Wild Thing! (neon gradient + animal print)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope everyone's week is off to a lovely start and that you guys are all okay. I have a fun post to share with you all today. It's another one that reminds me of my childhood and the awesomeness that is Lisa Frank. I was totally obsessed with the animal print folders and trapper keepers. The vibrant colors and images always captivated my interest. Sooo, you wanna see what's on my nails today?

L-R: Bettina Matte, China Glaze Celtic Sun, Color Club The Lime Starts Here,
Ruby Kisses Orange You Jealous, Ruby Kisses Pink Hot Pants

To begin my manicure, I chose four colors I thought would work well as gradients along with my favorite white base.

I applied one coat of Milani Smoothe Base Coat then 2 coats of Bettina Matte (white).

Once Matte dried, I took a makeup sponge (I found them at Target) and began my gradients. I put a bit of the yellow on the back of an old magazine, picked it up with a sponge and applied it to the top of my pinky, middle & thumb fingers. I took another sponge and applied the orange to my ring and index fingers. I repeated this process three times until the polish reached an opacity to my liking. Using the same sponges (the opposite sides that were polish-less) I applied the green and pink to the corresponding nails. Again, this was done three times.

Next I used my Konad Special Stamping Polish in black along with Konad's M57 image plate and stamped on the cheetah/leopard print on my pinky, middle and thumb fingers. I used the zebra print image for my ring and index fingers. This manicure was topped off with a coat of Color Club's top coat.

(not sure why this photo is sideways)

I absolutely adore this mani! It's so vibrant and playful and reminds me of the good ol' days! At one point I gave up on gradients because no matter what I did they were just not turning out right but I'm happy to say I got my mojo back (though, these aren't the best). I wish I could have this design on my toes but my belly is getting way too big for me to do a pedi right now lol! So, what do you think lovelies? Is this something you would wear or a bit too loud for your taste? 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

I Love Dots N' Stripes!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I am so excited to share this post with you all today. I have been wanting a black and white glitter polish foreverrr and my very good friend, Sahyly of LyLy Nails, was kind enough to gift me one that I absolutely adore! I intended to layer this beauty over a neon yellow, orange, and pink gradient. However, I could not for the life of me get this gradient combination to work for me. I haven't given up on it, I WILL conquer the neon gradient some day. But for now, I decided to go with a lovely neon base color that I think works very well with my black and white glitter.

I began my manicure with a base of Milani Smoothe Base Coat. For those of you that read my blog often, this might come as a surprise since I always use Essie Grow Faster as a base. I somehow lost my beloved Essie in the midst of organizing my space and getting ready for the arrival of our daughter. I must say, though, Milani's base coat is pretty amazing and really does smooth out any imperfections or ridges in your nails.

Next I applied 2 coats of Color Club's Age of Aquarius. Age of Aquarius is a beautiful neon turquoise polish. As with all neons, this one was very hard to photograph to show it's true color. It leans more green in person. Application and formula for this polish was nice and easy. It went on very smooth. This polish doesn't dry completely matte like most other neons. It's more of a satin finish. By that I mean it's not entirely matte nor is it glossy. It's right in the middle of those two.

I wanted to give some sparkle/shimmer to my base color. I chose Oh Baby! by Pure Ice for this. Oh Baby! is really a stunner. This beauty of a polish is a cream/clear base full of duochrome shimmer that fades from blue to green then pink to purple depending on the angle. I could not get it to flash the other colors as the sun was already going down when I took these photos but, trust me, this is one polish you should not pass up if you see it in stores!

Next I applied one coat of Dots N' Stripes. Dots N' Stripes was created by SparklesbyJulie and can be found in her shop on Etsy. Dots N' Stripes contains varying sizes of hexagonal and bar glitter that are black and white and are suspended in a clear base. This polish goes on really smooth, none of the bar glitter gave me any trouble and I didn't have to dab it on like I thought I would have. This baby is also three-free!

I love this manicure so much! It is simple but has so much dimension with the shimmer topcoat and the fun glitter! I cannot wait to try Dots N' Stripes over other polishes in my collection as I'm sure she will definitely be making a reappearance on my blog soon. What is your favorite black and white glitter out right now? Is this something you would try? What colors do you think this would look best layered over? I can't wait to read your suggestions! 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

World Autism Awareness Day

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is World Autism Awareness Day! I have mentioned here before in my Day 6 post for the Girly-Girl Nail Art Challenge that my son, Tyus, was diagnosed with Autism and I wanted to do a manicure today in his honor. Not only will I be sharing a blue mani today, but I will be showing you all some awesome blue polishes throughout the month since April is Autism Awareness Month.

My manicure today began with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Next I applied 3 coats of China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara and 1 coat of Color Club Cold Metal on my accent finger. I applied a coat of Color Club topcoat to my ring finger and while it was still wet I created a blue ribbon by setting blue rhinestones into the wet polish. I finished this manicure by applying a coat of Color Club topcoat to the remaining nails.

I really enjoyed creating this manicure in honor of World Autism Awareness Day and for my amazing son Tyus. He brings so much joy to my heart and is the reason why I am guaranteed a smile every single day. Though we face our challenges, I wouldn't change a single thing about my family. Everything we go through dealing with a child who has Autism makes us so much stronger and I feel that we are a very close family because of it.

I wanted to share a few facts about Autism with you all:

1 in 88 children in America are diagnosed with Autism.
Out of those 88 children, 54 are boys.
40% of those diagnosed with Autism have above average intellectual abilities.
25% of people diagnosed with Autism are nonverbal but can learn to communicate by other means.

If you would like to learn more about Autism and how you can spread awareness, please visit these sites:

Autism Speaks
Light It Up Blue
Autism Society

I hope you all enjoyed this post my dear Lacquer Luvers! Perhaps some of you even learned something new. I would LOVE to read how you are celebrating World Autism Awareness Day or Autism Awareness Month so please share it with me in the comments below. The last thing I wanted to share with you all is another awesome blue mani by the lovely Cristina of Let Them Have Polish! which you can see by clicking here! Thank you Cristina for letting me share your post with my readers and thank you for helping to spread the word on such an important cause! 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

A Little Raspberry Jelly for Pink Wednesday!

Hello Lacquer Luvers & Happy Pink Wednesday to you! Today I have a special post because it includes two firsts for me. I have my first jelly sandwich mani to share with you all annnnd I made my first jelly franken! I'm so excited about this mani and love how it turned out so let's get to it!

My manicure today began with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by three coats of Color Club Raspberry Rush. Raspberry Rush is a scented polish that is part of Color Club's Wicked Sweet Collection. I was fortunate enough to win this collection on Color Club's facebook page last summer during their Fourth of July nail art contest. Of the Wicked Sweet polishes I've tried thus far, this one is my favorite! It smells incredibly yummy! The application and formula was nice, too.

You can't have a jelly sandwich mani without some glitter, right? For those of you who don't know what a jelly sandwich manicure is, it's basically a layer of glitter with a jelly polish on top. For my glitter, I used Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter. Pinky Glitter is a sheer pink base full of iridescent glitters.

Next I layered two coats of my jelly franken which I named Raspberry Jelly over Pinky Glitter. I created this franken by filling up an empty nail polish bottle with 3/4 of WetNWild Fast Dry Topcoat and 1/4 of Color Club's Raspberry Rush. This jelly over Pinky Glitter gives it such a squishy look. I love, love, LOVE this! I topped my manicure off with Color Club's clear top coat.

I am really happy with how my first jelly sandwich mani came out and my first jelly franken. I can't wait to try more of these! So luvs, what do you all think of this manicure? Have any of you ever wore a jelly sandwich mani or frankened a jelly polish? Tell me all about it below in the comments! 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 Pink Wednesday!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is Pink Wednesday and I'm so happy about that because I get to take a break from the holiday mani's! Don't get me wrong, I love doing them but it's nice to do something different every now and then. So let me show you what I've done for today's Pink Wednesday manicure.

For my manicure today, I started off with a base of Nail Envy Maintenance by OPI. I chose Yum Gum by Color Club for my base color and applied two coats of it to reach full opacity. Yum Gum is from Color Club's Wicked Sweet Collection. This collection consists of 6 neon candy colored shades that are scented. I won this entire collection over the summer through a contest on Color Club's Facebook page. Yum Gum is a pretty neon pink (much brighter than my camera could capture) and the scent reminds me of the Bazooka Joe bubblegum I used to love as a kid. The formula was a bit on the thick side but very manageable.

I wanted to do a fun monotone manicure and used another pink polish for my design. Cream Pink by Sinful Colors is a bright pink polish. Contrary to the name, this isn't a cream at all. This lovely pink has golden shimmer throughout it that is really quite beautiful. I used this color on BundleMonster's image plate BM223 and stamped a zebra print on my nails. I used Color Club's clear top coat to finish this off.

I am totally loving this look! It has so many components of things I love: monotones, pink, and animal print. Love, Love! The one thing I am not liking is having to take this off so that I can do tomorrow's manicure. So ladies, is this a manicure you would wear? I know it may be a little loud for some but I'm one of those people that love bright colors. After all, I'm in SoFlo where color is king in this tropical paradise. As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Color Club Beyond The Mistletoe Collection Pt. 2 **Pic Heavy**

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I will be showing you swatches from the 2nd half of Color Club's Beyond The Mistletoe Collection. These gorgeous glitter mani's  all began with a coat of Color Club's Sticky Base Coat, 2 coats of color, and topped off with Color Club's Clear Top Coat. On to the pics!

Jingle Jangle

 Jingle Jangle can best be described as dark blue, light blue, lavender, & holographic glitter in a clear base.

Candy Cane

Candy Cane can best be described as pink, light pink, & holographic glitter in a clear base.

Gingerbread

Gingerbread can best be described as gold and holographic glitter in a clear base.

Again, noticing  how well these work as layering polishes for Color Club's Foiled Collection, I layered one coat from the Beyond The Mistletoe Collection over two coats of the Foiled Collection; Jingle Jangle over Cold Metal (pinky), Candy Cane over Hot Like Lava (ring), & Gingerbread over Antiquated (middle).

This is surely a holiday collection that does not disappoint! Nothing says festive parties like glitter nails and these pretties will give them so much sparkle. I especially like the blurred pictures in these swatches, you can really see how the holographic glitter in this collection are reminiscent of twinkling lights on a Christmas tree..love! My favorites from Beyond The Mistletoe are Sugarplum Fairy & Candy Cane. Which ones do you like best? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing tomorrow's post with you, xo!

~Jessica

Color Club Beyond The Mistletoe Collection Pt. 1 **Pic Heavy**

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I will be sharing swatches from half of Color Club's Beyond The Mistletoe Collection. This collection contains 6 sultry colors (Beyond The Mistletoe, Holiday Splendor, Sugarplum Fairy, Gingerbread, Candy Cane, & Jingle Jangle) for a glittering holiday along with clear top coat. I found this collection on Black Friday while shopping with my sister at Ross. Each manicure began with a base of Color Club's Sticky Base Coat, 2 coats of color, and a coat of Color Club's Clear Top Coat. Now, on to the pics!

Sugarplum Fairy

Sugarplum Fairy can best be described as holographic, lilac, & lavender glitter in a clear base. For these swatches I included a blurry pic because it really mimics the way these polishes sparkle like lights! Love, love!

 Beyond The Mistletoe

 Beyond The Mistletoe can best be described as light blue and holographic glitter in a clear base.

Holiday Splendor

 Holiday Splendor is the only color in this collection without a clear base. This one is green, silver, and holographic glitter in a green jelly base. Yummy!

I couldn't help but to notice that each of these colors would work well layered over a polish from Color Club's Foiled Collection. For layering, I used 2 coats each of Foil Me Once (pinky), Lumin-icecent (ring), & Perfectly Molten. Once that dried I applied 1 coat of Sugarplum Fairy (pinky), Beyond The Mistletoe (ring) & Holiday Spendor (middle) and topped them off with Color Club's Clear Top Coat.

These glitters are gorgeous! I really love the way they shine and their holiday names are just perfect. Are you a fan of glitter? Which of these is your favorite? As always, I hope you Lacquer Luvers have enjoyed this post and I look forward to showing you Pt. 2 of this sparkly collection tomorrow, xo!

~Jessica