New York Summer Hot Purple Jelly Sandwich (Guest Post by KayJay of Refined And Polished)

Hi dolls! It is my pleasure to guest post for Jess as she welcomes her new little bundle of joy into the world. I’ve been a follower of her blog for a long time and we’ve become great polish friends through a facebook group. She guest posted a few months ago for me when I was on a hiatus, so I’m more than happy to return the favor.

When trying to think of something to do for this guest post, I immediately knew what I wouldn’t attempt – water marbling. Jess is amazing at marbling and while she inspires me all the time, I am just no good at it. I decided to stick with something I am good at and that’s the jelly sandwich. I’ve wanted to experiment with layering glitters and flakies, so I set out to do just that. I started with one coat of New York Summer Hot Purple, a deep purple that was pretty opaque for a jelly. Next, one coat of Zoya Maisie, a green-blue flakie, was added.

For a little sparkle, I then added one coat of Essie A Cut Above, a rose pink multi-sized glitter. Now this doesn’t look like much in the picture, but just wait to see the final result.

Finally, one more coat of New York Hot Purple was added to complete the jelly sandwich.

I absolutely adore the way this jelly sandwich turned out! The flakie and glitter combination added a lot of depth to the overall look. I hope all of you enjoyed this look. Thanks again Jess for inviting me to your corner of the nail world!



KayJay, this is my favorite jelly sandwich I've seen you come up with! I'm kicking myself for not partaking in that group buy on these New York Summer jellies. I am seriously digging the final result and want this on my nails NOW! Lacquer Luvers, head on over to Refined and Polished to check out more of KayJay's beautiful mani's! Thanks again, hun, for helping me out. I sincerely appreciate it, xo!!

Ladybug Mani (Guest Post by Liz of NothingButNailPolish)

Hey guys as you can see I'm doing a post for Jess because either shes about to pop or already did...lol. Jess asked me to do a guest post for her, so I decided to do my ladybug mani for baby Gabby!

This was a super easy and fun mani to do. 

I used Zoya Sarah, Wnw French White, and a black stripper. Oh and a dotting tool.

This mani is perfect for spring/summer!! 

I hope you guys enjoyed this mani as much as I do. See you next time!



Liz, this mani is sooooo adorable! My very first tattoo was of my name with a heart over the "i" and a ladybug right below it on my ankle so you know I love this! The sparkle in Zoya Sarah really makes this special. I think it would be great for a Wizard of Oz mani, too, a la Dorothy's shoes. Lacquer Luvers, head on over to Liz' blog, Nothing But Nail Polish, to check out more of her work and give her a follow! Thank you so much for doing this for me and my little ladybug, Liz!

Say Hello to the Newest Member of the LuvMyLacquer Family!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is so special to me because I get to share awesome news (and pics) with my blog family. Since I began blogging, I've come to think of you all as members of this family. You are always so supportive of my work and made me feel as though we are all one big happy polish family and for that I'm forever grateful. As you all know (or might suspect), my daughter, Gabrielle Lynn, is finally here! She was born August 15, 2012 at 1:03pm. She weighed 7lb8oz and was 19.5 inches long. Not only is she the final piece to my family's puzzle, she's also the future of LuvMyLacquer!

Big Brother Tyus loves his Little Sister Gabby!

I feel incredibly blessed to have two happy, healthy, and beautiful children. It was always my dream to be married and have two kids; a boy and a girl. I can't believe that I have that and what an amazing feeling it is to be able to say that my dreams have come true. You all know how much I adore my son, Tyus, from previous posts. Now I get to have Mommy and Me mani time (not anytime soon, of course) with this precious little girl and I cannot wait to share these special moments with her! I really do feel like I'm on Cloud 9 right now.

I kind of have this thing where I like to celebrate special moments the best way I know how - with nail polish, of course! So, to celebrate the arrival of Gabrielle Lynn, I am going to host a giveaway. The prize will be one bottle of ZOYA GABRIELLE. Zoya is one of my absolute favorite brands and how could I resist picking up my daughter's namesake polish? Well, actually I got two bottles - one for me and one for one of you! Gabrielle can best be described as "Translucent shimmering orange with flecks of golden glitter. Outshine the sun in this perfect summer shade."

Rules to enter:
1. Fill out Rafflecopter form below (all entries will be verified)
2. Being a GFC follower of LuvMyLacquer AND leaving a blog post comment are MANDATORY entries.
3. Giveaway begins 8/24/12 and ends 9/24/12
4. Open to US residents only (this includes Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico)

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

xo,
Jessica

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Floral Water Marble (Guest Post by Carolina of ColoresDeCarol)

Hello dear readers from Luv My Lacquer, while Jess is a little bit busy taking care of the beautiful Gabrielle, I'm going to show you a manicure I did for you to enjoy. I could never beat Jess's marbling skills but I tried to do something nice for you. I started painting my nails with a white nail polish and used the following polishes for the marbling effect: KIKO,338,340,297 and 280. Stamped some white flowers using the image plate Fun 2 from Fab Ur Nails, on top of the flowers I added China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Thank you very much Jess for this opportunity to show your readers my work, I hope you enjoyed. Kisses to Gabrielle!! Carolina, ♥




Carolina, you have got to be kidding me! Your water marbling skills are AMAZING! For those of you that don't know, Carolina is one of my biggest nail inspirations. Her blog is one of my absolute favorites and myself and a few other girlies call her our "fairy nail Godmother." Lol! Seriously, she is one of the people that got me wanting to share my work and create a blog. This marble is so gorgeous! I love the colors and I would never have thought to do it but the stamping over top of it makes it that much more interesting. Love, love, love! If you aren't following Carolina's blog, Colores de Carol, you should click on that link and check out her work. Trust me! Carolina, thank you so much for guest posting for me. It's such an honor to have you on my blog. I will give kisses to Gabrielle for you, xo!!

NYC in FLA (Guest post by Kari of Got Polish?)

Meow, kittens!  Today I'd like to share two polishes I picked up during my recent trip to New York.  You may not be familiar with this brand (I wasn't until last summer).  It is called Mattese Elite and is sold exclusively at Ricky's NYC, a funky shop with several locations throughout New York as well as a store each in Hoboken, NJ and Miami, FL.  You can also click HERE to visit Ricky's NYC online.  Anywho, I happened to find the following two colors that looked promising on sale for 99 cents each.  Score, right?  I'll let you judge for yourself.  Feast your eyes on Temptation and Russian Mafia.

Two coats each of Temptation (thumb, middle, pinky) and Russian Mafia (index, ring), shot indoors.

Two coats each of Temptation (thumb, middle, pinky) and Russian Mafia (index, ring), shot indoors.

Temptation and Russian Mafia

When I initially picked them up, I expected Russian Mafia to be purple but it is definitely "Blurple" - dark blue, almost navy, with hints of purple, definitely more blue than I expected it to be which, for a blue lover like myself, was not a bad thing.  Temptation is a nice medium blue, not all that different than several others in my collection but not bad for 99 cents.  Alas, here comes the rub.  I had purchased one other Mattese Elite polish during a visit to New York last summer and, as was the case with these two, thought the color looked really pretty in the bottle.  Also like these colors, that polish was on sale for 99 cents.  However, the third thing these polishes had in common was that they took FOR-EVER to dry and I ended up smudging several of them, even upwards of 30 minutes after polishing.  I didn't think my coats were particularly thick and I did add top coat so I'm not sure why I had such issues.  It could have been "user error" but to have this be the case with all three Mattese Elites I own, I have to wonder if it's the formula.  For 99 cents, I'm not unhappy with these polishes and I will certainly experiment with even thinner coats and more drying time but I wouldn't run out and purchase any more of this brand until I figure out why I'm having such issues.

Thanks so much for looking!  As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

xoxo,

K

Kari, I have never heard of this brand before this post (not that I can recall, anyways). What a shame that the drying time was terrible because they really do look great on you. I know how you love your blues! Perhaps you can mix these with some other polishes and create some pretty frankens out of them ;) Lacquer Luvers, head on over to Kari's awesome blog, Got Polish? to check out more of her work! Thank you so much for guest posting for me, lovebug! xo

Welcome, Little Gabrielle! (Guest Post by Lillibit)

Lovely Lacquer Luvers,

My name in the blogosphere is Lillibit and I have a little Spanish blog called "Lillibit´s Nail Art World". 
I am soooo excited to be here!!!  I'm honoured that Jessica was so sweet to ask me to Guest Post and I am very happy to show you the manicure I´ve designed for this occasion.
I needed to come up with something special for her... something meaningful. So I thought nothing could be more special for her these days than Gabrielle´s birth. That is why this is a manicure inspired by and devoted to little Gabrielle :-)

Welcome, little Gabrielle!

I used two different base colours:
- Two coats of a Claire´s pink polish on the index and ring fingers. You´ll see below the cute bottle, which came in a set with two other beautiful shades.
- Two coats of Yes Love 337, plus one coat of Kiko 205. Then I topped with Yes Love L06 round the images. For the details in blue I used Kiko 267.


Let me explain you the meaning of this manicure:

On my middle finger we have baby Gabrielle´s face ;-) stamped from plate T28 using Beautiful Scratchers´ ice rose.
On my index and ring fingers I stamped the image with baby´s bottles and hearts from BM307 using Essence´s 001 Stamp me! white . They represent all the love and care she is going to receive from her loving family.

On my thumb I stamped a baby´s rattle from plate SdP35. It symbolises all the games and joy she´s having.
Finally, on my pinky I stamped the candy from plate BM322 . With it, I´d like to wish her all the sweetest things on the world.


As you can see, I always make complete manicures by painting both hands´ nails with the same design:

Here you can see all the instruments I used:

1. Prebase: Mavala 002
2. Yes Love 337
3. Kiko 205
4. Claire´s pink polish (sorry, I can´t find the reference number in the bottle)
5. Image plate SdP35
6. Image plate T28
7. Image plate BM307
8. Image plate BM322
9. Essence´s 001 Stamp me! white
10. Beautiful Scratchers´ ice rose
11. Kiko 267
12. Yes Love L06
13. Top coat: Seche Vite

I hope you like baby Gabrielle´s manicure :-) I had so much fun creating it. I think manicures where each nail has a different look are fun.

And a huge thanks goes to the lovely Jessica for letting me share this with all of you.

Love,
Lillibit




Lillibit, this is the most adorable manicure I've seen in ages! I love that you made it so personal and kept  my little Princess in mind. I love the colors you used and the stamping is perfect. Thank you so much for this post and giving me a hand as I steal lots of snuggles from Gabby! Lacquer Luvers, please head on over to Lillibit's blog and check out more of her work! She really is awesome =)

Nails On Fire Mani (Guest Post from Lucy of Lucy's Stash!)

Hi everybody! My name is Lucy and I’m a blogger from Lucy’s Stash and I blog about nail polishes and nail art. I’ve been asked by lovely Jessica who’s having a baby to fill in with a guest post. I’m very happy she asked me as I really like her blog!

I’ve chosen to show you a ‘Nails on Fire’ manicure. Firstly I painted my nails with OPI Natural nails base coat and then with two coats of OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know?. Then I applied The Best Glue Ever with a small brush in short irregular strokes. When the glue dried properly I started to dab a gold mylar foil on the nail. I’ve repeated the glue and foil application again after I was done with the gold foil. In the end I’ve sealed everything with Seche Vite topcoat.

Some time ago I’ve done a similar manicure and tutorial but only with gold foil. If you would like to learn how create this manicure, here is a tutorial for it.



Lucy, this manicure is ah-mazing! I was just discussing with a friend recently that I would like to try nail foils and this manicure only makes me want them more! I love how these colors work so well together. I have long been a fan of Lucy's blog and I'm sure you guys will love it just as much so head on over to Lucy's Stash & check out more of her stunning manicures! Lucy, thank you so much for helping me out with this post! xoxo

Guest Post from Marisa of Polish Obsession!

Hi everyone!!

I'm Marisa from Polish Obsession and I'm so happy to have an opportunity to share with you all.  I'm a big fan of Jessica's beautiful nails and her creative manis, so I'm honored to guest post while she takes care of Gabby!

For this post, I decided to do a mani with two of my favorite polishes.  China Glaze Recycle is a simple gray creme and Lush Lacquer Salt n Peppa has a clear base with black and white bar, square and hex glitter.  I'm a huge gray polish fan and a love a little sparkle in my manis, so I thought this would be a good combination.  I started off with two coats of Recycle on each nail.  I then added one coat of Salt n Peppa to my thumb, ring finger, and pinky fingers.  I used no top coat.

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

I really liked this combo.  I usually do an accent nail on just my ring finger and maybe the thumb also, but no other variation.  So I thought this was really fun.

What do you guys think of this look?  Your kind of colors?

Thanks so much for reading!!  Thanks for having me guest post Jessica!  Give Gabby a kiss for me ;0).


I absolutely adore this manicure! I am such a sucker for grey polishes & China Glaze Recycle happens to be one of my favorites that's in my stash. The fun glitter topcoat makes for a perfect combination. Thank you so much Marisa for giving me a helping hand! I will make sure to give Gabby some kisses for you! For those of you who aren't following her blog already, you should definitely go check it out here =)

Baby Update & the Future of LuvMyLacquer

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I would first like to thank you all for following me on this journey of both the creation of this blog and the expansion of my family. Since I've started blogging you all have been very sweet to me and I want you to know that even though I may not be able to respond to each and every comment I do read them all and it means the world to me that you guys are so kind.

As you all know, today we will be welcoming our daughter, Gabrielle Lynn, into the world. I have been looking forward to this day for a few years and was very excited and happy to share updates with you all. I just wanted to let you guys know that I will be away for a while as I adjust and get accustomed to having a baby in the house again.

I'm sure alot of you recognize how much time and effort is put into each and every blog post and since I'm going to be very busy in the upcoming weeks I wanted to let you know what will be going on. I asked a few of the lovely bloggers that I've made friends with to write guest posts for me. I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to help me out and keep LML going while I steal snuggles from Gabby and Tyus. I'm sure you Lacquer Luvers are going to enjoy all of the posts, they're all fantastic!

So guys, please enjoy and show love to those who are helping me while I'm away. I'll be back soon. Thanks for sticking with me and I look forward to showing you Mommy and Me mani's in the future =)

xo,

Jessica

My 39 week belly (quote is from Sade's song, Babyfather)

Rainbow Brite Inspired Mani (80s Baby Week)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Welcome to Day 2 of 80s Baby Mani Week on LuvMyLacquer. I hope you guys enjoyed yesterday's post and are looking forward to bringing back some great memories this week. Okay, so, how many of you remember the awesomeness that is Rainbow Brite? If you recall in yesterday's post, I mentioned that one of my Instagram followers noted a few cartoons from the 80s and this was one of them. So, ravensolovely, this one's for you!

For this mani, I created a rainbow colored franken which I appropriately named Rainbow Briiite (yes, 3 "i's" lol). I added some rainbow matte glitter and tiny holographic glitter into my base and voila!

I began my mani with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by two coats of Bettina Marshmallow. Marshmallow is an off-white or cream colored white. It's not stark white and it's not yellowish, it's perfect and I loved the way it looked on my skintone.

On every nail but my accent finger, I layered on a coat of Rainbow Briiite. I then took the brush and dabbed a few spots that seemed to be missing a litter rainbow glitter lovin'. I was surprised at how smooth this polish went on. For my accent nail, I used the stars on Cheeky image plate CH4 and a variety of polishes: Bettina Mojito (green), Bettina Secret Garden (purple), Bettina Sunrise (yellow), Bettina Vintage (blue) & WetNWild Red Red (red, obviously). I topped this manicure with a coat of Color Club's top coat.

Ooooh, you can see the tiny holographic glitters really good here!

This is such a fun mani & I already know I am going to hate taking it off! I love the colors so much and the stars are perfect. Ravensolovely, I hope I did you proud with this mani! Did you guys notice anything different about these pics? They were taken in a lightbox that I made. I usually take my pics outside in the sun but it was late at night when I did this mani and the sun was long gone. What do you think of the pictures? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Strawberry Shortcake Inspired Mani (80s Baby Week)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I have some fun & exciting news to share with you guys =) Yesterday I was inspired by my childhood to do a manicure based on one of my absolute favorite cartoons/characters, Strawberry Shortcake! I was on Instagram (username: luvmylacquer) and one of my lovely followers there made mention of other awesome 80s cartoons. It got me brainstorming and that is why this week on LuvMyLacquer it's 80's BABY MANI WEEK!! If you were a child of the 80s I'm sure you will recognize some of the things I've got planned. If you aren't, I hope you like my mani's anyway, lol!

Above is a photo tutorial for how I got my design. I hope you guys like these. I tried to come up with something different, bring a little freshness to LuvMyLacquer. I began my mani with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Then began my marbling.

I didn't use a base color for this marble. I just went for it. The colors I used are all by Bettina. The light pink is Giacinto, the creamy white is Marshmallow, the magenta is 187 & the green is Ortensia. I don't have a red that spreads well in the water so I opted for 187. I think it worked well for this Strawberry Shortcake manicure. I topped my nails off with a coat of Color Club top coat.

I adore this mani. It made me think of so many fantastic memories like my Strawberry Shortcake dolls, the banana seat bicycle that I had with the red streamers hanging on the handle bars, watching this cartoon at my Grandma's with my cousins and sister. Lots of great things came from that era and I'm happy to remember it. I hope you guys are looking forward to what I have planned this week. I think it will be lots of fun! Let me know what your favorite cartoons or characters were from the 80s. Perhaps you'll inspire a manicure for the week =) As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica