31DC2013 Day 8 - Metallic Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I'm a few minutes short of my Day 8 nails. Today was a very long day so this will probably be the shortest post ever.

My manicure began with no base coat and 2 coats of Zoya Tomoko. Tomoko is one of the fall PixieDust polishes as is described as a romantic champagne silver. This was one of my favorite pixies for Fall and I'm so glad I had the chance to wear her again so soon. I love this polish, she's just so beautiful!

I kept my nail art simple and just stamped my accent nail with one of my favorite images from the first generation of Bundle Monster stamping plates. This was achieved with Konad Special Stamping Polish in Black and BM04. I didn't use a topcoat for this manicure as I love the sparkling matte texture of the PixieDust formula. 

Sometimes simplicity is best, especially when you're in a crunch for time. 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

31DC2013 Day 7 - B&W Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today is Day 7 of the 31 Day Challenge and I have some awesome black & white nails to share with you all. Black and white has been really big in fashion this year so it's no wonder it made it on the list fir the challenge. Afterall, nails are very much a part of fashion, right?

My black and white manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 1 coat of Cult Nails Tempest on my pinky & index fingers and 3 coats of China Glaze Recycle on the rest of my nails. I then used a makeup sponge to create gradients using Tempest and Recycle on my pinky and index and Recycle and Finger Paints Black Expressionism on the other nails. 

I used my PUEEN16 image plate and my Konad Special Stamping Polish in White & Black to stamp on this really cool asymmetrical design. I also alternated the stamp upside down on a few nails to make it even more random. This mani was complete with a coat of HKGIRL topcoat. (The smudge on my index finger was a result of my brush slipping during clean up, not the topcoat.)

I'm really enjoying this challenge and hope that you all like what I've been coming up with the past week. Here's a collage of Week 1's manicures, which is your favorite? 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

31DC2013 Day 6 - Violet Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I'll be catching up on my Day 6 & 7 nails today. I really love the way my Violet Nails turned out so let's just get to it!

Reaching for my untrieds again, I grabbed Illamasqua Jo'Mina. Jo'Mina is described as an electric lilac. She is bright, creamy, and absolutely glorious. Application was dreamy..seriously. I had no clean up to do when applying this beauty and she was completely opaque in two easy coats. Love!

I applied Cult Nails Tempest to my index, pinky, and thumb. Tempest is my most favorite white. It's a true one coater and if you do your nails often you know how hard that is to come across with white! Now that my base colors were down, it was time for nail art. 

My violet skittlette is a mix of stamping and striping tape nail art. I used striping tape and Jo'Mina to create the diagonal lunes on my pinky and stamped the rest of my nails as follows: ring finger - Pueen27, middle finger - Konad M79, index finger - Konad M78, thumb - Konad M79 (not pictured but it's the polka dot image on that plate). For the stamping I used Konad Special Stamping Polish in White & Illamasqua Jo'Mina mixed with KleanColor True Purple. I used a very old pink shimmery sheer polish by Jordana called Girls Night Out over all of my nails. My manicure was complete with a coat of HKGIRL topcoat.

I purchased a few Illamasqua polishes a few months ago and cannot wait to try the rest now that I've tried Jo'Mina and fell in love with her. I wish I could find more bottles of Girls Night Out or something similar. If you know of a dupe please please please let me know in the comments below. 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

31DC2013 Day 5 - Blue Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I had some Internet issues that prevented me from posting yesterday's manicure for the challenge. Today I'm catching up on my posts and I really hope you guys enjoy the manicures I created for days 5 & 6.

The lovely people at Bettina were kind enough to send me a few polishes from this summers' Picnic Collection and I'm happy to share one of them with you today. My manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 2 coats of Bettina Pond. Pond is a gorgeous shade of blue that also contains the most stunning iridescent blue shimmer. Application and formula were perfection and I   reached complete opacity in just 2 coats. 

I'm sure you've all seen the waterfall manicures The Nailasaurus has been posting lately. Giving my freehand skills another try, I decided to attempt to recreate her style of nail art. It seemed simple enough; base color, nail art striper, few other colors of polish and topcoat. 

For my tapered stripes I used Kiss Nail Art polishes in White & Soft Blue. I saved the striping brush from a broken nail art bottle and dipped it in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City for the silver stripes. My manicure was complete with 1 coat of HKGIRL topcoat. 

I feel like I should've applied a few more stripes to each of my nails but overall I really enjoyed recreating this look. It was very easy to do and is a lot of fun to look at. What do you guys think of Pond? Would you try the waterfall 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

31DC2013 Day 4 - Green Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! It's Day 4 of the 31 Day Challenge and today I get to share my green manicure with you guys. If you've been following me for a while you know that green is one of my favorite colors so I was really excited for day 4. I also was excited to knock out some of my untrieds with this one. 

My mani began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 3 coats of Sally Hansen Ivy League. I've had this polish in my stash for about two years now *hangs head in shame* and have never used it. I didn't have any application issues with this polish but it was a bit on the thin side which is why I used 3 coats. It also had a few brushstrokes but that just made it perfect for nail art.

Picking up another untried, I used Sinful Colors Call You Later to create a glitter gradient. I stamped Cheeky CH7 on my accent nail and used a dotting tool with Call You Later to fill in the dots. I then went over those dots with Sinful Colors Flower Girl and topped my manicure with a coat of HKGIRL topcoat.

I'm honestly not too fond of this shade of green on me but I had a lot of fun trying new things with this manicure! This challenge is pushing me to try techniques and use colors that I haven't tried or used before and I'm really having a great time testing out my skills. 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

31DC2013 Day 3 - Yellow Nails

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today's post will be as short and sweet as possible as it's a late one. I've had some Internet issues today and finally got my pics to load as I'm getting ready to end the day. Day 3 of 31DC2013 calls for yellow nails. If you recall a few weeks ago, I was on a yellow kick so I'm happy this made it into the challenge!

My manicure began with a base of Essie Feed Me followed by 2 coats of Essie Marshmallow. Next I began to create a gradient using Marshmallow, Sally Hansen Buttercup & Zoya Darcy with the help of a makeup sponge. I repeated this process 3 times. 

Next I applied one coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Silver over my accent nail. I used Konad Special Stamping Polish in white & RuiZ03 from BornPrettyStore for the polka dots and Mash46 for the flower design on my accent nail. My manicure was topped with 1 coat of HK Girl topcoat.

I seriously am deeply in love with this manicure! I'm really happy with how my gradients have been coming out lately. I've been working so hard on those! I'd love to know what you all think of my yellow nails! Would you wear this? 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

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