Essie Scarlet O'Hara

It's been a while. And I know the "life is getting crazy" excuse can only cut it for so long, since I see blogger friends of mine who have busier jobs and just had babies who are schooling me on this whole blog thing. So, to keep me motivated to keep up with my blog regularly, I've decided to take the September 31 day nail polish challenge. Although, I probably will stray a little, and make up my own daily themes for a few of them.

Day one: red nails.

I don't own very many reds in my collection - around 6, maybe? When I wear them, I tend to reach for my bright cherry, pin up girl reds or as a glitter topper. Today, I decided to finally break out of my comfort zone, and try out Essie Scarlet O'Hara. I know, I know, I've had this on the shelf for a while, and I've only swatched it onto a nail stick (for shame!). I totally bought this strictly for the name, since I LOVE the book Gone With the Wind, and adored Vivien Leigh's performance as Scarlett in the movie.

Essie Scarlet O'Hara is a deep, ruby red with lots of shimmer. The polish went on flawlessly - no pooling, not too sheer and with two coats, it looked wonderful.

 Two coats of Essie Scarlet O'Hara with
top coat.

The color of Scarlet reminds me of those beautiful red candied apples you see around Halloween, but never buy because you know you will break your teeth and can't afford the emergency dental care. I believe the people at Essie were trying to capture this in a bottle, and they were spot on:

 

Va-voom Vivien! 

Now, I want to watch GWTW for the 1,000th time, while staring at my nails.

Let's get fruity!

We have been studying various fruits in my preschool classroom, and after the success of Watermelon Day manicure, I tried my hand at some festive strawberries.

I started with two coats of Zoya America - the prefect tomato (or in this case, strawberry) red creme! My photo doesn't do it justice - it's really a bright, beautiful red.

   

 

After a quick layer of top coat, I added a line of China Glaze Starboard to the top of my nail. Using a small nail brush, I created the triangle points. After finishing all the strawberry tops, I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz and a toothpick to make the seeds.
 

Ta da! Quick and easy strawberries :)

I think these turned out super cute!