Two polishes from LynB Designs

Hello lovelies!  Today I tried to get an early start to my blog post and I was doing fine until I had to go get new boots.  I swear I am going to start posting at a normal hour one day.  In the mean time however you can follow me on bloglovin and get my posts that way or even on google friend connect!  There are buttons all along the side here to let you do that!

Anyway today I am sharing with you two polishes from a collection that I swear I will complete one day!  LynB Designs has a ton of great collections and these polishes are from the Princess Bride collection.  Growing up this was one of my favorite movies ever!  When I saw this collection I knew I had to have it!  I only have two from this collection but I am planning on getting the rest very soon.

First up I have Don't Torture Me.  I grabbed this blurb from the site because it is perfectly descriptive! "Based on the albino torture master, this polish is a light blurple with white flakies." Words can not even describe how in love with this polish I am! So here are some pictures and perhaps you will understand!

The white glitter/flakies are so subtle and stunning!  The polish is a little on the sheer side so I did three coats of polish with one coat of Seche on top.  The effect of the glitters is just absolutely amazing since they aren't super in your face.

Next up I have Let's Get Mawwied. Again words can not describe how much I love this color!  This polish consists of a creamy white base that is loaded with pastel hexagons in all sorts of colors and sizes. Including extremely tiny baby blue hexes.

As I said before there are really no words for this polish!  I did one coat of this over a plain white polish and a top coat of Seche.  I love it so much and already have an Easter mani planned for it!   The owner is on vacation until January 3rd but her shop has remained open in order for you to go grab this ASAP!

So there you have it lovelies!  Two amazing polishes that I think are a definite must have in any collection.  Stay tuned tomorrow for some KBShimmer Polishes!!

Gothic Gala Lacquers - Welcome to the Ball

Hello lovelies!  What a day I have had!  fighting with the post office, fighting with customer service people, trying to get another company to get back to me for the fifteenth time in a month!  Just ugh!  So I decided to come and do my nails and share with you all a nifty little trick I have learned when dealing with glitter nail polish.

I love the way glitter polishes look.  I can't help it I am a glitter head!  However I do NOT have the patience to deal with them when removing the polish itself.  Most everyone I know tells me to wrap my nails in a drenched cotton ball and foil and wait a minute or two and then just pull it off.  Well if I had a free minute or two to sit at my desk looking like I am protection my nails from the government agencies spies I would have a free minute to sit and have a cup of coffee!  Anyway my point is that I needed something quicker and easier to deal with while I am in the process of taking care of my mini farm and kids!

That is when I came across the Elmer's Glue trick!  It is pretty brilliant actually.  I mean when I was a kid (okay so I still do it sometimes but don't judge) I used to smear Elmer's Glue all over my hands and then peel it off with ease!  So here is what you do:

1. Take an empty bottle of nail polish that you have laying around.  You can even empty one if you have a really old one that you just don't use anymore.
2. Fill it with a bit of nail polish remover to clean it out really well.  Just fill it a quarter of the way and put the lid on and shake the crud out of it!
3. Rinse said polish remover out of the bottle and let it stand open over night to air dry.
4. Pour in Elmer's school glue and ad a few drops of water.  You can skip the water if you want to but I thought it was way too thick for a base coat to not thin it out.

 That's it!  Now you have a peel off base coat without spending a bunch!  Keep in mind you have to let the Elmer's Glue dry completely before polishing your nails.  This takes about five minutes but since I do my nails one hand at a time it doesn't effect me as much as the foil trick.

Now I wanted to show you a glitter polish with this trick because I have to prove that it works right?  So I decided on Gothic Gala Lacquers Welcome to the Ball!  I know I have reviewed a lot of Gothic Gala Lacquers lately but honestly I am just in love with this polish!  There are so many great shades and glitter combinations to choose from in her shop and I feel that her combinations are truly unique.  I love other indie brands as well don't get me wrong but when I see makers copying other makers design and vibe it kind of irks me.  I want to feel like the nail polish I am buying is something that the maker put time and thought and feeling behind.  Not just oh hey circle glitters in dark bases are a thing now so let's all make them.

Uniqueness is huge for me when I am paying higher prices for a hand made item.  I wouldn't want to pay $10.00 a bottle for a mass produced polish.  I guess this is why I really only have drugstore brands in my regular collection.

Anyway enough of my ranting!  The pictures below show my Elmer's Glue base with 3 coats of Welcome to the Ball and one coat of Seche to top it off.  Have you ever had that "this is what has been missing in my life" feeling?  Because as I was putting this polish on that is exactly what it felt like!  It is such an amazingly stunning color in a black holographic base and so much glitter! There are shards and hexes a plenty!  I really love the layering effect that the holographic black gives to the glitters.  I honestly wish I could have taken a picture in the sunlight but alas it is night time!  As quoted from the listing this polish is "A disco ball in a bottle."

Let's start with the review pictures first!  The last picture is out of focus on purpose to show off the amazing sparkle this polish has.

Okay, did you see that!  Such amazing sparkle!  Now keep in mind that I am VERY impatient with glitters so your glitter results will most likely vary from mine.  Given that I still have a crap ton of glitters on each finger!

And now for the Elmer's glue awesomeness!

 I have heard to use an orange stick however I just used my cuticle pusher.

 This was just two pushes!

Yup it was that easy!  All glitter came right off!!

So in short go get Welcome to the Ball asap! Also I hear there was a reformulation of it in the works so Be prepared for a side by side review in the future.  I hope you liked this post and be sure to check back tomorrow for some Lucky 13 Lacquer reviews!

Just some stamping ... what could go wrong?

Hello lovelies!  I hope you all had a very very merry Christmas (or insert holiday here)!  I had a pretty good one except for the stupid stomach bug that apparently just had to prevent me from stuffing myself to the point of passing out!  Anyway I decided tonight to use my Christmas present from last year to do a bit of stamping!


I did one coat of Essie's Mint Candy Apple as a base and then added Enchanted Polish in A Little Fishy Told Me which I received from a friend as the topper.  Then it was a simple stamp on each tip and oi la!

And then I woke up from my little dream world!  I did do all of those steps however it was far from easy!  My Essie was not cooperating and decided to be streaky.  My pinkie nail kept crinkling under the stamper.  And my stamps didn't come out quite right!

However, despite all of that, I am actually pretty happy with the outcome.  I guess it just goes to show that even if it isn't perfect it can still be down right pretty!  Anyway onto the pictures!!

Well there you have it lovelies!  I am exhausted and thinking my pillow misses me as much as I miss it!  I will be showing off a bunch of glitter polishes I have tomorrow since I made my very own glitter base coat with Elmer's glue! 

Good night lovelies and sweet dreams!

Christmas Eve - Nail Art

Hello lovelies!  I don't really have a review for you today as it is Christmas even and I am in a frantic state of mind due to a severe lack of Christmas cookies this year.  However I wanted to take a break from my truly insane life to share with you two manis I have done this year for the holidays!  I am never very good at following tutorial videos so I tend to just do a Google search for nail art and go with what I like.  Also be sure to read to the bottom of this post since I have a very special announcement that I am only telling to my blog readers at this point!

First up I have a wonderful little swirl design I did using negative space!

This looks was very simply achieved by one stroke of silver diagonally up my nail and then one stroke of Zoya in Dream diagonally in the other direction.  Then I just did two simple squiggles one in white and one in black.  I finish it off with a dotting tool and some Seche on top!

My next mani is my Christmas mani this year and I have to say I really love it!  For this manicure I used the same technique but I added rhinestones!  The red is +Zoya Nail Polish & Treatments pixie dust in Chyna and the silver glitter is Hard Candy Celebrate Sequins.  I then added red rhinestones to the edge!  I also used Gothic Gala Lacquers "Smooth me Over" to help keep the rhinestones in place!

 I really love this look for the holiday since it isn't too in your face Christmas.  I am also really loving the use of negative space right now so you can definitely expect to see more manicures like this in the future!

Okay lovelies now on to the big news! (insert drum roll here!) I will be starting my own line of polish!  Yes you heard correctly!  Things and ideas and business plans are in the works and the projected date of opening will be April 11th of this coming year!  I have a feeling that this year will be bringing a lot of changes for myself and I am hoping to make the best of all of them!  I will most likely not be posting tomorrow since it is Christmas day but who knows I may just have to!

Tootles lovelies!!

Picture Polish - Whimsy

Hello Lovelies!! I hope you all enjoyed the interview last night!  I was so very nervous about interviewing Samantha!  Today has been a pretty productive day for me since I have reorganized all of my nail polish!  I will most likely be putting up a Blog Sale page soon to try and clear out some of this mess! 

Today I am going to share with you a polish I wanted so badly to love!  I Have been in search of the perfect baby blue for the past couple of years and as soon as I saw this I thought I had found the one!  It is a GORGEOUS aqua blue creme with just a hint of gold shimmer.  The color in the bottle is very true to what appears on your nail except for one small problem.  This polish is very streaky!  I did three generous coats of this with no undies and I can still see spots in my pictures that aren't quite full coverage.  If you want to try it out for yourself and you are in the United States you can purchase this from Llarowe.  Honestly the price and the streaks have turned me off of piCture pOlish for now.  It is really hard for me to justify spending such a high price for a cream polish that is not full coverage in at least two coats.

Onto the pictures!  Again please do no let me scare you of of this polish as it has the potential to be absolutely stunning!  I may have gotten a bad bottle!  I really really wanted to adore this polish but I just can't seem to get it to cooperate with me.

Without flash - 

 

In this picture you can really see the streaks and the visible nail line.

 

With flash - 

Well there you have it lovelies!  My disappointing first experience with piCture pOlish.  Let me know what you think!  Have you had wonderful experiences with this brand?  Please feel free to share them with me below!  I really wanted to love this brand!

Interview with Samantha of Gothic Gala Lacquers - Something's F*cky, Shop Teal You Drop, Njord

Hello Lovelies!  Sorry for the lack of post last night but I was exhausted!  I went and picked up my son for his 24 day visit and man was that hectic!  I had to rush through security to get to the gate on time!  I don't do well with crowds so being at JFK airport with thousands of people was a rather nerve racking experience for me.

Anyway tonight I have a very special treat for you lovelies!  I have been singing the praises of Gothic Gala Lacquers for a while now and thought that you all would be interested in a small peak at the life of an indie maker!  I was able to sit down and chat with +Samantha Rigge, the maker of Gothic Gala Lacquers, who was kind enough to answer my questions.  This is my first interview ever so please bear with me while I stumble through! My questions will be in blue and the answers in red!

Why did you decide to start your own line?

I had never been much into polish.  Always thought most of what was out there was pretty boring.  Then I discovered Digital Nails or Accio Lacquer.  I can't remember who came first but one led to the other and I was like "whoa, what is this goodness???"  So I drooled over a few and did some learning about indies in general before discovering that I could actually make polishes.  So I though about it and since my salon business wasn't really doing well I figured I would at least try and see what happens.

 That is super cool! Where do you get inspiration for your polishes?

Everything around me is a possible inspiration. A TV show, a song, a book. I honestly never know what is going to pop into my head. Sometimes I will just have materials sitting in front of me and wonder what would happen if I mixed this, this and this.

I can totally see that! you said you also have a salon business as well? How long have you been in the beauty industry? 

I have been a licensed cosmetologist for 9 years. Working in salons off and on. There was about 5 years that I was off due to medical issues, but once those had been remedied I jumped back in with both feet.

Cosmetology is a very creative field! Would you say you have always been a creative person or is it something you have to work at? I guess I mean is it second nature to you?

I've always had some outlet for trying to be creative. I have my little crafts that I've always done. Tried my hand at photography, even in nerdy ways such as Role Playing where I would have to write and create a storyline. Most things that really draw me in though seem to involve color.

Oh how I love crafting! I am really into cross stitching right now but I love to crochet ... Once you have an idea for a new polish what is your process?

I totally have an on again off again relationship with cross stitching! ... Once I have an idea then I try to take the picture in my head and put it into polish form. Mixing colors and adding glitter, swatching it, hating it, figuring out what I need to tweak. Then it has to sit to make sure the polish doesn't turn weird, nothing has bled. Lots of just random swatching

Is there anything you would like to add? I am a huge fan of your polish and can think of a million things to say about that all the time but when it comes to interviews I generally draw blanks.

I love what I do, it's hard work and can be really challenging at times, but I still enjoy it. Sometimes you get negative feedback back and that can be tough to deal with but I just try to make it a learning experience and move on from there.

There are so many talented women out there and I appreciate everybody in the nail community that has been so supportive and encouraging.

 You are awesome! Do you have any tips for someone looking to start their own line? 

Research research research! When I got into this I didn't know anywhere as much as I probably should have. But if somebody really wants to do it, then I say go for it! Don't let negativity around you stop you!

 You are so awesome for doing this! Thank you so much for your time.

Glad to do it!

 So there yo have it lovelies!  A little peak into the world of Indie Polish Making!  I hope to do more interviews in the future but for now onto the polishes of the evening!

First up is Something's F*cky.  This polish has a scattered holo in a creme teal base.  The holo in this leans toward linear but I would definitely classify it is a scatter.  I am showing two coats of Something's F*cky with one coat of Seche Vite.  Teal is usually not in my favorite colors but the holographic properties make this polish absolutely stunning!  I am also happy to report that there is no staining with this polish which was a big concern for me with how rich the blue is in this teal.

Next we have a limited edition called Shop Teal Your Drop.  This polish was released with the Black Friday deals and it was free with an order totaling a certain amount!  This polish is a gorgeous metallic teal with a slight holographic effect to it!  If you ever see one of these up for swap I highly recommend getting it!  My swatches show two coats of Shop Teal You Drop with one coat of Seche Vite atop!

 

And last, but certainly not least, we have Njord.  Njord is an aqua base with dark blue shreds, green/blue micro flakes with various shades of blue hex glitter!  The glitters in this polish are absolutely amazing!  I love shard glitters and they came out and onto my nail with no issue at all!  The base is pretty sheer so I did three coats in my swatch and I am in love with the result.  I am planning on wearing this New Year's Eve over black!

Well there you have it lovelies!  Now I am off to fix my battle station up and clean off my desk!  I need to do some SERIOUS organizing.  Do any of you actually believe that I am going to go do this? HA!