Vivid Lacquer VL019

For Christmas one of my best friends got me three new Vivid Lacquer plates and I was just in total shock! Vivid Lacquer is quickly becoming one of my favorite stamping plate indie brands. Tonight I was playing around with one of my new Orly's, Starburst, when an idea using one of those plates popped into my head. So here is just a little mini review of Vivid Lacquer plate VL019. I didn't use all the images on the plate but I did quite a few of them.

To start off with I used three coats of Orly Starburst on all of the nails which I will have a full review of tomorrow. I topped all the nails with a coat of Seche Vite to create a more even surface for stamping and also just in case I made a mistake I could quickly remove it without messing up Starburst. I decided to do all the stamping in black using Cult Nails Fetish to create a shadowy silhouette type look against the glittery background. I created a  French tip using the blades of grass design from VL019 on all of the nails. On each nail I created a different magical and woody type scene. On my index I stamped the small sized unicorn and the small bell shaped flowers. There is a bigger version of each of those which I use later. The middle finger has the small mushroom that just seems big because my nails are such nubs right now and the fairy that is in the sitting position. I tried to get her actually sitting on the mushroom but she is floating just a little above it. I'm just going to go with she's a fairy and magic and that's just what they do. The ring finger I used the design that has butterflies, thistle, and extra blades of grass to create a meadow. On my pinky I stamped the other fairy and the little starburst pattern behind her wings to make it look extra magical. On my thumb I stamped the large bell shaped flowers and the large unicorn.

All of the images stamped great and I didn't have any trouble picking up the images. I can't wait to play around with this plate even more and create a whole new scene. I definitely want to try out the little foxes next and some of those amazing full nail designs. Vivid Lacquer plates can be purchased for $8 each from their Etsy store HERE.

Nail Art for Nubs Monday

Last weekend I was building another nail polish rack and everything was going along just fine until I ran out of duct tape with only three shelves to go. I went back to Rue21 where I had purchased to tape only to find out that they don't even sell duct tape anymore. All my searching online has turned up nothing either. So that was really disappointing and I am going to have to find something else that is close so I can finally finish it up. That duct tape was so pretty though so this weeks Nubs mani is going to be dedicated to that out of reach duct tape!

Here is the inspiration.

I started off with two coats of Avon Starburst and then stamped using Pueen plate 27 on all of the fingers. I topped it all of with two coats of Seche Vite. It's not exact and its a more shiny version but to me it's close enough. Now if I can just find something close when it comes to tape to finish that rack =) As always please remember to check out the other girls participating in the link up!!

Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer - Work of Tart

Over the weekend I went to Ulta to pick up my free birthday item and also was on the hunt for Maybelline Baby Skin. Whenever I'm at Ulta though I always have to check out the clearance section. I found one of the Sally Hansen textures Sugar Shimmer in the color Work of Tart. It was only .99 cents and looked similar to Sinful Colors texture Treasure Chest that I have been looking for everywhere with absolutely no luck. At that price and that potential I had to buy it!

I am just going to say this right up front that I am not very happy with this polish at all and glad I didn't pay full price for it. Work of Tart is a aqual/teal texture that looks like it has a yellow undertone to it and some slight shimmer. I expected the polish to have a shimmer that was on par with the shimmer in say a Zoya Pixie Dust polish but it's not even close. It's a very fine micro shimmer. The formula was not the best either. I used three coats and still had some spots that were too sheer. Dry time was pretty bad with this polish. I had let it dry for at least forty-five minutes and still got a huge smudge when I hit my thumb on something. I've had it on for less than six hours now and already have some huge chips on a couple of the nails. The hunt for Treasure Chest will continue!!

Rainbow Penguins

A while back my friend sent me a link to a video and just two words, "Do this!" I'm a huge penguin addict so it wasn't hard to convince me. The video was by professionalDQ and is a tutorial for rainbow penguin nails inspired by toesocks. Please go check out her video HERE because she is just so talented! I'm still getting used to working with acrylic paints but I am so happy with how this turned out. Next on my to-do list is to find those toe socks!!

For the rainbow I cleaned off a striper polish brush and created stripes using all Zoya polishes. I used Zoya Jolene, Sooki, Darcy, Josie, Breezi, and Mira. After creating the rainbow I used a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust on all the nails. Everything else was created using acrylic paints with paint brushes and dotting tools. The only thing I changed was I added little dots to the bow for the girls. I am very proud of myself for this recreation because it really pushed me and now I can't wait to try out more.

Zoya Dahlia

Dahlia is a polish that I got when it came out and it has sit on my shelf since then and I have absolutely no idea why!! Out of the first collection I think it was my most anticipated polish and yet it was an untried until now. I still can't get over the fact that Zoya actually was dark enough to name it (Black) Dahlia. Huge points for that level of twisted Zoya!

Zoya Dahlia is a black pixie dust polish with lots of silver glitter and sparkle to it. It reminds me of a highway with asphalt glittering in the summer heat. Yes, that is a compliment. It's absolutely stunning! It's dark but the sparkle makes the black totally wearable and appropriate. It almost leans more towards a charcoal black/grey with all that sparkle. It only took two coats of Dahlia to reach complete opaqueness and like all pixies I have tried so far the formula was an absolute dream. I still haven't been adventurous enough yet to try putting top coat over it but maybe someday. I just enjoy the texture so much as is and feel that top coat defeats the purpose but still some day I will try it.

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

Don't get me wrong I really do love all the holiday themed manis and everything but I am so glad they are over for a while. I couldn't think of a better nail palette cleanser than to go with a classic horror movie, The Birds. I started off with two coats of Zoya Carey on all nails. Next using Zoya Sooki and a straw I created blood spatter on each of the nails. I used MASH black stamping polish to stamp birds on each of the nails except the thumb using Messy Mansion plate MM14 and Vivid Lacquer plate VL018. On the thumb I used white acrylic paint to write The Birds but had a hard time capturing it because of the angle. I topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite.

Happy New Years!!!!!

Happy New Years everyone!!!! I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Years Eve. Another year has come to a close and I am so sad to see it go! I haven't exactly decided on my resolutions yet but I have all day for that. One I do have that is nail related is that I am going to try my best to use base coat every time I do my nails. I'm so terrible at that and have to stains to show for it.

For my New Years Eve mani I used a TON of polish and created a huge mess but it was worth it in the end. I guess the best way to list everything I did is to break it down by nail. On my index I started with two coats of Cult Nails Fetish. Next I added China Glaze Techno towards the cuticle and finished with a golden kiss stamped with Maybelline Bold Gold and Bundle Monster plate 303. On my middle finger I used three coats of China Glaze I'm Not Lion and stamped streamers and a kissing couple using Cult Nails Fetish and plates BMH14 from Bundle Monster and Winstonia 102. On my ring finger and thumb I started with one coat of China Glaze White on White and did a gradient using Zoya Kieko, Lara, Arizona and Creamy. I stamped on a city skyline of building using Cult Nails Fetish and Bundle Monster 414 and added some fireworks with GOSH Holographic Hero and plate BM H14. On my pink I did two coats of Zoya Storm and stamped a little good luck Buddha in Maybelline Bold Gold using Bundle Monster H14.