Nail Art Party - Mermaid Nails and Subtle Blue Stamping

Hey polished prisoners,

Today I have a little special feature for you.  I had a party with my friends L and N - a nail art and makeup party and boy did we have a blast!  I did everyone's nails - just not my own and it was fun fun fun fun fun! (Note: Please do not misconstrue my excitement for mania). I learned some great lessons along the way too.  Mainly - do not wear a manicure on your nails if you don't want it to get shredded while doing someone else's nails.   Secondly - soak off gel polish is a you-know-what to get off with pure acetone despite what some nail techs may say.  Third, it's hard to take a decent picture of another person's nails - no idea why though! Tips tips? Here are pics of my nails with the manicures as well as my friends.

A bit different from my mermaid mani, but after I did L's I started to get ideas!

I gave her quite the lecture on the state of her cuticles, but unfortunately for all three of us it's an occupational hazard :(

N was suffering from the same cuticle issues so I smeared them down with Vit E oil.  I didn't recreate this mani exactly either when I re-did it on myself.

It's hard to see but I have that SH Pacific Blue layered under Lynnderella's Violette de Blue and Forget me Not.

I just noticed but you are totally getting a sneek shot of my bins of nail polish :)

I really love this picture plus N and L are so damn tall.  Love both of these girls to death and I had such a blast doing their nails!

My recreation of L's nails below - it's like her original manicure on crack!

This shimmer on the scaled nails is the reason why I love love love Color Clubs Foiled Collection for stamping!

The bling of Nail's Inc Electric Avenue is a stunner even without embellishment.

I put up the tutorial for L's nails on YT.  See the video below to check it out to see the products I used and to get  the same fabulous look!  N's tutorial is in the works.  This was so much fun I know I'll have to do it again sometime soon.  Let me know what you ladies think and thanks for reading!

Indie Polish Haul Bottle Spam + Ebay finds!

Man there are a lot of great indie brands out there and more coming every day.  However, it can be a bit overwhelming - polishes in limited supply due to hard to attain base for polishes as well as glitters and pigments, limited staffing/personal time, long wait lists, and stalking stalking stalking.  It can be exhausting and annoying, but it can also be extremely rewarding when you finally get your hands on a hard earned lemming.  I mean - I'm still dying inside for some Nailventurous and Dollish polish and a few others but I know when I get them it'll be worth the wait.  My recent haul includes some real beauties too as well as a few Ebay finds so let's get this post rocking!

 Red Carpet Lacquer
I recently posted about the my incendiary lust for CTD especially when combined with deep bloody red glitter - which is exactly what Toro for me was (see post here).  In any event I also took the opportunity to grab up some Mastermind and Mrs. White with a couple more awesome polishes on my radar.  Jaime, the creator behind this brand, has some beautiful packaging and the polishes come in a lovely organza gift bag packaged in silver confetti wrap - classy.  Best yet these polishes are packed with glitter and have easy spreadability.  I haven't struggled to get the glitter fully mixed with the base as I have some other brands.  Overall this brand's a winner.  Check her out on her Etsy store here for more great polishes - just leave some for rest the of us!

From left to right: Toro, Mastermind, and Mrs. White

 Lush Lacquer
Damn damn damn!  I don't have words for this brand.  I literally got knocked speechless. Karen and Lexi of LL have so many great polishes it will make your head spin!  Endless combinations of glitter and shimmer enough to spark any lacquerista's imagination.  Certainly, they grabbed my attention with some of their wonderful creations. I picked up two great polishes Salt N Peppa and Party Rockin'.  I haven't done any swatches yet, but stay tuned. They are both insanely dense glitters with moderate to easy spreadability and no settling issues here!  I have great plans for Party Rockin' and Salt n' Peppa is an instant winner.   You can  find these polishes and more  here on Etsy.

Left to right: Party Rockin' and Salt N' Peppa

Tina and Lucy
This creator is sweet with excellent communication.  I ordered two polishes from her and there was a mix-up with inventory.  She noticed immediately and sent me an alternate plus two smaller samples one of which I was really lemming.  I have to say that good customer service and communication goes a long way with me and this creator has both.  However, a couple things drove me crazy in a not so good way.  First, one of the polishes I got sent looks completely different from the photo's posted in the shop.  I mean it's entirely 5-6 shades darker than the listing.  Second, the glitters in these polishes seem to settle and I mean settle heavily making application frustrating and more than a bit annoying.  Applying Jade I would shake until everything was mixed up.  The instant I stopped shaking glitters were settling deep into the bottom of the bottle and unfortunately the color began separating too - not fun!  I'm still on the fence about these polishes and I'll have to try out a few more before casting a final decision.  It is worth saying though that she has some truly beautiful neutral shades in her range which is unique for indie glitters.  Find more polishes and info here on Etsy.

Stamp Stamp Stamp - Ebay Finds :)
I found these cute little plate while searching around on the 'bay for something oh so Hello Kitty cute!  These fauxnad plates are adorable KD01 and KD03.  I can't wait to do something fun with these check out the cute little bunny kitty on  KD01!

Thanks for reading and please let me know if you've also found some cool indie companies or products that you're trying out!

Red Carpet Lacquer's Toro Meets Lynnderella's Connect the Dots and Very Pretty Vampire

Hey lacquer ladies,

In the brief intermission between my last post a slew of indie polish orders hit my door.  Most have been a delicious dream come true.  Others a tad more frustrating but I'll leave that discussion for a later post.  I will say this now.  Glitter polishes are dangerous - to both my budget and my nail art designs.  Some of these polishes are so pretty I can't think of how to add extra beauty to them or I dare not because they are so badass all I can do is stare.  Heehee...now onto the mani.  Red Carpet Lacquer created Toro - a shimmering red microglitter base with red squares and bars this is intermixed to a much lesser degree with white and black bar and hex glitter.  It is the maker's homage to Bring It On. Eep cheerleaders - still cute though!

For me Toro is what happens when red meets Lynndrella's CTD's i.e. a lacquerheads wet dream ok ok maybe this lacquerhead's wet dream.  Alas - maybe it was because the polish bottle was so full so it couldn't be mixed to it's full potential or because the ratio of white and black glitter to red wasn't quite what I expected.  However that was nothing a little additional layering of CTD couldn't handle.  When I did I thought I'd died and gone to polish heaven - sparkly sparkly or in the words of my friend Steve - just too cool! I also wanted one unique nail so I made a sandwich which Sally Hansen's Cardinal as a base color (btw's this is the base color for this entire mani) followed by Lynnderella's Very Pretty Vampire followed by a swipe of Toro.  Yum Yum Yum.   Spam please?  Oh yes....

Talk about Sunday bloody Sunday!

I don't know about you ladies but I could definitely be inspired to do some running with the bulls after meeting Toro! This mani would be so clutch for a bloody Valantine's Day or a cult Holloween kinda thing.  Love these polishes to bits and pieces - you can check out Red Carpet Lacquer here and Lynnderella polishes can be gotten at Llarowe though she is currently not accepting wishlists, but in my opinion she is definitely worth the wait.

Easy Gradient Nail Art

What's up lacquerheads,

I'm really on a bright is right kick which is a constant for me as soon as it's spring and summer.  I want to wear neons, glitters, eye-popping patterns, and shocking hues! With that in mind I have created a sponging nail layering that I'd like to share with you.  I simply took a cosmetic sponge and started layering after applying my base color  -  OPI Who The Shrek Are You? I overlayed it with Color Club Fly With Me and finally topped by Sinful Colors Green Ocean. Talk about a green dream come true - yum!  The hints of blue fire in Green Ocean is almost edible in it's deliciousness - yes edible.  For the pink I wanted to have a fun and bright contrast so I layered Claire's Paradise underneath Orly Emberstone and topped it with KleanColor Aurora at the very edge. I have to say this is my first time using a KleanColor polish and I was fairly impressed by the formulation on this one.  It glided on with no fuss surprisingly for a dense flakie and only required one swipe to become apparent.  I might have to pick up more of these polishes in the future.

The aurora polish actually had little tiny stars in it which did not show up well and left me rather annoyed because they were difficult to place.

I think this was pretty but somehow it lost it's fizzle for me though I'm not sure why though I suspect it's because I felt it was somehow incomplete without any nail art lol.  In any case I just adore that flakie flash of blue in the SC Green Ocean.  Do you ladies have any flakies or brights that you can't live without this season?

Lynnderella Forget You Not and Connect The Dots Layering + Paisley Nail Art

Hello my lil' lacquer lovers,

Okay if you don't know who Lynnderella is as a polish fanatic you may have just been living under a rock...a large one.  A while ago I spoke about how disappointed I was not to be able to make her blog sale and missed out on some serious awesomesauce.  Then Miss Lynn decided to stop selling her polishes via her blog because her amazing one woman show just couldn't keep up with organizing the sales, shipping etc and creating the polishes too.  So she decided to leave the distributing to Ilarowe. Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to get my hands on the polishes and so I submitted a wishlist and just decided to wait and see if a poli-racle (polish miracle lol) would happen.  And then it did 23 of them to be exact and finally finally I was able to get my hands on some Connect the Dots (CTD) along with many others!

There is no justice done to this color indoors - light truly makes all the difference in term of hue of the SH and demensionality of FYN.

 I started out with Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue.  I could post just about this polish - the color is sick sick sick!  So pretty it makes me want to paint my nails over and over again.  The application smooth and dreamy. What more could I ask for?  Uh clearly some layering magic and so I thought Lynnderella Forget You Not would look perfect over this.  It has purple/grey hex glitter with a fine purple and blue microglitter in a purpley sheer base.  However I still felt it needed some spice.  You can blame that on my cornbread loving southern roots after all I'm always looking for a little spice!  I immediately reached for a holy grail polish - Lynderella's CTD's.  Again a single layer and it was love.  I got a bit persnickety and bored a few days later so of course I added some stamping in Konad Special white using my Dashica SdP A plate.

I cannot get over this blue - killing me seriously!

Stamp, stamp, stamp!

Purrty...

To those ladies still hesitating over Lynnderella polishes or waiting because they are pretty hard to attain don't give up hope!  Ilarowe will be accepting wishlists again soon and will also be randomly placing them on the website unannounced for ordering.  Either way you can still get your hands on these lovely polishes without spending a fortune attempting to get them elsewhere (ahem Evilbay).  Personally my wishlist is far from fulfilled as there were several that weren't available when my wishlist came through, but I'm hoping to eventually get all of the one's my polish loving heart aspires to own :)  Thanks for reading and please let me know what you thought!

I'm back and here to stay + Fairy Manicure!

Hey all my lacquer lovers!

Let me apologize in advance for my long absence. Unfortunately things have been pretty tough on my end lately between school and my plummeting health.  I just haven't had the time or energy to devote to my blog or Youtube channel which I'm pretty sad about.  Maybe it hasn't come across after all I don't have a ton of posts on here, but nail art and makeup are my passions and becoming more important to me every day so of course I want to spend time raving about it's awesomeness and sharing my joy of new discoveries with everyone.  And so I'm back I've decided this time to be very disciplined about my approach to my blog in the hopes of creating something wonderful fun and inspiring.  It's my hope that  you'll forgive me and welcome me back into the nail loving fold.  So let's talk about some of this love I've been gushing about...

 As soon as I was released from the hospital I felt I must absolutely do my nails.  I'd been forced to do some abhorent things in the name of medical health such as painting only 4 of 5 fingers so that the 02 monitor declare to all that I was you know breathing.  And so to hold onto my sanity upon discharge I had to absolutely get into my polish ASAP!  I wanted to do something ethereal, springy, and fairy like.   In no small part influenced by my love for a Prada collection that debuted some years ago to a wild success.  I used Essies's Navigate Her - a creme minty green and Essie's Bangle Jangle - a creme lavender with hints of a blue undertone to the base.  Nubar 2010 was added for a touch of fire and mystical quality I think fairies represent.  I also added Kiss nail art butterfly and floral stickers along with fimo, 2mm rhinestones and pearls for a final touch. 

My nails felt alive!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to quite capture the fire of the Nubar 2010 here.

This is just so yummy!  Flowers, butterflies and pearls oh my!

I love how this turned out although I was able to get any outdoor pics.   It's like  small garden landed on each fingernail :) I hope you like this design as well and please feel free to let me know what you think and thanks for reading!