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

Valentines Day 2014:The Bitter & Sweet Valentine (Bestie Twin Nails)

Hey stamp champs,

I was just talking to my actual bestie Johanne the owner of FabUrNails and I told her oh my god I'm so sick of hearts and pink and love.  I said it just like that and went on to say I'm protesting over all this crap and if I see one more heart or flower on my Intagram feed I'm going to explode.  Of course she just laughed at which point I said no I'm serious in fact I'm wearing some serious dark hearts and blacked soul nail art.  Lol and hence our bestie twin nails were born....

Valentines Day 2015: Layered Holographic Hearts

Hey lacqueristas,

How's everyone doing? I was supposed to be posting up another epic review but my scanner is having some difficulties so while it's in the shop getting it's act together I'm going to be showing you another nail art look I created for Valentine's Day.  Once again I'm obsessing with hearts though this time they are not of the watermarble variety but rather abstracted and layered over a gorgeous holographic gradient.

Valentine's Day 2015: Cascading Hearts Watermarble Nail Art

Happy Saturday stamp champs,

Love is in the air?  Not particularly but last year I really didn't get to do all the Valentine's Day nail art I wanted to.  Actually I didn't even get close to it so this year I thought I would start a little early that way I can play all I want to.  Today I started with a particularly challenging nail art which is the heart watermarble. I was inspired once again by MySimpleLittlePleasures.   For those that follow me on Instagram you might have seen my post of a practice marble.  This was one of the most difficult watermarbles I have undertaken yet!   Mainly because of the use of so many colors and having to move fairly quickly to create my design in the water precisely and before the polish dried.  Lordy!  However it was totally worth the effort when I finished it!

Valentine's Day Nail Art # 3: Minnie & Mickey Fall in Love

"I was born with an enormous need for affection and terrible need to give it."

 ~ Audrey Hepburn

Happy Valentine's Day Lacquer Lovers,

So much love to share and yet so little time to show it! You know the quote above is one of my all time favorites regarding love in the world.  People are so flawed, but at the end of the day what saves them is honesty.  It takes a lot of courage to say I need someone and I need to be needed.  Bravo to my brave ladies and gents out there, and here's to a quintessential couple in love who I like to imagine are never to shy to say they are the half to each others whole.  As Barbie is to Ken so Minnie is to Mickey...Mouse that is ;)

Mani-louge

Base colors: Essie French Affair, Bikini So Teeny, Go Gina, and Bottle Service

Topper: CND Effects Gold Glitter

Stamping Polish: Fab Ur Nails Stamping Polish in Black

Stamping plates: MyOnline Shop Jr 5

So to create this I put almost skittles down on my nais in the Essie polishes listed above and then I went ahead and placed half hearts on my center nails in Sally Hansen InstaDri in Fast Fuschia.  I created the kissing Minnie and Mickey using the decal method and my new Jr plates from MyOnline Shop.  Lastly I added CND Effects over the outer nails and added metal hearts from Lacquer Lust and black studs from Pueen Cosmetics.  To create the final product.

Thoughts? Labor intensive and totally totally worth it.  It's sweet, campy, girly, utterly my kind of thing!  Because I love Disney I knew this was going to end up being so me and fun.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.  I hope you liked it and I'll see you next post!

Valintines Day Nail Art #2: Elevation Polish Yeti's Broken Heart + MyOnline Shop Jr Plates

"Dear Ex, I wish I could go back to the time I met you and punch you in the face."

 ~ Unknown

Lacquer ladies,


Sorry for the radio silence.  This week has been so too much for me.  Its been freezing and the heater broke in my house this combined with what I can only describe a a painful weekend has left me somewhat frazzled.  Nevertheless I'm bouncing back with some V day nail art before Friday and good cheer.  Today I've got super simple nail art for you.  This is Elevation Polish Yeti's Broken Heart.  It came out with the Hawaii Collection last month as a little bonus.

This polish is chock full of pretty purple, black and white hearts with white multi shaped and sized glitter in a clear base full scattered with blueish iridescence.  In short a whole lot of awesome.  I partnered this with a easy gradient composed of Essie's Forever Yummy - a beautiful and bright true red and Licorice the perfect black cream.   I did one accent to keep things simple busting out my newly delivered MyOnline Shop JR plates.  I used Jr 1.  You can read more about the plates here.

So something quick and easy for you all that's dark and vampy.  This is definitely not a sweet loving mani.  I layered bleeding hearts under broken ones.  Lol no this is not a subliminal message but in a season of pink I was craving dark.



Thoughts?  I love it btw the quality of these JR plates is pretty damn phenomenal.  Let me know if you are interested in a review.  Because I lack willpower I bought every single one ;)  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post!

Valentines Day Nail Art #1: Cici & Sisi Fading Hearts

"The heart has reasons for which reason knows nothing." ~ Pascal

Lacqueristas,

It's the season of love!  Lol not really but it's the season of love related manicures at a minimum.  Can I tell you I went to Target around the 3rd of January and they already had all the Valentines day paraphernalia out.  It was deeply disturbing to me who in general only has awareness of holidays as they relate to nail art and vacation time ;)  In any event I'm showing you my first romantic mani of the season.  Gradient hearts and chevrons using my new Cici & Sisi Jumbo plates and once again Nail Vinyls.  You can check out my review on Cici & Sisi plates here and the Nail Vinyls here.

My goal was to create a very "clean" manicure with a gradient that stood out.  When I flipped through my Cici & Sisi plates I realized there are a lot of heart/romantic motifs in both sets.  Ultimately I chose the hearts because I wanted to emphasize the bright red to light pink fading of the gradient.  I reversed the color fade for the chevrons which the NVs made beyond easy to achieve.

Base:  Wet N Wild Blank Canvas

Stamping Polishes: Konad Special Polish in Red, MyOnline Shop Pink, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Fast Fuschia

Stamping Plate: Cici & Sisi 01

So what do you think? This is unquestionably girly and sweet which I think suits the sentiment of the quote above.  I have plans to create a few more manis that are a bit more sophisticated and less sweet and of course I have to create something for the broken-hearted lol! I mean really not everyone loves Valentines day.  I do but only because I don't have to conceal my lust for all things dark chocolate and wine related.  Lol plus lots of great cosmetic items pop up around this time!  Is it wrong that I keep having a fantasy regarding dark covered chocolate strawberries and crisp citrusy champagne oh and a steaming bubble bath? Ugh the luxury!  I think my reasons might be a little sketchy but hey to each their own.  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post! 

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Handy Nail Plates Valentines Special Edition Plates!

Hey lacquer ladies,

As usual I'm hustling hard to keep up with all of the awesome plates springing out of everywhere these days!  It's been a bit of a whirlwind these last few days because I have been having special training classes for school that have been wearing me out.  They are now finished so I can continue with my love of all thing nail art related.  So I don't know how familiar you all are with the Handy Nail plates that I love from Mundo de Unas.  Check out the nail art I did here using these plates. In any case Slyvia just released the news that two full size image plates featuring Valentines Day themed images are available for preorder now! These plates are so cool I couldn't wait to show you guys the awesomeness!  I don't give this company nearly enough press, but see for yourselves!

 These are actually two separate plates - Handy V1 and V2 respectively.  What I love about these is that they are utterly utterly unique, and integrated in a way that does not fall short of the themed plates we've seen by a certain British company that gets lots of my attention and adoration.  I only recently learned that Slyvia the owner of MdU does not actually make the plates, but distributes them.  I have no idea who the plate designer is, but I am beyond impressed by these plates.  I can see not even exaggerating at least 10 seperate manis from these two plates alone.

Look at the little kids kissing and sharing balloons, birds in a cage, script, floating hearts, abstracts, chevrons, the laundry line and butterflies! See what I mean freaking amazing!  These plates retail for $6.50 USD each plus shipping which is around $4-5 USD.  They are available for preorder now and will ship on the 13th of January.  You can order your plates from Mundo de Unas on her Facebook page.  Clearly because I practice what I preach I already went ahead and got mine.  I'm interested to know what you ladies think of these plates?  I'll be putting more Handy plate nail art up in the future because these plates are really well done and I should know as I own all 50+ of them ;)  Thanks for reading and see you next post.