The Lacquer Ring: Spooky Nails

Purchased By Shelby Lou

Last time I posted I was talking about getting started with the KonMari Method. While I haven't done it all completely properly, I have managed to rid my house of tons of clutter. I still have a lot to do but I am enjoying my home more and more. I have also done some massive nail polish purging, check out my Blog Sale if you're interested in acquiring some new pretties yourself!

Today's mani is "Spooky" and will also be my Halloween mani this week. I have been wanting to try the smokey nail technique and went for some spooky fog, or perhaps supernatural mist if you will. I used Chalkboard Nails' Midnight Smoke Nail Art Tutorial. It was the first search result and ended up being all the instruction needed!

As I tend to do, I wore my black base of Cult Nails Fetish (topcoated) for a day before doing my art. Chalkboard Nails used a pale green polish for her smoke, so I used Polish My Life Green Bikini for my fog. Then I lightly sponged on the smallest amount of CND Jade Sparkle for a little more dimension. I can't help it, I love gloss and sparkle on my nails.

Shelby Lou Nails & The Lacquer Ring
"Spooky" Smoke Nail Art

The brush I used for the acetone step was very square and not very flexible so I didn't end up with the swirls I really wanted. I'm still diggin' it though. So much easier than I thought! I'd love to try some turquoise nails with this technique. I also have to make a shout-out to Baroness X Swatcher's Balm for moisturizing my nails perfectly without making them greasy for my pictures!

Shelby Lou Nails & The Lacquer Ring
"Spooky" Smoke Nail Art

What do you think, spooky enough? It's reaching, but I'm not really into the spooky part of Halloween--I'm a scaredy cat. Anyway, I love now The Lacquer Ring makes me try out all the nail art I have been admiring. Check out the other spooky manis today. Happy Halloween!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

The Lacquer Ring: White

Purchased By Shelby Lou

You may have noticed I am posting less and less on the blog proper. I have been taking some much needed time to get my house in order using the KonMari Method. If you don't know what this is, I highly recommend checking it out. I'm not even halfway finished and I am loving it! I wanted to adopt a family this year for the holiday season, but hubby has taken a new job and an initial pay cut. I was instead able to convince him to really purge our home of all the things we no longer need and donate to our Salvation Army home store. KonMari has helped us reframe letting go of stuff (even when I got a good deal or my mom gave it to me... sorry, Mom) as passing it along to be needed by another who can appreciate it. And to consider if an item "sparks joy" instead of keeping things for silly reasons. Life. Changing. And yes, nail polish is included in this purge, but luckily KonMari tells me I can save the hardest things to go through last.

Anyway, I have been so consumed with KonMari that I passed right by my second blogiversary without even noticing. Sorry, Blog! But I am two, and even if I have diverged to less frequent and microblogging I am proud of my nails.

This week I'm posting with The Lacquer Ring and the theme is White. I decided to showcase one of my favorite whites: Rica Whiteout. Whiteout is my holy grail white stamper. It is literally the most perfect white that ever white-ed. For this mani I started with a base of Cirque Coven. Then I used an image from UberChic 1-03 stamped with Whiteout. I finished off the mani with some textured gold studs from Daily Charme.

Shelby Lou Nails with The Lacquer Ring
Cirque Coven
Rica Whiteout & Uberchic Plate 1-03
Studs from Daily Charme

I love all the pattern and texture happening in this look. I had been having some problems using my UberChic plates, but I finally got the hang of it with my trusty Whiteout. I decided to stamp it on an angle because I didn't want to fiddle with getting the image perfectly straight.

Shelby Lou Nails with The Lacquer Ring
Cirque Coven
Rica Whiteout & Uberchic Plate 1-03
Studs from Daily Charme

Bottom Line: Purchase Rica Whiteout immediately if you don't have it. Perfect stamper and makes an excellent white base polish to boot! Make sure you check out what the other ladies in The Lacquer Ring did for White below.

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

The Lacquer Ring: Pipe Dream Polish Neon Watermarble

Purchased By Shelby Lou

I am back with The Lacquer Ring today for one of the most dreaded challenges in nail art: The Watermarble. I admit I was thinking about just doing an accent nail. Possibly decals. Or maybe even just stamping the damn thing. But what am I doing this whole blogging and linking up thing for anyway? The challenge. So I finally decided to bust out my Pipe Dream Polish neons and properly watermarble.

I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. This was completely the wrong color to start with, but it's the polish I had already so I went with it. I used room temperature spring water and a glass with a one and half inch mouth. I liquid-latexed the hell out of my fingers and nails, I just use stuff I bought off amazon and decanted into bottles. I loosened the caps on three of the Pipe Dream Polish neons I chose: VIP Pass, All In, and Happy Hour. These polishes completely live up to their hype, by the way, and I'd love to see her do more cremes just for marbling!

I used the pointiest end of a dotting tool I had and made my flower design. Then I dunked my nails! I practiced on my right hand first and did two at a time. It looked like crap, but it did mostly look like a watermarble. I decided to leave it and start on my left hand. I did two nails at a time on my right hand as well and my thumb alone. Ready?

Shelby Lou Nails with The Lacquer Ring
Pipe Dream Polish Neon Watermarble
VIP Pass, All In, & Happy Hour

This is with no re-do, folks. Ain't nobody got time for that. My skin looks crazy while trying to get the colors more accurate, but it's a watermarble! I am so tickled and proud of myself. I never ever EVER thought I could take on this challenge, but I did, and I did good.

Shelby Lou Nails with The Lacquer Ring
Pipe Dream Polish Neon Watermarble
VIP Pass, All In, & Happy Hour

Here are some things I plan on doing differently next time:
1. Use a better base--I need to pick the lightest tone in the watermarble and make sure my base is nice and smooth. Mine was too light and had shrinkage from a fast paint job and quick-dry topcoat added too soon.
2. Dunk fingers individually--Doing two at a time saved time, but I think I can only get away with that on my index and middle. My ring and pinky being such different lengths made it tough to dip where I wanted at the same time. I might try doing my thumb and ring at the same time though.
3. Be more careful when applying and removing my latex barrier--I ended up eating into too much of my mani on some of the nails during clean-up.

Shelby Lou Nails with The Lacquer Ring
Pipe Dream Polish Neon Watermarble
VIP Pass, All In, & Happy Hour

Make sure you check out the other ladies in The Lacquer Ring today for their watermarble adventures! Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up