Red Re-Vamp with Essie

Good day ladies!! What a wonderful, normal, drab Wednesday. At least the weather is nice:) I wanted to try to spice today up with a little color! Last night I was sitting there looking at my polishes trying to decide what to do.  I am always doing different colors and realized I kind of miss the classic manicure- red. But, I'm trying to experiment with different looks, so I thought I would try to re-vamp this common but always stylish mani.

clambake, really red, fishnet stockings

With this in mind I picked my favorite reds and went to work.  I didin't do it on purpose, but the 3 reds I used are all Essie. I started off with CC Stuck on You basecoat then I applied a small half moon with one coat of Essie clambake, which is more of a dark orange. This color is a little sheer, which I liked, so I left it that way and didn't want to go any darker since I was doing a gradient. The trick complete one nail at a time before each polish has time to dry. So, next I used from half-way up (a little before where I stopped with clambake) and applied one coat of Essie really red, which is just what it's called, just a classic red. I kind of used my brush to mix the 2 layers of colors together to give it that gradient look. I used Essie fishnet stockings on as the top layer. I used the same tecnique by kind of using my brush to mix the 2 colors together then applied a small second layer to the very top to give me a more gradient look and blend the colors. As soon as I finished one hand I used a clear top coat to blend the colors even more. I let all that dry for about 15-20 minutes then used one coat of old Seche Vite (which is thick now and I love it!)

Boho Spring Glam Nail Art

Good evening all polish ladies!! Hope everyone had a great weekend! We had a great time visiting my family in Arkansas and letting everyone meeting Kade. It was beautiful weather here!
So, I have been working on this post for a couple of days, but keep falling asleep as I'm trying to edit and post my pics lol. Being married/having a family and swatching and blogging is hard to juggle. There's just not enough hours in the day, but I'm still trying...
I had bought these little silver ball nail art thingys at Sally's a while back, but never used them, and when I picked out my main color, Color Club New Bohemian, I knew what I wanted to do.

I started out with Seche Base Coat RidgeFiller then I used Sephora by OPI Queen of Everything at the bottom of my nails- only about half way up. Then I used 2 coats of Color Club New Bohemian over the silver to create a half moon look. I love how easy it was to apply this pastel creme. The second coat was so simple to apply and looked so shiny even without a top coat. I was wanting a silver glitter bottom, but the glitter wasn't thick enough so I used 2 coats of Nerd Lacquer Carbon Allotrope. I let all that dry then used to coat of Seche Vite (a new bottle) I then put a small amount of the Nerd Lacquer on as a glue for the nail art dots. I used my MASH tweezers to get them on my nails. I didn't put a top coat over the nail art because I didn't want any excess top coat to become lumpy.
Overall, I was very pleased with my result, and can't wait to some more nail art and try something different.

Hello Spring...I've Missed You! Fun with Revlon Pink Lingerie

This weather is awful! We were in a tornado warning for a while this afternoon and it's at 100% rain all day today and tomorrow. Boo. Well, Happy Tuesday to all! I had a great weekend shopping for some decor for my house and new addition to our hamster cage so she can have more room to play. I'll be getting a puppy in a couple of weeks! I'm so excited!!!

I think I have finally began to fix my lighting or lack thereof issue I've been talking about.  I have bought 2 of those cheap student bendable lamps and put them side by side then change the setting on my DSLR that makes my pictures look much better. I still have some more playing around until I can finally have an actual light box, but until then, I will continue to play around with different kinds of light. These were taken inside, at night, with both lamps and a flash.

SO...onto the polish. I went shopping for some polish this past weekend and found quite a stash of spring beauties. I was really looking for CG Hunger Games Collection- which I found! (after 3 Sally's stores) But I wanted a spring, pastel look.  Well, I was checking out the Nailasaurus blog and saw this AWESOME look she created that you can see here.  So, giving credit where credit is due, I did just what she did to create this simple yet stylish look.

I started out with my Stuck On You basecoat by CC, then I used 2 coats of Revlon Pink Lingerie. I'm not a pink wearer, but this color is awesome. It's bright but still considered a pastel, so it's both spring and summer. It goes great with darker skin tones. 

 Then I used NOPI Rainbow in the S-Kylie on my tips and kind of did a gradient thing and used 2 coats on the very tip. Lastly I used 2 coats of Seche Vite. I got a lot of compliments on this look and would love to use some other colors with this same idea. Then I want to reverse it and have a half moon look with a solid color and glitter at the bottom.

Nerd Lacquer Swatches

Hello, all you polish ladies! It has been like 3 weeks since I last posted. I am polishing my nails at least every other day and take pictures, but just don't have time to upload and write.  Life has been crazy and busy and I find it very soothing to sit down and paint my nails, but by the time I've painted my nails and taken pictures the sun is gone and it's time to go to bed! Where does the day go?!
Well, I have been buying lots of polish online, especially indie brands such as Nerd Lacquer, which is what I'm bringing you all today.  I ordered four colors and bought one of Amanda's new polishes, Carbon Allotrope. I was sooo excited to get them in, but didn't get any pics of the box as I got them in. Here they are separate as I swatched them.  It took me a couple of days to get all of them on and take pictures. I am still trying to made a lightbox so I can take pictures inside, but alas, I don't have a dang box! I can't remember the last time I DIDN'T have a box!

Carbon Allotrope is made up all sizes of silver glitter, very fine and required 4 coats to get my nails fully covered, but I didn't mind. It was a very easy polish to apply and I could apply them fairly thick. This is a beautiful silver color with high quality micro glitter. I am hoping to order her other high end nail polish, Holy Grail, which sells on her etsy shop for $18. 
The next color I bought was Event Horizon, which is a turquoise color with multi-colored micro glitter and big silver glitter. It only took 2 coats of this beautiful deep green to get my nails fully covered.
My third color, Resolutionary is a bright pink with big gold glitter and small silver micro glitter.  Again, this polish only took 2 coats.
My last polish is Gorramit, which was my favorite because it is so unique.  It's one of the first colors I saw that really pulled me in on purchasing some Nerd Lacquer. This bright yellow has big red and yellow glitter with silver micro glitter. I also used 2 coats for this application.
I have been wanting to purchase some of her polishes for a while, but she hasn't been taking any orders and opened her shop for a few days, so I took full advantage! I would have ordered more, but it gets a bit costly. She has so many more colors I want to purchase and can't wait for her to open her shop back up. She also sells some on Harlow & Co., but as of today, all were sold out except for one!
Here are some more pics of each of the four polishes I bought. Like I've said, none of these are new to the polish world except Carbon Allotrope, but I thouroughly enjoyed swatching these and hope I can upload another post soon! I have plenty of pictures, it's just finding time to write! Happy Thursday to all!!!