Painted Polish by Lexi PSL Watermarble Nail Art + Tutorial

Yo lacqueristas,

Its past fall and its definitely past the season of PSL's.  I don't care! As I sit here writing this post I'm drinking a pumpkin Blue Moon and thinking fall is the best.  Yeah I know spring is just around the corner flowers and all that jazz, but I'd be happy if pumpkins and all things fall existed year round so I could indulge especially if they are as beautiful as this PSL nail polish from Painted Polish by Lexi!

Essie Fall 2015 Collection Watermarble Nail Art + Tutorial!

Happy Monday,

It's a 3 day weekend - yay!  Today I have some seriously heavy hitting fall inspired nail art for you guys.  It has been forever, and I sincerely mean that, since I have done a watermarble.  I haven't even been doing any behind the scenes.  Usually I'll do one every 2 weeks on a normal schedule or sometimes more or less depending on my mood, but seriously none at all recently.  Then when I was at Target I saw it - Essie's Fall 2015 Collection minus one shade.  And just like that I knew a watermarble was coming.

Spring Pastel Maybelline Color Show Bleached Neons Watermarble Nail Art

Happy Friday lacqueristas,

Here's some nail art that may look a little familiar for those of you who either watched my YouTube video on the Bundle Monster plate holder or if you follow me on Instagram.  I thought these actually would have been really perfect for Easter and had them done in plenty of time, but didn't get the photos edited until just recently.  These days I am super swamped so I'm on a "my pace" schedule with my own nail art unless its for a review lol.  But I couldn't resist sharing these for one second longer :)  So here we go my springy pastel watermarble nails!

Elevation Polish Wyoming The Wild Collection Swatches & Nail Art

Happy post Easter stamp champs,

Press Sample

Today I have swatches and nail art of the newest collection getting ready to release tonight at 9PM CST from Elevation Polish! Usually I'll try to get my swatches up a little earlier but between call and the horrors of my schedule this last week and this week as well have been hellish.  In any case such is life.  Now get excited as there are a lot of gorgeous colors in this collection as well as a highly requested SBP and just some purely special sparkle.  Get ready to fall in love with Wyoming The Wild!

Elevation Polish Minneapolish Collection Swatches and Nail Art!

Hey lacqueristas,

Time for another monthly Elevation Polish post!  Yay - elevate the world!!! Lol let me stop, but seriously this months' collection, The Minneapolish Collection made me so happy and thrilled even in the heart of winter.  Packed full of what I consider serious color burst and saturation.  As you can guess this collection was inspired by the city of Minneapolis and some of Lulu's favorite plates scattered throughout the town.  It's a reflection of her love for the city and from what I can see while she may travel the world clearly there is no place like home!

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!

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.

New Year's Eve Holographic Watermarble Nail Art

Hey stamperistas,

Ring a ding ding its almost 2015! Or some jazz like that right? Lol the new year never excites me.  It reminds me of drunken brawls, inappropriate behavior, and mechanical falls with simultaneous lacerations.  Yeah all of that and let me tell you now I'm not talking about my own personal experiences rather those of the people I take care of.  Lol, but New Years does offer me the opportunity to post theme related nail art so of course I gotta love that!

Christmas 2014: Candy Canes and Christmas Trees Watermarble Nail Art

Hey lacqueritas,

I'm on a roll with my watermarbles. Lol for whatever reason I'm just really loving them and loving playing around with them.  You guys know I've created watermarbles for Christmas before in fact I'm pretty sure I created a super cute one a year or two ago.  In this case I chose a different red polish and it ended up bleeding into the white polish.  This nearly drove me mad until I realized I kind of liked the effect.  That's when I decided to more a little away from tradition and add a bit of pink to the mix ;)

Pipe Dream Polish Neon Camouflage Nail Art

Hey stamp champs,

Tis the season to be jolly!  And right now I can't get any jollier than when I look at my neon cremes from Pipe Dream Polish.  It feels like I am floating on a cloud of neon yumminess!  They are so bright and so easy to work with that it makes watermarbling a dream.  Of course you guys know I love watermarbles! Over the last few months I have definitely have increased my skills with them and I plan to keep going lol.  Maybe watermarble Wednesdays? Let me know what you think anyway let's talk about the nail art I created here.

Lesson Lockdown: How To Create Watermarble Nail Art Like A Pro!

Yo stamp champs,

Welcome back to the classroom!  This post is for a lovely lady Cheryl who just wants to watermarble her little heart out, and I want to help her achieve her goal.  Ok so here's the deal - many many ladies hate watermarble nail art.  They groan, cry, and throw up their hands in defeat when they even see the word.  In fact you could say in the 31 day nail art challenge the watermarble has driven some women to the depths of despair.  Well I say despair no longer because it really isn't that bad.  In fact with the right polishes and the right attitude I'd say it's downright FUN! And as you know recently I have been doing more and more watermarbles because like a language the skills of successfully creating watermarbles gets rusty if you don't use them regularly. So here we go....

Pipe Dream Polish Neon Floral Watermarble Nail Art

Varnished vixens,

It may be winter, but on this blog we are going to sizzle like it's summer and not just because the stamping press is on fire.  I believe in the necessity of neon polish and frankly with my skin tone I can pull it off year round.  More importantly when I look outside and see the horrors of winter coming upon us I can look down and my nails and go ah ok.  This isn't so bad ;)

Psychedelic Sally Hansen Color Foil Watermarble Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

Time for some devaulting! One of the issues that I faced when blogger decided to implode on me is that I lost an unbelievable number of planned blog posts.  Sigh.  Ok so that definitely made me sad especially since oftentimes I use my draft posts as a means of tracking which plates and polishes I used to create a look like today's that may go up later.  I'll apologize in advance if I missed any polishes or details, but I'll try my best to make sure I don't miss anything.  So let's get onto todays post!

Halloween 2014: Evil Pumpkin Halloween Watermarble Nail Art

Mwhahahaha,

Welcome lacqueristas to the continuation of my Halloween 2014 nail art! Cue dramatic lightning and high pitched witch cackle.  Lol no it's not really that serious, but I do love Halloween simply because I have so many awesome and epic stamping plates that are geared to this holiday.  Plus hello my love of makeup especially the special fx kind makes this holiday even more fun! So today I decided why not start posting looks.   I will say though todays was a mixture of pleasure and pain. In short also perfect for the holiday ne pas?

Essie Blue Tone Ocean Swirl Watermarble Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

I know it's been a little slow in the stamping department these days.  I actually have tons of mani's to share, but I really needed a break after participating in the MoYou London Rainbow challenge.  I just found myself getting way overstressed and nitpicky regarding my own designs for my liking.  I decided it might be better to take a step back and revisit some nail art techniques that I love and have allowed to get rusty.  So basically I have been doing nothing but watermarbles for the last week and it's been a nice refresher!  This swirl or pinwheel art idea I got from mysimplelittlepleasures.  If you love watermarbles you should definitely check her out! Now onto the art oh and as a bonus I actually created a tutorial to go along with this on my Instagram!

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 :)

Sinful Colors Sugar Rush Collection Watermarble

Hey lovely ladies,

Long time no polish!  Things have been busy and tight and so I haven't had a lot of time for posting even though I have created lots of mani's between here and there in the January deadzone so I have lots to share.  If you are ever feeling like you are craving what I'm creating feel free to check me out on Instagram as I tend to post there with updates almost daily-ish.  I'm just going to hop right into it today!  The Sinful Colors Sugar Rush Collection released late last week and I snatched them up instantly.  While they are normally $1.99 These polishes are on sale this week for $1 so find your nearest Walgreens and scoop them up.  The collection of eight yummy polishes in a perfect for spring pastel range, and because I am a glutton for all things spring I decided to take them all and create some water marble magic!

Mani-logue

Base Coat/Topcoat: CND Stickey and Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base: Confetti Wedding White

Marble: Sinful Colors Cotton Candy, Unicorn, Candy Coated, Sugar Rush, Sweet Nothing, Orange Creme, Sugar N Spice, and Sweet Tooth

I put down Confetti Wedding White and the base and then created the marble over top so that the colors came out a little bit more vibrantly.  If you follow me on instagram you might have seen my post as I was starting the process. I really love how this came out!  Today I was told it looked like I had dipped my hands in Creamsicles :)  I take that as a huge compliment as I am a big fan of Creamsicles the sugar free kind in the summer!

Ultimately I think this collection is worth getting!  It's cheap, the quality of the polishes are excellent,  the colors are effortless, and while there are a few reformulations mainly Unicorn the polishes glide on with ease so its totally worth picking up the newer formulas.  The standouts here IMO are Orange Cream and Candy Coated both are really pretty colors and unique to things I've been seeing so far for the upcoming season.  Anyoo thanks for reading and I'll see you next post I promise it won't be long! Toodles...

Candy Cane Lane...feat Essie She's Pampered

Hiya lacquer ladies,

Yesterday when I went to my job everything was so festively decorated with candy canes, wreaths, and poinsettias everywhere!  I was even given a poinsettia though it's on its deathbed from not being watered over the weekend.  Hopefully I'll be able to revive it any and all tips and tricks for working with a dessicated plant will  be appreciated ;)  Anyhoo I saw all the little candy canes everywhere and thought...water marble please!

Yum I love the mixed candy canes...

Mani-louge

Base: Confetti Wedding White

Marble: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green & Essie She's Pampered, Out the Door Top Coat

Accent Nail: Essie Beyond Cozy

Does anyone else really love the wintergreen mix candy canes?  I love them to death! I don't like peppermint ones though at least not candy canes I love barrel mints though :)  So thoughts - totally Christmasy right? And so the holiday manicures continues...Thanks so much for reading and see you next post!  Toodles...

Halloween 2012: Crawling Marbles...

Hey polished prisoners,

You don't even want to know how excited I am for the month of October around these parts! I am so friggin' excited!!!  I want to try and post every day and get up some awesome tutorials for my Youtube for Halloween.  I have so many great ideas I can't wait to share plus the electricity is back on and I think the blogger app worked out fairly well so I've got my bases covered.  Its come to my attention that I've never done a "full" water marble mani round these parts.  Mostly I've done them as accents or as part of a trigger style mani.  So to kick off the Halloween felicitations today I'm showing you a full neon glowing creepy crawly mani.  Let's get onto the art shall we?

Mani-louge

Base colors: Essie Marshmallow and Milani Neon Totally 80's

Marble: Orly Liquid Vinyl, Milani Neon Totally 80's, Sinful Colors Let's Talk & Cloud 9

So let's talk about Totally 80's shall we? This polish is almost impossible to photograph! I had to color adjust like mad to get to the true color on screen.  It is a screaming highlighter yellow/green that hurts my eyes to look at directly in the sunlight.  Now that is saying something huh? Three coats are shown here over one thin coat of Essie's Marshmallow, and like all neons this one is a bit on the thicker side but has nice self-leveling. I fully expect to use this one again this month it's such a great base color!

So here's my first nail art of the Halloween season.  I'm looking forward to showing you so much more! Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles...

Chelsea's Choice...On Sunday's I Stamp!

Hello again my polished prisoners,

Welp it's Sunday, but I promise you this is not the start of a tragedy, i.e. despite the title my post is nothing like the movie Sophie's Choice.  Chelsea is a little girl who goes to the elementary school I sometimes volunteer at.  She is precocious, she calls me Ms. T (no relation to Mr.), asks me 1000 million questions about all the incisions on my chest, and happens to love stars!  The theme for the AIS this week is let someone else pick your plate.  I chose Chelsea since she is also always asking me about my nails.  What do you guess the star loving precocious seven year old Chelsea chose?  Oh and let me also mention since she saw my nails for the LDTTWC Day 1 she has been begging me to do a water marble ;)

Mani-louge

Base: Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat

Top Coat: Poshe (hallujah!) and Sally Hansen Diamond Flash (holo nails)

Base Color: Orly Goth

Stamping polishes: Essie Nothing Else Metals, As Good As Gold, & Blue Rhapsody, and China Glaze Millennium

Water marble: China Glaze L8GR8 and TTYL, and Orly Goth

Stamping plate: SdP-32

So what's the deal with the SH Diamond Flash? It's supposed to make holo's look more holo.  It's a bit hard to tell here especially because I lost the sun today before I could take pictures but it looks okay so far.  I'll have to try it a bit more before I can give a fair review.

Well Chelsea was happy with the end result what about you? Honestly I never thought I'd end up doing marbling and stamping back to back from last week to this week, but this mani had to meet Chelsea's approval before posting.   And let me tell you for some reason she really got stuck on me doing the exact same marble she saw from the challenge.  It was a feat convincing her that holo's are in fact just as pretty and fit the concept better. 

That holo water marble swept Chelsea right off her tiny feet! 1-0 Tamira:Chelsea hehe :)

So this ends my posts for the week.  Stay tuned for Day 4 of my LDTTWC and some seasonal nail art.  Thanks for reading and see you next post!  Toodles....