Mani Monday: Turquoise Stone

Happy new week everyone!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  I really wish I didn't have to go to work today because I could really use a day to recover from my weekend.  

These are the nails I wore for my Polished San Diego one year meet up for Saturday. Our theme was turquoise so my plan was to do a sort of turquoise stone manicure.  It didn't quite work out the way I had planned, but I like it.  I painted my nails with two coats of OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid to start off. Then I took a balled up piece of Seran Wrap and painted some of my usual Cult Nails Fetish on to the wrinkles.  I dabbed off some the excess polish before dabbing it onto my nails.  I did the same with Sally Hansen Go for Gold.  So what do you all think?

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: ORLY Bling featuring Picture Polish Kryptonite and China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Happy Saturday!  I hope you have all had a lovely week.  I had to admit to something.  Today's blog post isn't just a plain swatch.  We had to go to a holiday party Friday night and I wanted to have festive nails.  So I kept it simple and that's what I have for you all today.  So I cheated.  Just a little bit.

On my thumb, pointer, and pinkie I have two coats of ORLY's Bling from the 2014 Sparkle collection. It is also the same collection that the infamous Mirrorball is in, though right now, I kind of like Bling more.  It is a super dense gold holographic glitter.  The formula was smooth and easy to work with.  The selling factor of this polish for me is that it is super holographic in doors with normal lighting.  Normally holo really looks amazing in sunlight, but Bling still has that rainbow sparkle inside.  I love it!  If you can still find this at your local Sally's Beauty Supply or Ulta, GET IT.  On my middle finger I am wearing Picture Polish Kryptonite which I have recently swatched here.  My ring finger is two coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  This one is a cult classic.  It is a red jelly with red glitters, and it just sparkles like no one's business.  The glitters almost seem to glow with this one.

As a side note, this polish was purchased with my own money.  I am not cool enough to have people send me polishes just to review them. ;-)

Mani Monday: Rica Hanukkah Collection

Happy Monday!  Today I have Rica's Hanukkah Collection to show off.  A month ago, I was telling a friend how difficult it was to find holiday polishes that were not Christmas ones, so I usually skip the holiday collections.  Then I saw something on Instagram saying that Rica was having a Hanukkah collection.  I never saw swatches, I had no idea what they would look like, but I knew that I had to have them.  If you follow me on Instagram, then last Monday you would have seen the screenshot of my order.  Yeah, that's how excited I was.  So I got this in the mail over the weekend and of course had to use it right away.

This collection has three polishes called Show Me the Gelt!, 8 Crazy Nights, and I Love You Latke.  On my thumb and ring fingers I am wearing Show Me the Gelt!  It is a gold glitter with holographic gold hexes and regular copper hexes.  It was opaque in two coats.  It did dry a little bumpy, but nothing that a coat of thick top coat wouldn't fix.  I really love the glitter and I'm glad to have it in my collection because I don't really have anything like it.  On my pointer and pinkie I am wearing 8 Crazy Nights which is a super holographic blue polish.  Now when I swatched this on my swatch stick, it took four coats to be opaque and it was still kind of patchy, so I was disappointed.  On the nail though, I am wearing three coats, and the third was unnecessary.  Two coats was perfect.  Finally on my middle finger I am wearing I Love You Latke.   It is a three coat warm cream color with a gold shimmer.  It is a very pretty color and a three coater is not strange for a polish of this color.  I really like it.

On top of the polishes, I did some quick nail art.  Once 8 Crazy Nights was entirely dry, I placed lightning bolt Nail Vinyls and painted over them in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Go For the Gold.  Then on top of I Love You A Latke I placed a gold colored filgree plate.  Over all, I am happy with the end result and glad it was easy.

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: OCC Electric Sheep and Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow!

Happy Wednesday all!  I hope that the week has been going well for you all.  I'm still managing to kick NaNoWriMo butt and blogging consistently, so go me.  Today I have two untried polishes to show you all, so I hope you enjoy them.  Also, what is up with my skin that I have lobster hands?  My skin is usually not this red.  I'm going to blame it on the dry air and fluctuating temperatures here in San Diego.  It is totally not fun.   

On my thumb, index, and pinkie fingers I have wearing Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics in Electric Sheep.  It is a dusty lilac cream with a bit of silver shimmer.  I love these kind of colors and the best part about this is that it is a one coater.  The formula is a little thick, but nothing that you can't work with.  Electric Sheep was released in OCC's Spring 2013 Sci-Fi Lullabies collection.  It was named after Phillip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which was the inspiration behind the 1982 film Blade Runner.  It is still available on Sephora's website, but not on OCC's site.

Now on my middle and ring fingers I am wearing Deborah Lippmann's Boom Boom Pow! from the Winter 2010 collection.  It is a mixture of gold hexes and actual 24 karat gold dust.  This works best as a topper, but I wanted to see if it would become opaque.  For my picture I used four coats and could still see a touch of nail line.  So this one you want to limit to topping polishes.  It is a beauty and totally glad I got my hands on it.  I bought this at Ulta on clearance and it is still available on the website.  It is also listed on the Deborah Lippmann website, but it is full price there.  If you happen to be in an Ulta, make sure you check out the clearance section.  I've found lots of other Deborah Lippmanns for at least 50% off, so don't ever discount 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. ;)

Hard to Find Friday: FUN Lacquer Belle 1.0

Happy Friday!  Looks like it's holo week here at LacquerVixen Headquarters.  I seem to just be pulling holographic polishes this week and I have no problem with that!

Today for Hard to Find Friday I have FUN Lacquer's Belle from her first set of Limited Edition Disney Princess holographic polishes.  This gold polish is inspired by Belle's fantastic ball gown.  It took two coats for complete opacity.  It is a scattered holo and the best way to see it is in sunlight.  In door it just looks like regular glitter.  FUN Lacquer did recently release a new Limited Edition Disney Princess collection where the holographic factor was amped up.  For Belle at least, the 2.0 version may be a better option if you love the full rainbow factor that holographic glitter gives.  Over all I like this polish, but I don't love it.  The formula is solid and the gold is a flattering shade, but I really wish the holo was more obvious.  Go big or go home.

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. ;)

Pinata Snow Mani

Today is only a quick mani guys.  I pulled out the polishes with the intention of just something simple for an interview and I swiped on three coats of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Ivory Skull.  Like I mentioned before in the Colorful Leopard Mani, this white isn't my favorite because it takes so many coats to give full coverage, but I haven't gotten around to replace it because I've been lazy.

I was going to stick with just plain white, but then I wasn't paying attention and my bottle of Ulta's Pinata-Yada jumped into my hand and demanded I use it.  This is probably my favorite glitter polish ever, probably because it has a ton of different colors in it.  It has red, fuchsia, blue, green, silver and gold glitters in various sizes.  

What Wizardry is This? OPI and Liquid Sand

So for those of you who don't know, one of the nifty new things in nail polish right now are textured, matte polishes.  OPI was the first to come out with them in the form of four new polishes that were part of their Mariah Carey line.  They were chock full of glitter, which we know I love, but there were also little stars.  Considering how annoyed I've been getting lately with polishes that had confetti, I thought it best to stay away from the Liquid Sands.

Then Zoya came out with their Pixie Dust lines and I thought that they were awesome, unfortunately none of the colors really sung out to me enough that I needed to spend the extra money on shipping, so I controlled myself.   A couple smaller lines came out with textured polishes, like Milani, but they're not sparkly so I'm not interested.  Without the glitter they just kind of look like you messed up your polish while it was still wet and was too lazy to fix it.

Finally, OPI came out with the press releases for their line inspired by Oz the Great and Powerful and I saw this baby.  I NEEDED it.  Usually when I buy polishes, it's either when they're on sale or online and cheaper.  I really hate spending a full $9.50 on a bottle, but as soon as I saw the display at my Ulta on Saturday, I plucked it off the table and clutched it in my little hands.  I was so excited to find it, that I wasn't even upset that Ulta's usual $3.50 off of $10 coupon doesn't work on OPI any more.  Did you guys know that?  I had to pay full price for this sucker, and looking at it now on my nails, I regret nothing!

What Wizardry is This? is a chocolate colored polish with gold glitter and that totally awesome texture feel to it.  It went on in two coats perfectly and dried pretty quickly.  To keep the texture, you of course don't want to add a top coat.  It'll make the polish smooth and shiny, taking away the totally awesome bumpiness and matte look.  Also, sorry about how red my hands look.  I think it's the terrible lighting in the kitchen.

I'm a sucker for the feel of things, and while I do love a smooth and glossy nail, I adore the sandpapery texture of this nail polish.  I even showed it off at work by walking up to people and demanding they rub my nails.  Yeah, if my coworkers weren't used to me they'd think I'm a weirdo or something.

I've had this polish on for three days now, and for me that's a long time.  I don't even want to change my polish yet.  Usually by now the cheaper polishes have peeled off and most others are chipping away, or I get bored with the color and NEED to change it out.  This Liquid Sand color is still holding up strong with only the single chip on my middle finger.  Looking at it now, I might finally splurge on some of the Zoya Pixie Dusts.

Hex Lizard Mani

In case I have not already mentioned it before, I am a nerd.  I play video games, I watch nerdy shows, I read comic books, and I love the Avengers.
OPI's Amazing Spiderman line caused my love of nail polish, more specifically Just Spotted the Lizard did. It is definitely one of my favorite polishes.

The color changes from green to gold based on the angle that light hits it. I did two coats of polish and look how pretty it is! I've noticed with metallic duochrome polishes you have to do two coats. The first coat is always way too sheer and kind of ugly. The second coat is what makes it pretty. People always comment about how it looks like beetles.

I added very light green hex glitters on my thumb, middle, and ring fingers. They added a nice reflective quality to my mani that I kept getting distracted by. Now if I only had the patience to lay down the glitters in order so they completely covered my nail, I would be golden.

Julep Cindy Swatch

When I first started getting in nail polish, I spent a whole bunch of time reading blogs, and on Pinterest.  I kept hearing about Julep, and their Maven program.  Come on, $20 a month for at two to three nail polishes that are trendy and chosen to best fit your style?  It's a steal!  Especially considering that they're fabulous colors and good quality.

At some point I got Cindy, I don't remember if it came in a box or as an add on.  I just remember picking it because I didn't have any green polishes and it was sparkly.  For the longest time it just stayed in my nail polish case and for whatever reason I never picked it up.  Well I finally used it and it is fantastic.
Cindy is a grassy green jelly with tiny green and gold glitter, though it is a little hard to notice the gold in the picture.  I had to do three coats to get this coverage because at two I still had a little bit of a visible nail line.
I got a ton of compliments on this color.  My favorite was "I like your nails because they're my favorite color.  Green, like money."