Sunday, November 30, 2014

Mustache Nails for Movember

Wow November went by fast! Before the month ends, I gotta share this manicure with you guys that I wore a few weeks back for Movember! I wasn't really sure what the real meaning of Movember was besides guys growing mustaches and nail addicts doing mustache manicures so I decided to look it up. In case any of you didn't know either, men grow out their mustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues like prostate cancer.

I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and stamped using MoYou London Hipster 07 in Mundo de Unas 2. The pink creme is OPI Suzi Has A Swede Tooth and the pink glitter is Zoya Pixie Dust Arabella.

I had all of last week off and did some swatching (haven't done that since last year in December!) and a lot of manis to share with you throughout December. Can't wait to share them with you all!




Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Birthday Nails for the Birthday Queen

Good morning my loves! My birthday was actually yesterday, but I was too caught up enjoying the day off with my husband that I forgot to post my birthday manicure. I didn't have time to do a proper birthday manicure last year, so I wanted these to have a very obvious birthday design.

For my index finger I used OPI Hey Baby and stamped using MoYou London Pro 08 XL in Color Club Harp On It for the holo diamond background. Then I stamped using MoYou London Happy Birthday 01 for the word "birthday" and MoYou London Pro 08 XL for the word "queen" in Mundo de Unas 2. I did the same background for my middle finger and the crown image is from Red Angel RA-119. My ring finger has China Glaze Liquid Leather stamped using MoYou London Pro 08 XL in Color Club Harp On It. The glitter on my pinky is from OPI I Snow You Love Me.

These were so fun to wear this week and people really noticed them. I had a great birthday weekend. My husband got my name tattooed on him, he got me a Louis Vuitton purse, and an iPhone 6 plus! I'm a happy wife!



Saturday, November 22, 2014

Madam Glam Gel Polish--Review


Good morning lacqueristas! I have a couple of posts lined up this week for you. I'm off of work and school all next week so I have a bit of extra time to play with my nails! 

Today I have a review of Madam Glam Soak-Off Gel Polish. I was contacted a few weeks ago by Laura of Madam Glam to see if I would be interested in reviewing their new gel line. I was hesitant since I've only had one previous experience using gel polish last year and I didn't really care for it, but since I have a full-time job now and I only change my polish once a week, I decided to try gel again--and I'm so glad I did! 

I was sent a Base Coat Gel, Gel Polish in #3 Blood Orange, and Top Coat Gel. I applied the base, cured, color, cured, another coat of color, cured, stamped (optional), topcoated, cured, and then removed the tacky layer with alcohol. I couldn't bear to wear the polish without art, so I stamped using MoYou London Artist 09 in Mundo de Uñas 17. Here's how it turned out!



The polish name isn't on the bottle, but there is a color swatch on top of the cap that is true to color.

I wore the polish for 10 days without any chipping and no tip wear. I could have easily got another week or more out of this mani, but 10 days was already a long time for me without changing up my nails. After 10 days, it still looked as shiny as the day I applied it! My nail art started rubbing off a bit on my index nail, but I read up a bit on stamping over gel since then and others recommend doing 2 coats of top coat over stamping. Here it is at 10 days:



I soaked my gel off using the foil method for 10 minutes and removal was pretty easy. Of course it takes longer than removing regular nail polish, which I need to get used to, but my nails weren't damaged at all and it's totally worth the amount of wear you can get out of one manicure. 

So my final thoughts? I was impressed and pleasantly surprised. I received so many compliments on my nails for the time I wore this mani. Application was easy, wear couldn't have been better, and removal was easy. You can purchase Madam Glam Soak-Off Gel Polish here for $19.95 each and get 30% off using coupon code YGEL30OFF. Don't be surprised if you start seeing a lot more gel polish from me! 




Saturday, November 15, 2014

OPI Nordic Watermarble

Happy Saturday my friends! I have a quick post for you today as my Saturday is flying by as usual. I swear every weekend I have a whole to-do list and end up lounging around and online shopping and then I end up getting to only 1 or 2 items on my to-do list.

Here I have a water marble accent nail using OPI With a Nice Finn-ish, OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid, OPI Ice-Bergers & Fries, and OPI Going My Way or Nor-Way all from the OPI Nordic Collection. Index and pinky have OPI With a Nice Finn-ish and middle finger has OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid. I used the decal method where you create the design in the water, but instead of dipping your finger in, you let the polish dry for at least 20 minutes, take the whole piece out, cut a piece for your nail and then use like a decal. It definitely has a learning curve, but I will be trying out that method again! See you all next week with a review of gel polish--my second experience with gel ever.




Friday, November 7, 2014

OPI Get Cherried Away & MoYou London Explorer 05

Happy Friday and hello 3-day weekend! This week felt long and was really stressful so thankfully I was able to leave work a few hours early for a mental health half day. I just had a lovely nap and I'm feeling better already. Too bad I'm currently wearing gel polish for review otherwise I would be doing my nails. I can't complain though, my nails still look as fresh as they did the day I painted them.

Today I have a mani I wore a few weeks back. I had 1 hour to do them before going out with some friends so I did something super simple and just stamped accents on my ring fingers and thumbs. Here's OPI Get Cherried Away stamped using MoYou London Explorer 05 in Mundo de Unas 17. The studs are from Born Pretty Store. 1 hour probably seems like plenty of time for you gals to do your nails, but I typically like to allot myself 2 hours for painting them, adding nail art (usually stamping), cleaning up, and taking pictures. How long do you gals usually spend doing your nails?



Isn't this color divine?! <3


Sunday, November 2, 2014

Creepy Halloween Crawlers

Happy belated Halloween! Unfortunately I'm 2 days late posting these, but the good news is I was able to do 3 Halloween manis which was more than I could have hoped for. I worked on Halloween and it was nice because one of my co-workers brought a huge bag of wings and different headbands and costume pieces so I used a tiara and some fairy wings. I suppose I was a fairy princess. After work Mr. HeartNAT and I went to my sister and her husband's place for a night of scary movies which was perfect since it was rainy. Onto my nails!

Index and middle: Color Club Harp On It stamped using Bunny Nails HD-C in Mundo de Unas #2.
Ring: China Glaze Liquid Leather stamped using Bunny Nails HD-C in Color Club Harp On It.
Pinky: Zoya Pixie Dust Dhara (with top coat).