Tag: Exotic Encounters

Stamping Sunday: Silver, Gold or Bronze As An Accent

I seriously feel like I need to tone it down. This is the second week that I create something for the group Adventures In Stamping and it’s a big fat fail again. I don’t know what it is about challenges, but it seems that I come up with the tackiest ideas ever. I don’t even know what I imagined anymore when I came up with this monstrosity, but at least it wasn’t as bad as last week’s look…at least in my opinion.

I started out innocently enough with China Glaze Exotic Encounters. I don’t know how many times I have said this, but the On Safari collection blew me away. I was really excited when the promo pictures came out and after I got them, they were everything I had hoped for and more. Kudos, China Glaze. “Well done. Whoo, whoo, whoo !” à la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

Beautiful color, right?

The next step was taping off my nails in a diamond pattern and I used plate MASH 46 for the design and Wet N Wild I Can’t Stand Up Straight for the stamping polish. I should have taken a picture of that before I went ahead and added the glitter but I spaced out and forgot. It actually looked interesting before I added the glitter. This Dare To Wear glitter called Disco Ball and it is full of different holo glitter shapes. I think it will look very pretty over a dark base.  Once again, I’m not thrilled with this manicure, but I like it a little better than last week’s.

And for Sunday’s food porn, here is my breakfast: a delicious egg and chorizo breakfast burrito. Yes, it was heavenly!

Hope you’re having a nice Sunday! Let me know what you think of my stampicure.

China Glaze On Safari First Glimpse

When the first promo images of this collection came out, I knew I would love it even if I am constantly disappointed by the disparity between promo images and the real-life polish. I already knew that I was going to pass on the 2 glitters in this collection so that left me with 10 polishes to choose from. I decided to get the first 5 that really caught my attention. I still want a couple more colors which I will most likely eventually purchase later on if become interested enough down the line.

Elephant Walk is a color that I liked a lot more once I got it on my nails. I could see that it was gray with some blue tones and some slight shimmer, but it just looked so much more interesting once I was wearing it. I don’t think I have anything quite like this so I’m loving it (in a un-mcdonald’s kind of way).

Jungle Queen is simply goygeous! It would have been perfect if the shimmer actually showed up on my nails. The only reason you can see a hint of the shimmer is because I had to use flash since it was so overcast today. I am pretty sure that I have seen a few people compare this to Chanel Paradoxal but since I don’t have it, I can’t really say. Dangit…this could have been my perfect color if it had more of that beautiful shimmer. I guess we can’t have it all.

I have been wearing tons of teals lately so Exotic Encounters is right up my alley. Despite having so many teals, I don’t think this one is a dupe for any colors that I currently own; it’s somewhat darker and smokier than most of the teals I usually wear. The formula was super opaque and easy to work with so no complaints from me!

Creamy, dark, shiny creme? Yes, please! Purr-fect Plum is a staple color that I am sure most people already have a dupe for. It’s one of those colors that always attracts me in a way that I forget that I already have similar shades. Oh, the price of being a nail polish hoarder. I did feel that the formula on this was runny city so I had to be super careful and apply thin coats because I did completely flood my cuticles on the first coat. I love you acetone!

SOPI Blue Grotto, I mean Essie Mesmerize, I mean OPI Dating A Royal…err…you know what I mean. This is Man Hunt and yes it is a very pretty blue, but it’s really really overdone. The formula on this one was Raging Waters watery as well so I’m not that impressed.

Have you been able to spot any polishes from this collection yet? Is there a color you’re drying to try? Let me know what you think of these colors. Thanks for stopping by.