an undisclosed amount thought to be in the hundreds of millions).

Suddenly, the clouds lifted, and in my post-menopausal reverie, I came up with something nearly as ridiculous as elephants, but glitzy enough to deceptively win me over.

Take note:  THAT's the power of glitz.

Essie's glittery Beyond Cozy, and creamy teal School of Hard Rocks.  Plain, taped and studded.

 Here's how it went down...

yeah, I have cats (lower left cat-haired pic)

Step by step....

The hands needed help.  So, it was time to massage cuticle oil into the nails, cuticles, and surrounding skin of my freshly washed hands.  Same routine with a good hand cream.  Then some rubbing down with a soft dry terry washcloth, to stimulate and remove any surface oil from the skin and nails.

Next up...over a dried base coat, I applied two thin layers of of Essie's creamy teal neutral, School of Hard Rocks.  On every other nail.

 Next, I grabbed a bottle of that recently released silver-gold Essie two-coater microglitter,  Beyond Cozy, and polished up the remaining two tips.  Both of these polishes are found in practically every Essie nail rack I've come across in the US.  I suspect the same is true wherever Essie polishes are sold. 

Taking down the bling factor, just a smidge, I decided to tape off horizontal lines on Beyond Cozy.  This shot was taken just before I pulled back and adjusted the two middle lines into something resembling straight.  Anal retentive here.  As for the tape I used, be advised that I've searched high and low at the local beauty supply stores for this stuff, but to no avail.  I get mine online from Born Pretty (there's a 10% off coupon in the sidebar).

Then, one smooth coat of School of Hard Rocks, over that taped bling....

 
And before you know it, we're looking at Something Quite Different - before clean up, of course ;)

As you may already know, I veer toward crazy when in the company of nail bling, and so, unable to Leave Well Enough Alone, I reached for more Born Pretty stuff.  This time, their super-cool studded rhinestones....

Positioning those tiny metal elements on the nail is a bit tricky.  With my smallest dotting tool, I dotted a bit of top coat where I wanted a stud, and then used the tool to pick up and affix it onto the nail.  Thing is, I didn't plan on cat hair, but that's how we roll in my house.

A few tweezer pulls at the furry stuff got me quickly back in shape, so that the application of studs could continue.

In the end, I'm pleased. 

Not quite elephants, but good enough for me...

Thanks so much for dropping by!  I hope you'll come along and check out what my brilliant and lovely co-challengers have come up with for the letter "E", in this fifth week of Kimber's ABC Challenge.