2012 Autism Awareness Contest Winner!!!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I am happy to announce the winner of my 2012 Autism Awareness Contest: Congratulations to Rosemary! I anticipated that this would be a very difficult contest to judge so I asked 2 other bloggers, Liz of Nothing But Nail Polish & Jin of Superficially Colorful to judge as well. To my surprise, we all picked 3 different winners for this contest. I decided to throw the 3 names that we picked into a basket and have my son, Tyus, be the ultimate judge. Afterall, this contest was in honor of him and I thought that it would be the most fair solution to picking a winner.

He picked so fast that his hand is blurred in this photo, lol!

Tyus picked Rosemary, yay!!

This is the winning entry =) Rosemary said, "I call this Scribbles. Sort of represents how someone with Autism may feel trying to sort things out that come naturally to others."

I was very impressed with each and every entry for this contest. You girls did an awesome job and I want to thank you from the very bottom of my heart for participating. I hope that next year I will be able to do something like this again. Maybe even a fundraiser so raise awareness; nail polish related, of course. Again, thank you to all of the ladies who participated. You are all winners in my eyes, 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

Showing Love for Autism Awareness

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have an Autism Awareness post to share with you along with two new products to show you all. I was talking to a friend of mine who told me that a local store here called Valsan had nail polish called Princessa and that they were really nice colors and formulas for polishes that were 2 for $0.99. Ummm, what?! Polishes that were 2x$0.99? Surely I couldn't pass those up so I headed to the store. Sadly, my Valsan only had 4 shades of polish from this brand; sky blue, neon yellow, gunmetal grey & black. I picked up the sky blue and neon yellow polishes since I had dupes of the grey and black already in my stash.

I began my manicure with a base of Essie Grow Faster. Next I applied two coats of Sky Blue. I must say, this polish is fantastic! Two coats gave me full opacity and the formula was just as good as those from my favorite well-known brands. It went on like butter. I cannot wait for my store to restock these. There were a few colors my friend showed me that I am dying to get my hands on.

As I mentioned above, I had two new products to share. The second is the new set of Cheeky stamping plates that arrived in my mailbox yesterday! I chose a design from plate CH15 which has a bunch of different hearts on it. I used my Konad Special Stamping Polish in white for my nail art today.

I really like this manicure. I wasn't at all a fan of blue but this month has made me grow really fond of them. I am really excited to try out more images from this set of Cheeky plates. My manicure shows love to those who have Autism and their families and friends. It also is my way of showing all of the ladies who have participated in my Autism Awareness Contest some love for spreading awareness through their gorgeous blue manicures. The last day to submit an entry is tomorrow, 04/27/12, so if you haven't already please try to get your entry in. Let me know what you think of this manicure Lacquer Luvers! I love hearing from you all =) 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

Save 50% from Dr.'s Remedy Enriched Nail Polish and Treatments

Hello lacquer luvers! Here's a quick post for you all. Just wanted to share a promo code from Dr.'s Remedy =)

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

500+ Follower Giveaway

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I am soooo excited to have reached over 500 followers on my blog and would like to thank each and every one of you for being so kind to me and sharing my blog with others. I would consider myself to still be new to blogging and I think it is amazing that so many of you have stopped by to check out my work. To show you how much I appreciate you all, I am having a 500+ Follower Giveaway! Below is a photo of the prize that will be awarded to the winner as well as a close-up photo of the polishes.

The winner of this giveaway will receive the following: 1 bottle of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, 1 Burt's Bees Tips And Toes Kit (which includes Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Cream, Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil, Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey & Grapeseed Oil and Cream, Coconut Foot Cream, Hand Salve, & Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream), and 4 Jordana Glitters nail polishes (Magenta Magic, Gemstones, Celestial, & Rhinestones).

To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Please note that you MUST be a public follower of LuvMyLacquer to qualify. This giveaway is open internationally. Must be 18 years or older to enter.

This prize was not sponsored. All of the items were purchased by me.

Nail Mail & Birthday Gifts

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I just wanted to make a quick post to share with you guys the lovely gifts I've received for my birthday & to thank those who were so sweet and got me some of my favorite things! First up is a photo of goodies from the lovely Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady, my mom, and a polish I ordered from Copious.

Lizzy sent me the first 3 polishes, Zoya's Reagan & Wednesday and Deborah Lippmann's I Know What Boys Like. Lizzy told me her reasoning behind choosing these colors: "Lol.. I Stylishly asked you if you had any of the New Zoya collection because I didn't want you to have dupes. Lol... But when you said you didn't have any.. I was soo happy to get you a pink one(since I remember reading that's one of your fave colors), and Wednesday is just everyone's favorite. Such a unique and pretty color. Then, the DL, I had never seen you post about a DL polish, and thought, every needs a DL polish. Lol.." Isn't she the sweetest thing? Thank you so much Lizzy for thinking of me and putting thought into your gifts, it meant the world to me! The 4th polish is Zoya Myrta, another one from Zoya's new Beach & Surf Collection and that one was sent to me by my mom. I think this color is gonna be fab as a pedi color come summer time. I can't wait to try it! The last polish is Zoya Jancyn which I got to order for -get this- $0.34 off of Copious. I signed up through this link which gave me a $10 credit to their site. Alot of the items on there have free shipping so go ahead and check it out loves! I got Jancyn to layer Gabrielle over since Gabrielle is a sheer polish.

Above is the Betsey Johnson mini collection. I got these pretties at Sephora thanks to a gift certificate my beautiful sister sent me for my birthday. I love the packaging for this collection and cannot wait to swatch them for you guys!

Last but not least is a photo from a package of goodies that I received from Jeanne of Jeanne's Creativity Spot. She sent me 2 bunny coin purses, 3 Easter eggs that have mini polishes in them (a pink, blue, and purple..how CUTE are those?!), a 4-way nail file, yummy chocolates & a gel eye mask to help ease the pain from the terrible migraines I suffer from. I thought that was the sweetest most thoughtful thing!

Just wanted to say THANK YOUUUUUU, again, to everyone that thought of me on my special day. It means the world to me that I have amazing family and friends who support my passion. People like them are hard to come by and I sincerely appreciate all of 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