Showing posts with label Black. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Twinsie Tuesday: Glitter Placement

Hey guys! So today we are doing manis featuring glitter placement. I've got a couple baggies of loose glitter shapes, mostly from Lumina Lacquer. She includes them with a lot of her glitterbomb polishes so you won't have to fish in the bottle for specific pieces you want. Cool customer service touches like that are one of the many reasons I love indie polish!

For this mani, I used some skull and crossbones glitters that came with Seven Year Witch.



Pink: Zoya Shelby
Black: OPI Never Have Too Mani Friends!

I really need to do glitter placement nails more often. They're super quick and fun. Just grab some tweezers and you're good to go!

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog


Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer


Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails


Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les



Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes


Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Twinsie Tuesday: Mix and Match

The theme mix and match is pretty broad, so I tried to pick several polishes with different finishes in colors that I thought would be kind of unexpected and edgy together. That was the idea anyways. Instead, I think they just came out...well, I don't wanna go so far as to say ugly, but...it wasn't quite what I was going for. See and judge for yourself.


Index and pinky fingers: OPI DS Coronation
Middle finger: OPI Did It On 'Em with KBShimmer nail vinyls
Ring finger: OPI Metallic 4 Life
Thumb: Illamasqua Scorch with KBShimmer nail vinyls

The nail vinyls are by far my favorite part of this mani. They're a great nail art cheat--super easy and fast--and I love the variety of designs KBShimmer has to choose from. My main issue is with Did It On 'Em. I thought it'd be an interesting pop of color but it seems like it threw off the cohesiveness of the rest of the mani.

Anyways, I'm overanalyzing this. This mani had some hits and some misses, but I guess that's the nature of mix and match! ;)

Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog


Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer


Marisa at Polish Obsession

Marisa at Polish Those Nails

Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les


Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Twinsie Tuesday: Dotticure

TT is returning from holiday hiatus this week with dotticures! I must confess I spent a good deal of time thinking of how to cheat my way out of this one, but in the spirit of the new year, I decided to give it the old college try instead...

...aaannddd of course that ended in a string of spectacular failures. I tried the bandaid method and turned out the holes aren't big enough...and my nails weren't dry enough. I tried doing sharpie dots and that actually came out great, until I put the top coat on and it completely destroyed everything. I debated using a dotting tool, but I find them terribly frustrating and by this point I just wanted to have presentable-looking nails, so...I cheated. *sigh of shame*

Enter Deborah Lippmann I'm Not Edible. This polish uses the exact color scheme and aesthetic I was trying to create on my own: pastel pink base with little black polka dots.



I feel guilty for not doing a proper dotticure but I'm hoping the cute polish will be penance enough. I'm looking forward to a new year and new challenges with TT! Hopefully you'll join us along the way for 2016. :)


                        
Alaina at The Little Canvas

Amanda at Amandalandish

Amanda at Fashion Footing

Amber at Nails Like Lace

Bridget at A Painted Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog


Claire at Kerruticles

Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Marisa at Polish Those Nails
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les


Savannah at Addicted to Polish

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes


Thursday, December 31, 2015

Lynnderella New Year's Eve Eve

It wouldn't be a New Year's mani without glitter and I figure there's no better choice than Lynderella New Year's Eve Eve! This is a rainbow explosion of glitter in all shapes and sizes that brings to mind the gallons of confetti that will be falling in Times Square tonight.




I layered two coats over Wet N Wild Break The Ice, a pearly white shimmer. I thought it was the perfect base because it lets the colorful glitters stand out while still adding some sparkle of its own.

New Year's Eve Eve didn't have any notable formula issues. Like any glitter polish of this type, you'll get some large pieces that need to be guided away from the free edge of the nail, but otherwise this has a nice 'n easy formula.

I absolutely love this mani and how it looks like a little party on my nails! A big thanks to my buddy (and one-time Twinsie Tuesday member) Tara for gifting it to me!

What's on your nails tonight? Any fun New Year's plans? I'm eating tacos and watching "Archer" with my boyfriend. My kind of night. :)

Friday, October 30, 2015

Halloween Nails With Lumina Lacquer Mick Or Treat

I didn't pick up any new Halloween polishes this year, so I decided to wear an old favorite: Lumina Lacquer Mick or Treat! It's a super fun glitterbomb with fall-colored glitters--think red, grey, orange, black and yellow--in all shapes and sizes. You've got hexes, squares, stars, circles, crescent moons and, the extra special cherry on top: Mickey Mouse-shaped glitters!



I wore Mick Or Treat over a deep burgundy in my original review, so this time I used OPI Take The Stage for my base. Above is one coat of Mick Or Treat. You have to really fish for the Mickey glitters (I only got one with this mani), but they are worth it!

Mick Or Treat was limited edition, so unfortunately it's no longer available. Lumina in general doesn't seem to produce new collections anymore. They were one of my favorite indie brands and I really miss having new Lumina's to look forward to!

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Twinsie Tuesday: Ruffian Manicure

We're doing ruffian manis this week! I haven't done one of these in a while, so I thought I'd try something a little different this time. I've got these plain black Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail wraps that I haven't known what to do with. Unfortunately I no longer have the original packaging so I don't know what this design is called. I got these in a set from Target a long time ago and these are the only ones from the set I still have left, because honestly, I don't quite get the point of plain nail wraps. I like wearing them for the fun and intricate designs. If I wanted black, I'd wear black polish, ya know?

But I digress. My point is, i figured now was as good a time as any to use these wraps. I layered them over a base of Orly Key Lime Twist, a neon highlighter yellow, to create the ruffian design. The wraps had dried up a bit, so they were more stuff and brittle than usual, but they still got the job done!



I always love a good pop of neon! The nail wraps made it easy to get a smooth, even curve. I think it'd be a lot of fun to do this same concept with one of the fancier Salon Effects too.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my Twinsies too!

Sharon at Behind Green Eyes
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Marisa at Polish Those Nails
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Claire at Kerruticles
 ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amanda at Amandalandish
Alaina at The Little Canvas

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Twinsie Tuesday: Recreate Another Twinsie's Mani

This week, we were challenged to recreate one of our fellow Twinsies' manis. We could pick anyone and any mani we wanted. I did some looking and decided on a really cute mani done by Alaina from The Little Canvas!

I would like to preface this by saying that Alaina is a million times better at nail art than I will ever be. So while I am a big admirer of her manis, most of them are things I would never even attempt to try myself! But I really loved this mani of hers...


...and I thought it was something I could pull off. Here's my version:



I used the same base as Alaina, China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle. Then my pinky and pointer fingers are topped with OPI I'll Tinsel You In and my middle finger is Color Club Harp On It. Alaina drew the hearts on her ring fingers, but I cheated by fishing out heart glitter from Lynnderella Evermore.

I had a lot of fun doing this! I like searching my stash for the perfect polishes to recreate a look. I'm excited to see what manis everyone else picked! And please be sure to welcome our newest Twinsies, Alice and Sarah! :)



Sharon at Behind Green Eyes
Savannah at Addicted to Polish


Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Marisa at Polish Those Nails
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Claire at Kerruticles
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amanda at Amandalandish

 Alaina at The Little Canvas

Monday, October 5, 2015

LOOK Nail Color Fall Collection: Review & Swatches

 

 Hey guys! I hope you all had a good weekend! Yesterday was the boyfriend and I's three-year anniversary, so we went out for a nice dinner. I actually wore one of the polishes from LOOK's fall collection that I'm going to show you all today. Let's get to it!

Black is just that: a black creme. Since there are so many black polishes out there, for me it all comes down to formula--and this has a really great one! This was two easy coats. I use black a lot for nail art and glitter bases, so I'll be reaching for this one a lot in the future.


Lavender is a purple creme. I love rich purples like this, although I wouldn't classify this shade as lavender. The color is too saturated for that. I used two coats here. Oh, and this is the polish I wore to our dinner, in case you were wondering. Of course I wore some glitter on top though! Stay tuned for that mani in another post...


Pistachio is far and away my favorite polish of the collection. Y'all know I liiiivvveee for bright greens and slightly yellow-tinged ones like Pistachio will always have a special place in my heart. What you see below is three coats.


Orange is a bright orange with almost neon levels of intensity. But for how bright it is, it is surprisingly sheer going on. I used three coats, but I probably could have done with a fourth.


This would make a nice set of Halloween colors, don't you think? It's a nice little collection overall. You can purchase LOOK from their website.


Disclosure: These polishes were sent for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Review: Born Pretty Liquid Tape







Today's review features a product that I'm sure a lot of you have seen on Instagram and YouTube: liquid tape! Whether you want to use it for nail art or you're just a messy painter, this promises quick and easy clean-up around the edges of your nail. It works just like painter's tape: put it on, do your painting, then peel it off. It takes any mess around your nails right with it!

There are quite a few brands that offer some version of this type of product and the one I'll be reviewing today is from Born Pretty. You can check it out on their site HERE.


This pretty much has the look and consistency of glue. It goes on white, then dries clear. But instead of smelling like glue, it has an almost peach-like scent to it? That's what it reminded me of, anyways. I actually liked the scent a lot. Is that weird?

The brush is a nice size and you can see exactly where you put the liquid, making application simple. Just make sure you don't get any of it on your actual nails, as then it'll pull up part of your mani when you're peeling it off. If you do mess up and get it where you don't want it, it's easy to wipe away before it dries.

I used this to help with the clean-up of my WWE Natalya-inspired gradient mani. I gotta tell ya, I really like doing gradients, but I don't do them as often as I would like, because they are such a hassle to clean up. But this made it soooooo much easier!

Here's how my nails looked before removing the liquid...


...and then immediately after removal!


The liquid peeled off all in one piece on every nail. Removing it is really oddly satisfying. Ever put glue on your hands as a kid just so you could peel it off afterwards? Then you know exactly what I mean! If your nails are still wet, I recommend peeling with tweezers, but if they're dry, fingers will work just fine too. There's no sticky residue left behind, so once it's off, you're good to go!

I've seen products like this retail for close to $30, but the nice thing about Born Pretty's version (aside from how well it works) is the price: $3.99 for a 15ml bottle. It's a good-sized bottle and you don't need very much product at a time. So long as you keep it nice and sealed up, this should last a good while.

I can't recommend this highly enough! It works great and the price is a lot lower than many comparable products on the market right now. This is going to be a lifesaver for nail art or whenever I'm short on time and my mani has to look clean and professional so I can get out the door and go!

If you've tried this product or a similar version, I'd love to hear what you thought! And if you would like to purchase anything from Born Pretty, they offer 10% off for Nailed readers:

www.bornprettystore.com


Disclosure: This product was sent for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Twinsie Tuesday: China Glaze Lubu Heels

This week, we were challenged to show off some vampy nails. I decided on China Glaze Lubu Heels, a black base with red glitter. This is like Ruby Pumps' naughty older sister. I can't honestly say I like it better than Ruby a Pumps, which is an all-time classic in my eyes, but that's not to say it's without its own charms.



This took three coats in all, mostly to build up the opacity of the black base. If you used a black creme underneath, I'm sure you'd only need one coat of Lubu Heels to achieve this kind of look.

This polish offers such a great twist on basic black! I love when the light hits it and you see those little red sparks flare up. :)


Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Sharon at Behind Green Eyes

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Twinsie Tuesday: Inspired By A Hobby/Interest

Welcome to another round of Twinsie Tuesday! This week we're doing manis inspired by an interest or hobby of ours outside of polish. I've mentioned a couple times on here that I'm a pro wrestling fan and I've even done a few wrestling-centric manis in the past. I always have fun thinking them up, so I wanted to do another one for this theme.

This time around, I wanted to do something that wasn't overtly wrestling-inspired, so I took one of my favorite WWE performers, Natalya...

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140822162111/prowrestling/images/9/95/Paige_vs_Nattie_01.jpg
http://www.natbynature.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/nattie330.jpg 


...and made a manicure using her signature colors. Natalya is a member of the Hart family, a legendary Canadian family that has produced multiple generations of famous pro wrestlers. She is the daughter of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and niece of Bret Hart. Even if you've never watched wrestling, you might know Nattie from the popular E! show, "Total Divas," a reality (I use this term loosely, as some of it is painfully scripted) show about the lives of some of WWE's female stars. Her colors--and the colors of the Hart family as a whole--are pink and black, often with white accents. So I did a pink gradient topped with white and black glitter.



Light pink: OPI Pink Friday
Darker pink: OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips
Glitter: Cover Band Sticks 'n Stones

My boyfriend (a fellow Natalya fan) helped me pick the colors for this mani, so shoutout to him for helping me find the perfect pair of pinks. <3 I couldn't be happier with how this came out!

Hope you enjoyed another one of my silly wrestling manis. Be sure to check out my other Twinsies too--and help welcome our newest Twinsie, Claire!


Sharon at Behind Green Eyes
Savannah at Addicted to Polish
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Marisa at Polish Those Nails
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer

Claire at Kerruticles
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amanda at Amandalandish