What's a Jewel To Do? On Sundays I Stamp!

Hiya lacquer ladies,

I hope your weekends are going well!  I've got a bit of news on my end as I've recently joined a nail art interest group called Adventures in Stamping - yay! I'm sure several of you have heard of it or are participants yourself.  We take a theme every week and then create nail art around it using stamping of one kind or another.  I love this concept so much and it's a great way to expand out on ideas, meet other lacquer ladies, and share helpful tips and cool techniques.  This means every Sunday I'll become a tramp, a stamp tramp that is (wink wink).  Lord save us from the Jezebels hahaha! Now onto the art...

The theme for this week is Precious Stones, i.e. designing around the concept of precious stones or using jewel tones.  This concept for me was oddly easy.  My birthday is right around the corner (August 1) and my birthstone, peridot, has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I've been thinking of buying a pair of solitaire earrings in the stone.  I will admit peridot is a tough color to pull off.  It just doesn't have that "classic" appeal I that I so love in stones such as pearls or sapphires (at least not IMO).  Nevertheless, I have endeavored to embrace myself and in so doing the stone of my birth lol.

Look at all this bling! Well it's my birthday stone so I'll bling as I want to...

I started by taping off my nails at a diagonal and painting with Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Ivy League for the majority of my nails.  The accents are painted with Zoya's Jules and Butter London's Tart With A Heart.  What I love about TWAH is that it has so many small flecks of iridescent glitter including those that throw back a peridot colored green which made it perfect for the theme.

I love the effect of TWAH layered under Ivy League! Green and gold is one of my favorite combinations.

Next I stamped on lace, leopard, zebra, and grid accents using Konad Special Polish in black from plates SH21, M57, CH11 respectively.

CH11, SH21, and M57 plates

 I added several pearls, microbeads, and yellow, clear, and green colored rhinestones to each stamping, and I also used my LA Colors nail art stripper in gold glitter to add little accents throughout each nail.

Lol I promise not all of my mani's are blinging, but I mean come on Shelly it's precious stones themed.  How could I NOT bling it up?!?

So what do you think? I wonder if I hadn't said that my stone was peridot you would have known anyway? Do tell because I really would like to know.  In any event this was so fun I can't wait to see what next week's theme is!  Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles!

Essie's Action: Summer Skittles Makes Lacquerista's Happy

Hey lacquer lovers,

Friday was quite the productive shopping spree for me.  All drama aside, I got my virtual hands on some lovely HARE polish pre-orders! I'd been lemming these polishes for so long I was so happy to see the shop open again and can't wait to receive my polishes! So now I'm in the mood to celebrate with a fun and funky mani  Recently The Nailsaurus posted a look that has been plaguing me since I saw it - the Sandy Skittle.  To say it was exquisite would be an understatement.  She took one color and put her spin on it in 5 different ways.  I wanted to do the same but not necessarily in the same way so here's my translation using Essie's Action, a bright orange jelly polish released for their Poppy Razzi Neon Collection.

Nail Art Key
Thumb - Tiger print freehanded with Kiss Nail Art Striper in Black.
Index - Microbeads of multicolors.
Middle - Jelly sandwich comprised of two alternating layers of each polish using Lush Lacquer's Lite Brite and topped with Essie's Matte About You.
Ring - Leopard print french tip freehanded with Orly Liquid Vinyl and Kiss Nail Art Gold Glitter. CND Effects Gold Shimmer is also over the base coat.
Pinkie - Gradient using China Glaze Harvest Moon stamped with cG passion using  BM20 (Series 1)

Can you say jelly? Lol! I haven't been this impressed with a neon orange polish since Color Club's Wham Pow!

Isn't the mattified sandwich here so juicy looking? The more I look at Action the more I realize I need absolutely every color from the Poppy Razz Collection. I'm only missing Bazooka so game on!

Close-up's of Lush Lacquer's Lite Brite

The microbeading on this gave me so much trouble. It's my first time using them in this manner but jeez it was quite a bit of work to get them placed properly.

Ultimately, I'm happy with how things turned out.  It's like a small jungle in here :)

This is definitely funky and not for the faint of heart!  My favorite nail is the matte jelly sandwich closely followed by the glitter leopard.  This was fun albeit time consuming. The final result is so upbeat this would be perfect for a night out. What do you ladies think? If you are interested in Lite Brite and other amazing glitterbombs find you can find Lush Lacquer on Etsy.

Song stuck in my head today: Nighttiming by Coconut Records. All about cheating hearts minus the angst - lol.

Anyhoo, thanks for reading and toodles!

Darling Diva Polish Bazinga! Jelly Leopard Manicure

Hey lovely ladies,

Lately the indie polish world has erupted with some serious drama that has left me feeling a bit unhappy and bummed out.  I'm a big supporter of these independent lacqueristas, but I can't stand drama at all.  The first sign of trouble and I'm out! So I was feeling a bit down and wanted to create something playful, lighthearted, and easy to lift my spirits a bit.  Enter leopard print and DDP's Bazinga! Bazinga! is a creamy white jelly polish loaded with multi-colored hexes small round and bar glitter.  It is yummy and reminds me of candy, ice-cream, and all things sweet!  I used Essie's Marshmellow, a squishy white jelly, as the base and then used three layers of Banzinga! to reach opacity.  I probably could have done it in two but I wanted to make sure I didn't have any VNL like I did with my last mani.  I used a more subdued color, Essie's In Stitches, for the base of my leopard print.  It's a very rich deep colored rose creme polish that is opaque in 2 coats.  The leopard pattern was freehanded with China Glaze's Passion and Orly's Liquid Vinyl.  Check out the final results below.

See what I meant about the Banzinga! just being layers and layers of milk and sprinkles? I really love this effect of jelly finish polishes!

Bottle shot of Bazinga! It looks like melted ice-cream with tons of sprinkles.  Yum!

This is a picture I took before I started adding the leopard print - indoor lighting.  You can see how In Stitches adds a bit more somberness to the festive quality of Banzinga!

I think the extra metallic quality of CG Passion that I used for the leopard spots really added a 3rd dimension to this manicure and really made the pattern pop.

Quote on DDP labels: "The Prettiest Girls are the Happiest Girls.  Be Happy! I love that!

I really like how this turned out and can't stop looking through all the layers of Bazinga! to see the glitters underneath all the jelly base!  I think polishes like this are so fun and easy to wear.  You just layer it up and it's instant art by itself.  Also because Banzinga! is so packed full of glitter I didn't have to do any fishing at all just strategic placement of the glitters as I added layers.  While I don't enjoy the drama behind the indie scene these days I will always be a fan of innovative and unique polishes, and I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to buy so many awesome polishes!  If you're interested in Bazinga! or want to see more Darling Diva Polish you can find her shop here on Etsy.  The seller is super sweet, super responsive to emails, and always happy to set up custom listings. 

Theme Song of the Moment: Ruin by Cat Power.  All about traveling, heading home, and complaining when you have lots and others have nothing.  I like this song because a) it's utterly dancible, b) it makes me grateful for what I have and gratitude can keep you balanced when other things are falling apart and c) because it's Cat Power and she hasn't released an album since 2006's The Greatest.

Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next time.  Toodles!