2014 Edition: Oh, Christmas Tree

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Today is the last day to enter my Christmas Trio Giveaway! It ends tonight at 11:59pm EST. Don't be a Grinch, make sure you tell a friend ;-)

I know today is normally reserved for HARE, but I just had to share this before it went out of season! Last night I was messing around with my nail vinyls. I redid a few nails after attempting to get those adorable chevron stripes to work on my other hand--I think my nails are too curved or something, I can't get them to stay down and get crisp lines. Anyway I was about to quit nail vinyls forever when I noticed one of my vinyls looked like a skinny Christmas tree... so I made a Christmas tree! I used KBShimmer Vinyl Nail Decals from the Tribal Themed Sheet in the "Connected Triangle Lines" pattern.

Supply List:
Tweezers
Laquerlicious Peppermint Twist
KBShimmer Tribal Themed Vinyl Nail Decal Sheet--"Connected Triangle Lines"
Essie Going Incognito
Jindie Nails The Snow Must Go On--A single teeny red star
a-england Merlin
KBShimmer Clearly On Top

While I wouldn't call this a tutorial, I do have a visual of how I did my little tree. I already had on Laquerlicious Peppermint Twist. I love this polish and it was a great crelly formula! I am so into small glitters lately. Below is a picture showing the placement of the "Connected Triangle Lines," I used tweezers to help place them and then peel them off after I painted Essie Going Incognito in between. I love this color, I am almost halfway through my bottle and that is unheard of in my stash!

Shelby Lou Nails - Oh, Christmas Tree - 2014 Edition

I fished out a teeny red star from Jindie Nails The Snow Must Go On, dabbed it on a piece of paper, then placed it with my trusty tweezers. I dry-brushed on some silver glitter from a-england's Merlin for a little sparkle. I topped everything off with two coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top, it's my favorite quick-dry TC to use over bumpy glitters.

Shelby Lou Nails - Oh, Christmas Tree - 2014 Edition

Here is the finished mani and how I am going to enjoy it for at least one more day (I just got a bunch of Christmas swatch mail from Jindie Nails, woo!). My favorite part about this tree is I didn't need to fool around with many extra supplies. I am easily frustrated and have no desire to labor for long over nail art. 

Shelby Lou Nails - Oh, Christmas Tree - 2014 Edition

Here is a close-up of my tree. I love it so much! Even my husband was impressed. It's so teeny but the lines are perfect. Ok, maybe I won't be getting rid of my nail vinyls... now who is going to go make a tree? If you try it share a picture with me on facebook!

Shelby Lou Nails - Oh, Christmas Tree - 2014 Edition

Products:
KBShimmer tribal Vinyl Nail Decals
Laquerlicious
Jindie Nails
a-england

Have you loved your cuticles today?

A happy return with Laquerlicious Lady Liberty

I'm back! Finally. I thought I would be back in time for patriotic manis, however I cleaned like a maniac that weekend and ruined all my nails. I hate my nubs but I've decided that life must go on and nails must be polished! Bathroom still needs some finishing touches (seriously, husband, can we at least put the TP holder up?) but otherwise it is gorgeous. I promise I will post before and after pictures--sometime this month. Life has generally been too busy but I have gotten a lot done around the house during my blog break. And yet I missed sharing manis and talking about polish so much.

I also had joined a giveaway awhile back, make sure you check it out and enter here. You could win a $40 gift certificate to a polish e-tailer of your choice. Holy crap, I wish I could enter!

For my comeback mani I have Laquerlicious Lady Liberty. I don't count Laquerlicious as among my favorite brands (hey, to each his own) but when I saw this I knew it must be mine. I can never have enough blue-green aqua cremes, make it a lovely crelly with warm-toned metallic glitters and I am sold.

Lacquerlicious Lady Libery
I am embracing the nubs!

My mani shows two coats. I started with a first thinner coat and a thicker second coat, both with a light touch. I stuck on my studs then used two thick coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top. Flawless formula, easy glitter distribution, and hardly any clean-up! I could wear this forever. I tried to do an awesome two-tone mani with a row of studs on my ring finger... but my nail would only fit 4 and a half studs which is not a real number in studs and it looked silly. Grow nails, grow! I mean look at that pinky, ugh. Lady Liberty is in stock now at Laquerlicious.

In regards to my nubs: I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and made a meme. I doubt I am the first to make this meme nor will I be the last haha!

Products: 

Laquerlicious

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Llarowe's A Box, Indied for October 2013: Swatches & Review

Llarowe is a renowned indie stockist in the nail polish world and the single biggest reason for my credit debt. She recently came out with "A Box, Indied" which is a monthly indie offering of five unique polishes exclusive to the box. I tried to limit pictures as there are five polishes but this post is still picture-heavy!

A Box, Indied

October 2013

Jindie Nails - Screaming Halloween

3 coats OPI Fiercely Fiona
2 coats Screaming Halloween plus a little extra fishing and dabbing
1 thick coat CND Air Dry

 

Let me begin by saying I love Jindie. Not only does she make incredibly unique polishes, she is also a complete sweetheart! Unfortunately for me, this color makes me look like a zombie. I love the concept though, just look at the bottle shot, yum!

Any of you gals blessed with any significant amount of melanin (I swear I have none haha) would probably be able to pull this off with no problems.

Black Cat Lacquer - Came Back Haunted

1 coat China Glaze Liquid Leather
2 coats Came Back Haunted
1 coat CND Air Dry

This was my first experience with Black Cat Lacquer, no complaints here! This is a sheer black jelly with multi-colored shreds and holographic micro shimmer. I swatch in the middle of the night and my lightbox kills holos (sadness, I am working on a solution) so the holo shimmer actually looks simply multi-colored in my photos but I promise it's there. 

Make sure you shake the bottle well and turn it upside down for a bit as the larger shards are sink-y. I think this looks like shredded Halloween candy wrappers from a frantic sampling of trick-or-treat spoils haha. It also looks like confetti and I could see this for New Year's manis, too!

Polish Me To Go - Luna Verde

3 coats Orly Day Glow (white) and 3 coats China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada (accent)
2 coats Luna Verde, no topcoat

Polish Me To Go is also new for me. Luna Verde (love the name!) is a sheer lime green with silvery flakie shimmer. I had a hard time figuring out how to wear this. It is incredibly sheer so I wanted to try it like a topcoat and sort of by itself. It looks nice as a topcoat but the glow is very subtle. On the other hand it doesn't look that exciting over white, but the glow was incredible! I had no idea what I was doing while trying to photograph this in the dark, but I'll show my picture anyway so you can see the difference over dark verses light colors.

In person the glow was pretty awesome and not blurry like my crappy photos look, I'm sorry I couldn't do it justice. Glow-in-the-dark polishes are fun, but I only see them glowing for the few minutes before I fall asleep so I feel like the novelty is wasted on me.

Lacquerlicious - No Tricks, Just Treats!

Undies are China Glaze Gaga For Green, Sephora by OPI Hi Def, China Glaze liquid Leather, China Glaze Grape Pop
1 coat No Tricks, Just Treats! plus some fishing and dabbing
1 coat CND Air Dry

Another new brand for me! This polish is a Halloween glitter bomb, I couldn't even begin to list the glitters involved in this chaos so just refer to the bottle shot...

Wow! Anyway, I initially tried this over a light purple and a light peachy orange. All I will say it it looked awful and I recommend black or bold colors like I'm showing you now. I prefer it over the black and dark purple, I feel like it just looks like a mess over lighter colors.

Ethereal Lacquer - Devoured

3 coats Devoured
1 coat Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat (doesn't dull holos!)

Now this is what I'm talking about! Devoured is a very deep plum holographic polish. I know the holo market is pretty saturated right now but this is classy, sexy, vampy--the quintessential fall polish. I probably could have stopped at two coats, but I used three for photographic purposes. If you see anyone giving theirs up just throw your money at them and take it.


Surprisingly there are still October boxes and subscriptions available on Llarowe's website here. I think a lot of people passed because of the swatches, but there are some real gems in here. And really, can I NOT buy something that is exclusive and/or limited edition?! I do have the subscription and I hope to continue showing you the monthly offerings to either sign up yourself or track down just what you *need* from blogs and personal sales.

That was a lot for one post, thanks for sticking with me!
I hope you took some time while reading to moisturize those cuticles ;-)