Palette Cleanser

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I've missed you guys so much! This past week has been rough for me. I've been dealing with extremely swollen gums and have not been able to function. I handle pain really well but when it comes to my mouth I just can't bare with it. Anyway, today is a post of a manicure that I created a few days ago but haven't gotten around to posting it. After all of the blue manicures I did last month for Autism Awareness, I wanted to do something neutral to cleanse my palette. Of course it had to be jazzed up a bit, too. Let's get on to the mani, shall we?

My manicure began with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by 3 coats of China Glaze II. This is the polish I would call my "gateway drug." It's the one that got me hooked into this beautiful world known as the nail community. From China Glaze's 2007 X Collection, this lovely is a neutral/nude that has peach and gold shimmer throughout it which compliments warm and dark skin tones very nicely. The sun wasn't out to play when I took these pics so you can't really see the shimmer, but believe me, it's there and it's gorgeous!

Next I applied one coat of Jewelry Heist by Spoiled. The Spoiled polishes can be found at CVS and are a line by WetNWild. These lovelies retail for $1.99 and have a variety of colors that range from neons, to shimmers, to beautiful glitters. Jewelry Heist is a glitter polish with large gold & rose gold hex glitter, medium silver hex glitter, and small square iridescent flakes that flash blue, pink, yellow, and green suspended in a clear base. It is most definitely a unique combo of glitters and one that I adore!

please ignore the tip of my middle finger, I bumped it grabbing my camera..

To make this mani even more interesting, I went and gave it a coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love. This topcoat mattifies any polish and gives your nails a completely different look. Ah, after all of those blue mani's this one was definitely a nice change for me. I really love the base color, glitter, and matte top coat. What do you all think of this manicure? Do you like Jewelry Heist or any of the Spoiled polishes? How do you feel about matte top coats? 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

10 Day Challenge: Day 6

Hello Lacquer Luvers and welcome to Day 6 of the 10 Day Challenge! First, I want to say Congratulations to Kelly who is doing this challenge with me, she reached 400 followers on her blog today! You all should join the 400 of us who love her blog if you haven't already, it's amazing! Day 6 of the Challenge calls for your favorite celebrity manicure.

My favorite celebrity manicure is one I saw that Kim Kardashian wear back in August of 2009. It was a chic black on black mani that was simple & eye-catching with its matte and glossy finish. I just loved the look of the contrast between the base and french tip and knew I had to try this one for myself! Here's the pic of Kim's nails:

Hot, right?! To replicate Kim's manicure, I began with a base of OPI Nail Envy & 2 coats of Bettina Onix. Then I topped that with my fast dry top coat by Seche Vite. Once that dried, I taped off the tips of my nails and applied one coat of Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love which is a matte top coat. When I removed the tape I was left with that gorgeous matte/glossy finish that I loved so much.

This is the second time I've done this manicure and I can't wait to try it again with different colors. I think this would look great using my Zoya matte polishes, Mitzi & Lolly. So luvs, would you wear this mani or try it using a different color? Have you ever recreated a a celebrity's manicure? Don't forget that Kelly over at Posh For Polish is doing this challenge with me, please go take a look at her favorite celebrity inspired manicure and make sure to follow her as well! 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