Stamping Saturday: Independence Day Nails

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Happy Independence Day to all my fellow US readers out there! I absolutely love patriotic manis and nail polishes, so for today I knew I just needed to go over the top and do a skittle mani.

Index (and thumb, not shown): Pretty & Polished Wham Bam Thank Ya Sam
Middle: SquareHue Times Square with Painted Polish Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Holo
Ring: Essie Butler Please stamped with Vivid Lacquer 002 and Pure Ice Silver Star
Pinky: What's Your Point-settia? stamped with MoYou London Pro XL 01 and Rica Whiteout, along with silver stud accents

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday
Independence Day Mani

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday
Independence Day Mani

Tonight my husband and I are going to try and check out some local fireworks! We both have to work Sunday so I hope the ones we plan on going to don't go too late. What are your fun plans for the Fourth of July this year?

***Bonus Stamping Saturday Mani*** 

Earlier this week I shared Hare Polish I'm Your National Anthem. I popped off the studs and stamped it with Vivid Lacquer 015 and a Sinful Colors gold metallic polish. I wish I had done that in the first place, I love how the firework stamp looks over the flakes so much! Check out my Hump Day HARE post from earlier this week to see more of this gorgeous Hare Polish, too.

Shelby Lou Nails
Hare Polish I'm Your National Anthem
Vivid Lacquer 015 & Sinful Colors Gold Medal

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

Hump Day HARE: I'm Your National Anthem

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Since Independence Day is fast approaching--it always seems to sneak up on me!--today's Hump Day Hare Polish is I'm Your National Anthem. IYNA is one of the LE Lana Del Ray polishes (see Pretty When I Cry here) and most recent release from my beloved indie.

Shelby Lou Nails
Hump Day Hare
Hare Polish - I'm Your National Anthem
(No flash)

IYNA is a red jelly with gold and blue flakes in metallic and satin finishes. There is a soft holographic shimmer, but I couldn't really see the holo aspect of it most of the time. I used three coats of this jelly, I was debating on a fourth but I didn't really have any VNL so I left it. I added some blue accent studs to bring out the blue flakes since they started to feel look purple to me.

Shelby Lou Nails
Hump Day Hare
Hare Polish - I'm Your National Anthem
(With flash)

I don't wear much red and I feel like I have a tough time photographing red polish. I wouldn't say this is a patriotic polish or even my favorite Hare, but it is a lovely red flakie jelly! Any Lana Del Ray fans have this on their lemming list?

Have you loved your cuticles today?

**Edited to Add on 7/4/15**

I decided to pop the studs off and stamp this mani with Vivid Lacquer 015 and Sinful Colors Gold Medal. I love this look more! I also shared this in my July 4th Stamping Saturday post.

Shelby Lou Nails

Hump Day Hare & Stamping Saturday

Hare Polish - I'm Your National Anthem
Vivid Lacquer 015 & Sinful Colors Gold Medal

(No flash)

Shelby Lou Nails

Hump Day Hare & Stamping Saturday

Hare Polish - I'm Your National Anthem
Vivid Lacquer 015 & Sinful Colors Gold Medal

(with flash)

Stamping Saturday: Soft Swirls

Purchased By Shelby Lou

I survived this last week of work being two people--go me! I only worked like 3 hours overtime and my husband said I wasn't a psycho when I got home and everything. Plus this will be my third post this week. I feel like such a winner. Except that I slept in way too late today. Anyway, it's been awhile since I did a Stamping Saturday. For today's edition I have a lovely soft look using mostly KBShimmer polishes. KBShimmer just released a ginormous summer collection that I have been drooling over. I'm actually so overwhelmed with trying to pick what I really want and need that I haven't ordered yet. But I do know I need some of their new mani bombs!

I started with KBShimmer Meow Or Never on my thumb, index, and middle fingers. Meow Or Never has all soft shades of grays, blues, purples, and white glitters. Fabulous formula as always, I did just three thin coats and no placement of glitter. On my ring and pinky I did KBShimmer Hugs And Wishes, the most perfect Lavender creme ever and just three thin coats.

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday
Soft Swirls
KBShimmer Meow Or Never, Hugs And Wishes, Eyes White Open
Vivid Lacquer VL 022, INM Northern Lights
Without Flash

For my stamping I used an image from Vivid Lacquer VL022 with KBShimmer Eyes White Open. Eyes White Open is a really nice soft white, not too bright or blue and not too gray. I must use it more for stamping, it was good!

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday
Soft Swirls
KBShimmer Meow Or Never, Hugs And Wishes, Eyes White Open
Vivid Lacquer VL 022, INM Northern Lights
Without Flash

Meow Or Never has a lovely dusting a holo so I used some INM Northern Lights over my stamping. I feel like it overpowered that in Meow Or Never, but ah well, there it is.

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday
Soft Swirls
KBShimmer Meow Or Never, Hugs And Wishes, Eyes White Open
Vivid Lacquer VL 022, INM Northern Lights
With Flash

Products:
KBShimmer

Have you loved your cuticles today?


get the InLinkz code

An InLinkz Link-up

Cartoon Hearts

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Hey guys! Buffalo is being pounded by more snow this week WHY GOD WHY. Anyway, may I shamelessly direct you to my Blog Sale? I am trying so hard to destash and keep the stuff I absolutely love... and, uh, make some money back to buy more things I absolutely love. I only sell things I have purchased myself, samples are donated or given away. Thanks!

I loved my Faded Hearts from Saturday so much I decided to use them again but for much different look. I just received Serum No.5 Sweet Nothings, an exclusive for February through an indie box. This is my first Serum No.5 and I was so delighted when I saw this lovely white crelly. It was inspired by conversation hearts and you can see all of those pastel satin colors, as well as metallic glitters and this amazing shimmer. I did three thin coats. For me the glitters tended to get stuck together at one end of my nail or the other so I had to smoosh them around a bit. I wore Sweet Nothings alone for a day so I finsihed it with two thick coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

Shelby Lou Nails
Cartoon Hearts

I used my heart image from Vivid Lacquer 009 stamping with my favorite black stamper, Rica Blackout. I love how bold the hearts are over Sweet Nothings--it looks like a Valentine I would have gotten as a kid in Elementary school hehe.

Overall I am pleased with my first Serum No.5 experience and I'm already plotting a proper purchase of their unique colors. When I went to bed the first night I wore Sweet Nothings I had forgotten about the most fun feature of the brand--glow in the dark! I was startled at how bright blue my nails were in bed. And I only lost like 5 minutes of sleep admiring them in the dark.

Products:
Serum No.5
Vivid Lacquer

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Stamping Saturdays: Faded Hearts

Purchased By Shelby Lou
Press Sample (Zoya Only)

Oh man, I am really battling some seasonal depression here, guys. This week we got another ridiculous amount of snow that has been plowed into piles so high you can't see cars coming to pull out of the driveway. It has been so cold that it's even cold inside, not to mention the long and cold dreary days. I don't mind up to 6 inches of snow, just enough to cover grass and make a sparkling winter wonderland... this is a frozen wasteland and I am so done with it. I can't even make myself go grocery shopping because that would involve slogging through so much snow. There is just no where else to put it and every single parking lot is a mess. I slept most of today on the couch and binge-watched Big Love. Maybe all this blah inspired this not-so Valentine's mani haha!

Shelby Lou Nails
Faded Hearts - Without Flash

I was just not feeling inspired by all of my pinks so I went for a new, glorious pale blue I recently bought from Polish My Life called Cloud Blue. I've see lots of beautiful swatches of Polish My Life but bought just a few pastel cremes to see what all the fuss was about. Let me just say I've decided I need to buy ALL the Polish My Life cremes at this point!

Shelby Lou Nails
Faded Hearts - Without Flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Faded Hearts - Without Flash

Since I have become more confident in stamping I wanted to layer some images. First I used a diagonal stripe image from MoYou London Pro-XL 01 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in OMGhost. Over that I stamped the hearts from Vivid Lacquer 009 in Zoya Geneviev.

Shelby Lou Nails
Faded Hearts - With Flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Faded Hearts - With Flash

I love the soft and faded look of this mani. I am not totally happy with my heart image placement, but alas I guess that's all these nubbins could take. What do you think? Anyone else suffering from the doldrums of winter?

Shelby Lou Nails
"Faded Hearts"

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Stamping Saturdays: Winter Sweaters

Gift
Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Oh Buffalo, I love you and your bipolar weather. It's raining today. All that snow is starting to melt and we are anticipating ridiculous flooding right before the holidays, ugh. The snow really did get me into the winter spirit though and I decided it was time for some sweater stamping. Jenny from Lavish Layerings recently pointed out how great it is to use a matte as a base for stamping since they dry so fast. Which is awesome because I love the instant gratification of stamping and this makes it even faster!

I started with ManGlaze Royal Mattermoaning, a gorgeous royal blue matte shimmer. My polish bestie IG@joyrserio gifted this color to me and I'm only just getting around to wearing it! Shameful. Especially because it is so flipping gorgeous and a great formula. Dummy me, I didn't take a proper swatch photo before covering it up with my stamping, just trust me that you need this if you love blue and matte shimmers. I used Rica Whiteout with an image from MoYou London Festive 04. I topcoated it all for a glossy finish.

Stamping Saturdays
Winter Sweaters
Manglaze Royal Mattermoaning
Rica Whiteout
MoYou London Festive 04

I really need to practice getting my images more radially centered on my nails. When I have a pattern like this I use the XL squishy white stamper from Vivid Lacquer. I can get everything centered left to right but still working on up and down.

I highly recommend at least visiting the ManGlaze website just to giggle at the rampant inappropriateness. I love irreverent humor ;-)

Products:
ManGlaze
Just Ricarda
MoYou London

Have you loved your cuticles today?

First Blogiversary Celebration!

All items and prizes were purchased By Shelby Lou 

One year ago today I finally started my blog and posted my first manicure. It has been one exciting, scary, crazy, and fun year! I've met some lovely people and learned so much from so many. I have a lot of plans for the next year and I hope you will stick with me. I love connecting with other polish-aholics and escaping reality through pretty polish! Every like and follow still makes me smile and I thank you from the bottom of my Pretty & Polished Swift Sparkle topcoat ;-)

I will be continuing to have guest posts all month long in celebration, but for today I decided to recreate my Queen Skittlette from this day last year. It's almost exactly the same, just a few updates (hello, triangle studs!).

Darling Diva - We Will Rock You
Dance Legend - Argentum with one coat TC
Stamp - Vivid Lacquer
Stamping Polish - Pure Ice Silver Star

I am pleased that my photography and poses have improved, but there are still a lot of things I'd like to get better with. Check out We Will Rock You with flash--rainbows! That multichrome shift though...

Rainbows and shift, oh my!
Darling Diva - We Will Rock You
(with flash)

So you know I can't celebrate a first blogiversary without having a giveaway! I have been hanging on to a few special polishes for a couple months now. There will be three lucky winners! Check out the photo captions for more details about prize packages. And yes, I had to track down some Dollar Tree Essie Sleek Sticks.

Three prize packages will each include:

1 feature polish

1 of my favorite mani must-haves

3 sheets of Love, Angeline Nail Shields/Stickers

2 Essie Sleek Sticks
Paper stars made by me, inspired by Chaos & Crocodiles!

A closer look at the feature polishes:
Pahlish Bespoke Batches: One Billion Day Funeral & Favorite Kind of Smile
Hare Polish For the Love of Lisa

Giveaway begins NOW and will end at 11:59pm Eastern on November 1st--Note that the rafflecopter says November 2nd at 12am, I'm just making it easier since 12am always confuses me. Must be able to supply a US address and be 18 or older to enter. For more specifics check out the terms and conditions on the rafflecopter form. Good luck and thank you for your support!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Have you loved your cuticles today?

Jindie Nails Olive You with Vivid Lacquer Stamping

I have a swatch with a lil stamping today for y'all! Olive You is a beautiful silvery sage-y olive green linear holo with metallic green/gold glitter. This is one of those polishes I waited way too long to get. Even though this came out for Fall I love it for Spring, too. This is a must-have shade for any green lover. Conversely if you want to get your feet wet with greens this is a nice way to do it since it's such a light shade with the silver feel to it. The duochrome glitter really makes this special and unique!

Jindie Nails
Olive You

Jindie Nails
Olive You

 Olive You was begging for some white vine-y stamping--can you tell I am dying for Spring? I used an image from Vivid Lacquer VL19 stamped with Konad Special White. I have yet to find a better stamping white and I already need another bottle. I like to place my stamp patterns randomly because I know I would drive myself bonkers trying to get all the nails perfectly centered. Contrary to popular belief nails should be fun, not anxiety-provoking.

Jindie Nails Olive You
With Vivid Lacquer VL19

Something about these nails makes me think about The Sound Of Music, you kno when she makes the curtains for all the kids, no? The version with Julie Andrews (and really, is there any other version worth watching?) used to be a favorite sick-day movie of mine :-)

Products:
Jindie Nails
Vivid Lacquer

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Jindie Nails Love Conquers All

I am not ready to give up Valentine's manis. I figure if it's February it's time for pink, red, and hearts! I have a really interesting Valentine's polish today from Jindie Nails called Love Conquers All. It is limited edition... and I mean come on, can I really not buy an LE? It made an appearance last year and it back for another run--I love second chance LEs!

Love Conquers All is a white crelly base with all sorts of satin and matte glitter goodness. And also: hearts! I went a little nuts placing the hearts on my left hand because I wanted to be able to show you all the different colors in here. I see lavender, sky blue, blue-toned red, orange-leaning red, light pink, salmon, black, and white. I love how unexpected and yet perfect for the holiday it is.

Jindie Nails Love Conquers All
Stamp: Vivid Lacquer 001

I decided to pull the blue out of the glitters for my accent nail and used OPI What's With The Cat-itude? The image is from Vivid Lacquer 001 stamped with Konad Special White. I only redid this accent 3 times hahaha! I topped the accent with HK Girl.

Jindie Nails Love Conquers All
Stamp: Vivid Lacquer 001

I used my patented (ok not technically) method of applying crellies by using a thin basecoat (Essie Marshmallow) and very thin coats of the crelly over that.  I made sure to dab a few hearts in between each thin coat for varying coverage. There are a ton of hearts available and fishing for all the colors was super easy. For my other hand I only did two to three hearts per nail. For the longest time I was using a white creme for a base but it really takes away from the crelly appearance. I like the look with the sheer white much better. I topped Love Conquers All off with two thick coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

There are still a few Love Conquers All left in stock, grab yours now!

Products:
Jindie Nails

 Have you loved your cuticles today?

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?

Wintry Brocade with Colors By Llarowe & Messy Mansion

I love me some stamping. And now that I have the basics down I feel like I learn exponentially every time I sit down to stamp. I have been dying to try the brocade design on my new-ish Messy Mansion plate MM18, but it seems like every time I just failed miserably and gave up. But not this time! These might be "duh" things to some of you, but I'm serious it was an epiphany to me. 

First lets check out the nails. My base is Colors by Llarowe Coal In My Stocking, a dark gray crelly with silver glitter. I should have took a swatch photo, sorry.... it's amazing though and I got a few compliments at work! For the stamping I used Messy Mansion MM18 and Sally Hansen Ista-Dri in Silver Sweep. 

Wintry Brocade Nails
Colors By Llarowe Coal In My Stocking
Messy Mansion MM18
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep

I used two big squishy stampers for this design, this one from LeaLac and this one from Vivid Lacquer. I used the Vivid Lacquer stamper on all of my nails except my thumb, which is huge so I used the XL LeaLac one for that. After fiddling around for an hour I realized the following:

1. Forget those plastic and metal scrapers, use an old gift card.
2. Pick up the image by pushing the stamp straight down onto the image. Same for when putting the image on your nail.
3. My nails are very curved, so using the big squishy stampers were better for me. My favorite sweater nails I noticed were a little warped and not straight lines because I was previously rolling the image onto my nails with a less squishy stamper.
4. I stamped my right hand first to get into a groove. Move on to stamp my left hand... failed 7 times in a row trying to pick up the stamp. WTF. I took a five minute break and capped my stamping polish. When I tried again I picked it up on the first try. I think my stamping polish was getting a little dry, I will be capping and shaking between hands from now on.
5. Breaks are good. 
6. Practice is a must.
7. Perfection sucks the fun out of nails. My stamping is not perfect, but it is good enough to be enjoyable!

Wintry Brocade Nails
Colors By Llarowe Coal In My Stocking
Messy Mansion MM18
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep

I hope this encourages any of you who have been thinking of stamping, or of quitting haha. It is so rewarding and worth it! What is one of your favorite stamping tips or tricks?

Selected Products:
Messy Mansion
Llarowe... new website in process!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

It Starts: Valentine's Day Mani with Love, Angeline & Vivid Lacquer

It's time for Valentine's Day manis! I love enjoying pinks when the doldrums of winter start to set in--where I'm from it's been known to snow in April. My husband and I never really celebrate this holiday. First of all, we are usually working. Cats would eat our flowers, at the very least knock them over and make a mess. We used to do cards but I've banned those this year because they are just way too freakin' expensive. Would it be wrong to order in and watch Shameless? Clearly I am not the romantic one in this relationship teehee.

So here's what I wore today!

Love, Angeline Ta-da!
Butter London Trout Pout accent with image from Vivid Lacquer 009

White Base: Cult Nails Tempest
White Crelly: Love, Angeline Ta-da!
Accent Nail: Butter London Trout Pout with image from Vivid Lacquer VL 009 stamped with Konad Special White

Love, Angeline is a new-to-me indie, and I might be in love. Ta-da! is a perfect white crelly with pink and gray glitters in a variety of size, shapes, and finishes. I did a little fishing and dabbing, which I figured I would need to do so I used a base of one coat Cult Nails Tempest (a great one-coater white for undies). I topped it off with two thick coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top for a glassy smooth finish. I have one other Love, Angeline polish to try right now but I'm sure it won't be my last!

You already know how much I love Vivid Lacquer. When stamping a fine line image like this I paint the whole image with the polish to make sure it's all filled in.

Selected Products:
Love, Angeline
Vivid Lacquer

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!

Warm Winter Flakes

Hello out there! I apologize for my absence this past week, sometimes life just gets in the way. Anyway I have a bunch of things lined up for this week, I promise.

I thought it was about time I got some winter going (it's snowed quite a few times in my neck of the woods already). I had on Essie Warm & Toasty Turtleneck from this year's Winter collection, which is very work appropriate but still fun. I decided to stamp it with snowflakes even though my first impulse is to only make blue and white flakes.... I like the snowflakes over the warmer color very much though!

I did the snowflakes using Vivid Lacquer 006. I was initially having some problems getting the image to transfer onto my stamping. Usually I dab a line of polish on one side of the image and then scrap it across to fill in the design. After some experimentation I realized I had to dab the polish over the whole image and then scrape--this made sure all the fine lines were filled in. No problems after that!

I topped this mani with INM Northern Lights. Here's where I messed up... WHY did I not seal the image with HK Girl?! I know I mess around with my polish too much and INM was just a nail art-smudging nightmare. I messed up my ring finger the worst. So after a little swearing, I decided to leave it. I try to balance my inner perfectionist and not let it suck all the fun out of nails.

Purple flakes, yay or nay?
My cuticles are looking less than stellar after a week at work which is dry dry dry. Remember to moisturize!

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 :-)