31 Day Challenge 2013: Day 1 - Red Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is Day 1 of The 31 Day Challenge! For those of you who have never heard of it, this challenge started 3 years ago and takes place every September. A few days ago I saw Cristina of LTHP post the following image and I was so excited to finally have the time and chance to join her, chalkboardnails, thesammersaurus (thenailasaurus), and so many amazing nail bloggers and artists for an entire month of nail art awesomeness. 

So Day 1 of the challenge calls for red nails. I decided to go with a striping tape design inspired by a manicure done by @mcpolish on instagram. She did a simple yet chic striping tape manicure over her nude nails using a black polish. I switched up the pattern of the striping tape and went with a red polish (of course).

For this manicure I didn't apply a basecoat. I cut pieces of striping tape and placed them on my nails, keeping the same patterns on my pinky, index, and thumb & creating another pattern on my ring and middle fingers. I applied one coat of Zoya Livingston over the tape and removed it while the polish was still wet to reveal the pattern. This manicure was complete with a coat of HKGirl topcoat. 

I really love the way this manicure turned out! Next time I will use a nude polish as my base just so that the color change between my nail bed and free edge isn't so apparent. I'd love to hear what you think of this manicure and if you plan to join this challenge please leave a comment below with your blog link so that I can check out your red nails! 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

Nailing The Look With Zoya PixieDusts!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today's post features some nail art looks using the Zoya PixieDust Collection for Fall 2013. I have two manicures to share with you guys that show off the gorgeous colors that make up this stunning collection. 

The first manicure I have for you was created using striping tape. I used 2 coats of Tomoko for my base color and put a piece of striping tape on it diagonally once it was completely dry. One coat of Arabella went on then another piece of striping tape and a coat of Carter.

As you can imagine, the striping tape was a little tricky to get down on top of the textured polish. Some parts of it lifted a tiny bit which left my lines not as clean as I would like. I didn't mind that at all because this manicure was just so sparkly it was hard to keep my eyes off it! The drying time of this formula is a huge plus as well. The wait time to apply the striping tape was about 12 minutes between coats.

My next PixieDust nail art manicure features the gorgeous Dhara as my base color. I adore this orange polish so much! The golden sparkles in it are stunning and this shade of orange is very fall, it reminds me of pumpkins. 

I went with a "classic" stamping image over Dhara. The zebra/tiger design on Konad's M57 plate will never get old to me. This look was achieved using M57 & Konad Special Stamping polish in black. 

I hope you guys can see how versatile these textured polishes are. I would've never thought that you could stamp over them since they don't have a smooth surface. Pretty neat, huh? Zoya PixieDust polishes retail at $9 per bottle and are available at zoya.com. 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.**