Look At This Stuff! Isn't It Neat? (Sea Lore Ariel)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! A few months ago I hosted a nail meet-up here in Miami and got to meet a group of women who shared the same passion for nail polish as we all do. We all got together and met up at a local beauty supply shop and had a fun sushi lunch. It was so nice to hang out with people who loved something so seemingly "small" to others but plays a huge role in our lives.

We held a swap at the meet and exchanged polish gifts amongst each other. There was a raffled prize as well. Jamie, the lovely maker behind Sea Lore, generously sponsored a prize for the raffle. I ended up winning it (yay!) & was so excited to unwrap this beauty. Sea Lore Ariel can be described as bright turquoise jelly with red squares, purple hexes, green glitter and green shimmer.

This manicure began with two coats of Bettina Sand Blast (light grey cream). I applied two coats of Ariel over Sand Blast on my ring and middle fingers and my thumb. This polish is so jam packed with glitter and shimmer that you barely see any of the grey underneathe, which I love! The green shimmer in this is spectacular, it really does give this polish the feel of a mermaids' scales. I then used Bettina polishes in Purple, Flame & Mojito to create a water marble that compliments the colors of Ariel. My manicure was complete with one coat of HKGirl topcoat.

I really like Sea Lore Ariel. This polish was beautifully crafted in honor of one of my absolute favorite movies from my childhood. It is whimsical, playful, and pretty... just like Ariel! Sea Lore polishes retail for $10 for full size bottles (15ml) and $5.50 for minis (7.5ml). If you could have a polish inspired by any movie what movie would you pick? What do you all 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

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

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

When Water Mabling Goes Blue for Autism Awareness!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Before I get into my post I would like to take a second to thank you all and to apologize. I feel so bad that I haven't been posting regularly. There are alot of things and changes going on in my personal life that are taking the majority of time. I'm trying my best to keep up with everything and trying to take it all in stride. I just wanted to thank you guys for sticking around and baring with me. It truly does mean a lot to me. Now, on to the good stuff! =)

I began my mani with a base of Essie Feed Me then proceeded to build my bullseye. Yup, you read that right. I didn't use a base color for these because I was pressed for time. What I love about Bettina polishes is that their buttery smooth formulas are incredibly pigmented! The colors more or less stay true even in the water. Here I used Bettina Elegant Blue, Vintage & Marshmallow and finished it with a coat of HK Girl.

These colors went nicely together, I think. I love how each nail comes out differently but sometimes wish they all came out the same. I like my middle finger best here. Do you water marble? Have you guys been lighting it up blue? If you are on Instagram tag me (@luvmylacquer) so that I can see!

Early intervention is key with this disorder and that's what I want to get out to the world today. My family began to notice that our son wasn't talking at all by the time he was 18 months old. We asked his Dr. about it and were immediately referred to specialists at the University of Miami. Although hearing that something could be wrong with him devastated us, we knew it was important to try and get him help early on. The specialists at UM did a wonderful job of explaining the disorder to us & guiding us on the right path to get him all the therapy available at the time. Not only was this a huge step for us as a family to gather as much information as possible so that we could aid our baby, it has proved to be fundamental to his success! If you suspect a developmental delay in your child I urge you to go and find out as much as you can. It will make it easier on all parties involved and once your child starts to show you how much they're progressing you will automatically feel rewarded for your determination in taking these early steps. 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    

Bettina Lilac and Pink Water Marble

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I'm really excited to share today's post with you guys! As you all know, water marbling is one of my favorite types of nail art. It's been so long since I've had a chance to get one done and I'm really happy with the results of this one.

This is a Bettina marble and the colors that I used were Marshmallow, Haze & Giacinto. I began with a coat of Essie Feed Me followed by one coat of Bettina Marshmallow. I then began to build my bullseye in the water with the three colors and proceeded with the design. I topped this off with HK Girl topcoat.

I really love how delicate and girly this mani came out. The design is one of my favs for marbling, too! Have you guys tried water marbling? I know it's alot of work and very hard to get right but the results are always beautiful and unique. 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

Strawberry Shortcake Inspired Mani (80s Baby Week)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I have some fun & exciting news to share with you guys =) Yesterday I was inspired by my childhood to do a manicure based on one of my absolute favorite cartoons/characters, Strawberry Shortcake! I was on Instagram (username: luvmylacquer) and one of my lovely followers there made mention of other awesome 80s cartoons. It got me brainstorming and that is why this week on LuvMyLacquer it's 80's BABY MANI WEEK!! If you were a child of the 80s I'm sure you will recognize some of the things I've got planned. If you aren't, I hope you like my mani's anyway, lol!

Above is a photo tutorial for how I got my design. I hope you guys like these. I tried to come up with something different, bring a little freshness to LuvMyLacquer. I began my mani with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Then began my marbling.

I didn't use a base color for this marble. I just went for it. The colors I used are all by Bettina. The light pink is Giacinto, the creamy white is Marshmallow, the magenta is 187 & the green is Ortensia. I don't have a red that spreads well in the water so I opted for 187. I think it worked well for this Strawberry Shortcake manicure. I topped my nails off with a coat of Color Club top coat.

I adore this mani. It made me think of so many fantastic memories like my Strawberry Shortcake dolls, the banana seat bicycle that I had with the red streamers hanging on the handle bars, watching this cartoon at my Grandma's with my cousins and sister. Lots of great things came from that era and I'm happy to remember it. I hope you guys are looking forward to what I have planned this week. I think it will be lots of fun! Let me know what your favorite cartoons or characters were from the 80s. Perhaps you'll inspire a manicure for the week =) 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

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

Autism and Love?

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have a thought provoking post for you all. I had posted my contest in a nail group on facebook recently and it started a controversial issue. One of the ladies in the group mentioned that her son has Autism, too, and that she was happy I was raising awareness so that our kids' kids could have the possibility of not inheriting Autism. Another girl made a comment basically saying that an Autistic person should not reproduce because the unfortunate "truth" is that it can be genetically passed on to the child. Hmmmm.....

I thought about this without making a comment because, well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, I will voice how I feel about this subject here. Is Autism inherited genetically? Well, scientists aren't really sure and this is the reason I am bringing awareness to this disorder that has such a broad spectrum. As of right now, scientific research points to two possible factors that lead to Autism: genetics and environment. The probability of a sibling developing Autism is around 4%. Brothers of an Autistic child have an increased rate at 7%.

Having said that, I'm still left with the question: should Autistic people reproduce? Because the spectrum is so broad I think it requires alot of thought to answer this question. My son's disability is developmental and verbal. However, I DO see him being a productive member of society in his future. The statement that was made was very discriminatory to me. It was like saying blind or deaf people shouldn't reproduce because of their disabilities. Is that fair? I think not.

I began my manicure with a base of Essie Grow Faster. I used two coats of Jordana White for my accent finger. The rest of my nails were water marbled with Bettina Vintage, Peppermint, & Over Dyed. I used a sponge and Vintage at the tip of my ring finger & used Over Dyed to stamp on the images of the boy and girl, which was on Cheeky plate CH29, & the hearts which were on Cheeky plate CH15.

The images I chose to use on my accent finger were meant to symbolize that everybody deserves to be loved & find love no matter what their disability is. And should they decide to reproduce and have children that should be a decision made by them, not society.

L-R Peppermint, Vintage, & Over Dyed

I really would love to hear what you all think of this subject. I am sure some of you may not share my opinion on it. I do ask that you remain respectful in your comments, however. I created this to spark some thought into my readers and to get some feedback from you. Let me know what you think below. 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

Blue Water Marble for Autism Awareness

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Yesterday it rained and rained and rained some more so we rented a few movies, cuddled up in the living room and had a really relaxing time. It was awesome! The sun is attempting to peek through today which is nice because my flower bed took a beating from those downpours. Today I have a blue water marble to share with you guys. Let's get on to it, shall we?

I began this manicure with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Once that dried, I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella as my base color for the marble. Usually I use my Jordana french polish because it is sheer and allows the base color to peek through. Today I used Bettina French 3 and Sinful Colors Midnight Blue.

I didn't realize that Bettina French 3 was so much more opaque than the Jordana french polish. So, as you can see, Cinderella did not peek through. That's okay, though, I think this marble still has plenty blue in it & it also reminded me of how much a learning process water marbling is.

Because I tried to repeat the same design on each nail for this manicure, I wanted to talk a little about repetitive behaviors and Autism. Repetition is a core symptom of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and includes a variety of behaviors such as hand-flapping, rocking, jumping and twirling, arranging and rearranging objects, and repeating sounds, words, or phrases. My son has grown out of the hand-flapping and rocking, however, he still exhibits these other behaviors on a daily basis. I found this sentence on the Autism Speaks website to be extremely true in my household: "These extreme interests can prove all the more unusual for their content (e.g. fans, vacuum cleaners or toilets) or depth of knowledge (e.g. knowing and repeating astonishingly detailed information about Thomas the Tank Engine or astronomy)." Tyus can tell you who every single train is on Thomas and repeats what they say. The Thomas trains are his absolute favorite toys and he knows the names and functions of each and every one of them.

I want to try another blue water marble before the month finishes to share with you all. I hope you guys are enjoying all of my blue manicures. If you haven't already, you should check out my 2012 Autism Awareness Contest for your chance to show off your pretty blue nails and win three blue nail polishes! The contest ends in 5 days (April 27th) & I would love to add more entries to the amazing one's that I've received thus far. What do you all think of this blue water marble? I would love to read any comments you may have for me so please leave them below. 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

Happy Easter!

Hello Lacquer Luvers & Happy Easter! I have not been feeling well at all the past week. I caught a cold from my son and have had the sniffles and a very sore throat accompanied with sinus headaches. It's hard enough having to cope with a sick child in the house but when I'm sick, too, things get really rough. We are both feeling a little better today, however, and I've decided to go ahead and create an Easter mani for my lovely readers.

I began my manicure today with a base of Essie Grow Faster. I painted my accent nail two coats of Bettina Yellow. I used Scotch tape (and scissors) and Bettina Matte to make an eggshell on my accent finger. The face for my hatching chick was done with Konad Special Stamping Polish in black and Red Angel image plate RA-117. This plate has a bunch of funny faces. I just used a toothpick to erase everything but the eyes and stamped it on my nails. I took the end of a toothpick and dipped it in Bettina Sherbet for the beak of my chick.

My water marbled nails began with one coat of my base color, Bettina Matte. I then used Bettina Sherbet, Yellow, & Grape to create the design in the water. This manicure was topped off with a coat of Essie Good To Go topcoat.

L-R: Matte, Yellow, Sherbet, Grape

I really enjoyed creating this manicure today. It was really nice to get back into the swing of things. I love how all the colors pop in my marble & the hatching chick is so adorable to me. By the way, I got the idea of the hatching chick after doing a search for Easter nail ideas and came across this blog, The Little Canvas. I would love to know what you all think of my mani so please leave a comment below. 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

Girly-Girl Nail Art Challenge Day 7

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I surely did! We were lucky enough to be kid free this weekend and enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner on Saturday & on Sunday we had a great picnic lunch at the beach. It was very much needed and we really had a lovely time. Yesterday I had an appointment at the OB to check-up on Gabby & everything went really well. I'm excited to get back to blogging, though, especially with today's theme of the Girly-Girl Nail Art Challenge which is: Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice - That's what little girl's are made of! Show us your sweet (or spicy) inspired nails.

I decided to do a sweeeeeet manicure inspired by those HUGE rainbow swirl lollipops that you can find at State Fairs & specialty candy shops. To my surprise, I was able to find one of these right up the street at Family Dollar! Originally, I was going to stamp on this swirly lollipop image using a plate that has this image, BM02. However, I decided to try to water marble this pattern & am really happy with the results.

I began my manicure with a base of Essie Grow Faster. I then began to create my bullseye in the water using the following colors by Bettina: Matte, Yellow, Sherbet, Pink Bikini, Mojito, & Over Dyed. I took my toothpick and swirled a pattern into these colors and voila! I topped this manicure off with a  coat of Essie Good To Go topcoat. Here's a link to the video where the lovely Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures shows you how to create this pattern.

L-R Matte, Yellow, Sherbet, Pink Bikini, Mojito, Over Dyed

I realllllllly LOVE this mani! It looks amazing with the huge swirl lollipop & is so much fun to look at. I want to try this swirly pattern again soon with colors that are a bit softer, like pastels. What do you think loves? Does this manicure remind you of any childhood memories and all things sweet? It surely did for me! To see more sweet or spicy inspired manicures, check out these blog posts of the other girls participating in this challenge:

Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog

Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road

Stephanie of A Little Polish

Kelly of Polish Enthusiast

Jodi of Captivating Claws

Danielle of Rock N Polish

Elly of Polishable

Olivia of Unprofessional Nails

Kate of This Charming Kate

Bethany of  A Plethora Of Nails

Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady

Eugenia of Talon-ted

Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind

Amanda of Nox Nails

Ashley of Smashley Sparkles

Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

Emily of The Lacquerologist

Tressa of O' Natur Nail

I would love to hear what you think of my manicure so please let me know in the comments below luvs. 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

Beach Inspired Water Marble

Hello Lacquer Luvers! How are you all doing on this fine Monday? I am really excited about my post today because it was inspired by my all-time favorite place. Before I get into my manicure, I want to share something with you all. Yesterday we decided to take a trip to the beach. Little did we know, there was a kite festival going on. Tyus (my son) was so excited to see all of the kites in the sky but not as excited as he was to get his feet into the water. We sat out for a bit and as we were enjoying the sights an older gentleman approached us & asked if Tyus would like to fly a kite. It made my heart melt to know that there are genuinely nice people in this world after all the terrible things we see/hear everyday. The gentleman saw how happy Tyus was and told him that he wanted him to have his kite. It really was the sweetest thing ever!

In the midst of our fun, I chipped the sides of my pointer and middle fingers. Any other time I would've been sad about it but how could I be when I'm looking at this:

I absolutely love love love the beach! It's the one place where everyone in my family has a smile on their face for hours on end.

On to my mani! I bet by now you can guess what I was inspired by today (well, besides the title of this post, haha!). The beautiful sand and the gorgeous shades that range from seafoam green to aqua to dark blue is the story behind my nails for the day. After filing my nails down because of the two chips, I began my manicure with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by two coats of OPI Samoan Sand. Next I used Samoan Sand, Bettina Ocean, Bettina Aqua, and Essie Turquoise & Caicos to create my beach inspired water marble. I topped my manicure with a coat of Essie Good To Go topcoat.

The tip of my pointer finger looks like a wave! How cool is that? =)

L-R OPI Samoan Sand, Bettina Ocean, Bettina Aqua, Essie Turquoise & Caicos

Did you ladies notice that the colors I used to create my mani today are beach related? That's one of my favorite parts of this one! It reminds me of all the fun we had yesterday and the great memories that were made. What do you think luvs? What is your all-time favorite place to visit & what colors would you use to translate it to your nails? 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

Happy Pink Water Marble Wednesday!

Hello Lacquer Luvers & Happy Pink Wednesday to you all! I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day yesterday & if you didn't I hope today is a much better one for you =) I got the best gift ever from my husband, Ty. He did so good! Below is a picture of part 1 of my gift. He got me a dozen polishes!

(L-R: (Top) Finger Paints Art You Wondering?, SC Oasis, SC Cinderella, OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?, OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam, ORLY Purple Crush, (Bottom) WNW I Need A Refresh-Mint, CG Pool Party, CG Naked, CG Gothic Lolita, CG Turned Up Turquoise, & WNW Club Havana)

I thought that was it (and totally more than I thought he would get me) but he came home with a part 2 which was lilac roses and chocolates. It really was a special day for me! Since today is Pink Wednesday, I used two of the pretties he got me yesterday for today's manicure. Let's get to it, shall we?

My mani today began with a base of Essie's Grow Faster followed by 3 coats of China Glaze Naked. Naked is a rosy pink that has pink and silver micro-shimmer in it. This shade was not as opaque as I would have liked so it took 3 coats to reach full opacity. However, application and formula was very smooth & dry time was average.

See the micro-shimmer, pretty isn't it? For nail art I wanted to do a water marble & thought that Sinful Colors Oasis would be a great choice since it was a darker shade of pink than Naked is. It also shares the same shimmer quality that Naked contains in that it has purple iridescent shimmer throughout it. I used Jordana's Barely Pink so that Naked would still peep through the sheerness of Barely Pink. This manicure was topped off with Essie's Good To Go topcoat.

I love how this came out! I think the two pinks work really nicely together. What do you think Lacquer Luvers? I would also like to know which of the new polishes I got you want to see on my blog next so please leave a comment below letting me know which one's you would like to see. 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