Coming Up Roses!

I love Pinterest!  I have a board where I pin all of the fantastic mani's I admire called "Must-Do Mani's", and I hoard tons of ideas there...sometimes I even do a mani based on one.  Like last night!

I really have a hard time doing my nails for work.  I have to be professional, but I can't stand just plain nails.  Thus my dilemma.  So, THIS MANI by Pshiiit! seemed to be just the answer.  Plain pink, but with a cute and artsy rose accent nail.  Loved it!

Here's my version:

I used Zoya "Lara" for the main pink, and "Sweet" and "Purity" for accents on the rose over a background of "Raven".  The leaves were NOPI "Lime Light" and Sinful Colors "Innocent".  All topped with Seche Vite.

I need to invest in some nail art brushes.  I currently use some cheapo ones I got at Walmart, and it's really hard to control where the polish goes.  Plus, the bristles get hard and don't brush the polish on nicely.  But I think this came out pretty cute anyway!!! :-)

Where Has January Gone?!?!

Sorry to have been MIA, but over the holidays we moved, got the kids settled in a new school, and did I mention we moved?  I hate moving!!  

Anyway, I've not had very much time to play with polish lately, but here are the mani's I managed to eek out.  Please don't mind that these are all cell phone pics...I seem to have mis-placed my camera's charger among the dozen or so boxes that still need to be unpacked.

Chirality's holo skittles for the New Year! 

Zoya Feifei & Lael 

This is my current mani!  KB Shimmer "Toucan Touch This" with Zoya for flower accents.  This gorgeously bright polish has been calling to me for a couple of weeks now...probably because of all the grey skies and rain we've been having here lately...this Cali girl needs her sun!! 

We're more settled in, and my awesome hubby made me a little polishing nook area in our huge master bedroom, so I'm planning on getting my polish on a lot more often!  Thanks for sticking around!

Quicky with Zoya "Aurora" & "Storm"

I've been super-busy with the Holiday craziness and our impending move.  I cleaned off my Christmas nails and did a simple mani with a couple of my new Zoyas, but haven't had a chance to show you till today:

This is "Storm" and "Aurora" at about 2 days old, and after tons of packing.  And they are much more beautiful IRL.  I <3 Zoya!!

I can't wait till I'm settled in the new place and can finally do my nails!

Day 3, 12 Days of Christmas: Snowflakes!

Yesterday was my birthday, and my super-crazy family took me out for a really fun dinner after work, so now I'm a day behind on my challenge...but it was totally worth it! ;-)

For this challenge, I went ahead and scoured my stamping plates and found 3 plates with snowflake designs on it.  I busted out Zoya "Song" and "Raven", and stamped it with my go-to stamping polish, Pure Ice "Silver Mercedes".  

"Song" is sooo amazing!  It's such a gorgeous blue, and it's so shimmery!  Get it.  So proud of myself for not getting behind on my challenge! ;-)

Check out the other challenge peeps and our hostess Iced Lacquer!

XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Mari522 (on Instagram)

Day 1: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge

OK, so I did pretty well on my first nail art challenge with the Halloween Challenge in October, but it got kinda hairy towards the end.  So when I saw a 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge posted by Iced Lacquer, I was intrigued.  It's not an every-day challenge, but it's more structured than the last challenge I did, which is helpful for a procrastinator like me :-).

So, I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to this challenge, but I remembered that the last challenge really, well, challenged my creativity, and I even tried out some new techniques.  It's good to kinda get forced outside of my comfort zone :-)

Day 1 is "Red".  Easy enough.  But it's for the holidays, so what's a girl to do?  Stamp!!

With flash:

This is Zoya "Trixie" (silver), "Sarah" (red), and "Raven" (black - duh!).  I used a Bundle Monster stamp that I think looks like poinsettias.  This is my first time using "Sarah", and she is beautiful!  Very sparkly in real life, which you can't see in the pics.  I was nervous about doing the french tips on top of the pattern, since I couldn't use acetone to clean up any wonky edges, but I think it turned out pretty good! :-D

Check out the other participants too!

XOXOAlexisLeigh

Purple Castle

It's All About the Polish

A Ginger's Nail

Robyn Loves Nails

The Polished Momy

Teen Polish Junkie

Ninja Polish Real Gold Top Coats

I did a pretty simple Zoya mani at the beginning of the work week.  Just "Kelly" grey with a "Raven" black accent nail.  After 4 days, it had held up so well throughout the week that I wanted to extend it for just a little longer.  So I added my new Ninja Polish REAL gold top coats to spice them up:

On Kelly, I added "He Went to Jarred", a 12K White Gold Flake topcoat.  On Raven, I added "The Midas Touch", a 24K Yellow Gold Flake topcoat.  These top coats are also a great bargain at $15 per bottle, as opposed to the $30 price tag I've seen on some other brands' gold flake top coat.  So I basically got 2 for one! And I LOVE white gold!

Very cool, Ninja Polish, very cool! 

Kate Spade "Belltown" Manicure

So I have a friend who has awesome taste in purses, and I blame her for my subsequent fascination with cute and unique handbags which cost way too much money ;-)

Well, I met her for lunch last week, and immediately lusted after noticed her new Kate Spade, the "Belltown" tote.  Here's a pic I found on the internet in an eBay auction:

Click HERE to see the original listing & more pics of this gorgeous purse (not affiliated, but these are the only decent pics I could find).

So, I did what any lacquer-head would do...I translated this handbag into a manicure:

I love this, and I think it looks just like the Kate!  This is Inst-Dri "Beige Blast" and the red is Zoya's "Diana", all topped with Sech Vite, the hands-down best top coat for not smudging your nail art!

Funny thing about my stash, when I was searching for an appropriate red polish, I found these:

All different brands of super-similar red cremes.  It might be time to stop buying.

Or not ;-)

Sakura Matsuri

I don't know why it is so hard for me to remember "Sakura Matsuri".  As in the gorgeous polish collection recently re-released by the awesome Rainbow Honey.  I have recently bought a bunch of Rainbow Honeys, and you should too!

So one of my recent acquisitions is the "Sakura Matsuri" namesake.  It's so super-cute and full of girly sparkles and flowers!!  

First, I polished on my untried Zoya "Skylar", and used Zoya "Lotus" for an accent.

Sooo gorgeous!!  This is 2 smooth coats of each.  The shimmer in these is amazing in real life!  Zoya is my fave polish ever!!

Then I smothered it in 1 1/2 coats of "Sakura Matsuri".  1/2 just because I wanted 2 flowers on each nail, and 3 on the thumbs.  The flowers came out very easily, though, so minimal fishing was required:

You don't need me to tell you how beauteous this is!  I mean, you DO have eyeballs! ;-)

Rainbow Honey sells their fantastical polishes for $10 full size and $5 minis.  They are absolutely worth every single penny!!  They arrive in professional super-cute packaging, and the 2 I've used so far have literally been 1-coaters (click HERE for Koi Pond).  Visit the SHOP now!!! 

BTW, I used the Elmer's glue basecoat for this.  2 days later, I popped the nail polish right off with no damage to my nail.  I'm ecstatic with this painless glitter removal technique!! :-)

Zoya Patchwork-y Stained Glass

I recently saw this awesome abstract art manicure by Chalkboard Nails, and I was instantly enamored!  She says you just randomly apply brushstrokes of different colors.  I know it would be a little more difficult than that, but I wanted to give it a shot! 

So I checked the stash for some pretty polishes, and came up with all Zoyas, except for one lone Orly.  I love Zoya!

L to R Top Row:  Myrta, Carly, Ivanka, Trixie

L to Right Bottom Row:  Glitz, Charla, Sarah, Valerie

So just started painting splotches of each color until my nails were completely covered:

Indoor Lighting:

Out in the sun:

These remind me of stained glass, but in a patchwork kind of way.  I learned that I have a hard time being random, because I wanted to make each nail exactly the same.  And I think I was supposed to have longer, lighter strokes, so the colors would sort of blend into one another, but I just couldn't do it.  So my version is more block-y and chunky.  Still pretty, but not what I wanted.

I think I'll be stamping something over this pretty soon...maybe a geometric-type pattern?

Killing 2 Birds with Zoya "Adina"

As you should know, Jilltastic Nail Designs hosts "Try It On Tuesdays", where you have to use an untried polish in your stash and post it to her wall on Tuesday.  I made it just in time!

I also saw that Lustrous Lacquer is starting an Alphabet Challenge, where you pick out polishes beginning with that week's letter.  I think they're supposed to be untrieds, but I need to double check.  I love that we will only do a letter once per week, which allows plenty of time to do the challenge mani, and also gives you the chance to do other stuff too!

So, I picked out Zoya's "Adina".  She fits the bill for both purposes.  I've been wanting to try her for a while now.  She's a beautiful shade of purple which flashes to green.  Sorry, but these crappy pics do nothing to capture the beauty:

I tried enhancing this one to show the green flash, but it is still so hard to see:

"Adina" went on smoothly in 2 thin coats.  I added a 3rd coat, but I didn't need to.  Also for this mani, I used the whole Zoya colorlock system, which starts with a swipe of "Remove", then "Anchor" base coat, your color, then "Armor" topcoat.  I used some NOPI fast-dry drops, though.  However, as you can see on the edges, most noticeably on the middle & ring fingers, the polish wrinkled b/c I wasn't patient enough before I got on with my life :-(.  I just can't do a non fast-dry top coat.  So, sorry "Armor", but I'm going back to my good ol' Seche Vite.

This polish is so beautiful in person!  If you can, getcha some!

Zoya Braid - Cherry Cola!

I missed Jilltastic Design's "Try It On Tuesday", where you paint your nails with your "dusty", untried polishes.  It makes you try out those polishes you just HAD to have at one point, but then forgot about them because you found some other pretty to lust over.  

Anyway, for my next mani I still wanted to use a dusty, and I found my Zoya "Cola".  This color is sooo perfectly cola-colored!  And I wanted to try the braided/fishtail nails I've been seeing, most-recently in THIS TUTORIAL by CutePolish.  And cherry red always goes with cola ;-)

Pretty, right?  I really like my braid too...it looks more like a braid than a fishtail to me, so that's what I'm calling it!   I used "Flowie" (light brown) and "Diana" (red).  I kind of regret using "Flowie", since when you look at the braid from far away, it looks like my nail is bare there, and it kinda messes up the whole braided effect and looks more like my polish is chipping off :-/.

Also, I hate to report that "Cola" was kind of a pain to use.  Usually my Zoya polishes paint themselves on, and are opaque in 1 or 2 super-smooth coats.  "Cola" took 3 coats for full coverage, and it flooded my cuticles, even when I used thin coats...you can kind of see the lighter reddish colors of the under-layers at the edges.  But I love this color, and I got a complement on it today, so it's still a keeper! :-).

"Watermelon Candy" Franken Nails

Yes, another post in the same day!  But I couldn't resist trying out my new Watermelon Candy franken! 

So, here it is over Zoya's Rory (which is soooo gorgeous on its own, and practically paints itself on!  I only had to use 1 coat)

And with flash:

Lovin' it!  I added 1 & 1/2 coats of my Watermelon Candy franken, and the 1/2 was just to make sure I had enough seeds on each nail.  YAY!

But what watermelon is complete without a rind?  Enter Zoya's "Ivanka"

Sun shot w/camera phone:

I can't stop staring at my nails, they're so sparkly in person!  I'm in love with my polish, and of course the Zoya's always blow me away!  This mani's gonna be on for a while! :-D

Lacquistry Custom "Sand & Sea"

If you have followed my blog or FB page at all, you know that I absolutely adore Jenna @ Lacquistry!  She is a freakin' polish-making goddess, and is a total sweetheart to boot!  So, when I had the opportunity to request a custom order from her a while back, I jumped on the chance!  

I have already posted about one of my customs, "Hawaiian Sunset".  Next up is "Sand & Sea".  

Jenna says, "First up, you asked for something involving the beach and sand. I came up with something for you combining 9 different shapes, sizes and colors. We have the ocean represented by a "salty" cool oceanic blue (hey that rhymed!) sprinkled with mini holo sea green hexs' and light blue holo hexs'. The sand meets the sea with an "un-gold" true shimmering sand color- achieved by blending 3 different fine sand colors and a sand colored mini-hex for size interest. I kept it more of a cool-toned, misty day as opposed to a bright sunny day, if that makes sense."

 I think it makes PERFECT sense!!

I mean, look at that freakin' BLING!!  And it is totally the SAND & SEA.  Well, technically, this is the Ocean (Newport Beach, CA to be exact), but whatever!  These are the cool colors of the Pacific, as opposed to the bright aqua's of like the Carribbean, and I LOVE it!  I am totally amazed that she was able to get the color of the beach into a bottle!!  

The other polishes in my mani are Zoya's "Charla" and a water marble fail of a gold & silver Pure Ice polish (I'm too lazy to find the names, and I'm too bitter to care).  I actually painted "Charla" over the other failed water marbles, since I've heard she stains like a beeotch, so hopefully this layering will help avoid that.

Here's another pic in the sun, cuz that's how I roll!

For a little more drama to this story, this is actually the 2nd version of "Sand & Sea".  The first exploded in the mail, and arrived like this:

We think it was due to the heat, since it was like 110 degrees in Arizona, and about that here in Cali during the transit time, and it actually had to bake in my metal mailbox all day until I got home from work.  It was obviously well-wrapped, so it doesn't seem likely that was the culprit.  At any rate, Jenna promptly made a replacement one, which made it home safe & sound (obviously, duh!).

Sorry, it seems like I gush whenever I have something to say about Lacquistry, but I've loved every single polish of hers I've gotten (I'm up to 20).  She's also the one that got me hooked into this nail community; I accidentally stumbled upon "Autumn Flurries" in an Etsy treasury and the rest is history.  Also, Jenna is a true artist who really cares about her craft, and I deeply admire her talent.  Did I mention she's also like the coolest person ever?

Jenna is currently finishing up her custom orders (she's not taking any more at this time), and has announced that she will start stocking her Etsy Shop soon.  Keep an eye on her Facebook Page for updates, and to also check out the other custom polishes she's made for other lucky customers.  I can't wait to get me more Lacquistry!!  

"Try It On Tuesday" - Zoya Edyta & Trixie

So Jillastic Nail Design is sponsoring a super-fun "Try It On Tuesday" for those of us who may have a few "untried" polishes languishing and frustrated, their beauty bottled up in their...er...bottles ;-)

But enough melodrama!  I have been wanting to try these beauties together for a long time:

These are Zoya's "Edyta" & "Trixie".  And they are so much more gorgeous in person than in these pics!  They went on sooo smoothly, as per usual with Zoya.  Edyta's shimmer is kind of gold-ish green-ish...very beautiful.  And Trixie is just pure bling!  These are 2 coats of each over base coat & topped with Seche Vite.

And my favorite shot:

Who says short nails can't be cute?!?  

I totally feel the need for stamping coming on...I wonder what I'll come up with ;-)