Laquerdaisical Christmas Collection- Frosted Fancy

*PRESS SAMPLE- PLEASE SEE DISCLOSURE FOR DETAILS*


Hello my dears!
Today we have the other Laquerdaisical Christmas polish I was sent to review. You can see my review of Candy Caned, a beautifully festive thermal, HERE

This polish is a frosty glitter topper and today I chose to layer it over China Glaze Hanging in the Balance.

To read my full review and for more pictures please join me after the jump!

Don't Let The Dead Bite Halloween 2014 Review and Swatches

PRESS SAMPLE 

YO! Its nearly Halloween so its only fitting we have a brand new spooky polish from China Glaze on the blog!
I was sent this polish by Nailpolish.co.uk for review along with an OPI which will be coming at ya before the end of the weekend!

Click READ MORE to see the full review and loads more pictures!

Life in Lacquer Nail Art Challenge:FOOD

Its here! The first day of my nail art challenge! Ive never done one before so excited to see everyones work :)

The first prompt is food. I was going to do some stamping but thought I would do hand painting insted!

These are my first ever strawberry nails and I am pretty happy at how they turned out :)

For the main body of the strawberry I actualy used two reds. I used 04M and 06M both by Manhattan. You cant really see the two tones. 

I then handpainted the leaves and seeds using acrylic paint and a very thin brush by Moyra.

Topped it all off with one coat of topcoat. 

My clean up looks a bit rubbish but the red was a nightmare! Sorry!

What do you think? To see more please search for the #lifeinlacquerjuly and remember to upload your pics to our FACEBOOK

An InLinkz Link-up

LIFE IN LACQUER NAIL ART CHALLENGE

The day will soon be upon us... The start of Life in Lacquers first nail art challenge.

This is open to absolutely everyone. You do not need to be a blogger or anything. Even if you don't feel like you are any good I would still love to have you be part of this!

The reason I am running this is so we can all meet new friends and get some inspiration!


The prompts run on a Monday and a Thursday. You can post your image to our FACEBOOK page or use #lifeinlacquerjuly AND tag me @lifeinlacquer on Instagram, twitter and other medias. I will then share some on my Facebook and Instagram (with full credit of course)

You do NOT have to do every prompt if you don't feel like it.

There is also now a inlinz. So if you write a blog post you can add the inlinkz via HTML so you can all see other entries. You may add as many links as you want as long as it relates the the challenge and the links are your own. You can find the inlinkz code HERE


if you have any questions AT ALL then please drop me an email through the Contact Me/PR page above!

Cant wait to see all your efforts!

JULY NAIL ART CHALLENGE

In July I will be running my very own nail art challenge!
Its a first for me but I really want another way to connect with other bloggers and nail artists.

I have chosen a range of prompts. Some easier than others so there is something for everyone!

You can post your pictures on Life in Lacquers Facebook page, your Instagram, Facebook or blog. Make sure to tag them #lifeinlacquerjuly and tag me @lifeinlacquer so I can see them! My tag is always @lifeinlacquer whether it be on Facebook or Instagram.

I will then share some of the pics on my Facebook page, of course with credit!

I'm posting this now so you have loads of time to prepare lol. You dont have to do everyone, I won't hunt you down!


Will you be taking part? Let me know below!
And PLEASE share this image around and get as many people involved as we can!

Sally Magpies Haul!

I was supposed to be saving for holiday.....

Then Sally announced a 50% off EVERYTHING sale last week. I was very good and only got 4.

Pretty and Polished April Showers, Picture Polish Aurora, Pretty and Polished Pretty Chameleon, Manglaze Mayonnaise. 


I have wanted to own a Manglaze for a really long time and I needed a new white so win win! I love the art on the bottle and the less than savory names.... :P

As you all know I love thermals! So I picked April Showers and Pretty Chameleon by Pretty and Polished. I really wanted May Flowers but it was sold out. Ill have you one day May Flowers!

I cannot wait to get Aurora on my nails. I actually said WOW when I opened it. It nothing like the mutlichromes I own now, its nothing like anything I own now!
If I wasn't going away in a couple days I would have bought all the limited edition Picture Polishes. I also really wanted the Rocky Horror ones but a held myself back!

Unfortunately the sale is over BUT Sally stocks a wide range of indies polishes and shes in the UK!
You can find her HERE 

Earth Day Inspired Nail Art

Happy Earth Day!

I have gone with a very simple nail art today. As you can see I am back to nubbins :( 

I had a really bad break on my index finger about a week ago and I managed to patch it but it finally gave way. I think I am going to stay with shorter square nails. 

What do you think? Do you prefer my old long and rounded or short and square?

Anyway getting back to the nail art! 

I used Zoya Robyn (a personal fave of mine) KBShimmer Laugh Myself Lily (Harlow haul post) OPI Alpine Snow and acrylic paints. 

I used my new Nail Art Pen from Sam Biddle. I will be doing a more in depth post about this very soon. 

I love painting these little clouds. It about as artistic as I can manage! I messed up the actual Earth and its not geographically correct :P 

I hope you have enjoyed my Earth themed nails! 

Easter Inspired Nail Art

Today I have actually managed to get a post done on time! 

This mani is inspired by Easter. I have a draw full of bits and bobs and today I chose to use the gold leaf. I highly doubt this is real gold leaf seeing as I payed about a quid for it but it looks good! 

The gold reminds me of Easter egg wrapping! I didn't want to go for the whole bunny and chick thing as that tends to be what the majority of other people are doing. 

I wanted to use a pastel shade as it really reminds me of spring. BUT I just couldn't find one that I felt went with the gold. 

I dislike gold.

Immensely. 

I used Barry M Gelly in Huckleberry and the Gold Foil Effect. I HATE the newer gellys. They are so thin! I like the thicker consistency of the others I have. They used to be great for stamping and art but that's not the case now. What happened +Barry M ?

The "gold" leaf was quite hard to get neat. I don't think its possible to get the application perfect. Its thin and a pain in the butt to use but it gives this mani an Easter twist.

What do you think? Have you ever used gold leaf?

And if you are celebrating Easter then have a great day, if not have a great day anyway!

Mehndi Summer Doodles with Marcus

Today we have a collab between me and my father in law Marcus.

We were running late with our usual biweekly takeaway and we couldn't decide what to do. The idea is great but we could do with messing around with it abit to fine tune this.

I did the base and Marcus did the doodling. I love Mehndi designs and when I told Marcus this he was keen to give it a go!

I chose to do the base bright and funky as I havent really seen this type of design done before.

I painted my nails white and then used a sponge to add the colour. I used Vant To Bite My Neck by OPI, Chick Me Out by KBShimmer and Robyn by Zoya. I layered these and then sponged on some subtle glitter.

When this was all dry Marcus used the White Nails Supreme pen to create the design. He took to these pens like a duck to water. I was a bit jealous lol! 

Like i said we didn't have as much time as we usually do so we are going to come back to this theme at a later date. I am still very very happy with it!

I also love that this is a collab! I liked actually being part of the design,

What do you think of our creation? Do you like it when Marcus features on the blog?

Mega Mix Nails Review Part 2

You may remember a couple of days ago I tried a new product called Mega Mix.

Mega Mix is a product that turns your nail polish or mica/glitter pigments into gel polish.

My first testing wasn't a complete success, you can read it HERE


So I thought it best to try out a more pigmented polish and see how that faired.
I figured that my most pigmented polish might be a Gelly by BarryM so I used Pomegranate.

As per my previous post I applied BarryM Pomegranate on the index finger and a mixture of Mega Mix and nail polish on the remaining three nails. 

2 coats on the index and 4 on the rest. 

This mixture fared considerably better than my previous one of Essie and MegaMix. 

Its not perfect though. You can still see my smile line and it has a jelly like appearance. 

But how can we expect it to be opaque when its effectively "watered" down by mixing in the clear gel? 

Would it not be better if the gel was tinted white?

Another point worth making is that this is time consuming and I ran out of mixture half way through so I do wonder if by mixing up a new batch half way through would the colour or coverage be the same?? 

What are your thoughts on this?
Do you prefer gel to polish?

MegaMix Nails. Turn Your Nail Polish Into Gel Polish!

 This is part two of my Mega Mix series. Please see my previous post on gel polish. 

So here comes the practical bit! 

I have prepared a little step by step for all y'all that are new to gel polishing and to show how to use Mega Mix, hope you enjoy!

You will need...

UV lamp

Nail polish of your choice

The three Mega Mix polishes (Amazin Base, Mega Mix and Amaze Glaze) 

A brush 

A nail buffer of 240 grit or more.  

Cotton pads. 

THIS STEP TO STEP IS GOING ON THE BASIS THAT ALL YOUR NAILS HAVE BEEN FILED INTO SHAPE AND YOUR CUTICLES HAVE BEEN PUSHED BACK. 

It is essential to remove all the cuticle off the nail plate or the gel will not adhere properly. 

1. To start you are going to want to remove the shine on your natural nail. Please do not use a regular nail file for this. Using a normal nail file will cause damage to your natural nail. I choose to use a grit of 240 or over. It is only to remove shine. so a couple sweeps of the nail file over your natural nail will do it. After you have done this then use some polish remover to clean your nail and make sure no dust remains.

As I am wearing a patch on my index finger (I had a very nasty break) I cannot put gel polish on that nail as when I remove the gel it'll soak it off. Soo i have decided to paint this nail with regular nail polish as a comparison. 

2. Time to apply the base coat. You only need a thin layer. Apply Amazin Base in the same way you would apply nail polish. Do not flood the nail with gel. I tend to do four fingers on one hand, then the next four. I choose to do the thumbs separately as its easier for me.

3. Cure the nails for 2 minutes in your UV lamp.

4. Now its time to mix your colour. You may find this easier to do BEFORE you apply base coat. If this is the case, then please move the mixed colour AWAY from the UV lamp as it can start to cure.

Start with a 50/50 ratio. It says on the website this can be increased to a ration of 80 polish to 20 gel. 

5. Apply your colour. This must be done thinly otherwise it may not cure correctly and could wrinkle. Make sure to use a brush soaked in acetone to clean up any mistakes. Once it is cured that way it cant be tidied up. Cure after layer for 2 Min's.

6. Continue step 5 until you have your desired coverage.

7. Once you are happy top it all off with Amaze Glaze. One coat. Cure again for 2 minutes. 

8. Wipe off the sticky layer with a weak alcohol solution or a gen finishing solution.

TaDa! 

Okay... 

My index finger nail shows Essie's Wheres My Chauffeur using 2 coats. The other fingers show the same polish, mixed with Mega Mix and using 4 coats. 

The coverage is so much better with the polish

The coverage was not very good with this mixed gel polish. This could be due to many things I suppose. The pigmentation of the polish and the ratios I used? You can see on my ring finger especially that it is quite patchy. I suppose when you mix a polish with a clear gel it is effectively going to "water down" the colour.

I was a bit disappointed with this but I suppose it is only my first go and maybe with a more pigmented polish it wouldn't be so streaky. I'm not sure if this is the next big thing? I really love the flexibility of wearing nail polish. I can change it in an instant. BUT I can see the appeal for those wanting longer wear time. 

Mega Mix is available to buy from Martin HERE

What do you think about this? Do you have any questions? 

Stay tuned, next time I will be trying another polish.....

This gel system was provided to me for my honest review, Please see my disclaimer for details 

KBShimmer Full Bloom Ahead and Stamping Decal

Its a white crelly. 

I instantly love it. 

I then matte it.

It reminds me of a speckled egg. 

I love it even more.

THE END!! 

Hahah said polish is Full Bloom Ahead by KBShimmer. Its a white crelly featuring loads of glitter of different colours and sizes. 

I needed three coats to make this opaque but you can still kind of see my smile line. I don't mind this though as its not like super noticeable. The glitter distribution is good too, no fishing.

I then made a stamping decal using some acrylic paint in green and Cheeky Plate CH33. I do mine actually on the stamper instead of on a sheet of plastic. I also do not use topcoat to make them as I find its too much faffing and messing around and I always mess it up. After I have made the decal on the stamper I leave it to dry then stamp it on nearly dry polish on the nail and Tada. 

After all that I matted it all using my new topcoat by Mentality. This top coat is bloody great. It drys so much faster than my Orly matte topcoat and theres none of that bloody streaking. I recommend this to anyone. 

I think this looks really good and its been a while since I have made a decal too. 

What do you think? 

My Harlow Haul 11/04/2014

Oh no..... 

I went on to Harlow & Co and something very strange happened...... 

12 new nail polishes just jumped into my cart and then in my confusion I must have payed for them! 

That's my story and I am sticking to it!!

 Belle Of The Mall, Lottie Dottie,Falling For Hue, You Drive Me Katie 

Make My Gray, Spring Training, Laugh Myself Lily, Chick Me Out, Full Bloom Ahead

I had to get the new KBShimmer Spring Collection on the restock as I missed them all the first time around. I also picked out a few others. Spring Training is even scented!

She Had A Lipstick Taser 

I had to have the Glam Polish as I haven't tried them before and they are discounted as the new bottle shape has been released (I have the old shape) 

Serendipity

I had to have the Cadillacquer because I bloody love Cadillacquers. I wanted another shade too called Easy As Pie but it was sold out :( 

Snow In Love 

I had to get the Serum no 5 as its a crelly and glows in the dark. I already have Atomic Peach and that glows so strongly I knew I had to give this one a try! 

I love it when I get nail mail. My eldest, who is three, was screaming NAIL MAIL and getting so excited! 

What do you think of my haul? Do you already own any of these? 

Which one should I use first? 

Gustav Klimt Inspired Nail Art

Its time for Father in Law nail art again!!

 I am going to start calling this "segment" Marcus's Manis! 

It looks like this will become a regular thing, which is great.... An art lesson and nail art.

Today we have a nail art inspired by Gustav Klimt. We decided to pick out elements of the image below and kind of combine them (taken from Google Images) This painting is a portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I 

Marcus loved the brushed bronzey gold of the background so that's where we started. He used a fan brush to "scrub" Bronze (actually out of a Color Club striper) over Avons Deluxe Chocolate. 

Marcus then proceeded to hand paint the design. The design looks ancient Egyptian to me LOL 

I have had to take this pictures with natural light by my window instead of in my tent thing as I couldn't get the scrubbing etc to show....

Just look at the scrubbing texture! Its like antique looking. It really gives it more dimension and helps to make the design! 

As always I think Marcus has done a fabulous job! He seems to be improving every time. 

Oh and he actually paints everything including the nail polish etc I do nothing! 

I really like having them done actually, we have a laugh and we all sit around together. Its lovely to spend quality time together and mix that in with my passion! <3

What do you think? 

and as always you can check out Marcus on his website HERE 

B is for Butterflies Nail art

New BarryM Gellys are MINE! 

I havent bought any mainstream polishes in soooo long as I have really only been excited by indies. BUT when BarryM brought out the new Gellys it rekindled my love for the ones I already own and then I decided I needed more! 

The new gellys I have bought seem in no way as thick as the others I have which I am a bit disappointed about as I love using them for art and stamping but as we all know they will thicken up in time. 

This is another one of those faffing nail arts where I have no idea or plan I just go with it..... 

So this is what I went with. 

I went for a waterfall (Nailasaurus inspired) then added some Happy Hands B Is For Butterflies to the ring finger. 

Macro bottle shot  *i didn't get any flowers or butterflies on my nails :( *

The middle finger is a sponging technique using the the Gelly polishes, I think it looks washed out like watercolours, I just call it mottling LOL 

I used, from the Gelly Range, Huckleberry as the base and then Prickly Pear and Greenberry for the add ons. Oh and I used a Color Club glitter striper too (squint and ya may see it LOL) 

Like I said they are a lot thinner so that was a tad annoying but I still like the overall look.

I am in LOVE with pastels and I think we will be seeing a lot of them again this summer.

What do you think? Do you love pastels? 

Card Water Decals

Hello everyone!! 

Tonight we have some water decals from Sparkly Nails. They are card themed, would be great for a poker night! 

I was a bit annoyed I didnt think of something more fun than a white background but I just dont think I am properly on it again yet... I gotta get my nail groove back! 

I used OPI Alpine Snow for the base. The only actual white base I can get on with. The others I have tried I find streaky.

Water decals are so easy to apply, just cut out the one you want and submerge in water for a few seconds. In my opinion warmer water workers quicker. 

Then apply to transfer to the nail and topcoat. TADA!!! 

They are great if you are not confident with nail art and they are very quick to use! 

Plus they are great for toes! I cant reach down that far to do art on my own toes lol!!

These decals are available in the UK HERE

These decals were sent to me for my honest review.... please see my disclosure for more details

Picture Polish Badass!

A long freaking time ago I won a lovely giveaway hosted by Sally Magpies with polishes donated by Picture Polish. 

I won three polishes from their new Bijo holo range. Pirouette, Hussy and Badass.  Picture Polish describe Bijo holo as a "small & delicate 5 free holographic formulation"

All the polishes I won are part of a collabaration. Badass was made in colab with Shelly aka Sassy Shelly from sassyshelly.com

My pictures do shit all justice. This has like a bajillion tiny holo glitter specs in it. 

I had no idea what art to do with this so I thought I would give it some zebra stripes! 

The formula in this polish is fantastic. I used two coats but if you really wanted I recon you could get away with one. 

This is spangly and glitzy and right up my street! What do you think of this? Would you wear it?

I am REALLY behind on all my reviews and stuff since having the flu so please please bare with me they will all be done as soon as possible!

Father in Law Does My Nails!

Keeping with the theme of Other Half Does My Nails... This time my father in law wanted to give it a go. 

He is an artist so I was very excited to have him do my nails and also a bit scared he could put me out of buisness lol!

Okay so he chose to do something inspired by Henri Rousseau and heres what he came up with

The tiger is hiding lol!! 

I think he did such a good job! I think I may be in trouble here! 

What do you all think? 

If you want to check out my father in laws website showcasing his art then please click HERE 

please take a look at everyone elses other halfs attempts below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Life in Lacquer is One!!

Can you believe it? 

Life in Lacquer is one years old!!! 

I cant believe its actually been a year, in fact I forgot! 

The "blogiversary" was actually yesterday..... DOH! 

It has been an eventful year and I have made some lovely friends in the "nail world" 

If I didn't start this blog I would have never have met you lovely people so for that I am thankful <3

It crept up on me so quickly, I wanted to run a giveaway and such but that will have to wait.....

To mark my one year anniversary I have done some lovely cake nail art! You may remember I did do some cupcake nail art right back in the beginning (post HERE) so I thought I would give it another go. I hope I have improved! 

For this mani I used a Sick Lacquers nail polish. This one is called Cotton Candied and its such a beautiful polish. Sick Lacquers were my first international indie brand and to this day they are still my fave. 

White crellys are where its at for me! 

The pictures show two coats with Seche Vite. 

Its such a happy polish and I think it works so well in this design. 

I also used Robyn by Zoya, another of my fave polishes. Such a pretty colour! 

I used Color Club stripers to do the cupcake and two OPI's for the case.

 Color Club stripers are the bees knees! 

So what do you think? Do you see an improvement compared to my old cupcake mani?