#TheLacquerRing: Gradient

So Cynthia chose gradients for our second #TheLacquerRing prompt of February. I went into this one thinking "I've got this...I'm good at gradients." Well I got a little cocky about my gradient skills and I did a terrible job. It took so long to get this done that the art I had planned for on top just didn't happen.

So here's my terrible gradient. It's made with OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-go?, Can't Afjord Not To, and Live.Love.Carnival.



This look turned out rather neon so I have two different lighting setups for you to see the color. It was a bright one. 

 Be sure to check out the other gradients from AmandaLesleyJessicaNicoleVoniFrosso, and Cynthia below. 

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased


'You're So Shellfish' why don't you 'Mauve on Over'

Do you like what I did with the title there? I'm so punny! LOL! I can't stop! 

 I've been wanting to use KBShimmer's Mauve on Over for a while. I finally put it on my fingers and fell in love. I cannot get enough of this color combination. The light purple base filled with navy, turquoise, and orange glitters speaks to me in a good way. 




I decided to pair Mauve on Over with KBShimmer's You're So Shellfish. It's the perfect match. The bright orange creme is the perfect pair to the orange glitters in Mauve on Over. I detailed the hearts with Kiko #265 a navy that goes with the navy glitters. 




I'm loving these hearts, they are so fun and cheeky. The details really make it for me. What do you think?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased

Glam Polish Welcome to the 60s

Hey y'all!! How're things going? Did you all enjoy your weekend? Mine was quick but great with a trip to Chicago for my niece's 6th birthday. I then came back and jumped into a new job so lots of training and learning currently for me. 

Today I have a simple swatch for you. However this polish is SOOOOOO pretty that I can't bring myself to cover it up with anything. This is Glam Polish Welcome to the 60s. This is a gold ultra holo glitter but mixed in is pink hexes and some white matte hexes as well. Over all the polish is one of my favorites right now. I keep wanting to reach for it again and again. 




My application was three thin easy coats. No issues here. Look at that shine!!!

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased

#Stamping Saturday: Hexagons

When I was trying to find inspiration for today's look I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I ended up trolling pinterest and I found this print. Inspiration hit. I could adapt it to use it for #StampingSaturday which I love. I started with a base of OPI's I Have a Herring Problem. IHAHP is a dusty blue filled with shimmer. 




I then stamped on a hexagon with Winstonia W-113 and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Finally I took OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid (teal) and Can't Afjord Not To (coral) and filled in some of the hexes with a teeny-tiny paint brush.




In the end I feel its a good interpretation of my inspiration picture, but translated onto my nails it looks kinda like old school flooring tiles. I do love the color combo though. These are all great together. Be sure to check out all the other lovely ladies who created stamped looks today.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased

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Negative Space & NYFW

So if y'all follow me over on Instagram last Friday you got spammed by my backstage NYFW experience. I was lucky enough to be part of Team Cirque and got to go backstage to prep and apply nails. Backstage at NYFW is crazy, it's barely organized chaos. For every model there is at least two makeup people, a hair stylist, coordinator, press, photographer, nail person and more. There were 25 models in the show, so imagine how many people were working together to pull the show off. 

This was the look I wore backstage. Since I was on Team Cirque I wanted to wear one of Annie's beautiful creations. I started with a base coat and applied right angle nail vinyls to create a negative space. The black is two coats of Zoya Willa*. After removing the vinyl guides, I added Cirque Le Invader to the bottom half of the nail. Finally I matted the whole thing. 




What do you think of my first go at negative space? I kinda hate it. I think if the spaces were thinner I'd like it more, but it isn't my favorite look I've ever done.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*denotes press sample

Colores de Carol Fury

Since it was Valentine's lovey-dovey season, I wanted to wear a pretty red. Colores de Carol Fury was a natural choice for me. Fury is a bright red jelly filled with red and silver holographic glitters. The sparkle is subdued in inside light, but when you get it outside in the sun...WOWZA! 

This swatch is 3 thin coats. I did have to add in some dry time between each coat to minimize dragging but other than that application was fairly easy. 




I did intend to do some valentine stamping over this but things went horribly wrong and disasticure was the result. Instead of seeing that, we'll just admire the pretty red sparkles, yes?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased

#StampingSaturday: Happy Valentines Day!

Hey y'all! It's been a crazy whirlwind week for me. I've been looking at apartments, going on interviews, working New York Fashion Week, puppysitting, and more. If you don't follow me on Instagram, go check out my feed to see all the behind the scenes shots from my NYFW experience. It was crazy cool, emphasis on the crazy. 

Today for #StampingSaturday I'm bringing you a neutral based Valentine's look. I started with a base of Butter London's Cuppa, a beautiful tan cream. It's the exact shade of your tea after a splash of milk. Yum! On my thumb and ring finger I used Barry M Duchess, a beautiful rose gold textured polish. Love this one! 




I then used Orly Rage, a beautiful rose gold shade to stamp on some hearts. It's a subtle rose gold look, but if you know me, you know I love rose gold, so win win!!! I know the plate is a Bundle Monster plate but I don't know the # off the top of my head. Sorry. 




There it is. Do you all have special plans for Valentine's Day? Or will you be participating in Galentine's Day?

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased


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#TheLacquerRing: Purple

#TheLacquerRing is back for the month of February. Cynthia, Of Life and Lacquer, has picks this month. For her color choice she went with purple. I can get on board with purple. 

For this look, I started with what else, a purple base. This is Models Own Purple Rain. It's ok if you start singing the song, I haven't been able to get it out of my head while wearing this polish. Purple Rain is a deep grape purple that leans deep blue in some lighting. This was two easy coats, no application problems at all. 




After my base was all dry then the fun really began. I laid down some striping tape in a simple pattern and then put down two coats of F.U.N. Lacquer Evening Gown. Evening Gown is an intense dark purple filled with linear holographic rainbows. 




I'm in love with this look y'all. I want to do more of these color on color striping looks. I'm in love with that holo from F.U.N. Lacquer. Meow!!  Be sure to check out the other purple looks from Amanda, Lesley, Jessica, Nicole, Voni, Frosso, and Cynthia below. 


An InLinkz Link-up

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased

Essie Cashmere Bathrobe

Today I have a quick swatch for you all! I cannot get enough of grey polishes lately. There is something so chic about a grey polish. Today I have Essie Cashmere Bathrobe for you. I'd kill for a Cashmere Bathrobe, but I'll just have to be satisfied with it on my fingertips.

CB is a deep grey with subtle shimmer throughout. The shimmer takes it from plain jane to subtle fancy and I really love it.





Are there any certain colors that you keep wearing over and over again? I go through phases and I'm in a definite grey phase lately.

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased

GIVEAWAY: Azature Wine Diamond

Over the weekend I hit a really cool milestone on Instagram. Officially I have hit 1K followers on Instagram and I think it calls for a celebration. YAAAAY! And by celebration I mean GIVEAWAY! I'm absolutely humbled that so many of you follow along on this journey! 

Today I'm going to be giving away a bottle of Azature Wine Diamond. Azature is known for having a fully faceted black diamond in every bottle of polish and let me tell you their prices reflect that. So here is Wine Diamond. It is a deep merlot wine shade filled with beautiful lavender sparkles. This is two coats. This does dry to a grittier finish, so I recommend a layer of topcoat to make it super smooth. 





Good luck!!! I wish I had enough money to send you all a pretty present but until I win the lottery this will have to do!!!

**This is open internationally but please don't enter if you know your customs won't let it through**

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased
a Rafflecopter giveaway

#StampingSaturday: Lined Maleficium

Y'all!!! I just realized that we've officially been doing #StampingSaturday's for over a year. In fact we're two weeks past the year mark. Thats crazy town! I think we need to do something to celebrate. I'll have to talk it over with the girls and see if we can come up with something!

Anywho...sometimes I just throw a stamp over whatever polish I'm currently wearing and sometimes I meticulously plan out my look. This week, I picked several polishes in a rose gold/neutral theme to pair with a heart stamp. I took my time and applied all the polishes and stamped it. It was awesome. Then....I took it off later without taking pictures of it. Whoomp whoomp whooooomp! I don't know how I never took pictures of it, but they just didn't happen. So then I just threw a stamp over the polish I had on. So much for planning.

The polish I happened to have on is insanely gorgeous. I've been obsessing over this polish and I'm glad I managed to get it. This is Pretty & Polished Maleficium. I had no idea what the name means so I looked it up. This white crelly base is filled with color shifting multichrome flakies.




Pretty huh? I tried my first macro there, I hope its ok. Next I stamped on some lines from BM-316 with Konad Black. I wanted something that was open enough to let the polish still shine through. It's too pretty to cover up.





Sadly some of my lines smeared but I still like the overall look. What do you think? Be sure to check out all the other stamped looks below! I love seeing what everyone comes up with. 

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee
*self purchased


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Zoya Delight Collection for Spring

*pr sample
Today I have the Zoya Delight collection to show you. This is their spring collection and I'm in love. There are 3 cremes and 3 cremes with shimmers in this collection and let me tell you they are super pretty. I cannot wait for the cold weather to go away and for beautiful weather to start again. 

Lets start with the creme polishes and my absolute favorite from this collection. This is Zoya Tiana, which is a light pistachio green color. My swatch is two perfect coats. 



Next up is Zoya Lillian a creamy faded aquamarine polish. Again, my swatch is two easy coats. 



The third and final creme is Eden a perfect springy pink. Two easy coats make up this swatch. 



Now on to the cremes with shimmer. All of these have the same beautiful blue shimmer in them. It's so pretty in these combos. Up first, my favorite of these three is Rayne. Rayne is a little sheer so it took 3 coats for full coverage.  



Next is Daisy, a yellow lemon polish filled with a beautiful blue shimmer. Daisy is again a little sheer so I've used three thin coats here. 



Finally, there is Leslie. My friend Lesley has declared it the best, purely because of the name. This is a soft lavender polish filled with that beautiful shimmer. Of the three shimmers this one is the most opaque and only took two coats for full coverage. 




The Spring Delight 2015 Collection from Zoya is available for purchase at zoya.com. Each one retails for $9.00 and the entire set of six can be purchased for $54. 

Which color is your favorite? 

Enjoy & Until next time, Amy Lee
*press samples
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