Andy Nailed Marilyn!!! (Pop Art Inspired Nails)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I know I always say this, but seriously, I am SO excited to share my mani with you guys today!! A few years ago I attempted to recreate one of Andy Warhol's pop art images (the one with the guns) on my nails and it was disastrous to say the least. I mean, just awful! I recently received a few plates from MoYou London to review and after looking at this one image of Marilyn Monroe I knew it was time to try another pop art look. This time I was successful! 

Now I don't know about you guys, but I am totally in love with this look! It incorporates so many things that I adore: bright colors, polka dots, eye catching imagery and of course, Marilyn. I think this mani was successful because my creative process this time was different than any other time I've created a manicure. I usually sit a bunch of colors and plates in front of me and have at it but this time I thought to sketch it out first. 

After I sketched the nails I went and grabbed a bunch of bright polishes. As you can see, I broke down the colors I would be using for each nail.  "B" is my base or background color,  "H" is hair & "F" is face. 

My manicure began with 2 coats each (starting from pinky to thumb) of Zoya Micky, Bettina Green Apple & Bettina Sunrise and 3 coats each of Essie Saturday Disco Fever & Essie Turquoise & Caicos. I honestly liked that the way it was, just fun bright colors! But I had to finish the task at hand so I started my nail art using MoYou London's Pro Collection 10 Plate and Konad Special Stamping Polish in black.

All of my Marilyn's were created using the stamping decal method and MoYou's Rebel Collection 02 plate. I made these Warhol-esque by using funky color combinations that really pop when put together. These are the polishes I used:

Turquoise - Essie Turquoise & Caicos

Purple - Essie Play Date

Yellow - Bettina Sunrise

Orange - Essie Saturday Disco Fever

Green - Bettina Green Apple

Pink - Zoya Micky

I've been wearing this mani since Saturday. Do I love it? Maybe a little too much! However, FedEx just left with a delivery so I will weep as I remove this. Do you guys have any MoYou stamping plates? I love the unique images that are on them and the wide variety of collections that they offer. MoYou plates retail for £4.99 & can be purchased on their website. As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers & I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Oxygen Bar Just Blue Me Away!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! As promised, I have my first Valentine's Day mani to share with you guys today. Before I get into it, I just want to say THANK YOU to each and every one of you! LuvMyLacquer hit 1,000 followers this weekend and I am still over-the-moon with excitement about that! You all have been so supportive since day one and I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you for joining me on my blogging journey and having me as part of this amazing community. 

Today's manicure is a little unconventional when it comes to the Valentine's Day theme. It's not your typical pink, red and white manicure but it sure is cutesy and would be great to wear on the day for lovers, don't you think? Let me share with you how I achieved this look. 

This manicure began with two coats each of Essie Play Date and Bettina 190. The formula for both of these polishes is really nice. They went on smoothly and had a high gloss finish without a topcoat. I chose these colors to play up the fabulous glitter I used, Loaded Lacquer Oxygen Bar. Oxygen Bar is described as matte neon pink, matte neon blue, metallic purple, holographic lavender and periwinkle hex and squares in multiple sizes. I love everything about this polish. The neon glitters are incredibly eye catching while the periwinkle glitter lends a softer feel and the tiny holographic glitter keeps it playful.

These stamping decals were created with Pueen43, Cult Nails Tempest, Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!, & China Glaze Gothic Lolita. I applied a coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Silver because..well, one could never have too much holo sparkliness, right? I sealed all of cuteness in with a coat of my favorite glossy topcoat, HKGirl, and voilà!

Do you all love this mani as much as I do? I just love the glitter in Oxygen Bar and it was a great inspiration for this look. Did you know that you have a chance of winning this polish and lots more goodies by entering my Fan Appreciation Giveaway? Are there any looks you'd like to see from me for Valentine's Day? As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Look At This Stuff! Isn't It Neat? (Sea Lore Ariel)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! A few months ago I hosted a nail meet-up here in Miami and got to meet a group of women who shared the same passion for nail polish as we all do. We all got together and met up at a local beauty supply shop and had a fun sushi lunch. It was so nice to hang out with people who loved something so seemingly "small" to others but plays a huge role in our lives.

We held a swap at the meet and exchanged polish gifts amongst each other. There was a raffled prize as well. Jamie, the lovely maker behind Sea Lore, generously sponsored a prize for the raffle. I ended up winning it (yay!) & was so excited to unwrap this beauty. Sea Lore Ariel can be described as bright turquoise jelly with red squares, purple hexes, green glitter and green shimmer.

This manicure began with two coats of Bettina Sand Blast (light grey cream). I applied two coats of Ariel over Sand Blast on my ring and middle fingers and my thumb. This polish is so jam packed with glitter and shimmer that you barely see any of the grey underneathe, which I love! The green shimmer in this is spectacular, it really does give this polish the feel of a mermaids' scales. I then used Bettina polishes in Purple, Flame & Mojito to create a water marble that compliments the colors of Ariel. My manicure was complete with one coat of HKGirl topcoat.

I really like Sea Lore Ariel. This polish was beautifully crafted in honor of one of my absolute favorite movies from my childhood. It is whimsical, playful, and pretty... just like Ariel! Sea Lore polishes retail for $10 for full size bottles (15ml) and $5.50 for minis (7.5ml). If you could have a polish inspired by any movie what movie would you pick? What do you all think of this manicure? As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Happy 50th Birthday Bettina!!!!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is a very special day, it's Bettina's 50th Birthday!!! I know that to some of us Bettina is a very new company but contrary to popular belief they have been around quite some time now. Bettina started off as M&J INC and eventually evolved into the company we have all grown to love, better known as Bettina. Today I wanted to honor and celebrate one of my all-time favorite cosmetic brands and I hope you all like the festive manicure that I came up with!

As most of you who have been with me on this blogging journey from the beginning know, I absolutely love the formula of Bettina's nail polishes. They are my go-to for water marbling. I have had nothing but amazing outcomes when using their polishes with techniques so it's no surprise I chose to slow off their fabulousness today. 

My manicure began with 2 coats of Bettina Sand Blast. Sand Blast is a gorgeous grey creme, one of my favorites in my entire collection. I then used Sand Blast, 190 (pink) & Ocean (turquoise-ish) for my water marbled design and topped it off with Orion. Bettina Orion is a sheer pink, aqua, & silver shimmer polish that can be used in 3 coats on its own or used as a shimmer topper. I created a gradient on my accent finger using Sand Blast, 190, & Ocean then applied one coat of Laquerlicious Glamorously Sassy. One that dried, I used Cult Nails Tempest and BM307 to add the cupcake and dipped the end of a toothpick into 190 & Ocean for sprinkles. My mani was complete with a coat of the best topcoat ever,  HK Girl!

I am so happy with how this festive manicure turned out! It made me realize just how much I adore this company. Their colors are all gorgeous and the formula is by far one of the best there is out there. I'm lucky enough to live in Miami where I can easily find this brand in stores but for those of you who are not here or Puerto Rico you can easily obtain Bettina nail polish and other cosmetic goodies by emailing them at rosamadistributors@gmail.com. HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY BETTINA!!! As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!! 

~Jessica

I Got The Eye Of A Tiger

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope you all are doing well. I know I've been slacking here lately and I do apologize. I just have some other things consuming my time now and am trying my best to find a balance between everything going on. I do hope you guys understand and stick with me as I'm really trying my hardest to keep up with my beloved baby (I mean the blog in this case). Today I have my second Breast Cancer Awareness manicure to share with you all. I hope you like it!

My manicure is  dedicated to the ladies (and gents) who are currently fighting to overcome Breast Cancer. I was inspired by the lyrics of Katy Perry's "Roar" as they are so inspirational and words I can hear anybody who has come face to face with any challenging circumstance saying.  

I've been wanting to use my MoYou Suki Collection 1 plate since I received it in the mail and finally got to! This plate is freaking gorgeous (seriously, click on the link. It's a work of art!) and had the perfect image to go with those lyrics. For this manicure I applied 2 coats of Zoya Purity followed by 1 coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Silver. Once that dried I used Zoya Lana to stamp on my pink tiger. I then used Bettina 187 & Bundle Monster's BM321 image plate to add the pink ribbon hanging by the teeth of my ferocious feline. My manicure was complete with 1 coat of HK Girl topcoat for a nice glossy finish!

I am so happy that I was able to execute an idea that's been in my head since the first time I heard that song. The tiger on the MoYou Suki plate is so awesome and I'm glad I figured out how I would get the entire image onto my nails! What do you think of my nontraditional pink tiger mani? As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo! 

~Jessica

It's Time to Think Pink!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I get to share my very first Breast Cancer Awareness manicure of 2013! This also happens to be the hardest post I've ever had to write. For those of you that have been following my blog for a while now, you may recall me mentioning that I always dedicate these mani's to my beautiful grandmother who was a warrior and two time survivor of breast cancer. This past April my grandmother was called to the heavens above and I miss her with every beat of my heart. I know a lot of you know through a post on instagram but I could never bring myself to write about it here. Although she didn't lose her fight with breast cancer, I still want to dedicate this manicure to her and to all of the survivors, those who are current fighters, family members, children and friends of those who are so strong and come face to face with this undeniably challenging battle.

My manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by two coats of Bettina Silk. Silk is such a soft and delicate dusty pink. The formula was easy to manage and it dried pretty glossy. Once Silk dried I applied one coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Silver to all of my nails for a nice touch of scattered holographic prettiness.

 

For nail art, I wanted to try something a little different. I was inspired by two ladies on instagram with this idea. The other day I saw a manicure done by @nailmachine that I fell in love with. She was rocking a yellow water marble design with some thick slimlining in white. @pshiiit_polish had done quite a few gradients within a triangle on her nails that were always so pretty to me. I mashed these ideas together, and added a few studs and some Bundle Monster pink ribbon stamping on my thumb to complete my look. 

I used Bettina Pink Bikini & Matte for the water marble. Scotch tape helped me create the triangle and also was a great aid with clean up since most of the polish got on the tape instead of my fingers. Bettina 187 & BM321 were used for my pink ribbons. HK Girl topcoat completed my manicure and was used as the "glue" for the studs.

The ring I'm wearing in the photo above is one I inherited. The stone flips and reveals a cameo on the other side. So classy and beautiful, just like my grandmother. I have a few more ideas for breast cancer awareness manicures and I cannot wait to share them with you guys! If you have done or plan on doing a BCA manicure this month I would love to see it so please feel free to tag me on instagram. As always, I hope you enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Check Out My Guest Post!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have the honor of guest posting for my lovely friend Tiffany of Polished To Precision. I invite you all to head over to her blog and feast your eyes on her perfectly executed manicures! Today is her 2 month blogiversary and I'm sure you will be as impressed with how well she is doing so far as I am =)

Visit Polished To Precision by clicking here!

31DC2013 Day 5 - Blue Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I had some Internet issues that prevented me from posting yesterday's manicure for the challenge. Today I'm catching up on my posts and I really hope you guys enjoy the manicures I created for days 5 & 6.

The lovely people at Bettina were kind enough to send me a few polishes from this summers' Picnic Collection and I'm happy to share one of them with you today. My manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 2 coats of Bettina Pond. Pond is a gorgeous shade of blue that also contains the most stunning iridescent blue shimmer. Application and formula were perfection and I   reached complete opacity in just 2 coats. 

I'm sure you've all seen the waterfall manicures The Nailasaurus has been posting lately. Giving my freehand skills another try, I decided to attempt to recreate her style of nail art. It seemed simple enough; base color, nail art striper, few other colors of polish and topcoat. 

For my tapered stripes I used Kiss Nail Art polishes in White & Soft Blue. I saved the striping brush from a broken nail art bottle and dipped it in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City for the silver stripes. My manicure was complete with 1 coat of HKGIRL topcoat. 

I feel like I should've applied a few more stripes to each of my nails but overall I really enjoyed recreating this look. It was very easy to do and is a lot of fun to look at. What do you guys think of Pond? Would you try the waterfall manicure? As always, I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

31DC2O13: Day 2 - Orange Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is Day 2 of the 31 Day Challenge. I had so many ideas for orange nails but one kept speaking to me. I wanted to do orange creamsicle nails. However, my freehand skills are terrible so I had to improvise.

The only way I would be able to pull these off was to water marble my design. I thought about how pretty of a design a  creamsicle could make if it melted. With my idea fresh in my head and my naked nails screaming to come alive with color, I headed to my stash to pick out polishes that would be just right for my manicure. 

I started off with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 2 coats of Bettina Sherbet. Sherbet is an orange cream from their Candy collection and was applied in two easy coats. I used Sherbet and Essie Marshmallow for the water marble design and topped it all off with a coat of HK Girl topcoat. 

I love how Marshmallow is so sheer the mani stayed mostly orange throughout. I  would love to hear what you think about my water marbled design so please leave a comment below Lacquer Luvers! Don't forget to tag your pics #31DC2013 on instagram so that we can all see. As always, I hope you enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Manis For MJ

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is the King of Pop's 55th birthday and I'm joining in on a fabulous idea that my friend Tiffany came up with. Not only is Tiffany great at painting her nails, she's an amazing dancer and dance teacher and it's no wonder that she would inspire us all to do manicures inspired by one of her favorite artists. Tiff came up with the idea to do silver glitter bomb accent manicures today to represent Michael's infamous glove. How could I turn down the opportunity to 

celebrate one of music's most iconic figures with glitter?!

I threw around so many ideas until it clicked while watching "Beat It" on YouTube. I finally knew exactly what I was going to do! I just HAD to replicate that fabulous red leather jacket on my nails! I mean, besides the glove isn't that what we all think of in terms of fashion and MJ?

My manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 3 coats of Bettina Flame. Of all the reds in my collection I chose Flame because it is a crelly and that tiny bit of squishy factor went so well with the patent shine on his jacket. I also really love the formula of this polish. It isn't too runny like most reds I've tried.

I imitated the zippers on Michael's jacket by using Essie No Place Like Chrome and a zipper image on Bundle Monster's BM202 stamping plate. China Glaze Glistening Snow was perfect for my silver glitter bomb accent! I used 3 coats to achieve complete oppacity and used my ultra glossy HKGirl top coat to complete my manicure.

With all the controversy surrounding Michael Jackson and his family these days, I'm so glad Tiffany made a way for us to have fun and celebrate the icon that he truly was. I hope you all are joining us and can't wait to see your silver glitter bomb accent manis! Don't forget to tag your pics #manisformj on instagram so that we can see them & follow Tiffany's blog, Tiffany's Tasteful Talons. Happy Birthday Michael Jackson!! As always, I hope you enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I like forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

It's a Bettina Nail Polish Party!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I have a short and quick post for you today. This morning I saw that one of my favorite brands, Bettina, joined Instagram and I wanted to "celebrate" the only way I know how. You know, a girl will find any reason for a mani!

My mani began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by two coats of Bettina Marshmallow. I used Pink Bikini and Green Apple for this super bright water marble and Lush Lacquer Clowning Around for a sprinkle of neon glitter fun on the rest of my nails! I topped this mani with my favorite topcoat, HKGirl.

I am so happy with how this turned out! I think it's so fun and summery and the perfect way to celebrate one of my favorite companies joining one of my favorite social media outlets. The neon glitter in Clowning Around is too cool for words and I can't wait to play with it again. If you're on Instagram, please check out Bettina's page @bettinacosmetics (and mine, @luvmylacquer). To order Bettina polish in the US, send an email to rosamadistrbutors@gmail.com. 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

Minnie Mouse Mani & Stamping Plate Review

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have another review and a super cute mani to share with you! For today's mani you will see that I "recycled" part of yesterday's manicure. As I mentioned yesterday, I was sent another item to review from BornPrettyStore, the RuiZ03 stamping plate:

I've always wanted to do a Mickey and Minnie Mouse manicure after seeing Holy Manicures masterpiece a good while ago. Isn't that adorable?! I wanted to do a twist on the normal red/black/white Minnie mani that you normally think of. I was inspired by this picture:

As stated above, I recycled part of yesterday's mani, my ring finger. I removed polish from the rest of my nails and proceeded to begin with a base of Essie Feed Me. I applied two coats of Bettina Vintage to my pinky and middle fingers, 3 coats of Zoya Darcy to my index and 3 coats of L'Oreal Miss Pixie on my thumb. Miss Pixie was a gift from the lovely Keisha of refinedandpolished.com and is part of the Limited Edition Miss Candy collection which includes 8 jellies! Oh, I can't even tell you how excited I was to see that in a very sweet and thoughtful package from her.

The stamping was done with Konad Special Stamping Polish in white along with the images found on stamping plate RuiZ03. I tested these images on paper before applying them to my nails. Each image on the plate is etched perfectly and I had no issues transferring them to my nail art stamper and on to my nails.

I used a makeup sponge and Shimmer Julia on my middle finger. On my thumb I applied one coat of OPI's Pirouette My Whistle followed by another coat of Miss Pixie. I completed my mani with a coat of Essie Good To Go.

This cobalt blue jelly that is Miss Pixie is to die for!

Overall, I really really adore this manicure! It makes me want to start planning a trip to Disney with the kids. I love that it's not your traditional Minnie Mouse colors and the 3D bow went perfectly with my inspiration photo. The RuiZ03 plate from BornPrettyStore is made perfectly and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who isn't great at freehand like myself. Remember that if you do purchase this plate, you can receive 10% off your total order at BornPrettyStore by using the unique code on the right of my blog! 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    

3D Polka Dot Bow Review for BornPrettyStore

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today's post is a review for the 3D Polka Dot Bow from BornPrettyStore. I have been wanting to try a 3D accent nail for a while now but have never gotten around to getting a set. When BPS contacted me to review for them I was really excited! I have long been a customer of their site and always check out the new things they have to offer.

Front of 3D bow packaging

Back of 3D bow packaging

I decided to go with a skittlette to review these since there were only 9 of them and I want to use these again for another mani I have planned. I began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by a coat of Cult Nails Tempest on my ring, middle, and thumb nails and two coats of Bettina Vintage on my pinky, index, & thumb nails.

After applying a coat of Essie Good To Go to my ring finger, I carefully picked up the 3D polka dot bow with tweezers and applied it to my nail. The packaging says to use glue to adhere it but since these are my natural nails I didn't want to chance ruining them with glue. However, if you wear acrylic or gel enhancements or overlays, glue would be perfect to adhere your 3D bow.

I proceeded to use a variety of stamps for my skittlette once the bow was adhered and the top coat dried. For the white stamping I used Konad Special Stamping polish in white. The blue stamping is Bettina Vintage. On my pinky is Konad M79, middle is Konad M71, & Cheeky CH11 is on my index finger.

Overall, I really like these bows. I was hesitant to try 3D art because I thought that they would fall off easily or snag on everything. I'm typing up this post 4 hours after completing this mani and the bow is still in tact and hasn't gotten caught on anything. I love the polka dots on these, so cute!

The kind people at BornPrettyStore were nice enough to share a unique code with me just for my followers. You guys can purchase these or any other item at BornPrettyStore.com and receive 10% off your total order using the code UKL91 (click on the coupon code on the right to go directly to their site)! BornPrettyStore always offers FREE worldwide shipping and usually takes 3-5 weeks for your items to arrive. I can't wait to show you guys the other item I have to review from BPS! 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    

It's My Birthday!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! For my 29th birthday I have a short and super sweet post to share with you guys. I wanted to try something that I'm sure we've all seen before - the birthday cupcake mani! Here's my twist on these cute festive nails that are so easy and fun to do..

For my mani I used Essie Feed Me as the base coat followed by two coats of Zoya Yummy on my nails and two coats of Zoya Blu on the accent finger. That gorgeous glitter is Shimmer Polish Julia, love! The cupcake was done with Zoya's Yummy & Blu, Bettina Marshmallow, Shimmer Julia & a cute heart shaped rhinestone from born pretty store.

I love the macro shots! They really show how gorgeous Julia is. You can expect to see more Shimmer Polish on my blog in the very near future. I love that these were so easy to do and that I kept them blue for Autism Awareness month! 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