Mani Monday: Pink Doodle Stamping

Hey all.  I hope everyone had a nice weekend.  I have another stamping attempt for everyone today, so lets get to it.

I started off with ORLY's Artifical Sweetener on my thumb and middle fingers.  It is a pretty nudeish pink with a touch of gold shimmer.  I actually just picked this up at Sally's last 50% off clearance sale and I'm totally happy with it.  Two coats left it completely opaque and the shimmer was visible on the nail.  On my pointer and pinkie I am wearing two coats of OPIs Pussy Galore.  It is a baby pink texture with pink shimmer and was opaque with two coats.  I decided to leave it textured for this.  On my ring finger I am wearing my tried and true silver accent nail, two coats of Sally Hansen in Celeb City and one coat of Essie in Set in Stone.

On top of Artificial Sweetener I stamped a henna-esque design from Moyou London's Doodles #07 plate using a Konad double sided stamper and my go to black Cult Nails Fetish.  If you look closely you can see that the stamp does not reach the base of my cuticles and the very tip of my nail, but the design is very dark and sharp.  Slowly, but surely, I will figure out this stamping stuff!

If you are interesting in the stamping plate I used, you can find Moyou London's storefront here.  Really, they're gorgeous and I want so many more.

 As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Mani Monday: Jelly Sandwich

Happy Monday all!  I hope you had a lovely weekend.  I am still exhausted.  Really, it needs to be September 27th already so that I don't have to worry about wedding stuff any more.  I spent this last weekend figuring out the mens' clothing and helping my future mother in law pick out a dress.  I still have so much more stuff to do in the next four months. Ugggggg.

So today I bring you some quick, easy, and honestly kind of cheating, nail art.  Yay!  Jelly sandwich!  A jelly sandwich is when you paint your nails with a sheer or "jelly" polish and then layer a coat of glitter between two layers, or "sandwich" it.  I like jelly sandwiches for two reasons.  First off it's a good way of using polishes that are pretty, but just too sheer.  We all know I hate visible nail line and glitter does help cover that up.  Secondly, I like jelly sandwiches because it's almost like your making your own polish.  The effect of combining two polishes like this is very similar to some of the jelly and glitter mixes that indie polish makers are prone to making.  With a jelly sandwich you can do the same thing, but and pick the combination yourself.

For my sheer polish today, I used Esmaltes de Kelly in Blue Soap Bubbles.  I painted three coats of Blue Soap Bubbles on my nails and then put a coat of OPIs Comet in the Sky from the Winter 2014 Gwen Stefani collection.  Finally I topped it with one last coat of Blue Soap Bubbles and some quick dry top coat.  I only really use HK Girl.  My warning for this kind of mani and the reason why my cut off for polish is three coats, is that this will dent and wrinkle if you don't wait until it is completely dry.

If you're interested in sheer, jelly type of polishes or in Esmaltes de Kelly, they are available on Llarowe.

 As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Swatch Saturday: Essie Turquoise and Caicos

Happy Saturday all.  I just a have a quick swatch today of a popular Essie polish.  It is not quite to the level of Mint Candy Apple with its cult following, but this one is nice too.

This is Essie's Turquoise and Caicos.  It is a murky sea foam green cream that was opaque in three coats.  The formula was a bit finicky and patchy, but it did eventually become opaque.  The max number of coats I'm willing to deal with for one specific polish is three coats, so it managed to avoid being thrown out the window.  I have heard it said that Turquoise and Caicos is a dupe for China Glaze For Audrey.  Yeah, no it's not.  For Audrey is noticeably bluer than Turquoise and Caicos.  If nothing else it is a less dusty version of OPI Mermaids Tears.

 As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Hard to Find Friday: Cuccio Colour Chemical Attraction

Happy Friday!  Guess who has to work an extra shift at another branch this weekend on top of the normal work week?  This gal.  Uggg, so over it.

Today I have a a swatch of Cuccio Colour's Chemical Attraction.  First off, I'm classifying this as a hard to find polish because the only place I have ever seen any Cuccio polishes are some of the random nail supply shops in Orange County.  Really, to get my hands on this polish I drove almost two hours.  I also hear that one of the nail supply shops in Las Vegas has them and Amazon does too.  But then Amazon is expensive.  

Chemical Attraction is a pink tinted glitter topper with a gold shimmer and rose toned metallic hexes.  The glitter dispersement on this polish was fantastic.  I painted one coat of Chemical Attraction over Rimmel's Caramel Cupcake for the picture and I loved just how even it was.  It is also completely opaque in two to three coats.  I would have included a picture of it, but the metallic properties of this polish made is so very difficult to photograph.  

If you're interested in this polish, head over to yelp.com and search "nail supply" in your area.  You never know, maybe you'll find a fantastic shop that has these.  

 As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Untried Wednesday: Essie Coat Couture

Happy Wednesday all!  The week's halfway over and the weekend is coming!  The first day back after a long weekend is always hectic at work, so I'm hoping today I get a breather and some time to catch up.  Probably not.

Today I have Essie's Coat Couture from the 2015 Cashmire Matte collection.  Originally, I was not interested in these polishes at all.  I was just not into the matte crazy that had been going around.  They all just looked like polishes in my collection, but matte.  Really, I don't wear matte polish, I always top coat.  A perfectly glossy manicure just does things to me.  ;)  So what's the point?  Fortunately I was gifted to of them by my polish wifey.  She knows me better than I do.  

Coat Couture is a purpley gray with blue shimmer running through it.  The formula was smooth and easy to work with.  It was almost completely opaque in one coat, but I did have the odd patch, so I did two coats.  It's just such a pretty color and the blue shimmer almost coats everything in a flash.

I did want to include a picture of Coat Couture glossy.  The blue shimmer is more defined this way.  Either way it is a gorgeous polish and I loved wearing it.

 As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Mani Monday: Memorial Day Mani

To those of you reading this in the US, Happy Memorial Day.  To everyone else, happy Monday!

Today I have a more subtle patriotic mani than what I usually go for.  I guess that's what happens when I let Mr. LacquerVixen pick.  I used Zoya Purity, Illamasqua Phallic, some Vinyl Boutique Dream Catcher stencils, and some tiny red rhinestones.  

I painted Purity on my middle and ring fingers, then Phallic on the other three.  Both were pretty much one coaters with the odd bit of touching up on random nails.  Once Purity had completely dried, I placed the dream catcher stencils on my nails and painted over them with Phallic.  The stencils were okay to work with.  Most of the extra bits do come off on their own, unlike other ones I had tried before.  I did have a little bit of bleeding under the vinyls on my ring finger, so I had to go in with a brush to fix it.  Once my nails were dry enough, I did go over them with top coat and then pressed a small red rhinestone in the center of the design while the polish was still wet.

If you want to check out Vinyl Boutique, you can find the storefront here.  They do have some pretty cool designs.

 As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)

Swatch Saturday: Polish My Life Flower Power

Happy long weekend guys!  This could not have come any sooner.  I am so looking forward to sleeping, playing with polish and catching up on my shows.  So excited!

Today's Swatch Saturday is a quick one.  This is Polish My Life's Flower Power from the 2015 Spring Collection, All Things Vintage.  It is a slightly blue toned pastel purple cream that was opaque in two coats.  In the bottle there was a slight shimmer that did not transfer to the nail.  The formula was slightly patchy on one coat, but was perfect at two.  Surprisingly I did not have any dupes in my collection, but there were two similar colors.  

If you are interesting in Flower Power or checking out other Polish My Life polishes, you can find the storefront here.  I know I want the two other greens from the Spring collection.

 As the usual kind reminder, these products were purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have companies send me free stuff to review them. ;)