Lacquerhead Polish Cold Shoulder

Ahh I've missed my blog so much! School has been sucking all my time away :( I've been painting my nails on occasion but can't remember that last time I've done any nail art. What a bummer. But I have a super awesome polish to show you today! This is Lacquerhead Cold Shoulder.

I'm a sucker for white-based glitters. This polish has large black hexes, black squares, medium gorgeous blue hexes and blue and black micro glitter. It's so pretty together! 

This is two coats. It applied really well and I didn't have to fish for glitter. And it was perfectly smooth with one coat of top coat.

I apoligize for my sad cuticles. They're not getting the love they deserve. My favorite macro is the top right with the square in it. I love squares! You can buy Lacquerhead Polish here. Cold Shoulder is sold out now but it should be back soon!

Adventures in Stamping: Can't Wait for Fall

Usually we stamp on Sundays, but I'm bringing you a late installment. I've been super busy the past two days coordinating Welcome Week for my student organization so I didn't have time to write up the post (or take photos of it at its best). I wasn't really feeling fall colors but since it was Welcome Week and the start of the fall semester, I used my school colors! 

For this mani I used Blackheart Amsterdam, Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, L.A. Colors Circuits, Sally Hansen Wet Cement, Spoiled Shuffle the Deck, Lush Lacquer Midnight Affair, Jade Magia Negra and Jade Vermelho Surreal. I used Bundle Monster plates BM322, and BM301, and Mash plates Mash 47, Mash 45, and Mash 49.

Adventures in Stamping: Two Stamps

Today's Adventure in Stamping challenge is to use two stamps. I thought this way a perfect opportunity to try a lace mani!

I used Orly Nite Owl then stamped with BM 07, BM 209 and L.A. Colors Circuits. I had some weird issues with the first stamp from BM 07 but I didn't stress too much since it was going to be covered by the fishnet design. I really like how this turned out!

If you're interested in stamping, I highly encourage you to join the Adventures in Stamping facebook group. Just click the badge at the top. There some awesome people there that can help you with any troubles in stamping as well as enable you. And you can check out their awesome manis for inspiration. We'd love to have you :)

Blogger Friends Forever: Black & White

Today's challenge is Black & White. I was really excited about this one because I absolutely love black and white designs. I'd also been itching to try out this stamp!

I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White. I found 3 bottles of this last night on clearance and I could not be more excited. It's great for stamping and covers really well. Then I stamped with L.A. Colors Circuits and BM 314.

This stamp and my polish was doing some wonky things. Definitely not one of my best stamps, but I'm still pretty satisfied with it :)

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)

Blogger Friends Forever: Animals

Today's theme is animals! I was really excited to this one because I love animals :) I chose my top five to use for this mani. Here's the ones I freehanded:

My favorite animals are #1 Dolphins #2 Otters #3 Ducks #4 Tigers and #5 Lions. I had lots and lots of trouble with the otter and the detail on the duck was a challenge. In the end, I still think they're pretty cute. The lion is by far my fave. He just looks adorable! What's your favorite animal?!

Materials used:

Dolphin: Revlon Royal, Blue Mosaic, Bundle Monster BM 320, Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.

Otter: China Glaze Elephant Walk and black acrylic paint.

Duck: Kleancolor Neon Aqua, Zoya Pippa, OPI In My Back Pocket, black acrylic paint.

Tiger: China Glaze Desert Sun, black acrylic paint.

Lion: China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, Desert Sun, Orly Buried Alive and black acrylic paint.

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)

Blogger Friends Forever: 80s

Here we go for 80s day! Since I was only a fetus when this decade closed, I don't have any personal experience with it. I did some google and referenced The Wedding Singer for some help and came up with checkers, neons and splatter.

Checkers remind me of the 80s. Probably because of The Wedding Singer and his sheets. You mean you don't remember his sheets?! Good, you're normal. I started with a base of Pure Ice white, then stamped with Cheeky CH3 and L.A. Colors Circuits. Then I used straws to splatter with China Glaze Hang Ten Toes, Surfin' for Boys, Sun Kissed, I'm With the Lifeguard, Splish Splash and Beach Cruise-r. I was completely satisfied with my splattering and then decided to do one last blow on my thumb because it needed more purple.

That was clearly a mistake.

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)

Blogger Friends Forever: Punk

While I was really look forward to the last challenge, I was kinda dreading this one haha. While I am definitely a nerdy bookworm, I'm not really punk, so I had no idea what to do for this challenge. (That's why they're challenges, to push you out of your comfort zone!) I asked the ladies in my birthday group and they had some awesome ideas. One of the suggestions was chains and I had a stamp for that!

I stamped one chain along the tip and absolutely loved it! The original plan was silver and gold chains all over, but I loved the funky French look and stuck with it. I decided it was a more inspired-by mani than direct inspiration haha. Plus non-conformity, so there's that lol. While it's still not really my style, aren't these hot?! Materials used: Bundle Monster plate BM 15, L.A. Colors Circuits, China Glaze Passion.

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)

Teal Tuesday: Monochrome

Today's teal manicure is monochrome! I was inspired by The Crumpet's awesome mosaic manis. I also had some fabulous new teal I couldn't wait to try out!

For this mani I started with a base of China Glaze Exotic Encounters. I then drew my mosaic outline with China Glaze Ink and filled it in with Color Club Untamed Luxury, China Glaze DV8, and Love & Beauty Metallic Teal using a dotting tool. I wasn't the most precise dotter, so I went back over my lines with Ink to make it a little clearer.

I thin it's funny that I classify all these as teal, but all together they make each other look not so teal haha. I'm trying to decide which is my favorite nail, but just when I think I've decided, I notice something I like about another one lol.

Check out these other Teal Tuesday blogs! If you'd like to join us, click on the badge at the top of my page!

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Rhonda at Nails Beautiqued

Kirsten at Geeky Owl

Amanda at Mandy's Polish

ColorSplash Nails

Simple-and-Beautiful

Aimee at Persistently Glittery

Nat at No Holos!

Ana at Cherries Sweet

Caitlin at Caitlin's Creative Corner

Ariane at The Frenzied Polisher

Kia at Lacquered Libra

Belén at Nail Polish Lane

Sam at  Polished Art

Jess at Once Upon a Polish

Jasmin at Subtletyisoverrated

Blogger Friends Forever: Book Cover

I was so excited for today's challenge! I wanted to do a book cover for so long and finally had an excuse to! I chose The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly because I love love love this cover. I saw it at Hastings and knew I had to add this book to my buy list.

I read this book two summers ago, so I can't remember exactly what it's about. I do remember that I thoroughly enjoyed it and that it has a lot of fairy tale elements to it. I'm definitely going to start rereading it after this :)

I started with four coats of Deborah Lippmann Footloose. I was not a happy camper. A polish has to be pretty special for me to be willing to do three coats, and damn near magical for four. This was neither. And then I got shrinkage! I tried to use a stamp to mimic the vines, but either my stamp or my stamping polish wouldn't work :( I finally gave up and freehanded with acrylic paint and a dotting tool. I also used plate LO01 for the keys. Since my stamping polish wasn't opaque enough, I went over it with acrylic paint and my dotting tool. I did the index nail first before I really knew what I was doing. I eventually got better and the ring and middle are my favorites. Despite all the issues I had, I'm still pretty satisfied with the end result :)

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:
Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)

Polish Day: Jelly Sandwich

Polish Days is when a group of blogger get together and each do a themed manicure together! Today's theme is jelly sandwich!

I started with two coats of OPI My Pointe Exactly. I had two glitters I wanted to use so I decided to do a "martini accent". For my glitters I used Icing Shredded on my thumb through middle finger and Lush Lacquer Midnight Affair on my ring and pinky. Then I topped it off with two more coats of MPE.

When I saw that OPI was releasing a grey jelly, I wanted it specifically so that I could use it in a jelly sandwich with black glitter. I really like it!

Here it is before I topped of the sandwich. I will definitely have to use these glitters over just a grey without sandwiching it soon. Love this!

If you'd like to join in on the next Polish Days, go here: http://www.pollypolish.com/polish-days/ 

Make sure to check out the other awesome bloggers' jelly sanwiches!

Hannah (Polly Polish) http://www.pollypolish.com/polish-days-july-jelly-sandwich Jen (The Nail Polish Project) http://thenailpolishproject.com/?p=2496 Susy (Susy In Color) http://www.susyincolor.com/2012/07/polish-days-jelly-sandwich/ Jenny (Beauty by Jenny) http://wp.me/p1RWKd-rf Mara (Mara in Polishland) http://www.marainpolishland.com/2012/07/today-is-jelly-sandwich-day.html Nail Tart http://nailtart.com/?p=388 Salla (OMG Polish Em) http://www.polish-em.net/2012/07/polish-days-jelly-sandwich.html Jasmine http://colourcoated.com/2012/07/02/polish-days-jelly-sandwich/ Deborah (Love Varnish) http://www.lovevarnish.com/2012/07/polish-days-sandwichpd-jelly-sandwich.html Kat (Hooked on Polish) http://www.hookedonpolish.com/2012/07/its-sandwichin-time.html Melissa (The Crimson Petal) http://the-crimson-petal.onsugar.com/Jelly-Sandwich-Day-23689442 Cassie (Sparkles Make Me Happy) http://sparklesmakemehappy.com/2012/07/03/happy-jelly-sandwich-day/ Pris (Pris Nails) http://prisnails.blogspot.ca/2012/06/polish-days-jelly-sandwich.html Julie (Time On My Nails http://www.timeonmynails.com/2012/07/polish-days-jelly-sandwich.html Keisha (Refined & Polished) http://refinedandpolished.blogspot.com/2012/07/polish-days-jelly-sandwich.html Lynn (Oh So Lacquered) http://www.ohsolacquered.blogspot.com Alexis (xoxo Alexis) http://xoxoalexisleigh.blogspot.com/2012/07/polish-days-jelly-sandwich.html Cuti-CLUE-les http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.ie/2012/07/polish-days-jelly-sandwich.html Mihaela http://www.lacquerbuzz.com/2012/07/sandwich-day.html Stephanie (Sincerely Stephanie) http://www.sincerelystephanienails.com Heidi (Pretty Painted Nails) http://prettypaintednails.com/water-based-nail-polish/jelly-sandwich-manicure/ Sabine (My Polish Stash) http://mypolishstash.blogspot.com/2012/07/polish-days-vol-2-jelly-sandwich.html A Lacquered Affair http://alacqueredaffair.onsugar.com/Polish-Days-2-Jelly-Sandwich-23792485

Rainbow Favorites: Red

The other day in PAA, Bec from Lacquer Dreams invited everyone to join in a rainbow themed week of favorites! Since I love rainbows, I joined in! Today's color is red :)

My favorite red is China Glaze Salsa. This is too coats. Doesn't it look so juicy?! It also matches my Beetle :D

The only thing I don't like about this polish: like most reds, it gets everywhere when you're removing it. 

I didn't want to do just swatches, so I decided to combine it with black! I did a glitter gradient with L.A. Girl Glitter Addict Uninhibited.

Check out all the blogs participating in the Rainbow Favorites Challenge!

~on beauty stuff and what else's...~

9ml universe

atlcatsmeow

Captivating Claws

Fancy Phalanges

Fe's Nails

Follow the Yellow Polish Road

Football and Fingernails

Fresh Air & Fashion

Happy Nails

iHeartPrettyPolish

Jolien's Kingdom of Polish

Kelly's Kolors!

Lacquer Dreams

Lacquer or Leave Her!

Liesl Loves Pretty Things

Light Your Nails!

Manicurity

My Life In Polish

nailpolish is alive(:

Nail Polish Lane

Nubbin Nails

Of Color n Music

Polish and Such

Sincerely, Obsessed with Polish

So You Think You Can Paint

The Rantings of a Nail Polish Hoarder

To Polish or Not?

Summer Challenge: Ladybugs...or Ladybirds

This week had been absolutely crazy! But now that it's over I can post a little more regularly :) Today's challenge is ladybugs! Or as the UK girls call them, ladybirds. I jokingly asked what ladybirds were to make sure I didn't have to make Ladybird Johnson nails, much to the amusement of The Crumpet haha :) Have you heard the legend of the ladybug? I found it here.

"Legends vary about how the Ladybug came to be named, but the most common (and enduring) is this:   In Europe, during the Middle Ages, swarms of insects were destroying the crops.  The farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help.  Soon thereafter the Ladybugs came, devouring the plant-destroying pests and saving the crops!  The farmers called these beautiful insects "The Beetles of Our Lady", and - over time - they eventually became popularly known as "Lady Beetles".  The red wings were said to represent the Virgin's cloak and the black spots were symbolic of both her joys and her sorrows."

At my parents' store we have a rosary that has beads shaped like ladybugs because of the legend of how they got their names. It's kinda perfect because the rosary is a series of prayers asking Mary to pray for us and ladybugs are named after her. Anyways, enough of the Catholic nerdery. On to the polish!

I started with two coats of OPI Color So Hot it Berns. Then I freehanded some ladybugs with a striper brush and L.A. Colors Circuits :) I kinda accidentally did a few different versions, but not all ladybugs are alike. Or maybe some are ladybugs and some are ladybirds haha. This mani kinda went through the ringer at work, so it's not my neatest work, but I still like it :)

Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet

Danielle at Little Book of Beauty

Neivys at Maquiclub Girl

Jo at Northern Nails

Arlene at Nails and Vanities

Helena at Nail Wish

Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les

Katee at A Girl and Her Polish

Sarah at Y Nails...Why Not?

Bec at Lacquer Dreams

Misha at Enigmatic Rambles

Sharon at What Color Is My Coat

Melissa at (Mis)adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Laurie at Dressed Up Digits

Lucie at Lucy's Stash

Emma at  Manicurity

Caitlin at Caitlin's Creative Corner

Jane at Absolute Varnish

Amber at Never Naked Nails

Vic at Glowstars

Jackie at Mema's Manis

Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails

Stella at My Wet Nails
Missy at Missy's Manis
Kim at A Polished Addiction
Christine at Lost in My Reverie
Angie at Our Painted World
Bazzia at Polish My Mind
Missy at The Manicured Maniac

Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her

Nikki at Lil Green Heart

Elizabeth at Nail Polish is My Crack

Ana Cris at Esta Cerrada la Drogueria

Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year

Dina at Secretary's Nail Art

Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity

Karen at Nails by Kaybel

Monkey See Monkey Do Monday: Monarch Butterflies

For today's late edition of Monkey See Monkey Do Monday I decided to do butterfly nails. I already had on two coats of Models Own Pink Cocktail and decided to throw this on top.

I still need to practice this technique, but it still catches my eye while wearing it :) I'm not sure who originally did this design and I've seen it on a lot of blogs, so I'm not sure who to credit. Go to google and search "butterfly nails" and check out some of the awesome interpretation.

Check out the other awesome blogs participating in Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays! If you'd like to participate, click on the badge at the top of the page and join the facebook group!

Amber at Amber Did It

Amber at Never Naked Nails

Ana Cris at Esta Cerrada la Drogueria

Arlene at Nails and Vanities

Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road

Basia at Polish My Mind

Carrie at LeSamowen:Life, Love, and Nail Polish

Cristina at The Clockwise Nail Polish

Debbie at The Crumpet

Elizabeth at Nail Polish is My Crack

Emily Esqueleta at Macabre Manicures

Emma at Manicurity

Erin at Erin's Beauty Bumbles
Gwenn at Sweet Sugar

Helena at Nail Wish

Jen at Jens Painted Tips

Jenn at Polished Crazed

Kim at A Polished Addiction

Kirsten at Geeky Owl

Kristin at Manicured Monkey

Laurie at Dressed Up Digits

Layka at Kawaiinize Your Life

Melissa at The (mis)Adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Misha at Enigmatic Rambles

Missy at Gnarly Gnails

Nayade at Toxic Vanity
Neivys at Maquiclub Girl

Pink Wednesday: Strawberries and Dots

For today's edition of Pink Wednesday, I chose China Glaze Strawberry Fields. I bought this polish recently because of the name. And after I put it on I had Strawberry Fields Forever stuck in my head all day.

This is two coats. It's a bright pink with gold shimmer. It's soooo pretty! Then Nubar Black Polka Dots was staring at me, so I decided to throw on a couple coats. Polka Dots is the perfect name for this polish because that's exactly what it looks like!

Even though I love this polish on, it was a pain in the butt to apply. The brush bristles are black, so it's impossible to tell if there are any specks on your brush. Also, they're really sparse, so this is about 3 coats. And it drags really bad, so you have to keep rearranging the dots. It's still totally worth it because it's so stinking cute!

If you'd like to join in on Pink Wednesdays, click the badge at the top of the page!