Holly Jolly Texture

I love me some texture polishes, and Zoya's Chita, China and Solange make a lovely giftwrap-style manicure.

Jelly Time

Jelly sandwich time, folks!  I needed a little summer color today, seasons be damned!

Gorgeous!  I love this cantaloupe colored jelly, Zoya's Maya, with Maria Luisa in between.  Gotta love a subtle gold flakie peeking out from a lush jelly!

Puttin' on the (Neutral) Glitz

Nude polishes are always a safe choice, a classy choice, and a simple, clean choice.

I like a little flash with my neutral nails, so I popped Nina Ultra Pro's Holographic Topcoat (ugh, buy this polish asap folks, it's amaaaaaaazing) over China Glaze Fast Track, with an accent of Spoiled's Jewelry Heist, and voila!

I'm back!

I've been a pretty lackadaisical blogger for a while now, but I'd like to change that!  I moved house, got a new job, got some chickens and have been working on increasing my fitness level as well, so I let blogging take a bit of a back seat.

I'm hoping to stick to a Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule.  As my polish collection has done nothing but grow lately, I've got even more to share.

Let's start with my current manicure:

I used Zoya's Jaime as a base, and jazzed it up with one of the new Maybelline Brocades, Gilded Rose, and Sally Hansen Glitter Gun from the Rent the Runway collection (see a fantastic overview here: http://nouveaucheap.blogspot.com/2013/08/spotted-new-sally-hansen-limited_22.html).

Application Notes:

• The application of Jaime was very nice; I still had visible nail line at 2 coats, but no streakiness or tricky application, which can be the case with a pastel like this.  
• Gilded Rose is just perfect; opaque in 2 coats, smooth even before you add topcoat, stunning.  I might just buy a backup.
• Glitter Gun was a shot in the dark for me, because a lot of the major brands kind of miss the mark with glitter mixes like this, but I was pleasantly surprised!  Simple application, not too much dabbing to place the glitter, and a free-flowing base that didn't gloop up.

I, much like Wendy Torrance, love pink and gold together. Gorgeous!

Artsy Wednesday: Inspired by a Designer

BOB MACKIE.  How can you not, when looking for inspiration for a nail polish look?

Feathery swirls, bright metallics, sequins, thank goodness for Bob Mackie!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work (and we have two new participants, Makeup and Masala and Every Little Polish)!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

Julep's Faye: Sun Worshiper

I chose the Julep Boho Glam box for July, thinking I'd take a chance on the color Faye.  It's definitely nothing I'd ever see in a store and think, "That color was made for me!"  Julep called it a bronze, but I don't think of bronze when I see it.  It's the color of pale milk chocolate, with a gold flash in the sun.  I really do think of the term sun worshiper when I see it.

It's like nothing I've ever seen before, and I'm glad I took a chance on it.

The takeaway message is, give a color a shot if it's like nothing you've ever seen before.  It might just surprise you with how much you end up liking it!

All products in this post were purchased by me, and all opinions are my own.

Artsy Wednesday: Vintage

I wanted to tip a hat to the aesthetic of the '20s-'30s, and did a sort of Art Deco/Geometric manicure with vampy, glamorous colors for this one!

I channeled Doris Duke a bit, with her embrasure of geometric patterns, and so I threw a tropical background into these pictures to further the effect!

I used Julep's Trina and Sienna for the luxe colors, and used striping tape to get the diamond patterns.  I love the fancy french tip concept, and with the striping tape this look really is a breeze; just make an X at the tip of your finger with the striping tape and paint the tip color over the gaps in the X.  Peel the tape off, and voila!   

                                     
Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E

And don't forget, I'm having a major giveaway, including 3 Zoya minis as a prize (Plus an Ulta giftcard, a Sephora giftcard, and a Llarowe giftcard as other possible prizes)!  Click the image below to enter!

Indie Spotlight: Hot Mess Lacquers

*none of the links in this post are affiliate links
Hot Mess Lacquers is a personal favorite for me.  I own a fair number of her line already, and so when I got the opportunity to review polishes for my blog, I jumped at the chance!  Hot Mess Lacquers  was kind enough to provide three polishes for review, and I even got to select one myself, with the other two being surprises.

Unsurprisingly, I love all three. A lot.  I knew I got a Hot Mess package in the mail by the fun neon pink zebra duct tape, but I didn't expect coordinated wrappings for the polishes!  I love these kinds of details, they make getting packages so much fun.

For review, I was given "All Hail the Queen", an Alien movie series reference, "Across the Trailer Park", and "Bourgie Bitch".  I love the Hot Mess labels; they really make a statement, but you can still see the polish in the bottle, it's a great design balance.

Below are the gorgeous swatches:

First off, All Hail the Queen.  I love the Alien movie series, even the terrible 4th movie.  I rarely get into a horror series, but I think the grandeur, the good acting and the quality of the cinematography is beyond compare for these movies.  So, to get a nail polish themed after these movies was extra fun.  What was extra, extra fun?  Discovering that the label was printed in the title font for the Alien movie; such attention to detail is a fantastic example of why I love Hot Mess.

 All Hail the Queen is an olivine jelly with forest green square glitter and golden-orange hexes in at least two sizes.  The coverage is fabulous; the swatches below are 2 coats, no topcoat.

I love the square glitter in this; it's a great departure from the typical hex, and the effect is insecty, lizardy, alien.  It's also appreciable that it's not a grey or black polish; it's not too literal, but it gives the great hidden, haunting, non-human effect that the films provide as well.

Next, Across the Trailer Park.  While I was given All Hail the Queen and Bourgie Bitch as surprises, I chose Across the Trailer Park.  I was looking forward to the deep blue with blue and green hexes, but I had no idea it'd be such a bright, peacocky color that made my nails look like they were covered in sequins!  Below is two coats, no topcoat:

Three thin coats would eliminate all visible nail line, but I didn't mind the hint of it with two coats.  The base is a bright peacock jelly, and the two types of hexes plus the mini blue glitter provide a fantastic finish.  I dabbed this a bit to ensure I got good glitter placement, but the application itself was smooth.  I didn't have to worry about bald patches or dragging at all.

Finally, Bourgie Bitch.  I think I gasped when I saw this one, and I'm so glad Hot Mess Lacquers picked it out to send to me for review.  It's a baby blue base with a pink flash, all with baby blue and rose gold hexes, along with two sizes of golden glitter.  Below is two effortless coats:

This polish is so subtly beautiful.  The dreamy, almost robin-egg blue with the pink flash, the glittering bits of gold adding luxury, oh my nails are so pretty right now!

You could draw some parallels to Revlon Whimsical or Deborah Lippman Glitter in the Air, but this polish is SO MUCH prettier.  I always thought Whimsical looked a little...barfy.  Just the wrong tones together.  Bourgie Bitch, along with being a beautiful full coverage, has a charming pink flash and golden glitter to really round it out as a beautiful polish.

I'm so flattered to have been selected to receive these polishes for review from Hot Mess Lacquers, and I am pleased to say that all three polishes here covered well in two coats, have fabulous glitter combos, and are just a pleasure to apply and wear.  A+!

*All products reviewed here were provided by Hot Mess Lacquers for review.  All opinions are my own.

Artsy Wednesday: Indie

Have I got a glitter bomb of a manicure for you guys!

One of my favorite things about Indie polishes is that they have such different looks to them than mainstream, big-brand polishes have.  You couldn't get jewel-encrusted nails like this with just any polish!  I used Julep's Amber as a quick base for this (mattes make for fabulous quick drying bases!), then a single layer of Hot Mess's Aquanet, with Hello Dolly by Pretty & Polished on the tips in a glitter gradient.

The mega-hexes of Aquanet make me inordinately happy, and the super-glittery lilac of Hello Dolly, coupled with the freshness of the matte white glitter is a thing of wonder and a joy forever :)  I love indie polishes; you get to support small business, you get polishes that just don't exist in the mainstream market, and you get to have a great time combining them to make your very own fancy nail jewelery!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

Lacquered Lunatic

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Day 6: Holiday Movie; The Santa Clause

I love The Santa Clause; a Christmas movie about doubt and belief, magic, generosity, good fun, family, falling off the roof, burnt turkey, ugly sweaters, snow globes and more? What's not to like!?

My little Santa suit nails are actually pretty easy to do, as evidenced by this video tutorial!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Gift Wrap

I don't actually own any gift wrap at the moment; I tend to use gift bags because they're so much faster.  So, I drew my inspiration from thin air and decided a nice gilted red would be a lovely giftwrap.

Using the Llarowe LeaLC stamping plate B and Kleancolor Metallic Gold, I stamped a whole bunch of gift-wrappey patterns onto Butter London's Knees Up.  Knees Up is SO gorgeous, and the Kleancolor metallics stamp like a dream!

Artsy Wednesday: Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner; wasn't it July just recently?

This manicure isn't going to make any kind of sense without a backstory, so here it is: Bees.  My manicure is a tribute to a very large Secret Santa exchange that happens over the internet, wherein the Secret Santas and Santees regularly make jokes about sending and receiving bees (can you imagine receiving a box full of bees in the mail? Terrifying!).

I was lucky enough to get a Santa who sent me a fabulous gift, including 4 Julep polishes I didn't own (a feat in itself, since I own something like 30!), some fabulous nail art glitters, and a nice black polish (for bee striping, of course!)  I set out to make a bee-like manicure with the bee colored portions of their gift, and made a honeycomb/stripey design for my Christmas manicure.

I've participated in this Secret Santa exchange for 2 years now, and it's so much fun to send gifts to people across the country (or the world!), get thoughtful and fun gifts from a relative stranger, and basically add even more excitement to the holidays.  So, I have a bee manicure, because it wouldn't be Christmas with out bees!

Bzz!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Lacquered Lunatic

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 1: Silver and Gold!

Silver and gold, silver and gold

Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold

How do you measure its worth?

Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth.

Silver and gold, silver and gold

Mean so much more when I see

Silver and gold decorations

On ev'ry Christmas tree.

I've had that song stuck in my head since I signed on for this nail art challenge.  I tried to do striping tape trees in gold, with Zoya's Luna as the background, for the silver element of the nail art.  I added little iridescent stars on top of each tree, to create a super shimmery, gorgeous manicure!  I'm in love with this one, and the tape trees are SO easy to do!

Photographing them, on the other hand, is NOT easy, especially when they're this glittery!  My lighting was shining off of it so brightly that I barely got any usable photos.  However, moving my hands around creates this gorgeously distracting glitter

Artsy Wednesday: Drag Marble

You guys are going to have to excuse the slightly crummy pictures today; it's been raining like crazy, and my old junky Nikon doesn't like my lightbox, so my lighting options have been limited.  On that note, what kind of camera do you like to use for close-up photos?  I could use some recommendations!

Anyway, back on track, today's Artsy Wednesday is a drag marble.  A drag marble involves slathering a thickish layer of a base polish on, then dabbing a bit of another color and dragging a needle through it to make designs.

I had Pretty & Polished Pretty as a Peacock on, and didn't want to take it off because it's so pretty, but didn't want to cover it up either.  Jelly polish to the rescue!  Zoya's Frida was a perfect base for my drag marble, and Julep's Sienna (the perfect gold polish), was a nice accent to the teal base.  My technique could use refining, as I basically just made little sunshiny splats, but it was a pretty neat process.

You do end up with a lot of polish on your nail; even after a 30 minute dry time and a fast-dry top coat, I wrecked both my thumbs :(  So, set aside a lot of time for a drag marble!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Lacquered Lunatic

Artsy Wednesday: Creative with Crackle

I have never owned a crackle polish, until yesterday.  I never actually liked them, but the whole point of my wanting to participate with Artsy Wednesday was to try new things, right?  Right??

I ran out to Sally's to snag one of the China Glaze crackles that are practically always on clearance there, and picked up Haute Metal, a rosy metallic crackle.  I figured "creative" required more than just crackling the whole nail, so I did oblique stripes per nail, over Orly Ingenue.  Thus, a fairly pretty, candylike manicure was born!

Upon staring at my nails and trying to think of other ways I could use crackle, it occurred to me that it looked like a similar texture to a lipstick print.  I may try using this on valentines, to make little lip prints on my nails.  We'll see!

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Polished Genius
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Lacquered Lunatic

Artsy Wednesday: Wedding Nails

Well sportsfans, I've discovered my polish Achilles heel; french manicures.  I wanted to go all traditional with this week's theme.  I figured, since I'll probably end up having a non-traditional wedding, this'd be a great opportunity!  And it was!  I just wasn't very good at seizing the day.  

To make the best of it, I'm going to claim these are for a winter holiday wedding, held in the evening! (Because the sun hasn't been out in days and I haven't been able to fix my lightbox!)  Without further ado, hand-waving or explanations, my take on wedding nails:

And just for fun, I threw on a ring so you could get the full theme effect:

I'm really honored to be able to participate in Artsy Wednesday, and you should all DEFINITELY check out these other, very talented Artsy Wednesday participants.  

 Pretty Purple Polish

Lab Muffin
Maria's Nail Art
Polished Genius
Valiantly Varnished
Unnaked Nails
Nail & Polish
Beauty Gnome
Kaka Beauty Blog