Llama Lacquers Holiday Collection

Well hello ladies!!  I can't believe it has been over 2 months since I have blogged.  Wow how life has gotten away from me!  But I am back and I have some great news for everyone :-)  Llama Lacquers has a new Holiday collection based on the best Christmas story in the world, A Christmas Story.  It has long been a tradition in my family to watch this movie only a few hundred times on Christmas day.  I love the characters, the simple story line, and the awesomely descriptive and exaggerated voice over of an adult Ralphie. There were so many inspirations for this line I had trouble narrowing it down but in the end I went with some of the most famous parts of the movie.  I have many pictures to show you and even a manicure for each.  I am quite pleased with the outcome of these colors and I think they all look so festive! Take a look and then let me know what you think.

From left to right:
* Deranged Easter Bunny-a gold base with tiny rose hex and gold square glitters
* Triple Dog Dare-a clean base with fine rainbow, large white and bright blue hex glitters
* You'll Shoot Your Eye Out-a clear base with red bar, large white, gun metal grey, and red hex glitters
* Fra-Gee-Lay-a clear base with gold bar, small black hex, and square black glitters
* Daddy's Gonna Kill Ralphie-a clear base with fine white, red bar, and red and green hex glitters
* Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-a clear base with white, red, silver, and aqua glitters

Here is a closer look at each

Deranged Easter Bunny

Base-Milani Gold Dust & Milani Black Swift
Glitter-Deranged Easter Bunny
Nail Art-It's So easy Stripers

Triple Dog Dare

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush
Glitter-Triple Dog Dare
Accent Nail-Spoiled Correction Tape base & stamp m59 using Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue

My nails are all all weird so this translucent polish doesn't cover up the yellow good enough.  Alas, there must always be something weird going on :-P

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

Spoiled Correction Tape & You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

Fra-Gee-Lay

Sinful Colors This Is It & Fra-Gee-Lay

I love this one as it also dupes as a Steelers polish. In fact these are my mom's hands and we are watching the Steelers game today :-)

Daddy's Gonna Kill Ralphie

NYC Tribeca Silver & Daddy's Gonna Kill Ralphie

Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra

Finger Paints & Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra

So, which one is your favorite?  These make great stocking stuffers in the minis and starting tonight I will have 15mL available! 

Cyber Monday sale starts tonight and everything will be 20% off.  Also, the holiday collection will have a straight shipping fee of $2.50 no matter how many you buy.  Hope to see you there!!

Llama Lacquers

Egyptian Eye of Horus

Hello my ladies! I am so sorry I have been away for almost a week!  I had the greatest manicure using Glitter Goblin and I was never able to get around to photographing it, let alone blog.  I have recently discovered that my daughter has ADHD and have been doing everything I can to help her and to keep her out of trouble.  Being a former teacher the signs were pretty obvious but after doing a lot of research the bells really started to go off. It has been exhausting, but it is working :-)  We have less fights and she just seems happier.  I am so glad I figured it out before she heads off to school next year.  I know its never going to be easy but its better and it feels good to know! If you have children and ever need advice in this area feel free to ask.  I have taught many children over 9 years with a plethora of learning disabilities and disorders. I am a great listener and counselor.  I'm not just nails you know :-P

Anyway, onto the nails.  I really had no idea what I was going to do for E.  I even posted in the Llama Nails group hoping to get some suggestions and I did.  Some great ideas came my way, but none of them felt right.  I finally decided that I was going to do eyes, but was stumped on how to do them (cause I felt like doing something pretty instead of cheeky or fun) Then all of a sudden a light bulb went off and I thought of the Eye of Horus.  The history behind the eye of Horus, as with most Egyptian history, is simply too complicated to explain here so instead if you want to know more click on the Eye of Horus link. Then I realized, oh snap, Egypt starts with E also! I love everything Egyptian.  I am pretty sure I was an Ancient Egyptian in a former life. I love the crazy mixed up insestuous lineage of the Pharoahs, the beauty and colors of their fashion, architecture, and art.  I even love the mystery of the tombs and the aestetics of the heiroglyphic written language.  I have been wanting to do Egyptian nails for a while now and its funny how I completely forgot that when it came time for week E.  

For this manicure I started with a black base on all nails but the accent nail.  I did my accent nail in gold and free hand painted the Eye of Horus (which looks good on my left hand, but the right leaves something to be desired) I then painted the tips of each of the other nails gold and free hand painted a intricate Egyptian inspired pattern into it with a teal color.  I can totally see Cleopatra or Nefrititi wearing these nails.  They are definitely fit for a Queen.  

Base-Milani Black Swift
Accent Base-Loreal Amazon's Flash over Milani Gold Dust
Eye-It's so Easy black striper using a very small brush
Tips-Amazon Flash & Its' So Easy teal striper using small brush

I was super nervous about doing the tiny intricate design on my tips, but I think they turned out pretty awesome. I was unable to duplicate that design on the right hand...seriously how do girls do it! But it still matches.  So pretty cool. don't ya think?  

Thanks for stopping by!  Don't forget to check out the other awesome E mani's.  There is even another Egyptian mani by Jackie at MeMa's Manis :-)

Goblin Blood

Hello my dears! It feels so good to be able to write blog posts two days in a row. Especially since I've been so busy to begin with.  I just love October.  Halloween, fall, and so many birthdays that I know...including my own. This means the Sally's $10 off coupon :-) I have been eyeing the Wicked Collection from China Glaze for quite some time now, so I went to Sally's to purchase it for my early birthday present. I perused the shelves I was super disappointed when they weren't there and the sales lady said they weren't for sale. I then proceeded to pick out some other beautiful polishes to try to appease my sadness when from the back of the store I hear "Oh! We do have them!" Why the hell they weren't on the shelves I don't know.  But she had to call her manager to see if she could sell them to me as the set. I still can't believe the price. $8.99 for four China Glaze polishes. Awesome. And they are even more gorgeous in person.  So, I had to do a manicure with them right away.  I used Roguish Red and Bizzare Blurple over a NYC green.  I did drips to make it look like I dipped my tips in some kind of ooey gooey goblin blood.  Man I love Halloween and the fall.  So much inspiration for cool nail art!

Base-NYC Luxury Lime Creme
Drips-China Glaze, Roguish Red & Bizzare Blurple

I totally love these.  Fun and icky at the same time.  What is your favorite time of the year to get inspiration for your nails?  

On another note, I am so ridiculously happy at how my cuticles and skin look now that I have been taking better care of them.  Can you tell the difference?

Thanks for stopping by! 

Pet Semetary

This post has two agendas.  #1 promote another of my Halloween Llama Lacquers.  #2 Do a manicure for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts Halloween Challenge.  I seriously can't remember the last manicure I did for this group.  BTW....this is the group that did the Summer Challenge, previously named Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge.  It's kinda like Prince, the artist formerly known as Prince.

Anywho.   Today's challenge was black cats. I was tempted to use my one cat stamp, but as I just used it I simply couldn't do it.  Instead I decided to make a zombie cat.  I'm a little obsessed with zombies at the moment if you didn't know.  Been watching season 2 of The Walking Dead on netflix and watching the Resident Evil movies.  I have also been planning a zombie party that is going to be epic.  So I've got zombies on the brains. BRAAAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSSSS.  Again, I digress.  One of my Llama Lacquers polishes is called Pet Semetary (yes, I know how to spell. In the book, that is what the sign at the cemetery read) It is a silvery based polish with grey, green, and brown glitters.  All the colors a rotting animal corpse would contain.  Nice visual I know.  I put this over a metallic green on all nails but the ring finger.  This I put over a matte grey.  I then hand painted a lovely little black zombie cat.  He looks a little like a rabbit I'm afraid.  I tried to make his one ear look like it had been chewed but instead it looks more like a drooping rabbit ear.  Ah well, what can you do.  It's a cat.

Bases-Sinful Colors Moss Have & NYC Sidewalkers on the accent nail
Glitter-Llama Lacquers Pet Semetary

Here is just the Pet Semetary on my right hand

I really dig (hehe) this polish and it is just perfect for a fall halloween manicure.  I hope you like it too! Make sure to check out my other polishes at Llama Lacquers on etsy.  

Also, here is what the rest of the Halloween Challenge looks like.  I am going to try to do as many as I can. It's getting harder and harder these days to do a bunch of manicures, but I will try.

As always, thanks a bunch for stopping by. Check out the other beautiful black cats that some lovely ladies did.  

Everyone loves a Dotticure

Let me begin with another congrats to my giveaway winner Angie at Our Painted World.  She is super talented and I was excited to see that she had won! She chose two awesome Llama Lacquers,  Redrum from the Halloween Collection and Strawberry Susie from The Girls Collection.  I can't wait to send it all out.  Another hearty thank you to all that entered!  I truly appreciate all your support and the wonderful comments you left me.  I hope you stick around while I continue my crazy nail journey.  I'm sure I will have another giveaway in the future :-)

Ok, so on to my ABC challenge post.  This week was the letter D, and once again I knew what I wanted to do from the beginning.  I love a dotticure and there are so many different styles of it that I want to try.  I know it is nothing original, but having polka dots dancing on my fingers puts me in a good mood.  I decided to use some dark colors for this and they didn't show up as well as I would have liked them too, but I like it nonetheless. I am finding that because it is fall I have to use dark fall colors.  No more pastels for a while.  

Base-Finger Paints Bauhaus Burgundy
Dots-Orly Space Cadet and Black

See, nothing too fancy.  Space Cadet is actually a holographic polish that came in a french manicure kit and looks really cool in person. I couldn't get my lighting right and got a lot of glare.  These were the best two pictures I could get.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Make sure you check out the other ladies.  A lot of dotticures today :-P

Rainbow Brite

Today I have another Llama Lacquers for you.  This was the first polish that inspired me to do the 80's female cartoon characters.  Rainbow Brite is so very colorful and was a favorite of mine growing up.  I was inspired by her bright blue dress with Rainbow colored puffs all over the sleeves and legs.  I think this polish really resembles her.  What do you think?

I used NYC Cashemere Creme as my base coat and then attempted to do a rainbow like fan on the accent nail.  The accent nail didn't turn out as I had planned, but it's not terrible :-P  I added a blue rhinestone for one more special effect!

Make sure you go check out this polish in my etsy store Llama Lacquers.  While you are there take a look at all the other polishes in the collection as well.  Thanks for checking me out!! I love all your comments :-)

The Princess of Power

So, I realize that in my last post I said I was going to take a break for a while. But guess what? I can't.  I just can't leave my nails naked. It just won't do. Partly because my nails are yellow but mainly because I simply have an addiction.  I just want to try out all my polish. And if they are naked, that will never happen!!

Instead, I did a whole lot of research on taking better care of my cuticles and already they look better. I will post later about the things I am doing. But for now I want to show you another one of my Llama Lacquers. It just became my new favorite.  She-Ra was my absolute favorite cartoon as a little girl.  I loved everything about her and I was pretty sure that if I tried hard enough, raised that sword up into the sky with all my might, and said "By the Power of Grayskull. I am She-Ra"  I would either turn into her or she would magically appear and become my best friend.  How awesome would that have been!!  Alas, it never happened.  So I had to be content to ride her around on her beautiful steed Spirit and play in her castle and dream that I was the Princess of Power.  

For this manicure I didn't really need to do much.  I put it over one coat of Sinful Colors This is It.  (a beautiful color on its own I might add)  The Llama Lacquers polish itself is a clear base with tiny white matt glitter, large red hex, square gold, and a few yellow hex.  All colors of her outfit....the yellow for her long blonde hair.  I feel like a kid again and maybe if I try hard enough,  I will turn into She-Ra. 

What do you think?  Were you a fan of She-Ra growing up?  Maybe it wasn't in your time frame, but it's still a pretty polish :-)  Check out my etsy store to see other polishes from the collection as well as some from the Princess Bride and some Halloween inspired polishes.  Llama Lacquers

Cats in Corners on a Colorblock

I knew from the day I started this challenge I knew what I wanted to do for C.  I love a colorblock manicure and I never do them.  The first and the last one I did was for my trip to NYC and I got so many compliments on it.  And this was before I was really any good at doing my nails :-P  I also wanted to throw in another C word into these nails, but wasn't sure what.  Cookies?  Caterpillars? Caligraphy?  Nope, Cats. Plain old cats.  A black cat even....cause it's almost Halloween and I want to do everything Halloweeny right now.  I really wanted to do some orange, green, gold, fall colors, but changed my mind in the end and went with some bold and darker colors.  I think it turned out pretty great. The only thing about color blocking is that with adding so many colors it gets messy and requires a lot of cleanup which in turn dries out my cuticles. Other than that I really like this one.  Its cute and a bit whimsical.  What do you think?

Colors-Hard Candy Frenzy, NYC Manhattan, NYC Sidewalks, Nicole OPI Give Me the First Dance
Stamp-BM04 using Kleancolor Black

So, I am thinking about having naked nails for a while as I fix the dryness around my cuticles.  They just look awful and even with a great manicure, all I can see is the bad cuticles.  Other than that, I hope you enjoyed this one.  I think it's pretty darn cute!!  

Thanks for stopping by and check out all the other Creative and Cute manicures.  

Glamour and Glitter, Fashion and Fame

"Jem is my name. No one else is the same. Jem is my name" Sing it with me ladies.  What 80's girl didn't love her some Jem.  She was the oh so cool answer to Barbie.  On top of it all she had pink hair. Awesome.  So I have for you today a manicure using my new Llama Lacquers polish JEMtastic.  When I set out to make this polish I knew it had to have pink and yellow.  Light pink glitters for her hair, bright pink squares for her eye makeup, and of course some yellow to represent the star in her name.  I just love this polish both in the bottle and on my nails.  I wanted it to stand out so I used it over Orly's Decades of Dysfuntion which is a white polish with an almost lavender/pink tint to it.  I also did an accent nail with stars. Cause JEM was a star!!

Base-Orly Decade of Dysfunction
Glitter-Llama Lacquers JEMtastic
Accent Nail-Wet N Wild Tickled Pink
Stamp-BM15 using Sally Hansen Lightening & Speedy Sunburst

If you like it and have to have it you can purchase it at my etsy shop, Llama Lacquers. There are four more polishes based on 80's cartoon females and of course my Princess Bride collection.  Also, two Halloween themed polishes that are a little unusual.   

Thanks for stopping by!!  I appreciate all of your comments.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway too! It ends on October 13th :-)