Disappearing Birds In Flight Nail Art (Sveta Sanders Inspired) + Tutorial

Hiya lacqueristas

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Purchased by Me

Today I'm doing a mani very much inspired by the awesome and severely talented Sveta Sanders.  If you don't know who she is go and check out her Instagram I promise you won't be disappointed.  In any case she's pretty much the sole reason I found out about Bow Polish and its thermal topcoat and since then I'd been dying to create "disappearing" stamping nail art.

Holographic Wildflowers & Swirls Nail Art + Tutorial

Yo stamperistas,

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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 :)

Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plates Review (XXL Edition)

Hey stamperistas,

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I'm back with another review! Epic like in nature as is the usual lay of the land for my blog ;)  Today I'm going to share a brand that I've been wearing a lot so far in 2016, but across a size of plate I've never shared before.  That's right - today is all about Marianne Nails, and the lady that's going to steal the spotlight is the XXL 6 nail art stamping plate ;)  Whenever I post pictures of these XXL plates to my Instagram my feed goes wild.  Everyone wants to know where I got them from, why are they so big, etc etc.  And to be honest I don't think any of my double XL plates have gotten the attention they deserve from this brand.  Also if you've been following along you've seen at least across the rectangular plates that the etching this company produces is flawless flawless flawless!  I can and will show you again, but I thought today I'd show you something different too.  So lets get started leave your question or comments below especially if you love this brand as much as I do!

Valentine's Day 2016: Nails Nude Lace Nail Art + Tutorial

Hey lacquer ladies,

So apparently its something called Super Bowl Sunday today, but since neither team is a team I give a cent about I'm off to other adventures. Namely trying to get over my nail fail slump.  I have tried so many mani's lately in pursuit of my Valentine's Day spirit and a lot of them have gone belly up.  The most I've gotten out of it were some beautiful swatches.  I'll take that, but seriously I'm so dissapointed that my last 3 mani's have been absolute fails.  So today I decided let's stick to simple and simple in this case means nude and lace.

We love the things that we love for what they are. ~ Robert Frost 

Valentine's Day 2016: Radiating Hearts and Kitty Love Nail Art + Tutorial

Hey lacqueristas,

Ah its that time when we begin contemplating how much love is love.  Our nails and our candies and our slowly expanding waists from excess chocolate intake all reflect this lovely obsession. Personally I feel slightly nauseous.  Usually this begins at the top of January when the Valentine's Day decorations replace the Christmas ones.  I start thinking gah not again.  However this year I'm going to really try and rise to the occasion and give this whole lovey dovey nail thing a go.  Note I said try no promises.  As such I thought I'd start out with something on the milder side of love - kitty love ;)

Love is a heart that desires to serve a precious person who is close to oneself.  To love and watch over that person. ~ Masashi Kishimoto

Marianne Nails Aquarelle Butterfly Vintage Paper Nail Art

Hey stamperistas,

I've been playing around with a new technique to add to my stamping nail art. In all honesty I follow a lot of freehand nail artists and bloggers and I'm always wowed by the things they do.  That's not to say I love stamping any less, but sometimes I really want to replicate some of the creations I see. However in general I wouldn't say I'm terribly good at freehand.  I'm ok at it and if I practiced more I'd probably get better, but my heart always ends up gravitating back toward stamping.  So today I added the elusive aquarelle technique into my stamping and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Depending on the feedback I get I will create a tutorial/separate blog post on how to accomplish this task.  The truth is this was one of most complicated mani's I've ever created both from a technique perspective and stamping perspective! I'm not joking in the slightest so I really hope you like it.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: New Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plates!

Here we go stamperistas,

I don't want my readers getting overwhelmed, but when I'm gone for weeks at a time I miss lots and lots of plates releases  Also the early summer and spring are the worst times to miss chunks of time because platemakers really like to churn out product over this period.  Generally speaking I will write my posts before I go to bed or in little spurts here and there when I can find a moment.  However, since I'm in recovery I just write in between massive napping and Percocet sessions lol.  Today I have plates from another favorite indie brand of mine.  Hailing all the way from France let's give up our drool and dollars for Marianne Nails as Ghislaine once again hits the scene with new plates that sends our hearts soaring!

Elevation Polish Streets of Japan Collection Swatches & Nail Art

Hey varnished vixens,

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Its that time again when my heart sings with joy for the latest and greatest from Elevation Polish!  I usually like to have the post up sooner but had a small delay with my parcel so I only had a few days to swatch and create art.  Fortunately the collection in question namely the Streets of Japan was so inspired and so beautiful that it felt very easy to think of at least 10, 000 ideas for the polishes. Lol that was actually the problem trying to tone myself down and create a single look.  I'll tell you a little secret because I have a very hard time deciding on how to best showcase my EvPs more often than not I will create multiple nail arts for a given polis hand post the one I like best.  Yup I'm officially crazy lolol don't you dare call the paddy wagon! Now let's take a look at  the goods ;)

Nail Hoot Indie Lacquers The Beginning Collection Swatches & Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

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This weekend its gonna be jam packed with nail art and swatches for some brands that are new to the blog!  Today its really my pleasure to share with you a brand spanking new indie nail polish company called Nail Hoot created by a stellar pal of mine Brandie Collins!  She's like a one woman wonder woman between her kids, school, work, and crafts business and if that doesn't beat all now she's diving into the nail polish scene and from what I've seen of her new collection its gonna be a smash hit! So sit back and enjoy the swatches :)

Marianne Nails 2nd Collection Nail Art Stamping Plate Review

Happy Saturday everyone!

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I hope everyone is having a great weekend and able to stay dry and warm.  Since the weather is so glum around these parts its the perfect time to sit back and enjoy another epic Lacquer Lockdown style plate review!  Today I'm going to be reviewing plates from the second series release of Marianne Nails.   You can view all of the plates from this release here.  If my memory serves me correctly I believe these plates didn't release until late December of 2014 though I announced them here in October.  I had been anticipating their arrival with something approaching glee, but customs and the USPS held things up a bit which is what kept me from posting this review initially when they arrived at the end January.  Now as usual with my reviews everything is broken up into to sections so feel free to scan through, and don't forget sharing and feedback is caring ;)

10.1 Perfect Polish St Patricks Day Limited Edition Trio Swatches and Nail Art

Hey stamp champs,

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Today I have some swatches and nail art for you from 10.1 Perfect Polish for their St. Patricks Day Trio. You know its never too early to start thinking about binge drinking on green beer and trying to sort out whatever percentage of Irish roots you may or may not actually have.  Lol.  In any case last year around this time I went pretty crazy for the holiday art, but this year I tried keep things either glam or very wearable.  You may noticed my nail shape changed, but its only temporary since I had some bad breaks and decided to do a trial run of a new nail shape using tips.  Jury is still out but let's take a look at all the pretty greens and golds....

Elevation Polish Journey Through Music Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Happy New Year lacqueristas,

Welcome back!  I have a lot of exciting posts coming up but today I'm the most excited to share the newest collection from Elevation Polish which will be releasing this January.  I know some of you are wondering where the hell have your EP posts gone Tamira?  In fact they haven't gone anywhere I have the October and November collections up on Instagram which I will be importing over here along with some nail art.  It was just easier while I was traveling like mad.  December's collection I don't have because of mail snafu.  So hopefully that explains where things have been.  Now today I am so freaking giddy because Lulu really decided to take 2015 by storm!  There is so much holo, blue, blue (yes I repeated it twice), shimmer, and duochrome happening here I nearly died of nailgasm.  But let me stop hyping and just show you the goods ;)  Let me just warn in advance this post will be pic heavy! Also if you haven't already go over and read Lulu's blog post about the inspirational songs behind this collection - read it here.

Born Pretty Store Floral Water Decal Nail Art & Review

Hey stamp champs,

I have some cute nail art for you today!  When Born Pretty Store approached me about reviewing a few of their products I was so flattered.  You all know I'm a huge fan of their recently released stamping plates as well.  And so I wanted to create something appealing and also do their products justice.  I picked out items that I felt were in sync with my own personal style without narrowing the scope too much.  Today I'm going to show you some decals I chose and how I used them to create a look that was still very much in my venue of art.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: New Marinanne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plates!

Hey lacqueristas,

I really stand by the theory of raining and pouring plates.  I really do.  It seems plate makers all get together and plot our monetary downfall.  Between the platemakers and the indie polish makers my wallet is weeping blood lol! Alas if only everything wasn't so freaking tempting.  Well get your wallets ready because these next plates are going to leave you begging for mercy ;)  That's right finally Ghislaine, owner and creator of Marianne Nails, is set to release a new batch of plates and boy did she knock these out of the ball park.  If you don't remember this the French brand of indie plates I reviewed and blogged about before (you can read the review here).  At last count here were 56 plates that were part of the old series.  Today I will be showing you 35 more from the new series...

Lace darlings and don't the French make this stuff look so sultry?

Smokey Lace & Floral Nail Art feat Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plates

Hola lacqueristas,

I have a subtle and quiet look for you today.  I had actually been dying to try layering stamping in jelly finish polishes since I did that "Shadows" themed manicure for the MoYou London 31 day nail art challenge (here).  In particular I was eager to use the effect with lace images, and so today that's exactly what I did!  I also tested out some new polishes I got from Jolie Polish and more of my Marianne Nails plates.  So let's take a look at how this experiment turned out.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plate Expansion!

Hey stamp champs,

Happy Friday! This is another week that seemed to just breeze by and not in a good way eep.  In any case one of my favorite new brands Marianne Nails is releasing more stamping plates.  You may recall I told you about the 56 plates she initially designed and was releasing for the most part weekly.  If not you can see them here, here, and here.  In this post I will show you the last 5 releasing today.  Let's get started!

Summer Leopard Gradient Nail Art feat Marianne Nails Stamping Plates

Hey lacqueristas,

It feels like it's been way too long since I've posted any nail art! In the meantime I have been firing off post after post of stamping plates that have been releasing one after the other like a mad woman!  I can think of at least 3 big brands that will have new releases coming in the next 2 weeks and there are still more and more out there! Insanity right?  In any case after posting my review for the Marianne Nails plates, you can read that here, I have been itching to take some of my plates out for a test drive!  So that's what today is all about...

Mani-louge

Basecoat / Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat / Essie Matte About You

 Gradient: Zoya Cole and Thandie and Essie Geranium

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas # 1

Stamping plate: Marianne Nails MN13

Accents: 3mm nail art studs from Born Pretty

I took one of the most basic plates of the many I purchased from Marianne Nails and created magic using a technique that I always fall back on for beautiful simplicity - gradients.  I love how a gradient can transform simple nail art into something complex, and of course you know I love leopard print.

The only thing that could make this better is if I played around with the tribal patterns on the same plate. Ahem and of course I did which means I created essentially 2 different manicures just by changing the accent nail. I'm a little mad because right as I was getting ready to take the picture I banged the tip of my accent nail.  Sigh...

What do you think?  I love how this turned out especially the matte formulation! I also got a lot of compliments on this mani particularly the variation with the studs.  You'll be seeing a lot more nail art on the blog using my new Marianne Nails plates, but if you are interested in purchasing these you can find them here for 6.50 Euros.  It's good to be back to stamping it's been way too long even though it's only been a week or so.  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post...

Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plates Review

Hey stamperistas,

How's everyone doing today? It's time for another one of my in depth plate reviews which in your heart you totally know you can't resist!  This time I'll be taking a look at a few plates from Marianne Nails. You may recall, if you're a regular reader, that I have been posting about this brand for the last 2 weeks or so. You can read my introductory post to the brand here.   As usual with my reviews information will be divided up into sections.  Feel free to scroll through if you are looking for a particular section. Now let's get started...

Marianne Nails

For a quick refresher this is a France based company run by the lovely Ghislaine Debray.  What's unique about these plates is that for each of the original 56 designs only 200 copies will ever be made, and each Friday 5 new plates will release until the total 54 is reached.  For this review I chose to test 6 of the original 20 plates that were initially released.  I did this as well because swatching out images of 20 plates of this size would have been overkill.  I just randomly selected from the pool of plates I had excluding the XXL plate that I will review in a separate post.

Each plate comes in a signature Marianne Nails sleeve.  As you can see they are are extremely elegant. In the lower righthand corner you will find the plate number i.e. Model No 32 in this case, and if you flip the cover over you see instructions for use of the plate in English as well as the limited edition number of your plate from that model no series. 

For instance on for this one we can see I have Model No. 32 and the 6th copy out of 200 from that series.

The Plates

Each also come with a blue protective film once you remove them from the sleeve.  They are backed by a hard plastic frame similar to those that we have seen from MoYou London and the Dashica Beauty Infinity series.

General Dimensions

The plates themselves measure 13 cm tall x 7 cm wide, and for the non-landscape plates feature 12 full sized nail images at a minimum while others offer smaller images in the upwards of 15 or more.

Full Nail Image Size Comparison

The images do vary a bit as you can see, but the full sized images for these plates measure 2.0 x 1.5 cm (length x width). I think a lot of the longer nail ladies can breathe a sigh of relief since these are about the equivalent of the most jumbo nail sets. Certainly I had no difficulties with the sizing of these images, but you can take a look at the list I compiled below for ease of comparison to some other general brands.

MoYou London Plate Pro 08 (non-XL) - 1.5 x 1.3 cm
MoYou London Plates  Explorer 10 (XL) - 2.2 x 1.6 cm
Bunny Nails HD B -  2.0 x 2.5 cm
MJ Plate VIII - 1.7 x 2.2 cm
Fab Ur Nails Fun 2 - 1.7 x 2.2 cm
Vivid Lacquer 007 - 2.0 x 2.0 cm 
Cheeky Jumbo 2013 - 2.0 x 1.5 cm
Bundle Monster CYO - 1.9 x 1.7 cm
Cici & Sisi - 2.0 x 1.5 cm

The Images

As with all my reviews when swatching out the images I used Wet N' Wild Black Creme and my gold standard XL marshmallow stamper from Bunny Nails (3 years prior).  I only switch to Konad Special Stamping polish or Mundo de Unas in the event I am unable to pick up an image.  For these plates there was no need to switch to stamping polishes.  Don't forget you can click on the images to enlarge them for greater detail and clarity.

Final Impression

So it's clear that the etching on these plates is superb!  Some of the best I've ever come across in fact. Frankly I didn't have to use one trick, change polishes, or switch to a even softer marshmallow stamper. There are very few brands that I've run across that have similar high quality right off the bat on an initial run.  This tells me that Ghislaine was very careful with her tester plates and the manufacturing process.

Again the images are large enough to cover longer nails while also offering smaller elements for the shorties crowd.  I'm further impressed that even the tiniest details transferred without a hitch.  While I chose only 6 plates to stamp randomly, which clearly limits the variety on this post, the collection as a whole offers many unique plates and images so that there's something out there for everyone.  One more facet that I have to add is that this company has some of the fastest shipping and turn around time I have ever come across.  Plates arrived from France to my doorstep in about 1.5 weeks or 9 days.  Not bad at all for an international indie right?  So really I've got nothing but praise to offer this brand.

You can find Marianne Nails plates on either the store here or Facebook.  If you are unable to view the Marianne Nails website it may be because you reside in a country where the site is blocked.  If that is the case you can PM Ghislaine on Facebook and place your order through her directly.  Plates retail for 6.50 Euro + shipping.   I hope you enjoyed this review and stay tuned for some nail art using these pretty plates. Thanks for reading and happy hunting!  I'll see you next post....

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plate Expansion!

Hey lacqueristas,

As usual I'm stalking for my sake as well as yours so of course I'm bringing you more plates releasing this week from the stamping press.  Marianne Nails is a new French brand on the indie scene.  Since last week they have taking the stamping world by storm! My posts regarding these plates created so much interest and buzz even I was surprised.  What's great about this brand is that they will be releasing 5 new plates every Friday for the foreseeable future so today we are going to take a look at the five released this Friday.

Splatters, tribals, abstract, and typography.  This is  strong plate because it has so many different kinds of designs on a single plate.  These kinds of plates I call investment plates because we all know when we travel we can't bring a freaking suitcase of stamping plates, scrapers etc.  You can pick 5-6 and some polishes and keep it moving. A plate like this offers the savvy traveller a lot of options build into one.  Yes despite appearances I am actually quite logical when it comes to stamping plate purchases ;)

Oh now this is too cute! I'm so in love with that little image in the upper left hand corned and all the anchors and beach items.  This one is adorable!

Mmm this one feels a bit empty.  I like the geisha girls and the man in the hat with the braid, but I wish there was a bit more on the plate...it's a little hard to explain.  I like what's there but I want more. Is this greed? lol

Another adorable plate! Perfect for destination traveling.  Again I'm loving all the typography one these plates.  I think the falling Eiffel Towers are particularly sweet.

Strong finish! This plate is what I thought the MoYou London Scholar Collection plates were going to look like.  Script handwriting, ink splatters, books etc.  It even has an owl thrown in for good measure! I'd love to play around with the images on this one.

What do you think? We have the next 5 plates in the Marianne Nails series with a few definite must buys in the bunch.  These plates retail for 6.50 euro plus shipping and will be available for purchase on the Mariannes Nails website.  International customers must message the shop to place an order.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plate Expansion!

Hey stamparellas,

Eep I am posting a lot of new plates all the time these days!  You may recall my introducing to the French brand Marianne Nails from the blog post here.  That post lists all the plates that have been released to date.  However every Friday 5 new plates will be revealed for a total of 56 plates.  I have the pleasure of showing you the next 5 plates that will be releasing Friday June 18th.  As you know I'm pretty excited about this brand so let's take a look at what's rolling off the press next week!

 Plate No. 04

 Plate No. 7

Plate No. 12 Africa

 Plate No. 17

Plate No. 8

What do you think? I have to say I am totally in love with this little Boston Terrier and animal plate! This is my dream dog next to the pug.  I also love all the pandas and the animals in general! These plates are exceptionally cute and I see a few of the full nail art designs will lend themselves well to leadlighting.  As I stated in the previous post these plates will retail for 6.50 Euro + shipping and will be available for purchase next Friday here.  You can also follow Marianne Nails on Facebook for daily sneak peeks at newly releasing plates. Happy stamping lacqueristas and thanks for reading!  See you next post...