Lost in Lacquer

Untried Polish Challenge - Day 12 - Ugliest

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:22:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Somehow I managed to mix my days up and posted by prettiest instead of ugliest untried polish yesterday. Oops! After this, I'm finally all caught up with my challenge posts! For my ugliest polish, I was torn between a purple FX Orly polish and this glitter bomb from China Glaze. As many of you probably noticed, I'm not a huge fan of glitter polish. There are some that I like, but for the most part I don't reach for my glitters too often.

China Glaze Glitter Goblin. Four coats. I believe you're supposed to layer with this one, but I didn't want to diminish the ugly with pretty undies or something! The first picture was taken in sunlight and the second was taken in the shade. As you can see, it's quite sheer on its own. Formula wise though, it was really good! In fact, I actually thought the holographic glitters looked very pretty in the sun. The shade color though...I can only describe as Halloween Confetti puke.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish

Alison at UKNailRunner

Untried Polish Challenge - Day 11 - Cirque Cape Liz

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:48:00 +0000

Hey everyone! For today's challenge I'm supposed to show you my prettiest untried. I have a lot of pretty untrieds, but I'm a sucker for greyish-blue polishes, so I chose Cirque Cape Liz.

This is three coats of Cape Liz. Cape Liz has a grey-blue base with pink, silver, and blue shimmer. I wish I could capture all the pretty shimmer, but the light for my light box isn't as bright as it needs to be! Hopefully you can still see some. It really doesn't do the polish justice though.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 25 - Childhood Inspired Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Hey everyone! For today's challenge, I was supposed to do a manicure inspired by my childhood. Since this is a polish blog, I decided to use a polish that reminds me of the kind of colors I wore when I was younger. As a child, I exclusively wore medium-pink polishes. This Essie reminded me of the my childhood manicures!

Essie Marathin. Two coats. The formula was great, and I like the color but I think it's something I'd rather wear on my toes. I prefer blue-gray polishes for my nails now, but this isn't so bad either!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Polish Challenge - Day 10 - Most Expensive

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:42:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I just received these beauties in the mail yesterday, and they just so happened to be the most expensive untrieds I had...lucky for me, because I couldn't wait to put them on. For those of you who aren't familiar with Illamsqua Rain Drops, the polish was discontinued by Illamasqua a while ago. It's a grey-blue jelly filled with silver flakies. Ever since I saw swatches of it a few months ago, I've been lemming it. Finally, they re-released it, along with a limited edition pink version. The collector in me felt it was necessary to purchase both.

This is three coats of Rain Drops and two coats of Illamasqua Pink Rain Drops. The formula was fantastic on both of these, though the formula on Pink Raindrops is more opaque. In addition, the pink version has a slight darker pink duochrome effect, but it's more visible in the bottle than on the nail. Overall, super happy with this purchase! If you're interested, you can get these at Sephora for $17 a bottle.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 24 - Game Inspired Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:31:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Sorry again for the late posts. I'll start posting about two a day from now on so I can get back on track. Today's nails are inspired by games. I've done a lot of manicures related to games I love, which is why I felt fresh out of ideas when it came to this challenge. So, I revisited a game I already did nails for called X-Note. You can check out a description of the game and the nail art at that link.

The grey is China Glaze Recycle, the white is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and the black is Cirque Alter Ego. I used painted the index finger with recycle and then used striping tape to make the three stripes. The middle and pinky nail were done using the make-up sponge gradient method. The ring finger nail is Alter Ego with Cirque Potosi layered on top. If you like Potosi at all, I suggest you head over to Cirque's website, as the color is being discontinued! Plus you can get 40% using promo code "CIRQUE40".

And here's the character that the nails are based on! His name is Oure. :D

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Rite Aid Nail Extravaganza Contest and Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:05:00 +0000

Hey everyone, today I've got another giveaway for you here on the blog! Rite Aid was kind enough to send me some nail care products to give away to my lovely readers. This is all part of Rite Aid's Nail Extravaganza, which includes a nail art contest and several coupon deals! Be sure to enter the contest if you get a chance, here's my entry! The contest closes May 24th!

It's sort of all over the place, but the main uniting factor is the velvet. For the velvet effects on the index, ring and pinky nails I used the Pretty Woman Tealtini Velvet kit. For the off-white base on each nail, I used Zoya Jacqueline. In addition to flocking power, the index and middle finger have Essie Mint Candy Apple on them. The plate used for the middle finger design is PUEEN09. I've never used flocking powder on my nails before, so this was a fun experiment!
I'll post a link to the entry when it's up if you want to check it out and vote for it or some others, but in the meantime I'll get to the giveaway! There are the two prize packs that are being given away.

Prize Pack A: Kiss Gradiation Polishes in Freeze Frame, Pretty Women Velvet Tealtini Kit, Maybelline Color Show in Coral Crush, Revlon Brilliant Strength in Allure, Cover Girl Outlast in Forever Festive, and Wet N Wild Fergie in Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Prize Pack B: Kiss Gradiation Polishes in Freeze Frame, NutraNail Gel Perfect in Torenia, Julie G in Sugar Rush, Loreal in Not a Cloud in Sight, Cover Girl Outlast in Forever Festive, and Revlon File 'N Peel 6-in-1 nail file.

Note: This giveaway is for blog subscribers ONLY. Any e-mail only entries will be disregarded.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway runs from May 19, 2013 to May 27, 2013, 12:00 a.m. EST.
If you are under 18, make sure you have parental consent. I will need your address to ship the prize.
The winner will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. Winners will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.
Winner(s) will be selected randomly using Rafflecopter.
This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored. If you have any additional questions - feel free to contact me at lostinlacquer@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 23 - Nature Inspired Nail Art

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:04:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I wish there were enough hours in the day to paint my nails and show you everything, but alas I must budget my time. Today I've got a catch-up manicure for the new 31 day challenge that is inspired by the beach. It's kind of simple and silly, but hey, when you're trying to get back on track you're generally not too picky.

I started off with a base of Wet N Wild Blue Wants To Be A Billionaire. Then I created a gradient using OPI DS Classic and a make up sponge. To make it really apparent that I was going for a beach theme, I added a squid with BM-307 and Konad Special Polish in Red. For the palm tree, I used Konad Special Polish in Green, China Glaze Mahogany Magic and a grocery store brand stamping plate (I believe it's SE-18).

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Born Pretty Store Acrylic Flower Decal Review

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Hello again! Today I've got some 3D flower decals to show you from Born Pretty Store. I was really excited to try these because they look so pretty and I haven't really done any 3D nail art before!

The flowers come in 12 different shapes/colors. They're a bit larger than I expected, so they make quite a statement. They're super pretty though!

For the manicure, I'm wearing Wet N Wild Fastdry Blue Wants To Be A Billionaire and two different sized flowers from Born Pretty Store. In order to apply these, I applied some top coat over my polish and stuck the flowers on while the top coat was still tacky. They stuck on perfectly and I love the way they look! If you're interested in getting some acrylic flower decals of your own, you can find them here: http://www.bornprettystore.com/flower-pattern-false-acrylic-design-decals-sticker-tips-p-798.html

You can also use my coupon code ( BMSJ61) to get 10% off on your entire purchase at Born Pretty Store! Best of all, they offer free international shipping on all orders! Thanks for reading!

*These were sent for review. To see my disclosure policy, please click here.

Untried Polish Challenge - Day 9 - Cheapest

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:27:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Sorry for being late again, I haven't been feeling super good lately. I've got another post coming out today though, so maybe I'll be able to catch up with the challenges soon! Day 9 of the Untried Polish Challenge calls for use of my cheapest untried polish. So for today, I used Wet N Wild Fast Dry Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire.

This scattered holographic polish put me back 49 cents! This is four coats of the polish, it's quite sheer but pretty easy to build up. Surely worth its cost, though!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 22 - Fabric Inspired Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:22:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I'll still struggling to catch up with the two challenges...hopefully I'll be back on track soon. Today's challenge called for a manicure inspired by a fabric, and I'm not sure if my comforter set counts as a fabric or not but that's what I'm basing this manicure off of!

I used a base of China Glaze Cosmic Dust and stamped on a design from RA-115 using both Zoya Blu and Butter London Marrow. I wish I had used a more burgundy shade instead of purple, but I consider it a success nonetheless!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Polish Challenge - Day 8 - Enchanted Polish Congratulations

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:43:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Sorry for getting behind on posts. This weekend I attended a video game convention and participated in some tournaments. The first one was a Pokemon video game tournament that I placed 4th in. More exciting though, me and a team of four others participated in a League of Legends tournament and placed 2nd! This was so much better than I was expecting to do, and it was a lot of fun! The only downside is that every round we participated in took about 2 hours and this was all over the course of just two days. Needless to say, I'm exhausted.

tldr; I played a lot of video games and it made me tired.

This challenge from a few days ago calls for the use of my newest untried polish. This was easy to pick out because I've actually only ordered one bottle of nail polish in the last month. Crazy, right?

I know these four pictures all look about the same, but I couldn't narrow it down for that reason! This is Enchanted Polish Congratulations. Three coats. The first three pictures are taken in the sunlight; the last one is taken indoors with flash. This is a holographic brown/peridot green/pink/bronze/orange multichrome. I can't even describe it. Needless to say, it is beautiful and the formula was just wonderful. I'm definitely not regretting this purchase!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors

Flossy Lacquers Swatches and Review

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:18:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late posts, I'll be posting again later today and I'll update you on what has been going on. But for now I want to talk about a new indie brand, Flossy Lacquers! Nikki was nice enough to send me a few polishes to share with all of you! All swatches are done using base coat and top coat and all photos are taken in a light box.

Cherry 3.14. Three coats. Sorry for the odd lighting on these photos, I had to color correct them because the red was coming out way too bright. Cherry 3.14 (love the name!) is a red jelly that contains red and dark red microglitters. The formula was perfect and opacity was really easy to build. Tell me that jelly finish isn't simply gorgeous!

Purple People Eater. Three coats. This is a purple jelly packed with purple and pink microglitters. It's very similar to Cherry 3.14 in terms of its perfect formula and awesome finish. I had a hard time capturing the color of this one because it leans a lot more magenta than what my camera is capturing. I love this one too!

Daisy Dukes and Bikini Tops. Two coats. This beauty is a blue-green duochrome with pink and magenta glitter. I love how unique this is! It's really hard to see the green duochrome in these pictures, but I assure you, it's definitely there. The formula was also great. (I'm seeing a trend here...) This one isn't a jelly finish like the other two. It's more metallic/pearly.

Say What? Five coats. This silver and holographic glitter packed grey-blue jelly has a wonderful formula, however, it is on the sheer side. I think this one would be better for layering than wearing alone, but I still love it on its own. I'll post a picture of this over some grey undies later.

Rainbow Trail. Two coats over a black base (A England Camelot). This is a clear glitter topper. It contains red, yellow, green, blue and purple hex glitters, as well as sparkly microglitters. Does this polish remind anyone else of Rainbow Road from Mario Cart?! This had really great coverage with two coats; I didn't have to fish for glitter at all. I bet this would look really cool over white as well.

Make Believe. Three coats. This polish has a pearly white base and variously shaped pastel glitters. I practically gasped when I pulled this one out of the package! I don't own any glitter-packed white polishes so I'm so happy to add this one to my collection! The formula was good, but the polish itself was a bit gritty. Nothing two layers of top coat couldn't fix though!

Overall, I'm very impressed with Flossy Lacquers! The formula is consistently amazing and the colors are unique. I'd tell you my picks from the collection, but I honestly can't narrow it down. I love them all. These come in 15mL bottles and retail for $7.50. Be sure to check out the Flossy Lacquers Etsy Store to pick up your favorites. You can also contact Nikki at flossylacquers@gmail.com if you have any questions or are interested in joining the mailing list! Thanks for reading!

*These were sent for review. To see my disclosure policy, please click here.

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 21 - Merge or Melt

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Sat, 11 May 2013 06:31:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Yay it's Friday! Today's challenge calls for a merge or melt manicure. I think that means gradient...so I went ahead and gradiented two different shades of blue!

I started off with two coats of Zoya Blu. I know this is going to sound like an exaggeration, but I was actually amazed at how good the formula was. It was nearly a one coater and it applied perfectly. That's pretty atypical for such a light, pastel color! Then using a make up sponge, I applied Zoya Yummy. For the finishing touch, I applied a fimo cane heart! My fimo canes definitely don't get enough usage.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Polish Challenge - Day 7 - Oldest

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:59:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late post tonight, it's been a really busy day! I'm attending a video game convention this weekend so I've been trying to get the weekend's posts ready so they're timely...and that made this one late. How counterproductive!

My oldest untried polish is China Glaze Lubu Heels. It's a black based polish with small red glitters. From far away though, it just looks black. Because of that, I decided to add some random gold stickers. Please ignore the lump on my index finger...that's a consequence of running out the door before my top coat dried. For the middle finger, I used A England Holy Grail (Revamped) and Konad Special Polish in Black and some PUEEN plate that I don't remember. I know I should post it, but it's so dark and I can't find it online. I hope you'll forgive me!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 20 - Textured Venique Raging Crimson

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:01:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Sorry for the really plain manicure today, I only own two textured polishes and I already showed you Zoya Nyx. The other textured polish I own is Venique Raging Crimson, so here are some swatches of it!

This is two coats. The polish is a deep red color with small holographic glitters. The formula was perfect. I could have easily gotten away with one coat, but I wanted the darker red color that two coats created. I'm pretty blown away by just how wonderful the formula was! I'm not a huge fan of textured polishes though, so if I were to ever wear this again I would probably use 2-3 layers of top coat to make it shiny.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Nail Polish Challenge - Day 6 - Cool

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:49:00 +0000

Today's manicure involves using one of my oldest untrieds, Zoya Indigo. I purchased this one encouraged by the holographic particles in the bottle shot and quickly learned from others that those hardly translated onto the nail. Since then, I have been discouraged from using it and even tried to get rid of it at several swaps!

I started off with two coats of Enchanted Polish Bruised Nutcracker, a gorgeous blue holographic. If only I had left it at that. I decided to add a gradient using Indigo. Still not satisfied with the complexity of the manicure, I stamped on a design using Indigo again and the PUEEN11 stamping plate. My good friend Chelsea told me these looked like crystal mine nails, and mines are pretty "cool" in temperature so they fit the theme. I think it looks like I gave my manicure stretch marks which are not cool at all! In conclusion, I still want to swap out for Indigo. Any takers?!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 19 - Favorite Nail Polish

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:55:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I was going to post a swatch of my favorite nail polish, Enchanted Polish Hot Chocolate, but I already have. If you want to see some pictures and read about how much I love it, you can check out my Enchanted Polish Hot Chocolate post from back in February. But since the challenge calls for me to use my favorite polish, I decided to play up my manicure with some gold roses.

I'm so sad cause I put a small dent in my index finger. :( That's what I get for playing League of Legends while painting my nails... Anyway, this is Hot Chocolate. It's a gorgeous brown holographic. Once it was dry, I used the PUEEN22 stamping plate to add roses with Konad Special Polish in Gold.

I would show you a more holographic picture of it, but it's impossible to see the roses. It just looks like gold, brown, and rainbow!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Polish Challenge - Day 5 - Warm Catherine Arley 800

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:43:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Today's challenge asks for a "warm" manicure. I went with a manicure that was warm in terms of color. It's a red and pink pattern that kind of reminds me of one of those touristy Hawaiian shirts.

This is two coats of Catherine Arley 800, a bright red holographic. The holo in this is very faint, so I doubt you can see it. The formula on this one was perfect! Thus far I am extremely impressed with Catherine Arley polishes, especially considering how inexpensive they are! To dress this manicure up a bit, I used one of my untried stamping polishes and the PUEEN15 plate to add flowers. The stamping polish is Konad Special Polish in Pink,

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 18 - OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Thu, 02 May 2013 05:14:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Today's challenge called for using my oldest untried polish. This brought me back to when I first started ~~hoarding~~ collecting nail polish. At this time, the OPI Germany collection was just coming out and my boyfriend brought me a few for some holiday/occasion I don't seem to remember. As I went to put the mini haul away, I ended up dropping Don't Talk Bach to Me. It is the first and only polish I have ruined, and because of its sentimental value I had to replace it. After all that, I never used it! Until now...

OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me. Two coats. The formula on this one was great! I have no complaints. At first I thought I would hate this color, but looking at it on my nails I kind of like it! It's got a slight silver shimmer to it that it keeps it from being too blah. I think with some white stamp or design on it I could even handle using it for nail art!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Nail Polish Challenge - Day 4 - Neutral

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:13:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Today's challenge called for a neutral color manicure using an untried polish. I couldn't decide on just one pretty neutral so I picked two!

I started off with a base of Deborah Lippmann Putty in Your Hands. It was two easy coats and it's just so beautiful. The perfect neutral color. I had that on for a while, but I'm not one to wear just one color at time, so I had to spice it up!

I chose another neutral, Deborah Lippmann Naked, and gradiented it on top Putty in Your Hands. Once that was done, I put a white flower sticker on my accent nail! It's very subtle and delicate. As an aside, those mini Deborah Lippmann bottles are really hard to hold. They're so little!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 17 - Syrup Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:29:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Today's challenge calls for a technique that is new to me. I recently discovered syrup nails and wanted to try them out. For those of you who haven't heard of this technique, all you need to get started is a jelly polish. You start off by painting one coat over the whole nail, and then you add a second layer slightly higher than where you started. You repeat this process until the jelly color is almost gradiented from a light to dark color, with only one coat of jelly polish present by the cuticle line and something like five or six towards the tips. (I have no idea if that explanation made any sense)!

This picture makes me really sad. Firstly, you can hardly even tell that the syrup effect is going on. In real life it's subtle but definitely there. Here it just looks like I fail at painting a cuticle line! The other reason I'm disappointed is that the color in the picture isn't true to the polish. This is Zoya Paloma, a plum colored jelly. My camera kept capturing it as way more red than it actually is. I tried to play around with the colors, but I couldn't get it to look right. Sorry! I think I'm gonna try this technique with Cirque Tibetan Nights...

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Nail Polish Challenge - Day 3 - Space Themed Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:26:00 +0000

How's everyone's weekend going so far? Today is my mother's 50th birthday, so we're going out of town to celebrate. Hopefully I can get a manicure up for tomorrow's N31DC, but if not you know the reason why! For today's challenge I grabbed three random untrieds and couldn't think of anything but space when I saw the blue, ivory and gray next to one another!

I am obsessed with skittle manicures. I started off by painting on three coats of Essie Man Squeeze. It's a really pretty off-white/blue duochrome polish, but it's so sheer! After that, I painted the index finger with two coats of China Glaze Cosmic Dust from the new Hologlam collection. These are such a letdown. So streaky and not that holographic... For the middle finger, I applied two coats of Cirque Tibetan Nights. That was definitely my favorite of the three untrieds. Tibetan nights is a bright blue jelly with light blue and silver bar glitter. I usually detest bar glitter, but the pieces in this polish are cut in half and are just the right size! How this remained untried before today, I just don't know. For the ring finger, I used the PUEEN24 stamping plate to add stars using Cosmic Dust. Finally, I used a sponge to gradient Tibetan Nights over Man Squeeze on the pinky finger.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 16 - Color Opposites

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:10:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I can't believe I'm already halfway through the challenge. For today's manicure, I had to consult a color wheel to find out which colors were directly opposite of one another. I ended up choosing teal and orange-red. I wasn't sure how to combine these two colors, and unfortunately I think I did it in the worst way imaginable...

I started off with a base of Butter London Jaffa. Then I used a sponge to dab on Illamasqua Muse and create this gradient. I can't say I'm a big fan of how these colors meld into each other, but that's likely because they are in fact color opposites! Does this remind anyone else of a rocket popsicle?

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee

Untried Nail Polish Challenge - Day 2 - China Glaze Peachy Keen and OPI Designer De Better

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:22:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Today's Untried Nail Polish Challenge calls for two unused colors. In typical Masha fashion, I grabbed two random colors that seemed appealing and got to work! I ended up grabbing a peach cream and a foil polish that seemed to have orange/red particles so I thought it might match okay.

The silver foil is OPI Designer De Better. The orange peachy color is China Glaze Peachy Keen. For the accent nail, I added polka dots with Designer De Better and a dotting tool. It's really hard to see since Designer De Better is a bit sheer, but I'm still happy with the way it came out!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more challenge posts! Be sure to check out these other ladies participating in the challenge!

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Sam at Polished Art

Patricia at Polished and Glittered
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

New 31 Day Challenge - Day 15 - Watercolor Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Masha) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:04:00 +0000

Hey everyone! Sorry again for the late post. I decided that I'm going to stop posting every third day (the days I'm not doing the challenges) because it's just too much work trying to do swatch posts in between two challenges. I may make an exception for if I get something super pretty that I just need to show you all, but otherwise that'll be the new plan. That way I can post these in a more timely manner.

Yesterday's challenge called for watercolor nails, and I wanted to try Naomi's lovely tutorial. I've tried watercolor nails before using acrylic paint (you can see that attempt here)! This time, I used nail polish and and diffused it using acetone.

The base is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. After that was dry, I randomly applied China Glaze Orange You Hot?, Butter London Blagger, and Butter London Snog. Quickly, I dipped a brush in acetone and went over those colors so they blended into the white. I wish mine came out like Naomi's, they are just perfect. Maybe next time!

The reason I didn't show you the index finger in the picture above is because I completely smeared it. See? Ugh, so much fail. :(

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the gorgeous nails of the wonderful ladies participating in this challenge along with me!

Jayne at Cosmetic Proof

Traci at Drink Citra

Naomi at Bellezza Bee