Sunday, December 1, 2013

Laquerlicious Polish Review!

Reviving my blog for swatches & reviews of five fabulous Laquerlicious handmade indie polishes!

Please click on images to enlarge :)
First up we have "Supreme Queen", part of the Laquerlicius shimmer collection.
This is 2 coats, over Essie "Where's My Chauffeur?" and Seche Vite topcoat.
This color is beautiful!  I got many compliments on it.
 Hard to describe - almost like a light grayish blue.  Kinda reminds me of a robin's egg!  
There are tons of beige, royal blue and teal shimmery glitters in a blue-gray base.

Here is "Emerald Glaze", part of the Laquerlicious glaze collection.
This is 2 coats, over OPI "Cuckoo For This Color" and Seche Vite topcoat.
Despite looking very opaque in the bottle, Emerald Glaze is actually quite sheer!
It's jam packed with gorgeous green, teal and purple tiny glitter in a green base.
The purple glitter offers an amazing pop of color against the green/teal.  
I absolutely loved the way this looked on my skin tone :)

This lovely color is "Divine Doll", part of the Laquerlicious shimmer collection.
2 coats, over Essie "Play Date" and Seche Vite topcoat.
I have become a purple addict, so this polish was right up my alley :)
A beautiful shimmery combination of purple, beige and a hint of teal.
This is the perfect polish for anyone who loves a cheerful purple!

This gorgeous glitterbomb is "Bottle of Bubbly", from the Laquerlicious New Year's 2014 collection.
This is one generous coat, over Spoiled "Visually Slimming" and Seche Vite topcoat.
An incredible mixture of silver and gold holo glitters in a clear base.
There are all sorts of shapes & sizes in this polish!
Round, hex, micro, stars and bars just to name a few.
Application of this polish was a dream, didn't really have to dab at all or fish for glitter!
Definitely have plans for this baby as New Years Eve mani.

Last but not least, "Countdown to Midnight", also from Laquerlicious New Year's 2014 collection.
1 generous coat, over China Glaze "Stone Cold" and Seche Vite topcoat.
This glitter bomb is made up of varied sizes of round white, black, pink, purple and teal glitters in a clear base.
This is a super fun, playful polish.  I really enjoy the contrast between all of the colors.
This is the type of polish that would go well with just about any color as a base, so the possibilities are endless!
Application was fairly easy, although I did have to dab and fish a bit, but that doesn't bother me at all.

Final verdict is that these polishes were fantastic.
I fully believe in supporting indie polish makers and really I loved the unique glitter color combinations that Laquerlicious has to offer! 
They dried super quickly, application was a dream and Michelle (IG @creativenailchick) was a pleasure to work with.
I will be using many of these polishes again in the future.
All of the polishes that were reviewed are currently available for purchase at www.Laquerlicious.com :)

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Mega update! Acrylics & Shellac

Been working a lot at the salon so I don't have much time to do my own nails but here is a mega-update of client's nails I've done :)
Been trying to work on my smile lines (French acrylic)
Pink & White with 3D acrylic bows
Teal  with glitter fade
Did these on myself, pink/purple glitter fade
Black glitter with 3D acrylic bows
Shellac with glitter
Leopard mani
Shellac with glitter & hand painted leopard
Shellac with glitter accent nails
Gunmetal glitter fade
These are all various UV Gel Polishes (Shellac, Gelish, ManiQ)
with glitters & hand painted designs :)
Enjoy!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Happy (Belated) Vday!

Happy belated Vday!
Here was my Valentine's Day mani.
Super cute heart leopard print!
Colors used for this mani:
- Sinful Colors "Fusion Neon" 
- Love, Charlotte "Bright Purple"

Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Walking Dead!!

I was so excited for The Walking Dead's new episodes, I decided to paint some zombies!
I hand painted all of these with acrylic paints and tiny brushes.
I decided to go with a season 1 theme for these.
Zombie Sophia, Bicycle girl zombie, Rick defending the farm, and the thumb is the doors in the hospital from the very first episode.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Heart Shaped Ikat for V-Day!

I decided to do some heart ikat nails to get in the Valentine's Day spirit!
These are done just like the regular ikat design, except in a heart shape instead of the typical oval!
Colors used:
OPI - "Pink Friday" (base color)
Black & white nail art stripers
Sinful Colors - "Fusion Neon" (pink inside of the hearts)
Essie - Luxe Effects glitter topcoat "A Cut Above"

What are you doing to get into the Valentine's Day spirit? :)

Monday, January 28, 2013

Pink Gradient & Hand Painted Lace!

Hand painted lace over a pink sponge gradient! :)


Here is the pink gradient before I added the lace

Colors used, from darkest to lightest:
Love, Charlotte - "Hot Pink"
Sinful Colors - "Fusion Neon"
Pastel Pop - "Pink"
OPI - "Mod About You"
& the black lace was done with acrylic paint :)

Monday, January 21, 2013

Tutorial: Leopard Print

This week's tutorial is easy & simple Leopard Print nails!

How To Choose Colors For This Design:
You can use any colors you'd like!  I chose 2 bright contrasting colors and then a black for the outside borders of the spots.

Suggested Materials:
ANY brand is fine, listed below are the ones used for this particular mani
- Base coat - Seche Clear
- Fast dry top coat - Seche Vite
- China Glaze "Turned Up Turquoise"
- Sinful Colors "Fusion Neon" (pink)
- Spoiled "Visually Slimming" (black)
- Nail dotting tool, such as the ones pictured above.  (image via)
- A clean, small paintbrush or cotton swabs, for cleaning the cuticles afterwards (optional)
- Nail polish remover (optional)

Before You Begin Painting Your Design:
These steps are optional, but definitely recommended!
- Put down some paper towels in your work area, in case of any spills.
- Be sure to remove any old nail polish.
- Gently file nails into desired shape and remove any ridges with a buffer.
- Push back cuticles with a cuticle pusher or orange wood stick and trim if desired.
- Apply a base coat to protect from potential staining from color polish; wait for it to dry completely.

 **- If you have never worked with a dotting tool before, you might want to practice by putting some drops of polish on a piece of wax paper, and do a few test dots on the paper before moving on to your nails!!**
Step 1:
Apply 2 coats of base color & allow to dry 

 Step 2:
Using the largest nail dotting tool you have, create large spots on your nail with the second color.
You can do the entire nail or just part of the nail, that is up to you!

Step 3:
Using the smallest dotting tool you have, use the black polish to create borders around the color spots.
The best way to do this is to do a bunch of small overlapping dots right next to each other, forming a curved line down each side of the large spot.

Step 4:
Using the small dotting tool still, fill in any blank areas with tiny black dots.
This works best if you do almost a triangle of small overlapping dots.

Step 5:
If necessary, carefully clean up cuticles using polish remover & a small paint brush or cotton swabs.
Top it all off with your favorite top coat!


Here's the final product!
I simply alternated the base color and spot colors :)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Sunday Social!

Sunday Social is a fun & simple way to help your readers get to know you a little better.
You can link up with your blog at ashleylately or acompletewasteofmakeup and join in on the fun! :)
 This week is questions in 3's

1.  Top 3 favortite kinds of food?
Pasta of any kind! Mac & cheese, spaghetti with tomato sauce, I love it all!
Bagels (I am a carb addict) and Mozzarella sticks or anything with cheese!

This was what I made for dinner last night!  Bacon chicken ranch Macaroni & cheese! 

It was really good!

2.  First 3 things you do in the morning?
Tinkle (of course!), take a shower & brush my teeth!


3.  Last 3 things you do at night?
Wash my face, brush my teeth and kiss my boyfriend goodnight!


4.  3 TV shows you NEVER miss?
 Sons of Anarchy, Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire
image via

5.  3 places you want to visit?
Only 3?!?!  Honestly there are SO many places I hope to visit in my life:
Japan - My boyfriends parent's live in Yokosuka
Philippines - My boyfriend has a ton of family there
Italy - a good friend of mine lives in Trieste
(Alaska and Hawaii are on my list too!)
image via

6.  3 people you can always count on?
I can definitely count on my boyfriend, that's why I love him so much.
But the only person I can count on 100% of the time is myself.
I've learned not to depend on others.
Make sure you can take care of yourself and you will never be let down!

Have a great Sunday :)

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Springtime Watermarble!

As you may know, I've always struggled with the water marble technique.
I wanted to practice, so here's a little something I did the other day!
Colors used:
Essie "Mint Candy Apple"
Essie "Off The Shoulder"
Essie "She's Picture Perfect"

The colors are very cute together & remind me of Springtime!
I think I am getting a little better, but no matter what I try I can not perfect it!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Fashion Inspired: "Neon & Nude"

 I typically hate nude colors on myself but..
I was inspired by a recent post by my BFF Cassi over at the fashion blog The Granny Treatment!

She was discussing the fashion trend of mixing nudes and neons, and it just so happens to be a fabulous combination!


She also mentioned that if you don't want to dedicate your entire outfit to this trend, it could me really cute as a mani!

Well here is what I came up with.
Colors used:
Nude - "Sand Tropez" by Essie
Purple - "Dream On" by Sinful Colors
Yellow - "Yell-Oh!" by Color Club 
Blue - "Aquamarine" by Sinful Colors
Pink - "Fusion Neon" by Sinful Colors
Orange - "Orange Knockout (Neon)" by China Glaze

Tried to do it as a tape mani but it was not cooperating so I ended up hand painting the chevron -_-

I absolutely LOVE this color combo!
 It's totally perfect to get into the mood of springtime :)

Would you rock nude & neons?