Square Vinyl with Gradient tutorial

Bundlemonster - Wonderland collection (swatches and review)

Hi guys! Today I have the Wonderland collection from Bundlemonster to share with you! I have to admit, I had no idea that Bundlemonster made regular nail polish... I always thought they only made stamping polish. I clearly never researched them...and I am stupid for that! Their nail polishes are awesome!

The Wonderland collection is a set of six "winter" colored nail polishes. It has a nice range of finishes from cremes and metallics to glitters!

Kawaii Moon Polish - swatches and review

Hi guys! Today I have another new indie to share with you! Kawaii Moon Polish is owned and operated by the very sweet Natsumi! She creates cruelty and 5-free polishes!

Jolie Polish - Duo Set (Raspberry Swirl & Champagne and Raspberries) Swatches and Review

Hi Guys! I've previously posted photos of the duo set from Jolie Polish on all of my social media sites, but I have been locked out of my blog account for over a week so I am just now able to post my review of them.

A little about Jolie Polish! Based out of Philadelphia, PA, Jolie Polish is owned and operated by Bory Foreman. Bory also runs the @nailthedeal page on instagram! Jolie Polish creates 5-free polish; she also sells stamping plates, stampers, decals, make-up and the ever so popular clean-up brush (my review for that is here).

Pretty Woman Virtual Back to School Party

Hi everyone!

TODAY Pretty Woman USA is hosting a really awesome Virtual Party from 12-6pm EST, celebrating  Back-to-School! They will be giving away Pretty Woman nail polish, along with some other fun goodies every hour on the hour! You definitely don't want to miss this.

Be sure to join them on Twitter (@PrettyWomanNYC), Instagram (@PrettyWomanNYC) and YouTube (PrettyWomanUSA) for a chance to win! (I'll be hosting their Twitter feed from 4-6pm EST...get ready for some fun! I'll be gosting 2 giveaways while I'm there!)

Vapid Lacquer - Pessimist and Optimist (Swatches and Review)

As many of you know, in doing nailart, it is sometimes hard to find that one base coat that has a great formula. I personally have had a very difficult time finding a white creme that didn't take a billion coats, wasn't streaky and didnt look thick when I was done. I think Vapid Lacquer has answered my prayers. Krys has had these for awhile and I don't know why I never got them before?!

Today I am going to tell you a little about two of her creme polishes, Optimist and Pessimist

Cookie Monster pictorial

I don't generally do tutorials or pictorials, mainly because I'm not very good at them, haha. But I had recently gained a lot of followers and one of them asked if I could do a tutorial for a Cookie Monster mani. I was in such a great mood that I decided to give it a go! Be nice..lol!

Luxe Lacquers - June 2014 Subscription Box (Swatches and Review) press sample

Luxe Lacquers, Inc. is a premium nail lacquer subscription service. For $29.99/month you'll receive 4 full sized polishes with free shipping in the U.S. and Canada. They state you can cancel or suspend your subscription at any time, no questions asked.

Luxe states on their website that they are a brand of quality, environmentally responsible nail lacquers, that deliver premium, cruelty free, 5-free lacquers in the latest shades. A portion of your subscription is donated to the Malala fund- an organization dedicated to educating and empowering adolescent girls in developing countries around the world.

MDJ Creations - What's Your Superpower collection (swatches and review)

I have another round of fun polishes from Melissa at MDJ Creations!



Just to recap: MDJ Creations is owned and operated by the lovely Melissa! She creates everything from nail polishes, gemstone jewelry, lip balms and ointments. A little one stop shop for beauty gals! The majority of the polishes are 5 free, though there are still some 3 free available.

MDJ Creations - Independence Day Duo (Swatches and Review)

I have duo of amazing patriotic polishes from Melissa at MDJ Creations, just in time for Independence Day! 

Liquid Frosting Nail Color - swatches and review

Liquid Frosting was opened in 2012 and is owned and operated by Brendolyn Marie. It is a vegan and 5 free indie brand.

Vapid Lacquer (Swatches and Review)

I was super excited to review more polishes from Vapid Lacquer because everything I've ever used of hers is AMAZING!

She is one of the best scattered and linear holo polish maker I know! They always have amazing formulas, superior coverage and gorgeous colors. This round of polishes is even better than the last ones I've tried!

Little Nail Girl - Swatches and Review

I was super excited when Heather, owner of Littlenailgirl Lacquers, announced that I was one of the lucky girls chosen to be a new beauty blogger for their polish line. Lets just say I was beaming from ear to ear that day! Thank you so much to Heather and the Littlenailgirl team for entrusting your beauties with me!

Weekly Manis

Hi everyone! Today I just wanted to share some of the manis I did over the past two weeks. This will be post 1 of 2.  I've been really practicing hard to up my nailart game and I think I'm finally getting there! I'm definitely proud of how far I've come in just under 4 months. If you're a new follower, you can check out my very first "nailart" attempt here and my first "swatch" here. At the time, I was super duper proud of them...lmao! Now all I can do is laugh and hope that no one scrolls down too far on my account..haha!

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First up is my Neon Cheetah mani! I really love the way the me on colors pop out on the white base. this was my first time trying to print and I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out! I'm not sure why I was so scared to try before.

I used OPI Alpine Snow as the base and acrylic paint for the cheetah print.

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This second mani was done using all 

of the colors from @whimsicalcolor's ( Liquid Sky Lacquer) Jordan Almond collection. 

This was my first purchase from Liquluid Sky Lacquer and I have to say that Carol makes amazing cream polishes. I added a small design using acrylic paint just a shade darker than each polish.

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This mani was created using OPI Alpine Snow as the base and black acrylic paint.  Not really sure what I was going for but this is what came out. One of the girls on Facebook mentioned that it 

reminded her of the storm troopers from Star Wars. hahaha. I totally agree!

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A lot of times when I'm having trouble coming what up with an idea, I just do a google image search for something random. For this one I searched swirls and grass and the picture on the left came up. My recreation of this is on the right. I really really like the way this one came out, very abstract!

              

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This final mani was the product of my very first pupurchase from @winstonia_store (Winstonia). I had never used nail studs and was pretty excited when they finall arrived!

I used a base of Essie Sand Tropez and...you guessed it, acrylic paint!

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I have been chosen to swatch for a couple new indie brands, so expect to see those post in the coming months!

Hope you enjoyed reading!

MDJ Creations - Hope Begins (Naomi's Village charity polish)

The polish  review I have for you today is Hope Begins. This is a beautiful polish, with an amazing meaning! Made by the caring and warm hearted Melissa, owner of MDJ Creations, 100% of the proceeds of this polish are directly donated to Naomi's Village. Their mission is glorify God in serving Kenyan children by providing spiritual, physical and emotional healing, so that they may grow to impact their world.

Directly quoting Naomi's Village:

Currently Naomi’s Village is home to 53 orphans all under the age of 13 from all over Kenya. Eventually Naomi’s Village will grow to approximately 100 children and will include teenage housing.

Most of our children are total orphans, meaning neither of their parents are alive or traceable. A few have living relatives that simply cannot take care of them due to abject poverty, physical or mental illness, or an unhealthy home environment.

Hope Begins is beautifully formulated pink polish with coppery mauve undertones; as well as that wonderful linear holo effect we all love! I did 3 coats, but it could be opaque in 2. I also played around with it and it works out awesome as a 1 coat topper for dark polishes. Though I didn't take pictures, I tried it over red and black and...wow! It looked amazing!

Below you'll see swatches of this lovely polish. Most taken in direct sunlight. I did take one in my lightbox, so you could see the differences. (Yes..that is a tree I tried to paint on my nail. Don't laugh! hehe)

Hope Begins will be available for purchase in MDJ Creations shop TODAY! Go...go now..buy this amazing color and help out a wonderful charity in the process!

You can visit MDJ Creation's shop here. Please also swing by Naomi's Village to learn more about this beautiful charity and what you can do to help!

Thanks for reading!

LacqueredMama

MDJ Creations - Swatches and Review

The lovely Melissa of Melissa Demster Jewelry (MDJ Creations) contacted me last week about doing some swatches for her. Let's just say I was super excited. She is a wonderful polish maker and even lovelier human being! So, let's get started with my 2 favs of the bunch!

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First up is Ermahgerd Perlish! I'm in love with this one! Not only because it is such a fun and great formulated polish, but also because it was made and named for, Kristin,  @ermahgerdperlish on instagram, who I just adore. 

Ermahgerd Perlish is a turquoise crelly with purple, orange and white shades of various sizes of glitter; as well as some holo, pearly and matte glitters. It is opaque in 2 thick coats, though I did 3 thinner ones, plus a topcoat! It has a pretty shiny finish, but if you want your mani to last, you should definitely use a top coat to protect it.

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The second polish I have is Captivating. And it sure is! Its a pretty fuchsia jelly with a beautiful linear holo rainbow effect. It went on super smooth and was opaque in 3 thin coats, again you could get away with 2 thicker coats and even 1 as a lovely topper to change up your other polishes.  This one is also pretty shiny on it's own, but I used a topcoat anyway!

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The remaining 2 polishes I have are fun little glitter toppers!

The first is Something to Celebrate! Perfect topper to jazz up your current mani and it looks great over any color. It is full of purple, teal, gold, silver, hot and light pink glitters of various shapes and sizes, as well as stars

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Last, but not least is Sistine Chapel! Its another beautiful glitter topper that' s filled with gold, holo, aqua and red glitters of different shapes and sizes. This looks amazing over any color! I chose an aqua and nude to show it off. You can also wear it alone, as it is almost opaque in 3 coats (see thumb).This one is also good, if you like to fish out glitters to do glitter placement! (see middle finger). Love love love it!

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I really loved all of the polishes I received from Melissa! They all had great formulas and beautiful color. I'm not generally a glitter topper kind of girl, but I really liked these!

Be sure to follow MDJ Creations on Instagram and Facebook for details on releases. Also check out her Store!

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

Weekly Manis

Hi Everyone! Whew! I've been so busy this past week or so. I've been working really hard on swatches and reviews for some wonderful indie brands, as well as some personal things going on in my life. But I'm here and back with more weekly manis!

First up, I did my first attempt at the "dry brush" technique. Basically I put on a coat of Sally Hansen Espresso and let it dry completely, or almost completely. I'm a little impatient..haha. Then I dry bushed Elf Cosmetics Mint Cream, Wet n Wilds Black creme and OPI's Alpine Snow. Dry brushing is so simple, I don't know why I hadn't tried it before. You basically just wipe off as much excess polish on the polish bottle top and brush it onto your nail. (hope that makes sense, I'm horrible at giving instructions). You don't have to give any dry time in between colors, as the amount of polish you brush on is so minimal. Once I got them how I wanted them I just topped them off with Glisten and Glow's HK Girl topcoat. Wallah! Easy Peasy!

Vapid Lacquer - Swatches and Review

Today I have some amazing polishes from Vapid Lacquer to share with you! The owner Krys, is one of the nicest women you'll ever meet! She was kind enough to entrust some of her lovelies for me to show off!