Archive | March 2017

Everything’s Coming up Roses – Nail Art

Some polishes have been provided for previous review

Hello all my lovely readers!  I’m back again with another nail art post.  I hope that you all are enjoying these as much as I am!

I’ve been getting  a lot of comments and compliments on this one and it’s really very easy to do, I’m sure that anyone can do this too!  Let’s start off with the polishes used:  Bohemian Polish – Here I Go, Alchemy Lacquers – Sea of Snapdragons, Digital Nails – Double Helix, and Pretty & Polished – Thyme and Time Again.

 To start I had to get my base on.  I used Bohemian Polish – Here I go as my base.  It’s a perfect sky blue crelly polish.  I did three coats plus topcoat here:

Bohemian Polish – Here I Go

Bohemian Polish – Here I Go

To do the finished look the next thing I did was stamp on some white dots.  I absolutely could have used a tiny dotting tool or a toothpick to make the white dots.  But, I was feeling a little lazy so I did the stamping.  My stamping actually didn’t come out perfect because some of my dots had no middle but I didn’t dislike the effect so I left it.  Just keeping it real folks, from a distance you really can’t tell it’s just in these up close pictures that it’s super apparent.

Everything is Coming Up Roses – Glossy

The next step was the roses!  Using a large dotting tool I made big dots using Alchemy Lacquers – Sea of Snapdragons.  I didn’t worry about them being perfectly round because I knew it wasn’t going to be just dots.  You don’t have to be too precise with this nail art which is great for newbie nail artists!

Everything is Coming Up Roses – Glossy

Everything is Coming Up Roses – Glossy

After I made the big dots and before it dried I used a toothpick to swirl/smoosh Digital Nails – Double Helix on top of the dots.  Then with the toothpick I went back and added a little more Sea of Snapdragons to finish the effect.  Last but not least using a little brush I brushed on some leaves around my finished roses with Pretty & Polished – Thyme and Time Again.

Clearly I did start with a nice glossy topcoat.  But, then I got to thinking to myself, “how would this look matte?!”  I asked a couple of my buddies and everyone seemed interested to see what it would look like so I snagged my matte topcoat.

Everything is Coming Up Roses – Matte

I personally much preferred the matte version!  I feel like it allowed the design to be the star and it didn’t compete with the high gloss!  Both ways were pretty but man oh man that matte version is just one of my favorite things ever!

Everything is Coming Up Roses – Matte

Everything is Coming Up Roses – Matte

There you have it!  Everything is coming up roses here.  I was super pleased with the result.  I really have been enjoying doing a lot of nail art lately.  Even with my little stamping mishap resulting in tiny rings instead of dots I did not get discouraged.  Nail art should be fun and you should be happy with both the process and end result so I try not to let myself sweat the small stuff!

As always, dear reader, you can find me on social media using the big buttons to the right of my page.  Until next time may your days be filled with glitter and flakies!

Guest Post at Wacie.com!

Hello everyone!  A fellow blogger had a mishap with her camera lens and some of us got together to help provide some posts for her blog while she’s out of commission!

I have a review of a gorgeous Digital Nails polish over there today.  Head on over to check it out and her blog too!  She has some great posts!

You can find the guest post here!

 

Wednesdays We Wear Pink – Featuring a Fleeting Fancy from NerdLacquer

Nothing to Disclose

Helloooo, Readers!  It’s been so long since I’ve done a Wednesdays We Wear Pink so I think we’re ready for a new one!  Today I’m going to show you one of my NerdLacquer polishes from my collection, Resolutionary!

NerdLacquer – Resolutionary

Resolutionary is a salmon pink crelly filled with all kinds of glittery goodness!  Floating in the crelly base there are tiny metallic gold hexes in a couple of small sizes, a smattering medium-sized metallic magenta hexes, and itsy bitsy teensie metallic magenta dots.

NerdLacquer – Resolutionary

NerdLacquer – Resolutionary

The application on this is lovely.  Pictures show two coats.  No coaxing or fishing for this application.  The larger magenta hexes are sparse this way but I prefer that, I think too many of them would overwhelm everything else.  Honestly, I have gotten really excellent applications from NerdLacquer.  There are just some brands that have nailed the carefully-crafted crelly glitter and NerdLacquer is one of them.

NerdLacquer – Resolutionary

Sadly, I have also included this post in the Fleeting Fancy series since Resolutionary is no longer available.  However, NerdLacquer is still cranking out amazing glitter-bomb polishes.  Make sure to check out the stalker links below:

NerdLacquer

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ILNP – Magician and Masquerade (H) Swatches and Review

Nothing to Disclose

Good Monday my dear readers.  I hope that the start of this new week is filled with sparkly nails.  Perhaps you also got Magician?  Maybe you’ve been on the fence?  I know that this week I’m meeting Monday head on with some Unicorn Pee sparkle and shift.  It is still available so if you didn’t get it maybe this will help you decide!

I guess we should start with Magician (even though it’s my favorite of the two I bought and I usually leave my favorite to last).  Prepare yourselves, readers, the following post is PIC HEAVY.

ILNP – Magician (over black)

It is literally impossible not to be mesmerized.

ILNP – Magician (over black)

ILNP – Magician (over black)

ILNP – Magician (over black)

Ok, I’m sorry I got distracted by the amazingness for a minute.  Let’s talk about some application stuff etc.  Magician is a topper, it will not build to any kind of opacity on its own (although now I’m thinking of negative space manis and all the possibilities there!).  However, this polish does have the ability to completely change the look of what you’re wearing.  Application was perfection.  All my pics show two coats over a single coat of a base color.

ILNP – Magician (over black, matte)

ILNP – Magician (over black, matte)

As you can see this magical (har) topcoat is constantly changing.  It shifts from emerald green, to bronze, to rust, to red.  It’s just fantastic.  I’m not sure how I never picked up a Unicorn Pee polish before now.  But, boy am I glad I broke down and cheated on my no-buy for this one.  Unf, can we talk about mattifying it?  AH-MAZING.

First, I started with the traditional black base.  Honestly, you will get the most bang with a black base but other combinations are just as lovely and amazing though it’s more subtle.

ILNP – Magician (over colors)

ILNP – Magician (over colors)

ILNP – Magician (over colors)

To be quite honest of the four colors I chose besides black (all cremes – a royal blue, a true red, a turquoise, and a nude) the ones I thought were the best match were the royal blue and the nude.  My least favorite option was the red.  Somehow, some of the Unicorn Pee magic got a bit lost in the red.

Oh, I almost forgot.  I totally stamped it for wearing.  Driving after putting this on was hard because my nails+the sunlight was so distracting:

ILNP – Magician (over black, stamped)

Ok!  Moving on for now.  So, when I cheated on my no-buy for Magician, I thought, “hmm, why should Magician travel alone. Surely, we should get him a buddy.”  Because, you all know, nail polish addict problems.  So, I snagged up Masquerade, the holo version as well.

ILNP – Masquerade (H)

Hmm…weren’t we just talking about shifty polishes?  Because, holy shift, Batman.  Look at the range of colors in that polish.  Masquerade is a multichrome polish that transitions between a gorgeous green, to teal, to bronze, to a beautiful pink.  To be honest, when looking at it in the bottle in some lights and angles it reminds me of a watermelon because the pink and green are so prominent.  I picked up the holo version of the polish and it has a lovely subtle linear holo finish.

ILNP – Masquerade (H)

ILNP – Masquerade (H)

ILNP – Masquerade (H)

While the actual application of the polish was good, I did note it had a tendency to show brushstrokes so you will definitely want to use a patient hand.  I’m not convinced that it has anything to do with the polish itself.  I think that it’s more of an effect of the multichrome pigment.  Pics all show two coats over black except for the ring finger where it’s three coats on its own.  I actually liked it better on its own.  The brush strokes weren’t as noticeable and it seemed to just have a better overall finish that way.

Alright, deep breaths.  You can still get Magician and naturally Masquerade is available as well not to mention a whole HEAP of multichrome shifty polishes.  I will include stalker links below!

ILNP

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