40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Fashion

Hi everyone, today I have some simple nails inspired by a purse I've been loving the heck out of lately.



The prompt for Crumpet's Nail Tarts 40 Great Nail Art Ideas this week was Fashion and so since I've been looooooving the pattern on this great purse a friend gifted me for Christmas, I thought I'd recreate nails just based on that.







This is a super simple look. First I did two quick coats of KBShimmer Eyes White Open. Then I stamped on using Painted Polish Woodland Whimsy on my MoYou London Pro 01 plate and freehanding the base with a Morgan Taylor grey (sorry I'm not sure which one right now).

These aren't spot on, and if I had more time I would have used guides to make the perfect base, but they work for the purposes of this challenge it'll do! ]

Don't forget to check the out the other ladies of this challenge, who I'm sure did much better than I did!

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Dreamland Lacquer Spring Trio and a Charity Polish

Hello everyone! I'm fitting this post in on a week where there just don't seem to be enough hours in a day, but I think we can all pause for a minute to appreciate these pretties.

*Press Samples*

This is the Dreamland Lacquer Spring Trio plus a DVT Awareness Month Polish, but more on that polish and a new top coat later, let's get to these beautiful spring shades. These babies will be available for purchase on Tuesday March 1 at 2 p.m. central time!









First up we have Dreamland Lacquer Purple Peep-le Eater, a lovely pastel purple crelly polish with gorgeous blue shimmer, holo microglitter and yellow-golden flakies throughout. The polish was on the thicker side, so I would recommend waiting a minute between coats for the best application. It was opaque in two coats, but I added a third for ultimate blingage.

This dries to a glittery partly textured finish, so I did one coat of a regular top coat and then a coat of Dreamland Lacquer's new top coat Ooh Shiny.









Next up we have Dreamland Lacquer Eggcite-Mint. This is a beautiful pastel mint green crelly with the same blue shimmer, holo microglitter and gold flakies as Purple Peep-le Eater. Similar formula as Peep-le Eater as well – three coats for this opacity and a coat of regular top coat and then a coat of Dreamland Lacquer Ooh Shiny to top off the sparkle.

My soul has been drawn to minty shades as of late, so so I was super happy when I put this one on!









To round the trio out we have Dreamland Lacquer Peter Cotton Candy Tail. This is a sky blue crelly with purple shimmer, holo microglitter and golden flakies. Same formula as the last two, three coats for opacity and two coats of top coat for a smooth shiny finish.

I just love these three, they remind me of decorating Easter eggs. I like them because they aren't just your regular spring pastels, they have something for everyone – holo, flakies and so much shimmer and shine! :)









Finally we have what I'm sure you were all so excited to see. This is Dreamland Lacquer Out, Damned Clot! A truly red holo polish, a Coca-Cola red holo that is opaque in two coats with a stunning linear holo flash that has a violet streak to it. I was in LOVE with this polish this minute I put it on. Soooo pretty!

Now let's get to a whole other reason this polish is awesome – this polish was created in honor of DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) Awareness Month. $4 of each bottle sold in the month of March will be donated to the National Blood Clot Alliance (www.stoptheclot.org).

Noelie had a sweet message behind this polish, so let's stop a second and take a minute to learn about this!

How often do you think about blood clots? Probably not that often, unless you’re a survivor, are close to a survivor, or have lost someone to a clot. I think about it often, since one of my very best friends survived a life threatening clot 7 years ago. Her name is Jill, and she is the inspiration for this polish.

Blood clot statistics are staggering. More people die every year from blood clots than from breast cancer, AIDS, and traffic accidents combined. On average, one person dies every six minutes in the United States from a blood clot. Pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs) is the third leading cause of death in the United States, yet studies have shown that only 1 in 4 people have any recognition of blood clots, or their signs and symptoms.

The National Blood Clot Alliance is doing everything they can to change that. Their website, www.stoptheclot.org, has a huge amount of good information about the signs and symptoms of blood clots, as well as risk factors Education is the key. Knowing whether you’re at risk, and knowing the signs and symptoms, can be the difference between life and death. I’m thrilled to be supporting the NBCA this month with this polish in their endeavor to stop the clot.



I do have another warning for this polish, be careful! It will produce distracted driving! ;-) Just look at how it glows as the sun sets on a drive home earlier this week! Plus a rare appearance of my Cinderella hand on the blog!

And another bit of awesome news, I've been testing out a new top coat from Dreamland Lacquer and Noelie is ready to release it. I find this dries quickly, is super shiny and does not mess up nail art either! It is a 2-free (contains toluene) quick dry top coat called Ooh Shiny and will retail for $5. I hope you all like it as much as I do! All these swatches were done using that top coat!

So once again, for those that missed it earlier, these polishes will be available Tuesday March 1 at 2 p.m. central time zone at the Dreamland Lacquer site. Which do you hope to pick up? I'm totally in love with Out, Damned Clot! but the pastel crellies are perfect for this time of year too!

Adventures in Layering Polish

Earlier this month I was looking at my collection and wanting to combine some polish magic together to create one amazing stunning look!!!



There is nothing too complex about today's post, not nail art directions or anything. This is purely a fun trick to bring something new out of your collection just by playing. My inspiration polish for this look was Indigo Bananas Hole in the Sky, which I have swatches of here in case you forgot what it looked like.

I wanted to create the same look, glowing flakies, jelly base, super awesome shimmer and a holo finish to top it off but instead of purple I wanted a teal look!



TA-DA!!!! I practically squeed out loud when I looked at this for the first time under my lamp. It was just gorgeous.





To start off the look I did two coats of Smitten Polish (now Dreamland Lacquer) Lazy River, which is a green leaning teal jelly polish with iridescent green flakies. Then I topped that with a magical shifter polish, Smitten Polish A Wedding Dress that Isn't Bright Turquoise – a sheer turquoise polish with lovely golden shifting pigment that mimics unicorn pee.



And then to top the whole thing off I put a layer of Indigo Bananas spectraflair holo top coat 35 (for a linear holo finish).



The results were stunning and when I took these nails out in the sun, oh man was I SOOO distracted. I could not stop staring at my nails. Just look at that golden glow and the holo finish and the glowing flakies! Too much to take in! :)

I'm sorry to say the Smittens here are no longer available, but you never know what you can find on the secondary market.

So now I ask you what are some cool layering experiments you've tried in your nail polish collection? If you haven't tried yet, I totally challenge you to do so! I think this is a super fun way to use some older polish and create your a whole new stunning look!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Red

Happy Friday everyone! We've made it. It's about 3 p.m. and I'm sneaking in this blog post between stuff at work on deadline. This weekend I'm headed to LA to visit my bestie and I can't wait. I leave later tonight. I didn't want to leave though, without putting this look up!!!



Today I'm sharing with you another Crumpet's Nail Tarts look with the prompt red + stained glass/mosaic. So I broke out my UberChic Beauty UberMat (You guys, if you don't have this there is a sale going on today I think you should check out!!!) and made some decals.



I'm still not a pro at the decal stuff guys, I need to find scissors to cut my decals closer to the size of my nail. I'm having so much difficulty with the transfer/clean up part.



So on to the details here. The three fingers that aren't decals are Fair Maiden Polish Holiday 2015, a lovely gift from the makers for past swatching work! This is a lovely red metallic glass fleck that just sparkles so much.



To make the decals I used Holiday 2015, Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Universal Loner and Darling Diva Polish The Alchemist trying to go for a three-finish red look. It was just so-so in my book. The stamp I used was from the UberChic Collection 2, plate 2-01. I think that looks like a mosaic right?

Anyway, I don't have much more time to chat, so I better get back to work now! But don't forget to check out all the other amazing red nail art looks at the inlinkz below!

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Painted Polish Mystery Love

Happy Monday night everyone! Wanted to get this post up while this polish was still available so you could snag it while it is around for it's last restock!









I kept the teaser for this post as black and white so you could decide if you wanted to spoil the mystery or not, but just look how beautiful this polish is! This is Painted Polish Mystery Holo Un (Un is one in French) and is a gorgeous and bright berry colored holo polish with holo microglitter and a bright violet flash in the linear holo finish. Opaque in two great coats!









I knew I wanted to pair this polish with an equally great stamping look, to do justice to the holo bling! So I used Painted Polish Autumn Twilight, a gorgeous darkened purple creme that stamps super well using my Uber Chic Beauty Collection 07 plates (plate 7-03 to be specific) to stamp the filigree-esque design, which also is inverse on the thumb and ring fingers!

So grab this polish while it's still available (final restock is tonight), don't want you all to miss your shot at the gorgeousness!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Love

Hey everyone, happy Friday! We've made it! And I don't know about you, but now I have three glorious days off, and in fact, I got home a little early, which leaves me a few minutes to share with you the nails I've been rocking all week!!!









This gorgeous baby is Glam Polish WHATEVER.! As soon as I saw the swatches for this polish I knew I needed it. This baby is packed with holo shards and microglitters swimming in a beautiful red base that sometimes leans pink and sometimes leans orange. This color is everything, I just absolutely love it. Now be forewarned, this does dry very textured, but two coats of top coat totally smooths it out and once it dries it is full of so much depth I just want to swim amongst all the holo and red jelly goodness! Almost a one-coater, but I used two for this look!



Now I knew I wanted to do my obligatory Valentine's Day look with this as the base, so I broke out my new UberChic Beauty 7 collection and found these cute heart looks on the 07-1 plate and stamped using KBShimmer Eyes White Open and ta-da!



And wouldn't you know it, these nails also fit in perfectly with my Crumpet's Nail Tarts challenge this week: Love! Hearts = Love right?!



And let me tell you one awesome thing about this polish, I've been wearing this look since Monday afternoon and now it's Friday afternoon and not a chip on it. See the crappy office photo above, just took that this afternoon!

So my consensus on this polish, you need it! Wears like iron and is beautiful!!!

Now don't forget to check out all the other beautiful love-related looks below!

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Carpe Noctem Cosmetics Review

Today I am very excited to share with you a new-to-me brand Carpe Noctem Cosmetics! I have been eying this brand for some time and I recently took the plunge and boy am I glad I did!

Today I have four polishes to share with you that I recently acquired. One is from a duo with the always great Octopus Party Nail Lacquer, and the others are from a recent Carpe Noctem collection. 

One thing I've found so far about these polishes is that they are sneaky, you'll swatch them and think one thing, then you'll wear it out in the wild and you'll discover a whole other side to the polish.

This gorgeous beauty is Fireside Songs, originally part of a duo with OPNL. Word on the street is this will be available again in the Carpe Noctem shop on Feb. 19, so keep your eyes peeled! Anyway, back to the beauty - this is a smokey plum colored polish, with hidden multichrome flakies throughout. The flakies are really sparse, so don't expect them to be the stars of this show. This polish had a great formula and was easy to apply in two thin coats.

After wearing this one for a day, I noticed some secret shifts going on.

See what I mean here? You think you get this straightforward show of this polish, then you stare for awhile in a few different lighting and you get a whole different polish. Magic I tell you!

Next up we have the gorgeous anniversary polish Beyond the Clouds, this one is one of those sneaky shifters that I haven't quite captured fully yet! But I have already used this in a nail art piece, I definitely can assure you'll be seeing it again soon! Plus I want to capture some of that sneaky shift! Worn when not looking for the shift it is a grey holo polish with cooler toned multichrome flakies. More flakies in this one than Fireside Songs, and you won't hear me complaining. This one has a lovely golden and pink shift to it that you can see more so in direct light. Opaque in two coats, another great formula!

This beauty is Mon Doudou and if you love perwinkle, you neeeeeeeeed this polish. This is a lovely perwinkle holo, packed with three different types of spectraflair rainbows! And it also has multichrome flakies of the warmer variety, this polish is so unique. I have nothing like it. This was opaque in two coats and was just so bright and lovely! Will definitely be revisiting this one! Same great formula as the first two, opaque in two coats. 

And finally we have the super sexy Because She Danced to Space Jam. On first glance this is a regular, but also beautiful, teal holo polish. It has the sparse multichrome flakies like Fireside Songs (ie don't expect them to be on every nail). But when you play with this one in different lights:

HELLLLLLLO mama! This is one secret sexy shifter and I can't even do justice to it. Believe me when I say you need this polish, I'm not joking! It's so pretty. It has this hidden pink shimmer and a more prevalent light green shimmer. This polish has so many personalities. Same great formula, opaque in two coats.

So my first impression of Carpe Noctem Cosmetics is definitely a good one. Shipping did take awhile, but word on the street is Emily, the genius behind the brand, has finally found a good USPS post office that will help with the expediency of her shipping! So that is fantastic news. What is it with the USPS?! Charging us more all the time and giving us crappier service every month. Ugh!

I liked the brand so much I went and ordered even more from her last weekend (I may or may not have been shopping while drinking wonderful wine!). Another great thing about this brand, she has three bottle sizes to choose from and they are all an excellent deal! I especially like that option when trying out a new brand! 

So now let's dish, what have you tried out from Carpe Noctem?