Sunday, July 31, 2016

Swatch& Art: Nvr Enuff Polish - Dove

Hello and welcome! Today I have a quick swatch and some fun stamping to show you!
*Purchased by me* *Affiliate link* 

I hope the images are pretty obvious of what the theme is!

Monday, July 25, 2016

Stamping Saturday: Neon Watermelons

Welcome to Stamping Saturday! I picked a neon color to wear this week and enjoyed it so much! I also got some new stamping plates in the mail and couldn't wait to use the watermelon images.

Friday, July 22, 2016

#THELACQUERRING: PURPLE

Hello and welcome to The Lacquer Ring's first prompt for July - purple!! Purple is one of my favorite colors, so I'll jump right in and show the latest addition to my collection. Bonus - there are multiple nail art looks with this one, I got carried away!
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle
If the bottle and label are not familiar - it's because this is a pretty new brand. Tonic Polish launched just at the end of June on Etsy (shop here) It's pretty exciting to be able to catch a brand right as it's launching, and observe the behind the scenes bits. When the maker, Lindsey, started showing prototypes for the debut collection, this sparkly purple is the one that caught my eye right away.
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle
" is a blue-purple base with strong red shimmer and silver holo micro glitters."
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle
Formula was on the thicker side and I used 2 coats for complete opacity. Top coat is recommended to bring back the shine.
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle
It was hard to capture it in the sun, but it sparkled so much!! While in the car with my husband, I kept sliding my hand over to his side to make the nails catch the sun and make sure he sees how pretty they are, haha.
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle
I got too excited about this gorgeous purple and quickly started practicing drag marbling with it and a neon green China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard. I love the color combination!
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle Nail Art Drag Marble

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle Nail Art Drag Marble
This one was totally an accident, I tried so hard to replicate it for all the nails and just couldn't do it...I need more practice, but with basic polish. I ended up using quite a bit of Huckleberry Sparkle in my attempts, and nearly got a heart attack when I saw the huge fill line appear. I almost rushed over to buy a backup bottle but stopped myself - it's kind of nice to realize I like a polish so much to put it through so much use. Great job, Tonic Polish!
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle Nail Art Drag Marble

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle Nail Art Drag Marble
For the last art, I made flower decals. I'm not too thrilled with how they turned out, but it happens!
Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle Nail Art Floral Stamping

Tonic Polish Huckleberry Sparkle Nail Art Floral Stamping
Whew. that was a lot for purple! Next week's prompt is chevrons, I'll try to be on time for Thursday's post!


Sunday, July 10, 2016

Swatch & Art: Fairytale Finish - Beastquake

Welcome to a Swatch & Art post! Today's polish is called Beastquake, by Fairytale Finish. This polish is from last year's Seahawks duo, and is not available for sale, but I poked Amanda (the maker) to see if another set will be released this year. I'm not a sports fan, but found myself collecting her Seahawks polishes....I just love the colors!
*Purchased by me* *Affiliate link* 

I've been wanting to do a navy & pink combo for a while, so the third July prompt for the IG #clairestelle8july challenge was perfect for it. The prompt is splatter, but once again I went for stamping to assist me with the effect ;)

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Stamping Saturday: Dry brush Art

Hello and welcome to another Stamping Saturday! It's been quiet here on the blog, but on IG I've posted several new designs this week, they just haven't made it on to the blog...I just get caught up with getting the next design on to my nails that I don't take the time to blog about them. I'll try to catch up this week, but for now, here's a design I put together for Stamping Saturday and the dry brush prompt for #clairestelle8july IG challenge.
*Purchased by me* *Affiliate links*
To be honest, I was going to skip the dry brush prompt. I noticed I'll often start a challenge/prompt and as soon as I get to something outside of my norm, or not something I can't stamp...I lose interest. The dry brush technique is pretty easy - you just need to wipe off most of the color from the brush and paint away! It even gives a somewhat textured feel if you don't topcoat it. And then I saw this mani by katv865 on IG and was inspired to actually do the dry brush, and add my usual stamping to it, because just a few days prior, I ran into these cool earrings on Etsy and made a mental note to try nail art like that. So it was a perfect combination of inspirations.
I used 3 Bonita polishes for my dry brush base - Santorini's Ocean, My Avatar, and Cocktails in Aruba.
Many of us use silicone mats for nail art, so I put mine to work this time and just dry brushed my design on there. Then a couple days later, I added a clear coat to make a decal and stuck it on my nails. Of course, you can dry brush straight on the nails, but I was wearing a pretty new polish and didn't want to take it off just yet ;) It's debatable if making a decal saves any time in the end, as it needs to be trimmed and cleaned up once on the nail, but I think it's a matter of convenience for me - when I get an idea, I can start part of the process right away and finish up later.

I got to stamp after all! So this fits the whole Stamping Saturday post ;) I used 2 colors and dabbed them randomly onto my stamping plate, to create this design. Gold is Sinful Colors Gold Medal, and the burnt reddish one is a BornPretty Store stamping polish #29 (item #23193) The stamping plate is also from BPS, it's plate BP-L008 (item #17926)
So that's in for this Stamping Saturday look! Thanks for visiting!


Friday, July 1, 2016

#THELACQUERRING: BEACH / TROPICAL

Hello and welcome to another blog post! The Lacquer Ring's second prompt for June is tropical/ocean and I finally got nail charms and put together this beach design.
*some items were provided for review*affiliate links*
There are so many recreations of this design now, and I remember seeing the tutorial for the very first time that elleandish did back in 2014 (see here) , how simple and beautiful it looked. I've tried this design last year but didn't have the charms, and I have to say, I like it more this time around!