Thursday, September 22, 2011

Fall Wallpaper Konadicure

Gomen gomen - I've been gone for a bit, but I'm back with another yummy konadicure! As I said before I love fall because I finally get to break out some of my darker shades of polish.  While OPI's You Don't Know Jacques has been out for several seasons it's still one of my most reached for perennial favorites of the fall.  The color lands somewhere between a chocolate gray mix and into the depths of my lacquer loving heart.  So of course the minute I thought, "I want to create a wallpapery looking manicure" I instantly grabbed up YDKJ for the backdrop.  I decided to use a combination of pastel blue, black, and gold to keep things from getting too dark and ended up falling in love with the final product.  I love how cG Passion adds just the right amount of subtle sheen!  So much that I'd actually really love to have this as real life wallpaper.

Somehow the cuticle chipped on my thumb - boo!

It always kills me how there's such a difference
between indoor and outdoor lighting!

Lobsterman claw?!?

Want to recreate the look? Then check out the tutorial below!



You can expect more wallpaper like designs from me in the future as I have a secret hidden love for the stuff, and tend to keep an eye out for patterns I love.  If you come across any beloved prints please feel free to share.  Thanks for reading and see you next time.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Local Sales + Mini Drug Store Haul

I did a little hunting and resulted in no success for the items that I wanted.  I was seeking the Wet n' Wild Fantasy Makers polishes in dark purple and black glitter, but alas after visiting four different stores I ran out of both patience and time.  Instead I found some other polishes and products on sale and some I just wanted to check out.  If you have a CVS near you I suggest stopping by since they have the Sally Hansen polishes BOGO 50% off as well as the decal nail strips for the same deal.  Rite Aid has the new Sinful Color stripers for $1.99 as well as the new Jessie's Girl Julie G. collection.  I was actually pretty disappointed in this collection though.  I love Julie G and I'm a subber to her YT channel but these colors, at least for me, were a far cry from inventive or novel (ouch).  That said the colors are beautiful and while they may not be the newest shades around they are definitely worth checking out!  I only ended up picking out one since I can't resist melon colored polishes.  I also snuck in a recently arrived eBay OPI purchase since it came the same day.

From L to R: Sally Hansen Gunmetal & Crushed

L to R: Jessie's Girl Party Dress, Sinful Colors Stripers in What
A Night,  No More, Be My Valentine, & Sour Apple

The aforementioned + E-bay purchase: O.P.I. Zombody To Love
Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Dashica meets Sally Hansen Black Patent

It's my first dark mani of the fall!  Yup - if you follow my YT you'd have seen it's been nothing but brights, brights, brights since spring.  I both hate and love summer because I can break out super saturated colors, but the sweltering temperatures leaves me feeling less than enthusiastic.  So when the fall rolls around I'm so happy because I can rock my fail safe combo - shorts and a hoodie sweatshirt.  Fall comfort at it's best!  It's also the time when I can start bringing out some super duper dark colors such as the most beloved of all my black polishes - Sally Hansen's Black Patent.  This polish is opaque in one, ONE, coat and so shiny and luxe that it has an irreplaceable status in my collection.  I recently put in a huge order at Daschica Beauty that has finally made it's way to me (look out for another post on that later), and could not resist using one of my new plates (SdP A)  for a little stamping action.  I also threw in a Ruffian just for a little contrast using another one of my favorite dark polishes OPI's Lucertainly Look Marvelous.  Check out all the vampy darkness below!



Interested in a tutorial? Let me know and I'll do a quick one.  Thanks for reading and hooray for fall :)
Sunday, September 11, 2011

3D Garden Flower/Homecoming Nails

Ugh I know I'm not good at naming these things, but I love creating them!  Recently, I've felt a burning in my soul a lust if you will..for fimo.  Yup those little darling pieces of polymer clay have been keeping me up at night hovering around my nail art cubby in desperation.  What should I do what should I do?  I want to use fimo!  I want to!  I want to!  Um so I did...here are the results below. Talk about age-inappropriate regression (hangs head in shame).

Orly's Love Each Other (perfect iridescent shimmer)

There has been no sun only overcast grey sky's.

But I gamely braved the rain to snag these shots!

Fimo...diasuki!
Well even though I regressed in order to create this look I loved the results so much that I feel that it's worth it.  If you want to get this look check out my tutorial below.  All the products I used are listed in the video as well as the info box.


Ah now I want to start doing some Halloween stuff!  What do you guys think - too early?

Note to self:  Who am I talking to here? I have no subbies and no comments - lol.  Well whatever I'm speaking to my guests :)
Saturday, September 10, 2011

Snapshot of the Nail Art Obsessed

Hey all!

I thought it would be interesting to post a little peek at what my "polish cubby" looks like.  Be forewarned it's a mess lol!  I haven't had a chance to go out and get a new bin for my polishes and they are overflowing from my one container.  I just keep adding and adding polishes - poor bin.  Plates are stacked every which way in small piles and various implements for nail art are spilling out of their respective containers.  However for now I can fit everything on one shelf, and I love having most of my nail art supplies in one place where I can access them quickly. Despite looking unorganized I know where absolutely everything is :)


Polishes & treatments - oh my!
Close up of my polishes - this picture does not do justice
to the sheer amount held by this bin!
Plates, bins, nail wrap, stripers, & stamping polishes.

Close up of stripers and stamping polishes (back bin).

Off to the side is my bin of dotters, brushes, files, jewels, fimo etc
It's out of control plush there are unseen decals, butter
from LUSH and more.

Crazy right?  I wonder how other ladies organize their nail art supplies?  Feel free to share...
Thursday, September 8, 2011

New Konad Plate Published!

If you don't follow Nail Artists United you should!  These ladies are very inventive when it comes to creating new images for stamping nail art and even posted about creating their own DIY stamper created from gelatin.  That's what I call insanity of the best kind!  These ladies have been working very hard to create image plates for stamping and recently hit a wall in getting their plates produced - namely patent licensing issues behind the Konad system.  As such they really haven't been able to get their plates off the ground.  However they have recently annouced that the Konad UK company will be releasing one of their designs - the Charming Nails Plate (see plate below).  How awesome it that!


 The plate as of now can be purchased from Cesarsshop for 10 euros - you can contact them via cesarsshop@welho.com.    Alternatively, the plate can be added to your order from Konad UK with a purchase of 50 euros or more.   If you want to know more information about the plate head on over to Nail Artists United. I for one am gunning to pick up one of these ASAP! How about you?

UPDATE
I wrote to Satu, the owner of Cesearsshop, inquiring about the plate and she said that it would be fine to order directly from the site without first emailing.  Simply click the UK flag and this will switch the language to english.  If you are ordering 1-3 plates select "Letter" shipping for only 1 euro and if you are ordering > 3 plates you will have to choose the "toimitus EU:n sisalli" method for 17.70 euros.  Either way the seller is super friendly and it will be relatively easy to purchase here.  Visa or Mastercard only payments.  Happy shopping!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011

2NE1 UGLY Inspired Mani

If you haven't heard of 2ne1 chances are you will in the near future.  Let me just say I freaking love this k-pop group!  These girls are so cute, special, and spectacular in a very individual way and create music that is both super catchy and also meaningful.  I have been loving this k-pop band since the first time I heard the words....naega jeil jal naga.  English translation - I'm the best! In any event the video for the song Ugly is really funky - splashes of neon glow in the dark paint, torn and ripped clothing, masks, braids, glitter, you name it.  Super cool only in the way these girls can do it. I wanted to recreate the chaos of this video on my nails and these were the results.  I'm hoping they fell into a category of beautiful ugly than just plain ugly (pfft).

Super duper neon pink!

Judicious use of crackle.


Sort of the funkiness I was aiming for.

If you want to see exactly how I got this look and the products I used you can watch my tutorial here:



And if you haven't seen the Ugly video you can check it out here on 2ne1's official YT channel.  If you look up the english lyrics you'll find this is a song that many women or men can identify with.  Thanks for reading and now to quote Niga Higa, "2NE1 K-pop shoutout exit - I'm out!" Singing, "I think I'm ugly and nobody wants to love me just like her I want to be pretty. I want to be pretty....".

A few of my recent nail art designs...

Hi all,

Welcome to my blog! I'm  kicking off the start with a few pictures of my past nail art designs and tutorials.  I created this blog mainly because I will be using a lot of non-konad and non-bundle monster stamping templates in the near future and while I won't always be posting up Youtube tutorials on my channel I thought it might be helpful if I posted up pictures and the products used on another site.  Plus, I won't necessarily always film all of my nail art designs, hauls, swatches, etc so this will help me keep up with things!  In any event here's just a couple of past designs and links to the relevant YT tutorials.


Underwater/Sea Wave Monsticure

A little sun...


Sunbursts/Flower Monsticure 


All the products used etc can be found in the info box beneath each video on YT so feel free to check them out and thanks for reading!  Also if you're interested in seeing more of the designs I've done feel free to swing by my nail art channel on YT here at LLDBHB (Lacquer Lockdown). My next post will be some newer tutorials/designs plus some awesome haulage!  Toodles :)

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