Magnetic Jeweled Stonework Nail Art + Tutorial

Hey lacqueristas,

Recently I've become obsessed with magnetic nail polishes mainly owing to the fact that when I was in the TJ Maxx the other day I found a bunch from Nails Inc for .99 cents on the polish rack.  I figured after seeing some of the amazing things The Swatchaholic and some Russian bloggers (yes in fact its always Russia - they must be putting something in the water over there) using the Masura magnetic polishes I had to take a shake at it.  I will admit I did not get the effect that they did I think due in part to the fact that I did not have a very strong magnet as they did, but the effect was so pretty I'm going to be trying LOTS more of these in the future +/- stamping!

Fab Ur Nails Spring Quatrefoil Nail Art (Alcohol Ink Method)

Hey stamperistas,

Finally freaking finally I'm starting to get a stronger grasp on this whole alcohol ink (EtoH ink) jazz. Its been a struggle, but because I have struggled I'm preparing an epic style video tutorial and post to help you guys from having the same frustrating problems I did.  In any event today I was able to get this going with a lot more ease that I had the last few attempts. Wait ease is the wrong word more like at the end I was able to figure out what the hell I was doing enough that the last 2 nails were less of a challenge to produce.  Essentially the entire premise of this nail art was based on a blog post I saw for paper crafting using alcohol inks.  The stamp the blogger used looked exactly like the quatrefoil pattern that's on one of my newer FUN plates and from there the rest was history....

Elevation Polish Base of Huangshan Neon Triangle Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

Yes I am still rocking neons as it doesn't feel even remotely like fall for me yet.  It's hotter than you know what here in the district and regardless of the time of year I can pretty much get away with whatever color I want due to my skintone ;) And I could not resist the secret allure of Elevation Polish Base of Haungshan (BOH) for one second longer! BOH was a small batch prototype from some months ago that I was super lucky to snag.  It's a highlighter yellow so intense it's hard to look directly at it, and since Lulu rarely does neons I knew I had to have it!  It came just in time for me to do some playing as well with some of my never Loja BBF plates.

Fluer de Lis Nail Art feat Rica White Out and Blackout

Hello lacquer lovers,

It's the season of black and white on this blog eh? A bit...because I am having too much fun with these new stamping polishes that also act as bases! I'm glad that I have had the time to play around with these polishes.  They are fun and one coaters live in a very special place in my heart! They always will.  Now let's move onto some nail art...

Mani-louge

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

Base color: Rica Blackout

Stamping plate: Loja BBF 07

Stamping polish: Rica Blackout

Whiteout dried on my nails is in less than 5 minutes and was ready to stamp.  One thing I will say is that a thicker coat of polish is needed to achieve opacity in one coat.  Tip: try not to drag back over top of your coat of polish otherwise you will leave bald patches.

What do you think? I love how this came out!  Super clean once again and simple.  I think because it's simple I love it more. I will say I did struggle a bit to get the stamped images transferred from the stamper to my nails because of how fast the polish was drying.  This is my last true review of the Rica polishes, but you can expect to see them featured regularly in my nail art from now on.  You can purchase Rica polishes here.  Loja BBF nail art stamping plates can be found here.  Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Leadlight Floral Nail Art feat Rica Blackout and Whiteout

Hey lacqueristas,

After reviewing the new stamping polishes released by Rica, which you can read about here, I decided to also create some nail art as well.  At first I planned on putting the nail art together into one post with the review, but that ended up a little cluttered so instead I separated the two looks I created using these polishes. I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out, and in fact this was my first time using the leadlight technique to create nail art.  So let's take a look...

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base color: Rica Blackout

Stamping polish: Rica Whiteout

Leadlight Polishes: OPI Sheertints (entire collection)

Stamping plates: Pueen  51 and 72

One thing that was nice about these polishes is that I had my base color applied and ready to stamp on in less than 10 minutes.  Having a superfast drying one coater definitely has it's perks.  As far as the leadlighting goes I'm hooked.  It was so easy to create this nail art that I should have tried this a lot sooner.

So what do you think?  Anyone else have the Rica polishes yet? I really am happy with this mani. Everything about this came out nice and easy.  I'm loving these new Rica polishes polishes as base colors.  You can purchase Blackout and White out here.  Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Rica Blackout and Whiteout Nail Art Stamping Polish Review (UPDATED)

Hey stamparellas,

I have lots of reviews for you guys these days and that's because there are so many awesome things coming out on the market that I want to bring to your attention.  First, because having options is critical to making the best use of your money, and second because the more you see different types of products or brands of products the better idea you have of what works the best for you.  So today I have stamping polish from a brand a several of you may be familiar with called Rica.  Rica is an indie polish maker likely best known for her Glossy Glam topcoat and to date also released one stamping plate and a variety of gorgeous polishes.  Last weekend she also released two new stamping polishes, called Blackout and Whiteout, so I took the opportunity to purchase both after seeing several swatches on Instagram.

Blackout is exactly what it sounds like a black creme one coater polish while Whiteout is the same only it's white.  I took the liberty of swatching both to see if they were indeed one coaters and they were. Now my biggest question was how these polishes would perform in regard to opacity.  I swatched both over white and black a well as on my nails.



 What's interesting about these polishes is that they are supposed to be extremely opaque in terms of stamping while also being full coverage one-coater nail polish that is thin enough to be used as regular polish. Intriguing yes?  I'll also be honest and say right now my holy grail stamping polish is Mundo de Unas so I really wanted to see how other brands would compare in terms of opacity etc.  After all I love my MdUs, but the shipping from Mexico to the US can be somewhat cost prohibitive, and they most certainly cannot be used as regular nail polish.



As you can see from the swatches these polishes are extremely opaque as base colors.  They also transfer cleanly and lift off with scotch tape like the best stamping polishes I own.  My only issue with both polishes is that they dry quickly.  Quicker than my MdUs and Konad polish I timed it out (yes I am that obsessive compulsive) and it seems that the Rica polishes will dry in roughly 5-10 secs while MdU will dry around 30 to 45 seconds and Konad around 20-30 seconds.  After looking at all 3 polishes I realized this was happening because the Rica polishes are much thinner than either Konad or MdU which makes sense since they can be used as regular nail polish.

I know you're asking why do I care about that? Well since I've been using mostly MdU these days it meant I'd gotten a bit used to taking more time to line up my images etc using the Rica polishes I had to speed things up quite a bit.  In addition this also allowed me no time to correct errors or smudges on the pad before stamping because the polish would dry too quickly.  In addition this also meant images didn't transfer quite as cleanly as they could have because of some drying on the pad before transferring to the nail.  In the grand scheme of things it made for a little less precision and a bit more speed than I would prefer however l managed.  I don't think however a stamping newbie would be as successful.

What do you think? My overall impression of these two polishes is fairly good.  Opaque with a few issues with patchiness related to the drying time, local (to the US that is), shelf leveling and smooth formula, and can also be used as regular polish (though it all honesty I probably won't use them as such) at least not the Blackout.  However, I will admit a one coat white polish is extremely tempting to have in my arsenal.  Let me also mention that Rica is already creating a few more polishes in this line up and has a pale yellow releasing pretty soon as well as more stamping plates from her line. I'm delighted enough with both of these polishes to say they are not quite equivalent to Konad special polish but are still an alternative if you are looking for options.  The Blackout and Whiteout duo retails for $12 or individually for $7 USD each. You can purchase Rica stamping polishes, plates, and her regular polishes on Big Cartel.  I'll have up some more nail art using these polishes and the details of the art above shortly. Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Topatopa Summer Geometric Gradient Nail Art

Hey lacquer ladies,

Happy Saturday! I've got a super simple look today using the Topatopa plates I reviewed earlier.  You can read that review here.  I wanted to do something easy for running around and taking care of errands.  I created an easy gradient and decided to take one of my new plates out for a spin.  The gradient actually ended up being the most complicated part of this mani.  For some reason I could not get Royal Highness to the opacity I wanted toward the end of my nails so it took a while to build up the colors enough for me to be satisfied once I did that the rest was easy peasy.  I will say again because my nails are long I did have to use a marshmallow stamper to get the X's to stretch to the end of my nails.

Mani-louge

Base: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Gradient: Bonita Team Pink, Royal Highness, and Orange You Happy

Stamping polish: Rica Blackout

Stamping plate: Topatopa TP02

This ended up being so easy and simple after all the complicated mani's I've done recently that it was a nice break.  However, don't worry I will still continue to post my MoYou London challenge mani's since I did complete the 31 days.  It's just pleasant to take it easy every now and again with the nail art. In any case I'm really happy with how this turned out both with the new plates and new stamping polish.  I'll have a review up on the Rica stamping polish shortly so stay tuned.



Do you think it's better to go toward quick and easy mani's as the summer approaches? I'd love to hear what other ladies try as the seasons change.  For those that are interested you can purchase Topatopa plates here and Rica Blackout is available here.  Thanks for reading and see you next post...