The Lacquer Ring Presents: One Stroke Flowers

Purchased By Shelby Lou

I'm a late sharing this post for The Lacquer Ring today. I've been super-sick with the flu all week. This is the second time this year, stupid germy hospital. When I went back to work I wore a mask whenever I talked to patient's and families to keep the germs to myself, which is hot and annoying haha. Hubby is sick now though, he went to the doctor yesterday and had a fever of 102 along with bronchitis. Sorry!

This week's prompt for The Lacquer Ring is One Stroke Flowers. Not gonna lie, I've been dreading the prompt and planned on having at least a few days to practice and try out this new-to-me technique. Without time on my side though, I spent one evening messing around and just went for it. My base polish is Pahlish Imprinted Upon Your Stars, a group custom for Pahlish Lovers. I wore this for a few days by itself and I'm in love. It is such a gorgeous shade of periwinkle with holo and other shimmahs!

Shelby Lou Nails with The Lacquer Ring
One-Stroke Flowers
Pahlish Imprinted Upon Your Stars
Acrylic Paint, Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen in Black
without flash

For my flowers I started by watching some tutorials online. The ones I found the most helpful were from Lucy's Stash--her artwork is gorgeous! I used acrylic paint in pink and off-white for my flowers. I didn't have any of the correct kinds of brushes around unfortunately, so I ended up using a clean-up brush one that was too skinny to really give this a proper go. So I did my flowers (please don't try to image that process, ugh). I used the end of the brush to dot the centers of the flowers in pink and topcoated. Then I used a Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art pen in black to outline everything and add a few more dots, then did one final coat of topcoat.

Shelby Lou Nails with The Lacquer Ring
One-Stroke Flowers
Pahlish Imprinted Upon Your Stars
Acrylic Paint, Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen in Black
with flash

So, not the best, but not too bad for a first attempt! I'm glad I still made myself do this even though it's late. It's important to keep challenging myself at this nail art thing. Anyone else tried these flowers? Not sure I'm going to do these again. They do make me want to try The Lacquerologist's color splash floral nails though! I'm much better at bold, graphic designs.

Have you loved your cuticles today?

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Zoya Delight for Spring 2015: The Metallics

Press Sample 

Finally! Today I have the rest of this year's Zoya collection for Spring: Delight. You can see the other three cremes in this collection from a previous blog post by clicking here. All of these metallics had a similar formula. I did three coats for all of my swatches, a teeny bit thicker than I tend to or I probably would have done four thin coats. They have a tendency to steak, make sure you leave plenty of time between coats and paint evenly.

First I have Daisy, described by Zoya as a "refreshing lemon meringue yellow metallic with an energizing turquoise metallic flash." This color is... yellow. Even the adorable teeny blue rhinestone bows cannot make this color look good on me (to see it on someone I think it does look good on, click here). The turquoise flash got lost for me unless I caught my nails at the right angle. It does look really shimmery but almost in a frosty way.

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Daisy
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Daisy
with flash

Rayne is described as a "spring blue metallic with an energizing turquoise metallic flash." Of course this blue is my favorite of the bunch! It really is metallic and the shimmer looks amazing. Look at that shine in the picture with flash!

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Rayne
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Rayne
with flash

Lastly is Leslie (hehe, I like how that rhymes), described as a "soft spring lavender metallic with an energizing turquoise metallic flash." The shimmer is more noticeable in Leslie but I think it does just look like a shimmer rather than a metallic polish. Still pretty!

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Leslie
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Zoya Leslie
with flash

You can purchase these through Zoya's website linked below! Perhaps someone would like these for a wedding or shower they have to attend this summer? If you don't want to be too flashy but have something fun on.

Featured Products:
Zoya Nail Polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Stamping Saturday: Mermaid Nails

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

For today's Stamping Saturday I have used a new-to-me indie brand, Baroness X, for my inspiration! This lovely mermaid-y polish is Baroness X Mermaid Madness. This is everything I wanted Deborah Lippmann Mermaid Dream and all the dupes to be.

Shelby Lou Nails
Baroness X - Mermaid Madness
without flash

Mermaid Madness is described as "a turquoise shimmer and glitter nail polish." The shimmery base has gold, teal, navy, and gold metallic and holographic glitters along with metallic turquoise dots. With all the stuff going on in this polish I totally expected goop. But no! Buttery formula, great glitter spread. I did three easy coats for full coverage. It's not even that the formula was good, it was noticeably awesome.

Shelby Lou Nails
Baroness X - Mermaid Madness
with flash

Mermaid Madness is so shiny and sparkly! It was like wearing molten metallic turquoise on my nails. Absolutely magical. 

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday
Baroness X -Mermaid Madness
MoYou London Sailor 05 & Rica Blackout
without flash

Of course I had to stamp this puppy with some mermaid-y scales. I used an image from MoYou London Sailor 05 stamped with Rica Blackout. I'm not totally happy with my image placement. I think it makes my nails look stumpy and weird curved downwards at the end. Ah well, I'll try a different placement next time. Sailor 05 is easily one of my favorite and most-used plates.

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday
Baroness X -Mermaid Madness
MoYou London Sailor 05 & Rica Blackout
without flash

I wish I could have done Mermaid Madness more justice! Alas, my photography skills are limited. Has anyone else tried Baroness X? I have some of her new neon thermal flakie jellies to show at some point, too!

Featured Products:
Baroness X

Have you loved your cuticles today?

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