SoFlaJo's Guardian Of The Lake

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have a very special post for you all. I'm in a nail polish group on Facebook where I've had the opportunity to meet some absolutely amazing & creative ladies. One of the ladies I've had the pleasure of knowing is Ms. Jody & I am so excited to show you one of the polishes from her brand new collection, Year Of The Dragon! Year Of The Dragon is an 8 pc collection of sparkling topcoats that are color-changing. Jody was kind enough to send me one of them, Guardian Of The Lake, so that I can review and share some epic awesomeness with you all! So sit back, and get ready to be amazed =)

I love how she packaged these! So fun!

If you look at the top and bottom of the bottle you can see the blue/violet color shift &
holographic sparkle throughout the bottle

My manicure today began with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by my base color, Bettina Onix (black cream polish), which was applied in two coats. Next I layered one coat of SoFlaJo's Guardian Of The Lake. This beauty is so gorgeous! It transformed by black polish into a beautiful blue/violet duochrome with holographic sparkle throughout: AH-MAZING!! I decided to leave my ring finger as just the base color so that you can see how it works it's magic with the color-changing effect. No top coat was used for this manicure. Now it's time to let the following photos speak for themselves. Enjoy!

You can really see the holo sparklies here, beautiful!

Guardian Of The Lake is truly stunning ladies! It applies effortlessly and instantly made my ordinary black polish into something spectacular. I cannot wait to try other layering combos with this polish. You can purchase this polish along with the 7 other shades in the Year Of The Dragon collection from Jody by visiting her shop. They are $5.00 per bottle & trust me, you will not regret purchasing any one of these beauties! I hope to purchase a few of these stunners myself in the very near future. If you would like to see swatches of the rest of the shades in the collection go on over and visit Jamie's blog Nails Adored. 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

Zoya Purple Water Marble

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope you all have had a wonderful week and are ready to enjoy the weekend. Today I have a fab Friday mani to share with you all today using nothing but Zoya (well, besides my base & top coats)!

I began my manicure today with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Next I applied one coat of Zoya Kieko, one of my favorite shades of purple. Zoya describes Kieko as: Warm, red toned dusty light purple with berry tones with an opaque cream finish. A nice alternative to pure pink or berry, especially flattering on warm skin tones.

Once Kieko dried, I applied Eucerin around my fingers to aid in easy clean up with my water marble. I then began my water marble by dripping three polishes into water and using a toothpick to draw the designs. The colors I used for this were Snow White (described as: A pure white creme that's as clean and bright as freshly-fallen snow. The perfect French manicure shade.), Kieko, & Lael (described as: A deep, saturated red-toned plum purple with a shiny creme finish. A rich grape shade for fall glamour.). Once I cleaned up around my cuticles, I used Essie Good To Go to finish this mani.

Because I used Kieko as my base color, Snow White turned a lovely shade of lavender which is exactly what I was hoping for!

I really like the way this water marble turned out. The different shades of purple work really nicely together. What do you think Lacquer Luvers? Is this something you would wear? What Zoya's would you like to see in a water marble or which one's have you used to water marble with? 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

**Zoya Nail Polish can be purchased directly from their site http://www.zoya.com/, and retail for $8 each bottle. You should go ahead and follow Zoya on twitter & facebook, they always have amazing promos that you will not want to miss out on! And If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my Zoya Will You Be Mine, Sweet Valentine(a) Giveaway for your chance to win two Zoya pretties, Sweet & Valentina!**

Oh Baby, I Lily Love You!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I have a very very special Pink Wednesday post for you all today! I have been waiting a while to share the news but am beyond excited to announce that I am going to bring a beautiful bundle of joy into the world in August!!! We are overjoyed by this news & I wanted to share it with you all, my luvs! =)

Gahhhh!! =D Okay, okay..now that I've got it out of my system, on to my Pink Wednesday manicure. Today's manicure features two polishes by O.P.I. I began today's mani with a base coat of Essie Grow Faster. Next I applied three coats of O.P.I.'s Kinky In Helsinki which is from their 2002 European Collection and was re-released in their 2009 Colorcopia Collection. I won this polish and 5 others in a giveaway O.P.I. had on their facebook page last year. This shade can best be described as a pearly fuchsia with blue duochrome. Formula was great and dry time was average.

Ooooh look at the blue duochromey-ness (yes, I just made this word up)! It kind of looks like it glows, doesn't it? Such a gorgeous shade!

Next I layered one coat of O.P.I. I Lily Love You over Kinky In Helsinki. I Lily Love You is from their Summer 2011 collection, Nice Stems! This baby is a sheer pink base full of fun! It has a variety of glitter and flakes in it: opalescent mylar flakes/shards, opal glitter, and iridescent square, circle, & hexagonal glitter. My only problem with this pretty was that the mylar flakes/shards were a bit difficult to apply. Some of them refused to lay flat but I managed to get them down using the end of a toothpick. I finished this manicure using Essie Good To Go top coat.

This combination looks like a pink party on my nails! And with good reason to celebrate with the announcement of my pregnancy, right? =) Do any of you have these polishes? What's your favorite layering combo using I Lily Love You? 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

Le Chat DJ Mix

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have a lovely mani to share with you. I was inspired by the outfit I'm wearing today: teal shirt, jeans, & blue/teal/green flowery wedges. This teal polish is a neon which made it hard for my camera to capture the true color. It's called DJ Mix by Le Chat & I picked this one up around Thanksgiving when my sister came down to visit.

I began my manicure with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Next I applied two coats of DJ Mix by Le Chat. This polish has a pretty good formula. It's really pigmented & is completely opaque in just two coats. Like I said above, because this is a neon, my camera didn't really pick up the true color. It is a bit more green in person. I paid $1 for this at a nail supply store called Hollywood Nails.

For nail art, I stamped on an image from BundleMonster's BM224 image plate using Konad Special Stamping Polish in white. I've used this design before here. I topped my mani off with Essie's Good To Go top coat.

This manicure reminds me of Spring. I really like this shade of teal and the white stamping really does pop off the base color. What do you think lacquer luvers? Like it, love it, or hate it? Have any of you ever tried Le Chat's Dare To Wear nail polishes? 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

Gorgeous Glitter Gal

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and that your Monday is off to a better start than mine. My son spilled grape juice all over his uniform right before getting on the bus for school. I had to scramble getting something for him to wear in about 4 minutes before the bus came, which made for a pretty hectic start for the week. However, everything gets better once you paint your nails, right? Right! =)

Last week I received the best swap package ever from Mary! I have been lemming for Glitter Gal's Light As A Feather foreverrr and she was kind enough to swap me for it. I sent her a nail polish ring I made using my franken, Pink Aurora, along with a red polish (her favorite shade) & some other little treats. Mary sent me a lovely card, some yummy candy (Tyus, my son, went at the candy before I could open the card, lol!), Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away (this shade was made for Ovarian Cancer Awareness) & my lemming - Glitter Gal Light As A Feather!

I couldn't wait to get this beauty on my nails! Although I loved my splatter mani from Friday, I just couldn't wait any longer so I took it off this morning and sat down in my polish room to paint on some epic gorgeousness. And believe me, a white-grey holo is indeed EPIC!

I began my manicure today with a base coat of L.A. Colors hardener-strengthener. It's a clear blue polish that you can find in dollar stores and serves as a dupe for NfuOh's Aqua Base (the suggested base coat for holographic polishes). Once dried, I applied three coats of Light As A Feather. I didn't use a top coat for this manicure as I didn't want the holo effect to get "lost." Light As A Feather has a great formula and brush. I didn't have any brush strokes and it applied effortlessly, though you do need at least three coats to reach full opacity as it is a bit sheer.

I've seen this polish described as a white holo. I would definitely say it's more of a pale grey. All-in-all it is oh so yummy!

I can't stop staring at my nails! I would say this is one holo that would be okay to wear to work since it's so light and the holographic effect is subtle, yet very much there. Next time I wear this I will layer it over Bettina Sand Blast since the bottles are small (9ml) & I want this to last me forever! What do you all think? What's your most favorite holo polish in your collection? I would like to thank Mary, again, for swapping with me! I absolutely am in love with this baby. 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

**Glitter Gal holographic nail polishes can be purchased directly from their site, www.glittergal.com/au as well as on Leah Ann's website, www.shop.llarowe.com**

Fun Friday Splatter Mani

Hello Lacquer Luvers! It's the end of the week and I have a fun Friday manicure to share with you all. I was inspired by Ms. Jodi over at Captivating Claws to do this mani today. Jodi posted An Electropop Splatter manicure on her blog & I could not stop thinking about how fun it looked and how I really wanted to have this on my nails! I do not have the Electropop Collection by China Glaze, however, I have some pretty awesome Bettina's that I thought I could do this with. For my splatter mani, I used the following colors by Bettina: Matte, Yellow, Sherbet, Pink Bikini, Green Apple, Peppermint, & Secret Garden (see photo below).

I began this manicure with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Next, I applied two coats of Matte. Matte is a white cream polish that is just so perfect. I love this polish because white polishes tend to be streaky, uneven, and thick. This one, however, is totally opposite of that. The formula is amazing!

Once the two coats of Matte dried, I began splattering. To achieve this look, you will need some straws. I used 2 straws that I got from Dunkin' Donuts and cut them into three pieces each so that I could have six short straws (1 for each color that I splattered). On a piece of glossy paper, I dropped a few drops of Secret Garden. I dipped the end of the straw in the polish and blew short strong puffs into the opposite end of the straw to push the polish out and onto my nails. Once you have your first color down, you just rotate the straws and the polishes until you have each color on all of your nails.

Ooooh, pretty colors!

How fun does that look?! I LOVE this so much! It looks like someone dropped buckets of paint onto my nails. What do you all think of this mani? Is this something you would wear? I had so much fun recreating Jodi's manicure. Make sure you all go have a look & follow her blog, Captivating Claws, as I am sure you all will love it just as much as I do! There are a few great tutorials on YouTube, also, that show you how to do this (just type in splatter mani). 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

~*Pink Wednesday*~

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope you all are having a great week so far. I must say, I am in a GREAT mood today! It is Wednesday and you all know what that means - pink, pink, pink!! =)

I began my manicure today with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Once dry, I applied three coats of Island Fuchsia by Jordana. I LOVE this pink! It is a lovely shade that leans a bit towards a dusty purple. This pretty has opalescent shimmer in it that is just so much fun to look at. The formula for this polish is
great! I could've gotten away with two coats, however, Last Chance (the green I reviewed in yesterday's post) stained my nails so bad that I had to use 3 coats to cover it up.

Ooooh the shimmerrrr!! For nail art, I used a pretty flower design from BundleMonster's image plate BM221. I used my white Konad Special Stamping Polish for this design.

I can't tell you how much I love this manicure! The name Island Fuchsia & this particular design really compliment eachother. It gives off one of those tropical Hawaiian shirt vibes. What do you girls think of this manicure? Do you love this pink as much as I do? If you are wearing pink today let me know which color you have on in the comments below! I'm on the hunt for some new fab pinks and I know you all know of some great ones. 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