Hot Off The Stamping Press: MoYou Nails Biker Collection!

Hello lovelies,

This collection actually released last Friday and for some reason the post didn't post like I thought it did.  Eeep!  That's okay though because you can still get this awesome collection along with a little bonus coupon code for 30% off if you keep reading.  Lol that's what I call winning!

 "Owning a motorcycle is not a matter of life and death.. it is much more important than that..."

This collection is utterly what it sounds like.  Inspired by those road hogs that muscle along on the highway.  Look at sister-friend up there I'm digging her whole style including the nonchalantly held aviators ;)

I'm also of the  opinion that one has to be a bad-ass b**** to ride or die.  Lol all that power and responsibility.  I have never in my life ridden a motorcycle but one day I'd like to!  Ahem of course I will be rocking my biker nails and a glam helmet whilst doing so...

  

Totally hot-rod mama right?   That last plate made me drool along with plates 2 & 4. These plates are just so unique!  The lady who inspired this collection is none other than Sarah Smith of Spellbinding Nails.  I will say though I think because the theme is so focused it will be up to the creator to stretch the longevity of these plates i.e. all of the tattoo like images could probably revamped to create some other awesome nail art aside from biker sleek if one was up to the challenge.  Now what about that code?  Well some ladies in my AIS group have gotten the MoYou to give a 30% off code to the group and has generously extended that out to the community.  The code is LISA&MEL30.  You must create an account and be logged in for it to work but it's 30% off your total purchase no limits on plates etc!  Pretty awesome right?  I have already clearly taken advantage and ordered all of my plates with the exception of a few that were sold out when I went to buy, but they are now back up on the website.  You can buy MoYou plates here and hurry the code expires on the 31st I believe!  Thanks for reading and see you next post!

Halloween 2013: Haunted Graveyard feat Bunny Nails HD-C & HD-D Plates

Hey lacquer ladies,

I have been sick with a vicious cold for the last 1.5 weeks. Lesson of the month:  I probably shouldn't have decided to get a flu shot at the same time I was coming down with what was likely a viral illness the result has been nothing short of horrible.  I'm a bit peeved at myself I basically got sick and then ramped my immune system into overdrive with that shot.  Sweet baby J.  Nevertheless we carry onward and upward.  So I know I was super excited to discuss those Bunny Nails plates with you guys when they first released and you must be thinking are you gonna use them?  The answer is hell yes Imma use them!  I failed at this many so many times before I could get it to look even close to what I wanted which was sorta an algamation of Halloween themes much like the plates i.e. bats, spiders, and creepy old ladies flying at the moon.  It's not perfect but I'm pleased with it.

Mani-lounge

Basecoat/Topcoat - CND Stickey & Poshse Fast Drying Topcoat

Gradient: Orly Satin Hues Majestic Satin & Liquid Vinyl

Accent Nail:  Zoya Trixie sponged with Liquid Vinyl and Majestic Satin

Stamping Polishes:  Essie Blue Rhapsody and No Place Like Chrome, China Glaze Passion, Konad Special Polish in Black Gold

Plates: Bunny Nails HD-C & HD-D

The gradient is the only part that came effortlessly everything else was so tough especially the accent nail because I couldn't get the spiders to creep over the way I wanted them too.  Lol disastrous! In any case I wanted to see how this looked matte as well.

Add caption

So thoughts? Do you like it better matte or shiny? I think it might be matte for me since I hardly use my matte topcoat that much but when I do it's always love btw I'm using Essie's Matte About You Topcoat here.  It's the only one I've ever used and it works well.  I'd like to try Manglaze's as well though when I pick up some of their polishes.  Anyhoo, I've got a few more to show you before Halloween slips away as all things must.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post!

PolishTBH Anniversary Collection Review

Lovely lacquer ladies,

I had an honor bestowed on me these days! You know I am fairly humble when it comes to blogging and my nail art too.  It's because I look around and everywhere I see ladies with some crazy and amazing talent.  It's hard even think I match up so when a polishmaker takes the time to send me some of their products or ask me for opinions I take it really seriously, and I'm also extremely touched to be chosen.  Today I have that privilege as I'll be sharing a very special collection with you from PolishTBH from Chrissy's one year anniversary collection.  Just a warning this post is pretty pic heavy!

I discovered this brand thanks to Mimi of MakeupWithdrawal.  Because of her swatches I've clicked "add to cart" more times than I can count, and that's how I discovered the awesome splendor of the PolishTBH Diagon Alley Collection and the amazing cuticle oils she makes.  See my Harry Potter inspired nail art here.  I have a few more coming down the pipes so stay tuned, but today I'm just totally blown away.  I have three unique beauties for the 1 year bash and each one is somewhat a homage to the incredibly talented and still shockingly sexy (yes I said it) Britney Spears.

First up is Teal the World Ends.  The name is a a play on the song Til the World Ends.  This is a teal creally-ish polish sprinkled with white and black matte bar and hex glitter with holographic teal hexes interspersed throughout with spare holographic microglitter.  You want to know the greatest part about this polish (even though Chrissy has hit on two out of my four polish turn-ons right now) it's a THERMAL!!!  This little pretty transitions from the deep teal color to a pale blue when warm.  I honestly own nothing like this in my collection and I have a lot of thermals!  Opaque in two coats and stealing my heart in transition.  Thin coats with time to dry in between works best to minimize glitter drag.

 Warm

The gradient here is Essie Sweet Talker and stamped with Essie

No Place Like Chrome using Dashica SdP 47 and Fab Ur Nails Fun 2 plates

Transitioning

Almost to my nadir

Cold (or the natural state of my nails)

Brithday Tutu.  Is a pink gelee glitter topper packed with iridescent pink hexes and microglitter.  This one was a bit tough for me because I couldn't figure out what kind of base to pair with it.  Ultimately I think it worked best in a jelly sandwich layered to show off its beauty.  Pictured here layered between and over Colorama Espuma.  A little goes a long way with this one as the base was thicker than I expected.   It's necessary to be patient between coats otherwise you may not achieve the seemingly delicate effect I got here. I love how this one turned out the best!

I stamped over this polish using Color Club Eternal Beauty and Konad Special White for the Ballerina.  I used Konad plates M63 and S8

Finally I think I saved my favorite from the collection for last! Fantasy Anniversary Edition made me gasp when I took it out of the wrapping.  Liquid fire in a bottle! Almost too hot to maintain eye contact with.  This is one of those complex polishes that will flash fire at every angle that you move your nails.  Fantasy is a brownish-blackened jelly polish crammed with gold holographic hexes and microglitter.  Opaque in 3 thin precise coats.  Fantasy you are my everything.  I could not take it off nor did I dare create art over top of it!

So now you have my honest thoughts on this collection.  I think if you could only afford a couple you must definitely get Teal the World Ends and Fantasy Anniversary Edition.  Although in all honesty I think Birthday Tutu is the most versatile of all three.  Chrissy said TtWE will likely be her last thermal polish, which I think is a shame, so don't hesitate to pick it up!  The Anniversary Collection has already released.  You can purchase PolishTBH  here.  And while you're over there seriously consider trying the cuticle oils.  I loved the mini I got when I purchased the Diagon Alley collection so much that I immediately went back and bought 2 in the full size! Thank for reading and stay tuned for some awesome follow up nail art!

In case you didn't get it above these polishes were sent to me for review.  My opinions however are entirely my own!

Hot Off The Stamping Press: New MoYou London Suki Plates...

Polished prisoners,

Ugh I can't believe I haven't been able to get things going this week.  All I can say is it's been a really hectic week and where the hell is the sun!  I'm tired of trying to swatch all of my amazing holo's and then I look outside and see rain and gray skies.   Is this England?!?  Killing me! Lol Enough ranting let's talk about the new plates that have released from MoYou London yesterday from my favorite collection by the brand.  I am of course referring to the Suki Collection.  It's supposed to be for the Japanese samurai in us all, but frankly I just think it's the collection that is the most feminine and seemingly attached to the parts of nail art that I find most precious.   It also doesn't hurt that this collection triggers every single "moe" instinct in my body as a Japan-o-phile.  There hasn't been a plate that they have released yet from this collection that didn't make me gasp or go "I must absolutely attain this plate or die trying!"  Up today are two new plates that are of the full image plate variety.

I wonder if you are asking yourself why I am always releasing new plate news from MoYou London.  Lol let me assure you nothing is in it for me.  It has more to do with the fact that I'm stalking this brand obsessively.  I can't stop buying their plates and waiting to see what they are going to come up with next!  I have never ever loved a brand as much as I like this one.  Hmm except maybe Messy Mansion and Vivid Lacquer.  At the end of the day I'm a sucker for inguinity and invention so this brand continuously keeps my interest alive.  I need to post up some of the mani's I've done using their plates. 

Brilliant right?  The detailing on both of these plates is so intricate and I love love love the circling koi fish on the 9th plate!  Well as usual you can find these plates at the link above.  I'm not going to ask which you like because I'm going to pretend you are crazy as me about this collection and just have to have them all! These are available on the MoYou London site now.  They are marked as late shipping and will not arrive until some time in the 1st week of November along with the Comics Collection,  Festive Collection, and Mother Nature Collection.  Last time I put that they retailed for $7 USD, but actually I think it's closer to $8USD because of the conversion from Euro's.  Still totally worth it!  I promise to have some pretty up tomorrow.  Toodles and thanks for reading!  See you next post...

Halloween 2013: Spiderwebs and Cherons feat Vivid Lacquer Image Plates

Happy Friday fellow lacqueristas,

Today I've got some uber cute nails to show you!  I decided to try out a few of my newer Vivid Lacquer stamping plates, and let me say I'm loving everything about them!  I wanted to try and create some fun nail art that was pretty and Halloween themed without heading down the pathway of gore.  Lol that's not to say I won't be heading down that pathway ever but I am more of a glamourous and pretty type. That had me reaching for my Vivid Lacquer plates which feature just enough fiendishness combined with pretty to satisfy my tastes.

I'm not sure if you knew but Anni recently created a Autumn/Halloween themed plate.  What I love the most about it are two images in particular!  One is a huge spiderweb.  It could easily stretch across all 4 of my digits if I stamped it serially.  The other is a graveyard image that has yet to be used but it will be shortly.   This is a cute and versatile plate that has the potential to create about 5-10 or more Halloween mani's if you got creative.   I'm not sure if it's currently available, but you can get it here.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: CND Stickey/Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base Colors: Essie Fear or Desire and Orly Goth

Stamping Polishes:  Essie No Place Like Chrome, China Glaze Passion, Konad Special Polish in Black Gold

Stamping Plates:  Vivid Lacquer VL010 & VL013

So what do you think? I haven't done a trigger finger mani in a long time so it's funny that when I once again pick it up it's with Essie yet again.  Lol what can I say I am a die-hard Essie girl!  In any case I am so in love with how this turned out.  As you can see I mutated the chevrons a touch to make them more interesting then I connected the gap with a black striper brush.  I hope you like it and stay tuned for more awesome Halloween nail art as the month progresses! Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Hot Off the Stamping Press: MoYou London Festive Collection!

Nail art lovers,

More good news!  Lol maybe some bad news for your wallet and a shocking double post from me today.   Because, yup you guessed it, there are even MORE new plates coming down the pipelines.  MoYou London is really on fire right now creating so many amazing designs that leave this little stampers heart fluttering.  This time the creative team has launched a collection themed around holidays called the Festive Collection.  Let's take a look shall we?

 Look at all the amazing detail on this plate!  The little north pole sign, the sleigh and reindeer, a shooting star.  It's really unbelievable!

As you can see the plates are themed around the Christmas and New Years holidays, but a pretty little birdy told me there will be more plates associated with other holidays coming soon!  I have to say as usual I am so impressed with the MoYou teams' creativity.  In particular, I love how they have created an entire image and packaging to each collection that defines this brand.  I also can personally attest to the high quality of these plates which makes it somehow impossible to resist whenever they drop a new collection.

So what do you think stamp-a-rellas?  I am clearly in love!  My favorite plates are the intarsia sweater images and of course the full nail plate gingerbread house.  Ah that one is just adorable and the detailing is exquisite!  Which ones do you like ladies?  As usual these plates are pre-sale and will launch on the MoYou website on Friday.   They retail for 4.99 Euros or roughly $7 USD and are worth every penny.  Someone asked me recently about the backing on these plates.   They are backed by hard plastic that surround the metal portion of the plate like a picture frame and have the MoYou logo on them.  So there you have it.  Happy hunting ladies and thanks for reading!  I'll see you next post....  

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Bunny Nails HD-C & HD-D Halloween Plates!

Hey polished prisoners,

There are so many HOT plates coming out right now it's really ridiculous!  Bundle Monster just realeased their new Make Your Own Set, Red Angel has a 2013 set, and waaay too many more to count.  I need to do a weekend round-up post just to keep up.  However today I've got some AMAZING ones! Let me tell you I have been a fan of Bunny Nails since waay back in the day essentially when I discovered her Angry Birds plate which was the first of its kind.  She has been slowly putting out holiday plates over the last 2 years.  This ridiculously cool HD small plates that were all Halloween themed and largely stole my heart.  Then she started with her larger HD Holiday plate series which encompassed most if not all of the major holidays including the 4th of July, Easter, New Years, Christmas and so on.  Well she's done it again releasing two more large HD plates entirely devoted to Halloween and Dios de Muertos!

Photo credit: Bunny Nails

The plates measure roughly 14.5 x 9.5cm while the full size images themselves measure approximately 2 x 2.5cm.

  Photo Credit: Bunny Nails

The images made me drool!  What are your favorites?  I'm in love with baby bat and dracula and the dancing skeleton.   Because of the time sensitivity of these I wanted to get the post out ASAP!  You can pre-order them now and the will ship out between 3-7 days depending when they land on her doorstep from the manufacturer.  The plates retail for $16.99 USD a plate with free world wide shipping.  Get them here at the ecrater store.  I've never been disappointed by her creations yet and I'm looking forward to these lovelies!  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post...

Protect The Tatas!!! Ahem I Mean Breast Cancer Awareness Mani Ahead...

Hello lovely ladies and possible gentlemen,

As you know in the lovely month of October we raise awareness to protecting ahem the tatas.  Ok so here's the deal-e-o.  I'm going to take this opportunity to educate because this is actually the arena that is a familiar domain for me in a professional sense.  So here we go!

Breast cancer, like prostate cancer for males, is the leading cause of death for women in the United States.  If you are a lady with lovely lady humps you owe it to yourself to regularly think about your breasts.  I rarely share this side of my world but I have a lot of experience with breast cancer patients.  I have scrubbed their mastectomies and the subsequent repairs.  I have held their hands while they have agonized with these decisions and unfortunately had a very close friend diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 25.  If you are a female aged 50 and over you need to have an annual mamogram.  If you are experiencing abnormal discharge from your nipples i.e. clear, greenish, blue, black, or brown you need to be evaluated.  Surprisingly bloody discharge is less likely to be a cancerous/malignant process.  If you feel a lump or mass that is NOT painful but constant and possibly growing over time you need to be evaluated.

What are things that increase your risk of breast cancer?  Earlier age of menarche (menses), age over 50, age at first childbirth (can offer protective benefit against breast cancer), personal history of abnormal biopsy such as ductal carcinoma in situ or lobar carcinoma in situ, first degree relatives (think mother, sister, brother, father) with breast cancer, breast density, estrogen and progesterone use, smoking, history of radiation to the chest (very pertinent for girls who had a childhood history of lymphoma or other types of cancer), post menopausal obesity and many more.  Let me say clearly these risk factors are completely inappropriate to gauge your possible future risk of developing breast cancer if you are a BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 gene mutation carrier.  African American ladies we are also at increased risk of developing breast cancer and having it detected at later stages with worse outcomes.  Be attentive!

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat:  CND Stickey/Poshe Fast Drying Top Coat

Base colors:  Essie French Affair and Fancy Gloss Barbie Girl

Stamping polish:  Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Fuschia and Konad Special Polish in White

Stamping plates:  BM 315 & 321


 
 

Ok.  I'll stop there I don't want to turn this into a sermon, but this is a serious matter and should be taken as such.   My goal in life is proactivity not reactivity so there we have it.  Now interspersed through this little preaching session is my mani.  I wanted to step it up this year.  I went to my tried and true bundle monster plates and holographic polishes.  Thoughts?  I hope I didn't scare anyone here and if you want to know more information about breast cancer and your possible risks there are tables that can help you with risk stratification that you can check out this article here.  It's a bit science heavy but is one of the guidelines standard to current clinical practice!  If you want to skip all the jargon and just get to the meat and potatoes click here for a risk assessment tool provided by the national cancer institutes.

 I know I didn't talk much about this mani but.  The accent features an pink to white transition from Fancy Gloss.  It's opaque in 2 coats and has a very slight holographic shimmer than you can see faintly in the sunlight.  Despite my best attempts I couldn't really capture it.  You can find Barbie Girl by Fancy Gloss here.  In any event thanks so much for reading and protect the tatas!  See you next post

Holloween 2013: PolishTBH Dark & Difficult Times and Thestral Harry Potter Inspired Nail Art

"Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy."

~ Albus Dumbledore

Lovely lacqueristas ;)

I hope everyone is doing fabulously on this sunny Sunday afternoon!  It's been quite the weekend including some lost nail mail so I'm feeling a bit frustrated, but plodding along fairly steadily all things considered.  Today I've got some gooduns for you ;) I have discovered another great indie brand that takes my breath away - PolishTBH.  Chrissy owner/creator of the brand created a collection that had me from the word go.  The Diagon Alley Collection  is an entire collection inspired by the infamous shopping grounds from the Harry Potter series.  There are 6 delicious shades in the collection 2 of which I will be featuring today along with some kick ass nail art!

Dark and Difficult Times is blueish gray polish that contains a mix of holo black and charcoal glitters and red and green color shifting flakies inspired by the sky in the setting of Harry Potter  It is incredibly beautiful and one of the main reasons I fell in love with this collection!  Though it is known that I have a horrible weakness when it comes to gray polishes.  This little precious flashes fire every time I look down.  It's opaque in 3 careful thin coats.  Because the base is a bit thick thinner coats work best with this polish.

Thestral is a sheer black jelly with crammed with various sized and shaped black matte and holo glitter, lavender hexes and micro silver glitter.  Inspired by that noble race of creatures that could only be seen by those who have viewed death. This polish was actually created by the 7 year old son of PolishTBH and the proceeds will be going to his new Xbox.  How cute!  Cuteness aside this polish is gorgeous!  Opaque again in three thin careful coats.  What's crazy is how complex this polish is.  It changes from angle to angle and has a lot of hidden depth.  Way to go Mikey!

Mani-louge

Base/Topcoat: Glitter Base (testing)/Sally Hanson Diamond Flash

Base colors:  PolishTBH Thestral & Dark & Difficult Times

Stamping Colors:  Essie Blue Rhapsody, Konad Black & White, Color Club Beyond

Stamping Plates:  Apipila P.10, Nailways Darker Period Halloween, Konad Charming Nails Plate

 

For the nail art I chose to use one of my new sets of plates from the latest collection of Nailways plates called Darker Period - Halloween.  I will do a separate post to review these later.  I also chose to use my newer Apipila plate P.10 which has a several awesome images from Harry Potter.  This manicure literally fell together with ease as a result. I also used a bit of advanced stamping technique here to double stamp which you can see in the lightning bolt and the spider web.

So thoughts? I enjoyed creating Halloween inspired nail art while keeping in mind the nostalgia I love so much about this series of books.  Having done this mani makes me want to read them all over again, but ain't nobody got time for that ;)  You can find the complete Diagon Alley Collection here on the PolishTBH website.  If you buy the whole collection you get a bonus cuticle oil which on top of smelling amazing are phenomenal! Alrighty thanks for reading and see you next post!

Halloween 2013: Liquid Sky Lacquer Candy Corn Inspired Nail Art

Polished Prisoners,

It's that time of year again.  Yay for Halloween because it means I can go all out in my nail art!  I'm also looking forward to showing you all the awesome halloween inspired polish collections I got!  I don't know if a month is long enough!  I have so many amazing plates too.  It's really gonna be a push but let's try to do a lot shall we?  Today I have one of my favorite new brands to show you to kick things off Liquid Sky Lacquer which I spoke about in my floral appeal post.  I have a LOT of Carolyn's polishes.  I ended up going for the whole Halloween collection as well as it was seriously gorgeous.  To start things off I thought I show you some simple candy corn inspired nail art.

Mani-log

Base/Topcoat:  Glitter Removal Base (testing) & Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base Color: Essie Bouncier It's Me

Glitter Topper:  Liquid Sky Lacquer Candy Corn

Accent:  Wet in Wild A Blank Canvas, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI A Good Mandarin Is Hard To Find

Candy Corn (the polish) is pretty much exactly what it sounds like matte white, yellow and orange hexes of varying sizes with yellow microglitter in a clear base.  It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to wear this and ultimately I found myself reaching for my tried and true brand - Essie.  Lol hardly surprising, but I chose one of the jellies from the summer collection, Bouncier It's Me because it provided a nice contrast for the glitter.

Bouncier It's Me! Perfect blue jelly.

I created a simple candy corn image across one nail as the accent and there you have it!  My first Halloween mani of the season.  I am not sure if Carolyn will be restocking the Halloween set again but the store reopens on October 8th so you can check it out to see if they will be available my guess is likely yes since she's very good about keeping her shop stocked.  I hope you enjoyed this simple mani cause it's only going to rev up from here!  Thanks for reading and see you next post!

Hot Off the Stamping Press: MoYou London Mother Earth Collection

‘Every girl should use what Mother Nature gave her before Father Time takes it away.’

-Laurence J. Peter

Loyal Lacquer and Nail Art Enthusiasts,

I have some exciting news!  Lol I'm always excited about something especially when it comes to nail art. It's a bit pathetic but hey I'll take my joys where I can find them.  Anyway if you recall from my I'm Back! post I wrote about several new stamping plate makers who were up and coming.  One of those happened to be MoYou London.  If you don't know who this company is when you finish reading this post you surely will!   MoYou has created about 10 or 11 collections at this point inspired by a variety of themes including 80's, 70's, rockstars/music, japanese culture, nautical, travelling, hime/princesses, kittens/animals, and more.

I love everything this company does including something I have never in my life seen until they started releasing their special collection plates and that is full sized plate images!  I know you are wondering what I mean when I say that but I'll show you below.  Today I'm happy to announce the release of their newest collection inspired by Mother Earth, hence the quote above.  Anyway talk is cheap so let's get to the awe-inspiring pictures!

This is what I meant by the full-plate sized images.  It requires the skill of selecting out various elements from the image plate to create a cohesive mani.  Love this idea to DEATH!!!!

This one is my favorite! Peacocks <3 <3

How Garden of Eve!

OMG this one is adorbs - see the little Tanuki?!?

For some reason this one seems highly romantic to me.

Heidi-esque!

The idea behind this collection was actually suggested by a nail art enthusiast by the name of Joey Helland.  She actually wrote us an email  to MoYou suggesting the idea.  Pretty cool eh?  If you are interested in seeing a nail art idea or collection come to life don't be shy!  Email moyou at moyou at info@moyoumarketing dot com.  Sorry I didn't want them to get spammed so I separated it out so those little internet bots couldn't get a hold of the email.

Oh my so thoughts ladies?  Did your jaw just drop in amazement? I adore this company so very very much! The end result is that I own almost every single collection they are released so far!  Oh my greedy lol.  These plates retail for 4.99 euro's or roughly $7 USD. They will be releasing to pre-sale this Friday.  Are there any that you are interested in? Honestly this is such an innovative brand no matter what you choose you'll be pleased!  You can find the MoYou Store here or stalk them on Facebook here!  Happy shopping ladies ;)