Friday, December 23, 2011

All I Want For Christmas Is ______!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I've missed you all so very much! I have been so busy getting ready for my trip and getting ready for the Holiday's that I haven't been able to get a post up. Originally, I planned to do a whole bunch of scheduled posts for you all but unfortunately life got in the way..it happens, haha! Now that I am here visiting with family and friends I don't think there will be much time for nail posts but I am going to try my best!

Photo Credit: http://www.shiningtrends.com/hottest-items-this-season/christmas-nail-polish/

There were some great Holiday collections released this year in the nail polish world: OPI's 2011 Holiday Muppets Collection, Orly's Holiday Soiree Collection, Color Club's Beyond The Mistletoe Colletion, Zoya's Winter Feel Collection; just to name a few. As we get closer and closer to Christmas, I am wondering which polishes and/or collections are on your wishlist? At the top of my list are the new flakies that will be released by Finger Paints. These special effect topcoats aren't supposed to hit shelves until January but some Sally's have them displayed already. I will definitely be running into Sally's while I'm up here because mine..well, let's just say, it pretty much sucks. I am also hoping to find Snow Globe which is part of China Glaze's Let It Snow Collection.

I would also love to hear about the polishes you plan on gifting this year! This year I am gifting a few polishes to my friends and family. I have also made a few rings made of polish, like this one, to give as gifts. I can't say who is getting what here because I know some of the people I'm giving gifts to read my blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise. I surely hope they love them!

So Lacquer Luvers, I would love to hear which polishes are at the top of your list and which one's you will be gifting this year. Maybe you guys will help me add to my ever-growing wish list =) As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica


***** By the way, thanks to you all, I've reached 100 Followers here!! I will be having a 100 follower giveaway posted up when I get back home. I am excited to do some shopping for one of you lucky ladies! Thank you so much for following and being a part of LuvMyLacquer!! <3 *****

Thursday, December 15, 2011

I Am Sew Psyched About As Gold As It Gets

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I missed you girls yesterday! I was having some technical difficulties but now that it's handled I'm back and ready to share today's post with you all. Today's nails feature two polishes by Essie, Sew Psyched and As Gold As It Gets. Let's go on to the nails, shall we?


For my mani, I began with a coat of Essie Grow Faster as by base. I applied two coats of Sew Psyched for full opacity. Sew Psyched can best be described as a cashmere-soft sage pewter. It has gray micro-shimmer throughout it that I really really love. The formula and application was very nice. This polish is from Essie's Fall 2010 collection. I really like this color. It's different than any other green in my stash and you all know how I love green.


Once Sew Psyched dried, I layered one coat of As Gold As It Gets over it. As Gold As It Gets is part of Essie's Luxeffects Collection. Luxeffects is a set of 5 glitter top coats that are sure to dazzle during the holiday's and is perfect for layering and giving all of your polishes a different look. As Gold As It Gets contains gold flakies and gold micro-glitter in a clear base. The flakes vary in size and the iridescence from the micro-glitter sometimes reflects a flash of a reddish bronze in the sun. The formula on this was a little thick but was not hard to apply. No top coat was used in these photos.


Pretty, isn't it? As mentioned before, this collection was created for layering and I wanted to show you how it looked over other colors. From left to right we have As Gold As It Gets layered over Sinful Colors Burgandy Apple, WetNWild Ebony Hates Chris, Revlon All Fired Up, & Essie Sew Psyched.


I really love layering this polish over other colors. It gives cremes a much more dramatic appearance that is perfect for this time of year. I also love that its a gold flakie, something that I don't have in my collection. How do you ladies like this polish? Which color do you like it layered best over or which color would you like to layer it over? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

It's Pink Wednesday!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is Pink Wednesday and I'm so happy about that because I get to take a break from the holiday mani's! Don't get me wrong, I love doing them but it's nice to do something different every now and then. So let me show you what I've done for today's Pink Wednesday manicure.


For my manicure today, I started off with a base of Nail Envy Maintenance by OPI. I chose Yum Gum by Color Club for my base color and applied two coats of it to reach full opacity. Yum Gum is from Color Club's Wicked Sweet Collection. This collection consists of 6 neon candy colored shades that are scented. I won this entire collection over the summer through a contest on Color Club's Facebook page. Yum Gum is a pretty neon pink (much brighter than my camera could capture) and the scent reminds me of the Bazooka Joe bubblegum I used to love as a kid. The formula was a bit on the thick side but very manageable.


I wanted to do a fun monotone manicure and used another pink polish for my design. Cream Pink by Sinful Colors is a bright pink polish. Contrary to the name, this isn't a cream at all. This lovely pink has golden shimmer throughout it that is really quite beautiful. I used this color on BundleMonster's image plate BM223 and stamped a zebra print on my nails. I used Color Club's clear top coat to finish this off.


I am totally loving this look! It has so many components of things I love: monotones, pink, and animal print. Love, Love! The one thing I am not liking is having to take this off so that I can do tomorrow's manicure. So ladies, is this a manicure you would wear? I know it may be a little loud for some but I'm one of those people that love bright colors. After all, I'm in SoFlo where color is king in this tropical paradise. As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas Candy Mani

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I have a cute and festive manicure to share with you all today but first, I want to say a huge THANK YOU to Nikki! Nikki and I are in a nail polish group on Facebook. I love that group as I have met so many great people with the same love for polish as me. I was lucky enough to do a swap a month ago (maybe two?) with her and she spoiled me rotten! Around Halloween, a bunch of the girls were posting the most adorable looking pumpkin shaped polishes that seem to be found only in stores like RiteAid & Meijer, neither of which are in South Florida. Long story short, I wanted to try one and she was looking for a specific image for stamping that I just so happened to have,  so we swapped. I was expecting just one of them and to my absolute surprise I received 6! She sent me 3 pumpkin and 3 snowmen polishes and I was ever so grateful that she did since I cannot access these myself! So Ms. Nikki, thank you again!


Today's manicure begins with a base of Nail Envy Maintenance by OPI. I used two coats of Matte by Bettina for my white base. This polish has a really great formula. Although the first coat is a bit streaky, it evens out nicely by the second coat. I'm glad to have this one in my stash. I don't know if it's just me, but I have a hard time finding a really good white cream polish. They always are either super thick, ridiculously runny, or way too streaky.


First, how freakin' cute is that bottle?! The top hat brush handles are absolutely adorable! These polishes are unnamed but as you can see, this one contains red and green hexagonal glitter in a clear base. I applied one coat on each of my nails except my ring finger. Application was nice on this, the glitter dispersed evenly and I did not have a problem with placement. I quite love the way it looks over the white. It reminds me of sprinkles on top of holiday cupcakes!


On my accent nail, I stamped on a candy cane design from BornPrettyStore image plate M37 using the polish from my red Kiss nail art striper. I have attempted to use various reds for this, however, none were opaque enough and they all turned pink over the white. I used scotch tape and Bettina Mojito for my green funky french tips. I topped this manicure with fast dry top coat by Seche Vite.


Though I like this manicure, I think I liked it better before the stamping and green tips. Something about the white with the red and green glitter is just so pretty to me. What do you all think? Like it, love it, or hate it? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Monday, December 12, 2011

Have A Hello Kitty Christmas

Hello Lacquer Luvers and Happy Monday to you all! Today I have a super cute holiday mani that I am so excited to share with you! I had posted my Pink Snowflakes nails over in a nail polish group on Facebook and the ladies really seemed to have loved my girly twist on a traditional holiday manicure. I loved that one alot, too, and it got me to thinking of what other girly design ideas I could create for a seasonal manicure. While going through my image plates I came across one with the perfect design on it and thought "ooooh! I've got it!" So get ready for super cuteness my dear Lacquer Luvers as I bring you a festive manicure with the always adorable, Hello Kitty!



Today's manicure begins with a base coat of Nail Envy Maintenance by OPI. I used two coats of Bettina Onix as my base color and three coats of Snow White by Zoya on my accent finger. The formula on these creams are fantastic and both were very easy to apply.


To bring on some sparkle, I layered one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear VIP Pink over Bettina Onix. VIP Pink can best be described as a pink sheer (perhaps jelly) polish full of pink micro-glitter with pink and silver shimmer. This one is best used for layering since she's so sheer (and sadly discontinued). I am in love with this over black! Now, on to the cuteness!


Isn't that adorable?! Let me share with you how I did it. First I used Bettina Pink Bikini and BundleMonster image plate BM14 for the two pink snowflakes. The Hello Kitty image is from BornPrettyStore plate M71 & originally comes with a bow in front of her right ear. I used my orange wood stick to get rid of the bow while it was still on my stamper. You have to do this quickly as the Konad Special Stamping Polish in black that I used for this dries really fast. Hello Kitty got a pretty pink Santa hat using Bettina Pink Bikini and BM-214. A toothpick was dipped into SHXW VIP Pink and was used for detail around the rim and top of her hat.



Although my Hello Kitty is not directly centered on my nail (stamp placement can be so hard sometimes) I am extremely happy with this unique Holiday manicure! Do you ladies love it? HK looks so cute rocking her pink sparkly Santa hat & the pink snowflakes help to tie in with the holiday theme. Who said Christmas nails couldn't be pink and black and absolutely adorable? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Sunday, December 11, 2011

An ultra Luxe mani for the Holiday's with Orly

Hello Lacquer Luvers! As the days get closer and closer to Christmas, I am sure you all are busy getting your holiday shopping done but I wanted to share with you a few swatch photos of Orly Luxe. You ladies saw her as a stamping polish in yesterday's Holiday Ribbon manicure. Luxe is part of Orly's LuxeFX Collection and has been in my stash for quite some time now. I love showing her off this time of year! She's the perfect color for quick and simple, yet, ultra glam nails!



This gorgeous gold manicure was created using a base of Nail Envy Maintenance by OPI, two coats of Orly Luxe and one coat of fast dry top coat by Seche Vite. Luxe has a bit of silver micro glitter in it's gold micro glitter base that keeps it from turning too yellow.



I just love this color! She's so versatile in that she's stunning on her own and as a stamping polish. Do you like gold for the holiday's? Is there a color you have in your stash that you always gravitate to around this time of year? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

***By the way, today is my one month Blogaversary! I just wanted to say THANK YOU to my lovely Lacquer Luvers!! You all make this so much more than I thought it would be and I am so very happy to have each and every one of you joining on this amazing journey!!! <3***

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Zoya Yara Holiday Ribbon Mani

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I'm going in the opposite direction of yesterday's untraditional Pink Snowflake manicure and am sharing more of a traditional holiday manicure with an abstract twist on it. The colors for today are very of the season - green and gold - and this is also one I would consider to be office appropriate.

For my manicure, I chose an incredibly gorgeous olive green that is far from ordinary. Zoya Yara can best be described as "A medium smoky olive drab with an illuminating splash of bright gold glitter. An olive drab that's anything but- it's completely glam." Zoya always nails their descriptions and that's one of countless things I love about this company. Yara is from Zoya's Smoke and Mirrors Collections and definitely lives up to the Mirrors side of the collections in that it "reflects the most beautiful illusion of all - you! Smoky, sultry, sexy... with just a hint of sparkle, shimmer, metallic to add to the mystery. Expertly designed to work on a variety of skin tones to provide that perfect look right now." Have a look at this beauty:


Look at that gold glitter!! Oh, sooo yummy!!


To begin this manicure, I began with a base coat of Nail Envy Maintenance by OPI. Next I applied two coats of Yara. The formula, as is the case for every Zoya I've ever tried, is absolutely amazing! It went on effortlessly, dried quickly, and became completely opaque in just two coats. For nail art, I used a design from Konad's image plate M63.  I used Luxe by Orly as my stamping polish. Luxe is part of Orly's FoilFX Collection and is a stunning gold polish with a foil finish. Seche Vite fast dry top coat was used to top this all off. This design reminded me of golden ribbon on a beautiful Christmas tree!



I am in love with this manicure! I absolutely adore the gold glitter in Yara and think the gold foil from Luxe complimented her very well. What do you all think of this holiday mani? Do you love Yara as much as I do? I think this might be nice for a holiday luncheon at work - eyecatching but not over the top. As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Friday, December 9, 2011

The Nail Polish Tag - I'm It!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I was tagged by the lovely Ms. Lindsey over at Neverland Nail Blog in one of her posts & I'm really excited to get to the answers. Thanks Lindsey, I love doing these! So here we go!


The rules are very simple:
1. Answer the 10 questions.
2. Pass this tag to 5 other bloggers.
3. Make sure the bloggers that you tagged, knows that you tagged them, by sending them a comment on their blog.

Now, here are the questions:

  1. How many nail polishes do you have?
  2. What is your favorite brand of nail polish?
  3. Do you like crackle polish, or do you hate it?
  4. What is your first nail polish brand?
  5. If you're going to have a nail polish line, what are you gonna name it?
  6. What nail polish color does not compliment you?
  7. And what color does compliment you?
  8. Name two of your best nail art friends?
  9. What was the best nail polish gift you have ever received?
  10. Make a speech about thanking the blogger who gave you this tag.
Here are my answers!
1. Last I checked, I have a little over 300 in my stash. No, I do not have a problem, lol!
2. My favorite brand is..how can I pick just one? I like them all...I really do love my Bettina's & Zoya's, though <3
3. Ahh, crackle! That stuff I really WANT to like but cannot stand! It looks nice on some people, just not my thing.
4. My first nail polish brand was Sally Hansen. I love their Xtreme Wear line...great colors, very reasonably priced, and not hard to find!
5. Well, that's easy! LuvMyLacquer, of course! I can see it now, the cutest bottles ever & the most gorgeousss colors/collections! Oh, a girl can dream.. =)
6. Ok, I know this color is like THE color when people think of nails. It's the color in most posters in salons, but me and red do not go. At all! I have very few of them and only like one in particular..and that's in part because it's a HTF (hard to find) & it's sparklyyy - Essie Ruby Slippers
7. Oh I just love pink, purple, and green on me!!
8. Two of my best nail art friends are Yamii & Raquel! Not only are they great at nail art (please go visit their pages!) but they are two of the most genuinely nice people I know!
9. The best nail polish gift I ever received was from my hubby! He got me polishes for my birthday this year and actually picked out the colors himself!! So sweet..
10. My dear Lindsey, it has been such a pleasure getting to know you and so many other lovely ladies over in NP&G! I never would have guessed that in my lifetime I would meet such talented people through nail polish! The dedication you put into sharing your work with us will forever be appreciated and I wish you much continued success in everything that you do. I cannot begin to put into words how much of an inspiration you are to someone like me who is just starting out. May you continue on with the success of Neverland Nail Blog & please keep bringing us your lovely manicures. Thank you so much for tagging me in your post, xo!!


That was fun! The 5 bloggers I want to tag are:
Carolina from Colores de Carol
Yamii from Yamii Does Nails
Lizzy from The Do It Yourself Lady
Marketta from Pink Polish Addict
Kelly from Posh For Polish

YOU'RE IT!!!

Pink Snowflakes!

Hello Lacquer Luvers, Happy Friday! Today I have an untraditional twist on a winter mani to share with you. I was speaking to a few lovely ladies this morning (who all share a love for nail polish) and in the midst of our conversation I became inspired with an idea for today's manicure. We had discussed the weather and how cold it is up North. I had mentioned that although I do not like cold weather, I hope that it snows when I go to visit my family & friends for the holidays. My son, Tyus, would love playing in it and it would surely make for some great memories and photos! I wanted to do a winter snowflake manicure and instead of going the traditional blue/silver/white route I went PINK! Yes, pink! =)


For today's manicure, I began with a coat of Nail Envy by OPI. I applied two coats each of Matte & Pink Bikini by Bettina, alternating the base colors on each finger (using Pink Bikini on my pinky, middle, and thumb fingers; using Matte on my ring and index fingers). These lacquers both go on very effortlessly and dry fairly quickly.


I layered two polishes by Confetti, Ice Ice Baby & Pink Confetti, to give my nails a bit iridescent shimmer to mimic that of fallen snow. Ice Ice Baby is packed with blue/green iridescent glitter in a clear base and I used one coat of this on the nails I painted white. Pink Confetti has two sizes of iridescent glitter that are orange, gold, blue and green in a sheer pink base and I used on coat of this on the nails painted pink.

For my snowflakes, I used Konad's image plate M59. This plate has two different types of snowflakes on it and I used both on each nail. I used Konad Special Stamping Polish in white on my pink nails and the Bettina Pink Bikini worked great for stamping the pink snowflakes on my white nails.



I am so very pleased with how my Pink Snowflake mani turned out! It's too cute! I think the Confetti polishes were perfect for the snow effect & cannot wait to use them over other colors. Would you ladies wear this manicure? What other untraditional colors do you think this would look best in? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Pink Wednesday

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have my first Pink Wednesday manicure for you all. Three amazing nail bloggers, Colour CoatedGlitta Gloves, & Life and Polish got together and created Pink Wednesdays after their love for the movie Mean Girls. In the movie, "The Plastics" wear pink on Wednesday's and though none of the bloggers are mean, they took this idea and made it their own by wearing pink nails on Wednesdays. I just had to join in on this since pink is one of my favorite nail colors!


Today's manicure began with one coat of OPI Nail Envy. I chose OPI DS Reserve for my first Pink Wednesday manicure. OPI's Designer Series line are 3-free (free of DBP, Toluene, & Formaldehyde) and formulated with diamond dust. DS Reserve is an incredibly gorgeous vintage pink holographic polish that applies very smoothly and is completely opaque in just two coats. I used Seche Vite fast dry top coat to top my pretty pink mani off. The holographic particles in Reserve make me want to call this one My Private Jet's pink little sister.



I really love this polish. I like this shade on my skin tone and as a holographic lover I'm so glad to have this one in my stash. What's your favorite pink polish? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Color Club Beyond The Mistletoe Collection Pt. 2 **Pic Heavy**

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I will be showing you swatches from the 2nd half of Color Club's Beyond The Mistletoe Collection. These gorgeous glitter mani's  all began with a coat of Color Club's Sticky Base Coat, 2 coats of color, and topped off with Color Club's Clear Top Coat. On to the pics!

Jingle Jangle


 Jingle Jangle can best be described as dark blue, light blue, lavender, & holographic glitter in a clear base.

Candy Cane


Candy Cane can best be described as pink, light pink, & holographic glitter in a clear base.

Gingerbread


Gingerbread can best be described as gold and holographic glitter in a clear base.

Again, noticing  how well these work as layering polishes for Color Club's Foiled Collection, I layered one coat from the Beyond The Mistletoe Collection over two coats of the Foiled Collection; Jingle Jangle over Cold Metal (pinky), Candy Cane over Hot Like Lava (ring), & Gingerbread over Antiquated (middle).


This is surely a holiday collection that does not disappoint! Nothing says festive parties like glitter nails and these pretties will give them so much sparkle. I especially like the blurred pictures in these swatches, you can really see how the holographic glitter in this collection are reminiscent of twinkling lights on a Christmas tree..love! My favorites from Beyond The Mistletoe are Sugarplum Fairy & Candy Cane. Which ones do you like best? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Monday, December 5, 2011

Color Club Beyond The Mistletoe Collection Pt. 1 **Pic Heavy**

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I will be sharing swatches from half of Color Club's Beyond The Mistletoe Collection. This collection contains 6 sultry colors (Beyond The Mistletoe, Holiday Splendor, Sugarplum Fairy, Gingerbread, Candy Cane, & Jingle Jangle) for a glittering holiday along with clear top coat. I found this collection on Black Friday while shopping with my sister at Ross. Each manicure began with a base of Color Club's Sticky Base Coat, 2 coats of color, and a coat of Color Club's Clear Top Coat. Now, on to the pics!
Sugarplum Fairy


Sugarplum Fairy can best be described as holographic, lilac, & lavender glitter in a clear base. For these swatches I included a blurry pic because it really mimics the way these polishes sparkle like lights! Love, love!

 Beyond The Mistletoe


 Beyond The Mistletoe can best be described as light blue and holographic glitter in a clear base.

Holiday Splendor


 Holiday Splendor is the only color in this collection without a clear base. This one is green, silver, and holographic glitter in a green jelly base. Yummy!

I couldn't help but to notice that each of these colors would work well layered over a polish from Color Club's Foiled Collection. For layering, I used 2 coats each of Foil Me Once (pinky), Lumin-icecent (ring), & Perfectly Molten. Once that dried I applied 1 coat of Sugarplum Fairy (pinky), Beyond The Mistletoe (ring) & Holiday Spendor (middle) and topped them off with Color Club's Clear Top Coat.


These glitters are gorgeous! I really love the way they shine and their holiday names are just perfect. Are you a fan of glitter? Which of these is your favorite? As always, I hope you Lacquer Luvers have enjoyed this post and I look forward to showing you Pt. 2 of this sparkly collection tomorrow, xo!

~Jessica