#LLCrisp: Rice Krispies Treats Nails

Good afternoon, readers! It's this month's nail art day with The Lacquer Legion and the prompt is "Crisp." Instead of doing something seasonally appropriate as the days grow cooler, I've made my nails into Rice Krispies Treats...literally.

The Digit-al Dozen DOES Brands, Day 1: The DD!

Hello, readers! It's nail art week with The Digit-al Dozen and the theme this month is "brands." I've decided to start off the week with the logo for The Digit-al Dozen! We have a fabulous image for our blog and various social media pages, thanks to Missy of Gnarly Gnails! It is a bottle of polish with a gorgeous gradient,  so it was a no brainer for me!

The Digit-al Dozen DOES Black and White Day 5: Pond Butterflies Nail Art!

Good morning, readers! It's the final day of Black and White Week with The Digit-al Dozen! I've decided to revisit the "pond mani" with a black and white color scheme. I also attempted some simple butterfly shapes using 2 dotting tools and a striper brush.

Water Marble Wednesday: Essie Summer Skittlette!

Good morning, readers! It's been a long time since I've water marbled and I've been wanting to get back into trying it. I think the last water marble was the Christmas Tree design back in December. My friend, Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll does Water Marble Wednesday so this week I've joined in!

Since I am obsessed with "skittlette" nails lately, I thought it would be fun to do a skittlette mani with 2 accent nails that I water marbled. It's a win-win! You only have to deal with clean up on 2 nails per hand and I feel like it makes the water marble nails stand out more.

When I grabbed these 2 of the Essie Summer 2013 collection, I knew they would look fab in a mani together. I'm glad I've finally gotten around to using them! They water marbled beautifully!

For the water marbled nails:

• I did one coat of China Glaze White on White.
• I painted Elmer's school glue around my nails and on my finger tips and let dry.
• I water marbled China Glaze Dandy Lyin' Around, Essie The Girls Are Out, and Essie Naughty Nautical using my Flowery Water Marble tutorial technique.
• I went back in with 2 dotting tools and Milani Silver Stilettos to add some silver dot accents.
• One coat of HK Girl Top Coat to seal it in.
• Once completely dry, I ran my hands under warm water in the sink to loosen the glue+polish layer on my skin and gently scraped it off with an orange stick!
• I went in and got any remaining polish off the cuticles with acetone and a cleanup brush.

For the other nails:

• 2 coats of either Essie Naughty Nautical or The Girls Are Out.
• Milani Silver Stilettos and the big dotting tool to add one dot on each nail.
• HK Girl Top Coat to seal them in!

I love that the shimmer shows so much on the water marbled nails!

This is such an amazing color!

What do you think of my skittlette water marble mani? I can't tell you how much I loved it! So fun and took so much less time than a full water marbled mani. Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to head over and see what Danielle did today for her Water Marble Wednesday post!

http://rocknpolish.blogspot.com

Cheeky Summer Collection Stamp Plate Review!

Hello, readers! Right before our big move, I received these awesome stamping plates from Cheeky and have just now been able to really try them out and set up a review for you. I apologize that you had to wait this long, but after loving how my mani turned out using them, I plan on trying out a lot more of the images for you in the near future! I've been neglecting my stamping supplies and want to fix that now!

Let's take a closer look at the Cheeky Summer Collection!

They come in this super cute box for easy storage! I wish I had these for all of my stamping plates!

Once you open the box, you can see the plates as well as this awesome card that can be used as a scraper! I used to use an old drugstore rewards card and this works so much better! 

Each plate has a blue protective film as well as backing. Make sure you peel off the blue film before use!

The images are clear and stamp very well! I'm showing you the plate below because that is the plate I've used in this manicure! There are so many cute images in this set, I wish I was better at taking pictures of the plate images for you. I'll just have to try them out a lot so you can see what I've done with them!

I just love the space themed plate! Too cute!

Are you ready to see what I've done with the moon and star design from plate CH46? I chose to do a gradient of two of my new OPI Suedes and then stamped over it.

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of OPI You Don't Know Jacques Suede

Makeup sponge gradient with OPI Russian Navy Suede and YDKJ Suede

1 coat of NYC Grand Central Station to smooth out the surface for stamping

Essie Blue Rhapsody and Cheeky CH46 Moon and Star Design 

NYC Grand Central Station top coat

What do you think? Look at how well the image transferred from the Cheeky plate! I'm impressed and can't wait to try out some more images for you! 

You can buy this Summer Collection Set from Cheeky for $24.99 here: http://www.cheeky-beauty.com/stamping-nail-art-image-plates-set-of-26-nailart-image-plates-with-161-designs-by-cheeky/

*They have free worldwide shipping for all orders!*

I am really loving the designs in this set, they are different than the ones I keep seeing repeated by other brands. Well done, Cheeky! 

More Cheeky Links:

Cheeky Beauty Online: http://www.cheeky-beauty.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cheekybeauty?fref=ts

Amazon link to purchase this set: http://www.amazon.com/Cheeky-Stamping-Manicure-Accessories-Designs/dp/B0082XRJXS/ref=pd_sim_bt_5

Thanks for reading!

*The stamp plates in this post were sent for me to review with my honest opinion. 

Elixir Lacquers Wynter Wonders!

Good morning, readers! I have a gorgeous glitter polish to show you today from Elixir Lacquers! Wynter Wonders is part of the new Holiday Trio. Nicole already shows it over white, aqua, and purples so I was wanting to try a different base to give you an idea of the different looks you can get. I decided to go with a light pink, Essie French Affair, and I like that all of the colors show up on it!

Wynter Wonders is a clear jelly base loaded with holographic micro glitter, silver holographic squares, satin ice blue squares, and matte lavender hexes. The holographic micro glitter is SO SPARKLY! I wish you could see it in person because the light box doesn't show it off. The bigger glitters were "swimming" in the base a bit so I had to move some around to get them where I wanted on the nail, but you are seeing only one coat below! Definitely packed nicely and I didn't feel the need for a second coat. 

I thought a snowflake stamp design from the new Cheeky Summer Collection stamp plate CH33 set would look nice with this wintery mani! I stamped with Essie Blue Rhapsody.

How gorgeous is this bottle shot!? Such a pretty color combo of glitter!

Holo silver square is trying to show off it's rainbow of colors on my middle finger!

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of Essie French Affair

1 coat of Elixir Lacquers Wynter Wonders

1 coat of Poshe top coat

Stamped with Essie Blue Rhapsody and Cheeky plate CH33.

What do you think? I love how delicate this glitter combo is. Reminds me of when we lived in Alaska a few years ago! 

The Elixir Lacquers Holiday Trio is up for pre-order right now for only $25. It will be available as a set or individually for $10 each(15ml bottle) starting November 23rd.  Nicole is going to ship out international pre-orders immediately so there is a better chance that they will get there in time for the holidays!

You can pre-order HERE: http://www.elixirlacquers.com/Holiday-Trio-Pre-Order-001.htm

Nov 23rd, you can order them HERE: http://www.elixirlacquers.com/main.sc

Don't forget to "Like" Elixir Lacquers on Facebook for updates: https://www.facebook.com/ElixirLacquers?fref=ts

Thanks for reading!

*These poroducts were sent for me to review with my honest opinion.

Green Comparison Post!

Hello readers! I have another easy comparison post for you! I recently was able to get the gorgeous Essie Mojito Madness from my dear friend Jen at My Polish Obsession. I thought I would compare it to some others to see how close it came to others in my stash!

Julep Leah, Essie Mojito Madness, Illamasqua Noble

2 coats of each

As you can see, Julep Leah is pretty close but has added shimmer. Illamasqua Nomad looked more similar in the bottle but definitely not on the nail. Yay!

Do you have any of these? Thanks for reading!

Challenge Day 12: Poptart Nails!

Hello readers! I am almost done with this challenge, YAY! Today was Your Child's Favorite Food Nail Art. Hailey LOVES Poptarts. Any flavor, any time of day(if I would allow it). I remember a while back seeing this post of Poptart Nails at My Nail Graffiti and after getting Essie Marshmellow this week, I knew this would be an easy and pretty nail design!

I did mine a little different than Amber, instead of using an opaque white base, I just used Essie Marshmellow for the whole thing. A layer of OPI Rainbow Connection in between for a jelly sandwich and this is what I got:

I used: Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Essie Marshmallow

1 coat of OPI Rainbow Connection

1 more coat of Essie Marshmallow

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

I just LOVE Essie Marshmallow! I am not a huge fan of opaque white nails on myself and this is a much softer version that I can definitely get behind!!

Here is a picture of Hailey with her Poptart this morning :)

Thanks for reading!

Challenge Day 8: Child's Drawing Nail Art

Hello readers! I'm trying to get back to the kid nail art challenge so here is day 8! We had to do "Child's Drawing Nail Art," and instead of doing paper, I thought it would be fun to make it look like a chalkboard drawing. My daughter loves to draw with chalk outside and inside on her chalkboard, and I love how bright the chalk colors look on a black chalkboard!

My art isn't that great, but it's okay because it's supposed to look like a child drew it, right?? lol

I like how using a matte top coat made it look much more chalkboard-ish!

I used: 

Orly Nail Defense

2 coats of Wet n Wild Ink Well

Some Sassy nail art pens(yellow, blue, and purple)

Essie French Affair

Color Club Twiggie

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

1 coat of Essie Matte About You

What do you think? A bit silly and not my best work, but at least this is a day down in the challenge! 6 more days to go! Thanks for reading!

Day 7: Your Child's Room Decoration Nail Art

I have to share my exciting news! Yesterday was my lucky day!! I was the winner in the Berry Polished berry inspired nail art contest! I entered my Strawberry Shortcake nails and won first place!! The prize I won was Lynnderella Snow Angel!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I was one of Traci's winners in her 3000 Follower Giveaway last night! Guess what I won?! Another Lynnderella!! Boy Girl Party!! How awesome is that!? 2 Lynns in 1 day! They will be my first ones and I couldn't be more thrilled!!

Once again I am going to remind you to check out my Blog Sale tab! I have some awesome polishes still available!! :)

Day 7: Your Child's Room Decoration Nail Art

I am officially half way through the challenge! This was a fun day and I've been wanting to do nails inspired by Hailey's canvases that hang in her room for a while now! It took a while, freehanding most of it, but I do really like how they turned out and I'm wearing these nails for the weekend!

There were 5 different designs on the canvas so I did one on each nail! They are a new take on "skittle nails" I think. And pretty spring colors!! :)

I used:

Base Coat of Orly Nail Defense

Thumb: 2 coats of China Glaze Starboard

Index: 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow with Orly Lemonade sponged on

Middle: 2 coats of Color Club Twiggy

Ring: 2 coats of OPI Feelin Hot Hot Hot!

Pinky: 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow with Essie Coat Azure sponged on

Other colors used for details not listed above: 

Essie French Affair

Ulta Fuchsiamania

China Glaze Fairy Dust

Pure Ice Silver Mercedes

Ring Finger is Bundle Monster Plate BM-201 with Sally Hansen White On

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast Top Coat on all nails.

What do you think? I am totally in love with the look of the base color on the pinky. I need to do that more often with colors! I also was really happy that there was a stamping image of those swirls from the canvas! How lucky of a coincidence? Thanks for reading! Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Day 3: She's Very Sweet, Strawberry Shortcake...

Hello readers! It's time for Day 3 of the childrens nail art challenge! I've decided that there are days that I need to take off from nail art and do family time things so I will still be doing this 14 day challenge, but at my own pace.

Day 3: Favorite Children's Show Nail Art

One of Hailey's favorite tv shows is the new Strawberry Shortcake! Definitely cute colors and patterns for a nail design, so here's my go at it!

image from google images.

I used:

Index Finger:

Cult Nails Get it On

2 coats of OPI Bubble Bath

Essie Watermelon for her hair

OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys for details

Color Club Twiggie for the eyes and hat

OPI Alpine Snow and Wet n Wild Ink Well for eye details

Essie French Affair for the lips

Middle Finger:

Cult Nails Get it on

2 coats of Essie French Affair

Essie Watermelon for the dots

Ring Finger:

Cult Nails Get It On

2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow

Essie Watermelon for the strawberry

Color Club Twiggie for the diamonds

Pinky:

Cult Nails Get it On

2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow

Color Club Twiggie for the stripes

All with 1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Day 30: Inspired By A Tutorial

Good morning, readers!! I actually have this post ready on time! Tomorrow is the last day of this 31 day challenge and I think I am looking forward to it! It's been fun, but I think I need a break from all of this nail art! I have some more Essence Twins sets that I haven't been able to try so those may be up first!

Today's challenge was inspired by a tutorial. I am always trying to recreate Cutepolish's designs and you've already seen some posted on this blog. This time, I picked a Halloween themed mani to recreate! Here is Cutepolish's tutorial:




And here are my nails:

I freehanded this design instead of using tape like in the tutorial but other than that, it's the same idea.

I used: Base Coat of OPI Base Coat
Base Color: OPI Bubble Bath
Color Club Almost Famous(yellow)
OPI In My Back Pocket(orange)
Essie Blanc(white)
Top coat of Out the Door

What do you think of my first Halloween mani of the season? Thanks for reading!

Day 27: Inspired By Artwork

Good evening, readers!! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I am still trying to figure out if I'll be posting in the evenings or mornings so I'm sorry if the time of day is inconsistent for a little while.

 Today's challenge was Inspired By Artwork and I knew I'd have to do a design based on a M.C. Escher art piece because he is my husband's favorite artist and we have some books of his work on our bookshelf. I asked my husband last night to look through his books and pick out a design for me. He found Circle Limit 3 and I was excited to try it out today!

I used: Base Coat of my Julep Base Coat
Base Color of Essie Blanc
For the design: Wet n Wild Ink Well
                       OPI Conga-line Coral
                       Pure Ice Jaguar
                       Essie Coat Azure
                       Color Institute Spring Fling
                       White Acrylic Paint

What do you think? I had the most trouble with the fish eyes but I do like the end result. It was pretty cool to be able to take that second picture of my nails on the page of the art book! Thanks for reading!

Day 25: Inspired By Fashion

Good morning! Today's challenge is Inspired By Fashion. I'm not usually up to date on fashion and usually just wear what I like so it took me a bit to decide what to do. I ended up going with a Coach purse pattern because I do like purses and I thought it would be easily recognizable for a nail design.

This bottom picture is more color accurate. I used Essie French Affair for the base color and a striper brush with Color Club Foil Me Once(from the new Foiled Collection I found at Ross this week!) for the C's.

What do you think? I love the two colors together and think the design came out pretty well. Thanks for reading!

Day 19: Galaxies

Good morning everyone and thank you for stopping by my blog! Today's challenge was Galaxy Nails and I was a bit nervous about this one. Thankfully, though, it's a lot easier than I thought and I ended up loving it MUCH more than those half moon nails yesterday! It was a lot of different colors and glitters sponged on with a ripped up makeup triangle and I don't even think my pictures do it justice. Much prettier in person because the different angles show the different types of glitters.

 In the sun.

Out of direct sunlight.

I used: Base color of Pure Ice Electric!

A coat over that of OPI I Juggle...Men

Then I sponged on in various areas:

Essie Blanc,

Ulta Material Girl,

piCture pOlish denim,

Wet n Wild Jungle Fever,

a-england Lady of the Lake,

Ozotic 528,

China Glaze White Cap,

and Nubar 2010.

Top Coat of Out the Door.

I really like how these turned out and keep looking at them. I even love my right hand because it was easy enough to look as good as the left in this mani! You should definitely try it sometime!! Thanks for reading!

Day 16: Tribal Print

Hello lovely readers! This is another scheduled post. It may take me a few days to reply to any comments but I will read them all when I come back!

Tribal Print day. This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The fun part was picking out the colors. Other than that, it's all lines and very simple to do with a thin striper brush, dotting tool, and polish.

 I used: Base Color of Essie Blanc

Stripes and dots with OPI Love Is A Racket, Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, China Glaze Custom Kicks, and Sinful Colors Black on Black.

Top Coat of Out the Door.

What do you think? It's super fun and bright so I love it! Completely different than anything I've done before, so that makes me happy! Thanks for reading and have a safe weekend!

Day 12: Stripes

Good morning lovely readers! Ready for this Monday yet? I am very excited to share that my hubby should be home from Afghanistan this week!!! :D I have some cute nails planned out for that day so stay tuned for them. I filed my nails way down last night. They are way easier to work with, especially while using my iPhone, but I think I'll be happier when they grow out a bit more.

As for today, stripes were the challenge theme and these are what I came up with. I was looking for inspiration ideas last night and came across this post fromNailside(I love her designs!! Check out her awesome tape mani tutorials!) and wanted to recreate it with some other colors. My friend, Heidi, helped me pick the colors and these were born:

 

I used: Base coat of OPI Nail Envy

2 coats of Essie Blanc for the base color

Stripes using a striper brush with Nubar Reclaim, Nubar Petunia Sparkle, and Sinful Colors Black on Black

Top Coat of Out The Door

Any thoughts on these? I wish I'd gotten a picture in the sunlight to see if the Reclaim gave it's holographic effect, but I still like it non-holoed, too. I love all of the different finishes with the different colors. :) Thanks for reading!

Day 11: Polka Dots

Good morning! Today is Polka Dots in the 31 Day Challenge and this is what I came up with: constellations! I loved them when I was younger, and my husband and I claim one of the stars in Orion as "our" star from when we were dating. Cheesy, maybe, but I love the memory. :)

Index Finger: Cancer

Middle Finger: Draco

Ring Finger: Big Dipper

Pinky Finger: Libra

Thumb: Orion(my favorite constellation)

I used: Base Coat of OPI Nail Envy

Base Color of OPI Road House Blues

Layer of Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire for the shimmer

Pure Ice Silver Mercedes for the star polka dots

Essie Blanc for the white lines 

Top Coat of Out The Door

So what are your thoughts? This proved to be much  harder than I expected, but I do like the end result. Thanks for reading!

Day 9: Rainbow Nails

TGIF! How are you all this morning? Happy it's Friday? Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? Today's challenge is Rainbow nails and I was pretty excited to do this design! Rainbow Brite was one of my favorite shows when I was little(born in the 80s) and she is the perfect "rainbow" theme. :) I watched Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer and grabbed some screen shots for you to compare to the design if you aren't familiar with Rainbow Brite. See those below the nail pictures.

Index Finger: Twink the Sprite
Middle and Pinky Fingers: Rainbow Brite's colorful sleeves
Ring Finger: Rainbow Brite's Color Belt

I used: Base coat: Nail Envy
Red: NYC 131 Big Apple Creme
Orange: OPI In My Back Pocket
Yellow: Color Club Almost Famous
Green: Ulta Limelight
Blue: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pacific Blue
Purple: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Deep Purple
White: Essie Blanc
Pale Pink(Twink's face) unnamed mini Color Club
Black: Sinful Colors Black on Black
Top Coat of Out The Door

Here are some pictures for reference:

This is a Sprite named Tink

 

Here is a good picture of Rainbow Brite's sleeves

This is a good picture to show her Color Belt

So what do you think? I had a hard time doing the teeny stars, and they didn't turn out that great(and got speared a bit by the top coat) but other than that, I love them!! :)

Day 7: Black and White Nails

Good morning, readers! Today marks the end of the first week of the 31 day challenge! I am really enjoying this. The only down side is that sometimes I love my design too much and it stinks that I have to take it off after only one day to do the next challenge. At least I am going to have a lot of cute ideas for when the challenge is over.

Today is Black and White Nails day. I have already done panda nails before I started my blog and wanted to try something different. It only took about 2 seconds to realize there was a super cute animal that was black and white besides a panda:

I used: Base Coat of OPI Nail Envy
2 Coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme
Essie Blanc for the belly and eyes
OPI In My Back Pocked for the beaks and feet
Bows are from the Hello Kitty Nail Stickers off of the Born Pretty site that I won in Rebecca's giveaway!

What do you think? Up close, you can see that some of the stickers didn't lay that flat. Next time, I'll wait a long time until the polish underneath is harder so they can't sink in a bit, but love them otherwise! Thanks for reading!