Spring Stripes

The weather here in Oklahoma has gone from blizzards to 70 degree, spring-like weather. All in one week. The weather is so unpredictable here. I really hope it stays this way for awhile but who knows what the weather will be like next week! This warmer weather has inspired me to wear spring green on my nails.

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy as the base and L.A.Colors Art Deco stripers in purple and green. I've never seen Green With Envy before so I think its new for spring. I've always like Xtreme Wear polish. (I don't like how they spell 'extreme' though..) This one applied nicely in two coats.

Chase said this reminded him of candy. =)

I probably should have waited longer before applying topcoat...the purple stripes smeared a little bit. For Valentine's Day Chase got me something I've needed for a long time....a place to store my nail polish! For some reason I've never been fond of the nail racks you hang on the wall. I wanted something that would give me lots of space (room to grow!) and would be easy to move. Basically its a 3 drawer shelf and it has wheels on the bottom. I'll post pictures of it later, I'm typing this at school right now and I didn't take pictures of it yet. Before this all my polish was in an old Sephora box that was falling apart. The rest that couldn't fit in the Sephora box was scattered about my room and computer desk. =P

Who's ready for spring?
What do you use to store your polish?
Peace and Love,
Serena

紫 & 銀色 - Essie Sexy Divide Konad

The Japanese in the title means "Purple and Silver". I was going to post this yesterday but I got sick. I'm still not feeling 100% better but I wanted to get this posted before it chipped. I'm surprised at how well I did the Konad considering I feel terrible. My right hand is a disaster though!

Sexy Divide is much prettier when there is actually some sunlight. My Walmart's Essie display was finally put up so I picked out three colours. (Sexy Divide, Beach Bum Blu, and Sew Pysched.) Chase, my boyfriend, bought these for me. =) I had never seen Beach Bum Blu before, it turns out its a Wal Mart exclusive shade. I know some people don't like the fact that Essie is now in Wal Mart but to me its a good thing. The only other Essie I have is Matte About You. The nearest place for me to purchase Essie is Ulta, which is about an hour away from me. The bottle is a little different so you can tell which ones are from Wal Mart. At my Wal Mart these were $7.25 each. I also heard somewhere that they changed some of the names, which I think is kind of silly. (Velvet Vouyeur, Velvet Voyage)

Have you seen Essie at your Wal Mart yet?
Peace and Love,
Serena

たまむし ~ Layering with Sinful Colors

Hello! How are you? Cold? Sorry I haven't posted in awhile... School started and then after that we had some snow and ice. The snow is kind of melting (even though its still freezing cold.) so I can finally stand to be outside to take pictures. The last time I was at Walgreens I picked up a Sinful Colors polish called 'Let Me Go'. I was always curious about since it looked like a pretty, iridescent shade. Its extremely sheer so I layered it over my go-to purple, China Glaze Grape Pop. Grape Pop is my favourite purple because it can look good in one coat if you apply it carefully. It also works nicely with Konad. (Speaking of Konad...I haven't done that in awhile!)

I love green and purple together...this sort of reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie. I'm not exactly sure how close it is since I don't own Scrangie (that sounded weird...) but it would be a good cheap alternative. (1.99 at Walgreens)

Speaking of Scrangie...she mentioned her inspiration for the colour was the iridescent wings of a beetle. The Japanese part of the title of this post roughly means "iridescent wings of an insect". I've been trying to learn Japanese for the past few months so I'm using as much of it as possible whenever/wherever I can.

If you have RBL Scrangie let me know how close this layering combination is to the real thing!

Peace and Love,
Serena

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

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

Argyle Konad

Hello everyone, and happy Friday! This week has been a long one for me so I'm really glad for the weekend. My boyfriend got a new apartment this week so I'll be busy this weekend helping him move. A few days ago I removed my Pikachu manicure and was unsure of what to do with my nails. Unfortunately I've been lacking inspiration lately.. Anyway, the day I wanted to redo my nails also happened to be the day of an Orchestra concert. So I grabbed a colour that I knew wouldn't be tough to apply: Misa Dying Love. (Shimmery charcoal black) I didn't have time to do much else but I did experiment layering CND Effects Amethyst Sparkle over my thumb and I liked the way it looked. When I got back I layered the CND over it and did a quick Konad design. I'm not sure about this design, it definitely isn't my best, though it is really noticeable. The design overshadows the gorgeous colour underneath, which I don't love. Not only that, I was having terrible Konad luck that night.  These pictures don't even show the gorgeous purple sparkle.. You couldn't even tell I was originally wearing a black polish after I layered the CND over it.

I'll be redoing my nails tonight, hopefully I will have better luck this time. Sorry this post sounds depressing...I really didn't intend it too! Saturday will be very busy for me so expect a new post Sunday or Monday. Do any of you have any nail art ideas? Colour combos? Inspire me! =)

Here is something completely off topic, but I thought I would share it anyway.. My kitty Misty! I always get the urge to take picture of her but as soon as I get out the camera she won't stay still. I've had her for almost 3 years now, she was a Christmas present to me from my boyfriend Chase.

I guess she's camera shy...

Thanks for reading!

Peace and Love,
Serena

Scherer Chameleon Blue Sky Duochrome

Today was my first day of school and things went pretty well. I can't believe it's my senior year! I had to cut my nails shorter since I'm in the school orchestra and its impossible to play the violin well with long nails. I was a bit sad at first but I think they still look good. I know this sounds weird but I keep them a little longer on my right hand because I can grip the violin bow better that way. But my left hand has to be short so I can press down on the strings and use vibrato. Anyway, I painted my nails with a polish I bought at Rite Aid before I even started this blog. It's by a brand called Scherer and they call their polishes 'Chameleon'. They all have a pretty strong duochrome, colour changing effect, almost similar to mood rings. This one is called Scherer Chameleon Blue Sky. The name doesn't really fit because blue isn't really the dominant colour in this and it shows up more in the bottle than on the nail.

The application on this polish was horrible...it dried so quickly that it was difficult to apply cleanly and it streaked. I got it to look decent once I figured out how to work the formula. I also encountered bubbling and major brush strokes. The brush didn't fan out very well either, which also contributed to the brush strokes. Despite all the issues I still think its pretty and an interesting polish. It is also fairly cheap so if you really like colours like this and can deal with the formula this is a fun polish to wear. From far away you don't notice the imperfections so much. The colour changing effect is just as noticeable indoors as it is outdoors. I found these at Rite Aid and I believe they were 2 or 3 dollars. I have a few more of these I might try out...I hope the formula on the others is a bit easier to work with but I'm not expecting much. 

The last two pictures I'm holding my crab apple tree that is in my front yard. I heard from one of my neighbors (who has lived in my neighborhood for a long time) that this tree has been there as long as she could remember. I've never eaten one of the crab apples but one of my friends did a while ago and told me they were sour. This tree blooms bright pink during spring, the petals almost resemble cherry blossoms. 

What do you think of this Chameleon polish? Have you seen or tried these? 

Peace and Love,

Serena

Polish that changes in the sun?

I decided to try out the Del Sol nail polish I purchased a while back. (I got this one at the Del Sol store in Virginia Beach.) I'm not new to Del Sol's nail polishes, a few years ago my mom brought some back for me from San Diego. The one I purchased is a warm hot pink with a bit of gold shimmer in it. In the sun, it turns to a warm purple with gold shimmer. The name of this particular one is Girl's Night Out. I have been thinking of various layering combinations lately and I decided I wanted to try OPI Stars in My Eyes over this one. I didn't even think about if it would change the way the colour looked in the sun, but for the most part it didn't. Here is what the polish looks like indoors: (Excuse the bad indoor picture, I'm not so good at taking pictures indoors..)

And outdoors, it looks like this:

You can get Del Sol nail polishes on there website here: http://www.delsol.com/store/Accessories___Nail_Polish?Args=&page_number=1  If you live close to a Del Sol store I recommend buying it there so you can see the colours in person. (And its cheaper to buy them in store.) They are 8 dollars in store and 10 dollars plus shipping online. These polishes are really fun but the formula is thick and they take longer to dry than most polishes. I have two more of these so if you're interested in seeing more let me know.
Layering the OPI over the konad was probably a bad idea because it smeared the design, but I still like it. I really want to do more layering so I will have another layering experiment up soon.

Peace and Love,
Serena