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

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 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

31DC2013 Day 3 - Yellow Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today's post will be as short and sweet as possible as it's a late one. I've had some Internet issues today and finally got my pics to load as I'm getting ready to end the day. Day 3 of 31DC2013 calls for yellow nails. If you recall a few weeks ago, I was on a yellow kick so I'm happy this made it into the challenge!

My manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 2 coats of Essie Marshmallow. Next I began to create a gradient using Marshmallow, Sally Hansen Buttercup & Zoya Darcy with the help of a makeup sponge. I repeated this process 3 times. 

Next I applied one coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Silver over my accent nail. I used Konad Special Stamping Polish in white & RuiZ03 from BornPrettyStore for the polka dots and Mash46 for the flower design on my accent nail. My manicure was topped with 1 coat of HK Girl topcoat.

I seriously am deeply in love with this manicure! I'm really happy with how my gradients have been coming out lately. I've been working so hard on those! I'd love to know what you all think of my yellow nails! Would you wear this? 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 International Nail Art Day!!!

 Hello Lacquer Luvers and Happy International Nail Art Day! The lovely @nailsbymimi (check out her awesomeness on Instagram) came up with the brilliant idea of having a holiday to celebrate something we polishaholics all love, nail art! You all know that while I very much enjoy swatching beautiful nail polishes, my heart is in the art. I love expressing myself through it and couldn't pass up the opportunity to join in on the festivities today!

Today's look features three forms of nail art that took me so many practice sessions to get right, each earning their very own lane in my nail art world. I absolutely LOVE these types of nail art and think they're all equally fun to do. I've got some gradient/stamping/water marbling goodness going on for INAD and I love how my nails came out for this special day!

I started with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by two coats each of China Glaze Tantalize and Essie Marshmallow on my accent finger. I created a gradient on my accent finger with Marshmallow, Tantalize Me & Gothic Lolita with the help of a makeup sponge. Once that dried, I topped it with Orly's Prisma Gloss Silver for some scattered holo glitter prettiness! 

Next I began to water marble my nails using the colors mentioned above. For those of you who have ever tried marbling, I'm sure you can agree that it is one of those things you have a love/hate relationship with lol! I've always loved the final look of this beautiful art though and don't mind the process of getting it just right because it's so mesmerizing to look at all day!

I went back to my ring finger for the stamping part of my manicure. With the help of MASH-41 & some Konad Special Stamping Polish in white, I went over my holo glitter gradient with this stunning floral image. My mani was complete with a coat of the scattered holo polish over my water marbled nails and a final coat of HKGirl topcoat on all of them.

I had so much fun coming up with this look for International Nail Art Day and am so happy that we have a day to call our own! Nail art has been a way for me to express how I'm feeling through color and is most definitely my favorite "me time". There was a recent rumor going around, someone said nail art was dead. I guess we're proving them wrong today! Don't forget to tag your nails with #INAD on Instagram for those of you joining in. 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

Holographic Gradient With Striping Tape

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Hope all is well with you guys! Today's post is a striping tape gradient manicure that I did a while ago but I love it so much I wanted to share with you guys. It features the three holographic polishes from Zoya's Ornate Collection.

My mani began with a base of Essie grow Faster. I proceeded to paint my pinky, index and thumb Zoya Storm. Storm is a black base with scattered holographic particles, it's amazing! I then painted my ring and middle fingers with Blaze. Blaze is a magic in a bottle. I believe I wore this color at least 4 times already. I can't get enough of that gorgeous berry toned red.

I applied striping tape to my accent nails in the same pattern. Using a makeup sponge, I created a gradient over the striping tape using Storm, Blaze and Aurora. Aurora is a scattered holo that's purple perfection! I removed the striping tape once i was done with the gradient and topped it all off with HK Girl topcoat.

In person the gradient appeared to have been suspended over the base. It was really cool and I got a lot of compliments on it! How did you guys like this collection? Have you done a striping tape manicure? 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

**These polishes were sent to me for review.**

Tropical Manicure with Hummingbirds & Hibiscus'

Hello Lacquer Luvers! If you guys follow me on Facebook, you know that the past few days nail polish just was not feeling like being my friend. I decided to let it be for a while and come back to it a couple days later and guess what? It loves me again! Yay, lol!

I'm in a group on Facebook for nail art stamping and every Sunday there is a challenge. Today's theme is "The Sky's The Limit." For this theme, you can use any images you want to create a manicure that showcases anything you would see in the sky (planes, butterflies, birds, stars, etc). While going through my stamping plates I was inspired by images of hummingbirds. I Googled images of hummingbirds and was captivated by these two photos which also happened to include my most favorite flower:

Photo Credit: http://hoosiergardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/hummingbird-hibiscus-steve-byland-a-Fotolia_15250719_S.jpg

Photo Credit: http://shenthreedees.blogspot.com/2010/10/hummingbird-hibiscus-interaction.html

My manicure today began with a base of Essie Grow Faster. I used 3 polishes by Bettina to water marble all of my nails and used the same 3 polishes to do a gradient on my accent nail. The polishes I used were Peppermint, Ocean, and Marshmallow. I chose these colors to symbolize the grass, sky, and clouds. I know that Ocean isn't really green-green, it's more of a aqua/green kind of color but I liked the way this color combination worked better than when I tried it with a true green (Bettina Mojito).

Next I used M72 from a set of plates I purchased from BornPrettyStore and Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Fuchsia for the hibiscus image. Then I used my Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Green to stamp on the hummingbirds which were on the H26 image plate by Chez-Delaney. I completed this manicure with a coat of Good To Go topcoat by Essie.

I really do love the way my manicure came out today and am glad that I had the patience to wait out a couple days for nail polish to once love me again. I like the chrome/metallic in the Sally Hansen pens and how it gives the hummingbirds that bit of sheen that you see in their feathers. This manicure makes me want to take a trip to Hawaii! What do you guys think of this manicure? What would you have come up with for this Sunday's theme for the challenge? 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