Guest Post from Marisa of Polish Obsession!

Hi everyone!!

I'm Marisa from Polish Obsession and I'm so happy to have an opportunity to share with you all.  I'm a big fan of Jessica's beautiful nails and her creative manis, so I'm honored to guest post while she takes care of Gabby!

For this post, I decided to do a mani with two of my favorite polishes.  China Glaze Recycle is a simple gray creme and Lush Lacquer Salt n Peppa has a clear base with black and white bar, square and hex glitter.  I'm a huge gray polish fan and a love a little sparkle in my manis, so I thought this would be a good combination.  I started off with two coats of Recycle on each nail.  I then added one coat of Salt n Peppa to my thumb, ring finger, and pinky fingers.  I used no top coat.

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

Artificial Light

I really liked this combo.  I usually do an accent nail on just my ring finger and maybe the thumb also, but no other variation.  So I thought this was really fun.

What do you guys think of this look?  Your kind of colors?

Thanks so much for reading!!  Thanks for having me guest post Jessica!  Give Gabby a kiss for me ;0).


I absolutely adore this manicure! I am such a sucker for grey polishes & China Glaze Recycle happens to be one of my favorites that's in my stash. The fun glitter topcoat makes for a perfect combination. Thank you so much Marisa for giving me a helping hand! I will make sure to give Gabby some kisses for you! For those of you who aren't following her blog already, you should definitely go check it out here =)

Baby Update & the Future of LuvMyLacquer

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I would first like to thank you all for following me on this journey of both the creation of this blog and the expansion of my family. Since I've started blogging you all have been very sweet to me and I want you to know that even though I may not be able to respond to each and every comment I do read them all and it means the world to me that you guys are so kind.

As you all know, today we will be welcoming our daughter, Gabrielle Lynn, into the world. I have been looking forward to this day for a few years and was very excited and happy to share updates with you all. I just wanted to let you guys know that I will be away for a while as I adjust and get accustomed to having a baby in the house again.

I'm sure alot of you recognize how much time and effort is put into each and every blog post and since I'm going to be very busy in the upcoming weeks I wanted to let you know what will be going on. I asked a few of the lovely bloggers that I've made friends with to write guest posts for me. I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to help me out and keep LML going while I steal snuggles from Gabby and Tyus. I'm sure you Lacquer Luvers are going to enjoy all of the posts, they're all fantastic!

So guys, please enjoy and show love to those who are helping me while I'm away. I'll be back soon. Thanks for sticking with me and I look forward to showing you Mommy and Me mani's in the future =)

xo,

Jessica

My 39 week belly (quote is from Sade's song, Babyfather)

Rainbow Brite Inspired Mani (80s Baby Week)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Welcome to Day 2 of 80s Baby Mani Week on LuvMyLacquer. I hope you guys enjoyed yesterday's post and are looking forward to bringing back some great memories this week. Okay, so, how many of you remember the awesomeness that is Rainbow Brite? If you recall in yesterday's post, I mentioned that one of my Instagram followers noted a few cartoons from the 80s and this was one of them. So, ravensolovely, this one's for you!

For this mani, I created a rainbow colored franken which I appropriately named Rainbow Briiite (yes, 3 "i's" lol). I added some rainbow matte glitter and tiny holographic glitter into my base and voila!

I began my mani with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by two coats of Bettina Marshmallow. Marshmallow is an off-white or cream colored white. It's not stark white and it's not yellowish, it's perfect and I loved the way it looked on my skintone.

On every nail but my accent finger, I layered on a coat of Rainbow Briiite. I then took the brush and dabbed a few spots that seemed to be missing a litter rainbow glitter lovin'. I was surprised at how smooth this polish went on. For my accent nail, I used the stars on Cheeky image plate CH4 and a variety of polishes: Bettina Mojito (green), Bettina Secret Garden (purple), Bettina Sunrise (yellow), Bettina Vintage (blue) & WetNWild Red Red (red, obviously). I topped this manicure with a coat of Color Club's top coat.

Ooooh, you can see the tiny holographic glitters really good here!

This is such a fun mani & I already know I am going to hate taking it off! I love the colors so much and the stars are perfect. Ravensolovely, I hope I did you proud with this mani! Did you guys notice anything different about these pics? They were taken in a lightbox that I made. I usually take my pics outside in the sun but it was late at night when I did this mani and the sun was long gone. What do you think of the pictures? 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

Funky Leopard Friday!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope everyone has had a fantastic week and you guys are looking forward to an awesome weekend. I personally haven't been feeling too well this week. I've had a horrible bit with teeth pain and nausea as well as not getting much sleep because I'm so uncomfortable but this will all be over in a few weeks! I needed to do something to perk me up and did this awesome design on my nails last night. I couldn't wait to share it with you guys. Are you ready?

The above photos were taken with my phone last night. The colors aren't as accurate as the below photos (which were taken this morning) but I hope you like the collage/tutorial I created for you! This manicure began with a base of Essie Grow Faster. I applied two coats of Zoya Kieko to my pinky, middle and thumb nails & two coats of Zoya Wednesday to my ring and index nails.

I used my Konad Special Stamping Polish in black along with Konad M57 image plate for the leopard print design. A dotting tool was dipped into Kieko and Wednesday to fill in some of the spaces of the print (I only did this to the left sides of my nails since I knew I would be covering the right side in black). I used Scotch tape and applied it to the left side of my nails and then applied one coat of Bettina Onix to the right side. This manicure was topped off with a coat of Essie Good To Go topcoat.

Leopard print never gets old to me and I love how it's so versatile. I love this color combination and guess what? The Zoya Fairies did, too! I shared pics from the first collage on my Instagram account (username: luvmylacquer) & they complimented the combo. That might not be a big deal to some people but in my little nail polish filled world it totally made my night! What do you guys think of this combo? Is it something you would wear? 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 Diva Collection for NYFW 2012 (swatches and review)

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have swatch photos and a review to share with you of Zoya's Diva Collection for NYFW 2012. This gorgeous collection contains 6 metallic shades that are perfect for Fall. All of my swatches were done with base coat and no top coat. The number of coats varied so I'll let you know how many I used along with the color description below. These photos were taken in natural light.

Elisa: Crimson red metallic. This beauty is gorgeous! Zoya is doing me in and making me really like red polish. Unfortunately, the sun was so bright it washed out some of the metallic in this baby. 2 coats.

Suri: Royal purple metallic. This purple is really special. It has some red and blue sparklies in it. So pretty! 2 coats.

Song: Egyptian blue metallic with a subtle sparkle. Now this, THIS is a blue! The sparkle in it is lovely. 1 coat (that's right, ONE coat!).

Ray: Pine green metallic. This is a blackened green. It's a little frosty. Reminds me of Christmas trees =) 2 coats.

FeiFei: Magic blue foil metallic sparkle. So, you know you have something special when you text a friend in the middle of swatching and the text reads "OMG FeiFei is like unicorns, puppies, cupcakes, and rainbows in a bottle! It's magical!"

So amazing I had to add another photo! I can't even tell you how many shades of glitter are in this. It's seriously stunning! 3 coats.

Daul: Magic violet foil sparkle metallic. This is another stunner! The gold sparkle and shade of purple here remind me of royalty. Love love love it!

Yes, she deserved another photo, too! Isn't she lovely? 3 coats.

I knew when I looked at this collection that I would love specific colors but did I expect to fall in love with each of them when I put them on? No, I did not! It was such a pleasant surprise. The must-have's for this collection are Song, FeiFei and Daul. The formula on these were fantastic. This collection will be available mid-July and retails for $8.00 per 0.5oz bottle on http://zoya.com/. I would love to know which colors you look forward to from this collection and what you think of it as a whole! Up next is the Gloss Collection. 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

**This collection was sent to me to review.**

5 Minute Mani

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I know I promised that the next post will be of swatches and my review for the Zoya Diva Collection. I am working on my swatches and photos today but in the meantime, I wanted to share a quick post of a 5 minute mani I created yesterday. I needed to come up with something quick so that I could go to lunch and do a little shopping for Gabrielle with my husband, Ty.

I began this mani with a base of Milani Smoothe Base Coat. Next I applied one coat of Sinful Colors Social Ladder to my ring fingers and then to the rest of my nails. The reason I painted my ring fingers first was because I wanted to stamp something on my accent nails and wanted it to be dry by the time the rest of my nails were painted.

I used my Konad Special Stamping Polish in white along with BM-318 for my accent fingers. If you don't know, hibiscus' are my favorite flowers and this image is so elegant it had to be the first one I used from their new set of plates! I topped this mani with a coat of Color Club's top coat and voila, this mani was done in 5 minutes!

Above is a photo of what I wore with this mani. I had on jeans and brown sandals to complete my outfit. The necklace I wore is a peacock feather that is brown, gold, and green. I wore a heart shaped nail polish ring that I created which was green. The ring was featured in my first blog post ever and you can click here if you'd like to see it. As you guys can see, my belly is getting pretty big! I am 35 weeks right now and my baby girl will be making her debut in 4 weeks. I can't believe how fast time has flown but I am so very excited to welcome her into the world and our beautiful family! 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