Monday, April 28, 2014

The Lacquer Legion: Glam

Good morning!  I am excited to participate in The Lacquer Legion theme today, "Glam."  Glam means alot of things to me, all of them orbit around expensive, luxury items.  But I also think of Glam Rock.  As found in Wikipedia, Glam rock is "a style of rock and pop music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970's, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous, clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter."  And who better to use as my muse than David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust.  I sure do love that man, he's so iconic in music and fashion.  He was one of the main glam rock artists in that era and you can find pictures of him in some totally wild outfits.  But I went with what I feel is the most recognizable image of him during the glam rock period, face painted with a lightning bolt as Ziggy Stardust.  Did I mention that I love David Bowie?  Right, I did.  So let's check out my mani now!

You can participate in The Lacquer Legion's themes too!  Be sure to follow the Facebook and Instagram pages for info of upcoming themes and the proper hashtags to use!  Check out #llglam today to see what other bloggers came up with!

The Lacquer Legion: Facebook, Instagram

So here's my inspiration...


And here's my #llglam mani!  I used the following polishes: a-England Fonteyn, OPI 4 In The Morning, OPI Alpine Snow, China Glaze Riveting, Essie Naughty Nautical, Jordana The Artist and China Glaze Sexagon.  I went for rock & roll and bling!  I think it worked out well and I am very happy with end result.  




a-England Fonteyn

OPI 4 In The Morning

Ziggy Stardust nail

China Glaze Sexagon
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Sunday, April 27, 2014

Lynnderella: Deep Blue Seeing, Ghost of a Chance, 7 Minutes In Heaven & Candy Blossom

'Ello readers!  Hope all is well with you on fine Sunday afternoon!  I got home from soccer, had lunch and am showered up ready for grocery shopping and errands.  But for now grab your brunch coffee and snack and let's talk Lynnderella.  Lynnderella was one of the first indie brands that I truly ooohed and aaahed over as a newbie to the polish world.  Since then I have acquired quite the collection (I mean, nothing in comparison to some gals but good enough for me).  Sadly it seems that I just buy and don't trying them.  So today I have 4 that haven't received any love yet.  Well of course I am glad I tried them because they are all lovely!  Let's look, mmmkay?  *My memory eludes me at the moment and I can't remember which polishes I used as bases for any of these, sorry!*

Lynnderella: Shop, Blog, Facebook, Instagram

Deep Blue Seeing is a beautiful royal blue mix of glitters in hexs, squares and micro glitters in a clear base.  This is a great color for any time of the year but I especially love it for Summer time!  Looks like bright blue skies and sparkling blue water.  I used 2 layers of Deep Blue Seeing over a same tone base color.  I felt plenty of glitters came out and spread easily on my nails.  I used 1 layer of topcoat for smooth nails.  





Ghost Of A Chance is a very subtle and demure glitter blend.  It's full of satin white glitters, a sparing amount of softly pastel glitters and a sprinkling of holo sparkle in a very slightly milky white base.  The mixture of colors and glitter shapes (diamonds, hearts, hexs, squares) will work nicely with a bevy of base colors.  I chose to put it over a minty green.  I used 2 coats of Ghost Of A Chance and 1 layer of topcoat.  





7 Minutes In Heaven is part of the twinset that was released for Valentine's Day 2013.  I love this mixture of neon blue, cobalt blue and hot pink glitters!  There is also a pretty strong blue shimmer in here to for some added wow factor.  I started with a matching blue base (I think I used the Facebook blue polish here) and topped it with 2 coats of 7 Minutes In Heaven.  Glitter was plentiful and spread easily on my nails.  I finished with 1 layer of topcoat.  





And here is Candy Blossom.  This came out in the Spring last year and is such a lovely glitter mix!  I don't know why I waited so long to get it (or wear it).  It's the prefect blend of white, pastel pink, hot pink, yellow and neon green to make you feel Springy and pretty!  I wasn't a fan of the base I chose here, I think it was too sheer ( I think it was Sinful Colors Glass Slipper).  But I did love Candy Blossom.  The glitter came out easily and spread nicely on my nails.  I used 2 coats of Candy Blossom and 1 layer of topcoat.  





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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Earth Day Skittlette (a day late and a buck short)

Yeah, Earth Day was yesterday but I went out to lunch with my mom and then shopping for a little belated birthday celebrating.  And then if you can believe it, I put my boys to bed then layed down with Naomi and passed out at 8:00.  No joke.  So I didn't get around to posting my Earth Day mani yesterday.  But here they are in their full green glory!  Let's take a look.

Different Dimension: Shop, Llarowe, Facebook, Instagram,
Rimmel London: Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

I started this mani off with Enchanted Polish March 2014.  Whoa I'm loving this polish!  March 2014 sits somewhere between lime and olive.  It is an uber linear holo!  It's amazingly pretty! It's kind of a metallic finish holo.  As I'm sitting here on my couch I can see turquoise and gold sparkles shining inside the holo.  I used 2 coats for full coverage, but if you are a heavy handed painter 1 coat should do it!  Formula and application were both flawless!  I then did my accent and thumb nails with Different Dimension Money.  Money is a milky based polish that's full of turquoise, green black and silver circles, tiny gold squares, yellow hexs and holo green micro glitter.  It's the perfect blend of colors for Earth Day!  Formula and application were both great.  The milky base was easy to work with and built up to full coverage in 3 layers.  Plenty of glitter came out with no fishing needed.  Finally I used Rimmel London Sweetie Crush in Fizzy Appleicious.  Fizzy Appleicious is a very soft, pastel green texture polish.  It was actually lighter than I expected from the display pictures, but it's grown on my and it's perfect for the pastel craze that always comes around this time of year.  It applied very thin so I used 3 coats to build it up.  The formula was easy to work with.  I finished all nails (except the texture nails) with 1 layer of topcoat.







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Monday, April 21, 2014

My Birthday Nails!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeee!  Yeah, I always make a big deal out of my own birthday.  Hey, it's the best holiday there is!  I have been out and about most of the day, doing regal routine things but also some fun things!  I also got some amazing nail mail from some of my amazing friends!  Watch my Instagram page if you want to see those pictures!  For now let's just take a quick look at the mani I created for my birthday!  I am very pleased with the outcome!

Enchanted Polish: Shop, Mei Mei's Signatures, Facebook, Instagram
Lynnderella: Shop, Blog, Facebook, Instagram

Alright alright...I started this birthday mani with Enchanted Polish April 2014.  It's a beautiful, soft linear holo that sits somewhere between cornflower and periwinkle.  April 2014 applied like a dream, so creamy and opaque.  If you are heavy handed you could get away with 1 coat.  I used 2 coats since I used lighter coats when I paint.  I then used April 2014 and April 2013 to create a gradient on my accent nails.  I put both colors on the sponge and applied about 3 coats.  April 2013 is also on my pinky nail and the color is a beautiful medium toned grape purple with a strong holo effect.  It seems to be a tightly scattered holo.  April 2013 was a thinner formula and I used 2 coats to get it opaque, but there were no formula or application issues to report.  I topped the accent nails with 1 coat of Lynnderella Blue Rogue, "assorted periwinkle and lilac glitters with pink shimmer."  On top of that I added Lynnderella Forget You Not, a blend of satin periwinkle hexs in different sizes with pink and blue shimmer.  The combination of the glitters really brought some wow factor that I didn't expect.  All the colors played well together and I am totally happy with the way it turned out.  I finished all nail with 1 layer of topcoat.  











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April Giveaway - Week 4, Darling Diva Polish Z28

Good morning dear readers!  Today is my birthday and I am feeling very happy to have shared my birthday month with all of you!  Today is also the start of the last giveaway week.  I'm sure by now you haven't missed one of the 4 giveaways, but just in case...I had a few duplicate Darling Diva Polishes in my stash and decided to share them with you as a way of celebrating my birthday month with my awesome readers!  This week you have the chance to win Z28, an amazing green holographic micro glitter bomb!  Enter and share and GOOD LUCK!

ONE winner will receive a brand new bottle of Darling Diva Polish Z28.  



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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Happy Easter!

Good morning and a very Happy Easter!  My kids just opened their Easter baskets and are currently playing with some new toys!  I'm busy in the kitchen cooking the overnight french toast bake I made and it smells so good! I can't wait to get a coffee and eat some french toast!  Other than that, we will have an Easter egg hunt once the grass dries up a bit.  And that just about does it for our day, hopefully just a bunch of relaxing.  Hopefully your Easter is just as mellow!  Let's take a fast peek at my Easter mani!

*Some products in this post were gifted to me*

Catrice: Website, Facebook
Sephora: Shop, Facebook, Instagram

I started this mani with a very special gift to me from my friend Tatiana at Lumina Lacquer.  Honey Glow is a gorgeous peachy-pink creme with very soft shimmer and holo sparkles.  I adore the color and finish!  It applied like a dream in 2 coats.  I then used some of the new LE Catrice textures: Waikiki Peach and Sandhopper, from the Sand'Sation collection.  These are fabulous texture polishes in unique colors (at least unique to me as I don't have any textures in peach or minty green yet).  I sponged a couple layers over an off white base color to create the gradient effect.  And lastly I used Sephora Formula X in Demolition, a clear base packed with "blue, turquoise, lime and orange" glitters.  I like the play of extra large hexs against the microglitters.  I used 2 coats of Demolition over an off white base.  I finished it all up with a layer of topcoat (except for the texture nails).  










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