Some favorite manis of 2014

Where has the year gone? It's already December, dayum. So much has happened this year, the time just flew by! The blog was neglected, but it couldn't be helped. Sometimes things just have to be put on the back burner. But I tried to keep up with my Instagram postings. Love Instagram, for me it's a diary of sorts so I can keep track of what polishes I've used (yes, there are that many, 2 Helmers full!). Of course, there were a few this year I was too embarrassed to share, major fails.

Starting off in January, and one of my very favorite manis of the year, as well as one of my favorite polish makers, Different Dimension, Just Keep Swimming.

Different Dimension | Just Keep Swimming

This intense blue holo is so drool worthy, I wore it on a trip back east and it lasted the whole two weeks I was gone. The rainbows follow you wherever you go! The quality of Missy's polishes are second to none. I am so happy I just got a shipment of new polishes from her, as I am leaving next week for a trip. Now, to just decide which one to wear!

Here's another favorite: SephoraX High Frequency with an accent of Lynderella She Sleeps with the Starfishes and a starfish tattoo from Big Ruby nail tattoos. 

SephoraX | Lynderella |Big Ruby Nail Tattoo

I love all things beach and sea, so this Lynnderella was a major lemming squash for me! Look at that sparkle... I just love love love.....

Another favorite from Different Dimension was when I combined Stronger and Black Dahlia. 

Stronger on middle and ringer finger | Black Dahlia on pointer and pinkie

 What a great combination!  The pictures truly do these beauties no justice.

A new brand to me in 2014 was Liquid Sky Lacquer. Love Carolyn's polishes, they go on like a dream and stay on forever!

Liquid Sky Lacquer Bird of Paradise and Twilight Hummingbird

I think this is also about the time when I discovered nail vinyls from Linda, aka @teismom on Instagram. If you don't know of her, you need to! These nail vinyls are the best discovery of 2014 for me. As someone that really sucks at nail art, these are so easy to use. If I can use them, anyone can! You can order from her directly at http://nailvinyls.com

Another new brand to me this year was Cadillacquer. OMG, I just love her polishes and adore that she has collections dedicated to my all time favorite shows  - Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy! I bought them all just based on that and was so pleasantly surprised and amazed on the quality of these polishes. They have staying power!

Cadillacquer - Welcome to Charming

The picture above is from the Sons of Anarchy Collection (god I miss that show already!), and is called Welcome to Charming. I wore this for two weeks before I took it off. Love!

And of course, I had to include my beloved Chanel as a favorite mani this year! Teamed up with Different Dimensions All That Glitters Is Not Gold and some nail vinyls, I was pretty pleased with the way this turned out!

Chanel Malice

Chanel Malice is one of my favorite shades from that brand and am so happy I got it last year before it sold out. Am kicking myself now that I didn't get a backup!

So these were some of my top favorites manis and polishes for 2014, I wish all the best for everyone for the coming new year.

Happy New Year and
Happy Polishing!
Laura

 

This Happened Today

Oh yes, major lemming squashed today.

Christian Louboutin | Rouge Louboutin

See those naked nails? They will be covered very soon thankyouverymuch. And Merry Christmas to me. :)

I've Got the Blues, and I like it!

You know, back in the day, there was a time when I only wore red or pink nail polish. Of course back then (you don't want to know how long back that was!), I don't think there was many other colors besides pink or red! And that was ok, I mean, who doesn't love a good red or pink? Pink is after all one of my very favorite colors! You wouldn't know it though, if you happen to follow my Instagram account. I was going through it the other day and said to myself, yeah I sure have the blues goin' on...and the teals... and the greens... you get the picture...

I never thought I would develop such a love affair with blue, turquoise, green, or any variation on my nails but honestly, I just can't get enough! Whenever I see a new shade that's been released, I say, oh, just this one more. Who knew there could be so many shades of blue and turquoise and what the heck, why don't we just throw purple and green in there too?

I wanted to share a couple of my favorites here because even though I post regularly on Instagram, sometimes these beauties need a blog post of their own...

One of my favorite manis is the one I am wearing right now. It is the beautiful combination of  Liquid Sky Lacquer's Bird of Paradise and Twilight Hummingbird.

I just adore these polishes! The holographic green/pink in Twilight Hummingbird is amazing and Bird of Paradise is such a gorgeous blue/red multichrome. No matter which way you move your hands, the colors change continuously, it really does remind me of the hummingbirds we are so fortunate to have here in Southern California year round.

Look at the color shift!

Check out the color difference between my index finger and pinkie, amazing!

Plus, I had ordered a variety pack of nail vinyls from http://nailvinyls.storenvy.com/ and have been dying to try them out. If you haven't tried them yet, you must! Especially if you are clumsy with nail art like I am, these are so easy peasy, even I can do them! I can't wait to try more! And I am so in love with Liquid Sky Lacquer, I am definitely going to be adding more of Carolyn's polishes to my stash soon! You can check out her shop here.

One other recent favorite mani I wanted to share is one that combines my favorite things - glitter, holo goodness and blues! I received my first Joss Nail Lacquer in Caribbean Holiday and oh my, it is definitely full of holo goodness!

Joss Lacquer and Picture Polish

I added piCture pOlish's Lagoon by Fashion Polish as an accent on my ring finger. I've been wanting this polish by piCture pOlish ever since it was first released as a collaboration polish last year. It is a pure turquoise delight! Oh the shimmer and glitter! Between the two, I stared at my hands all day long... for a solid week! I bought both of these at http://www.llarowe.com/ but you can buy piCture pOlish direct at their web site plus they have a full network list where you can purchase as well.

Do you have one particular favorite colo(u)r of polish that you tend to lean towards?

Happy New Year 2014!

Happy New Year everyone! This was sent to me by a friend and wanted I wanted to share it. It isn't nail polish related but I need to remind myself of this as I move into this New Year:

Like dragonflies, let us

Leave behind what we don't need to carry,

Grudges, sadness, pain, fear and regrets.

Life is beautiful! Enjoy it!

Happy New Year 2014

image via

Sugar Rush Custom Cookies

Actually, now that I really look at these dragonflies, I'm thinking this would make really cool nail art!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Favorite Manis of 2013

Well, I can't believe the year has come and gone! I have been here... sort of... I have been posting my manis on my Instagram account, just haven't had time to do full posts on the blog. Been plagued with computer problems (lost most of my photos and spent half the year trying to get them back), had a new client this year which took up most of my time (that's a good thing, more $$$ to buy polish!) and unfortunately, a sick dog as well as a sick Dad that needed tending to. You know, all that "life" stuff that gets in the way. I do continue to get inspired by all the other blogs and Instagram posts I read however, and my hope is that in 2014 I will find the time to post more and share in detail some of my favorite polishes that I have accumulated over the past year, that I haven't even had time to try yet!

I wanted to do a kind of "year in review" post but to do a year's worth of manis would take, well, a year! So I thought I would share some of my favorites I did this past year.

One of my favorite manis of this year had to be the one I did in honor of one of my all time favorite  tv shows, Breaking Bad. Rainbow Honey released a limited edition polish - Heisenberg and I jumped at the chance to purchase this bad boy!

Rainbow Honey Heisenberg

I actually did some stamping with this mani, which you can see on my pinkie and added crystals on top.. very impressive for me. Stamping is still something I am trying to perfect but I was pretty happy with the way this turned out overall. On my middle finger I used Zoya Purity and Skylar (duh!)

Speaking of Rainbow Honey, I had purchased the mini set of The Summer of 199X Collection (which is amazing!) and decided to pair it up with Nails Inc. Beaded Polish:

Nails Inc and Rainbow Honey

Love the sparkle of the Covent Garden Beaded Polish by Nails Inc! That little bit of texture was all this mani needed for my ring finger, I used Mint Flavor from the Summer of 199X collection for the rest.

Next up is Lynderella The Stars In Her Eyes over Pomegranate Nail Lacquer Taps on Apps and Prince Charmer:

Lynderella and Pomegranate Nail Lacquer

I have always been a big fan of Lynderella polishes but had never tried Pomegranate polishes. They are amazing! I thought this combo turned out great! Have about 6 more bottles to try and get to in the new year...

Back in September, I did a mani for my husbands birthday, it combined two polishes that were special to me because of him:

PiCture POlish and Pretty & Polished

First, Ocean by PiCture POlish. We both love the ocean, we are scuba divers, love all things ocean and this polish just called to me the first time I saw it. Second, I used Pretty & Polished's Wherever You Go, I Virgo.. because, well... he's a Virgo. :)  It doesn't hurt that it's a beautiful polish too!

I know there is a theme here going of all blues...hmmm... when did I become a blue-aholic? Can't help myself, something switched in my brain. Can't get enough of the blue polishes! I did love this pink mani that I did earlier this year though. Who doesn't love Ozotic holos?

Pink has always been my favorite color and this pink holo is just gorgeous! It's Ozotic 516 which is a medium bright pink with a linear holo finish. I'm 99.999% sure it's discontinued but am so glad I own it, it makes me happy. I actually used this shot on the Instagram account of my sister's jewelry company whose web site I maintain. Yes, I get to photograph and keep the jewelry, a great perk of the job. ;) Shameless plug - if you want to see some great jewelry at some great prices, visit her at orionfashionjewelry.com. I should also mention if you are a blogger and are interested in blogging about her jewelry, get in touch with me, I can set you up.

Contrary Polish is a polish collection that I have had in my stash all year and had been wanting to try and finally got a chance with this mani:

Contrary Polish

This beautiful blue is Santorini and I stamped a sea turtle on my ring finger using Polish Me To Go in Yell, Oh Mint. It was done for World Oceans Day and oh by the way, yes, the turtle did glow in the dark!

By far my most special and dear to my heart polish of the year had to be the one that was custom made for me by the fabulous Kunimitsu Nail Potions:

I had Jessica make it for me in honor of my 16 year old Birman, Perry:

I think Jessica did a fantastic job in making that polish and I cherish it as one of my very favorite polishes ever!! Perry has been battling renal failure for some time now, and I don't know how much time we have left with him. He is my special boy.

This list is just a tiny fraction of the special polishes I wore this year. I left out some of my other favorites like Different Dimensions, Jindie Nails, Polished by KPT, Enchanted Polish.... oh the list goes on! Be sure to follow me on Instagram where at least there I try to keep up to date. LOL

And on that note, I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year! And I look forward to all the new and exciting polishes that await us in 2014!

All the best,
Laura

Different Dimension Gnarly

Awhile back, I bought the 80's baby collection set from Different Dimension which are these six fabulous brightly scattered neon holographic nail polishes.

80's Baby Collection Set

I thought about doing a skittles mani, but was in a gnarly mood last week so I went full out with Gnarly, this awesome neon grass-y not in your face beautiful green. I used three thin layers and one layer of top coat for all pictures:

 This is the picture I had posted on Instagram right after I had finished doing my nails:

Gorgeous, right? I have been getting compliments on this shade of green left and right, where ever I go! Now, can we just talk for a minute about the quality of Missi's polishes?? I have had this on now for a week and it looks just as good now as it did as when I put it on last week (well, except for the state of my cuticles, lol)

This is one of the many reasons I love Missi's polishes. The quality is top notch!! Not to mention that they go on like a dream and they are beautiful.

You can purchase the 80's baby collection directly at Missi's Different Dimension Etsy shop. Be sure to also Like her Facebook page to get updates and sneek peeks of upcoming collections!!

Happy Polishing!!

Laura

Jindie Nails Blue Ivy + Lynnderella Deep Blue Seeing

Hi all,

A quick post for today. I recently received a major nail haul from my new favorite indie polish designer, Jindie Nails. I don't dare write how many bottles I actually got in case the hubby ever sees this.  Let's just say it was more than 10 and less than 20.. closer to 20 but who is counting... hehe..

My first one out of the gate is Blue Ivy. This was originally released as Blue Blue Xmas but was changed to Blue Ivy after the holidays. Blue Ivy is the most beautiful Royal Blue linear holo. I love holos!! I used two coats for the picture below:

no top coat needed!

I  then added a layer of Lynnderella's Deep Blue Seeing, one coat on the ring finger and then a brush on the tips. Deep Blue Seeing is an amazing collection of cyan glitters and according to Lynn's description on her blog is a "Deep, rich cyan with metallic, satin and neon microglitter".

I think these two are a match made in heaven! :)

look at that gorgeous holo!!

I can't wait to try the rest of my Jindie Nails polishes. Of course, I have an huge stash of Lynnderella's to go through as well but that's a post for another day.  What can I say, I have an addiction. Go big or go home, right?

You can purchase Jindie Nails at Jen's Etsy shop and be sure and follow her on Facebook for updates. You can also purchase Lynnderella polishes on their Ebay store!

Happy Polishing!