Happy Friday - BM 304

Hey Lacquer Lovers!  TGIF!  I'm happy that it's Friday.  Can you tell?  This is my weekend off and I'm gonna enjoy it.  What are your plans for the weekend?  I'm going to a friend's batchelorette party Saturday night.  Party bus, Bar hopping, Dancers...Fun!

So anyways...On to today's nails. I've got some happy nails for ya featuring the smiley faces from BM 304.

BM 304 was one of the plates from the Bundle Monster 2012 set the I was itching to use.  I love how this came together.  Also, I'm really liking how this set from Bundle Monster has positives and negatives of the same image.  I was kinda skeptical about how this particular negative image would stamp, but I'm glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised that the image stamped clearly.

I don't know the name of the neon yellow polish that I used, but I do know that I stamped with Kleancolor Black :)

Have a wonderful weekend lacqueristas!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your stay.  Happy polishing!

Liebster Award

Hey Lacqueristas!

I received my first blogger award from Britta Rose Nails.  YAY!  The Liebster Award is given to new bloggers with less than 200 followers.

There are a few rules that go along with receiving this award:

• Post 11 fun facts about yourself.
• Answer 11 questions created by the award giver.
• Give the award to 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers and post 11 questions for them to answer.
• These 11 bloggers must be told they have been given the award
• They will in turn pass the award on to 11 new bloggers of their choice (no tagging back the award giver)

So lets get to it!

11 Facts About Myself

• I am addicted to reality TV.  The more trashy the better.
• I am the proud doggie mama of a silly 6 year old Boxer named Caesar.
• I work the night shift.
• Thus sleep is my favorite pasttime.
• My favorite candy is Sour Patch Kids. I'll eat them until the roof of my mouth hurts.
• My fav subject in college was Anatomy and Physiology. The body is an amazing machine.
• The older I get, the harder it is to wear high heels.
• I sleep with my eyes open sometimes.
• I love horror movies.
• My favorite color is purple.
• I'm 5 ft. tall.  Makes shopping for pants difficult.

Whew! I felt like I was writing an ad for a dating website. LOL

Questions from my award giver:
1) When and why did you start blogging?
     I started blogging about 2 months ago because I wanted to have my own collection of all of my nail designs.

2) How many bottles of polish do you own?
    Last count was 382, but I have purchased a few more since then.

3) What color do you have the most of in your collection?
     Blues and Purples

4) What is your first memory of nail polish?
     I remember my mom painting her nails when I was little, and when I would visit my grandma she would have me paint hers.

5) What do your friends/family think of your hobby?
     First thing they say when I see them is "Let me see your nails"

6) What are your hobbies other than blogging?
     I am an avid reader. I read about 2 books per week.  Mostly urban dramas and crime thrillers/mysteries.

7) What's your favorite nail polish color?
     Right now I'm really into neons.  Summer makes me want bright colors on my nails. So I would have to say China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise.

8) What would be your dream polish?
    A holographic polish with a duochrome base.  Best of both worlds.

9) What is something you love, but everyone else hates?
    I love broccoli but my fiance hates it cuz it makes me gassy.

10) What trends do you love?
     Jelly sandwiches.

11) What trends do you hate?
    The half moon mani.  I did it once for a challenge, but something is just off about it.

Now I am passing this award along to these Lacquer Lovers:
Lena Loves Nails
Polish Crazed
Crazy Nail Lady
My-chihuahuabites
Marce7ina
Adventures in Mani-Land
No Holos
Fancy Phalanges
Nails n Details
I Got My Nails Did
Purple Fairy Dust

And for my questions:
When and why did you start blogging?
What is your favorite nail polish finish?  Matte, Duochrome, Glitter, Etc.
How many polishes are in your stash?
Do you prefer stamping or freehand nail art?
How often do you paint your nails?
Where do you find your nailspiration?
Cats or Dogs?
Early bird or burning the midnight oil?
If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go?
What is your favorite color?
What are your hobbies besides nails?

NOTE: I apologize in advance because this got kinda fudged up. I was all done giving my nominations and was writing my questions when my computer crashed, and when I logged back in half of my post was gone :(  So some blogs that I nominated originally might not be included in the list above.  I tried my best to go from memory and I think I got it about 80% right. So if I nominated you but you are not listed, please leave me a comment an I will update the list.

Orly Flash Glam FX: Mermaids Tale - A Teal Tuesday Mani

Hey Lacquer Lovers! Today I have my Teal Tuesday Mani for you featuring Orly Flash Glam FX in Mermaids Tale.  The theme for this Tuesday was CopyCat, you see a mani that you like and you copy it! Simple, right?

For a little while now, I had been wanting to do the Mermaid/ Fish Scale mani and this was the perfect opportunity.  I don't remember exactly where I got the inspiration for this mani.  I tried to search Google images, but I didn't see exactly what I was looking for. 

So anyway...here's my version.

I'm really happy with how this turned out (even thought it was a bish to photograph).  I started off with two coats of Nicole by OPI You're S-Teal the One, a gorgoues teal duochrome with purple flash. Once that was dry, I did one coat of Orly Mermaids Tale.  On the pinky, I did two coats, but decided that I liked it better with one.  I wanted the teal polish to show through, and in the sun you can still see some of the purple flash.  Too bad it did not show up in the photos.   For the stamping, I used Maybelline Color Show in Bold Gold.  I think this just might be the perfect gold stamping polish. The image comes from MASH-43.

Here's a pic of the polish before stamping.  You can just barely see a hint of the purple flash on the first two fingers. 

I'm really liking this Orly Mermaids Tale.  It's on the thick side, but you don't have to fight to get the glitter pieces on your nail and it gives you decent glitter coverage in one coat.  Can't wait to use this over some other colors. 

Thanks for checkin me out.  Happy polishing!

Check out the othe blogs that participate in Teal Tuesdays

Missy/Gnarly Gnails - http://gnarlygnails.blogspot.com

Rhonda Nail Polish Marbury - http://nailsbeautiqued.blogspot.com

Kirsten - http://geekyowl.blogspot.com

Amanda Murphy - http://mandyspolish.blogspot.com

Alyssa Botello - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com

ColorSplash Nails - http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com

Simple-and-Beautiful - http://simple-and-beautiful.blogspot.com

Aimee - http://persistentglitter.blogspot.com

Nat - http://noholos.blogspot.com

Ana_Cherries Sweets http://cherriessweets.blogspot.com.es/

Ariane/The Frenzied Polisher http://thefrenziedpolisher.blogspot.sg

Caitlin - www.caitlinscreativecorner.com

Kia~LacqueredLibra - http://lacqueredlibra.blogspot.com/

Belén - http://nailpolishlane.blogspot.com/

Sam - http://polishedart.blogspot.co.uk/

Jess/Once Upon a Polish... - http://gafforama.blogspot.com

Jasmin/Subtletyisoverrated - http://subtletyisoverrated.wordpress.com/

Elysse/Elyssian Bauty - http://elyssianbeauty.blogspot.com/

Laurie http://myrustynails.blogspot.com/

China Glaze Flying Dragon + CH16

Hey Peeps!

I have really been into neon colors lately, so I pulled one from my untrieds that I was kinda on the fence about.  Flying Dragon from China Glaze claims to be neon on the label, but it just doesn't live up to it in my opinion.  It is a very pretty color but seems more suited for fall to me.

Flying Dragon is a saturated plum with very fine pink and blue glitter. It goes on matte, like most neons, and is streaky and uneven with the first coat.  The second coat takes care of the streakiness and brings the polish to full opacity.  The swatch is more color accurate than the full picture at the bottom.

 

This color was too dark for what I was going for, so to lighten it up a bit, I decided to pull out the ole stamping plates :)   I used Cheeky CH16 and SHID Fast Fuchsia for the stamping.

So what do you think of this color, does it qualify as a neon?  Is it more appropriate for summer or fall?

Thanks for checkin' me out. Happy Polishing!

So When Is Enough, Enuff

Got some nail mail today from Transdesign.  I ordered a few from China Glaze's Safari collex and a few other randoms.  I was so happy when I opened my box of new pretties. When I took out China Glaze Atlantis, I said to myself, HMMM...this looks familiar.  So I went on the hunt in my Stash box for Sinful Colors Nail Junkie.  And here's what I came up with...

We have Nail Junkie on the left, and Atlantis on the right. Dupes??? Close but no cigar. They both share the same teal jelly base and small holo glitter, but Nail Junkie also has larger hex glitter. Also, I think Atlantis is more blingy. But do I need both in my collection.  Not really.

Then I went on the hunt for more dupes in my stash and found OPI Just Spotted The Lizard and China Glaze Rare and Radiant. Then I abandoned that idea and decided to count my pretties. (Can you say nail polish ADD).

As of today I have 374 polishes.  And I am expecting a package form Zoya this week with my picks from their Fall 2012 Collections.  Is it time for a NO BUY?  I dunno, I'm not quite to that point yet, but I think that I need to research more swatches and only buy if it is absolutely a must have. But with so many new polishes coming out, I want them all!  What is a girl to do...

Would you guys like to see a feature of possible dupes?  I tink I'll call it Dupe Or No Dupe? Let me know.

Thanks for checkin' me out.  Happy Polishing!!

Zoya Zuza

Hello Lacquer Lovers!

Today's nails were done for Teal Tuesdays.  This week we took a polish poll to see what was the most common teal polishes among the group, and we had to do a mani featuring one of those polishes.  And the winners were Zoya Zuza, China Glaze Atlantis and A England Saint George.
I chose Zoya Zuza because it was the only one that I had at the time, but I have since added Atlantis to The Stash.

Now on to the pics.

To get this look, I started off with two coats of Pure Ice Oh Baby, a gorgeous multi-chromatic polish with teal, blue and purple shimmer.  You can see really see the shimmery-ness in the second photo. Next I did a Funky French with Zuza and topped that off with Sally Hansen Fractured Foil crackle polish.  For the accent finger, I did two coats of Zuza with a squiggle of Fractured Foil.

I'm really feelin' this mani. I like the simplicity with a bit of funkiness thrown in for good measure.

What do you think, Is this a good toned-down mani that is work appropriate?

Thanks for checkin' me out. Happy Polishing!

August Secret Santa Swap :)

Hey Ladies.

Just wanted to share with you really quick what I got in the August Secret Santa Swap for the FB group Midwest Nail Polish Enthusiasts.  This group is for nail polish enthusiasts who live in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Ohio and Nebraska.

My Secret Santa was the wonderful Jen @  Jen's Nail Files.  So lemme show ya what I got!

Thanks for checkin' me out.  Happy Polishing!