I Love Dots N' Stripes!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I am so excited to share this post with you all today. I have been wanting a black and white glitter polish foreverrr and my very good friend, Sahyly of LyLy Nails, was kind enough to gift me one that I absolutely adore! I intended to layer this beauty over a neon yellow, orange, and pink gradient. However, I could not for the life of me get this gradient combination to work for me. I haven't given up on it, I WILL conquer the neon gradient some day. But for now, I decided to go with a lovely neon base color that I think works very well with my black and white glitter.

I began my manicure with a base of Milani Smoothe Base Coat. For those of you that read my blog often, this might come as a surprise since I always use Essie Grow Faster as a base. I somehow lost my beloved Essie in the midst of organizing my space and getting ready for the arrival of our daughter. I must say, though, Milani's base coat is pretty amazing and really does smooth out any imperfections or ridges in your nails.

Next I applied 2 coats of Color Club's Age of Aquarius. Age of Aquarius is a beautiful neon turquoise polish. As with all neons, this one was very hard to photograph to show it's true color. It leans more green in person. Application and formula for this polish was nice and easy. It went on very smooth. This polish doesn't dry completely matte like most other neons. It's more of a satin finish. By that I mean it's not entirely matte nor is it glossy. It's right in the middle of those two.

I wanted to give some sparkle/shimmer to my base color. I chose Oh Baby! by Pure Ice for this. Oh Baby! is really a stunner. This beauty of a polish is a cream/clear base full of duochrome shimmer that fades from blue to green then pink to purple depending on the angle. I could not get it to flash the other colors as the sun was already going down when I took these photos but, trust me, this is one polish you should not pass up if you see it in stores!

Next I applied one coat of Dots N' Stripes. Dots N' Stripes was created by SparklesbyJulie and can be found in her shop on Etsy. Dots N' Stripes contains varying sizes of hexagonal and bar glitter that are black and white and are suspended in a clear base. This polish goes on really smooth, none of the bar glitter gave me any trouble and I didn't have to dab it on like I thought I would have. This baby is also three-free!

I love this manicure so much! It is simple but has so much dimension with the shimmer topcoat and the fun glitter! I cannot wait to try Dots N' Stripes over other polishes in my collection as I'm sure she will definitely be making a reappearance on my blog soon. What is your favorite black and white glitter out right now? Is this something you would try? What colors do you think this would look best layered over? I can't wait to read your suggestions! 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

Check out my Guest Post!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I would love for you to all check out my guest post over at Refined And Polished. KayJay's blog is awesome and I think you guys would really enjoy it so please give her a follow, too! =)

Summertime Fun Water Marble created for Refined And Polished

Ooh La La Lola!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have something a little different for you. Usually, I accompany all of my posts with some form of nail art or layering. Today's polish color was just so pretty to me that I couldn't cover it up with anything. So I have some pretty swatch photos for you!

My mani began with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by three coats of Zoya Lola. Lola is described as "Ultra-bright warm fuchsia-pink base with strong blue-violet duochrome shimmer. Edgy, bright and eye-catching but still fresh and girly." Whoever comes up with these descriptions for Zoya always nails them right on the head!

This gorgeous color was part of a trio that I received with my GMA promotion pack that also included Tobey and Yummy. It took me three coats to reach full opacity with this beauty and the application and formula were fantastic. The duochrome shimmer is absolutely gorgeous in person. I can't stop staring at my nails and am absolutely certain this will be my next pedi color!

Isn't it lovely? This is such a pretty pink for summer. I cannot wait to get it on my toes! Do you have this color? What's your go-to pink for this season? 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

Splattered Pink Wednesday

Hello Lacquer Luvers! Today I have a pretty neat splatter to share with you all. This one is a drug-store splatter. Well, at least for me it is. I picked up a couple of the Spoiled polishes a while ago when they were on sale for $0.99 at CVS. I know that Bettina isn't a drug-store brand for most of you but here in Miami you can find it in some Walgreens and also a pharmacy called Navarro.

I began with a base of Essie Grow Faster followed by two coats of Tip Your Waitress. This is a neon pink polish, although in my pics it doesn't show how bright it really is. I LOVE this color! It's gorgeous and doesn't dry incredibly matte like most neons. The formula for this baby is perfection. I've heard horror stories about the brushes on these polishes. Mine are all fine. I actually quite like how wide they are, too. It makes application a breeze for me.

Once Tip Your Waitress dried (which was really fast, by the way) I began to splatter. I use small red straws from Dunkin Donuts for this but I'm sure just about any straw will do. To achieve this look, simply drop a few drops of polish onto paper and dip the end of the straw into it. On the undipped end of the straw blow short quick puffs of air which will blow the polish out and on to your nail. The colors I used were: Spoiled Kickin' The Habit (purple) & Bettina's Matte (white) & Aqua (blue).

I use the same straw during this entire manicure. I just snip the end off with a pair of scissors after each color I use. To finish this mani, I used one coat of Color Club's top coat.

I believe this is the third splatter mani I have showed you guys. I hope you aren't getting tired of them because I really do love doing it. They are so much fun and very easy to do. I love working with bright colors and this season I plan on doing a few more of these. 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

Getting Fancy With Zoya Wednesday

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I know it's been a while since I have shared a post with you guys but I am back from being so busy with getting things together for Gabby, appointments & my son's Kindergarten graduation. I was also not feeling very good the past few days and I'm happy that I feel alot better now. I hope that you all are doing well and that you are excited for this week as I have a few planned mani's to share with you!

My manicure today began with a coat of Essie Grow Faster as my base. I then applied two coats of Zoya Wednesday. Wednesday is from Zoya's Summer 2012 Beach and Surf Collection and is described as: "Faded dirty medium turquoise with green undertone and an opaque cream finish. A very stylish shade with a funky yet easy to wear vintage look." This beauty was gifted to me by my sweet friend, Lizzy, for my birthday. You all might know her as The Do It Yourself Lady. If you haven't already, definitely check out her blog as she has some great posts and is always sharing awesome deals and freebies!

I took the description of this polish as an inspiration for nail art. I wanted to create something vintage looking yet stylish and modern. To create this look, I used my Konad Special Stamping Polish in black and white along with BundleMonster image plate BM21. I think lace images always appear vintage but the colors I used keep it nice and fresh even though they are classic shades. I then used Scotch tape to create a french tip on my nails using Bettina's Matte (white) & Onix (black). I topped this mani off with one coat of Color Club's topcoat.

I am totally digging on this look. I like that I didn't stick with one color for nail art. I love love LOVE Zoya Wednesday on me. It's such a great color and I think it flatters my skin tone nicely. If you haven't seen the Zoya Beach & Surf Collection, you should definitely head on over to their site and check it out! The colors are simply gorgeous and absolute perfection for the season. I would love to know what you think of my mani today and which colors from this collection are your favs! 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

Check Out My Guest Posts!

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I have been extremely busy the past week with getting the room set up for the arrival of my daughter, OBGYN/Perinatal appointments, my son's graduation from Kindergarten and just life in general. I haven't had much time to do my nails. However, today's post features two guest posts I did for the lovely Liz over at Nothing But Nail Polish! Please head on over and show Liz some love by following her blog and checking out my two manicures. I hope you all are having a great week, xo!

~Jessica

You can find out what colors I used and how to achieve this fruit inspired manicure by clicking here!

To find out what colors I used and how to achieve this splatter mani click here!

Phone Case Inspired Manicure

Hello Lacquer Luvers! I hope you all are having a fantastic week thus far. Today I have a pretty cool mani to share with you all. Last week I received a new phone in the mail after having to replace my old one. We got a new puppy a few months ago and let's just say she thought that my phone was her chew toy. Bad Cookie (our puppy's name)! So I got to upgrade my Samsung Dart to a Samsung Galaxy S Blaze. I love my new phone! We took a trip to the mall and I picked up a pretty case for it and it is the inspiration for my manicure today.

Isn't that cute?! I love the colors and the design of my new case. I have caught myself staring at it a couple times this week and thought that it would be a really awesome design to have on my nails. I got around to trying it today, so let's get to the mani, shall we?

For this manicure, I began with a base of Essie Grow Faster. I used 2 coats of Bettina Secret Garden as the base color for this manicure. Secret Garden is a gorgeous berry toned purple that looks amazing on warm skin tones. The application and formula for this creme is flawless.

I then got out all of my stamping plates and narrowed down three images that would help me translate the case to my nails. First I used Red Angel image plate RA-116 and Bettina Giacinto to stamp on the leaves. Giacinto is a gorgeous pink creme with purple undertones and is part of Bettina's new Flori Collection. Next I stamped on a couple of the same leaf images from RA-116 using Konad Special Stamping Polish in white on my nails. I then used the white special polish and RA-115 to stamp on a few scroll-looking images and my BM06 plate by Bundle Monster was used for the flowers. I completed this mani with a coat of Good To Go topcoat by Essie.

I am seriously loving this manicure! I think it goes really well with my phone case and the colors are all gorgeous. Sometimes I look at my stash of plates and wonder why I have so many. When you can mix and match them and be able to come up with something like this it all makes sense to have such a great variety. Have you ever tried to replicate your phone case on your nails? I would love to know what you think of this manicure 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