Stained Glass Moroccan Nail Art + Tutorial

Hey lacquer ladies,

Press Sample

Purchased by Me

I've been wanting to do another "watercolor style" mani for a while now.  They do require quite a bit of work but are utterly worth it in terms of how pretty and diffused a wash of color can look over the nail plate.  I haven't really done one of these since I did my Starbucks inspired nails.   This time I decided to keep the colors fairly simple and not do a ton of layering of colors but I love how this looked so simple and pretty with just a hint of sparkle at the high points.  I'd actually been playing with the Moroccan plate from UberChic Beauty for a while and created one other sort of crystalline holo look that I will share as well.  I think I'm slowly getting my mojo back even if my body isn't in full cooperation.

Multi-Chrome Mirror Nails Pigment Abstract Stamped Nail Art + Tutorial!

Hey stamperistas,

Purchased by Me

Its already the end of November - insanity!  I feel like this last year has both dragged by and flown by and in someways has been incredibly testing and others quite joyful. Highs and lows?  Definitely the last two weeks have been leaping to say the least.  Thanksgiving has already passed us by  I'm still not not nearly ready to think about the holidays, but my nails are saying yes.  If my Black Friday purchases are anything to go by they are screaming winter/xmas now! Right now I'm leaning hard on my love of pigments, flakies, ultrachromes, holographic powders of varying microns, and of course glitter!  And nothing says winter like the above.  I'm going in easy this time with some abstract graphic featuring some duochrome mirror goodness!

MoYou London Triangle Grid Placement Neon Nail Art + Tutorial

Hey hey hey lacquer ladies,

I'm back today with some nail art that is a little more typical for my brand of art ;)  In short - MoYou London, tribal-esque, and neon.  Yeah typical and right up my alley a bit different from my last delicate mani with the 3D placement.  Where the last was soft this one is bold and right in your face lots of gradient power and eye grabbing color.  This time around I also took my new AliExpress "Clear Jelly Stamper" out for a spin.  I'll have some more thoughts on it coming up in a future post since I haven't had a chance to test it under all conditions yet.  I will say this however so far I actually find it easier to do placement mani's without it than with.  Lol go figure.

Moyra Embellished Abstract Nail Art

Hiya stamperistas,

Get ready for it cause today I'm changing up the game ;)  No really seriously I am! For the first time in forever not counting dotticures I'm throwing some freehand into my stamping.  Freehand embellishments anyway in the form of gel polish.  That's right everything is about to get all crazy up in this place.  I'm taking my new Moyra plates out for a spin so let's do this thing!

China Glaze Electric Nights Gradient Dot & Swirls Nail Art & Tutorial

Hey stamperistas,

Its been crazy quiet over here apologies for that.  I've been in the midst of craziness and now somehow I'm having to plan a move!  Lord I hate moving mostly too because it's hell on my nails! Gah!  In any case today I finally got some time to sit down and do some photo and video editing so I have a nail art to share with you lovelies!  I also took my new Nail Matinee plates out for another spin ;)

China Glaze Electric Nights Swirls & Tulips B Loves Plates Nail Art & Tutorial

Happy or bitter Sunday everyone!

Lol I say bitter because seriously where did the weekend go? I blinked and it was over - gah! In any case at least i got the chance to play with my nails a little bit :).  If you haven't seen it yet yesterday I posted a review for stamping plates from B. Loves Plates.  You can check it out here.  Today I created some nail art using both the Flower Power and the Mind Blow plate that was super easy and fun.  When I was at the post office yesterday the lady at the desk stopped me to admire so I hope you guys will like it too!

Glazed Spring Flowers and Swirls UberChic Beauty Nail Art

Ready for the spring lacqueritas?

Lol yeah not quite, but I'm looking forward to the warm up!  In that spirit I got this little mani going today.  The truth is I wish I could say - "Oh I wanted to create some spring seasonal nail art" when in fact I just really love the combination of nude and lavender.  Plus I really wanted to take my new UberChic Beauty plates out for a test drive since I just reviewed them yesterday.  You can take a look at that review here if you haven't seen it already. Now let's take a look at this nail art ;)

New Year's Eve Holographic Watermarble Nail Art

Hey stamperistas,

Ring a ding ding its almost 2015! Or some jazz like that right? Lol the new year never excites me.  It reminds me of drunken brawls, inappropriate behavior, and mechanical falls with simultaneous lacerations.  Yeah all of that and let me tell you now I'm not talking about my own personal experiences rather those of the people I take care of.  Lol, but New Years does offer me the opportunity to post theme related nail art so of course I gotta love that!

Vivid Lacquer Blowing Bubbles Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

Why have I waited so long to use this plate?!?! I'm kicking myself because when I saw these images I knew I wanted to use them ASAP.  Unfortunately when I ordered these plates from Vivid Lacquer the pre-order manufacturing was plagued by problems which meant I didn't get my plates for a significant period of time.  By then the lust had died down a bit in my soul at least until I saw a really cool manicure done by Mariane Faliguski.  When I saw that I went, pardon my french, ape-shit.  Lol. I wanted to recreate this look so badly I could barely contain myself.  I went hunting around my polish stash until I found just the right colors and the rest as they say is history...

Busy As A Bee Vivid Lacquer Spring Nail Art

Hey lacquer ladies,

Happy Saturday!  Today I have a light and spring mani for you.  I have been wanting to do a bumble bee inspired mani for a while now and for whatever reason never got around to actually doing one.  I'm not sure why, but after this one I want to try my hand at a few more and I certainly have the plates to do so.  For this mani I relied heavily on my Vivid Lacquer plates and created something that I hope you'll like.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: CND Stickey / Essie Matte About You

Basecolor: China Glaze Happy Go Lucky

Stamping Polish: Mundo de Unas #2

Stamping plates:  VL001, VL002, VL008

China Glaze Happy Go Lucky is my go to yellow polish.  Opaque in 2 coat and it never ever dries streaky.  I always end up digging for it when I'm doing a mani that needs yellow even for watermarbles.  I wish more yellow polishes were formulated like this one! The floral accent was made with a variety of polishes I dug up from my stash.  I decided not to list them because honestly for one or two flowers I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference.  If anyone is interested in knowing leave a comment below and I'll go ahead and add them in otherwise you could recreate the same look with different colors.

 Matte

So what do you think?  Cute eh?  Not my most complicated nail art but I like it.  Decal making is time consuming as all get out, but worth the results.  It makes even simple mani's look clean and well put together.  You can find Vivid Lacquer plates here on etsy.  Thanks so much 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!

Bestie Twin Nails - Blasian Color Nation!

Okay ladies long time no post again!

Today I have a special post!  Did you know that I'm very good friends with the lovely Vicky A of Boombastic Nails?  In fact I named her blog back in the days when she was just thinking about blogging.  I may have goaded her into it because she had some of the best swatches and pictures I've ever seen how could she NOT blog!!! Lol I sound insane but she's talented and she also happens to be my nail polish/nail art bestie for today's post. 

As you know I love my Instagram and there are always tons of tags running around over there one of which is the theme - bestie twin nails.  In short you and your nail art buddy pic an idea and colors and without showing the other create some nail art.  Vicky chose the theme - using tape in nail art and then I semi chose the colors - rainbow (but then we decided on full color spectrum).  So where does the "blasian" part come from? Lol - I'm African American/Black and Vicki is Chinese.  So there we are anyway without futher ado some bestie nail art...

Mani-louge (by finger):

Reds and Oranges: Orly Cherry Bomb, OPI A Good Mandarin Is Hard To Find, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Cardinal, Essie She's Pampered, Claire's Little Dipper, Essie Tart Deco, and Sinful Colors Orange Creme

Greens: Color Club Artsy Craft, Essie Mojito Madness, Milani Neon Fresh Teal, China Glaze Starboard, Spoiled by Wet N Wild I'm so Jaded, and Orly Green With Envy

Blues: Orly Snow Cone, Orly Sweet Peacock, L'Oreal Royally Yours, Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Avenue Maintain, OPI Orge The Top Blue, and Essie Bikini So Teeny

Purples: Color Club Puccilicious, Essie Play Date, Essie Boxer Shorts, L'Oreal Lacey Lilac, Orly Velvet Rope, L'Oreal Royalty Re-Invented, and Essie Go Ginza

Black and White Marble: L'Oreal I Will! and Orly Liquid Vinyl

Pretty cool right?  Even though neither of us knew which exact colors we were using it turned out so similarly!  Lol I guess we are besties after all.  Vicky's came out so perfectly I feel a little embarrassed to even put my art up next to hers *waaahhh* She is so talented!  You can see more details of her art on Boombastic Nails.

Now I know you are thinking where did YOU use tape in your mani??  Well I did.  I put down one water marble (the black and white) and then taped off sections of it and water marbled on top of the taped off sections creating a double water marble!  Crazy cool right.  I used over 30 polishes to create this manicure, and at least 4-5 different colors and 3-4 brands for each "color" of the the spectrum.! My my how overly ambitious!  Anyway I hope you enjoyed this happy un-Easter edition of Lacquer Lockdown.  May candy bunnies rain from your skies and happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it! 

Tamira :)

Ring-a-ding-ding 2013..On Sundays I Stamp!

Hello polished prisoners,

I hope everyone has been well and enjoying the holiday season.  It's that time of year everyone is all a-flutter with excitement for the new year.  Lol as I read that back I realized it sounded as though I wasn't and to be honest I'm not sure.  Twenty twelve was supposed to be my year of triumph yet the heavens rained endless mental and physical challenges on me throughout the year culminating in a personal coup d'etat of epic proportions.  Well I'm still alive and I'm grateful, but I am earnestly hoping for a more sedate year ahead.  Ahem anyway let's onto the art...

Today's challenge was anything New Years and celebratory related.  In my mind this immediately meant the use of holographics...lots and lots of them.  Thus I instantly reached for my Zoya Ornates and my Color Club Holo Hues. Mmmmm donuts ahem I meant holo's....

Mani-louge

Base/Top Coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat and Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Topcoat

Base colors: Zoya Storm and Blaze

Stamping polishes: Color Club, Blue Heaven, Harp On It, and Cold Metal (Foiled Collection), China Glaze Millenium & Passion , Essie Blue Rhapsody, and Konad Special Polish in White & Black

Stamping plates: Sugar Bubbles Special 01 and 02  

Accent: 2mm clear rhinestones 

Gorgeous - everything about this collection is so lovely way to go Zoya!

Holo-llejah!  Lol :)  Capturing holos is so maddeningly difficult but look at all that fire!

How do you ladies feel about the New Year - excited, fatigued, apathetic?  I'd love to know really and yes I'm still stuck like glue on these Sugar Bubbles plates.  They are so so good!  They and many other plates (ahem Apipila) did not get nearly enough love this holiday season luckily Christmas time comes again and again oh and for me also in July.  So here we are.  I plan to do a few more holiday mani's before wrapping it up for the year moving onto some different nail art and I still have that Sugar Bubbles review on the back burner.  I probably won't do any kind of summation of my must have's but who knows.  Lol I sound so noncommittal please forgive me my world is a bit in flux right now so I'm trying to wrap things up before insanity ensues oh and make it to the post office (ugh holiday hours)  >_< Thanks for reading as always and I'll see you next post!  Toodles

Making CrowsMas I Mean Christmas...

Hello polished prisoners,

I have been gone far too long I know it!  Life has been kicking my ass! Yup literally and figuratively I suddenly very poignantly understand the phrase "everything that matters just breaks in two".  Well I can only push forward the same as ever polishing my nails and hoping for the best.  Well striving for my best...so it's basically almost Christmas around these parts.  I wanted to do a 7 days of  CrowsToes Christmas but I'm thinking of doing something a more gurilla style to pay homage instead.  So let's start the show...

Mani-louge 

Base coat/topcoat: CND Stickey & Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base color: OPI Big Apple Red and IMN Northern Lights in Silver

Glitter accents: CrowsToes Making Christmas

Stamping polishes: China Glaze Passion and Millennium and Konad Special White

Stamping plates: Sugar Bubbles Special 01 & Special 02

CrowsToes Making Christmas is a sinful mix of green, red, and silver microglitters.  It spreads like a mother..ahem it spreads awesomely ;) Let me tell you something.  I am in a lusty like relationship with my CrowsToes polishes.  People who complain about the formula or the density of these polishes have surely not let their beauty touch their souls, aside from which I have never had any such problems, but oh well maybe I'm biased by all the the brilliance.  Lauri is a freaking genius! There hasn't been a single polish that I've seen by her that hasn't sparked a covetous grinch like desire within me.  Also for the sake of full disclosure I purchased all of these polishes myself so I have zip to gain from singing their praises.

Sugar Bubbles.  Tamira why have you not mentioned this brand before? Eh cause its a new and happening Brazilian indie plate maker who recently stole all of my freaking heart.  Love at first stamp? You betcha.  I will throw a quick review together tomorrow of what I got from her so far but for now you can check my nail art supplies tab for the downlow.

So here we are Making Christmas with Crowstoes.  I love everything about this mani but all good things must end as I have so much more to show you.  CrowsToes polishes can be purchased at either Llarowe or Overall Beauty, and Sugar Bubble can be found here.  Thanks for reading and toodles!

Thanksgiving KBShimmer Style

Happy Thanksgiving polished prisoners!

Is the stuffing flowing, gravy sensational, and turkey flavorful or are you partaking in the local football game and fun with friends? Lol hopefully you aren't like my good friends on call with only half a shift and bed to look forward to rather than the comforts of good eats! My favorite thing about T day besides the food? Fall weather perfect for frolicking outside oh and of course the nail art ;)

Mani-louge

Base and topcoat: CND Stickey and Poshe Fast Drying Top Coat

Base color: OPI Somoan Sand and Orly Satin Inspiration

Accents: KBShimmer Quantum Leaf

Stamping polishes: Nars King Kong, China Glaze Passion, Color Club Hot Like Lava and Ho Ho Holly, and Konad Special Polish in Red and Yellow

Stamping plates: Bunny Nails HD 06

I had so much fun creating this mani! Mainly for two reasons - my KBShimmer Quantum Leaf polish and Bunny Nails HD plates. Quantum Leaf is like fall in a nail polish in a bottle all golden and red and oranges with yellow deliciousness crammed in for good measure.  If you don't have this polish you should!  No excuses it's just brilliant! Get them here and stalk her upcoming creations on Facebook.  Now onto the other amazing part of this mani -  Bunny Nails, girl you are killing me.  Shall I say it again? Bunny Nails girl you are KILLING ME!!! Her plates are awesome awesome awesome and the recently released HD holiday series are breath taking.  Prepare to see more of her stuff around here plus a review on these plates.  If you want to order from her go to her blog here or her ecrater store. 

Well here we are another fun holiday mani down.  Thoughts, ideas, gushing compliments ;) ? Stay tuned for some upcoming things on this blog including the seven days of Crowstoes Christmas featuring the new holiday collection polishes! I'm excited about this one! Ok I'm off to enjoy some macaroni and cheese and Cajun style turkey (yeah my family is awesome) and after I've glutted myself I will be watching the Redskins tear the Dallas Cowboys apart  - ugh I wish I had tickets to this game!  Thanks so much for reading and happy Thanksgiving to all my readers where ever you may be.  Oh and before I forget today I am most most thankful for the gift of life something that I was so close to losing only a scant 4 months ago!  I have a lot to be appreciative for this year! Thanks again and see you next post :)

Stormy Weather

Hello polished prisoners,

Happy Monday my lovely ladies!  I hope you had a great weekend and are looking forward to the upcoming holidays. I am but I also have quite a bit of work coming up so things are gonna be hectic.  Well it is the holidays so I expect that.  In any event did you know a storm is coming?  Lightening strikes, moonlit sprinkles, and sunshowers ahead so beware and tuck all friable parts out of sight!

Mani-louge

Base: China Glaze Pelican Gray & Sinful Colors Cinderella

Sponging: OPI I Have A Herring Problem, Sinful Colors In the Mist, Darling Diva Polish Space Beetle, China Glaze Haunting, and Wet N' Wild Black Creme; Barielle Slate of Affairs, and Zoya Feifei

Stamping polishes: Konad Special Polish in Yellow, White, and Pastel Blue, China Glaze Millenium

Stamping Plates: Konad UK Charming Nails Plate Q1, Konad M79, Bunny Nails BuNa 01, BM01, and SH08

One of my favorite instagramers Storms and Stars was having a little contest with the theme storms and stars ;)  Initially, I had so many ideas but I loved the concept of starry showers and lightening the most and decided to go with that theme.  This one was actually another mani that was quite a bit of work but for several reasons including base complexity, stamp placement, and overall effect.  I've been told now for the umteenth time that I'm OCD and today I'd finally have to agree.  I will admit I couldn't settle well on this one and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted, but I love the final picture.

What do you ladies think?  One thing that bugged me is that I realized I don't have any plates with an image of the sun except for my BM01 plate and I have a lot of plates!  I would think the sun would be a common kind of image to put on a plate but for some reason it's not prevalent at least not in my collection.  Maybe I should buy more plates ;) ;)  Lol trust me when I say that's not it at all!  I already have too many and more coming.  I need to finish my stamping catalog one of these days and get that page up so you all can check it out.  In any event thank you so much for reading stay tuned for more fun!  Toodles...

Wallpaperings...On Sundays I Stamp!

Happy Sunday polished prisoners,

I hope your weekends have been going well and the Thanksgiving plans are flowing.  I've been having a pleasant weekend myself - good weather, good company, good food, and good news.  So who am I to complain?  I know several of the ladies over in the AIS group were excited for today's challenge which is simply matte i.e. some aspect of our manicure must include matte polish or topcoat.  Hmm I was on a fench about this because while I do love matte polishes and Essie's deliciously awesome matte topcoat no inspiration was forthcoming.  So I decided to return to one of my old loves - nudes and wallpaper.  I think this one was a winning combo...

Mani-louge

Base & Topcoats: CND Stickey, Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat, and Essie Matte About You

Base color: OPI Berlin There Done That

Glitter accent: Lynnderella Change

Stamping polishes: China Glaze Passion and Konad Special Polish in Black

Stamping plate: Dashica XL SdP 3

I left two nails shiny and the rest matte notice how cG Passion stays bold nube or matte. One more reason to love this polish ;)

Let's do a quick rundown shall we?  First, I am loving everything about OPI's Germany Collection. These colors are rich and Berlin There Done That was opaque in ONE COAT!! You all know how friggin excited I get whenever I run across one coaters because it makes nail art so much easier it also means this elegant lady probably stamps beautifully.  So win all around :)  Second, I haven't touched my Lynns in a while.  Honestly I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I bought them and truth be told I love them.  So change made and appearance and it's gorgeous both matte and glossy!  Third and final, I love the Dashica plates and recently I unbelievably won the Like and Share giveaway from Shirley.  So I had to pull out my Dashica plates, the first plates I've ever purchased internationally, in anticipation of my set to come!

So here we are - it's Sunday, the weathers relatively fine, I've got gorgeous wallpaper nails though I may be biased, and things are relatively good in my world.  I'm wishing all my readers a happy Sunday and let me say thanks to everyone for sticking with my tiny and slow little blog.  I'm really enjoying my nail art these days.  Toodles...

Gray Matter Abstracted...

Hey lacquerista ladies,

Having seen the yumminess of Pound of Glitters' Gray Matter I knew I had to create a little magic on top of such an amazing polish!  I think I might slightly be getting over my phobia of stamping over glitters and it's really for the best.  I should have listened to NailsIT about this long ago.  Oh well.  I did find however, that stamping over a polish like this requires a bit of pickness about the colors for stamping since this polish was overwhelmed really easily when I tried it with darker colors,

Lord look at the depth on this!  Love it!

Mani-louge

Base color: Pound of Glitter Gray Matter

Stamping Polish: China Glaze TTYL and Color Club Cold Metal

Stamping plate: Konad M63 & M64

Fire! The subtle way TTYL is peaking out is awesome :)

So thoughts?  I absolutely adore the way this came out, but I may be a bit biased ;)  I ultimately chose to layer a holographic polish over this holographic glitter and then use a foil to contrast.  For those of you that don't know the Foiled Collection by Color Club are some of my most reached for bottles when it comes to stamping along with the China Glaze OMG Collection.   Amusingly these two Konad plates were my first real stamping plates.  I fell in love with the patterns and had to have them thus began my obsession.  So my love affair with stamping and holographics continues.  Speaking of holographics those who follow my Instagram might know a little about what's up my sleeve next ;)  Thanks for reading and see you next post!  Toodles...

Llarowe Style: Under Da Sea..

Hello polished prisoners,

So why am I posting up marine/ocean oriented nail art in the heart of Halloween season? Well Llarowe, a small business that specializes in selling all manner of nail polishes lemmings including many highly coveted indie brands, is launching a blog! The kicker here is the inaugural post is going to be a guest post from whomever creates a manicure featuring products carried by Llarowe.  Pretty great huh? I created this mani in the hopes that I might be chosen :) Now let's get onto the art...

Mani-Logue

Base: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat

Index, Thumb, & Ring: OPI What's With The

Catitude?, Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Blue Me Away, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Freeze!, A-England Avalon, Layla Hologram Effect 05 Jade Groove, CrowsToes Tangled Web & I Make The Path

Middle & Pinkie: Essie Navigate Her, Revlon Posh, Spoiled Deeper Dive, China Glaze Blue Iguana, Layla Hologram Effect 07 Ocean Rush,

Dollish Polish Slippery When Wet & Go Luigi!

Stamping Polishes: Konad Special Polish in Pastel Purple, White, Purple, and Pastel Blue, Essie As Good As Gold, and China Glaze Millenium

Accents: LA Colors Gold Glitter, Essie Blanc, Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Stamping plate: LeaLac LLC5

Look at all the holo goodness from CrowsToes and Dollish Polish.

Leah Anne the lady behind this company is such a sweetheart! We've shared a mutual health burden that led us to some shared sympathy and laughter. Honestly, I'm uber excited to see both her blog and new website!  Anyhoo, I created this mani using one of the adorable 10 small stamping plates offered by LeaLac a subsidiary of Llarowe and several polishes i.e. CrowsToes, Dollish Polish and A-England, also carried by Llarowe (click links above to view). I chose this plate because it's probably one of the most unique plates I've seen of the many I own, and it's been calling out for a good mani for a bit now.  And after this mani yeah um I need ALL the plates now!

In case you were wondering what my mani looked like prior to stamping ;)

I could seriously eat this little octopus up! So freaking cute!!!

So what do you think? Another insane mani-logue huh? Hehe I must be channeling a mad person lol! But the results are worth it don't you think? Okie dokie that's it for now. Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...

Halloween 2012: Ghoulish Glam

Happy Saturday polished prisoners,


This week has been a mother...ah let's just leave it there.  Suffice to say I'm so thankful it's the weekend as I'm exhausted and I get a one day reprieve from the shade of it all ;) Man oh man I have been so psyched up for the manicure I'm about to show you since I saw the announcement for the Bundle Monster Fright Night Competition!  I literally thought I have to do something that leaves me gagging (um in delight not because it's gross I don't do gross...) - lol.  You can vote for my entry HERE.  Oh my a shameless plug but I do need your votes to win! In any case this was such a labor of love and evolved so slowly every nail took me forever, but it was worth it.  Now onto the art...

Mani-louge

Thumb: Base: Orly Liquid Vinyl stamped with Konad Special Polish in Light Green, Light Purple and Purple

Index: Base: OPI What's With The Catittude? sponged with Orly Velvet Rope and Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl and Orly Liquid Vinyl, freehand accents: Cm Nail Art Brush in Black stamped with China Glaze Millennium

Middle: Base: INM Northern Lights in Gold with OPI I Have A Herring Problem sponged with Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl and Orly Liquid Vinyl; Floral vines: Cm Nail Art Brush in Black and stamped with Konad Special Polish in Black.  Rhinestones: 1-3mm rhinestones in various colors

Ring: Base: Essie To Buy Or Not To Buy; Gradient: Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl and Orly Liquid Vinyl; Stamped: Konad Special Polish in Yellow and White; Accents (dots): Essie Blanc

Pinkie: Base: Essie Navigate Her sponged with China Glaze Near Dark and Orly It's Not Rocket Science and Liquid Vinyl; Freehand accents: Cm Nail Art Brush in Black stamped with freehand accents: Cm Nail Art Brush in Black stamped with Konad Special Polish in White

Stamping Plates: BM14, BM211, BM223, and BM305 

That mani-louge is something else right?  So many polishes and plates and tiny detail work.  I can't remember the last time or if I have ever done such a complicated mani before.  Every single nail was thought out and thought out again.  I wanted to create something pretty and a little spooky and of course extremely unique.  I couldn't even figure out the colorway for this mani which I usually always do before I start.  I just made it up as I went along which I have to say at least to me is so much harder to do.

Notice how I "snuck" some bling into this jazz hehe!

So what do you think? Once again if you like it please vote for me over on the Bundle Monster Facebook page under the Fright Night Contest here.  I'm pretty happy with the results though in all honesty I doubt I'll do a tutorial for this manicure as it'd be over 30mins long even condensed down :/  Totally worth it though since I cannot stop staring at my nails! How am I ever going to be able to take this off?  In any case thanks for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...