Luxe Lacquers - July 2014 Subscription Box (swatches and review)

Hi Everyone! Today I have swatches and my review of  the Luxe Lacquers July 2014 Subscription Box! You can check out my review of June' box here.

A little recap about the company:
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. (polishes are 17ml!)

Creative Cuticles Nail Polish - Fluorite and Nebula (Swatches and Reviews)

I got a surprise swatch package from, the ever so sweet, Kayla of Creative Cuticles Nail Polish the other day! Such a wonderful way to start the day!

A little about Creative Cuticles Nail Polish..... You may or may not already know Kayla, as she is the beautiful nails behind @kaylascreativecuticles on instagram. She loves indies so much, that she began her own journey as a trusted brand a few months back with her War Among the Stars collection. All of her polishes are cruelty and 5-free!

I have 2 of her new colors that will be releasing today, Friday, June 13th!

Vapid Lacquer - Thermal Holos (Swatches and Review)

The lovely Krys of Vapid Lacquer has done it again! This time....THERMAL HOLOS! Best of both worlds!

Now , until she made these, I have only ever tried1 actual thermal. Though the one I have changes colors as promised, the formula was horrific! (no I will not say who it was made by) :)

Krys' thermal holos have the same amazing formula as all of her other polishes. They only take 2 coats for full coverage and they shine all on their own without topcoat.

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!

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!

Inspiration Recreation

This week, I have some manis that I'm really proud of. I did a few entries for contests where you recreate a mani you are inspired by. I generally get a lot of my inspiration from other nail lovers already, but this was fun to try to recreate them exactly! Hope you love them!

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This first mani was a recreation of one done by @nailartbysig a long time ago. I loved it! I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, then free handed the blue, green and purple stripes with acrylic paint. I used a dotting tool and black acrylic paint for the polka dots.

Weekly Manis

So I've decided to start sharing more of my manis on a weekly basis. Every weekend I plan to share all of the manis I did that week! In order to catch up, I'm going to share my favorites from last month and this month so far!

First up is my very first attempt at roses! I used Maybelline ColorShow in Bare Escape as my base and acrylic paint for the art. I was really proud of these and think they came out great!

                   

Missing in Action

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive! Sorry I've been MIA this past month. We've had a lot going on. My son started some new therapy classes and we are finally in a smooth groove..haha!

I've recently been given the opportunity to swatch and blog for a new collection made by a wonderful Indie brand! Not saying who just yet, it'll be a surprise!

Anyway, now that things are calming down, you can expect a lot more posts from me!

Thanks for sticking around. Remember, you can always check me out on Instagram and Facebook. Just search for LacqueredMama!

♡♡♡♡♡

Valentine's Day Nails

Today I'm just going to share a few Valentine's Day nails I've done this past week. Im not generally a pink lover but I like how these all turned out.


First up is my Vampy Valentine nails. For these I used a basic black base from Wet n Wild. Each color is from Elf Cosmetics. This was my first time color blocking! I need some practice but I think it came out great for my first time! What do you all think?

Next up is a another little skittlete of randomness...haha!  Stripes? Check! Polkadots? Check! Hearts? Check! On these I used Elf Cosmetics' Flirty Fuchsia, Nude and Smokin Hot. I love them!

On the next ones, I used Sinful Colors' Gold Medal and Sally Hansen's Red Carpet. This one is my favorite so far. More classy and not so "bubblegummy". Haha.

Well that does it as far as Valentine's Day nails. I'll post more as I do them!

Thanks for reading!

Elf Cosmetics Nail Polish

So I had never owned an ELF Cosmetics polish before, but when I saw a special they were having for 2 different mini sets for only $5-$6 per set, I jumped on it. Being new to nailart, I was in desperate need of some new colors. Finally..after about 2 weeks they arrived on my doorstep.

And there they are...in all their gloriousness!  I really love them all. There was such a wide variety of colors included. There are a few that are duplicates, but luckily they are the really pretty ones..haha! Overall I can't complain.

I started swatching a few, so here's what I've gotten done so far.

This is Rasberry Sorbet. In the bottle it appeared more on the purpley/fuscia side, but once on, it is definitely raspberry. It went on smooth and took 2 coats for complete coverage.

This one is called Purple Dream. Beautiful color, but this one was a tad thick. This is 2 coats plus a topcoat.

These two are Mango Madness amd High Tide. Love this color combo. These were my "Denver Broncos" inspired nails. Both went on great. 2 coats plus topcoat.

These are the neautrals. From left to right is Nude, Prissy Crissy, Desert Haze and Wedding Bells. All beautiful. These were odd to me. Thick, but didnt completely cover with 2 coats and topcoat. My fav was Wedding Bells.

There are obviously a lot more, but I'll add those later.

Thanks for reading!

Mix 'n Match

For these nails I mixed a few different polishes. I really like the look of not only accent nails, but wearing different colors on each nail. These colors went together very well.

I used Sinful Colors GoGo Girl, Mint Apple and Pride.  On my pinky I used Sally Hansen Blue It.  ♡

Sinful Colors GoGo Girl is 2 coats with topcoat, Mint Apple is a pretty shear, so it took  3 coats plus topcoat and the Sally Hansen Blue It was amazing with just 1 coat with topcoat. Sinful Colors Pride is a beautiful glitter bomb with flecks and glitter from every corner of the rainbow. My only gripe with this one is that it was very thick. I had to use a toothpick to spread it out evenly. Using the brush seemed to remove glitter. 

Overall I love this combo!

Thanks for reading! ☆

Nails of the Day #notd

I decided that when I dont have any new polish to discuss, I would just start sharing my "nails of the day".

These are actually yesterday's nails. I used Wet 'n Wild black and white crèmes, Sinful Colors GoGo Girl and OPI Grand Canyon Sunset. (I did the dots with the end of a paintbrush and a toothpick) :)

Thanks for checking them out! ♡

GoGo Medal

 I have found that for the most part, Sinful Colors polishes have a great formula. They go on smooth and generally only require two coats for full coverage.

For todays mani, I used Sinful Colors 'GoGo Girl' and 'Gold Medal'. These colors are beautiful on their own, but look great together!

First up, I used GoGo Girl as a base on all of my nails. I did two regular coats with a top coat. This polish definitely has a great formula! It went on extremely smooth. The first coat dried in just a few minutes. The second coat took about 5 minutes. Then I added the top coat. Without the top coat it dried in a satin-like finish. The top coat then made it very glossy. This will likely be my "go to" red for awhile!

                          

Next, I did some simple nail art using Gold Medal. I am really in love with this color. It really does mimic the finish and color of a gold medal. As much as I adore this color though, I have to say that it is a tad thick. I felt like I had to be careful not to have too much polish on my brush or it starts to feel globby.



The finished manicure! To create this I did not use any special nail tools. I used items around the house that almost everyone has. For the polka dots I used the tip of a large paperclip. You have to be very steady otherwise your dots may come out a little messy. (Mine are still far from perfect, but with practice, they are getting better)

For the stripes I actually cut scotch tape...lol. It is definitely a lot easier to use nail art tape, but I made due with what I had. After you have your tape in the pattern you want, just paint on the accent color. Be sure to immediately remove the tape. Do not let the polish dry. If you do the polish will likely pull off with the tape.

Give your accent nails a few minutes to dry before applying your topcoat. Otherwise you run the risk of smearing it. So far I really like this Sally Hansen "Dries Instantly". There are quite a few indie brands I have heard wonderful things about, so I will be trying those out in the future.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

Polkadots!!

I have recently had an extreme love for polkadots!  I'd have to say it all started when I began following @youngwildandpolished on Instagram. She is amazing! 

For this mani I used GoGo Girl and Taupe it Off by Sinful Colors, as well as Black and French White Créme by Wet n' Wild. All topped of with Sally Hansen's Dries Instantly topcoat.

I am by no means a professional when it comes to nails and manicures,  I just have a deep love for them. ♡

As far as the polka dots are concerned, I have yet to purchase a dotting tool (though I really want one!). I made due with things I found around the house. For the largest dots I used the end of a paintbrush, for the medium size I used the tip of a large paperclip and for the smallest dots I used a toothpick. (I know, I know...but hey, you gotta use what you have).

The Sinful Colors Taupe it Off is from their "leather" textured line. It actually dries into a leather like matte polish. I personally didn't care for it, as it looked very dull. After I topped it with the topcoat though, I LOVED it! It has a very subdued holoed glittery appearance and sparkles in the light. So pretty! I did 3 coats of the polish with 2 topcoats.

The Sinful colors GoGo Girl is beautiful. It went on very smooth and only took 2 coats with 1 topcoat.  This will likely be my new go to as far as red are concerned.

As for the Wet n' Wild polishes, they are better than I expected for being so cheap. The black is almost opaque with only 1 coat, though the white takes at least 3.

I hope you all enjoyed my first actual nail blog! I am excited to do more reviews in the future. My goal is to find a polish that hasn't already been blogged about 100 times.

Much love!