Valentine’s Day Nail Art

Some Polishes Provided for Review

Hello All my Lovely Readers! Today I’m using my stash to create a fun Valentine’s Day inspired mani. But, because I didn’t go all heart crazy it will work for just about any time! I used a fun and easy nail art technique that can be used with any combination of polishes.

I used three polishes for this nail art look. MOD Lacquer – Baby Flamingo, Northern Star – Protego Totalum, and Crows Toes – Edgy Ocean Blue. I’ve reviewed all of these before so I won’t go into that in this post.

Crows Toes – Edgy Ocean Blue, Northern Star – Protego Totalum, MOD Lacquer – Baby Flamingo (Left to Right)

The first step was the base color. For the base of my mani I used MOD Lacquer – Baby Flamingo. I used two coats to give it a nice base for my upcoming nail art:

MOD Lacquer – Baby Flamingo

Next I used a latex barrier around my cuticles because I knew things were going to get messy. I used Digital Nails – Questionable Browser History, though I do not think that it’s available any longer. Latex barriers are pretty easy to find these days though and there are a lot of good ones on the market!

Nail Art Preparation

Then using a fan brush I started adding the detail. I got this brush for a set off Amazon, you can find them pretty easily and they don’t cost a lot of money:

Fan Brush

To create my art I started by putting a several drops of Northern Star – Protego Totalum on my silicone mat and I dipped the tip of the fan brush in it. I then swiped it across my nails to create stripes. After I did all of my nails with Protego Totalum I went back and cleaned the brush in acetone and then put several drops of Crows Toes – Edgy Ocean Blue on my silicone mat and followed the same process right over the stripes I made earlier:

Valentine’s Nail Art Progress

I was glad I did use the latex barrier, reds and blues are particularly hard to clean up off of skin. This way all I had to do was peel most of it away and then touch up just a tiny bit around the edges!

I topped everything off with Ciate Gelology Top Coat that I got in my Ipsy Bag last month. I thought I would try it out because it’s supposed to be super shiny, squishy, and hard wearing. It doesn’t dry as fast as a quick dry top coat but it does dry super shiny! I don’t know about the wear yet but if it doesn’t provide at least several days wear I will update this post!

Valentine’s Day Nail Art

There you have it a quick, fun, and EASY nail art look that is perfect for Valentine’s day or any time!

Valentine’s Day Nail Art

Boom Shaka Lacquer is Back

Feb9

This is gonna be a short post. And while this particular post won’t have any pretty polishes or nail art it will have an explanation for my absence and some things to look forward to. Also, I’d love your input as well if there’s something that you’d like to see let me know and I’ll see what I can do to fulfill those requests!

Back in May around the time of my last post I was having a serious bout of blogger burnout and I sort of was letting things slide a bit. I planned some posts and did some nail art but I just couldn’t get it to come together. I needed a break and badly.

In July, my aunt (who is disabled and I am caregiver for) had a serious heart attack. Needless to say this rocked my/our world in more ways that can be imagined. She’s recovering well, but we had a rocky time. About the time things started to look up with her health it was the holidays…well that’s never a good time to get back to blogging what with all the other holiday shenanigans going on.

But, lately I’ve been doing my nails more, doing more nail art, and even posting on Instagram some (as many of you may have noticed). Most importantly, I’ve missed all my lovely readers!

I have some travel coming up this summer so I’m on a pretty serious no-buy BUT I have a huge stash of polish and quite a bit that I’ve never shown you. So I will be challenging myself to use and blog my stash for you all. This means you’ll see more nail art, some LEs and discontinued polishes (which you may be able to find on the second-hand market), and some things that never made it to the blog before.

What would you like to see? Do you want me to test nail art techniques or tutorials and tell you my thoughts on how easy or hard they may be? Do you want to see my fails as well as my successes? I promise you I fail hard at nail art sometimes! Let me know in the comments.

The Switching Post – Featuring Polished Pathology!

May1

Hello my lovely readers! I’m so delighted to be bringing you another installment of the blogger collaboration, The Switching Post! This month I’m switching with one of my dear friends and an absolutely astounding blogger, Polished Pathology. Seriously, if you don’t follow her already, then definitely follow the links at the bottom of the post to go check out more of her awesome posts! Let’s get right down to her post now oh and if you’re looking for mine, well you’ll just have to head on over to her blog!
Hello all! I’m Jenne with Polished Pathology, and I’m switching with Karel this month! We decided to focus on more a fashion theme, and this is the picture we chose:

Isn’t that outfit gorgeous?

When I was looking for colors to match this photo, I realize that I must hate burgundy colors…because I have almost ZERO!I managed to find some that were similar to the photo above. I used the following:

Zoya Nail Polish in Sam

OPI Nail Lacquer in Pepe’s Purple Pasion

China Glaze in Ruby Pumps

In order to get this look, I decided to use my Border Patrol latex from Girly Bits Cosmetics. I swooped it over my base color, which was two coats of Zoya Sam.

Then, I did one layer of OPI’s Pepe Purple Passion, waited a minute or so, and then one layer of Ruby Pumps. I easily peeled off the latex, then I added a coat of HK Girl. This is my final result!

I think if I had given myself more space to use the glitter, it would be more contrasting, but I also really like how subtle it is. I really like how Ruby Pumps blended in with the colors! What do you guys think? Thanks for visiting, and be sure to follow both Karel and I on social media, and if you’d like to be a part of The Switching Post series, look us up on Facebook!

Polished Pathology Blog | Facebook Page | Instagram

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Alchemy Lacquers April Lab Report – Swatches and Review!

Apr14

Product provided for Honest Review

Hello my lovely readers! I hope that you enjoyed The Switching Post. Plans for this month’s Switch are already underway…and you won’t believe who I’m switching with this month! Trust me it’s going to be awesome! Today though I have some fantastic polishes from Alchemy Lacquers to show you, including the April Potion LE! You’re not going to want to miss this so settle on in while I share some pretty polishes with you!

First up is Sea of Snapdragons:

Alchemy Lacquers – Sea of Snapdragons

Sea of Snapdragons is a perfect spring color. Really it doesn’t get springier (not a word, as usual I totally don’t care) than this! This beauty is a soft mauve pink creme polish filled with iridescent micro-flakies, gold micro-flakies, and the teensiest tiniest holographic glitter/sparks. It’s shimmery and lovely.

Alchemy Lacquers – Sea of Snapdragons

Let’s talk about formula! The formula on this is really good. Like any good creme polish it went on and was opaque in two coats. Has good self-leveling. I didn’t have any problems with streaks or drags. There appears to be a slight wrinkle on my forefinger but that’s because of me, I touched it and left a fingerprint and didn’t realize it until just now! Ha! This one is definitely a winner. Pictures show two coats plus topcoat.

Next up is probably my favorite of the trio I’m going to show you today. I submit Sea Holly for your consideration:

Alchemy Lacquers – Sea Holly

Alchemy Lacquers – Sea Holly (Matte)

Oh to the Em to the Gee. This one is beyond amazing. Seriously, I nearly lost what little chill I had over this one. Gorgeous dark cornflower (Thanks Christina for that description *wink*) or dark periwinkle blue crelly…check! Seductive purple shimmer…check! Stunning color-shifting flakies…check! Check! Check! This polish checks all my boxes that’s for sure. You all know I have a passion for blue, flakies, and complex polishes and this one fits that bill to a tee! I utterly fail at capturing the shimmer in my pictures but let me tell you in person on the nail it’s absolutely amazing. You can see it a bit more in the matte pics because matte topcoat makes all the goodies a little more prominent!

Alchemy Lacquers – Sea Holly

Alchemy Lacquers – Sea Holly (Matte)

Formula on this one was nothing short of perfection. This is slightly more on the crelly side than creme side of things but it was still opaque in two easy coats. I didn’t have any problems with all those gorgeous flakies clumping up or any other application issues. No streaks, drags, or balding here! Pictures show two coats plus topcoat in the shiny pics and two coats plus matte topcoat in the matte pics.

Last but certainly not least I have the April Potion LE – Restoration Tonic:

Alchemy Lacquers – Restoration Tonic

Ok I really had a hard time not making this one my favorite. It’s definitely my favorite baby blue polish to date and I have a LOT of blue and baby blue nail polish. I seriously have a blue nail polish problem. Wait…that’s not right, it’s not really a problem. I NEED all the blue nail polish! Restoration Tonic is a perfect baby blue crelly polish packed with stunning shimmer. I see red/pink shimmer and blue shimmer. The shimmer gives it a pearly kind of quality without being frosty, which, for me is fantastic since I’m not a fan of frosty polishes!

Alchemy Lacquers – Restoration Tonic

Restoration Tonic is a gorgeous crelly formula that is opaque in two coats. I had zero issues with application or performance. In fact I’ve been wearing Restoration Tonic for a week now and I have just very minimal tip wear. Even though it’s shimmery and pearly (probably not a word) it does not get brushstrokey (again not a word but you know what I mean). Pictures show two coats plus topcoat.

Oh and did I mention? This polish comes with a set of adorable pink glittery vinyl decals with flowers, butterflies, birds, and rain clouds! I’ll have a nail art look I did with those and Restoration Tonic on my Instagram later! Also, typically these Potions are only available through the month that they are released however Alchemy Lacquers will be on vacation from the end of this month until the end of May so this will actually be around again when she reopens but hey, why wait…you know you need it now!

So you want to know when YOU can get these gorgeous, happy, spring colors? Well I’m going to tell you…TOMORROW, April 15th. I’ll include all the pertinent links below. Which one of these are you the most excited for? Let me know in the comments!

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