Ugly Christmas Nails!

Hi! It's me again! Yes 2 posts in 1 day! Crazy right!? I really wanted to do some nail art and I feel like all I have been doing is review swatches lately. Don't get me wrong, I love reviewing, but sometimes it's nice to just do something goofy! I still have a few things I need to do to finish up my 31 day challenge album...I know it's been over for a long time now but I will have all 31 days in that album if it kills me! So for today's post I decided to go with the Holiday theme and do something silly. So here are my ugly Christmas nails! 

Kelara Lacquers Review and Swatches

Hello everyone! Today I am bringing to you a review of some polishes by a fairly new name in the Indie world. Kelara Lacquers is run by a very creative couple, Kellen and Tara. They are such a cute couple and they work on their line of polishes together and apparently the idea to start making polish was Kellen’s idea! How cool is that?  I was sent 3 colors for this review: Jupiter, Silver & Gold and Hooray for Boobies!  

So let’s get to it!  

Day 16 of the 31 Day Challenge "Tribal Print"

Hello ladies, yes again! I know, 2 posts in one night!? It's a miracle! LOL I had been so behind in my 31 day posts I really wanted to try and keep in schedule since I have a really full month! Today was the day in the challenge, along with day's 18 and 19, that I have been dreading! I've never done a tribal print mani before. I have adored the time some of you girls take to put into the very detailed tribal but I just don't like spending that much time on a mani that I know will be taken off in 24 hours anyway! However, once I saw my inspiration for this mani I actually got a tad bit excited about it.

I started off with 3 coats of Orly Dayglow. 

Dayglow was part of the Feel The Vibe collection and my favorite white in my collection so far. It has a slight blue shimmer to it, which is extremely hard to capture in pictures. Take my word for it, it's beautiful!!!

These earrings were the inspiration for this mani. I found them on Pinterest. Here's the link to my board with the pin if you're interested.

Next I used Spoiled Distant Memory and Sally Hansen Golden-I to create my designs

I know my designs aren't an exact match for the pattern on the earrings but they were my inspiration none the less. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, much better than I expected!

Don't forget to check out the links below for the other great tribal manis that were done!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L
-Chameleon Stampede
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish
- Robin Sparkles 

I want to end this post by telling you all that my friend Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed is having a giveaway! She has an awesome blog with a butt ton of free hand nail art! Her blog is one of my faves! Go follow her and enter her giveaway by clicking the picture below!!!

31 Day Challenge - Day 13 "Animal Print"

 Hello ladies! Sorry I am late once again for the late posting! I had my mani done much earlier but I didn't get around to writing out the post since I went to St Louis to go visit my mommy, sister and the kiddies for the evening. I didn't realise my normally 1 hour drive was going to turn into a 2 hour fiasco! It was raining so friggin hard I got stuck on the highway for a while. Not to mention the 3 stores I went to just to try and find the damn Fantasy Makers. No, I STILL didn't find them, BUT Kimber is my saviour and has volunteered to get pick them up for me so I can stop ranting about it! LOL Thank You Kimber! You may have saved what is actually left of my sanity!

 

Any who...for this day in the challenge I was wanting to do something more than just the typical leopard, tiger, zebra, giraffe print. Not that there is anything wrong with those, I  just wanted something different. The hubster and I were recently at the St Louis Zoo and I am always so in awe of the colorful reptiles and such so I was browsing pictures of colorful frogs and snakes and I came across this picture of a Harlequin Toad, and instantly I needed to use this for my animal print!



 

For this look I used Spoiled by Wet n Wild Uh, As If and Visually Slimming...on my shorter nails I might add! (Stupid break! LOL)

 

 

I wasn't sure how I wanted to recreate the look so I tried to use the Saran Wrap method first...that was a FAIL so I just drew the pink on with a toothpick!

 

Now for the sake of time I just kept the Saran Wrap nails as "accents" LOL

 

So that's my "Animal Print" mani! Friday is flowers!

Now I am going to check out what the other Sassy Painters have done with their day 13 mani's! You should go check them all out too!

 

Also it seems that I am super close to the 100 likes mark on my Facebook page so I will be getting the pictures of the prizes ready and hopefully have it up by the end of the week, Monday at the latest! I am so excited to be having my first giveaway!!!! YAY!

 

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L
-Chameleon Stampede
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish
- Robin Sparkles

Nail Pattern Boldness: My First Indie Purchase

This is going to be long post...Sorry!

I have been checking out a lot of nail blogs lately, and one thing they all have in common is their love for Indie label polishes. So of course I needed to check them out. I've become quite obsessed actually! The problem is they are sooooo popular and very limited so they sell FAST! Well it just so happens that I managed to catch a limited restock for Nail Pattern Boldness...OK, OK! I was kinda STALKING her  Blog and her Facebook Page. LOL

Aaaaaanyway, I managed to snag a few bottles.

I did a few swatches first...

This is a bottle JAM PACKED full of fine glitters.

Mostly matte white, with some yellow, green, blue, red and even a little purple.

I'm 100% positive that this would look Aaaaaamazing in direct sunlight pix. I unfortunately didn't capture any...I will next time though.

1. 3 coats of NPB Mrs.White

2. 1 coat L'Oreal VIP Status and 2 coats NPB Mrs.White

3.1 coat Pure Ice White On and 2 coats NPB Mrs.White

Now, this polish can be pulled off as a "full coverage" polish BUT you have to let it dry completely between coats or it will clump and end up looking ragged like my #1 nail does (I'm impatient)

I actually like the solo look the best. Next time I will let it dry properly to wear it this way.

My second favorite is #3. It adds a subtle glitter look since most of the glitter is white...it looked much better in person than in this picture.

I like #2 but it's not my fave. I need to work on what darker color this would look fabulous on because the VIP didn't do it for me.

What do you think?

Next up: Ninja vs Pirate

That is 2 coats of  N vs P.

It's filled with very chunky black and white matte glitter that look like glass shards.

It, obviously, is meant to be a top coat and not a stand alone polish.

I decided to use this one for my full mani.

I alternated Sinful Colors Midnight Blue and Wet n Wild Red Red.

I then dabbed a bit of Wet n Wild's Spoiled in Daddy's Credit Card...a silver metallic color...with some saran wrap on each nail, to give it a bit of a silver shimmer.

I then added 2 coats of Ninja vs Pirate.

On top of that I added NPB Glitter Food.

This nifty stuff is a two in one polish. It's a top coat that was specially formulated for thirsty glitter polishes, to even them out and keep the finish from being rough or bumpy.

It's also good to, as Allison from NPB says, Fix A Flat...flat glitter polish that is.

For those polishes you have that their base formula couldn't hold up the glitter. There is a better explanation for this process at this link... Fix a Flat.

I used Glitter Food on all but my pinkie nail. I then topped them all with Sally Hansen Mega Shine. (Glitter Food dries to a satin finish, so it is recommended that you add a top coat like my favorites SV or SH Mega Shine to give it a glossy look)

I used 2 coats of the Mega Sine on the pinkie and it was still very bumpy and rough vs the rest of my nails which were relatively smooth. So the Glitter Food was money well spent! 

I am so happy with how this turned out. I am in love with Ninja vs Pirate!

I am so glad I was a stalker! I plan on making another purchase as soon as NPB makes another restock!

Show me some skin

For the past couple of weeks I have been on the look out for a good neutral color. The problem i have found is they are usually too pale or have shimmer. I was at CVS and their Spoiled polish display had just been restocked and I noticed the perfect neutral color...Show Me Some Skin.

I decided to do a stamp (plate BM19) in Sally Hansen's Golden-I for a discrete contrast.

I then topped it off with Spoiled's Jewel Heist, a chunky glitter polish.

You can really see the pattern in these last 2 pics.

Pretty In Pink

I based it with Confetti in Dance Party Pink...this polish is soooo

thin I ended up using 4 coats to get it even.

I topped it off with a coat of Spoiled by Wet n Wild in I Got A Confection To Make,

just to give it a bit more brightness and sparkle. Topped off my ring fingers with

some stamped flowers - Pure Ice in Iced Merlot - and a couple rhinestones.

"Matte Me Crazy"

A few months back i decided i had to jump on the Matte band waggon. I went nuts looking for a matte top coat, I even had my husband looking for me! Everywhere we looked we failed miserably. Then all of a sudden we found it at the Target, the same one that i checked about 15 times previously. Alas, there it was, at the bottom shelf of the NYC display. I hadn't read any reviews on this brand so i wasn't sure but I decided to get it anyway. It was $1.98 so why not?

I'd heard that some brands of matte top coat can still leave a major shine or alter the original color. Since this was a cheaper brand i guess i automatically assumed it would be an inferior matte. So after i searched for months then finally found this, I somehow managed to forget about it once i got it home.
The other day i was trying to come up with a new look for my fingers and i decided to break it on out. I settled on doing black nails with a hot pink accent nail with a black heart.

I used Sinful Colors in "Black On Black" which is an extremely glossy polish and

 Spoiled by Wet n Wild in "Uh As If" which is a more subdued shine. Once the matte top coat was applied i was pleasantly surprised. Even though the two colors started off with two different kinds of shine, this top coat brought them down to the very same flatness with just one coat. 

I was quite happy with the results.

For a $2 bottle of polish this was well worth the risk, and I'm all about the bargain polish!

Ta Ta For Now!