Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I am a fan of contrast: black & white, new & old, modern & vintage. I love putting opposite elements together for a new look. I do this in my clothing, accessorizing, home decorating, and of course my nails. There is something about awesomely ugly vintage prints used in the modern medium of nail art that just tickles me.

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
Without Flash

When I first saw A-England Fotheringhay Castle from the newest collection, I knew it was meant for some vintage stamping goodness. For this mani I started with a base of Polish My Life Birthday Suit. Birthday Suit is one of my new go-to nude cremes, I used three creamy coats for perfect coverage. For my stamping I used part of a branch image I liked from MoYou London Mother Nature 02.

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
Without Flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
With Flash

I'm pretty happy that I was able to successfully use a full-image plate and place the image on my nails in a uniform way. I wish I had gotten the image down the sides of my nails better though. I used my Vivid Lacquer squishy rectangle stamper and it didn't quite smoosh enough down the sides of my crazy curved nails. I guess everything about me is curvy haha! Who else out there loves awesomely ugly vintage nails?

Shelby Lou Nails
Stamping Saturday: Vintage Wallpaper
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
a-england Fotheringhay Castle
MoYou London Mother Nature 02
With Flash

Products:
Polish My Life
a-england
MoYou London

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping Saturday: Red Lacy Things

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

Three posts this week, woo! I am killin' it as far as I'm concerned with blogging. I was on call for the Red Cross last night and it was -5 before windchill. I totally lucked out and did not have to respond to anything, which is also awesome because no one had any fires either. But mostly I'm happy I got to stay warm in my bed! In other news my Christmas tree is still up and I turn the lights on everyday. In protest of this bitterly cold weather I will take it down when it decides to stop snowing. Okay but that might be May... at least by March 31st. It's snowing right now...

For this Saturday's stamping mani I started with a base of Polish My Life Nude Lace. I am addicted to this brand already! I always drooled over swatches from @lacquerloon on instagram, but I swear she could make me love even a truly fugly polish so I wasn't sure at first. Nude Lace is a warm nude creme. It is fabulous. I only needed two coats! I have decided to own as many of these cremes as I can, they are just perfect.

Shelby Lou Nails
Red Lacy Things
Polish My Life Nude Lace
A-England Rose Bower
MoYou London Fashionista 12

I chose to stamp my nude nails with A-England Rose Bower, a bright holographic metallic. I'm still stuck on Valentine's colors--I'm a seasonal snob. I chose the pattern from MoYou London Fashionista 12. I'm not sure what this pattern is supposed to be, embroidery or lace? I like it and my obsession with the Fashionista line from MoYou remains strong. Rose Bower stamped so amazingly in these teeny lines and I really must stamp with my A-Englands more often. I'm not 100% happy with my image placement but I enjoyed the mani overall--I need to not nit-pick. Make sure you check out the other stamping manis this week! Has anyone else tried Polish My Life yet?

Products:
A-England
Polish My Life
MoYou London

Have you loved your cuticles today?

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An InLinkz Link-up

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?

Guest Post from Dagadelic

I had a lot of my own posts I wanted to get done last week but this week I'm back with another guest post! Today I have the lovely Dagmara of Dagadelic. We met through a mutual friend and when I finally checked out her nails I was like, how did I not know this girl sooner?! She always does such lovely manis full of stamping, freehand, and, of late, watermarbles. On to the mani!

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Hey there! My name's Dagmara and I've made my way over from my own little space in the interweb - Dagadelic. I'm honoured to be guest posting for Shelby who has been a tremendous source of support and nail inspiration. I wanted to come up with something snazzy to help her celebrate her 1 year blogiversary (congrats girl!) so I pulled out an old favourite and a new nude polish.

L'oreal - Doutzen's Nude // A England - St. George

MoYou London - Fairytale Plate 05

I've been lusting over the Nude Collection L'Oreal did during the summer but every time I went to go get some they were sold out. Then a miracle struck and I found a few bottles in the sale bin. This nude is a light dusty purple that reminds me of the Zoya Naturel collection. 3 thin coats made for perfect coverage. I stamped with my all time favourite polish to stamp with - St. George. So much sparkle in the sunshine *.* 

And with that I'll be off! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Thank you so much Shelby for the opportunity to guest post.

If you want to see more of my manicures feel free to go over to my blog: Dagadelic.

I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, Bloglovin, and Pinterest.

xo, D.

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My friends know me so well--Nude with some colorful, holographic stamping? Yes please! Thank you so much for the amazing mani (St. George is a favorite of mine, too) and the kind words.
Dagadelic is also celebrating her two year blogiversary this month, wow! You can check out her post and enter her giveaway here for a $50 gift card to a polish e-tailer.
While you're at it, don't forget to enter my 1st blogiversary giveaway here for your chance at some Pahlish Bespokes and HARE polish For the Love of Lisa.

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Subtle Stamping with China Glaze & a-england

Purchased By Shelby Lou

I have been so tired lately. Is it the change in weather? Probably just staying up too late playing with nails. Make sure you check out the facebook-only giveaway that I am part of this month with the Hobby Polish Bloggers. You could win up to $165 in cash to blow on polish! It ends September 30th. Make sure you stay tuned in October for some fun things I have planned for my 1st Blogaversary, too!

I have been so drawn to purples lately, is something happening to me? I swear I am not usually into purple but I wore it all last week and then have another purple on as we speak. Here is a quick swatch of an oldie but goodie, China Glaze Jungle Queen. This beauty is from China Glaze's On Safari collection from Fall 2012. It's one of those collections I love wearing again and again.

China Glaze Jungle Queen

Then of course I decided some stamping was in order after I wore this for a day. Because I'm always like:

STAMP ALL THE THINGS
-Shelby Lou Nails

I used a-england Ascalon with an image from MoYou London Fashionista 07. I love the subtle sparkle it adds in the brocade pattern! I am branching out more and more in my stamping colors and it pleases me greatly.

China Glaze Jumgle Queen
Stamp: MoYou London Fashionista 07 & a-england Ascalon

Tell me what colors you are reaching for this fall!

Products:
a-england
MoYou London

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Grandma Chic Stamping & Giveaway Update!

Thank you all for the love during this awesome giveaway! I wish I could send polish to everyone but alas, I am a poor blogger. I am working on verifying entries, make sure you have your profiles and such public for me! I should be able to announce the winners tomorrow.

And because this is a nail blog, here are my Grandma Chic nails. The base color is Rescue Beauty Lunge Reveillon. It was so promising, a dusty blue with purple/pink and silver shimmer... but it had this unfortunate pearly look that screamed "Grandma!" to me. I wasn't really thrilled with the formula either so I'm glad I bought this cheap on a blog sale. It was thick but tended to pool and didn't self-level very well. This is the only RBL I've ever owned or tried, is this out of character for them? I know they are pretty expensive.

"Grandma Chic"
Shelby Lou Nails

Anyway I decided to embrace the grandma-ness it and stamp it with some fans (shells?) from MoYou London Sailor 05 (review coming soon!). I did the stamping with Pure Ice Silver Star which is the only silver stamper you'll ever need since it's perfect and cheap! I used a-england Merlin with a dotting tool to add some detail to the stamping and then I just used the brush for a gradient on my pinky. A little stud action and voila--embracing your nana's favorite wallpaper like a boss. I kinda like how it turned out, but I won't really be trying this again. Maybe chalk it up to good execution of a poor vision haha!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

a-england Ballerina Collection Swatches & Review

So remember how last time I posted we just had this polar vortex where I live? All that crazy snow we got in the beginning of the week was melted and gone by Sunday. It was 50 degrees when I left work today. This is the reason I call Don Paul (the local weatherman, he has an automated phone recording of his weather forecast every day) every morning before I get dressed to figure out what the heck I need to wear to work and bring with me... snow boots and rain boots in the same week is not unheard of.

a-england is an indie brand based in the UK. Adina, the maker, translates English myth, legend, literature, and art into the most beautiful polishes around. Her holos are unlike any other which is why I own all of them (ok, except maybe one or two). Her latest set, The Ballerina Collection, is inspired by the prima ballerina Dame Margot Fontyn de Arias and her partnership with Rudolph Nureyev.

I have done some adjusting to my lighting for a more color and holo-accurate photos. Bonus: less color-adjusting and editing for me!

a-england Dancing With Nureyev
Indigo metallic holo

a-england Dancing With Nureyev

a-england Her Rose Andagio
A blush of rose pink in a metallic holo finish

a-england Her Rose Andagio

a-england Fonteyn
A pale lilac metallic holo

a-england Fonteyn

Formula Notes:
All of these polishes were gloriously formulated. The ones I swatched could be careful one-coaters! These do have a somewhat metallic finish so you will have to pay a little attention to brushstrokes but it is nothing problematic.

The fourth polish in this collection is Encore Margot which is a silver metallic holo. I do own it (because, a-england) but these were my three favorites. Plus I misplaced a bunch of pearls and had to start a few swatches over, ugh. One of my best friends is getting married June 1st and Her Rose Andagio is in the running for her wedding day mani! Hence I played around with some pearls because I've got wedding on the brain.

Selected Products:
a-england

Have you moisturized your cuticles today?