Stamped: Loreal The Perfect Trench

Hey lacquer ladies,

Today I have a Loreal polish from the new London Fall Collection.  My first reaction when I saw this polish was - this is truly hideous.  If I had a trench coat this color I'd throw it right in the trash or burn it, and that's saying a lot for a coat loving lady like myself!  It reminds me of old dried out putty or mustard that lost its pizazz.  Ew, ancient mustard?!? Hahaha so why the hell am I putting it up on my blog or better yet what on Earth possessed me to buy such a color? Well because for me this is the type of polish that falls into the realm of ugly-pretty.  It's neutral, a great base for creating something unique, and because even though it looks like 10 year old putty even putty has its place in my world.

If you follow my instagram you recognize this from my sneak peak ;)

Plus let's face it I knew I had a secret agent up my sleeve.  A hidden ace in the pocket, if you will, by the name of Sonoma Nail Art Bubble Room.  Omo (basically Korean for OMG)! Suddenly ugly pretty was just pretty...

Suddenly gorgeous right? TBH I felt The Perfect Trench should have originally had a golden microshimmer.

And because I gotta do me I decided this mani was in dire need of arting up and a pretty paisley patterned stamp was calling my name.

Mani-louge

Base color: Loreal The Perfect Trench Coat

Glitter topcoat: Sonoma Nail Art Bubble Room

Stamping polishes: Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Haute Chocolate & Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Fuschia

Stamping plate: BM-315

Suddenly this manicure became so gorgeous to me!  I'm in love with the monster I created how about you?  Hehe this just goes to show you an ugly, albeit pretty, polish can't keep a good laquerista down.  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

50:50 Color Club Age of Aquarius & Orly Glitz & Glamour

Hello dollies!

I hope your weekend went well.  It feels like the summer is winding down really quickly. I'm one part ready for the transition and another part nervous about it.  It's just as well as I've learned whether you are prepared or not life changes and you just have to go with it.  As one of my favorite teachers would put it - "Don't fight it!"  I also missed my AIS posting since I've been feeling a bit run down and haggard lately :(  Oh well there's only so much I can do at any one time given my health limitations.  Okay so I know you're like enough rambles what about the nails girl? It's super simple today.  I did this one quickly this morning to keep my right hand from being naked.

Age of Aquarius by Color Club is seriously one of my favorite turquoise polishes!  The formula is smooth and effortless and the color is dead on to the bottle.  What's not to love? Because I'm still falling all over myself in lust with the color gold I've got another Orly gold colored polish today.  This one is called Glitz and Glamour.  It has an almost texturized effect that gives this polish such a rich feel.  Whenever I wear this one I always keep looking down at the gold shimmer.

I finished this off with a simple lines using a Kiss Nail Art Striper.  This is so easy I feel like a cheated, but I love the overall feel of the manicure when it came together.  I mean I'm all for elaborate nail art but sometimes it really is clean execution and simple tricks that win me over.  So I hope you liked this one! Anyone have any exciting plans for the week? I'm going to try and get a new tutorial up on my Youtube which has been a bit neglected of late (hangs head in shame).  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Blowing In The Wind: Dandelions feat Dandy Nails Eager Eyes

Hey polished prisoners,

I've got something a little magical for you today.  If you follow my instagram you know I recently picked up the four blue polishes Sandy of Dandy Nails recently released for the summer.  One of them called Eager Eyes is a beautiful medium blue scattered holo.  It's nail polish crack in a bottle! Yeah - that good, but then if you saw my Look Around post you'd know already I love Dandy Nails polishes.   I knew this polish would be the perfect base for a very simple but very pretty nail art idea that recently inspired me.  I saw this dandelion post on BeePolished and I knew I had to try my hand at it.  Here's the result...

The signature Lockdown greenery shot ;)

Mani-louge

Base color: Dandy Nails Eager Eyes

Flowers: Kiss Nail Art Striper in Black and White & No Name in Silver

I'm particularly pleased with this because I feel like the nail art is actually in motion i.e. I can sort of see the little seedlings blowing.  Here's a look at Eager Eyes, 2-3 coats, before I arted it up outdoors and indoors respectively.

The formula on this one was smooth and effortless.  Damn I love an effortless polish kwim? In terms of formula Dandy Nails has one of the best out there!

Look at all that yummy holographic.  Ugh love love love....

So thoughts - simple, but pretty right?  You guys know I'm always pulling out new polishes but you would be so proud of me.  I haven't done any buying at all in the last three weeks and trust me that is no mean feat darlings.  I'm trying to get through some of my well over 100 untrieds and conserve funds for upcoming collections.  Although as always it's very difficult for me to hold back with so many amazing things i.e. plates, polishes, etc coming out every day.  Let me tell you September and October are gonna be a hot mess! I love Halloween and fall so I'm fully prepared to get busy! Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Pahlish: End Of Days

Hey polished prisoners!

It's a rare Monday posting ;)  Today I'm sharing one of my penultimate indie brands with you.  Honestly, I am seriously considering doing an indie top ten posting but I wonder if there would be any interest in this? Do let me know.  In any case Shannon the maker behind the brand Pahlish is absolutely one of my favorite indie companies.  I have ordered from her almost religiously perhaps a touch fanatically.  The minute she releases a new color I go into high alert.  I must have it or die trying!!  There are probably only about three other brands that I'm as fanatical about, but let's save that for later.  For now let's get to the polish...

The base colors here are China Glaze Harvest Moon and Sally Hansen Haute Chocolate.

What can I say about End of Days?  The name alone leaves me slightly drooling.  Then I take a look at it - a deliciously packed glitterbomb of orange and blue hexes with gold microglitter in a clear base.  I think by now you know how much I love orange so this one just kills me!  In a word everything about End of Days is sexy.  On a side note, I clearly can hear the voice of Dale Gribble aka Rusty Shackleford from King of the Hill screaming out "It's the end of days!" Lol!

Isn't this such a pretty baby? You like it don't you? Well luckily for you Shannon just restocked; she usually does every Friday in any case.  You can get your little paws on this baby for $9 + s/h.  Try to hold back because almost everything else is in stock too.  Ugh! You can find her store on Etsy and you can also keep track of her latest updates via her Facebook.  Welp thanks for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...

Gradients and Dots - On Sundays I Stamp!

Hey polished prisoners,

It's another Sunday and another foray into Adventures in Stamping!  You guys know I adore these challenges so much.  This weeks' theme was sort of like it's almost fall or fall inspired.  I was pleased when I saw this one if for no other reason that I'm sick to death of the heat and stickiness that defines DC in the late summer months.  Lord bring on the fall with it's hoodies and pashminas!  In any case I chose to use a gradient with rich fall colors to create my look and then garnish it with another type of gradient stamping. Here's the result...

Mani-louge

Base color: Essie's Buy Me A Cameo

Gradient: Essie's Buy Me A Cameo, Barielle Wrap Me In Ribbon, and Sally Hansen Haute Chcolate

Stamping polishes: China Glaze Millennium & Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

Image plate: SH23

For this challenge I really wanted to veer away from colors that are typical fall - oranges, browns, golds, but I definitely wanted to incorporate neutrals.  For me fall is all about doing lots of neutrals and using rich vampy colors to add interest to outfits usually in the vein of accessories such as the aforementioned pashminas though coats, handbags, and shoes feature heavily into the equation.  I tried to stick with the same concept on my nails and I was pretty pleased with the results. The hardest part for me honestly was picking a polish. 

The gradient before stamping.

I have so many great fall shades in my collection especially of late it was difficult to make a decision.

 I really love how this came out!

So here we are smack dab in mid-August coming into the fall.  Personally I'm so excited not just for the cooling down of weather, but also for all the new collections soon to be released including KBShimmer, and a few others!  Maybe what I love the most about fall is that it's the big signal for change and personally these days I could do with a bit of that.  Welp I hope you enjoyed this one and thanks so much for reading.  See you next post! Toodles...

Colorblocked: Essie's Boxer Shorts

Hey polished prisoners,

Today I've got another polish from Essie's Yogaga Collection. I don't have this entire collection, but when I see an Essie color I like I pick it up while I'm out and about.  If you follow my Instagram you'd have seen the swatch I posted earlier this week.  Boxer Shorts is a periwinkle creme finish polish described as a "winning blue" according to Essie's website, but to me it seems more like a blurple with very purple leanings.  Colors like these are universally flattering on my skin tone which is one of many reason why purple is one of my favorite colors. The formula on this one is excellent and opaque in two coats, but you could probably get away with one if it were applied in a careful thick coat.  Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone after all I prefer my boxer shorts to have a little character ;)

Orly's Gold Rush went perfectly with this color combo.

Mani-louge

Base color: Essie Boxer Shorts

Colorblocks: Orly's Gold Rush & Liquid Vinyl

Looking very purply here to me with a blue underpinning.  I love this color!

It's been a while since I've done a colorblock mani and even longer since the color black has graced my nails in any significan't proportion.  One of the things that struck me immediately which I'd forgotten was how dark black can be when it's taking up a lot of real estate on your nails. Lol! It makes me feel like fall and winter are definitely coming when I put on such dark colors.  Are you ready for fall yet? It's my favorite season and I could really use a break from the unrelenting heat!

So what do you ladies think? While this is a fairly straightforward manicure I am really pleased by how well these came out! I also love how the trio of colors play together so nicely.  Oddly right now I'm really on a gold kick so expect to see more gold on my blog in the future.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...

Awarded: Versatile Blogger Style

Hey polished prisoners,

I won an award! In the words of one of my favorite fairies "Shut the barn door!" Who'd a thunk it?  I was nominated by Jennifer of Little J's Nail Corner.  Thank you very much sweetness! TBH I'm just doing my little thing here and it's nice to have my followers think I'm creating something they enjoy :) So let's get into the rules and answer some questions.

Z Rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Include a link to their blog.
3. Select 15 blogs/bloggers who you've recently discovered or follow regularly.
4. Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award, you could also link to them.
5. Finally tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

7 Fun Factoids about Lady T:
1.  I summited Mt. Ruapehu otherwise known as Mt. Doom from the Lord of the Rings (yes I'm badass!).
2. I was once chased by a dingo (yeah I kid you not totally harsh)
3.  I once went deep diving to monitor lobster larvae (please don't ask) and was almost crushed by a whale that surfaced directly by the boat.  Are you sensing a theme here like maybe animals don't like me lol or I'm particularly clumsy?
4.  I broke a toe on my right foot running to give my brother a hug when I was 13 (yes there is a theme)
5. I can speak Japenese enough to get by and I'm working on fluency.
6.  On my 2nd birthday when I went to blow out the candle my mom pushed my face into the birthday cake.  I cried (the pictures attest to this travesty), but was later rewarded a red tricycle of my dreams in compensation.  Thus began my affair with the color red...ah the exquisite pain and pleasure!
7.  No matter whether I'm happy or sad there is only one thing to be done - Disney movie marathon while wearing Louboutins! Of course nail polish is also involved in this equation ;)

 The Hot 7 (I know pathetic right, but TBH a lot of the blogs I read regularly or just discovered have already won the award so I'm only going to list those that haven't)

1. Gold Speck Nails 
2. Noelie's Nails
3. Labmuffin
4. Polish Insomniac
5. xoxoJen
6. NailsIT
7. Pandora's Nails


Ok and there we have it.  I hope everyone enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about the lady behind the lacquer.  Honestly I'm having so much fun blogging and getting back into nail art and polishes. My wallet has recently told me a little too much fun lol ;) Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...

How Much Is That Doggy In the Window? On Sundays I Stamp!

Hello polished prisoners,

It's Sunday Sunday Sunday and we know what that means round these parts ;)  Adventures in Stamping time!  Hehe - can you tell how much I love these challenges? This week it's all about 2 for 1 i.e. using two different stamps in a manicure.  I do this all the time at least when I'm doing abstracts so I thought for today let me see what I can do without relying on double layering my stamps which I have done a lot before historically.  I wanted something feminine, slightly whimsical, and cute.  Here's what I came up with...

Cute, cute, cute!

Mani-louge

Base colors: Essie Sand Tropez and Barielle Welcome Ohm

Stamping polishes: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl & White, Barielle Welcome Ohm

Stamping plates: M57 (lace), KD11 (dog), NCO1 (hearts), BM19 (dots), RuiZ02 (paws)

Accents: Kiss Nail Art Stickers (upper lace), Kala Animal Love Nail Art Stickers (bones), 2mm clear rhinestone

For some reason here Welcome Ohm is pulling purple, but it's a deeper berry pink than shown here.

There is so much to this manicure I don't even know where to begin.  Initially, I posted up to my Instagram with just the french tips and accents thinking this would be a relatively simple manicure.  All I knew is that I wanted to use a combination of nail art stickers and stamping and the rest just fell into place.

I love how the nude comes into this manicure in such a subtle way like the supporting role to everything else.

All of a sudden I had five or six stamping plates pulled out from all sorts of different collections.  This is the kind of manicure that's a nightmare to do a tutorial on hahaha!

Do you think the princess will capture her bones?

So what do you think - isn't this just so cute? I have to say Princess Fifi La Fleur (yes I named the dog) is looking good with her little bling accent ;)  Well never let it be said that I can't mix and match stamps with the best of them.  When I see this manicure it reminds me so much of my Giesha girl inspired mani I did many yore ago.  In any case I hope you enjoyed reading about this challenge as much as I did creating it.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles...

Swatched: Vivid Lacquer Polishes

Hey polished prisoners,

Happy Saturday! First let me start by giving a HUGE shoutout to Missy from Gnarly Gnails for helping me make my blog look legit! Hahaha - she can personally attest to my poor ability to understand the intricate workings of making my blog look "pretty", but she really helped me out a lot. I hope you like it as much as I do! And best of all now you can find all the ways to subscribe to me in one neat location under my header just clicky clicky ;).

Alright today I'm going to be showing you some swatches of a few polishes from the indie brand Vivid Lacquer.  You may remember me gushing about this brand once before when I first got her plates and then again when I did the duochrome butterfly mani.  To date that is still one of my favorite nail art creations!  Well I also had the pleasure of receiving three mini's from Anni the creator of Vivid Lacquer to test out for review. So let's get started!

How I rate:
Formula (3 pts), Color (2pts), Brush/Bottle (1pt), Wearabilty/Durability (2pts), Ease of Application (2pts).

Waltruad

This polish was inspired by the favorite colors of Anni's mom. Waltraud is a shimmering pale green jelly base chock full of rainbow of matte glitter. I layered one coat of Waltraud over one thin coat of Orly's Green Apple.

The Good: Damn this color is pretty! What wasn't apparent to me from the bottle that I quickly realized when it was on my nail is the darker green shimmer that caught and reflected light at certain angles.  I kept looking down at my nails and then moving them about to see the shimmer.  I also loved how the multicolored glitter added an extra punch of pretty to the manicure.  The formula on this one was also excellent and I was able to get even coverage in one coat without fishing for glitters.  To be honest this polish snuck up on me.  I didn't expect to fall in love with the shade, but ended up walking away with Waltraud having stolen a little piece of my heart.  

The Bad: Perhaps only of minor note that the polish required a good shake beforehand to disperse the glitters that were settled toward the bottom, but this is typical for most glitter polishes and didn't pose any problems for me during the manicure.

Overall rating: 9/10

The Ice Queen's Lament

This is a pale blue frosty shimmer polish composed of blue jelly base, blue heart glitter, blue diamond glitter, and silver and white glitters.  Here I have layered one coat of TIQL over one coat of Color Club's Luminescent.

The Good: I love color of this polish to bits and pieces!  I am a sucker for blues and with the fall and winter coming I like the idea of such a pale blue in my collection.  Plus this kind of blue makes my skin look glowy and healthy which is huge WIN for me.  The formula on this was also quite good.  I was able to get the coverage I wanted in one coat.  I had a bit of difficulty getting the larger heart shaped glitters out but turning the bottle upside down with a gentle tap solved the problem without too much of a hassle.

The Bad: This is what I call a "tough polish" mainly because of the finish.  I don't really enjoy frosts for a couple of reasons including that brush strokes inevitably show through giving your nails an uneven appearance.  The one thing that really bothered me is the fact that the heart and diamond glitters didn't appear with the clarity that they should due to the frosted base overwhelming their color.  It was almost like the frost oversaturated the deep blue of the heart shaped glitters making it hard to see them within the manicure which was disappointing.

Overall rating: 7/10

The Harlequin's Adoration

This polish contains red and bronze flecks with black and white diamond, red heart, and fine black and white glitter in a clear base.  I layered a little more than one coat using the dab method over one thin coat of Orly's Luxe.

The Good: This was hand's down my favorite polish of the trio! It's so rich and fiery catching the light and bouncing all over the place. THA turns any polish it's layered over into an inferno and the heart shapes and diamonds add extra magic to the affair.  Formula on this was excellent I had no need to fish around for glitters since the polish was packed full of glitter.  While I ultimately chose Luxe to swatch this over I played with about 5-6 different undies and each of them ended up being super pretty.  I added an accent nail to this swatch using A-England's Avalon and stamping with VL-001 heart pattern using the primary colors of THA (i.e. gold, red, white, and black).  I love this one so much I'll be going back to get a full-sized bottle when I do another VL haul.

The bad:  It's worth noting that with THA less is more.  Because this polish is so jam packed with glitter it's really easy to overwhelm the base color that your painting over.  Dabbing with this one is definitely better than a full sweep over your nail as you would with regular polish.  I don't even really consider this a negative aspect but it just means one has to be careful with application here.

Overall rating: 9/10

Well I hope you enjoyed my little review.  If you are interested in purchasing any of the polishes seen here you can find Vivid Lacquer here on Etsy.  Anni also has a Facebook page where she keeps her fans updated on her latest creations and ideas.  You know I'm already a huge fan of her stamping plates too which are thus far one of a kind in the indie world and really lovely!  You can see my review of those plates here.  Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles...

These polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer.  For more information please see my disclosure policy.

Trigger Happy: Nostalgic Lacquer + Essie's Yogaga

Hey polished prisoners,

I decided to do another trigger mani.  They are super easy and super cute IMO so what's not to love?  I picked up Essie's Yogaga last week which is a very neutral taupe/beige creme ONE COATER.  I wanted to pair it with something bright and simple that would still give Yogaga the limelight.  Enter Nostalgic Lacquer's As If!  As If is a one of those endless streams of white/black glitter + something elese combo's that almost every indie brand has made. When I write that I don't mean it as a bad thing since I own a lot of these combos and I love them all.  In the case of As If it's white and black bar glitter with medium white and black hexes and small hot pink hexes with tiny white glitter in a clear base. I used this color combo to create not only the trigger accents but the water marble color palette as well and here's how it translated...

Mani-louge

Triggers: Essie Yogaga + Nostalgic Lacquer As If!

Middle-Pinkie Fingers: base of Yogaga + water marble using OPI Alpine Snow and Elephantastic Pink, Essie Yogaga, and Wet N' Wild Black Creme

The water marbles for the last three digits that mirrored the combination of As If over Yogaga were tricky.  Here are a few things I learned from my second attempt at marbling:

1. If you go too deep into the water you ruin the pattern

2. Not taping off your nails is a BAD idea.

3. Creating an attractive pattern is easier said than done

4. Patience is a virtue which needs to be exercised heavily in order to create a good water marble.

 

As you can see from that little list the process of creating my marbles here was not easy. I made a lot of mistakes and had a lot of do-overs.  I'm still not satisfied with the crispness of my patterns, but I'm slowly improving.  More tips are always appreciated!

So what do you ladies think? Pretty and looking oddly simple too right? That's why I love nail art there is always something new to learn or technique to improve on.  If you want to check out As If! or any other Nostalgic Lacquers you can find them here on Bigcartel or Overallbeauty.  Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles...

Buttlerfly Trap....On Sundays I Stamp!

Hallo polished prisoners,

Today is Sunday and you know what that means.  Yes, another Adventures in Stamping post!  This weeks challenge was to use either bronze, silver, or gold as either the base for our stamping or the stamping color itself.  I know it's a touch Olympian in nature yes? But, for one I'm not really following the Olympics (eh-hem I haven't owned a functioning tv in over 5 years), and second I was feeling the need to try out a new plate that arrived this week from Nailz Craze.  So here's what I came up with...

Mani-louge

Base Color: Paints by Allya Automatic

Gradient: Paints by Allya Automatic and Pity and Essie Jamacian Me Crazy

Image Plate: NC1 by Nailz Craze

Stamping polish: China Glaze Passion

This gradient kills me...by itself it would be one fine manicure, but I can never leave well enough alone lol. 

I love the touch of shimmer created by Jamaican Me Crazy. This is one of my favorite Essie polishes.

It just feels vibrant right?

As you can see I love butterflies, but not in a Mariah Carey crazy way more in a they make for great nail art kind of way.  Do you have a type of manicure you keep coming back to? For me it's always some kind of butterfly like creation.  However, I have never done butterflies before using gold for their wings.  I have to say I'm a bit in love!

Shimmy and shake!

 In case you are wondering about the polishes I recently did a little haul from Paints by Allya from her recent Full Ruscha collection.  They are all gorgeous cremes with not a glitterbomb amongst them.  To be frank while I love glitter I always appreciate a good classic polish in my life.  I'll do a review of this collection later, but for now it's safe to say I'm really happy with my purchase. 

I love it!

So here we are another AIS Challenge met and stamped!  What do you think of the final results?  I'm very shocked by the simple beauty of this one myself.  I could have kept going after I stamped but I thought I wanted the polish to have the spotlight.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...

Dollish Polish The Hero of Time

Hey polished prisoners,

Happy Saturday!  I've been a little bit M.IA. this week running willy nilly with errands that kept distracting me from a solid posting.  TodayI've got a pretty simple glitter gradient nail art for you.  I decided to break out the greens again - hey I gotta go with what I love ;) This time I chose Hero of Time by Dollish Polish.  I haven't featured any Dollish Polish on my blog before, but let me tell you I love what this lady does! I have quite a few of these polishes and the formula is always flawless and packed full of glittery goodness.  Hero of Time is a clear jelly loaded with varying shades of green, brown and gold glitter.  It's inspired by Link's clothing from The Legend of Zelda.  Dolly definitely scores major pointage with me for releasing her Gamer Series as I was/still am a pretty hardcore video game fanatic.

So bright!

Mani-louge

Base color: China Glaze Paper Chasing

Glitter: Dollish Polish The Hero of Time (one coat)
Gradient: Orly Liquid Vinyl

I decided to add a gradient to the look and also ended up placing nail art tape sporadically over my nails to create a laser cut-out like pattern.

This is so pretty, but definitely halloweenish ;)

 Pretty cool eh?  I've been seeing this effect around a lot late and wanted to try my hand at it too!

Intentionally blurred for all that sparkly goodness to pop through.

What do you think? I'm happy with the final effect here and I'm totally in love with Hero of Time! Do you have a favorite Dollish Polish?  If you are interested in trying to pick up HoT DP is carried by three locations: Ilarowe, Overall Beauty, and Dolly's Big Cartel shop.  Restocking of all of these stores varies and it's best to check each individual site respectively for updates.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...