Lavender Paisley with Essence Colour and Go

Last weekend my mom went to Ulta and while she was there she picked up 3 Essence Colour and Go polishes. They're mini bottles and contain 5 mL of lacquer. I believe they were .99 cents. The one I decided to wear this week is called No More Drama. Its a pale lavender creme and dried to a very shiny finish. It looked like I already had topcoat on. I was really impressed with the application of this, it went on really smooth and was almost opaque in one coat. The brush is also easy to use. Mini bottles are usually frustrating for me because most of them have thin, small brushes.  At first it reminded me of the OPI Pro Wide brush but this one is not quite so wide and its more flat. The back of the bottle said, "Nail Polish with flat brush for a smooth and easy application, quick dry." I'm happy to say that this lived up to that claim. I really hope the rest of these Essence colours are as good!

Its been awhile since I did a Konad manicure so I did one last night. I love paisley prints so I chose plate m60. Then I used China Glaze Grape Pop to stamp the design. I love the way it turned out but stamping with non Konad polishes is a little bit tougher than if you do use their polish. I only have black and white Konad polish though, and I get bored of only using those. This one worked pretty well though. The design is clear, it didn't smear and the design picked up on the stamp. (Some polishes I've tested with Konad won't pick up on the stamp. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Gunmetal had this problem.) 

Yesterday I reorganized my nail polish and updated my nail polish 'catalogue'. (Yep, when it comes to my nail stuff I try to be as organized as possible!) I have a sketch book where I paint a swatch of the colour on a page of the sketch book and put a number next to it. On another page I have a numbered list of polish names. I got the idea to update my original polish collection post and link to the polishes I have featured on this blog from that post. So if you go to that post, and see a polish name that you would like to see a picture of, click on the link. If its not linked, then I haven't used it since I started this blog. (edit: finished the links!) If you have any requests or questions, comment on this post, my collection post, or email me. (lacquerlove@gmail.com) What colour(s) would you like to see me use next? 

Thanks for reading! =)

Peace and Love,

Serena

A nail art tribute to my kitties!

I appreciate all the support and comments I received in my last post! I've been doing well, much better than I thought I would. I read over my last post and realized it had some verb tense issues. I originally wrote that post before she passed, on Friday. I planned to post it before we had her put to sleep but couldn't find the pictures. (Turns out I was looking on the wrong flash drive!) Then I put the pictures in the post I had written but didn't fix the verb tenses. Just wanted to clear that up, I didn't really proofread that post at all.

 Friday night I was really upset and I wanted to take my mind off things so I did this manicure with paw prints. The base is Misa Cherry Topping and the paw print was done using a thin artist brush dipped in black polish. Cherry Topping has a jelly finish but is opaque in 3 coats.

I thought it would be appropriate to take pictures of my nails with Misty but cats aren't always cooperative in front of a camera. I did manage to get one decent shot though.

Maybe she likes to be viewed from the side? =P And here is a mess up one, just for fun. My nails are out of focus...

Once again, thanks for all the sweet comments. =)
Thanks for reading!
Peace and Love,
Serena

R.I.P. my precious kitty...

I planned to have another post up yesterday but lately I haven't been feeling like doing my nails. My cat, Tikal has been really sick for a few weeks now. (Not the cat I posted pictures of in this post.) I've had this cat for eight years now and she has always been healthy. The vet took blood and figured out she had Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  She hasn't kept any food down the past for almost the past week and she won't keep medicine down either. All she can do is drink water. Saturday my mom took her to the vet to be put to sleep... Part of me is sad to loose her but another part of me is relieved. She has experienced nothing but pain lately and it was extremely painful for me to see her suffering.

Its heartbreaking to see her everyday, barely moving. She used to be so active...she couldn't stay inside for too long. A dead mouse would be left on our porch (or somewhere around the outside of our house) every few days. Across the street from the side of our house is a large field and a hill. If you go over that hill you will see a small pond and further back, someones house. My kitty loved to go to that field, she loved to sit next to the pond. If I ever wanted to find her she was usually there.

Sorry about the depressing post, but I really wanted to write about this as well as share the pictures I took of her special place. R.I.P. Tikal... I miss you.

Thanks for reading...
Peace and Love,
Serena

Cosmic Blue

I recently purchased Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cosmic Blue. Out of all the new Sally Hansen's this one looked the most interesting to me. Its a royal blue with small round holographic glitter and stringy bar shaped holographic glitter. This one looks crazy holographic in the bottle, even in shade.

That picture is just in the shade. Judging by the crazy rainbow effect in the bottle you would think (hope) that all of it showed up on the nail. Not exactly. The blue base covers most of the glitter, making it look like you have bumpy blue glitter. A few pieces of glitter show through and show a holographic effect, but not as much as I was wanting.

Capturing the glitter and holographic was difficult, but my pictures turned out accurate. My expectations are a little high though, this colour still looks neat and a several people noticed the holographic effect. It took 3 coats to get this one opaque and I didn't have any application issues. I wish more of the string glitter showed up on the nail, I only got a few pieces to stick.

What do you think of this colour, is it on your wish list?

Thanks for reading!
Peace and Love,
Serena

Matte Glitter

How is everyone's Friday? I'm writing this post from class because I won't have any time to this evening.  I also took this picture really quick at school before I went in, so its not my best but you get the idea. Since I haven't yet bought any of the China Glaze Halloween colours I decided to wear last years colour, Fortune Teller. Seeing Halloween displays at Walgreens got me in the Halloween spirit. Last year Scrangie showed this colour matte, so I wanted to try it out. Matte glitter looks really cool, I'll have to try this with other glitter polishes! 

I got a few weird looks taking pictures of my nails in front of the school. =P Next post will be Cosmic Blue, because it looks so neat in the bottle and a few of you said you wanted to see that one next. 

Does anyone know of a colour similar to the base colour of Chanel Paradoxal? I'm looking to make a  'Paradoxal but my way' layering combination. Any help is appreciated. =)

Thanks for reading!

Peace and Love,

Serena

Recent purchases and exciting news!

Well, I was going to have a post up today but I just took pictures and they came out horrible. It's very overcast outside. Today ended up being a great day because I actually won a blog giveaway! Smita from My Nailz recently hosted a giveaway and I got an email informing me that I won this afternoon. I'm super excited to get my stuff because I will get to try brands like GOSH and Joe Fresh.

Anyway, I do have some things to show you. I haven't bought any new nail polish in about a month so yesterday I went to Walgreens to see what was new. There were several new displays, mostly Halloween and fall. Also, Wet n Wild was on sale for 79 cents. I got one of the new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears, Cosmic Blue. It is an electric blue polish with circular and string holographic glitter. Normally I don't care for glitter (I hate removing it.) but I thought this one looked cool. Since Wet n Wild's were 79 cents I picked up Sunny Side Up, a bright orange creme. The second picture is a little blurry, but it shows the holographic glitter better.

Another recent thing I got is this set of Elf polishes. My aunt visited from San Diego not too long ago and brought me this. All three are metallic colours. The first one is named Metallic Blue, the second is Metallic Magenta, and the third is Metallic Orange. (Not very creative names...) Surprisingly the orange intrigues me the most, its a very unusual looking orange. The pictures don't show how interesting these look, the magenta has a blue-purple flash to it and the other two look more interesting in real life.

 

Let me know if any of these new polishes interest you, I always have trouble deciding which to wear first.
Tomorrow I'll have a real post up!
Peace and Love,
Serena

Anchor Nail Art

There's a first time for everything I guess...I actually had to edit one of my photos for this blog. Normally my camera does a great job of capturing what the colours actually look like so all I have to do is crop my photos. I took the photos yesterday right before the sun set, so that's probably why the came out looking off. I took more just now in proper sunlight and they all came out accurate. The last picture in this post is edited, the rest are just cropped.

 I have been in the mood to do freehand nail art lately but I have been lacking ideas. All of a sudden I thought I would do a nautical anchor design. The base colour is China Glaze Frostbite, a glowing electric blue. Then I used LA Colors Art Deco to paint stripes on all my nails except the ring finger. I put a few drops of white polish on a piece of paper and used a small artist detail brush to draw the anchor.

My edited picture shows how this colour looks in shade or indoors. My other pictures are in bright sunlight. I never take pictures indoors because the lighting in my house is horrible. We have dark walls and not enough windows. I hope to do more freehand designs like this, I find them really fun and more rewarding. Duplicating this design on my right hand was not fun though!

On another note, a few days ago I checked my blog email and someone emailed me asking to check out their giveaway. She is giving away several prize packages and for each package there are different ways to enter.  I love watching beauty videos on youtube to get nail inspiration. Here is a link to her channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LovelysInstinct . Her contest is running until October 19th so you have plenty of time to enter. While we're on the subject of youtube, one of my favourite nail art channels is LOVE4NAILS. She does step by step nail art tutorials every week and she makes everything look so easy. I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from her. If you're interested in learning how to have strong, healthy, long nails she has several videos on that.

Do you watch nail related videos on youtube?
Who do you watch?

Thanks for reading!
Peace and Love,
Serena

Hypnotize- Purple and Lime Green Konad

Hello! I don't know about you, but I'm happy its a three day weekend this week. =) Today I have a konad manicure using China Glaze Grape Pop, China Glaze Limelight, and Konad Special Polish Black. I wasn't sure what colours I wanted to paint my nails so I posted on facebook asking for recommendations. The first response I got was purple and lime green. I've seen people do one nail a different colour than the rest so I decided to try that. I chose Limelight as the accent colour and Grape Pop for the rest of my nails. Then I did a Konad design using plate S06. This design looks really funky and hypnotizing.

I've had a lot of people start noticing my nails lately. Just yesterday when I was picking up Chinese food for dinner the girl at the register asked me about them, and before long the whole wait staff wanted to see them. I have a hard time explaining Konad, or any other type of nail art stuff. Most people don't get the terms "image plate", "striper brush", "dotting tool", or "konad". I try my hardest to explain it but sometimes I feel ridiculous. Does anyone else run in to that problem? When I had my Pikachu manicure on the cash register at Hot Topic asked if I did the lines on my nails using a toothpick. (I'm terrible at using a toothpick..even when it comes to dotting!) I've been thinking about doing a post sharing my nail art/konad tips and what tools I use.. Would that be interesting to you? Let me know! =)

Thanks for reading!
Peace and Love,
Serena