Mix Your Own Nail Polish with Gridlock Lacquer!

Purchased By Shelby Lou

Hey guys! May is always a bit hectic for me so I'm not surprised that I haven't been getting any blogging done. Let me summarize just this past week of events.

The weather is just getting nice so I've been revamping our outdoor spaces and garden. It's been a lot of work and expensive, but my front porch and garden are looking lovely. I even splurged on a decent outdoor dining set at Big Lots. I sure get in trouble at that store haha! Of course my nails are a wreck right now. I broke to corners off on the same nail so experimented with rounder nails... I love round nails on other people but I just hate them on me. Every. Single. Time. AGH.

May 6th was my husband's birthday. For his day he requested dinner out with his parents at a new restaurant we love, Mezza. It's a new-ish Lebanese restaurant in Buffalo and it is delish. His dad is from Lebanon and even he agreed it was tasty and authentic. I think that's about the best endorsement you can get!

On May 7th I went with my cousin (another nail polish obsessed gal) to a Mix Your Own Nail Polish class with Gridlock Lacquer. Gridlock Lacquer is a local indie nail polish company that creates polish based on the awesomeness of Buffalo, and now other underrated "rustbelt" cities. I took a few cell phone pictures of the event, but mostly I got lost in the mixing fun!

Look at all the glitter & pigments we got to play with!

Tools to start mixing. And look! Spectraflair!

Nails polishes mixed by my cousin and I. I want to borrow her red jelly glitter bomb!

The polishes I mixed and a couple I picked up from Gridlock Lacquer

From Left to Right:
Shelby Lou's Lacquer (mixed by me!)
All The Cool Glitters (mixed by me!)
Gridlock Lacquer Pierogi, Kielbasa, Kraul
Gridlock Lacquer The Rockpile

I have a whole new appreciation for indies after this little class. It was hard! I didn't fully realize my visions, but I am pleased with my colors. I made the minty one first and added way too many flakies haha. For my second glitter bomb I just started adding one scoop of every pretty blue and fuchsia glitter I liked. And Spectraflair in everything! My cousin and I went all grabby hands for the Spectraflair as soon as she told the class what it was. My polishes are so amateur, but I love them. We are definitely going to go back again! If you live in the Buffalo area I would highly recommend going to the Mix Your Own Event. The maker was really nice even though I was clearly being anal about trying to get the right shade of minty--she recommended small amounts of neon green and regular green in white and it worked!

Alright, so after the fun of polish-making I ended up with last-minute tickets to a fancy work party/fundraiser from a doctor I work with. Friday night I ran out and found a black cocktail dress on consignment ($18, sscore!) and I got to get all dressed up for Saturday night. I went with my cousin (clearly we are besties, and my husband hates huge parties with strangers). There were two live bands and a DJ, photo booth, dancing, and *ahem* an open bar. Much fun was had by all.

This brings me to Mother's Day on Sunday. I got to see my mom and dad and grandparents to celebrate both Mother's Day and my mom's birthday which was May 4th. I hope all the moms out there, traditional and non-traditional, had a lovely Mother's Day!

Wow, so that's been my week. I love blogging, but sometimes it gets shoved down on the priority list. What is everyone else up to? What do you think of my first indie polishes? I have a lot to learn!

Have you loved your cuticles today?