Elevation Polish Italian Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Welcome vanished vixens,

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To another glorious month of beautiful mouthwatering offerings from Elevation Polish.  Lol it just never gets old with Lulu.  With every collection she reveals a polish, or if you are as addicted as I am several, that make me want to see just what she will come up with next.  The Italian Collection is no exception and as a bonus this month we also get to see a beautiful limited edition Yeti polish!  I don't know about you but I am desperate for any Yeti I can get my greedy little paws on lol.  Ah that Cosmoprof Yeti how you haunt me! Alas in any case let me introduce you all up close and personal like to one of my favorite collections to date from Elevation Polish inspired by Lulu's mani ahem many adventures to the land of romance, pasta, and killer leather goods ;)

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rio Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Happy Saturday lacqueristas,

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Today is a pretty special post for me.  I was so shocked and honored when I was contacted by Sally Hansen to create a few manicures with some of their beautiful polishes. As I always say anytime I am asked to swatch or create nail art for a brand it's always a mega honor and I'm always flattered.  And if you've kept an eye on my manicures then you know I've been a long time fan of this brand, but in particular a lot of my nail art features the Insta Dri line!  I use these mainly for stamping since they are opaque and often in brilliant colors that I don't have available elsewhere.  I'll be sharing a few of the new ones later, but today I have select swatches and nail art from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rio Collection.  These polishes are matte glitters contained in a clear base, and as with most matte glitters they represent a great way to create instant nail art.

Elevation Polish Heights of Hawaii Collection and Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

So if you know me well which some of my long time followers do you know I love and adore Elevation Polish.  I have been an avid supporter and fan of this brand since what feels like time immemorial lol!  Well Lulu the creator is brilliant and her brand is my unrivaled favorite of all the many polishes I own.  Creme, holos, and glitters alike she steals my heart over and over again and so today I'm hoping to steal yours with my nail art for her recently released collection inspired by all things Hawaii.  This collection is specifically special to me as one of my best friends in the world is Hawaiian and this post will be the start of I hope many more featuring nail art for the Elevation Polish brand.  So let's get started!

Pa'ako = Pretty
This is a soft pink creme which depending on your skintone may seem somewhat nude.  I am not such a person lol on me this pink is very salmony and I like that.  To be absolutely honest the softer the pink the harsher it seems on my skintone so I was refreshed at the blush of Pa'ako which ended up looking extremely flattering.  Pa'ako became the base for much of the nail art you will see today. It applies sheer in the first coat and becomes opaque in 2 self-leveling coats.  Gorgeous!

Haleakala
Holy holo batman!  Deep deep cranberry purple with an intense linear holo and a very subtle golden shimmer.  What can I say about this polish?  Absolutely perfect in practically every way.  Sheer on coat one and opaque in 2.  I kept looking at it trying to figure out what kind of art ot create finally I decided to place some hibicius flowers.  I used Mount Ventoux which from the Fan Collection as a accent.  The stamping you see here is all advanced method using Cheeky Jumbo Plate 2 Tropical Holiday.  How apt :)

Plumeria
Multicolor matte circle glitters in a shimmering blue clear base.  Let me tell you as far as I know Lulu was the first lady on the block making glitter toppers with circle glitter and she has always been brilliant at it!  Plumeria is a such a happy polish so many beautiful colors - acid yellows, soft pinks, blues, greens, oranges, and more!  I chose to layer it over Pa'ako and used a little bit of placement on the accent nail.  Again I'm using hibicius flowers and a little Hawaii emblem from the same Cheeky plate.

Silversword
A heavy silver shimmer polish with a very slight holographic pigmentation.  It has a very very slight green shimmer that's a bit hard to find but if you hit just the right light indoors you can see it clearly mostly when the holo is the least apparent.  So of all of the polishes of the collection this one is my favorite.  I like that it changes to a completely different polish when you head outdoors.  A holo in one setting and a shimmer in another.  I chose to do simple triangles using Haleakala and then apply black stripes around it just to keep it simple and elegant.  God I didn't want to take this one off as simple pretty always kills me!

 Shimmer in sunlight

 Holo in sunlight (just angled my nails a bit here)

So thoughts?  I think as usual Lulu hit one out of the park!  Flawless formulas, various polishes for everyone this collection premiered a bit later in the month than usual which is the 7th, but you can still scoop every single pretty seen here today on the 22nd of January at 9PM CST on the Elevation Polish website.  Polishes retail from $8.50 -12.00.  I have one more special release polish to post as well which I will put up tomorrow called Yeti's Broken Heart.  Poor Yeti lolol!  Thanks for reading and see you next post!

These polishes were provided for review, but let me assure you even if they weren't I would have bought them anyway as I have been a member of monthly buy group for over a year now!  Helplessly addicted!

What's a Jewel To Do? On Sundays I Stamp!

Hiya lacquer ladies,

I hope your weekends are going well!  I've got a bit of news on my end as I've recently joined a nail art interest group called Adventures in Stamping - yay! I'm sure several of you have heard of it or are participants yourself.  We take a theme every week and then create nail art around it using stamping of one kind or another.  I love this concept so much and it's a great way to expand out on ideas, meet other lacquer ladies, and share helpful tips and cool techniques.  This means every Sunday I'll become a tramp, a stamp tramp that is (wink wink).  Lord save us from the Jezebels hahaha! Now onto the art...

The theme for this week is Precious Stones, i.e. designing around the concept of precious stones or using jewel tones.  This concept for me was oddly easy.  My birthday is right around the corner (August 1) and my birthstone, peridot, has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I've been thinking of buying a pair of solitaire earrings in the stone.  I will admit peridot is a tough color to pull off.  It just doesn't have that "classic" appeal I that I so love in stones such as pearls or sapphires (at least not IMO).  Nevertheless, I have endeavored to embrace myself and in so doing the stone of my birth lol.

Look at all this bling! Well it's my birthday stone so I'll bling as I want to...

I started by taping off my nails at a diagonal and painting with Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Ivy League for the majority of my nails.  The accents are painted with Zoya's Jules and Butter London's Tart With A Heart.  What I love about TWAH is that it has so many small flecks of iridescent glitter including those that throw back a peridot colored green which made it perfect for the theme.

I love the effect of TWAH layered under Ivy League! Green and gold is one of my favorite combinations.

Next I stamped on lace, leopard, zebra, and grid accents using Konad Special Polish in black from plates SH21, M57, CH11 respectively.

CH11, SH21, and M57 plates

 I added several pearls, microbeads, and yellow, clear, and green colored rhinestones to each stamping, and I also used my LA Colors nail art stripper in gold glitter to add little accents throughout each nail.

Lol I promise not all of my mani's are blinging, but I mean come on Shelly it's precious stones themed.  How could I NOT bling it up?!?

So what do you think? I wonder if I hadn't said that my stone was peridot you would have known anyway? Do tell because I really would like to know.  In any event this was so fun I can't wait to see what next week's theme is!  Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles!

KISS: Stars and Hearts Cheeky Plates Mani

Hey lovely ladies,

Today I have some very simple, well for me, nail art.  Occasionally, I burn out on my designs.  This happens when I've been doing super intricate or complicated mani's in repetition.  That's when I take a step back and return to what turned me from a regular lacquer lover into a hardcore polish prisoner.  Shoot these days I'm so into polish might as well call me the warden round these parts lol! But today  I'm returning to simplicity i.e. KISS and my initial love - stamping.

I started with Color Club's Chelsea Girl.  Chelsea Girl IMO is the most dubious jelly polish I've run across to date.  The formula is terrible - gooey, streaky, and a bit of a PITA to apply, but once you get it on you've got color pay off for days!  Actually if the color wasn't so rich I'd have gotten rid of this polish long ago because of the troublesome application.  I'm wearing between 3-4 coats here due to the humpy bumpy finish of this polish.  I stamped these nails using China Glaze Millennium and Konad Special Polish in White and Pastel Blue using Cheeky Plate CH26.  My accent nail was painted with 2 coats of Color Club's Age of Aquarius, a delicious Tiffany's blue that applied like a dream.  I then topped it with All That Glitter's Hole Hearted and Elemental Styles Unuseptium (117).

Speaking again on the formula of Chelsea Girl it split and cracked on one of my nails as I was laying it down. I have to admit this is not an easy polish to work with much to my disappointment given the vibrancy of the color.

I have to admit the first time I used Hole-Hearted in was a real problem getting the stars out but this time many were coming out on the brush each time making the placement easier. My featured drink here is a Green Tea Frappacino - yum!

Up-close I can see all my tiny mistakes how brutal! Lol!

What do you ladies think? Sometimes it's nice to do something easy and straightforward like this.  Of course I still needed a bit of bling to feel "me", but overall I enjoyed this quite a bit.
Song Stuck in My Head: Titanium by David Guetta feat Sia.  It's like punch drunk dancing! I love the message of feeling strong no matter how many shots are taken at you.  Plus Sia is a woman after my own heart.  She's got a voice like a bolt of lightening! Anyway thanks for reading and toodles.

Lavender and Gold Floral Konadicure

Hey stamp scamps,

What happens when you have an unending lust for stamping mixed with a desire to layer stamps to maximum effect? Only pretty things darlings!  As I mentioned before I just got in my order of the Shany 2012 stamping plates and boy was I ready to play.  I was going for light fluffy and pretty with a hint of shimmer yumminess.  I used Funky Fingers Sugar Plum Fairy as the base.  This polish is a pale lavendar color with light blue undertones and a golden shimmer.  It's beautiful but like the FF polish before required thinning and two coats to reach opacity.  I stamped first with China Glaze TTYL using SH20 floral pattern.  I then stamped over that with CG Passion using plate SH13.  Finally I added butterflies using Dashica's Shimmer Purple stamping polish using plate CH3.  For the accent nail I did a simple gradient using Sugar Plum Fairy as the base and Orly's Close Your Eyes.  CYE's is a gorgeous deep plum colored polish with paler purple and gold shimmer throughout.  I finally put a simple coat of CND Gold Sparkle over it and abracadabra I had my pretty layered mani!

I used a new method for my gradient nail this time which made the transition between colors look a lot smoother.

I love the contrast of fresh green with lavender sort of like flowers peeking out of greenery

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Love the flashes of gold from cG Passion!

You can really see the holo jump out on this one.

What do you ladies think - very feminine right?  What I like the most is that the Shany plates have so many freaking cute designs! These plates, like the Bundle Monster one's, really give you a big bang for your buck for about $12 you get well over 100 images.  Honestly, I love stamping enough to find this quite a good deal.  If you're interested in the plates check you can find them here on Amazon.com.  They are also eligible for super saver shipping, yay, so you can grab a couple things and get it shipped on the cheap!  Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a massive indie polish haul.  My clicking finger got trigger happy in a major way when I spotted some of these little babies!  Toodles.

Cheeky Plates Have Arrived + Funky Fingers and Windestine

Hey Lacquer Ladies,

I recently placed an order for new nail art plates - uh because clearly I don't already have enough lol.  I picked up the Cheeky Stamping Plates plus the Shany 2012 plates in one quick Amazon escapade.   I was also severely tempted by several Manglaze polishes but just managed to make it out with just the plates. I felt like I'd waged some kind of war against myself lol!  Anyway I decided to give the Cheeky plates some loving and see how they did.  I also wanted to make use of my new glitter polish from Windestine. This was sort of a quick let's see what these plates can do thing - very spur of the moment and removed almost one day later for the manicure I'm currently sporting.  I also wanted to use this opportunity to try out some polishes my mother bought for me from the dollar store called Funky Fingers.

I wanted bright so I applied Kingston a super saturated melony-coral color.  Yum - too bad the formulation on these guys leave a lot to be desired. Super thick as I've now ascertained with another from the trio and two or three coaters to get an even finish.  Translation super annoying but with nail polish thinner not impossible to use.  While we are on the subject of formula Windestine's glitters gets five stars in this category.  They are like butter - perfectly melted butter.  Now onto the nails!

The blue accent nail here is Essie's Beach Bum Blu with a coat of Windestine's Jeweled Sand.

I used China Glaze Passion and Konad Special Polish in black and Cheeky plate CH4 to create the gold black gradient.

The black pattern reminds of watermelon seeds and all things summer!

 These plates are awesome and have tons of great designs that I can't wait to use.  Check out a review of the plates here and here on Youtube from soguesswhat and plasmaspeedo.  You can find Windestine's butter-like polishes here at her Etsy shop.  She is currently out of stock, but should be back soon with more delicious sparklies.  You can also find the Shany 2012 plates and Cheeky stamping plates on Amazon.com. 

Theme song of the moment: Even Angels by Fantasia.  All about recovering from big blows and while I'm not recovering from a broken heart in the emotional sense I am recovering from having a broken heart in the medical sense lol.  I'm almost one month out from open heart surgery the process has been deeply frustrating, emotional, and oddly empowering. I love the message in this song sort of like keep on trucking lol!  Thanks for reading!