12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challange - Day 2

 The wonderful Nicole over at Dipped in Lacquer put together this awesome Christmas Nail Art Challenge for this holiday season. 

I missed out on Day 1 (Red & Green) but decided to jump on the wagon for the rest of it. 

Hop on over to Nicole's blog to check out her mani's as well as the list of other bloggers participating in the challenge.  I'm not technically participating....I don't have enough street cred for that yet, but cant hurt to play along...right?

I used Sally Hansen "Blue Blast" (Insta-Dri), "Snow Globe" (Complete Salon Manicure-2012 Fall Collection), and stamped with "Whirlwind White" (Insta-Dri)

I used BM-323 (2012 plates) for the full snowflake design.  There is also 2 individual snowflake designs on BM-319 I believe if you want to add extras or do an accent nail.

Btw....check out how awesome Sally Hansen's "Snow Globe" is.  Its a mix of tiny iridescent glitters mixed with large iridescent glitters that flash every time you move your hands.  I had no application trouble with this one - really easy to get the large hex glitters on without doing the dabbing technique.  Have you seen the rest of the new Fall 2012 Complete Salon Manicure line?  So pretty!  Finally....am I right?  Seems like forever since they added any new colors.

Ill be back soon with new swatches.  Its been a bit cray cray at my house the past couple of weeks.  We are in the middle of a remodel....does a number on your hands.  On top of that the cold weather is reaking havoc on my hands/cuticles....im currently at war with them.

Boop-oop-a-dupe

My apologies in advance on how slap-dash this post is.

I stumbled across a polish a couple weeks ago on the Llarowe website and my jaw about hit the floor.  Its a Clarins 230 / Fantasy Fire (aka Unicorn pee) dupe.

Say What??!!??

Nail Pattern Boldness makes a polish called "Boop-oop-a-dupe" that has almost the same flash and fire that we have all be lusting after in Clarins 230 and Fantasy Fire.

In the bottle it doesn't look like anything other than a pink shimmer....it lies!

Since the swatch pics on the Llarowe site had it over Revlon Royal I decided to do the same just for my own comparison sake. 

Here is 2 coats of Royal by itself.  There is a slight VNL (visible nail line) but I was in a hurry and I figured with what was about to happen it wouldn't really matter.  Ready?

Bam! (please excuse dry cuticles - I ran out of my reg remover and had to use straight acetone and was without cream or oil...yikes!!)

Yea sorry for the crappy cell pics, but it was a crazy busy day and a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.  These pics really dont show the full range of this polish.  It has a dramatic shift from pinks, purples, blues, greens and golds.  I could not stop looking at my nails all day. 

I used one coat of Seche Vite (even though I hate the shrinkage factor and the chip the next day factor...grr) to speed of the dry time.  Only drawback of this mani....Revlon Royal's crazy

staining.  I had never worn Royal before so I had no idea.  It's like a blue pen exploded on my hands....inky blue everywhere the second a nano drop of remover touched it.  Has this happened to anyone else? I love the color but I'm hesitant to wear it again.

Anywho, I would strongly recommend Boop-oop-a-dupe to anyone that cannot get their hands on Clarins 230 or Fantasy Fire.

One day I'll get around to doing a proper swatch of this polish.

Pretty Serious They Came From Beyond Space Collection launching tomorrow!!

Check it out.  The brilliant Kaz from Pretty Serious Cosmetics has done it again with a collection of beautiful duochrome foil polishes.  They will be available starting tomorrow on their site http://www.pretty-serious.com/.  Below is their news release

 A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... 

Just kidding.

Zooming in from the furthest reaches of the darkest corners of the cosmos, Pretty Serious Cosmetics is proud to unveil our newest mini collection:THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE!

This out of this world mini collection consists of a trio of fabulous multichrome foils that are guaranteed to put stars in your eyes.



ATOMIC BRAIN
A brain melting purple multichrome foil with extraordinary colour shifts from rich purple through to pink, plum, gold and olive bronze.



GALAXY INVADER
A mind blowing blue multichrome foil with spectacular flashes of royal blue through to aqua and purple.



PHANTOM PLANET A startling pale green multichrome foil with a stunning aqua and blue shift.

I know what you're thinking. When? Where? How? Why?

The when is November 10th, 9am AEST. The where is pretty-serious.com. The how is our secret. The why is because we love you!

RRP is $9.95, with a 10% discount for buying all three shades! Pretty Serious Cosmetics also ships worldwide. Check out our site for more details.

Bottle volume is 11ml/0.37 fl.oz. Pretty Serious Cosmetics is 100% Vegan and Cruelty Free.

I didnt know about this until today so if you want to look at swatches head over to thepolishhaven.blogspot.com to check them out!

do you Tokidoki?

I grabbed this pretty little Tokidoki nail polish in

the clearance bin at Sephora.  Who doesn't love a good sale?

This beautiful purple number is called "Stellina"

Stellina has ultra fine bright purple glitter and a large bright magenta glitters.

It goes on pretty sheer so I knew I would need to layer it over something else.  The closest purple in my stash is Sally Hansen "Vigorous Violet"....which is a great color on its own.

If you ignore the glare and my out of focus finger you can see the different glitters in the bottle....really really pretty.

I layered 1 coat of Stellina it over 2 coats of Vigorous Violet.  It applied nicely and dried quick with a roughish texture.  I used 2 coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the texture.  

It would probably take 3 coats for full opacity if you just wanted to use the glitter.

Have y'all tried any Tokidoki that you I should take a look at?

and...

here is a gratuitous pic of my Cricket to get you through the week

Butter London Friends and Family Discount

While trolling through the interwebz I stumbled across this little jewel

enjoy!!

Quick Swatch Spam - I'm not Lion

Just wanted to share a quick swatch of China Glaze's "I'm Not Lion."

If you follow my instagram (@lovelylacqueredlife) you have probably already seen it, but for those of you that don't here is a quick swatch.

This polish is a full glitter polish with a sandy/champagne color to it.  Its full of silver and light gold glitter...with a healthy dose of holographic glitter thrown in

Here is it out of focus on purpose so you can see the holo glitter going on. 

This polish is so sparkley!! Whenever my had caught the least little bit of light I would have to stop and stare.  It applied nicely, opaque in 2 coats, and dried pretty quick.  It does dry with a grainy almost matte finish.  I used two coats of Seche Vite over top to smooth out the finish and give it a great shine.....really brought out the sparkle.

Cant wait to try China Glaze's Holiday 2012 collection.  They have glitters very similar.