#TheLacquerRing: Geometric

The Lacquer Ring is back for its final prompt in July. Jessica of Once Upon a Polish picked geometric for our art theme this month. I really wanted to free hand a design this time around since my freehanding failed in June.

I started off with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff. This is a beautiful cream/off white. I love the way this polish looks and its a good alternative from stark white. 



Using acrylic paints and a tiny paint brush I freehanded this plaid look. About halfway through I decided trying to freehand a geometric look was not the best decision I've ever made. However, I rather like what I ended up with, so I'm calling it a success. 



Don't forget to check out what CynthiaAmandaLesleyFrossoJessicaSiobhan, and Nicole came up with as well.


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Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured in this post were purchased by me

Cirque Vectors and NPC Giveaway

I'm so excited to announce that I have joined up with Nail Polish Canada in their Great Polish Giveaway 2014! One winner will get to take up to 200 polishes home, each one nominated by a different blogger.


I chose to add Cirque Vectors to the giveaway. Cirque is by far my favorite indie polish maker so its normal that I would nominate one of Annie's creations. Vectors is a topper made of several different matte black glitters in a number of different shapes including bar, multi-sized hexes, circles, stars, squares, triangles, and more. It also has a smattering of holographic mini glitters in the base. Here I've layered one coat of Vectors over Morgan Taylor Pink Flame-ingo.




You can enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter link below. You can earn extra entries by visiting other blogs who have nominated a polish and entering on their Rafflecopter link as well. GOOD LUCK! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*polishes featured in this post were purchased by me

Coral nails featuring KBShimmer

Everyone knows teal is my favorite color, but if I had to choose a second, it would be all shades coral. So when KBShimmer swatches of Let's Not Coral started showing up, I knew this gorgeous creme shade had to be mine. 

This is 2 easy coats of Let's Not Coral. It applied beautifully!!! I wore this on it's own for a few days and then decided to spice it up a little bit. 




I decided to turn Let's Not Coral into Pink Turquoise (FYI I don't think pink turquoise is real, but when you google it pictures show up). I lightly used saran wrap to dap on Maybelline Color Show Onxy Rush to create the veins. I then did one light coat of OPI Man with the Golden Gun, a 14K gold topper, to add that extra pop to the manicure. 




I absolutely love the way this manicure came together. It was really fun to wear even if pink turquoise isn't a real thing. 

Do you ever wear a plain color for a while then jazz it up after a couple of days? 

Enjoy & until tomorrow, Amy Lee
*all products mentioned in this post were purchased by me

#StampingSaturday: Metro Pollen-tin

Most of the time when I go to do my nails, I know exactly what I want to do. Sometimes it doesn't always turn out the way it looks in my head, but I have a clear direction. When I set out to do my nails for this #StampingSaturday I had no idea what I wanted to do. I decided I was going to pull a polish out of my stash at random and see if it inspired me. For this little experiment, I managed to grab China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin. Metro Pollen-tin is a marigold yellow that dries to a satin finish. The formula is rather finicky, and it took me four coats to get even coverage that wasn't patchy.




I let the color and the name inspire the look I chose to do. On my thumb and pinky I added one coat of Maybelline Color Show Clearly Spotted, a black and white multi-sized hex glitter topper. On my pointer and ring finger I stamped the honeycomb pattern from Winstonia's plate W-113. On my middle finger I stamped on a bee from Bundle Monster's BM-301 plate. For a little extra oomph, I filled in a few honeycombs with Floss Gloss' Stun! 




I went from having no idea what I wanted to do, to loving this bee mani. What do you think? I love the way everything came together. 

Don't forget to link up your stamped mani below and check out everyone else too! 

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured in this post were purchased by me


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Polished by KPT: Do You Wanna Fanta?

I don't think its any secret that I'm in love with thermals. Especially thermal polishes from Polished by KPT. Katherine makes the most beautiful polishes and her color combos are to die for. When Do You Wanna Fanta? was announced, I knew it had to be mine. Immediately! Seriously, an orange to pink thermal, I could not wait. 

Here is Do You Wanna Fanta? in it's cold state. It's a beautiful bright orange filled with tiny flecks of purple, pink, and blue in it. My pictures do not do this one justice. 



Here it is in the warm state. It's a watermelon pink, those same flecks look beautiful in this state too! 



Finally, here is Do You Wanna Fanta? in it's transition state. This was the way it was on my fingers when I wore it. I love the natural gradient you get with thermals. 



If you could make a thermal, what colors would you pick?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*products featured in this post were purchased by me

Neon Vacation Mani

So in my #StampingSaturday post I told you all that I got away for the weekend. J and I met up with his family in Nantucket and had a quick weekend away. It was so great to see everyone and we had a lovely time, minus the whole lobster impersonation I'm doing currently. ;-)

Of course I had to do vacay nails, so I set out to do a look that was summery and beachy. I chose to go with a sponged, random gradient of four neons and fun accent nails. I got so many compliments over the weekend on this look, and I couldn't stop staring at it myself.

To start off, I laid down a base of LVX Fantom on my thumb, pointer, and middle finger. On my ring and pinky I applied two thick coats of FUN Lacquer PayDay! Then on a cosmetic sponge I plopped down a big drop of China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely, That's Shore Bright, Highlight of My Summer, and Hanging in the Balance. I sponged it on in a random pattern on each nail.





My studio lighting washed out the neon a little, but my outdoor picture shows it off beautifully. PayDay! was the perfect accent to that neon! 

Do you have any fun vacations planned for the rest of summer?  I can't believe it's almost August already.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured were purchased by me


#StampingSaturday: Pink over Color Me Purple

So this weekend I am lucky enough to get out of the city for the weekend. It's a refreshing to be out of the city and to enjoy clean air, beaches, and sunshine. Maybe a little too much sunshine as I totally look like a lobster after my long day.

For my Stamping Saturday look, I started with a base of Polished by KPT's Color Me Purple. This is a beautiful thermal that is a dark royal purple when cold and goes to a very light lavender when warm.




The top picture is cold, middle is transition, and bottom warm. It's a beautiful color. For my stamped look, I stamped BM-205, flowered look, with China Glaze Pool Party, a neon pink. 



The design is kind of hard to see, but its fun doodle type flowers. I really enjoyed the combo of the pink over the thermal. It made a fun look that changed based on the temperature of the polish. 

Don't forget to link up your stamped mani below. 

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured in this post were purchased by me


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#StampingSaturday: White Swirls with Blue & Silver

#StampingSaturday again? I know you are surprised that it has returned so quickly. ;-)  Today I have a look that was inspired by Coewless Polish. You can see her amazing, freehanded, look here. Since my freehanded skills are not as amazing as hers, I decided to go with a stamped look.

I started with a base of China Glaze Man Hunt and OPI It's Frosty Outside. While I have Push & Shove like the original mani, I wanted my look to last a few days so I went with the liquid sand as my choice for the silver.




I then went in with PUEEN 59 and Bundle Monster's stamping polish in Angelic White to do the swirls. My plate pattern was fairly similar to the inspiration, so of course this makes me happy. The Bundle Monster White stamping polish isn't as opaque as Konad's but it applies easily and stamps great. 




There you have it. My finished look. I got a ton of compliments on these at work yesterday. I keep flashing them in the fiances face and he's all "I get it, they are cool. Stop wiggling your fingers in my face." 

Don't forget to link up your stamped mani below. I love seeing what everyone else comes up with. 

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured in this post were purchased by me





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#TheLacquerRing: Chartreuse

The Lacquer Ring is back. Today is the first installment of July and Jessica from Once Upon a Polish has picks this month. Her first choice is the color Chartreuse. I'm not going to lie, I reverted to a 5 year old for a minute and laughed at "shart" for a minute when I heard the color choice.

Since I wasn't a 100% clear on what chartreuse is as a color, I turned to good ol' Google for answers. I learned that "chartreuse is a color halfway between yellow and green that was named because of its resemblance to the green color of one of the French liqueurs called green chartreuse, introduced in 1764." Who knew. I then thought of the perfect polish, which had been sitting in my untried pile for a bit. I give you Butter London Squatter, a color halfway between yellow and green. Now because I can't leave the Cirque Heritage collection alone (seriously, it's my polish obsession right now) I freehanded on some french tips in Cirque Panacea. 






Ahhhh, the color of pea soup. Squatter applied like a dream, this is 3 easy, thin coats. Freehand tips obviously aren't something I'm great at but I still think they are fun. 

Don't forget to check out what CynthiaAmandaLesleyFrossoJessicaSiobhan, and Nicole came up with as well.


An InLinkz Link-up

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured in this post were purchased by me

Rainbow Nails featuring Cirque

So do you all remember when I did tribal nails as part of The Lacquer Ring and I mentioned that I had an epic fail before doing the mani I actually showed you? You don't remember me telling you that? Weird. But anyways, that happened. Sadly the base I did was sooooo ah-may-zing and then I ruined it trying to freehand a tribal look. The freehand bit was terrible, but I have the awesome base to show you.  From thumb to pinky, this is Cirque Panacea, Cerrillos, Sky Woman, Xochtil, PowWow, and Luminous Owl.




That rainbow right? These holographic polishes are perfection in a bottle. I heart them so much. 

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured in this post were purchased by me

#StampingSaturday: Green Bubbles

Ok, so I get that it's actually Sunday. Apparently I suck at scheduling posts. This was intended to go up yesterday, but I fail, so instead, here it is today.

Today's look for #StampingSaturday, starts off with a base of Butter London's Trustafarian. A light green holographic polish. This is 4 thin coats. It takes at least that many coats to be fully opaque.




I then went in with Bundle Monster's Stamping Polish #8 (kelly green) and PUEEN 55 to stamp the bubbly look. I like the way this came out and the stamping polish was super smooth and transfered great. 




What do you think of this look? I'm a fan of the way it came out.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*all products featured in this post were purchased by me



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