Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 10- Superheroes.

I was so keen for this one. I love comics and superheroes so I knew I had to do my favourite. Hellboy <3

 And I was loving this mani until I finished it. The pointer finger was a fail… its meant to be his forehead with his sawn off horns. And the pinky is his tail!

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 9- 3D nail art

after some epic nail art for the last few days I wanted something simple, and to use of of my untrieds.

 So, China Glaze Ruby Pumps (fucking gorgeous), with a black rhinestone outline for an accent nail. I love this.so much, its very classy…

 PS  Don't forget to head over to see what  Caitlin has done for Day 9!

PPS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 8- Cartoons

I LOVE CARTOONS! Seriously, so much. So I just painted what I was watching last night, Futurama.

 So from thumb to pinky, theres Fry, Bender, Leela, Zoidberg and the Planet Express ship!

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 7- Charity

So I spent some time googling what each colour charity ribbon stands for and I found one thats perfect for me.

Grey ribbons for asthma. I know its “lame,” because its not a cancer ribbon, but I suffer from severe asthma. Mine is so bad its a chronic illness, and I have to take steroids to control it. I get bronchitis at least twice a year due to it and it sucks.
 
So grey ribbon is my choice for charity themed nails. I used Orlys Plum Noir for the base, and Orly Dazzle for the tips. The ribbon is Essence The Dawn Is Broken.

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 6- Favourite movie

Nightmare Before Christmas <3 If you’d like to know what a specific colour is, feel free to ask :3

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 5 - Inspired by something in your home

Mario Pez! featuring my red franken holo!

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 4- An Untried

I have sooooo many untrieds :/

So! What I'm going to do is post a bunch of swatches I have that I haven't posted yet, and do full posts on each polish later! So get ready for the pics!

 A England Bridal Veil

 China Glaze 3D Fantasy

 Petites Zodiac

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

I'm scared to post anymore, so lets just say 4 ;)

Until Next Time!
<3 Bec

PS  Don't forget to head over to see what  Caitlin has done for Day 4!

PPS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 3- Cityscape

I used Essence The Dawn Has Broken, NYC Colors Casper and Night, and Ulta3 Frangipani

Creative Lacquer Challenge Day 2 - Fav Colour

Its kinda obvious isn’t it? lol
I used a base coat of OPI Nail Envy, then OPI Gargantuan Green Grape Matte (SO hard to apply), then sponged on Orly Here Comes Trouble and more sponging with OPI Fresh Frog Of Bel Air

 Don't forget to head over to see what  Caitlin has done for Day 2!

Until Next time!
<3 Bec

Day 1 of the Creative Lacquer challenge- Black and White.

I’ve been wanting to try moustache manis for a while, so I did, and I love them!

Both colours I used were from NYC Color - Night and Casper, then I used Essies Matte About You over.the accent nail.

Don't forget to head over to see what  Caitlin has done for Day 1!

Until Next Time,

<3 Bec

Orly Androgynie

Hello again! It's 12:15 am and I've not long gotten my power back after an outage, so you get a late night swatch! And today it comes from Orly's Holiday Soiree collection from 2011. Androgynie was a lemming of mine for a while, and then I realised I should just buy it! So I did, and it sat there in my untrieds pile for a while... a few months at least... 


Androgynie is a black jelly base packed with hexagonal iridescent glitters, some holo glitter, and golden glass flecks. Sounds amazing right? Well... it is...

in the shade

Pretty huh? I do quite enjoy it. Androgynie  has it's ups and downs though. Lets start with the cons first shall we... Its kinda hard to apply, the hex glitter doesn't like to co-operate. It's also hard to get any of the hex glitter on the brush unless you stand the bottle upside down for a few minutes before using it. It's a little on the sheer side, I am wearing three coats over a base coat of OPI Nail Envy Matte, and I wish I had swatched it over a black polish... It took a little while to dry as well.

And, because I had let my bottle sit there for a while, all the hex glitter was having a party at the bottom of the jar...

But on the plus side, it's pretty. Very, very pretty. Its not like anything else i have in my collection, come to think of it, most of my Orly's are unique to my stash...

I want in on the glitter party

I feel like this polish lives up to its name, I can totally see men wearing this. Maybe matted. Maybe I should matte it... oooooooh :D

I shall leave you with a blurry pic, which shows off the sparkle, as I have my first post of the Creative Lacquer Challenge to post!

Until Next time!

<3 Bec
 

Starting tomorrow!

The lovely Caitlin and I have made ourselves a little 21 day nail art challenge! We were both feeling uninspired and wanted a challenge, so we made one. Its bits of other challenges, and bits we made up thrown into 3 weeks of nail arty goodness!

So if you want to join in, feel free! Leave your bloglink in a comment below and I'll add you to my list of people joining in! Some of us are starting as early as tomorrow!

China Glaze GR8

Hello Hello!

Another holo to show you today, China Glaze GR8 from the OMG collection. I wasn't into polish when it was released, so I missed out on most of them before they all started costing an arm and a leg! I did recently find this one for cheap, so I couldn't say no...

I have to be honest here, I'm not keen on gold... And I put this polish on and was like ".............meh". 

In the shade

And then I took it outside into the sunlight.

Not bad, CG, not bad. Yellow toned gold liner holo.  I do love me some holo! But theres something about this one that I just love. And I can't pick what it is... It's a surprise, so plain indoors, and amazing outdoors. 

Its one of those holos that does dry semi-matte, and I've been told by a few people that top coat ruins the holo effect, so I have no top coat on. Nor a base coat, because that (for some reason) makes it harder to apply.

I don't know why, but the labelling on the jar just slides off... So my jar looks old, but it isn't! This has the typical holo properties; dries fast, 2 coats (though they were thiiiin coats, could get away with one careful one). And pretty. SO pretty. I have finally found a gold I like and it gets discontinued. Typical lol.

But if you can snag this polish, DO IT! It's amazing!


Until Next Time,
<3 Bec

PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Just a quick giveaway update

You MUST MUST MUST be following me via GFC to be eligible to win.

and for those who haven't entered yet,

http://lacquerdreams.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/giveaway-you-say.html

China Glaze Cosmic

Hello Hello! Friday at last! So I have a very TGIF style polish today!

China Glaze Cosmic was released in the 50 glitter collection back in 2009 (it seems 2009 was a good year for CG collections!) along with Atlantis, which I showed you a few months ago.

It's a black jelly base packed with silver and holographic glitters. It's like a party on your fingers! But seriously, this is definitely my kind of glitter polish! I know that this pic doesn't do it a lot of justice, but look at it blurred;

Sparkle sparkle! Ugh, I love it so much! It's almost like an effortless version of galaxy nails...

Now, I do have a few minor complaints. I used two coats of Cosmic to get opacity, but it was SO gloopy. Very thick, and hard to work with. Could just be my bottle, and I am the first to say I neeeeeed some polish thinner, but this was really not fun to work with. And it dried gritty, I expected that, but this was like gravel... I put it down to how thick the polish was.

 If it wasn't so damn pretty, I think I would have been annoyed with the thickness and grittiness of it. But look at it! How can i stay mad at something so pretty?

Until Next Time,
<3 Bec

PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

My Entry for Rebecca Likes Nails nail art comp!

This is not a look i would usually wear haha! But here it is, my entry!

Cute huh?

Milani Purple Gleam

Hello hello! Today i bring to you one of my favourite inventions ever- One Coat Glitters! I have three of these, and this is the first of them that I shall show you.

Purple Gleam. Vibrant, true purple glitter. It. Is. AMAZING! I love glitter and I love purple, so this is perfect!

Oh it's so pretty... So sparkly! Very eye-catching! They say its a one coat glitter, but you do need a second just to even out the bald spots. More like, one and a half coat glitter...

It is a hungry glitter though, I have 3 thick layers of top coat on and it was still gritty... But I found top coat was needed, because it does dry a little... dull, almost matte... but with the top coat, sparkle sparkle!

It's even pretty in the shade! I think I need to get the entire one coat glitter collection!

Until Next Time!

<3 Bec

PS... Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Giveaway you say...?

Yes! Giveaway indeed! And the prize?

The hard to find Nubar Peacock Feathers! Discontinued, and up for grabs! Simple rules, OPEN INTERNATIONALLY, must follow me ... Giveaway will end 31st March, winner will have 72 hours to contact me before i redraw... GOOD LUCK!

Hits Can Can

I've spent the last 4 hours swatching untrieds, taking photos and editing them. Its taken a looooong time and I still have more untrieds to go! They can wait though...

I recieved this polish almost 2 months ago, and have been too nervous to use it since! Hits Specialita Can Can. Purple jelly packed with blue/green flakies.

It's a very unique polish, I love it in the jar, but not so much on me... It's very shiny, I have no top coat in any pictures, but it is still so glossy!

I love the colour of the flakies, its a bluey-green. I think it may verge on 'aqua' coloured. So pretty. I honestly thought that this would take a million coats to be opaque, but I've gotten it to this colour in just 2 coats! Makes me feel a bit better about it, because these polishes are (annoyingly) only 6ml... If they were bigger, I would be all over this brand.

I also found it very annoying to remove... the flakes would not come off and then they ended up all over my fingers and even after 6 or 7 more swatches and removal, there are still flakes on my fingers!

I'm tossing up whether or not I need to buy more of the Hits brand, when I can get full size jars for cheaper! But looking at this, I do want more, and I really want some of their holos, and we all know how much I love holos!

Until next time,
<3 Bec

Wet n Wild Sparked

Hello Hello!

Now today's post, if you know me, is very uncharacteristic... A PINK! I am not a fan of pink, at all... But I oddly like this polish... Another one from my lovely Secret Valentine, Wet n Wild's Sparked. We don't get WnW in Oz, so I was excited to try new brands!

Sparked is pale pink and silver glitter in a clear base. Very girly... It's a pretty dense glitter, I've only used 2 coats in these pics, there are still bald spots, but I wasn't bothered. It dried quickly, but kind of gritty, so I used a top coat to smooth it out. And my word, is it sparkly! They really named this one right! I could not stop staring!

Clean up was not a problem either, the brush was really easy to use and it applied nicely. I like WnW's brush, it's firm but manageable. And removal was not too hard either, it came off quite easily.

Close up!

But seriously, I fell in love with this polish. And I'm tempted to go out and buy more pink glitters! Any suggestions?

Until next time!

<3 Bec 

Ta-Daaa!

Todays post is NOT a holo! Or a swatch! I have actually done some nail art! I was going to enter this in a nail art competiton, where you can't enter something that you've previously posted somewhere else. I was stuck for inspiration on what to do, and then I saw a dress on Tumblr that blew. my. mind

Isn't it amazing?! SO many ideas spawned from that dress... But, I decided on the advice of a few people, not to enter this mani. The one I did enter was really special. Not for me, but for the girl whose nails I did it on. I'm really excited to show you all the final entry!

I also did some more manis for friends recently, and got to try out my new little bat mold (i LOVE bats).

And I did a holo gradient on another friend - her photo is so much better because she's a photographer!

I used CG Virtual Violet, and OPI DS Coronation, in case anyone was wondering... and, with the rhinestones, her nails look like little tuxedos :D

Until next time,

♥ Bec

China Glaze Techno Teal

Yes, yes... another holo... Slowly but surely finding time to swatch my untrieds and post them... Mind you, it's currently 3:30 am, so I'm trooping on!

What I have here today is Techno Teal, from China Glaze's 2009 Tronica collection. I have 4 of the Tronicas to show you over time, sitting in my untried pile!

Techno Teal (or TT from now on! :p ) is one of those that look more blue on some, greener on others... On my skin, it looks blue, but it is a LOVELY blue!

It's a linear holo predominately, but it can look a bit scattered. The holo effect is not as strong as something like DV8, but it is definitely there!

For this swatch, I used 2 coats, but if you were careful, you could get away with one easily. I didn't use base coat, but I used one coat of Ulta3's Non Chip top coat, and it didn't dull the holo.

You know, I'm not a huge fan of blue, but polishes like this are why I seem to have so many blue polishes! It is honestly the perfect blue for me. Pigmented, easy to apply, eye-catching, and of course, holographic! Though if there were a non holo version, I would probably have that too!


And, just as an added bonus, I took it in my kit for my nail tech course last week, and did a pedi on a classmate using it! It was her first time with a holo polish, so she was a bit excited!

So, yet another amazing holo! And there are more to come, but I'm thinking my next post should be one of my biggest lemmings which I have ignored! ;)

Until next time,

♥ Bec