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 :-)

Hothouse Flowers

I haven't done a mani for the summer challenge in a while.  But as it is almost over, I thought I should do one!    Today's theme was hothouse flowers.  I assume hothouse is another word for greenhouse.  I know, stupid American :-P  When I saw this topic, I pictured brightly colored flowers.  So I chose some bright colors and free handed some petals.  These will most likely be the only flowers I can keep alive...well until I take them off.  But I like these so much, I may keep them on for more than a day or two!  I started with two colored bases.  Then on two of the coral nails I did a gradient with the purple.  I then free handed the yellow petals on each nail.  I added some dots for a contrasting and complete look.

Coral-Sinful Colors Hazard
Purple-Wet N Wild On a Trip
Flower-It's So Easy Yellow Striper

I really am quite proud of the work I did.  I only wish I could free hand with my left hand better.  Practice makes perfect!

Thanks for stopping by! What are your favorite flowers?

Day 29-A Mermaids Call

In many coastal towns, it is believed that fishermen long to catch the beautiful mermaids that live in the sea.  If they catch one, the mermaid must come to land and live with him as his wife, grant him wishes and he will be forever happy.  Alas, the mermaid will spend the rest of her life feeling the call of the ocean, longing to return to her home in the sea.  But bound by the mythical rules that govern her to stay with the fisherman she is unable to do anything about it.  The only way that she can return is if he loves her enough to set her free.  I find this tale both sad and intriguing.  It inspired me to do some mermaid nails for Day 29, inspired by the supernatural.  I have been wanting to do mermaid nails for a while but I don't have the stamp that I see so many others use to accomplish the mermaid scale look.  Instead I chose to use dots to create a fish tale like scale on my accent nail.  After completing it I started to think they looked a little like the Rainbow Fish :-P Oh well, a talking shimmering fish in the ocean is supernatural too, right?

Base-Sinful Colors Let me Go topped with China Glaze Prism
Accent Nail Dots- Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost, Sally Hansen Silver Sweep, WnW on a Trip, S.H Co-Bold Blue

What do you think of when you hear the word supernatural? My husband said ghosts. ooooooooooooooo

Thanks for coming by today! Only two more days left in the challenge! Then, I will have some news to report that I just can't wait to tell you about!!

In the meantime, check out some of the other supernaturally inspired nails :-)

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

Day 19-Space. The Final Frontier

Bum. BaBa Bum. BaBa Bum Bum. Anyone? Yes, it is star trek.  I know, nerd alert.  But if you have been with me long enough, you probably know that already :-P  Friday was my dad's birthday (which is the day I actually did these nails) and he is a big Star Trek fan. He watched all of the series of the show even.  I think he was even had a little crush on Captain Janeway. I think of my dad when I think of Star Trek.  I even have the Star Trek ringtone programmed into my phone for when he calls. My dad's a big nerd himself. We love all of those science fiction movies and books and it's super awesome that we can talk about that stuff together. He's a lot smarter than me though! He understands most of it....I can even remember him reading Stephen Hawking's books when I was little.
 Anyway, today's challenge was Galaxy nails.  This is a challenge that I really do like.  I have done them once before and they turned out alright.  I decided to be inspired by looking at pictures of nebulas this time though instead of watching a tutorial.  They look pretty cool if you ask me!

I started with a black base and then sponged on white, teal, purple, and pink.  I then added a coat of sparkle and dotted in some more stars.  I used a small paint brush to paint the spiral nebula on the accent nail with white and teal.  (If you want more details let me know) So what do you think? Do they look spacey to you?

Base-Milani Black Swift
Sponged on colors in order-Sally Hansen Hard to Get, Spoiled Toad-ally Amazing, SH No Hard Feelings, Wet n Wild Tickled Pink
Sparkle Coat-Ultra Pro Opal Elegance

So what's your favorite space show, movie, or book?  

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate all of your comments :-)

And please stop by all the other ladies who participated 

Day 17-Glitter Glitter Glitter

I love Glitter! I especially love indie polish glitter.  I have been looking forward to this for a while (many of the other patterns mani's don't appeal to me) There really isn't much to say though.  I used another D & R Apothecary polish called Ametrine.  I had no idea what ametrine was so I looked it up.  It is a gemstone that has both purple and yellowish gold tones to it. It's quite beautiful! This makes perfect sense considering the coloring of this polish.  I started with a gold base and then topped it with the Ametrine.  I created some abstract lines on the accent nail using the colors in the ametrine.  When I was done I thought it looked like a a Jackson Pollock painting.  I was almost tempted to save it for 'inspired by art' later on, but then I would have to take this off and I just don't want to :-P

Base-Milani Gold Dust
Glitter-D & R Apothecary Ametrine
Accent Base-Wet N Wild Eggplant Frost
Stripes-It's So Easy Yellow and Gold Stripers

Do you love glittery things as much as I do?  

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the comments!

Don't forget the other ladies manis :-)

Day 12-Stripes, sort of

First of all....what do you think of the new look? I went purple...Holly's favorite color :-)

Ok, so I'm not totally sure if this counts as stripes.  I had an idea and it just wouldn't come to fruition, so I opted for just some crossing lines.  I hope I don't get kicked out or something :-P

I choose another D & R Apothecary (or as she is now calling her nail polish line Hit Polish) for my inspiration to this manicure.  Seriously, if you haven't checked her out yet you really need to do so! Her polishes are just amazing and she keeps making new ones all the time.  It's a gold mine!  I think I own like 13 already. The polish I chose was called Fiesta.  It is a clear base with teal, orange, and yellow glitters.  I especially like the bar glitter in this one. Gave it an extra special touch.  As I was doing this manicure I kept looking at the colors feeling something familiar and I just couldn't figure it out.  Then it hit me! Miami Dolphins!! Their colors are teal and orange. I lived in Ft. Lauderdale for 8 years of my life and although I don't care much for the Dolphins, it brought back good memories <3  Maybe this manicure will make you feel all warm and fuzzy too.  One can only hope....

This is without the lines (although technically since there is bar glitter I could have gotten away with it)

Orange Base-Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up
Teal Base-sinful Colors Rise and Shine (apparently there is a theme here)
Glitter-Hit Polish Fiesta
Stripes-It's so Easy Teal Striper

Tell me that glitter isn't gorgeous! This whole manicure just makes me want to get up and well....fiesta!!

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow for animal print and I will answer the question where do you get Strawberry Milk from :-P

Check out the other lovely stripe manicures from the ladies below

Day 11-Dotty the Octopus

We now begin the part of this challenge that focuses on patterns.  It's going to get harder.  I'm very excited to live up to the challenge.  So, today's mani was Polka Dots.  I have great dotting tools and i was thrilled to do a mani with NO stamping. Don't get me wrong, I love stamping...I just wanted to do something different. I've had some success with my dotting tools in the past but I find that I am trigger shy and this ends up messing me up.  So, I went into this with confidence and a steady hand and all in all I like the way it turned out.  I named this Dotty the Octopus because the end result looks like the little suctions on an Octopus' tentacles. My neighbor totally agreed!

I started with a beautiful new base color called Spaced Out by Misa (a brand I had never heard of)  Then I used three dotting tools to create different dots.  At first, I put only one color of dots on each of the non-accent nails, but then decided to add another smaller dot inside each of those.  This is what made them to look like octopus tentacles :-P And the accent nail uses all of the colors.

Misa Spaced Out :-) I just loved this color! I almost didn't want to do anything to it.  You really can't see how pretty and shimmery gray it is in the pictures though

Pink-Color Club Hot Like lava
Teal-Wet N Wild Caribbean Frost
White-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Black-Milani Black Swift

This was a lot of fun to do, even if it took a lot of time and patience.  Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping by :-)

Check out the other blogs participating before you go!

Day 1-Red Splatter

If you don't know this already, I am an awesome multi-tasker.  I have had many years of experience at it....9 years of teaching, 4 years of momming.  Now apparently, a few months of nailing and I can make one mani work for two challenges.  I know you're impressed, who wouldn't be? My talents are endless :-P  For today's challenge I was able to make my first day of the 31 day challenge and the Summer Challenge work together.  The summer challenge was summer splatter.  I have never done splatter.  I still don't think I have.  The first day of the 31 day challenge was red.  I love red. Red reminds me of passion...especially a dark red. It makes me feel all sensual and 'go out and watch Magic Mike' frisky.   I have very few red polishes though.  I think red is one of those colors that doesn't have as many shades to it as the other colors.  I wonder why that is?  Well, my mani tonight is hardly frisky or sensual, it just is what it is.  I didn't have the patience (or willingness to clean up all that mess) to do a real splatter.  So instead I used a toothpick to drag blobs of polish on my nails to make it look splattery.  That's totally a word.

Base-Wet n Wild Burgundy Frost
Splatters-Sally Hansen HD Lite & Wet N Wild Red Red

Thanks for looking! I appreciate your comments.  But before you leave, check out some of the other marvelous girls who are also participating in the 31 day challenge.

An Apple a Day

First of all, I had to switch up my 52 week calendar.  Today's post is supposed to be Coast Guard and Thursday's is supposed to be fruit. I switched them because the Coast Guard's birthday is next Saturday and that just made more sense. So, today you will get fruit and like it! :-P

Secondly, I now love Kleancolor! More importantly I love Kleancolor Black for stamping.  It is so nice and thick and stamps so dark! YEAH! 

Thirdly, Seche Vite top coat is my new best friend.  OMGEEEE are my nails shiny and thick.  Who knew? I mean, I guess a lot of people knew.  But I didn't know.  Now I know. Double YEAH!

Fourthly, I did some serious nail care today.  After looking at my last post, my cuticles were in complete disarray.  

And lastly, these nails turned out way better than I had planned.  It was a simple idea based around the new China Glaze Jamaican Out that just came yesterday in the mail and it just went from there.  I love it when that happens.  I also love when I am able to match my 52 week challenge schedule up with the Sunday Stamping for Adventures in Stamping.  So, what do you get when you take fruit from my challenge and  red and black from the Sunday Challenge? Strawberries you say? Watermelon?  No, apples of course!  And here they are....

Glitter Base-Spoiled Pirates Booty
Red Base-China Glaze Jamaican Out
Black-Kleancolor Black
Stripe-It's So Easy Gold
Stamps-QA18 using Kleancolor Black & SE18 using Wet N Wild Red Red

Thanks for looking! Hope you had a great weekend and I appreciate all comments!

MSMD-Pink Gradient

I always want to do a MSMD but something always happens on Mondays and never get to.  There is so much great art out there I want to try it all!!!  I do find that when I try to replicate someone else's nails it often ends in a fail.  Today that was not the case.  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do today but I knew I wanted pink.  Some days I just feel pink.  I even put on a pink dress this morning.  If you knew me in the past this is pretty funny.  When I was in high school I was anti-pink, pretty much anti-girly things. I was a bit of a feminist and believed that people (boys) should like me for who I was on the inside and that being a girly would take away from my personality.  I also thought that I didn't need to learn how to cook, sew, be a domestic diva.  These things were what girls were stereotyped to do and this was not going to be me.  I look back at this and laugh at my idealistic and naive beliefs.  Plus, look at me now.  I'm a stay at home mom who loves to cook, do my nails, and dress is pink.  Who knew?  Anyways, onto the nails.  I got my inspiration from Colores de Carol who I happened across on pinterest today.  I do not have the same stamp, which I am totally bummed about cause it's gorgeous.  And the one that I had originally picked out, which was similar, just would not stamp. booo.  So I chose one with flowers.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I still am not very good at gradient.  But when you stamp over it it doesn't look too bad. So, what do you think?

Thanks for looking! Have a great week

P.S.  I am very excited to have a fellow awesome nail blogger join me in my 52 week challenge starting this week.  Her name is Courtney and her blog is The Cute-icle Chronicles so go check her out! She is very talented. Plus, we used the same freakin stamp today.  How funny is that :-P

Fairy Princess

Sometimes you have an idea and it doesn't quite come out right.  This was one of those :-P  Day 6 of my 52 week challenge was faries and I was so excited about it.  I even bought a nail polish from Target by Sonia Kashuk called Fairy Princess.  It was just gorgeous in the bottle and even is a pretty color on, but it doesnt cover well and leaves lots of blank spots.  But I covered it in the new Wet N Wild Prismatics so it was all good.  I love those btw.  They are so much like the China Glaze ones but cheaper! YEAH for spending less!! So, the color turned out just fine and I do like my little fairy....I even did some coloring in and some dotting.  But the stamping on the other fingers just wouldn't turn out right.  I stamped and removed, stamped and removed, and stamped again.  I think maybe one finger on each hand turned out ok. Oh well, you can't get it right every time.  So here it is.  What do you think?

I like this picture....it looks so pretty in the sunlight and the flowers behind

Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful week!!

Pretty in Plaid

I am loving this 52 week challenge because it is pushing me to do things I wouldn't normally do.  I don't love plaid and probably wouldn't have done this had I not scheduled it.   I am a shcedule whore.  I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to do free hand plaid or stamp.  I was tired last night (as I had just driven from Pittsburgh to Michigan)  so I decided to do the stamping.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  They feel Scottish and I want to come up with a clever name but I can't think of one.  What would you name these? 

Base coat is Milani Black Swift with two coats of Orly Androgenye
Stamped with Spoiled Correction Tape using m60
Striped using Wet N Wild Red REd



You can sort of see the sparkles from the Orly coat in this picture

Have you looked at my schedule for the 52 week challenge?  Check it out on my blog roll.  Maybe you want to do it with me! Thanks for looking