Liquid Lacquer Ladie Eve

I've got one of my favorite indie polish makers today, Liquid Lacquer.  Unfortunately, the shop is closed and has been for a while.  I don't have a huge indie collection, but these were some of my first and the quality is excellent on all of the ones I have.

I have a thing for gray polish, so I grabbed this during a sale.  I am not a fan of pink, but love this combination.  It's a grey and pink version of one of the very first Liquid Lacquer polishes that I purchased Sexy Secretary (taupe and orange) which I absolutely love.  Ladie Eve is a cool gray jelly with magenta and baby pink circles, and smaller magenta glitters.  

I decided to layer this over Sinful Colors Cool Gray to save on coats.  Sexy Secretary took 4 coats to be opaque enough for my liking, so I knew this would take about the same as they are very similar in consistency.  I picked up Cool Gray at Walgreens for 99 cents and its application was perfect.  This is 2 coats of Cool Gray.

Cool Gray was the perfect match for the jelly base of Ladie Eve.  Two Coats of Ladie Eve and a top coat completed the look.  I've been using Out the Door top coat and I've been loving it.  It doesn't shrink on me and chips less than other fast dry top coats.

Do you love indie polish?  Who are your favorite makers?

All products purchased by me.

Stamping Saturday

My birthday was last weekend and my husband asked me what I wanted.  He assumed I wanted polish, but I had been eyeing the new Pueen Buffet Stamping Plates that just came out.  They were sold out at Pueen, but Amazon had them.  The reviews from the other stampers have been nothing short of fantastic, so that's what he got me along with the Pueen Love Elements set.  I've done some test stamps with both sets and the quality is great.  Every image I've tried is etched perfectly and stamps cleanly and clearly.

I used plate 46 from the Love Elements set.  I stamped with my Winstonia squishy stamper.

I started with 2 coats of Can We Carol on from Different Dimensions which you can find here.  It is a pale lavender holographic shown on the wheel below.  

Then I stamped with Funky Fingers Keyan Sunset.  You can find Funky Fingers polish at Five Below stores, not sure if this one is still available. Kenyan Sunset is  thick making it perfect for stamping.  It is a holographic royal purple but the holo doesn't really show up on the wheel, it does sparkle in the sunlight though and the formula is really nice as a base color too.

Here is my final result.  I'm really happy with these plates and how my stamping skills have progressed over the last few weeks with some practice. 

Different Dimensions polish and Pueen plates were purchased by me, Kenyan Sunset was provided as a prize in a giveaway.

Adventures in Stamping - My First Success

I've recently taken up stamping.  I started out with a Salon Express set which you can get at Sally's, Walgreens, and various other places for $10 or less.  It comes with all the tools needed to get started with basic stamping.  I would recommend it for anyone who wants to try stamping before making a the investment in expensive plates and kits.  The plates are cute and decent quality.  I've had trouble with the stamper though.  I purchased some Bundle Monster plates but I couldn't get the Salon Express stamper to pick up any of the images.  I read some tutorials and got some tips from expert stampers and got a few of the images to pick up but I still wasn't having a lot of luck.  So I decided I needed to try a different stamper before completely giving up.  I picked up a double ended Konad from Amazon and a squishy silicone stamper from Winstonia, the first generation Winstonia plates jumped in my cart too.

After trying out both of my new stampers on the Bundle Monster images I had trouble with before, I was able to pick up the images right away on both new stampers.  I will caution that I had to "prep" the squishy stamper just a little before using it.  I washed it with dish soap (I use Ajax antibacterial).  You want something without moisturizers.  Then I swiped it with acetone just to get the sticky stuff of it until I could get an image to pick up.  Since then I've only used a lint roller to get excess polish off of it based on recommendations from other stampers out there.  From what I gather acetone can break down the silicone on the squishy stamper.

For this manicure, which I call my first successful stamping mani using my "grown up" stamping supplies.  I used OPI Schnapps Out of It as the base and stamped with OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons (both from the Germany Collection).  The image is Winstonia W111 from the first generation set.  These pictures are a few weeks old.  I've been practicing so I'm getting better.  These aren't perfect but for a first attempt, I'm really pleased.

All products purchased by me.

Zoya Tallulah and KB Shimmer I Got a Crush on Blue

OK so life has been crazy and my nails have been peeling like crazy but I've been doing maintenance and I've been taking pictures of the really good manicures.  Here is Zoya Tallulah.  I've had this for a while and picked it up during one of their many promos last year.  Its an awesome bright royal blue with a shimmer.  It is a nice bright blue for a dreary winter weather we've been having lately.

Application was perfect.  This is 2 coats with top coat.

Tallulah was the perfect underwear for KB Shimmer I Got a Crush on Blue!  Which is a blue jelly packed with various sizes of holographic glitter from micro to large hexes.  

This is 2 coats of I Got a Crush on Blue over Tallulah.  Despite being packed with glitter application was great.  

Zoya can be purchased at Zoya.com at Ulta and at various salons and retailers. KB Shimmer can be purchased from KBshimmer.com.  

All products purchased by me.