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

Hare Polish Wrapped In Plastic

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I was checking out my Instagram feed a couple weeks ago and came across a swatch by @Lacquerloon that made me do something I haven't done in a while. I made my first impulse buy in months! One look at Hare Polish Wrapped In Plastic and I'm sure you'll understand why. 

Wrapped In Plastic is described as a subtle blue toned grey jelly with white, aqua and iridescent gold glitter throughout. I applied 1 coat of this over a light blue creme. It went on beautifully and was super shiny when it dried. 

For nail art I used some Scotch tape and Cult Nails Tempest to create the triangles. Then I cut some stamping decals to fit inside the triangles. The decals were made using MoYou London's Suki Collection 1 plate and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away! + Bettina Vanity. I completed this manicure with a coat of HKGirl and 2 studs.

To be honest, I wish I would have just left this mani alone before the nail art. The polish itself was beautiful enough on her own. I really want to try some more Hare Polishes. Do you guys have any suggestions? Favorites? Hare retails for $12.50 & can be purchased through her shop on Etsy. 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

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

Studded Neon Graffiti Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend so far. Things are pretty busy around here but I'm enjoying spending time with my family. I got around to doing my nails last night and couldn't wait to get up and take pictures of this! I'm sure most of you are expecting something with hearts.. I'll have those up this week, I promise! It's been a while since I've done a neon mani though and the mood struck me to come up with this:

I received these 2mm round neon studs from The Daily Charme a while ago. While re organizing my stash, I came across them again and knew that I wanted to use them for my next mani. The plate that I used for this manicure was right under these studs and I haven't used that yet either so I grabbed these and an arsenal of neon polishes and got to work. 

I began with 2 coats of Bettina Matte and 1 coat of Finger Paints Black Expressionism (FPBE). Matte is a basic white polish and was great for getting the neon colors to pop. Using a makeup sponge, I dipped the corners in various colors (Essie Bottle Service + multiple Island Girl neons) and applied the polish to my white canvases. Once that dried, I used FPBE to stamp on this image from Lily Anna 08 and sealed my nails with my oh-so-shiny HKGirl topcoat. I completed this manicure by adding the neon studs before the topcoat was completely dry.

I love how the studs pop against the black polish and the graffiti-ish vibe the image on this plate gives this manicure! You can find these awesome studs in The Daily Charme's Etsy shop for $3.50 & the Lily Anna 08 plate on Messy Mansion's website for $10.00. 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

Stamping With 3 Purples (AIS Challenge)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have yet another stamping decal manicure to share with you all, surprise surprise! I'm telling you, this method of stamping is so addicting. It has made me think of my plates in ways I would've never imagined. It's so much fun experimenting with limitless colors rather than my normal black/white stamping. 

So, some of you might have read the title of this post and are wondering what AIS is. AIS, otherwise known as Adventures in Stamping, is a nail stamping group on Facebook. Every week we vote on a theme and everyone posts their mani's on Sunday's. If you have questions about stamping or just want a place to admire everyone else's work, AIS is perfect for you! This week the challenge was to stamp using three purples. Ok, so I used more than 3 for this manicure but that's okay, right? I mean, there isn't a such thing as too much purple is there?

My mani began with 2 coats each of Zoya Heather & Monica. While that dried, I began to make my stamping decal. I used Zoya Monica along with Winstonia plate W111. The colors I used to fill in the decal are Zoya Heather & Essie's Play Date and DJ Play That Song. Once I placed the decals on my accent fingers, I applied one coat of Lacquerhead Polish Space Cadet 2.0 to the rest of my nails. Space Cadet 2.0 can be described as a deep Purple jelly full of various sizes and shapes of purple and holographic glitter. Although this polish is no longer in Lacquerhead's shop, I would recommend that you visit her site because there are plenty of other pretties to purchase or add to your wishlists. My manicure was topped with the best topcoat ever, HKGirl.

Although I love the way this manicure looks in pictures, I'm not as fond of it in real life. Everything is great except that the larger circle glitter doesn't lay as flat as I would like it to. It's a bummer but not enough for me to call this a fail. What do you all think of this manicure? Have you tried stamping decals yet? 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

Birds At Sunset (Messy Mansion MM14 Plate Review)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I'm back with another Messy Mansion stamping plate review for you today. This time I'm using MM14, otherwise known as "the bird plate." As you can see in the photo below, this stamping plate is full of bird, cage, and feather images that are all very cool!

I really love the birds on the wire image in the middle of the plate and decided to test it out for this review. I searched Google images and found this picture of birds on a wire at sunset. I was so inspired by it and got excited at the idea of turning my tiny canvases into a replica of this gorgeous photo. 

This manicure began with my base colors, 2 coats of Zoya Pixie Dust Beatrix & 1 coat of Cult Nails Tempest. I then got out an army of Zoya colors: Darcy, America, Micky, Yummy, Perrie & Lael. I used the tips of makeup sponges to create the look of the sky. Various colors were layered over one another to create a nice blend.

Once my colorful sunset was dry, I used Konad Special Stamping Polish in black to pick up the image onto my stamper. Working very quickly, I used the end of a toothpick to scrape off some of the image. This left me with two wires instead of seven and I quickly stamped them onto my nails. Part of the wire didn't transfer over (this was user error from me taking longer than I should've to get the image on my nail) so I just used a striper brush to fill that in. This manicure was complete with a coat of HKGirl topcoat.

 

Messy Mansion plate MM14 is spectacular! I'm really happy to have this one in my collection because the images are all great and generously sized to fit anyone's nails. These plates retail at $7 and can be purchased at http://www.messymansion.com.au/. Make sure to check out the other plates on Messy Mansion's site as I'm sure you'll find many that would be great additions to your stamping collections! 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

Totally Tribal (Messy Mansion Plate Review)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I have another stamping decal manicure to share with you all today. I have gotten so many compliments from you all on the last few that I've done (thank you! ♡) and I'm glad that you like these as much as I do. This method of stamping is one that I wish I would have learned a long time ago. It makes placement near perfect and if you ever tried stamping I'm sure you can agree what a nightmare that is sometimes. 

I was lucky enough to receive a review package from Messy Mansion which included the plate above. Messy Mansion is an indie plate company based in Australia. Their plates are beautifully etched and each have unique designs. The first plate I'm reviewing, MM12, has a variety of chevron and heart designs on it. There's also a tribal-ish print that caught my eye immediately and it's the design I'll share with you all today.

This manicure began with 2 different base colors. I used 1 coat of FingerPaints Black Expressionism and 2 coats of Bettina Marshmallow on my accent nails. I applied a coat of Spoiled Ants In My Pants over Black Expressionism then got started on my stamping decals.

 

To start the decals, I applied polish (Black Expressionism) to the image on MM12 and scraped off the excess polish. I picked the image up with my stamper and allowed it to dry. I then used a toothpick and dipped it in polish (Bettina Sunrise, Sally Hansen Grass Slipper, Zoya America) and filled in some of the spaces. I covered the entire image with top coat and waited for it to dry. After it was dry, I applied the decal and completed this manicure with a coat of HKGirl topcoat.

I love this tribal print on Messy Mansion's MM12 plate! This plate is beautifully etched and the images are large. Messy Mansion plates measure in at 7cm so if you have longer/wider nails I would say it's safe to assume these would be a pleasure for you! The MM series of stamping plates retail for $7 & can be purchased here. Have you tried the stamping decal method yet? What do you 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

**This product was sent to me for my honest review. **

I'm Naturel-ly Gilty!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I'm sure most of you have seen the Zoya Naturel Collection and it's beautiful nude and rosy tones in all its glory by now. This collection will easily become your favorite if you are drawn to these colors as they can be worn year round and compliment virtually every skin tone. The Naturel Collection consists of 6 creamy simple shades that are perfect for the girl who thinks less is so much more!

So much for me thinking less is more because I'm definitely the girl that just NEEDS nail art in her life. Although I absolutely adored how Chantal looked on me,  I was itching to oomph her up just a bit. I think what I've created here is a look that might still be very wearable to work. Maybe?

My manicure began with 3 coats of Zoya Chantal. Zoya describes Chantal as a delicious full-coverage, French Vanilla cream. And delicious she is! This polish applied so nicely and the formula was buttery smooth. I then used a makeup sponge along with Chantal, Brigette & Odette to create a gradient. I repeated this process 3 times, making sure each coat was dry before doing the next. I used 2 coats of Zoya Gilty over the gradients and on my accent finger for some glitz. The rose stamping decal on my ring finger was created using Brigette & Odette + RA110 (Red Angel) stamping plate. HKGirl  completed this beautiful look.

The finished look of this manicure has a sort of vintage/antique vibe going on. This is so different than any other look I've ever created, and I must say, it tickles my fancy quite a bit! I love how well these colors play together. Gilty lends this otherwise monotone manicure a bit of glamour and I just love that! The Zoya Naturel Collection is available for purchase on Zoya's website and retails at $9 per bottle or $54 for the entire collection.  However, you can find out how to purchase 3 FREE Zoya nail polishes for $12 (just pay shipping) by reading the details of their current promo! Will you be picking up any of the Naturel Collection or do you have your eyes on a few other colors? I will have a full review and swatches of all 6 of these very soon. 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

My Fang-tastic Skittlette

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope you guys are all doing well and are getting ready to have a great weekend! Today I have a fun post that happens to be my first Halloween manicure of 2013 I share with you all. I hope it'll get your ideas going if you haven't thought of your Halloween mani yet.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not at all one of those girls that is into vampire movies or TV shows but when it comes to Halloween one of the first things I think of (besides the obvious pumpkins, witches, & candy corn) is Dracula and his fangs. For whatever reason, fangs have always intrigued me. I'm not sure whether it's because they're kinda scary looking or just different. In any case, I knew this year I wanted to try to replicate a fang mani that I've seen done a few times in other blogs and floating around instagram.

 

My fang-tastic skittlette began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by two coats each of the following: Zoya Chyna, Raven & Purity. I used Zoya Livingston to create the blood splatter on my middle finger. The splatter was done by dipping one end of a drinking straw into Livingston and blowing short quick puffs of air through the opposite end to blow the polish onto my nail. There's one coat of SHXW Rosey Shooter on my index finger over Raven. Rosey Shooter is a red and white glitter topper with various sizes of hex and bar glitter. 

The

fangs were created using the stamping decal method. I put some clear polish on a sandwich baggy and once it dried I stamped on the lips from Bundle Monster's BM303 stamping plate in white. I used the end of a toothpick dipped in Livingston to fill in red and used Purity to draw my fangs. Not too shabby but my hands were obviously very shakey which is why I don't freehand much. Overall, I am really happy with how this manicure turned out. What do you think? Have you thought about what will be on your tips for Halloween? 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

31DC2013 Day 7 - B&W Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is Day 7 of the 31 Day Challenge and I have some awesome black & white nails to share with you all. Black and white has been really big in fashion this year so it's no wonder it made it on the list fir the challenge. Afterall, nails are very much a part of fashion, right?

My black and white manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 1 coat of Cult Nails Tempest on my pinky & index fingers and 3 coats of China Glaze Recycle on the rest of my nails. I then used a makeup sponge to create gradients using Tempest and Recycle on my pinky and index and Recycle and Finger Paints Black Expressionism on the other nails. 

I used my PUEEN16 image plate and my Konad Special Stamping Polish in White & Black to stamp on this really cool asymmetrical design. I also alternated the stamp upside down on a few nails to make it even more random. This mani was complete with a coat of HKGIRL topcoat. (The smudge on my index finger was a result of my brush slipping during clean up, not the topcoat.)

I'm really enjoying this challenge and hope that you all like what I've been coming up with the past week. Here's a collage of Week 1's manicures, which is your favorite? 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

31DC2013 Day 6 - Violet Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I'll be catching up on my Day 6 & 7 nails today. I really love the way my Violet Nails turned out so let's just get to it!

Reaching for my untrieds again, I grabbed Illamasqua Jo'Mina. Jo'Mina is described as an electric lilac. She is bright, creamy, and absolutely glorious. Application was dreamy..seriously. I had no clean up to do when applying this beauty and she was completely opaque in two easy coats. Love!

I applied Cult Nails Tempest to my index, pinky, and thumb. Tempest is my most favorite white. It's a true one coater and if you do your nails often you know how hard that is to come across with white! Now that my base colors were down, it was time for nail art. 

My violet skittlette is a mix of stamping and striping tape nail art. I used striping tape and Jo'Mina to create the diagonal lunes on my pinky and stamped the rest of my nails as follows: ring finger - Pueen27, middle finger - Konad M79, index finger - Konad M78, thumb - Konad M79 (not pictured but it's the polka dot image on that plate). For the stamping I used Konad Special Stamping Polish in White & Illamasqua Jo'Mina mixed with KleanColor True Purple. I used a very old pink shimmery sheer polish by Jordana called Girls Night Out over all of my nails. My manicure was complete with a coat of HKGIRL topcoat.

I purchased a few Illamasqua polishes a few months ago and cannot wait to try the rest now that I've tried Jo'Mina and fell in love with her. I wish I could find more bottles of Girls Night Out or something similar. If you know of a dupe please please please let me know in the comments below. 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

31DC2013 Day 4 - Green Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! It's Day 4 of the 31 Day Challenge and today I get to share my green manicure with you guys. If you've been following me for a while you know that green is one of my favorite colors so I was really excited for day 4. I also was excited to knock out some of my untrieds with this one. 

My mani began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 3 coats of Sally Hansen Ivy League. I've had this polish in my stash for about two years now *hangs head in shame* and have never used it. I didn't have any application issues with this polish but it was a bit on the thin side which is why I used 3 coats. It also had a few brushstrokes but that just made it perfect for nail art.

Picking up another untried, I used Sinful Colors Call You Later to create a glitter gradient. I stamped Cheeky CH7 on my accent nail and used a dotting tool with Call You Later to fill in the dots. I then went over those dots with Sinful Colors Flower Girl and topped my manicure with a coat of HKGIRL topcoat.

I'm honestly not too fond of this shade of green on me but I had a lot of fun trying new things with this manicure! This challenge is pushing me to try techniques and use colors that I haven't tried or used before and I'm really having a great time testing out my skills. 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