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 :)

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...

3R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Hey polished prisoners,

I am a testament to the fact that indeed old dogs most assuredly can learn new tricks - lol.  Um of course by that I mean my penchant for not wanting to decorate over glitter nail polish has at last been broken! Remember those glittering nails polished by DDP's Red After The Wolf that seduced me so quickly away from stamping? Well they got a little upgrade...nothing is friendlier to the environment i.e. my cuticles than recycled nails (smiles).

The red looks bottomless under all that stamping!

I stamped using BM312 and BM313 using China Glaze Passion and Revlon's Copper Penny respectively.

For some reason this look strikes me as very "Russian" can't put my finger on why though..

What do you ladies think - to stamp over glitter or not to stamp? I mean is it better to just enjoy the sparkle without the distraction of more or to create something fresh after a little bit of one dimensional bling?

Still so in love with this mani!

 For me I think looking at all the glitter peeking through the gold swirls made me love this manicure even more, but I'd love to hear more opinions.  In any case thanks for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles :) 

Darling Diva Polish Red After the Wolf....And My Heart

Hey lacquer ladies,

I sat down with every intention of doing some bad-ass stamping today and in preparation painted my nails and then promptly fell in love.  I fell so hard I'm still knocking twigs and rocks out of my clothes lol.  It started innocently with Spoiled Breakfast in Red and Pumping Gas.  I bought these polishes with the intention of stamping on them for QCing my plates, but didn't expect much in terms of formula etc. However the formula was flawless and smooth as butter.  I almost stopped after seeing how insanely pretty this combo was together, but I knew this would make perfect undies for Darling Diva Polish's Red After the Wolf.

Isn't this gorgeous? Despite the curling seen here the application of this glitter was like butter and it went on very smooth. 

These are the Spoiled undies that almost seduced me away from applying RATW.  The formula on these was flawless. This is three coats pictured below.

My nails practically glowed from Breakfast in Red.  It is truly a beautiful color, but I love Pumping Gas just as much as I do have a weakness for brown polishes.

DDP's RATW is a glitterbomb packed full of red large and small hexagons and crystal glitter in a clear base.  It reminded me of looking into fire!  These pictures were all taken without topcoat so you can see the finish on this glitter is quite smooth. 

Even in the shade you can still see all the depth of RATW.

When I did finally apply topcoat all the hexes laid completely flat and uncurled which made me happy because tacoing is the devil.

I'm still very much in love with the slogan for DDP's bottles :)

What do you think of the final product? As you can see no nail art made it onto my nails, but I couldn't be happier! If you are interested in Red After the Wolf you'll have to contact Darling Diva Polish via her etsy since I haven't seen it listed there for quite a while.  You can also check out some of her other amazing polishes as well.  Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles!