Lustrous Lacquer

Saturday, December 20, 2014

MoYou London - The Zodiac Collection: Capricorn Plate (Press Release)

Available today is the newest plate in the Zodiac collection from MoYou London. Introducing the Capricorn plate.

This is for all the ambitious, humorous, cautious, independent, prudent, patient, reliable, helpful, resourceful, thoughtful, irresistible... CAPRICORN stamping girls!

<< ZODIAC COLLECTION >>

Meet LUNA - She connects with stars*

This plate is Available TODAY
Have a great day!
The MoYou-London Team

Friday, December 19, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:42 PM Zoya

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 10 : Ugly Christmas Sweater

*Nothing to Disclose*

I was really excited about today's theme when I first saw all the challenge prompts. I've always wanted to do an ugly Christmas sweater manicure. I thought about doing something pretty traditional but then decided to try and get creative.

I'm posting really late today because the manicure I did late last night for today's prompt turned out to be a huge disaster. Without time to fix it, I had to wait until after work today to try out a different idea. Seriously there was nothing good about my first attempt, instead of ugly sweater it was just ugly. It was supposed to be a textured background with white snowflakes stamped all over and then presents in the middle.

See what I mean. There was nothing good about this manicure. Except for the base color. I really liked the idea of using a textured polish as my base, since most sweaters have a bit of texture to them. Instead of stamping for my second attempt I tried my hand at a little freehand art and this is what I came up with.

Big difference right! Keeping Zoya London as my base color I used acrylic paint and a new nail art brush I just picked up I painted my holly leaves. Why have I been trying to do nail art with only polish for the last 2 years? Seriously Acrylic paint is so much easier to use. Red rhinestones and a few dots of top coat completed my look.

I'm so sad that because I'm behind in my posting that I have to take this off as soon as I'm done writing this post to work on another manicure. Hopefully, I like it as much as this one. In the meantime why not check out some more ugly sweaters. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM Press Release

MoYou London - The Geek Collection (Press Release)

*Press Release*

This Friday MoYou London is releasing 4 plates in another completely new collection: The Geek. These plates have images ranging from emoticons to math problems. Get all the details and a first look here.

And here is a brand new collection for you!

Meet Siri, she's not anti-social, she's just not user-friendly...

These 4 plates will be released this Friday the 19th of December.
Have a great day and Merry Christmas!
The MoYou-London Team

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 11:09 AM Themed Manicures

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 9: Glitter

*Nothing to Disclose*

It's one of my favorite days of the Christmas Nail Art Challenge so far, Glitter!! Who doesn't love glitter right? It sparkles, it shines, and it makes you feel pretty. Well, it makes me feel like my nails are pretty.

My original intention was to do a color block manicure for today using traditional colors. But that turned into a train wreck when I realized that I started out in the wrong direction and was impatient applying my tape. I've put that design idea on the back burner for now.

So what did I do for my glitter manicure? In the end, I went with a festive, sparkly chevron manicure. And now I'm wishing I had done both hands because I love the finished look!

I started off with a base of Cult Nail Blaze. 2 coats over a thin coat of Orly Luxe gave me a perfect gold base. Once that dried I carefully applied my chevron decals from KBShimmer. There are actually 2 sizes of chevrons here but they are so close it's hard to tell. So I didn't quite get the complete look I was going for but I still love it.

For my accent nail, I used Color Club Perfect Molten, a soft green with silver shimmer. My red is the gorgeous Marilyn from Shimmer Polish. This glitter packed jelly is a great red color for any Christmas nail art, or if you just want to rock some sexy red nails. I topped everything off with 2 generous coats of Out the Door.

I think this is my favorite manicure of the challenge so far, but I do have a fun idea in mind for the next prompt, ugly Christmas sweater. Fingers crossed I can pull it off. While I go work on that, why don't you check out the other glitter manicures from today and I'll see you back here on Friday. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday, December 15, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM Themed Manicures

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 8: Christmas Ornaments

*Affiliate Link*

Monday brings us to the 8th day of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art challenge, with the theme being Christmas Ornaments. This year I went a totally different direction than last year's ornament theme with some water decals from Born Pretty Store. I would have loved to try my hand at free hand ornaments but my nails are kind of short right now and I didn't think I would have enough space to paint them.

For this manicure, I started out with one coat of Milani White on the Spot as a base for my gradient. I then sponged on Sinful Colors Sugar Rush and Sally Hansen Silver Sweep to create my gradient. When that dried I added a quick coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for added Sparkle. Christmas Ornaments have to sparkle after all!

The water decals I used were from a variety of sets that I picked up last year. I used set BLE1755 on my pointer and pinky finger, BLE1754 on my ring finger and BLE1753 on my middle finger. I topped everything off with a generous coat of Out the Door.

Right now Born Pretty store is running a sale where you can get up to 80% off select items. The same runs through Dec 17th, 2014 and you can use code MERRYXMASB10 for an additional 15% off your order. If you've had your eye on a few items I'd say now is the time to stock up!

And now I think it's time to take a look at the designs everyone else came up with for today. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM Zoya

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 7: Red and Green Colors

*Nothing to Disclose*

Today's prompt in the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art challenge is Red and Green colors. This is another one where there are endless options. In fact, there were so many options that it wasn't until I had a nail art brush loaded up with green polish that I knew what I was going to do.

In an effort to work on my brush control I decided to take on the task of making swirls of red and green look like candy. This ended up being a little harder than I thought but by the end, I had 1 really good nail and a better understanding of brush control.

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Then I hand painted the swirls with Zoya Rekha and Wet~n~Wild Poison Ivy. My middle finger was the last one I painted and I think it turned out the best. It's a bit busy for an entire manicure, but I still like it. Not because it looks great, but because it shows a sort of progression with my brush strokes.

Poison Ivy turned out to be darker than I remembered and looks almost black in some lighting. Which is kind of a bummer, but when the light hits it just right there's a flash of green shimmer. I almost added a lighter shade of green over the top to lighten it up a bit but didn't want to risk not being able to follow the original lines. I still might try it before I remove this manicure just to see how it looks.

Now let's check out the looks everyone else came up with. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:30 AM Themed Manicures

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 6: Any line from the "12 Days" Song

*Nothing to Disclose*

We are halfway through the Christmas Nail Art Challenge. I can't believe I've kept up so far. It's been kind of touch and go there for a few days with today being no exception. Today's theme is any line from the 12 Days of Christmas song.

I knew I could do a pretty decent job at the 5 golden rings but I wanted to challenge myself a bit more. I decided to try the 7 swans a swimming. Let's just say that my time ran out, I put this manicure together in about 7 minutes and I don't like it at all. Because of that, this is going to be a short post.

I started out with Frost Bite from Cuttin Edge as my base color. Then I went in with a white striper and painted my swan bodies. They actually looked semi-decent until I added the black to their heads. It all went downhill from there. The beaks are droopy and just yuck. I tried to save it with a little silver glitter to add some dimension or detail to the swan bodies but I don't think it really helped.

On the other 2 fingers, I have some very very subtle stamping with Mentality Touch and image plate BM06 from Bundle Monster. I'm sure if I could have taken a bit more time this would have turned out much better. As it is I'm calling for a mani re-do and calling it a night for now.

The only reason this is being shared is that I want to do every day in the challenge and I promised myself when I started this blog I would share my fails too. But enough of this sad manicure attempt, let's take a look at what the other talented ladies came up with. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM Press Release

MoYou London- The Games Collection (Press Release)

*Press Release*

This Friday MoYou London is releasing 6 plates in a completely new collection. The Games collection looks to be a mix of traditional themes and Unique patterns. Check them out below and let me know what you think.

It's almost Friday!

Meet Penny, it's all fun and games for her.
Come and play with us this Christmas,
Let the Games begin!

These 6 plates will be released this Friday the 12th of December.
Have a great day and Merry Christmas!
The MoYou-London Team

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Lustrous Lacquer 6:00 AM Tape Manicure

Holiday manicure ideas with the Pretty Woman Holiday Nail Kit

*Press Sample*

As some of you might know on Monday I was given the opportunity to take over the Pretty Woman NYC twitter feed for their virtual holiday party. For 2 hours I shared some nail art, held a few giveaways, and talked about holiday trivia. It was kind of fun, but not very interactive. I think the time slot I had may have had something to do with that, though. (Middle of the day and just after lunch.)

For the party I came up with 4 nail art looks using the 4 nail polishes that come in the Holiday Nail kit. I wanted to do designs that even a beginner could easily replicate, and I wanted them to have a holiday feel. Something you might wear for Christmas or New Years without being a traditional design. These are the looks I came up with.

I started out with an Argyle manicure using Just Peachy, Snake Charmer, and Gold Dust. This was actually a lot harder to do than I thought. An Argyle manicure has been on my to-do list for a few months and I was determined to get it right. It took me 3 different attempts to get the triangles looking decent, but in the end, it was worth it.

I tried freehand painting them and that was a disaster. I used stripping tape, but the lines ended up being off. In the end, I used scotch tape and some creative placement to get the look I wanted. I did end up free handing the gold and that worked out much better than the triangles. After taking the pictures I didn't want to take this one off.

The next look I tried was a half-moon using Shirley Temple and Gold Dust. I thought this would be a more classic holiday look that would appeal to a wider audience. Specifically, people who aren't into wearing wild or intricate nail art. Oh and get this, that's one coat of Shirley temple on my nails. I couldn't believe I found a one coat red!

I actually freehanded this entire look and think it turned out pretty good. Especially considering I did the half-moon part with a dotting tool. In hindsight, I probably should have used some guides to get a more rounded look. But hey this is nail art looks for beginners so perfection was not required right?

For this look, I had New Year's Eve in mind when I created it. Something a little more sophisticated and some bling. Using Snake Charmer and Gold Dust I recreated a look I did earlier this year with Mentality Tempest, this time with a twist. I chose a different finger to use as the accent and made that the plain nail keeping the focus on the negative space stripes.

This is a really easy look to do, but it does require some patience. Something I usually don't have when it comes to nail art. But I knew if I wanted my stripes to work I had to wait for each layer to dry. It took a lot of sitting still and catching up on a few TV shows but I found my patience, and my stripes are good. Ahh, the things we do for nail art, it's a tough job but somebody has to do it.

For my final look, I wanted to go a bit more playful. Originally I wanted to do plaid nails. Something with a warm and comfy feeling to it for the cold winter days but this looks a bit more like presents to me. I used Just Peachy, Shirley Temple, and Gold Dust to create this look. And I'm proud to say that I freehand painted those stripes and they look pretty darn good.

This was a fun little challenge for me. Coming up with holiday nail looks using only these colors, making it something I could be proud of and, something others could replicate without a lot of experience. It really made me focus on my techniques and helped tune a few nail art skills. I hope you enjoyed these looks, Id love to know which one was your favorite. If you'd like to purchase a kit for yourself or a gift they are available at PrettyWomanUSA.com. The kits cost $7.99 and you have the option to have them gift wrapped. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!