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

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.  

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 :-)

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.  

Day 30 & 31-Final Days

So this is it!  I completed the 31 day challenge in 31 days straight! I am quite proud of myself...if that's ok :-) The first time I did the challenge it took me about two months.  I may have fallen a little behind this past week, but I did it! WOOHOO! You can cheer for me if you want, I don't mind.

For day 30 it was Inspired by a Tutorial.  Let me tell you there are some great tutorials out there!  I watched about a million on youtube and just couldn't decide. So much talent out there! In the end, I chose to go with my favorite video tutorial girl Raquel at Love4Nails. She has so many unique, creative, and artistic designs that I think are amazing.  I hope to be as good as her someday.  I chose to recreate one of her flower designs again.  I went with different colors, but the idea is still the same.  They started out ok, but I had a hard time getting the flowers right.  I think I need to remember that my nails aren't nearly as long as hers and I must accommodate for my short nails next time.

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush
Diagonal French-Essie Mojito Madness
Flowers-LA Colors Art Deco Pink striper & Spoiled Correction Tape
Leaves-NYC Big Money Frost

I wonder if I had stuck with her colors they would have looked nicer.  Also, she uses acrylic paints instead of polish.  I have so much polish it seems silly to buy something else to paint with :-P If you want to see her tutorial, check it out here.

Day 31 was to recreate your favorite mani from the challenge.  Someone in the group suggested that we recreate someone else's mani that we liked.  I thought this was such a sweet and kind suggestion! Problem is....which to choose! Such wonderful work was done and it was so hard to pick! After looking over the pictures so many times I kept being drawn to one in particular.  It was a simple but pretty manicure done by Carina Martins at Polish it All.  On Day 5 she did a blue manicure that I fell in love with.  It was a beautiful teal blue base and on one accent nail she made scalloped clouds in one corner.  She did such a nice job! Here is her original one

Go to her post to see more pictures!

I did an ok job recreating this mani.  I couldn't quite get the scallops right, but in the end I thought they looked quite pretty.  I did add a little something because I love using my D & R Apothecary polishes. So I added one called Cloudy Skies over the non-accent nails.  Pretty appropo don't you think!

Base-Spoiled Toadally Amazing
Scallops-Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint & Sinful Colors Rise and Shine
Glitter-D & R Apothecary Cloudy Skies

Well, I can't believe it is over!   I think either the Bollywood or the Violet Day were my favorites.  What would you say was yours? 

I will be starting a few new things over the next weeks or so.  I've got the Princess Bride, a Time Warp contest,  the ABC's, and a possible giveaway!  Make sure to come back tomorrow and you may just find out what some of those things may be!!  

Thank you so much for all of your support and wonderful comments throughout this challenge.  You are more than appreciated! This whole adventure wouldn't be nearly as much fun without my beautiful followers!

Ok, now go check out some other awesome manis!

Day 25-Bollywood Fashion

Today is inspired by Fashion.  I seriously had no idea what I was going to do for this manicure.  I searched pinterest. I looked at shoes and purses.  I even looked at my kids clothes.  Nothing was coming to me.  Then, while I was watching So You Think You Can Dance and one of the couples did a Bollywood dance and it hit me! I loooove the Bollywood clothes.  The sari is one of the most beautiful pieces of clothing I have ever seen. They use such gorgeous color combinations. All so bright and vibrant. Plus, the way they drape over a female figure is a truly unique and mesmerizing design.  I used to dream that I could wear one someday...maybe I still will :-) So, I went back to pinterest and the internet and started searching for a bollywood fashion design that I could recreate on my nails.  And let me say, I think I nailed it!!  (pun completely intended)  First, here is the design that I was inspired by.

I started with a purple base then striped in some teal.  I then stamped a similar pattern as the tear drops with gold and drew lines using magenta and gold.  For the accent nail I used magenta as my base, stamped flowers in gold and dotted the centers with teal. I am in love with them...and so was the Sally Beauty Supply check out girl (when I went to take advantage of their 50% off already reduced clearance stuff!)

Colors- NYC Purple Pizzazz Frost, Sinful Colors Rise and Shine, S.C Dream On
Stamp-BM223 & 211 using Maybelline Bold Gold

As I look at these I want to get up and shimmy my hips and put my fingers in the lotus pose.  What do you think of Bollywood? 

Thanks for dropping in! I appreciate all of your comments. 

Make sure and stop by the other girls' blogs to see what fashion has inspired them today :-)

Day 23-JAWS!!!!!

I am going to be honest up front. I have never seen Jaws all the way through. Crazy, I know.  I have seen parts here and there, but to be quite frank....I'm scared.  Giant man eating shark. Enough said.  But I wanted to so something fun and a little bit dark so I chose to be inspired by this movie anyway.  I also have fallen waaaay behind on my 52 week challenge (I figure I have done a manicure every single day, the nail gods will forgive me) and yesterdays theme for that was Under the Sea.  Voila, I combined the two and you get Jaws nails.  I really am loving these 'inspired by' themes as I get to do fun free hand nail art.  It is really helping me get better and learn techniques to a steady hand.  I still suck at free hand on my right hand, but I'll get there.

For these nails, I used NYC Cashmere Creme for my ocean/sky base.  I then used Orly Grave Mistake to draw in the letters and the dripping blood. This is a PERFECT color for blood.  I can't wait to use it for all of my halloween manis in October!  The thumb is Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost.  Jaws himself is NYC Sidewalk and I used It's So Easy black and white stripers to do the details.  For my swimmer, I first used the white striper and then went over it in Sally Hansen Sorbet to give them a more natural skin color. On my right hand I got lazy and decided to stamp a shark on my thumb.  I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep with plate m27.  

My thumb was giving me trouble....the polish shifted :-(

Do you have a favorite ocean themed movie? Since Jaws is not my favorite I would have to say that U-571 is the best ocean movie....plus it's a WWII movie. Double score.

Come back tomorrow for a book themed mani that I haven't decided on yet. :-P It will probably have trees though!

Thanks for stopping by, and go check out the other lovely ladies who are participating