Masura Stained Ventian Magnetic Holographic Nail Art + Tutorial!

Hey stamp champs

Press Sample

Purchased by Me

This is officially ridiculous - I have entered serious territory of the nail gods!  Its a magical place where strong magnetics with magical depth meet supreme the supreme deliciousness of holographic stamping polish and the delicate and awesome imaging of UberChic Beauty.  Basically I'm dead.  The hype is that real.  I almost couldn't bear to take this nail art off after I finished.  Holy smokes Batman I'm done I'm done.  Ok don't believe me? See for yourself.

Holographic Wildflowers & Swirls Nail Art + Tutorial

Yo stamperistas,

Press Sample

Purchased by Me

Super simple super pretty nail art for you guys today! Today's nail art is like an almagamation of a lot of brands I love - Emily de Molly, Liquid Sky Lacquer, and Marianne's Nails.  A perfect trifecta?  I'd say yes especially when holo meets glitter in such a refreshing way!  Btw today's photos and video will be the first I've posted using my new set up.  I think things are getting sharper and better over here so I hope you enjoy :)

Liquid Sky Lacquer Spring 2016 Collection Swatches

Hey stamperistas,

Press Sample

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Let me try to hold myself back. Wait never mind let me just tell it.  Good googly moogly - Liquid Sky Lacquer has kindly asked me to swatch for them! Hahaha yes that's absolute joy you hear in my "voice". After all if you are following this blog you know darn well how much I love this brand and how much I adore adore adore Carolyn's polishes.  They are stunning! The thermals make me want to die and sometimes I have fantasies where I take gentle bathes in their holographic magic.  Ahem, coming back to myself and out of my insanity.  Today I have the Spring 2016 Collection to show to you and good gracious is it all kinds of magic!

Hillside Wildflowers

Is a glitter topper of yellow, lavender, and pink matte glitters with a purple shimmer.  This polish is gorgeous.  Of the two glitter toppers included in this collection this one is my favorite!  This polish is what I call loaded.  You will never have to fish for glitters with this one because the base has plenty of everything including a generous amount of the shimmer.  For this swatch I just used the dab method after lightly sweeping off most of the glitter from the brush.  I did that so that I could control the amount of glitter placed on each nail.

Valentine's Day 2016: Leadlight Roses and Romance + Tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day lacqueristas,

I have no idea what you plans were.  I have homework out the wahzoo plus a date with Starbucks and business as usual.  However if you are scrambling around for some last minute nail art or just want to rock some pretty nails this next and almost last of my V-day series nail art is definitely for you!  Its all pretty and holographic and nude and soft and girly all swirled into one and with or without the love accent I think this look could work well year round!

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

Pet'la Plate & Liquid Sky Lacquer Holographic Abstract Snowflake Nail Art + Tutorial

Hey stamperistas,

Happy 2016!  The year went quickly and a lot has changed around here.  If I think of all the changes I made I'd get overwhelmed - but the blog setup, my lighting, my camera, my filmography software and photography software has changed so much!  It's crazy to think of it all and how much I've learned and still have to learn.  But what do you think? Is it just me who thinks a lot has changed? Has a lot changed in your nail art or set up? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Cici & Sisi Tribal Nail Art feat Liquid Sky Lacquer

Hey varnished vixens,

Today's nail art is another example of when things just line up.  As in I have this great idea...I wonder how it will turn out...what if I add this and then bam I arrive at something more perfect than I envisioned.  I'm also a firm believer in the power of imagination so when I thought I want to do something tribal with Liquid Sky Lacquer solo this is what happened.  Some of you may recall this tribal pattern from the nail art I did using Lumina Lacquer here.  This mani is an expansion and exaggeration of that concept because I became obsessed with the tribal pattern.

Mani-louge
Basecoat: CND Stickey/ Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat
Base: Liquid Sky Lacquer Baby Chick and Fuscia Illusion

Tribal: Wet N Wild Ticked Pink, Liquid Sky Lacquer Baby Bunny, Bonita Salon Blue Steel, China Glaze Metropollen-tini, Zoya Thandie

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #2

Stamping plate: Cici & Sisi 01

I love my Liquid Sky Lacquer polishes!  When I discovered this brand I felt like I'd hit a gold mine.  All lovely thermals and holographic beauties not to mention the gorgeous glitter bombs.  I just took one look at Baby Chick from the spring collection last year and knew nothing bad could possibly come out of it and then added Fuschia Illusion for drama lol.  The other thing about today's mani is that I realized I have totally neglected my Cici & Sisi plates after reviewing them.  I broke out Jumbo Set 1 and this tribal today to rectify that!
 

So what do you think? Everything lined up magically!  I really didn't want to take this mani off, but for some reason the minute I finish my nail art and take pics I'm already on to plotting the next grand adventure.  Anyone else like that? If you are interested you can find Liquid Sky Lacquer polishes here.  You can find the Cici & Cici plates here. Thanks so much for reading and see you next post...

Lumina Lacquer Farplane Spring Gradient

Hey lacqueristas,

 It's been a while since I've fallen in love with a new indie brand these days, and to be honest this indie brand isn't entirely new to me it's more or less just new to the blog.  I'm talking about Lumina Lacquer.  Essentially I love this brand in it's entirely for Tatiana's utterly glorious utterly unique glitterbombs! They are amazing and currently unlike any others I've seen to date.  I was lucky enough to get some of her recent pretties from the last restock and decided to take one out for a stroll today using one of my Cici & Sisi jumbo plates as an accent.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel & Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Gradient: China Glaze Metro-pollen-tini and Liquid Sky Lacquer Baby Chick

Glitter topper: Lumina Lacquer Farplane

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #

Stamping plate: Cici and Sisi 01 Jumbo Set 1

Farplane is magnificent! Matte pastel, black and white triangles, circles, hearts, moons, and stars with micro matte white glitter.  It's hard to believe that you could find this many shapes in one bottle or that they would play so well together.  The gradient seen here is directly from the bottle with some placement.  Because of all the shapes you really need a thick topcoat to smooth everything out like Gelous.  For the accent nail the tribal played the minor role, but I think worked well over all.  In fact it worked so well I ended up doing a repeat which I post tomorrow or tonight.



In any case I hope you liked today's mani.  It's been a bit hectic over here since the giveaway started, but I'm just gonna be plugging on with my art and such.  You can find Lumina Lacquer polishes here on her Big Cartel though I'm unclear on when she is restocking.  Stay tuned as well for a few reviews and updates for the Loja BBF plates!  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post...

St. Paddy's Day Nail Art #3: Celtic Knots & Clovers

Hey lacquer ladies,

This is my final adaptation of the prior mani for my St. Paddy's Day nail art.  I have a lingering love affair with Liquid Sky Lacquer Pure Luxury.  I've known for a long time whenever I think about anything gold thoughts of this polish or Orly Rage are never far behind.  So of course when I was contemplating the lusciousness of the gold holo accents in my LSL I See Rainbows I thought wouldn't this mani look so much better with a holo gold accent and here we are...

Mani-louge 

Base coat / Top coat: Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel & Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Base colors: Liquid Sky Lacquer Head To The Rainbow & Pure Luxury

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #2 

Stamping plate: Messy Mansion MM04

This mani is rich! Literally everything is sparkling.  I lost the clover accent on my index finger and traded it for Celtic knots and and more Head To The Rainbow.  I used the same polish to create the stylized clover accent over Pure Luxury that you see again using the decal method.  This is one of those times when everything came together perfectly, and the result was so sparkly I could not stop staring!

So this is the last of my St Paddy's day manis - what do you think?  I think I saved the best for last.  I have to admit in an literal sea of linear holos (I mean they are EVERYWHERE) I am still very loyal to Liquid Sky Lacquer.  These holos are amazing and very cherished in my collection as well as her glitter bombs like Head To The Rainbow.  And of course this mani would not have been half as amazing without my Messy Mansion plate.  Honestly, I really love what Julia creates and it makes it very easy for me to bring my nail art to life!

St Paddy's Day Nail Art #2: Glistening Clovers & Rainbows

Hey lacqueristas,

You are going to see several posts from me today with my St. Paddy's Day nail art.  Honestly, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to create more than one and then I decided ok I at least have to use some of my Liquid Sky Lacquer St. Patty's Day Collection.  So at least one more mani.  This of course led to me thinking, wow I really like how portions of this mani turned out I wonder if I did this...so now here we are 3 mani's later...

Mani-louge 

Base coat / Top coat: Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel & Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Base colors: Essie Marshmellow (index) & Liquid Sky Lacquer Head To TheRainbow

Watermarble: Multiple colors

Accents: Love Angeline Stuck on Love Clover Vinyls

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #2 

Stamping plate: Messy Mansion MM04

It's been so long since I've done a watermarble.  I realize my skills atrophied and I'm not terribly thrilled about how the colors ended up blending together, but the design is exactly how I visualized it with the marble streaming down into one corner.  What I'm thrilled about with this mani aside from the LSL polish is how well the clovers turned out.  Once again I'm relying heavily on advanced stamping and used the decal method to create them with my Messy Mansion plate.  They turned out beautifully!

I used Love Angeline Stuck On Love nail vinyls (huge mouthful) to layer in between Essie Marshmellow.  I bought the clovers specifically for this purpose and I was pretty happy over how this accent turned out.  So what do you think? Lots going on her today.  Honestly I am not entirely pleased with how this turned out.  Of the 3 nail art designs I created for the holiday this is probably my least favorite.  Which is why I decided to change up the mani a bit more.  In any case thanks for reading and I'll see you next post...

Vivid Lacquer & Liquid Sky Lacquer Basketweave Nails

Hey lacquer ladies,

When I fall in love I fall hard, and these days the main loves of my life are few but treasured.  Today I had the pleasure of combining two of my loves into one cohesive statement of nail art.  Yes y'all know of love me some Liquid Sky Lacquer and you darn sure know I love me some Vivid Lacquer stamping plates.  In short, it's a love fest over here especially when a holographic polish hits the scene!

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: CND Stickey / Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Basecolor: Liquid Sky Lacquer Swerve

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas  (navy)

Stamping plate: Vivid Lacquer VL00

Accents: Born Pretty 2mm square studs in gold

Swerve 

verb

1. To change direction abruptly.

2. To get the you know what outta here.

3.  All of the above + a badass holographic

Lol I bet you didn't know you were getting vocab lessons up in here!  No seriously swerve has been redefined about a trillion times thanks to pop culture.  I often use it in the context of the 2nd definition, but it is the 3rd that has me, if you'll pardon the phrase, squealing like a stuck pig ;)  Nothing in the world beats a well executed holo - Carolyn of LSL is undoubtedly one of the best.  Every time I get hyped about a holo these days its coming straight from her brand or Elevation Polish.  Swerve is no exception.  A delicious Cinderella blue that refracts the rainbow back from every single angle.



And what can I say about this basket weave pattern from Vivid Lacquer? Only that her plates are so perfectly executed that I never ever struggle to pick up an image.  As always I am so appreciative of the quality of her plates!

Do you like how this turned out? This is fairly simple nail art for me.  Sometimes it does to let a polish speak or let the pattern of a design declare itself loudly.  Today is one of those times when I hesitated to make the nail art too involved and wanted the perfectly done basket weave to stand alone.   And because it was so simple all I could do was stare.  I hope you are staring too :)  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post!

Liquid Sky Lacquer Sleigh Me and Ever Green Christmas Nail Art

Happy holidays lacquer ladies,

Today I'm back with some Liquid Sky Lacquer holiday polishes and Apipila Cosmeticos nail art!  I've actually had the holiday holographic trio by Liquid Sky Lacquer since the end of November, but I haven't had a chance to capture their beauty until just now.  Honestly I think you all know by now I love every single polish Carolyn makes particularly her holographics.  They are intense and gorgeous, but I bet you didn't know that I have been in search of the perfect arterial blood red holographic polish for a very long time.  While I'm still waiting for it I have to admit Sleigh Me is a nice step in the right direction ;)

Mani-louge

Base coat/Top coat:  CND Stickey & Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Base Colors: Liquid Sky Lacquer Sleigh Me and Ever Green

Stamping Polish: Konad Special Polish in White, Essie No Place Like Chrome,

Stamping plates: Apipila 05

This mani is pretty straight forward. It was quick and easy with the right amount of Christmas cheer.  I have to say I have neglected this Apipila plate for far to long.  It's probably one of the best Christmas plates I have and to be honest a lot of plates that have come out recently have only just started creating themes that Apipila has been creating for a while now.  It's probably too late to pick up this plate for Christmas mani's but it does also have some New Years themes that might be nice. 

You can buy your Apipila plates here and as to the oh-so-stunning holographics snap them up here after all there is no such thing as too much red or green polish in my universe.  However Carolyn's shop won't be open again until the 28th so plan accordingly. Thanks so much for reading and see you next post!

Plates I Love!: Messy Mansion Nail Art Edition (Pic Heavy)

Happy Friday Stamp Tramps ;)

Welcome to my new feature called - Plates I Love!  I will be featuring brands of stamping plates that I have tested out myself and can attest to the quality of and know for a fact that the creators are well...creative.  These will be two part features - in the first segment I'll talk about the brand and show you some fabulous nail art creation and in the 2nd I'll be interviewing the creator (click here for the interview).  I think it'll be kinda awesome to get personal insight into the process of their designs.  So let's start the show!

The first brand I'm featuring is Messy Mansion an Australian based company created by the wonderful Julia McGowan who I discovered through my AIS group!  I will always have a weak and sentimental place for Australia, a country I lived in for half a year while studying abroad, so of course when I heard of these plates I had to snag them up! Julia is seriously seriously seriously talented and to date has some of the most innovative plates I have EVER seen.  This is saying something for a lady who owns, no joke, hundreds and hundreds of stamping plates from all over the world (my inventory is coming soon).  Today I used several of her plates to create a special manicure to go along with this feature and I'll be showing you some of her other plates later as well.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat/Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

French tip bases: Orly Satin Hues Satin Joy and Satin Reflection

Overcoat: PolishedbyKPT Green Awakening

Accent: Liquid Sky Lacquer Solar Plum

Stamping polishes: Konad Special Polish in Black Gold

Stamping Plates: Messy Mansion MM20 and MM06

Blurred to capture holo and green flecks - the shade of it all!

Let's pause here for a moment so that I can show you some of the plates Julia created which started my fanatical obsession with her awesome products so below are a few of the plates Julia has created thus far...

The following are coming soon!

The 411:

Stalk Messy Mansion here 

Enrich your nail art soul and collection here or here

Plates are $7 AUD with $2.50 AUD shipping worldwide  
 

So now you know what's so hot about Mrs. McGowan aka Messy Mansion.  The images on her plates are massive as in they fit my wide and long nail beds like a dream and the engravings on these plates are genuinely some of the most fantastical and imaginative artistry I have seen come out of a stamping plate company.  In addition the quality and etching of the plates is flawless!  You will hear me utter not one word against this brand.  You will see me run falling screaming and tumbling to get my hands on a preorder for her plates, and try desperately to create nail art that is worthy of their beauty.  Yup full of hype today but every word I say is true and more!

 

Shade

A little about today's mani starting with Liquid Sky Lacquer Solar Plum because I don't want you to be an idiot like I was - it's a UV changing polish not a thermal which means unless you are sitting in a tanning bed or out in the direct sunlight this bad boy won't shift.  Don't be ridiculous like me and email the seller and then have her politely explain that a full spectrum lamp just won't cut the mustard.  Lol I love you Carolyn! I also used PolishedbyKPT to give the iridescent green effect you see over all of my nails except the accent and I really love how that turned out!

 Sun

So thoughts? I wonder if it was too much to show a mani and her plates together in one feature?  I could use so feedback so let me know what you think! Do you prefer to just see the plates and have me talk about the brand or to see nail art and then split from there with a separate post about the plates and the brand?

I realized after I did this mani that it has been entirely too long since I have done a bling mani! How is that even possible? I mean I used to live for the bling bling.  Lol well tis the season coming for all of that so hopefully I can get a bit in during these holiday months.  I totally adore this nail art.  It's completely over the top and impractical, but it's so shiny and pretty I can't stop staring.

Finally, I'm always for supporting creativity and ingenuity in the stamping and polish world.  I love all of my plates, but my indie ones have a special place in my heart for being unique and cool.   Thanks for reading and come back tomorrow for the interview with Julia.  I promise it will be worth your while and I'll 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!

Floral Appeal feat Liquid Sky Lacquer Head To The Bahamas and Enchanted Forest

Hey lacquer ladies,

In the interim between my blogging I've discovered so many amazing brands.  One happens to be Liquid Sky Lacquer.  God I love this brand!  As a self admitted holo whore shopping on her site for me isa skin to Alice romping through wonderland.  She makes super holos and some of the most amazing holo transitional polishes I have encountered.  So today I have two of my favorites for you along with some lovely stamping featuring my new Winstonia plates.

Head To The Bahamas is a nude linear holo - be still my heart.  Absolutely flawless and self leveling.  Pictured here opaque in 2 coats.  Yum

Enchanted Forest is a deep evergreen linear holo.  It is rather intense,  but requires a great deal of build up about 3-4 coats since the polish is thin, but it's totally worth it.  I used it here to create a gradient.

The technique I used for the stamping is fairly advanced.  I used one of the newish square shaped plates W-04 to create the art.  Stamping first and then filling in the pattern with acrylic paint.  After that I stamped back over the filled in image and wha-lah!  Instant pretty.

Indoors shot.  True to color but less fabulously holo.

 So what do you think? I've advanced quite a bit with my stamping skills though I still feel I've got lots more to learn.  If you are interested in purchasing either of the LSL polishes click the link above.  Carolyn is restocking on October 8th.  For the plates you can check out either the link above or my page for stamping supplies.  Thanks so much for reading and I hope you liked it!  I'll see you next post!