Lisa Frank nails for B Squared Lacquer contest

If you have seen some of my older posts, you may have noticed I did Lisa Frank butterfly nails not to long ago. When this contest popped up ...

If you have seen some of my older posts, you may have noticed I did Lisa Frank butterfly nails not to long ago. When this contest popped up on my Instagram feed I did a short of face palm that this didn't occur a month or two ago. I decided to go for it though and do something more traditional Lisa Frank looking. I am quite pleased with the result!

I did a quick Google search and came across this image which I used as my inspiration for my right hand. I kept with the Lisa Frank font as far as color order went and then just chose some random stuff off the car to add accent to the alien who is my focal point.

Another shot of my right hand. Both taken in the shade on a sunny northwest day B)

And here is my equally fabulous left hand. Look at the rainbow glitter goodness! Glitter toppers are by Laquerlicious. The blue is At the Lake. Green is Lemon Limeade. Pink is Beat the Heat.

The base colors used for both hands, as well as the doodles on the right hand, are as follows: blue is Finger Paints Inkblot Blue, orange is Sally Hansen Sun Kissed, yellow is China Glaze Solar Power, green is China Glaze In the Lime Light, purple is Kleancolor Just Like Juliet, and pink is China Glaze Purple Panic. I really don't think that last one should be called purple because it is most clearly a neon pink to my eyes. What do you guys think?

If you want to enter the contest or just check out B Squared Lacquer, here is a link to her Instagram. The contest is going on till 8/23 at midnight cdt. The creator and her husband will be choosing the winners. Wish me luck! And good luck to anyone else who has entered or plans to!

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If you have seen some of my older posts, you may have noticed I did Lisa Frank butterfly nails not to long ago. When this contest popped up on my Instagram feed I did a short of face palm that this didn't occur a month or two ago. I decided to go for it though and do something more traditional Lisa Frank looking. I am quite pleased with the result!

I did a quick Google search and came across this image which I used as my inspiration for my right hand. I kept with the Lisa Frank font as far as color order went and then just chose some random stuff off the car to add accent to the alien who is my focal point.

Another shot of my right hand. Both taken in the shade on a sunny northwest day B)

And here is my equally fabulous left hand. Look at the rainbow glitter goodness! Glitter toppers are by Laquerlicious. The blue is At the Lake. Green is Lemon Limeade. Pink is Beat the Heat.

The base colors used for both hands, as well as the doodles on the right hand, are as follows: blue is Finger Paints Inkblot Blue, orange is Sally Hansen Sun Kissed, yellow is China Glaze Solar Power, green is China Glaze In the Lime Light, purple is Kleancolor Just Like Juliet, and pink is China Glaze Purple Panic. I really don't think that last one should be called purple because it is most clearly a neon pink to my eyes. What do you guys think?

If you want to enter the contest or just check out B Squared Lacquer, here is a link to her Instagram. The contest is going on till 8/23 at midnight cdt. The creator and her husband will be choosing the winners. Wish me luck! And good luck to anyone else who has entered or plans to!

Lucky 13 Lacquer

So I had the great pleasure of getting to work with the creator of Lucky 13 Lacquer and just had to give her a post of her own because she ...

So I had the great pleasure of getting to work with the creator of Lucky 13 Lacquer and just had to give her a post of her own because she is just too amazing to share with my other swatches. She is a fellow new habitant who is not only in one of my polish groups, but happens to live near enough to me that I got to go to a polish party she put on. She opened up her supplies to us and let us create our own custom Lucky 13 Lacquers. It was an utter blast that led to some great new freindships! I made 5 polishes, one is a secret because it is for my friend for her birthday. Below are the two polishes I have already swatched and instantly fell in love with.

I don't know if I have any fellow Fairy Tail lovers out there reading this, but this first polish was inspired by just that. It is called Lucy, so named after the character in the picture. I did a little minimalistic version of her face as an accent because I was really missing doing nail art instead of just searching. This polish was so easy to work with! The color is perfect and I got the coverage I wanted in just two coats, although a third wouldn't have hurt. This is now one of my favorite glitters of all time and that's saying something since I am obsessed with glitters and found these polishes on par with my favorite glitter creator, Emily de Molly. Job well done with this one!

My first thermal! :D So I have additonal pictures of this polish when completely cool (purple) and completely warm (pink), but they are fuzzy and the colors represented are inaccurate so you will have to settle for just this shot. Originally this was supposed to be a black and red polish based on my football team the Buccaneers. It was her first time using the thermal so I got to be the guinea pig and this is what I got. I am in no way upset because look at it! The pink is to die for, the purple is amazing, and the combination is explosively beautiful! I managed to distract so many of my classmates with these. People kept passing me stuff to change the colors and they got dubbed my mood ring nails. Pink means very happy according to the mood ring chart and that is exactly how I feel about this polish.

Make sure to check her out on any and all of her media outlets: Facebook, website, and twitter.

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So I had the great pleasure of getting to work with the creator of Lucky 13 Lacquer and just had to give her a post of her own because she is just too amazing to share with my other swatches. She is a fellow new habitant who is not only in one of my polish groups, but happens to live near enough to me that I got to go to a polish party she put on. She opened up her supplies to us and let us create our own custom Lucky 13 Lacquers. It was an utter blast that led to some great new freindships! I made 5 polishes, one is a secret because it is for my friend for her birthday. Below are the two polishes I have already swatched and instantly fell in love with.

I don't know if I have any fellow Fairy Tail lovers out there reading this, but this first polish was inspired by just that. It is called Lucy, so named after the character in the picture. I did a little minimalistic version of her face as an accent because I was really missing doing nail art instead of just searching. This polish was so easy to work with! The color is perfect and I got the coverage I wanted in just two coats, although a third wouldn't have hurt. This is now one of my favorite glitters of all time and that's saying something since I am obsessed with glitters and found these polishes on par with my favorite glitter creator, Emily de Molly. Job well done with this one!

My first thermal! :D So I have additonal pictures of this polish when completely cool (purple) and completely warm (pink), but they are fuzzy and the colors represented are inaccurate so you will have to settle for just this shot. Originally this was supposed to be a black and red polish based on my football team the Buccaneers. It was her first time using the thermal so I got to be the guinea pig and this is what I got. I am in no way upset because look at it! The pink is to die for, the purple is amazing, and the combination is explosively beautiful! I managed to distract so many of my classmates with these. People kept passing me stuff to change the colors and they got dubbed my mood ring nails. Pink means very happy according to the mood ring chart and that is exactly how I feel about this polish.

Make sure to check her out on any and all of her media outlets: Facebook, website, and twitter.

Now for the backed up nail art

Ok, I am just going to make the disclaimer now I don't want to accidentally label a color wrong so in order to avoid this, I am not goi...

Ok, I am just going to make the disclaimer now I don't want to accidentally label a color wrong so in order to avoid this, I am not going to even guess what I used in these manis. If you want to try and find out colors, I may have posted the colors in my reddit or Instagram posts back when I did these. My handle for both sites is Etheria13. Feel free to check me out and perhaps follow me on Instagram while you are there!

Fourth of July splatter nails. This is my go to when I don't have a lot of time but want something fun.

Kiwi nails inspired by a reddit user whose name I cannot find anymore. 

Ladybug accent nail based on pinterest tutorial.

So these nails make me sad and happy because they are Flubber nails dedicated to the passing of Robin Williams. I was a bit out of sorts for a few days after his passing. I did not realize how much of an impact he had had on my life until I read the story of his death. I wanted to honor him in some way and my nails seemed like the best outlet for me personally. He will be greatly missed but I hope he is finally at peace. Disney said it best, "Genie you're free."

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Ok, I am just going to make the disclaimer now I don't want to accidentally label a color wrong so in order to avoid this, I am not going to even guess what I used in these manis. If you want to try and find out colors, I may have posted the colors in my reddit or Instagram posts back when I did these. My handle for both sites is Etheria13. Feel free to check me out and perhaps follow me on Instagram while you are there!

Fourth of July splatter nails. This is my go to when I don't have a lot of time but want something fun.

Kiwi nails inspired by a reddit user whose name I cannot find anymore. 

Ladybug accent nail based on pinterest tutorial.

So these nails make me sad and happy because they are Flubber nails dedicated to the passing of Robin Williams. I was a bit out of sorts for a few days after his passing. I did not realize how much of an impact he had had on my life until I read the story of his death. I wanted to honor him in some way and my nails seemed like the best outlet for me personally. He will be greatly missed but I hope he is finally at peace. Disney said it best, "Genie you're free."

Swatches galore

Ok readers you are going to have to base with me as I try to recall what was used in these catch up posts. Please forgive me if I have forg...

Ok readers you are going to have to base with me as I try to recall what was used in these catch up posts. Please forgive me if I have forgotten any colors!

First up is Emily de Molly Absent Minded. It is no secret my sear readers that I am obsessednwith every single one of her polishes. In fact I own more off her stuff than I do China Glaze or Zoya or the like. This point!ish is no exception. I mean just look at it! The subtle blue glitter accents the purple nicely and the copper is just to die for. It is worth the pain of removing to wear her fabulous glitters. For those unfamiliar with her, she is based in Australia and unfortunately does not do international shipping. If you want to get ahold of her stuff you are going to need to check your local stockist. Her website has a list of stockists she works with, but heads up, she just had a baby and isn't doing polish stuff at the moment.

This is Sally Hansen Color Foil in Cobalt Chrome with China Glaze Fairy Dust as a topper. I love the color but am concerned about the polish itself. It was really slick and I had trouble just getting a coat to stay on my nails. I has to try and goop it on which left it looking not so smooth, hence the glitter topper. I would need to try again with a different base coat because I haven't really heard of others having the same issue as me. I used Orly Bonder as my base coat.

These two are both Nerd Lacquer polishes. The orange is Regeneration and the grey is Don't Blink. If you can't tell by the name, they are Doctor Who themed polishes. Both went on nicely and were gorgeous to stare at for hours on end as I sat in lecture haha. No I was actually paying attention but at home I got distracted by them for sure. Her stuff is really hard to find as she seems to have gone mia again so you have to find people who are selling their bottles and her stuff is so well loved that prices can be a bit higher then I would typically like. These two were well worth it to me but I probably won't be forking out more money for more of her stuff anytime soon.

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Ok readers you are going to have to base with me as I try to recall what was used in these catch up posts. Please forgive me if I have forgotten any colors!

First up is Emily de Molly Absent Minded. It is no secret my sear readers that I am obsessednwith every single one of her polishes. In fact I own more off her stuff than I do China Glaze or Zoya or the like. This point!ish is no exception. I mean just look at it! The subtle blue glitter accents the purple nicely and the copper is just to die for. It is worth the pain of removing to wear her fabulous glitters. For those unfamiliar with her, she is based in Australia and unfortunately does not do international shipping. If you want to get ahold of her stuff you are going to need to check your local stockist. Her website has a list of stockists she works with, but heads up, she just had a baby and isn't doing polish stuff at the moment.

This is Sally Hansen Color Foil in Cobalt Chrome with China Glaze Fairy Dust as a topper. I love the color but am concerned about the polish itself. It was really slick and I had trouble just getting a coat to stay on my nails. I has to try and goop it on which left it looking not so smooth, hence the glitter topper. I would need to try again with a different base coat because I haven't really heard of others having the same issue as me. I used Orly Bonder as my base coat.

These two are both Nerd Lacquer polishes. The orange is Regeneration and the grey is Don't Blink. If you can't tell by the name, they are Doctor Who themed polishes. Both went on nicely and were gorgeous to stare at for hours on end as I sat in lecture haha. No I was actually paying attention but at home I got distracted by them for sure. Her stuff is really hard to find as she seems to have gone mia again so you have to find people who are selling their bottles and her stuff is so well loved that prices can be a bit higher then I would typically like. These two were well worth it to me but I probably won't be forking out more money for more of her stuff anytime soon.

I'm back!

Hello fellow polish enthusiasts! So I have been on a sort of hiatus for the last couple months as I adjusted to my masters program. It is a ...

Hello fellow polish enthusiasts! So I have been on a sort of hiatus for the last couple months as I adjusted to my masters program. It is a pretty intensive one year program that will give me both my licensure as an elementary school teacher, as well as my masters degree, all in one fell swoop. So you can see why I've been pretty busy. I'm going to try and start back up again with my posts. They will probably be short and simple because that is the only way I can motivate myself to take the time to start this back up. Too much writing or such would be overwhelming and cause me to put off doing these posts. Too catch up I am going to do maybe a couple collage posts of nails kinda grouped by timing or perhaps theme? We shall see. Anyways, I've missed you all and it feels good to be back :D

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Hello fellow polish enthusiasts! So I have been on a sort of hiatus for the last couple months as I adjusted to my masters program. It is a pretty intensive one year program that will give me both my licensure as an elementary school teacher, as well as my masters degree, all in one fell swoop. So you can see why I've been pretty busy. I'm going to try and start back up again with my posts. They will probably be short and simple because that is the only way I can motivate myself to take the time to start this back up. Too much writing or such would be overwhelming and cause me to put off doing these posts. Too catch up I am going to do maybe a couple collage posts of nails kinda grouped by timing or perhaps theme? We shall see. Anyways, I've missed you all and it feels good to be back :D

One year anniversary

Ok this is going to be a quickie post because I have to get to volunteering, but I had to share this special occasion with all of you guys. ...

Ok this is going to be a quickie post because I have to get to volunteering, but I had to share this special occasion with all of you guys. Today marks the one year mark since I started doing nail art. I thought it would be fun to redo one of my old manis and compare the two.

I can't believe what a difference a year has made. I love both but my skill has definitely improved. Can't wait to see what another year brings me.

As always, my left hand for comparison. I decided to reverse the colors to mix it up this time.

Bonus toes! I was feeling extra colorful and was inspired by a picture on pinterest so away I went with the polish.

Ok that is all I have time for because I really need to take off, but I hope you guys enjoyed this little side by side. How long have you been doing nail art? Let me know in the comments :)

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Ok this is going to be a quickie post because I have to get to volunteering, but I had to share this special occasion with all of you guys. Today marks the one year mark since I started doing nail art. I thought it would be fun to redo one of my old manis and compare the two.

I can't believe what a difference a year has made. I love both but my skill has definitely improved. Can't wait to see what another year brings me.

As always, my left hand for comparison. I decided to reverse the colors to mix it up this time.

Bonus toes! I was feeling extra colorful and was inspired by a picture on pinterest so away I went with the polish.

Ok that is all I have time for because I really need to take off, but I hope you guys enjoyed this little side by side. How long have you been doing nail art? Let me know in the comments :)

Lisa Frank butterflies

I got the last of my nail mail, that I split with my mom, yesterday. It was the new Laquerlicious neon glitter toppers I have been dying to ...

I got the last of my nail mail, that I split with my mom, yesterday. It was the new Laquerlicious neon glitter toppers I have been dying to try, so of course that is what I did. By the way, make sure to check out her shop at http://laquerlicious.bigcartel.com! Now back to my nails. I've seen a few people do a vertical glitter gradient with these colors which gave me the idea of doing a more standard horizontal gradient and then doing a butterfly design over the top of it with some black acrylic paint. Before I show you the end result, I have a couple of in the works shots.

This first one shows step line of the process after applying my base coat. Just for reference, I use Orly bonder. I love how these look even at this phase. I will have to keep these polishes in mind for a glitter gradient French manicure type of thing for later.

Here are all the colors after the gradient was done. I almost stopped here on my left hand but decided to finish them off. The colors, all by Laquerlicious, are "At the Lake," "Beat the Heat," and "Lemon Limeaide." Now for a quick review of these polishes. This took a few coats to get the colors thick enough to showcase their color properly. The polish was a little goopy, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have been such an issue if I wasn't trying to do a gradient. I have seen others only need two coats get full coverage. To save on waste, I would recommend putting a similar creme color underneath and then putting this over the top. Clean up was super easy which is honestly one of the most important things to me. Basically, I love the color and the clean up, but would need to try out the color by itself to see if the goopy quality improves. Also, to clarify, when I say goopy I mean that quality that glitters have. Usually I fix this by sponging the glitter on but the polish seemed to lose some of its luster when I tried that method.

Sorry about the different sizes. I took some of these using the Instagram camera, not expecting to use them here, but I like the additional angles and such so I added them in. I hope you can see why I call them Lisa Frank butterflies. They are so bright and colorful and just the colors I used to have all over my school supplies. If you don't know who Lisa Frank is, I feel sad for you. Anyways, I hope you like my latest mani! Don't forget to comment below :)

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I got the last of my nail mail, that I split with my mom, yesterday. It was the new Laquerlicious neon glitter toppers I have been dying to try, so of course that is what I did. By the way, make sure to check out her shop at http://laquerlicious.bigcartel.com! Now back to my nails. I've seen a few people do a vertical glitter gradient with these colors which gave me the idea of doing a more standard horizontal gradient and then doing a butterfly design over the top of it with some black acrylic paint. Before I show you the end result, I have a couple of in the works shots.

This first one shows step line of the process after applying my base coat. Just for reference, I use Orly bonder. I love how these look even at this phase. I will have to keep these polishes in mind for a glitter gradient French manicure type of thing for later.

Here are all the colors after the gradient was done. I almost stopped here on my left hand but decided to finish them off. The colors, all by Laquerlicious, are "At the Lake," "Beat the Heat," and "Lemon Limeaide." Now for a quick review of these polishes. This took a few coats to get the colors thick enough to showcase their color properly. The polish was a little goopy, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have been such an issue if I wasn't trying to do a gradient. I have seen others only need two coats get full coverage. To save on waste, I would recommend putting a similar creme color underneath and then putting this over the top. Clean up was super easy which is honestly one of the most important things to me. Basically, I love the color and the clean up, but would need to try out the color by itself to see if the goopy quality improves. Also, to clarify, when I say goopy I mean that quality that glitters have. Usually I fix this by sponging the glitter on but the polish seemed to lose some of its luster when I tried that method.

Sorry about the different sizes. I took some of these using the Instagram camera, not expecting to use them here, but I like the additional angles and such so I added them in. I hope you can see why I call them Lisa Frank butterflies. They are so bright and colorful and just the colors I used to have all over my school supplies. If you don't know who Lisa Frank is, I feel sad for you. Anyways, I hope you like my latest mani! Don't forget to comment below :)

You are my sunshine

Phew. Last post. I got really behind on them this week. Sorry about that! I think I'm going to keep these latest ones on for awhile thou...

Phew. Last post. I got really behind on them this week. Sorry about that! I think I'm going to keep these latest ones on for awhile though. I just love the way they turned out! I was inspired by an Instagram post by @lifeisbetterpolished. She did this lovely polish swatch for Colores de Carol and did an accent nail of the sun. Here is the post for those curious :) I adored her little sun so I decided to put them all over my nails!

These just scream summer to me! I used a whole lot of polishes for this and I honestly just don't feel like listing every last one of them. Plus some are a mix of a couple colors so it gets complicated. If you want to know a specific color, just comment below and I will let you know what that one is. These were done using my brush and took freaking forever so I decided to do something still fun but much simpler for my left hand.

I used the same colors for my left hand that I did with my right. I can not get enough of either hand right now! I was really needing some bright color and these did the trick. I hope you guys like them :)

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Phew. Last post. I got really behind on them this week. Sorry about that! I think I'm going to keep these latest ones on for awhile though. I just love the way they turned out! I was inspired by an Instagram post by @lifeisbetterpolished. She did this lovely polish swatch for Colores de Carol and did an accent nail of the sun. Here is the post for those curious :) I adored her little sun so I decided to put them all over my nails!

These just scream summer to me! I used a whole lot of polishes for this and I honestly just don't feel like listing every last one of them. Plus some are a mix of a couple colors so it gets complicated. If you want to know a specific color, just comment below and I will let you know what that one is. These were done using my brush and took freaking forever so I decided to do something still fun but much simpler for my left hand.

I used the same colors for my left hand that I did with my right. I can not get enough of either hand right now! I was really needing some bright color and these did the trick. I hope you guys like them :)

Doctor Lacquer "Purplemint for Your Thoughts"

My mom and I decided to go halfsies on some polishes so we could get a few new polishes to share. One of the brands we ordered from was Doct...

My mom and I decided to go halfsies on some polishes so we could get a few new polishes to share. One of the brands we ordered from was Doctor Lacquer. I decided to try out at least one of the polishes before I passed them off to my mom for first dibs. I went with Purplemint for your thoughts.

As you can see, it is a beautiful purple based jelly with blue and green glitters. Like always you have to fish a but for the big circle glitters since they settle at the bottom. Just turn the bottle upside down (cap on!) for a few minutes and they will be easier to get out. This swatch is with three coats and a top coat. The polish dries a bit matte like without the top coat (sorry I forgot to take a pic). Very easy cleanup on this which is always a plus for me. Bottom line, great polish and great color = you need this in your collection. If you are not a purple person I would recommend checking out their store. They have others similar to this but in different colors. Plus, they have some gorgeous thermals that I will have to try out some day!

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My mom and I decided to go halfsies on some polishes so we could get a few new polishes to share. One of the brands we ordered from was Doctor Lacquer. I decided to try out at least one of the polishes before I passed them off to my mom for first dibs. I went with Purplemint for your thoughts.

As you can see, it is a beautiful purple based jelly with blue and green glitters. Like always you have to fish a but for the big circle glitters since they settle at the bottom. Just turn the bottle upside down (cap on!) for a few minutes and they will be easier to get out. This swatch is with three coats and a top coat. The polish dries a bit matte like without the top coat (sorry I forgot to take a pic). Very easy cleanup on this which is always a plus for me. Bottom line, great polish and great color = you need this in your collection. If you are not a purple person I would recommend checking out their store. They have others similar to this but in different colors. Plus, they have some gorgeous thermals that I will have to try out some day!

Sparks of Hope gala

So I promised these nails to you guys like a week ago but got so busy I didn't get the chance to post them until now. Without further a ...

So I promised these nails to you guys like a week ago but got so busy I didn't get the chance to post them until now. Without further a do, here are my nails for the auction:

I used Sally Hansen "Black Out" for the base. The gold is from stripper, but I actually did not use the built in stripper brush. I prefer to use my In Dance 24. I just poured some polish out and used the brush to draw the hearts. I then used Zoya 'Maria Luisa' over the top for the gold glitter. I absolutely love how these turned out! I even kept them on for like an unheard of 5 days. I got so many compliments at the event and the founders loved how much they looked like their logo. It was an amazing evening to match my lovely nails. Feel free to check them out at http://thesparksofhope.org! They do wonderful work with children who have been abused. Such a fantastic organization that I am proud to volunteer for :)

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So I promised these nails to you guys like a week ago but got so busy I didn't get the chance to post them until now. Without further a do, here are my nails for the auction:

I used Sally Hansen "Black Out" for the base. The gold is from stripper, but I actually did not use the built in stripper brush. I prefer to use my In Dance 24. I just poured some polish out and used the brush to draw the hearts. I then used Zoya 'Maria Luisa' over the top for the gold glitter. I absolutely love how these turned out! I even kept them on for like an unheard of 5 days. I got so many compliments at the event and the founders loved how much they looked like their logo. It was an amazing evening to match my lovely nails. Feel free to check them out at http://thesparksofhope.org! They do wonderful work with children who have been abused. Such a fantastic organization that I am proud to volunteer for :)

How starfish eat

Hey everyone! I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I belong to a lovely nail group on Facebook for those of us in the Pacif...

Hey everyone! I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I belong to a lovely nail group on Facebook for those of us in the Pacific Northwest. This week we did a round Robin challenge where the person who signed up after you assigned you your nail art challenge. The lovely Angie gave me this video as my inspiration (check out her blog here). The video is nice and short and talks about how starfish eat. Here is my interpretation:

This shoot was taken in the sunlight to best capture the depth of the starfish. I love my little starfish but my coral could use some help, to be honest. As for colors, I am composing this on campus and so am not currently by the polishes. Sorry guys! I will update later with the info. 

Here be my left hand. I decided to go simple, like usual, and did the ocean with a sandy edge type of look. I am in love with this hand! The blue is to die for in person! Again, I will get polish names up later today.

I wanted to try and get a closeup of the starfish so I took this in class. Not the best quality photo but it does the trick. Plus, you get an idea of the coloring in indoor lighting as well. Well, that's all for today. I will be paying again in another couple days because I have an auction coming up on Saturday that I will be doing my nails for. Until then!

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Hey everyone! I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I belong to a lovely nail group on Facebook for those of us in the Pacific Northwest. This week we did a round Robin challenge where the person who signed up after you assigned you your nail art challenge. The lovely Angie gave me this video as my inspiration (check out her blog here). The video is nice and short and talks about how starfish eat. Here is my interpretation:

This shoot was taken in the sunlight to best capture the depth of the starfish. I love my little starfish but my coral could use some help, to be honest. As for colors, I am composing this on campus and so am not currently by the polishes. Sorry guys! I will update later with the info. 

Here be my left hand. I decided to go simple, like usual, and did the ocean with a sandy edge type of look. I am in love with this hand! The blue is to die for in person! Again, I will get polish names up later today.

I wanted to try and get a closeup of the starfish so I took this in class. Not the best quality photo but it does the trick. Plus, you get an idea of the coloring in indoor lighting as well. Well, that's all for today. I will be paying again in another couple days because I have an auction coming up on Saturday that I will be doing my nails for. Until then!

Rip City nails

The Trail Blazers made it into the playoffs and past the first bracket! To celebrate and support my awesome team, I did what any lacquerista...

The Trail Blazers made it into the playoffs and past the first bracket! To celebrate and support my awesome team, I did what any lacquerista would do, I painted my nails. I attempted the Blazers' symbol:

I used acrylic paint for the design and jn dance 24 for my brush. First time using both and I loved it! So much nicer to paint with acrylics and the brush is amazing! The symbol, however, was meh to me. 

I saw this smoky type design on pinterest and used it as inspiration for my flames. Here is the black before and after top coat. I use HK Girl top coat because I prefer the application of it vs seche. Seche is still my favorite for shine, though. Also, please excuse blurriness of the photo (poor lighting at night) and messiness of hands. These were taken precleanup and reds are always a messy occurance for me.

Voilà! The finished product. The symbol was really bugging me. I was going to turn it into another flame nail, but liked it when I added a single layer of red, so I kept it. First picture is shade, second is sun. Still a bit undecided about the symbol but I love the flames! The red base polish is Finger Paints "Gogh Red." All other colors used were acrylics. I would like to thank my mom for giving me a box of her acrylics!

Lastly, my left hand in sunlight. I'm actually pretty proud of how this hand turned out. Not bad for my non dominate hand. 

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The Trail Blazers made it into the playoffs and past the first bracket! To celebrate and support my awesome team, I did what any lacquerista would do, I painted my nails. I attempted the Blazers' symbol:

I used acrylic paint for the design and jn dance 24 for my brush. First time using both and I loved it! So much nicer to paint with acrylics and the brush is amazing! The symbol, however, was meh to me. 

I saw this smoky type design on pinterest and used it as inspiration for my flames. Here is the black before and after top coat. I use HK Girl top coat because I prefer the application of it vs seche. Seche is still my favorite for shine, though. Also, please excuse blurriness of the photo (poor lighting at night) and messiness of hands. These were taken precleanup and reds are always a messy occurance for me.

Voilà! The finished product. The symbol was really bugging me. I was going to turn it into another flame nail, but liked it when I added a single layer of red, so I kept it. First picture is shade, second is sun. Still a bit undecided about the symbol but I love the flames! The red base polish is Finger Paints "Gogh Red." All other colors used were acrylics. I would like to thank my mom for giving me a box of her acrylics!

Lastly, my left hand in sunlight. I'm actually pretty proud of how this hand turned out. Not bad for my non dominate hand. 

Nfu Oh 51

Let me just say I am in love with this polish! I've seen so many pictures that when I found a bottle from fabulous street , I didn't...

Let me just say I am in love with this polish! I've seen so many pictures that when I found a bottle from fabulous street, I didn't hesitate to purchase it. Without further ado, here it is!

Stunning! This is one coat of Nfu Oh "51" over Zoya "Ibiza," a stunning dark blue. I was doing this real quick before a date so I forgot to take a picture of the blue by itself, but it is well worth googling. The polish itself went on very nicely and I was a fan of both the formula and the brush. I think this polish is not opaque enough to stand alone, and would suggest using a base coat. The great thing is that this polish goes great over a wide variety of colors. I tested it over a bright blue, red, green, and black. The green, not so much, but all the other as were cool. If I remember to take a picture of the color wheel I will upload that later. And now since I couldn't help myself, more pictures!

Midday sun, in the shade

Sun setting, in the shade

Same setting as previous. I just love how different it looks in different lighting. If you can get yourself a bottle, snatch it up quick because this polish is discontinued. Anyone else have a Nfu Oh polish they just can't live without? I would love to know about it!

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Let me just say I am in love with this polish! I've seen so many pictures that when I found a bottle from fabulous street, I didn't hesitate to purchase it. Without further ado, here it is!

Stunning! This is one coat of Nfu Oh "51" over Zoya "Ibiza," a stunning dark blue. I was doing this real quick before a date so I forgot to take a picture of the blue by itself, but it is well worth googling. The polish itself went on very nicely and I was a fan of both the formula and the brush. I think this polish is not opaque enough to stand alone, and would suggest using a base coat. The great thing is that this polish goes great over a wide variety of colors. I tested it over a bright blue, red, green, and black. The green, not so much, but all the other as were cool. If I remember to take a picture of the color wheel I will upload that later. And now since I couldn't help myself, more pictures!

Midday sun, in the shade

Sun setting, in the shade

Same setting as previous. I just love how different it looks in different lighting. If you can get yourself a bottle, snatch it up quick because this polish is discontinued. Anyone else have a Nfu Oh polish they just can't live without? I would love to know about it!

Reddit cakeday nails

I have been on reddit for one year as of today so of course I needed to do my nails to celebrate such a monumentous occasion. Everything you...

I have been on reddit for one year as of today so of course I needed to do my nails to celebrate such a monumentous occasion. Everything you shall see in a moment was freehanded.

I am so proud of my little reddit alien :] I may have accidentally done the colors backwards on the upvote and downvote nails and then had to go over them with the other color. This is why the orange upvote looks a but thick. It is a thinner polish and took a bit more to cover up the blue. I mean, I did it on purpose to make the upvote stand out and thus encourage being given upvotes. Currently I am in class so I can't remember all colors so I will update later with all the names. The white is Sally Hansen "White On." The blue is also a Sally Hansen color. The orange is by Ice. Finally, the nude is Orly "Sheer Nude" and the black is China Glaze "Black Diamond." As always, I got lazy on my left hand. Here is my shortcut:

Just a nice simple solid mani with alternating reddit colors. The Formula on the blue is amazing! The brush allows you to get the perfect brush stroke so you don't have to clean up rough edges. The orange brush wasn't quite as amazing but the formula of the polish itself was one that was easy cleanup friendly. What are some of you favorite brands of polishes for their brushes?

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I have been on reddit for one year as of today so of course I needed to do my nails to celebrate such a monumentous occasion. Everything you shall see in a moment was freehanded.

I am so proud of my little reddit alien :] I may have accidentally done the colors backwards on the upvote and downvote nails and then had to go over them with the other color. This is why the orange upvote looks a but thick. It is a thinner polish and took a bit more to cover up the blue. I mean, I did it on purpose to make the upvote stand out and thus encourage being given upvotes. Currently I am in class so I can't remember all colors so I will update later with all the names. The white is Sally Hansen "White On." The blue is also a Sally Hansen color. The orange is by Ice. Finally, the nude is Orly "Sheer Nude" and the black is China Glaze "Black Diamond." As always, I got lazy on my left hand. Here is my shortcut:

Just a nice simple solid mani with alternating reddit colors. The Formula on the blue is amazing! The brush allows you to get the perfect brush stroke so you don't have to clean up rough edges. The orange brush wasn't quite as amazing but the formula of the polish itself was one that was easy cleanup friendly. What are some of you favorite brands of polishes for their brushes?

Nickelodeon slime time with my first EPs

This is going to be a quick post but I want to show everyone my latest mani. I ordered my first EPs and they came in on Saturday so I just h...

This is going to be a quick post but I want to show everyone my latest mani. I ordered my first EPs and they came in on Saturday so I just had to do something with the two of them. The colors reminded me a bit of the purple and green from Nickelodeon slime time so I did a paint drip nail art design kind of like slime. Without further ado, here are my nails:

The green is Enchanted Polish "March 2014" and the purple is "April 2014". The green is just to die for in the sunlight, where as the purple has more of a soft stunning effect.  The colors only took two coats apiece and were a bit tricky to work with on the dripping effect because they actually dry pretty quickly. I would be interested in seeing if these stamp well. A project for another day.Any who, I love them both so very much and am happy to add them to my ever growing collection of polishes. Thoughts?

Edit: I wanted to show a shot of them under more normal lighting as well. 

Still quite beautiful if you ask me :)

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This is going to be a quick post but I want to show everyone my latest mani. I ordered my first EPs and they came in on Saturday so I just had to do something with the two of them. The colors reminded me a bit of the purple and green from Nickelodeon slime time so I did a paint drip nail art design kind of like slime. Without further ado, here are my nails:

The green is Enchanted Polish "March 2014" and the purple is "April 2014". The green is just to die for in the sunlight, where as the purple has more of a soft stunning effect.  The colors only took two coats apiece and were a bit tricky to work with on the dripping effect because they actually dry pretty quickly. I would be interested in seeing if these stamp well. A project for another day.Any who, I love them both so very much and am happy to add them to my ever growing collection of polishes. Thoughts?

Edit: I wanted to show a shot of them under more normal lighting as well. 

Still quite beautiful if you ask me :)

I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee

I've been seeing a lot of people lately do every nail a different spring like color. Some people leave it glossy while others gave it a ...

I've been seeing a lot of people lately do every nail a different spring like color. Some people leave it glossy while others gave it a matte finish. I decided to do something similar, but to add a bumblebee. Here is the result:

I used a nail art pen by Sally Hansen to do the trail of the bumblebee; where the actual bee was done with a brush and China Glaze "Black Diamond." I like the pen but the point is too blunt to do any fine detail work. In some places I had to go over the lines twice to get the strong color I wanted. The yellow is China Glaze "Solar Power." The purple is Essence "oh my glitter." The blue is Essence "let's get lost." The green is Essence " l.o.l." Finally, the pink is Zoya "Gie Gie." The blue and purple Essences were all two coaters. The yellow purple and pink took three coats. The yellow needed it to get rid of streaks and the purple and pink needed it to be more opaque. I also put a couple layers of one of my nude colors on underneath the more translucent colors in hopes of making them opaque. It seemed to do the trick. I like the manj , but something about it isn't quite right. I'm not sure what is bothering me but I'll probably ended up redoing them this weekend. What spring manis have you attempted or are on your list of need to try?

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I've been seeing a lot of people lately do every nail a different spring like color. Some people leave it glossy while others gave it a matte finish. I decided to do something similar, but to add a bumblebee. Here is the result:

I used a nail art pen by Sally Hansen to do the trail of the bumblebee; where the actual bee was done with a brush and China Glaze "Black Diamond." I like the pen but the point is too blunt to do any fine detail work. In some places I had to go over the lines twice to get the strong color I wanted. The yellow is China Glaze "Solar Power." The purple is Essence "oh my glitter." The blue is Essence "let's get lost." The green is Essence " l.o.l." Finally, the pink is Zoya "Gie Gie." The blue and purple Essences were all two coaters. The yellow purple and pink took three coats. The yellow needed it to get rid of streaks and the purple and pink needed it to be more opaque. I also put a couple layers of one of my nude colors on underneath the more translucent colors in hopes of making them opaque. It seemed to do the trick. I like the manj , but something about it isn't quite right. I'm not sure what is bothering me but I'll probably ended up redoing them this weekend. What spring manis have you attempted or are on your list of need to try?

Creamsicle nails

I recently got a new orange, Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Sun Kissed," that reminded me so much of creamsicles that I just had to do...

I recently got a new orange, Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Sun Kissed," that reminded me so much of creamsicles that I just had to do a creamsicle esque mani.

The white is Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "White On." Although I love how this turned out, I would not recommend these colors for sponging gradient. They just don't really mix when put onto the sponge. The effect looks great here, but for most gradient manis, it would not work. I also like to sometimes do something different on my left hand. In this case I was tired and didn't want to take the time to do a mani that requires so much cleanup on the left hand. Here is what I did instead:

A simple nude color, Orly "Sheer Nude," with the same colors used for some dots along the side. Not perfect but I do enjoy this style. I will definitely revisit it again at a later time. The nude is not entirely opaque. I did three coats and decided to call it good. Even though it is slightly see through, in most lighting it does look solid.

So what do you guys think? Do they remind you of yummy Popsicles? Do you always match your hands or do you like to mix things up a bit like I did here? Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)

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I recently got a new orange, Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Sun Kissed," that reminded me so much of creamsicles that I just had to do a creamsicle esque mani.

The white is Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "White On." Although I love how this turned out, I would not recommend these colors for sponging gradient. They just don't really mix when put onto the sponge. The effect looks great here, but for most gradient manis, it would not work. I also like to sometimes do something different on my left hand. In this case I was tired and didn't want to take the time to do a mani that requires so much cleanup on the left hand. Here is what I did instead:

A simple nude color, Orly "Sheer Nude," with the same colors used for some dots along the side. Not perfect but I do enjoy this style. I will definitely revisit it again at a later time. The nude is not entirely opaque. I did three coats and decided to call it good. Even though it is slightly see through, in most lighting it does look solid.

So what do you guys think? Do they remind you of yummy Popsicles? Do you always match your hands or do you like to mix things up a bit like I did here? Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)