Lucki's Mani

Last week Thursday my mother-in-law had to make the terrible decision to put their beloved family dog, Lucki, to sleep. That was harder to type than I thought. I have known Lucki since I first met my husband's family in 2005. She was found abandoned by a dumpster and rescued by Mama G (this is how I think of my mother-in-law in my head). As with most rescues, Lucki rescued her family right back. She was what I call a "dog dog" which I guess means she was all the things a great dog should be--loyal, affectionate, playful, intelligent, protective, loving, silly... I could go on and on. Everyone, especially Mama G,  is devastated. Lucki was 13 years old and still the happy-go-lucky (no pun intended) wonderful dog she was right up to the appointment last Saturday morning.

Maybe some people would think it's weird to do a tribute mani. I know you nail gals will understand.  

Lucki's Mani
Holiday Hoopla was a perfect girly glitter for Lucki

 

Lucki enjoying on of her favorite activities,
sleeping on the couch

Base color: Colors by Llarowe Tequila IV

Pinky: HARE polish Holiday Hoopla

Ring: Nicole by OPI Challenge Red-y 

Middle: Vivid Lacquer paw image stamped with Mentality Scoundrel

Index: Mentality Scoundrel tgradient

Lucki's Mani
Yes, the prints may not be dog prints, but you understand the sentiment

Lucki a couple months ago. She was very sick but not in pain.

Lucki loved being the center of attention, walks, and treats. Whenever you came in the house you had to give her a treat. If two people came in she expected two treats, but it was okay if they came from the same person. I remember her barking when I was hugging my husband (then boyfriend) and she barked like crazy! Maybe she knew I was stealing him away. 

Lucki's Mani
The index finger is reminiscent of Lucki's black nose

Lucki as a happy and healthy girl

You are loved and missed Lucki. I hope you have a football to tear apart, bunnies to chase, and a comfy couch in Heaven. 

Have you loved your pet today?

Skittle with Polish Addict Love & Theft

I'm not feeling too wordy today... more on that tomorrow. I've also worked six days last week, I am beat.

Today I have a skittle inspired by Polish Addict Nail Color Love & Theft, both the colors and the name. You can see my review of Love & Theft here.

Pinky: OPI Emotions
Ring: Sinful Colors Candy Coated, stamped with image from Vivid Lacquer VL 009 and Mentality Scoundrel
Middle & Index (& Thumb, not show): Sinful Colors Candy Coated, PANC Love & Theft

Products:
Polish Addict Nail Color
Vivid Lacquer
Mentality

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Dollish Polish Poor Unfortunate Souls Skittle

I haven't been able to wear as many skittles as I used to since I changed jobs. I have found I don't need strictly traditional work-appropriate polish, but I think the skittle mani might concern patients haha! Here is one I did for a weekend. Poor Unfortunate Souls is one of those polishes I HAD to have, which is hilarious because it took me forever to finally wear it.

Pinky: China Glaze Bump In The Night
Ring & Middle (& Thumb, not shown): Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You, Dollish Polish Poor Unfortunate Souls
Index: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You, stamped with Nailz Craze NC02 & Mentality Scoundrel

Remember how to put together a skittle mani? Pick your undies (I Lilac You) for your glitter (Poor Unfortunate Souls), use a neutral from the glitter for pinky accent (black), then stamp the neutral on the index (black swirls). Show me your skittles on my facebook page!

Selected Products:
Dollish Polish
Nailz Craze

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Pink Pop Flakes

Wow, it is so incredibly cold here in Buffalo I can't even take it. The thruways are closed and even my husband's retail store closed early (which he reports has never happened in the 10 years he's worked with the company). If you have any understanding of how nonchalant we are about weather in Buffalo (yeah we bitch about it, but we still go out like it's nothing), then you will understand how bad the weather must be to scare even us. I was going to do some grocery shopping this afternoon after a few errands, and then it was suddenly a white-out and I was like, I'M OUT. I'm wondering if I'll still have to go to the hospital tomorrow... I'm nonessential staff and if there is a driving ban I can't discharge anyone... hmmm.

So I thought this would be the perfect time to share some winter nail art I did a bit back. Ugh, not happy with the photo quality but I've been getting better with my lighting... this is all rather a bit warm and I had to do some major color adjusting which is a pain.

I started with a base color of Picture Polish Atomic which I wore for a day on its own. Love this color! It's metallic, icy, holo, and frosty in the most awesome way. It's one of those colors I've never seen anything else like so it was easy to justify the price tag.

I decided to use Mentality Sly for my stamping and accent nail. Sly is a pink holo stamper with blue flash. I painted my pinky nail with Sly and then stamped the snowflakes on my middle and index finger with Vivid Lacquer 006. Still my favorite flakes!

I decided I needed a little extra something so I added some small rhinestones on my accent nail. It's a very retro color combination that I really liked! I hope you get inspired to do a pink winter mani of your own :-)

Selected Products:
Mentality Nail Polish
Picture Polish
Vivid Lacquer

Show those cuticles some love today!

Brocade Nails featuring ILNP Bottle Service & Mentality Dapper

Short on time right now, so on to the polish!

I Love Nail Polish Bottle Service
Holo chrome with pale golden and silver shift.
I have nothing like it and wasn't sure at first, but I found myself looking at it all day!

 

Inspired by the pale gold I sometimes saw in Bottle Service, I decided to stamp a brocade design with Vivid Lacquer plate 020 with Mentality Dapper. I can't even think of how to describe Dapper so here is Mentality's description: "Dapper is a metallic nude duocrome holographic nail polish with gold tones and red flash."

For the accent nail I used Orly Halo. Looking back on it I should have done all of the nails with the stamp, live and learn!

I topped it all off with Glisten & Glow's HK Girl Topcoat--my go-to for topping nail art and holos alike! Sorry I've only got the one photo of the stamping. Trying to capture it well enough on camera made all my pictures have weird tones that I am just not smart enough to adjust, haha.

You can purchase the following products from their websites:
Glisten & Glow
I Love Nail Polish
Mentality Nail Polish
Vivid Lacquer

What do you think about the brocade stamping? Do you ever wish you had done a mani slightly differently?
Moisturize those cuticles!

Stamping: Old Man Pants

I'm not sure, but this could be a total fail here gals.... all I can think of is Old Man Pants. I'm pretty sure my Uncle Butch had a pair of pants in this color and pattern. My husband was also oddly fond of buying plaid old man pants from thrift stores when we were in college and he might have had a pair in brown with pale blue stripes.

Anyway, I just received Essie Parka Perfect from the Winter 2013: Shearling Darling collection. Such a pretty yet understated blue, love! I think it is more gray in real life than it is showing in my photos, but screen settings differ so much I try not to mess with the colors.
After a day of wear I decided to do some stamping and thought about snowflakes or polka dots, something wintery, right? Well then I saw Vivid Lacquer plate 001 and Mentality Prim in my stamping box... this is what happened:

Mentality Prim is a beautiful deep brown stamping holo from Mentality. I don't know how Mentality stays in business because their polishes are such high quality and yet inexpensive! Their stampers are unique, beautiful, and flawless.

As I am sure you remember, Vivid Lacquer makes my favorite stamping plates ever. I found for this image it helped to brush the polish on up and down then left to right to fill in the lines.

I'd really like to point out that this stamping is NOT perfect. I fudged camera angles to make my lines look more straight than they really are. This is my first attempt at straight line stamping--it's hard. But is it good enough to enjoy? Hell yes! Not every mani has to be perfectly executed to be fun. I think it's easy for us nailphiles to look at the top bloggers and feel nail envy (Will Paint Nails For Food--I'm looking at you!). Get inspired by them but have fun, don't be afraid to experiment, and when you have a total fail just take it off and slap on a holo :-)

You can purchase Vivid Lacquer here.
You can purchase Mentality Nail Polish here.
Essie is available just about anywhere and winter polishes are available now.

Any questions, comments, rude remarks about my old man pants?
Remember, moisturized cuticles make any skill level look lovely :-)

Halloween Mani: I Love Nail Polish So Ghoul & Vivid Lacquer Stamping

I have had some Halloween inspired polish on top of my melmers all month in the hopes that it would inspire some holiday manis. I am not one to mess around with freehand art or anything, I prefer to do graphic manis with bold contrasting colors along with some stamping and stud accents. Quick, easy, and looks awesome at the end--that's my kind of mani! I should do a post soon on how I put these together...

Anyway, I have had I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) So Ghoul, unused, for so long that it is still had the old formula. I love the gray, yellow, and black palette of this polish so much and used it as my inspiration. Since I wanted it a little Halloween-y I decided to go with Vivid Lacquer plates in the skulls and hounds tooth patterns--because I couldn't decide what would be more awesome at the time.

Halloween Skittles

Pinky: Dance Legend Ash
Ring: Barielle Lemondrops, 1 coat ILNP So Ghoul, KBShimmer Clearly On Top
Middle: Ulta Concrete Evidence, Vivid Lacquer 001 stamping with Mentality Scoundrel, Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat
Index: Ulta Concrete Evidence, Vivid Lacquer 005 stamping with Mentality Scoundrel, Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat
Thumb: Ulta Concrete Evidence, 1 coat ILNP So Ghoul, KBShimmer Clearly On Top

This is seriously one of my favorite manis of all time! It's like the perfect marriage between Halloween and Fall. I don't know what the deal is lately, but my right hand has been turning out better than my left for the photographs. Maybe I have just been taking my time more on the right hand because I know I'll make it all sloppy if I don't?

So Ghoul has a great formula, but does ILNP make anything with a bad formula? I was surprised to find some short bars in here. So I pretty much hate bars, but these were short enough, sparse enough, and spread nicely so I was okay with it. I believe So Ghoul is retired but you can purchase other ILNP polishes here. There is also a pre-order for holos, ultra-chromes, and holographic ultra-chromes on November 1st!

I was also pleasantly surprised by Barielle Lemondrops, I only used two thickish coats. It wasn't self-leveling but it covered well and a thick topcoat would take care of it.

I want to also take a minute to plug HK Girl Topcoat. I don't know how they do it, but it doesn't smudge my stamping. You must try some, it's amazing! Buy it here.

And of course you know Vivid Lacquer makes my most beloved stamping plates. You can purchase Vivid Lacquer here.

That was a lot for one post, I hope you aren't sick of my skittles yet!
As always, remember to moisturize your cuticles today :-)