Sunday, April 27, 2014

Lacquer Legion Glam- Featuring Mentality

April's theme for The Lacquer Legion is Glam. I decided to combine this month's challenge with my first real indie polish review because what's more glam than getting to try out brand new polishes? I went for a full on royal-glam look here with purple velvet, matte studs and real 24k gold leaf top coat. 

This is officially my first indie purchase too! I've been eyeing Mentality's store for a while now and finally decided to go for it. Their polishes are very reasonably priced- $6.75 for most regular polishes and a bit more for holos and other specialties plus free shipping within the US. I think what really pushed me over the edge was finding out Mentality is from Modesto. That's about two hours away from where I live and I love the chance to support local businesses.

Lacquer Legion Glam Mentality Matriarch 24k Gold Top Coat

Lacquer Legion Glam Mentality Matriarch 24k Gold Top Coat

It was really hard deciding what to buy- so many beautiful polishes. The two that stood out the most to me were Matriarch, a gorgeous velvet looking matte purple (I'm a sucker for anything purple) and the 24k Gold Leaf top coat which was totally worth the splurge at only $15.

Matriarch applied beautifully and dried quickly with an even, smooth finish. I'm always concerned about drying time if I'm not going to be using a top coat. I went to bed soon after painting this and I'm happy to report no sheet marks. These pictures show two coats.

For the 24k Gold nails I painted two coats of LA Colors Black and topped it with two dabbled coats of the gold leaf top coat. I probably could have gone for a third coat on the pointer finger for extra gold leafiness, but I was getting sleepy and skipped it. Overall I'd say the gold leaf is dense enough in the base that it's not too hard to get fairly decent coverage with just two coats. I topped those nails off with a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy to match the rest of the matte look.

The last thing that really pulls this look together is the matte gold studs. Of course I didn't actually have any so I decided to make my own. I stuck silver studs onto a piece of tape and painted them with OPI, Love.Angel.Music.Baby from the Gwen Stefani collection. Once they were dry I picked them up with tweezers and carefully stuck them onto my 2nd coat of Matriarch while it was still wet. I love that I can make any color studs I want without having to buy anything new. I can't wait to try this out in so many more color combinations.

Lacquer Legion Glam Mentality Matriarch 24k Gold Top Coat

Lacquer Legion Glam Mentality Matriarch 24k Gold Top Coat

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Spring Renewal Challenge Recreate: Crackled Easter Egg Nails

I missed day three of the challenge (Spring Flowers)! My family had their big Easter celebration yesterday so I took some time off from nails for that, but I'm back for day four of the Spring Renewal Challenge. Today's theme is Freestyle/Recreate. I fell in love with the Crackled Easter Egg Nails that Procrastinails did and wanted to try out that technique so I recreated her nails for today's challenge. I love the way she used the crackle. Those don't get much love these days so I'm always impressed when I see awesome looking and creative uses for old polishes. 

Crackle Easter Egg Nails

Crackle Easter Egg Nails

Katherine used the new OPI Sheer Tints for hers which I don't have so I substituted in some pastel colored creams instead. It's a little brighter and less delicate, but I still like the effect overall. I'm inspired to try out more crackle techniques now. I think this would look amazing with neons and black crackle on top.

I started with two coats of a pale blue cream I frankened as a base. I made randomly placed blobs of colors with some pastels from Sinful Colors- Unicorn (yellow), Candy Coated (lavender), Easy Going (pale pink) and Boogie Nights (brighter coral/pink)


Crackle Easter Egg Nails

I look forward to my one or two Cadbury Creme Eggs every Easter. This seems to be the only candy that hasn't found its way to other holidays unlike Peeps which now come in pumpkin, Christmas tree and heart shapes. Do you have a favorite seasonal candy?

Crackle Easter Egg Nails

Here's the link up for day four. I'm excited to see what everyone came up with today.



Friday, April 18, 2014

Easter Ombre- Purple Pastels

Yesterday I mentioned that I was joining in on an Easter nail art challenge, but I got the title a bit wrong. The challenge is actually called the Spring Renewal Nail Art Challenge hosted by Challenge Your Nail Art. They're a Facebook group dedicated to creating fun and laid back challenges. The admins pick a new theme every month (usually holidays) and anyone can join and do as many or as few of the prompts as they want. If you're interested look them up on Facebook. The theme for today is Pastels, which I almost stuck to. We can just pretend that my pinkie is a very dark shade of pastel purple (and that nudes also somehow count).

Easter Ombre Pastel Purple

Spring Renewal Nail Art Challenge- Challenge Your Nail Art

Easter Ombre Pastel Purple

I stumbled across this combination while arranging my new collection of swatch sticks. I love being able to put the colors in order to see what goes nicely together. 
Colors from thumb to pinkie: 
Ulta- Bare Minimum
Ulta- Set the Nude
Ulta- Vintage Violet
Nuance- Lilac
Finger Paints- Pretty As A Portrait

I'm wearing two coats of each. In keeping with my current theme of "too busy playing ESO, but must paint nails" this is another really easy and quick but cute spring manicure.

Easter Ombre Pastel Purple

Easter Ombre Pastel Purple

More pastel goodness here:




Thursday, April 17, 2014

Easter Egg Nails

It's been a whole week since I last posted! I knew it was going to be bad, but I hoped not quite this bad. To make up for it I'm participating in the Challenge Your Nail Art Easter blog hop so I'll have something to post for at least the next three days. First up is Easter Eggs. I just got some new spring colors that were perfect for this theme. Kmart is having a huge beauty clearance sale so I was able to pick up 7 polishes for $10. I can never resist a good sale! If you have a Kmart nearby it's definitely worth checking out.  

Easter Egg Nails

Easter Egg Nails

Easter Egg Nails

The thumb, middle and pinkie fingers are 3 coats of Revlon's Zealous which is a bright shimmery yellow-green. This one was sheer so I felt like it needed all three coats for full coverage. On my index and ring fingers I painted three coats of Revlon's Whimsical over a white base. This pale blue jelly with pink and blue glitters was even more sheer so if you don't want visible nail line you'll want to layer something else underneath. These two were my Kmart clearance picks. I'm glad I got them on sale. It makes the formula issues much more forgivable. I made the zig-zags by cutting scotch tape with pinking shears and then painting half the nails with Spoiled, Fuzzy Dice (pink). I used a small nail art brush and dotting tool to draw on the other accents. The lavender color is Sinful Colors, Candy Coated.

Easter Egg Nails

Continue your hunt for more cute Easter Egg Nails here:




Thursday, April 10, 2014

Dry Marble Swirly Nails

I'm not going to have much to say about these tonight. In case you missed my last post I've been playing Elder Scrolls Online obsessively and I'm pretty sure there's something I need to be killing in the game right now. I've still been trying to make time for fun nails though. Dry marbling is a really quick and easy alternative to water marbling which is perfect for me right now since I've got other things to do :)

Dry marble swirl nails

Dry marble swirl nails

Colors used:
Black base: LA Colors- Circuits
Orange: LA Colors- Hottie
Teal: Spoiled- Distant Memory
Blue: China Glaze- Shower Together
Pink: Spoiled- Fuzzy Dice

After my two coats of black were dry for the base I painted on thick stripes of the colors and some black in between and used a sewing pin to drag the colors into each other, swirling them around. I think some nails turned out better than others due to the consistency of the polish, but it was really fast and easy to do.

Dry marble swirl nails

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Elder Scrolls Online Nails

It was only a matter of time until my latest obsession, The Elder Scrolls Online, made it onto my nails. It might have happened sooner, but this is one detailed logo and I was scared. I'm a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls already, so I couldn't wait to try out the latest addition to the series. I'm definitely not disappointed so far. The official release was Friday and if they game wasn't so fun I'd be a bit more sorry that it's taking time away from my blogging. I'm going to try to keep up some semblance of my posting schedule, but bear with me if things get quiet for a while. :)

Elder Scrolls Online Logo Nails



There are three alliances in the game you can choose to side with which are represented in the logo. The Aldmeri Dominion (that's me) is the eagle, the Daggerfall Covenant is a lion, and the Ebonheart Pact is represented by the dragon. 

Elder Scrolls Online Logo Nails

I went with a homemade decal to get as much detail as possible for these nails. I started by finding simple image online rather than the fancy 3D one shown above, sized it to about 1x1 inch and printed it out. Next I taped a square of waxed paper over the image and painted a clear coat just a bit larger than the picture. After the clear coat was dry I used Maybelline Color Show, Bold Gold and a very small nail art brush to trace the design. Once the whole thing was dry I chose the placement on my fingers and cut it apart while still on the waxed paper. I peeled off the segments and trimmed the excess clear around the edges and carefully pressed it onto my black base. I finished it off with top coat to smooth out the edges of the decal.

Elder Scrolls Online Logo Nails

Of course I can't resist showing you what I've been up to in the game.

Elder Scrolls Online Screen Shot Cheesemongers Hollow
I'm so bad ass lava doesn't even burn me.

Elder Scrolls Online Screen Shot Lute
Luting.. you know.. in between actual looting.

Elder Scrolls Online Screen Shot Dark Anchor
Watching a Dark Anchor getting sucked back into Oblivion after destroying it.

Elder Scrolls Online Screen Shot Dark Anchor
Pew pew
I decided to go with a wood elf because look at that hair! I also enjoy archery in this type of game and the wood elf makes good use of both the bow and magic so it feels very versatile. I've been having a lot of fun running around exploring on my own and questing with friends. If you happen to play let me know. I'd love to have a few more in game friends!

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Rain Forest

Hello, my nail friends. You may have noticed it's April Fool's Day. I'm not fond of this day at all. You can't trust anything you read on the internet! My favorite band isn't getting back together and I'll never be able to buy a Zoya Subscription Box complete with a puppy or this awesome Nerf Nuke. I'd prefer to sleep though this entire torture fest and wake up tomorrow when everything is boring and back to normal. I'm also terrible at pranks so this day is definitely wasted on me. What's the best prank you've seen or done for April Fool's?

I've got a simple but pretty swatch for you today. I hope everyone's not still tired of green after St Patrick's. This is Rain Forest by Revlon. I got this as a birthday present from my husband a couple years ago. I recently saw it on sale at Big Lots so it may be discontinued but it shouldn't be too hard to track down if you decide you need it.

Revlon Rain Forest Swatch

Revlon Rain Forest Swatch

 Rain Forest is a dark green crelly with tiny almost flakie-like green shimmer. I'm wearing two coats plus top coat for these pictures.The application was smooth and my mistakes cleaned up very easily for such a dark color. I don't usually wear a lot of greens, but this one is nice. From far away it looks like just a dark polish, but up close and in the light the green shimmer gives it some nice dimension.

Revlon Rain Forest Swatch

Revlon Rain Forest Swatch