A Windestine Glittering Gorgeous Gradient

Hello lil' lacquer lovers,

 I am so souped not to be doing a mani in red white blue or any iteration therein.  I OD'ed on 4th of July themed manis.  I am therefore very happy to present something bright cheerful and utterly utterly me - a yellow and purple glittering gradient manicure.  Yay!

Loving this gradient!

I started with Color Club's Almost Famous - a bright yellow creme.  Let me say I'm seeking the holy grail yellow nail polish i.e. opaque in 2 coats with minimal streaking etc,  If you know of such a polish for the love of God leave me a comment below because Almost Famous wasn't even almost close.  It took four merciless coats before I reached appropriate coverage! Color me...annoyed.  I also used Color Club's Puccilicious, a creme based purple which I love, to create a beautiful purplely blended gradient.  I did hesitate a bit color choice wise as I didn't want to reach a gross weird gray brownish color in between the transition, but it came out beautifully.

I loved this but I kept feeling like something was missing when I decided to add the Kiss Nail Art Stickers.

I also gently sponged on Windestine's Pansies.  This is a sort of dark purple and gold microglitter mixed in a clear base that's adding the sparkling magic to this gradient.

I still got a bit of gray coming through the gradient in the middle, but I was able to keep it subtle.

The last step was adding some Kiss Nail Art Stickers that came in a little pack I found at Bed, Bath, & Beyond.  I am so happy with the final look here!

Lovin' the bling per usual!

 If you are interested in Pansies unfortunately no longer being made by Windestine due to some issues with her supplies, but you can still check out some of her other beautiful glitters on Etsy.  This seller is just so wonderful and a pleasure to work with and her formulations are amazing! Personally, I love the final effect here - simple but pretty.  What do you think?  Thanks for reading and please comment below!

Splattering The Red White and Blue - 4th of July Mani #2

Hiya polished patriots,

I've got another little 4th of July mani here for you.  Let me preface by saying this was supposed to go up yesterday, but all of my shots were so bad when I set down to edit I had to retake them this morning just to get a few decent ones.  Alas! Anyway, this was my first attempt at a splatter mani and to be honest I sort of like the idea of chaos in motion as it applies to this particular holiday.  While I complained before I will admit the firework displays in DC are marvelous! We go all out here, and no matter how old or jaded I become even I can still get lost in the magic of that particular experience.  So I thought splattering the colors could also be pretty cool mimic for all that energy and motion.

Wild right? I wish I was able to get a clearer shot here but I love the effect nevertheless.

Mani-louge
Base + Splatter: Skittles of the following rainbow:
OPI Big Apple Red
China Glaze Frostbite
OPI Alpine Snow
China Glaze Miillenium
Orly Glitz & Glamour

I will always have a special place in my heart for cG Millenium.  Ugh the stamping stuff of legends and an amazing chrome.  If I could ever get my hands on Maybelline Mirror Magic I'd be in chrome heaven!

Pollock anyone? Actually I have a pair of Loubies that would put this manicure to shame with it's splattering.  I may have to try and recreate that design on day soon!

So what do you ladies think?  I thought this was a bit interesting and fun so I'd like to try splattering again in a less obvious manner in the future.  Happy forth ladies or happy hump day for my non-American counterparts. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!

My Take On Old Glory - 4th of July Mani #1

Hey lacquer ladies,

I will admit I'm not a super patriotic girl (insert cringing face here).  I grew up in the nation's capital so for me the 4th of July signifies crowds of irritating tourists, drunken acts of debauchery, and loud noises confused as fireworks for a full week before and after the holidays.  Did I mention the irritating tourists? Okay so I'm no super fan, but I love a good excuse to play with polish!  So I decided to do a couple of holiday mani's complete with tutorials dedicated to the cause, and I hope you ladies will enjoy them. First up as a holiday with lots fireworks I'm did something with lots o' bling!

Bling, bling, gleam ;)

Mani-logue:
Base: Nicole by OPI's Make You Smile (Need a substitute? Try OPI's Pirouette My Whistle)
Layer 2: Orly's Star Spangled (yes how appropo)
Layer 3: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue It
Detailing: 2mm star rhinestones, gold microbeads, and holographic gold stars

I really love the effect of Orly Star Spangled layered over NOPI's Make You Smile. I somehow got an added dimension that I didn't expect.

Check out the tutorial here on my YouTube channel:

It's bright and cheerful right? I hope this sort of makes up for my general sassy satire in the beginning lol! Thanks for reading and please keep checking back for more 4th of July themed mani's!

Oh You Sweet Tart!

Hiya lacquer ladies,

I've got a sweet treat lined up today for you today! So sugary you might get cavities so schedule your dental exams in advance.  I decided to do something cutesy and went for hearts, lavender and all things tart.  Sometimes a girl just wanted to feel well girly and this is my manicure equivalent to a tub of Ben & Jerry's (wink wink).

This is just so cute!

I painted my thumb, index, and ring fingers with Essie's To Buy or Not to Buy as a base color.  I love TBONTB.  It's an adorable creme lavender without any true blue undertones with a subtle amount of blue and purple microshimmer.  Yum!  I did a simple freehand crosshatch on top and then painted  hearts in pink acrylic paint and finally applied clear rhinestones.

I was able to capture the true color of my nails on this shot. Cute right?

My accent nails are painted with Pretty & Polished Tart.  Tart is DENSE! It's a lavender polish chalk full of large and small hexes of pink, blue, red, white, and gold.  It also has a deep purple microshimmer as well.  I used three coats here for opacity.  The formula on this was a dream to apply despite the density.  So dreamy in fact that I need to get a back up to make sure I have more of this to satisfy my constant sweet tooth.  I also decided to try a matte top coat on just for fun!

Look at the intensity of the sparkle in Tart after the matte topcoat! It's even prettier matte than shiny. Check out the hot pink hexagons!

So what do you ladies think? I hope you like it because I had so much fun putting this little look together! I can't wait to try more of my P&P polishes.  If you're interested in Tart or finding any other lovely polishes by the very talented Chelsea check her out her on Etsy or check out her blog. She has some amazing polishes and excellent customer service.  I've ordered from her twice now and it has always been pleasant with lightening speed shipping.

Song Currently Stuck In My Head: My Man (Single) by Billie Holiday. "It cost me lot but there's one thing I got it's my man."  Goodness I love this song!  Old and sultry.  A bad man, a good woman, and driven love.  This type of song is great for smokey Saturday mornings, jumbo, and hard lemonade in the heat.  Anyhoo thanks for reading and see you next post!

KISS: Stars and Hearts Cheeky Plates Mani

Hey lovely ladies,

Today I have some very simple, well for me, nail art.  Occasionally, I burn out on my designs.  This happens when I've been doing super intricate or complicated mani's in repetition.  That's when I take a step back and return to what turned me from a regular lacquer lover into a hardcore polish prisoner.  Shoot these days I'm so into polish might as well call me the warden round these parts lol! But today  I'm returning to simplicity i.e. KISS and my initial love - stamping.

I started with Color Club's Chelsea Girl.  Chelsea Girl IMO is the most dubious jelly polish I've run across to date.  The formula is terrible - gooey, streaky, and a bit of a PITA to apply, but once you get it on you've got color pay off for days!  Actually if the color wasn't so rich I'd have gotten rid of this polish long ago because of the troublesome application.  I'm wearing between 3-4 coats here due to the humpy bumpy finish of this polish.  I stamped these nails using China Glaze Millennium and Konad Special Polish in White and Pastel Blue using Cheeky Plate CH26.  My accent nail was painted with 2 coats of Color Club's Age of Aquarius, a delicious Tiffany's blue that applied like a dream.  I then topped it with All That Glitter's Hole Hearted and Elemental Styles Unuseptium (117).

Speaking again on the formula of Chelsea Girl it split and cracked on one of my nails as I was laying it down. I have to admit this is not an easy polish to work with much to my disappointment given the vibrancy of the color.

I have to admit the first time I used Hole-Hearted in was a real problem getting the stars out but this time many were coming out on the brush each time making the placement easier. My featured drink here is a Green Tea Frappacino - yum!

Up-close I can see all my tiny mistakes how brutal! Lol!

What do you ladies think? Sometimes it's nice to do something easy and straightforward like this.  Of course I still needed a bit of bling to feel "me", but overall I enjoyed this quite a bit.
Song Stuck in My Head: Titanium by David Guetta feat Sia.  It's like punch drunk dancing! I love the message of feeling strong no matter how many shots are taken at you.  Plus Sia is a woman after my own heart.  She's got a voice like a bolt of lightening! Anyway thanks for reading and toodles.

The Relevation of Elevation....Polish, That Is

Hey polished prisoners,

Get ready for some serious polish smackdown!  I have been sitting on my Elevation Polish order for a few weeks now.  Mainly because I wasn't sure which to start with first and secondly because I have so many untrieds these days that I need to to try and get through some of them so I seem less insane for acquiring so many polishes at once.  If you haven't heard of Elevation these polishes are amazing! Check them out on I Dig Brown Polish.  The creator Lulu has some of the most coveted polishes in the indie polish sphere.  So of course I couldn't pick one when I set down do do my manicure.  I got the idea for a braided fishtail manicure from Nails Like Lace and then added my own geometric accents. The result was a braided fishtail manicure featuring Owen, Ubsunar, Pata on the Back, and Aurora with Essie's Mojito Madness and Sonoma Nail Art's Russian River Glitter accents.

Bling Bling...gleam!

Now let's talk formula!  Pata On The Back and Ubsunar were 5 star wonders both in density and intensity of formula and ease of application.  This was also true for Essie's Mojito Madness, a lime green cream that was opaque in gasp one freaking coat! Essie has been killing me with their spring and summer collections this year and I am super impressed!  I wanted Owen and Aurora to have the same formula as Pata On the Back and Ubsunar, however maybe it was because of the density of the shimmer, but they were much thicker and a bit more difficult to apply since the polish dried rapidly.  They reminded me a bit of working with crackle polish i.e. the need to be quick and concise, but the simmer in these two made it well worth the effort so 4 out of 5 stars.  As an accent I used Sonoma Nail Art's Russian River, which went beautifully with Mojito Madness, it also gets 5 stars for formula and ease of application.  Finally, I used my LA Colors Nail Art stripper in gold glitter to add a geometric twist. What do you ladies think?

This fishtail took me 3 hours.  I used Color Club Dry Ice to speed the drying process and my beloved Poshe Fast Drying Top Coat.

It was exceedingly difficult to capture the hue of Owen but I finally got it!

All this sparkle makes me happy!

Just seeing what I could do with the Elevations makes me eager to try other combos of the fish tail!

This is probably one of my favorite nail art manicure's to date! It looks so intricate and yet simple simultaneously and trust me that is tough to pull off.  Plus look at all that shimmer from the Elevation Polishes, and the yumminess of Mojito Madness combined with Russian River!  There wasn't one polish I didn't love here!  I cannot wait till the next Elevation restock, but let me give you some good news.  Fingers Polish Mania is doing a giveaway of Elevation's 180 degrees collection - here! Ugh of course I entered since getting my hands on Lulu's amazing polishes is no mean feat, but you should likewise enter too as the colors of this collection are amazing - see them here.  Will you be entering? Do you have any favorites in the collection or must have Elevations? I do - everything lol!  Thanks for reading and 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!