The Fancy Side

Guest Post: Katie from Lustrous Lacquer

Monday, September 15, 2014 9/15/2014 11:00:00 AM

Hi there everyone, my name is Katie and I run the blog Lustrous Lacquer. Amy has so graciously allowed me to guest post for her today while she's away on her Honeymoon. Congratulations Amy, hope you're having a fantastic time!

For my manicure I we decided to go with a bridal shower theme. Well what's the common factor in every bridal shower? The Bride of course! I decided to go with a more elegant feel to represent the Bride, this isn't based off the bachelorette party after all.

Photo taken in lightbox

I started off with 1 coat of China Glaze heaven. This gave my nails an even look to them without looking like there was polish on them. Doing only 1 coat allowed me to still be able to see my nail line, which helped me free hand the French tips. Yes you read that right, I free handed the tips!

Using Sinful Colors Snow Me White I carefully went in and added 2 coats. I didn't worry about being perfect since I knew I would be covering the edge up. I did go in with my white striper to make the edges of the wedding dress crisp and clean.

No wedding dress would be complete without a little bling right. China Glaze Fairy Dust was the perfect addition. I wanted to make sure the necklace had a nice curve to it so I used a hole reinforcement to help with the spacing. It ended up being a bigger curve than I originally wanted, but I think it still works.

For the roses I used a green striper from Sinful Colors called Worn Before to make the stems. Revlon Vintage Rose (How perfect is that name) makes up the main color of the roses. I used Revlon Enamor and small nail art brush to highlight each petal. Sinful Colors Last Chance makes up the leaves and completes the look.

Photo taken in direct sunlight

So what do you think of this look? I don't do a lot freehand nail art, but this manicure has helped my confidence and makes me want to do more. Thanks again Amy for letting me take over your blog today. I wish you many years of wedded bliss and happiness.

*Isn't Katie's look the bombdotcom? I love that florals and dress that she did together. So beautiful! Thanks for stopping by my corner of the Internet! If you all haven't yet, go check out Katie's blog ASAP!*

#StampingSaturday: Cirque XX & Lonesome George

Saturday, September 13, 2014 9/13/2014 11:00:00 AM

I know you all are excited about Stamping Saturday, but can you just take a moment to squeal in happiness with me. As you are reading this post, I'm probably getting married, or getting ready to get married or putting my dress on or.....ok, I think you get the point. The point is IMGETTINGMARRIEDTODAY!!!! Yay!!! It's finally here. Ok, on to the look.

For this look, I started off with a base of Cirque Lonesome George. Swatches of this polish were my gateway drug to Cirque and I think you all know how out of control that obsession has gotten. This is an emerald green holographic polish, and wow, is it pretty.

I know what you are thinking...did she cut her nails? Yes, I had to nubbinize. I had a really bad low break. I patched it with the tea bag method, but the length was too much and it couldn't hold it together. The nubs allow me to use the patch and as Frosso pointed out, if a broken nail is the only thing that goes wrong for the wedding, thats a good thing. Prospective people! I've got several pre-break posts prepared for you all, so don't be shocked when my nails veer from long to short and back again.

For the next bit, on 3 of my fingers I topped LG with Cirque's XX. XX is confetti in a bottle. It's got so many different shapes, all in holographic colors that you are guaranteed to love it. On my middle and ring finger I stamped on a design from MoYou London Hipster 08 plate.

I love this design, purely because the boxes are an optical illusion. Stare at them long enough and they'll switch directions.

Don't forget, link up your stamped mani's below. My favorite part of Stamping Saturday is seeing what everyone else came up with!

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all products used in this look were purchased by me

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Guest Post: Amanda of Mae's Beauty

Friday, September 12, 2014 9/12/2014 11:00:00 AM

*I have a whole slew of guest posts and scheduled posts setup for you while I'm getting married/honeymooning. Enjoy the beautiful ladies and all the looks that will be up for the next two weeks. I'll be back before you know it!*

While Amy is away, off getting married!! and then on her honeymoon, she has asked some special gals to keep you busy while she's gone. :) I thought it only right to do wedding themed nails for the occasion. My husband and I are married 10 years now this year, I can't even believe it. We got married 10 years ago at the Justice of Peace in Texas. He was in the Army and that's where we were stationed at the time. 5 years later to the day we had a vow renewal with all of our families so they could be a part of the special day. My dress had a red accent on the front and then the back had a corset tie and that was also accented with red along with the flowers as you can see here. My nails for my special day were just straight red, so I figured I'd do a little twist but still keep true to my wedding nails. ;)

I started out with two coats of Nubar's Spirit Walker, which to me is the perfect nude. I absolutely love how creamy this color is. If you look closely (more in person than in these pics) it's got a subtle almost light pink shimmer to it.

I just got a bunch more MoYou plates (like I needed them LOL) and one of them is from the Bridal Collection, it's Bridal Collection Plate 07. I used this beautiful half lace design with a flower and tried to place it just so that part of the nude was peeking out. I used China Glaze's Adventure Red-y, this red is gorgeous and I love how it stamped and looked alongside the nude. See for yourself ;)

Alright gals and possibly guys, I hoped you enjoyed my post in Amy's absence. Be sure to wish her well on her wedding day, and depending on when she posts this if it already happened, wish her a safe and Happy ;) :o trip. We miss you Amy, come back soon!!

*I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I now need that nubar in my life. I love that Amanda showed us her dress, she looks absoluetly stunning in it! Thanks for stopping by Amanda. Be sure to check her out over at Mae's Beauty!*

#TheLacquerRing: Gold

Thursday, September 11, 2014 9/11/2014 11:00:00 AM

#TheLacquerRing is back. This time the lovely Sibohan of For the Love of Nail Art had the pleasure of September picks. Since all of us know Sib well, it was no surprise when she announced that GOLD would be her color of choice. We don't call her the Gold Masta for nothing. ;-)

For my look I started off with a base of LVX Fantom, the perfect white. Seriously, love it so much. I then topped it with a generous coat of Nicole by OPI My Lips are Dripping Honey. This is a holographic gold hex glitter topper that screams Sibohan to me.

While that gold topper is pretty, it just wasn't enough. I needed to get mooooooore gold (Austin Powers anyone?) in this mani. I was inspired by this look from Pshiiit Polish, I went for a similar look in gold. I know she freehanded hers, but I did mine with two layers of striping tape. First I taped off the black chevron (Maybelline Color Show Onxy Rush) and then when that was dry added in the gold chevron (China Glaze Angel Wings).

So what do you think? I love the end result even if it does look a bit like CheerLeader Uniforms on crack. Don't forget to check out all the other gold mani's that Cynthia, Amanda, Lesley, Frosso, Jessica, Siobhan, and Nicole came up with as well. You can see their looks below.

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Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*all products used in this look were purchased by me

Rouge Louboutin

Tuesday, September 9, 2014 9/09/2014 10:36:00 PM

The future in-laws were in town a few weeks ago and when we went out to breakfast they handed me the best present ever. Christian Louboutin polish in Rouge Louboutin. I think it's safe to say they know and love me, because this present was spot on. ;-)

If you don't know the story, the first time Louboutin gave one of his shoes the signature red bottom, he did it using a bottle of red polish. That's why this polish and it's bottle are so special.

More than anything I wanted the polish for the bottle, because that by itself is an art piece. I didn't think much about the actual polish. "Eeh, it's another red" I thought. It is a pretty standard red, but the formula, the formula is outstanding. This is one coat. ONE! Not only that, but I wore this polish for 8 (EIGHT!) days and had minimal tip wear. I did all the normal things while wearing this polish. Typing, using tools, playing with dogs, cooking, cleaning, you name it this polish went through it. It looked practically perfect when I took it off.

I'm not going to lie, the polish is insanely expensive. Is it worth it? That's up to you. You can find similar reds for much cheaper. I would have bought it if it hadn't been a gift, but like I said, purely for the bottle. What do you think of it?

Enjoy & until next, Amy Lee

*polish used in this post was a gift

#StampingSaturday with ILNP Iconic & Fall Semester

Saturday, September 6, 2014 9/06/2014 08:18:00 PM

OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS!!!! Exactly a week from today I will be getting married!!! There is still so much to do, but its so close. I cannot wait. AAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Anyways, I have a fun look for Stamping Saturday! I started off with a base of I Love Nail Polish's Iconic. This is a beautiful gold holographic polish that seems to shift a little pink in some lights. It's amazing and I'm in love with it.

I then stamped it using ILNP Fall Semester, because one holographic polish wasn't enough. ;-) I used several different chevron designs off of MoYou London UK Fashionista Plate 04.

The holographic polishes made this look difficult to capture. I hope you manage to see it though, because it was so pretty in real life.

Don't forget to link up your look below. It's always so much fun to see what everyone else is doing!

Enjoy & until next time, Amy Lee

*products used in this post were purchased by me

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Zoya Entice & Ignite Pairings

Wednesday, September 3, 2014 9/03/2014 06:04:00 PM

*PR Sample

I've shown you the Zoya Entice and Ignite collections already. While one of these collections is all cremes and the other is all metallics, they pair up so well. It makes for some fun tone on tone nail art if you pair them up together.

This pairing is Nyssa with Autumn for the art. I used KBShimmer's Tribal Themed nail vinyls to create the patterns for this look.

Next we have Genevieve with Yuna. To make the ellipses in the middle, I crossed two french tip stickers on each nail.

Ryan pairs beautifully with Remy. For this look I used striping tape to add some racing stripes down the middle of each nail.

Margo and Sansa are the two purples in the collections. However they are very different purples, so their pairing isn't as seamless as the others. I freehanded some side frenches with Sansa for this look.