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

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 21-Inspired by a color

This is going to be short and sweet as my carpal tunnel has been really bad the last few days :-) I actually chose two colors for my inspiration, green and purple. It is probably one of my favorite color combinations and my daughter's room are these colors.  Sorry so short, heres the pictures

 I started with China Glaze Unpredictable. It is quite beautiful, but very hard to photograph

stamped with Maybelline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze plate m64

Pardon my lovely wrist brace :-P I photographed the last two the following morning. 

Hope you like them! What is your favorite color combination?

Come back tomorrow to see a manicure inspired by a song....I'll give you a hint, it is a song from a musical about a green lady :-)

As always, go check out the other lovely ladies participating!

Day 10-Aloha Means Hello and Goodbye

Did you know that Hawaii became a U.S State in 1950 in the month of August? Me neither! So, I chose to do Hawaiian nails for my 52 week challenge for today.  Plus, today is gradient day in the 31 day challenge, so I combined the two. Gradient Hawaiian nails! I have seen numerous GORGEOUS Hawaiian gradient nails that depict the Hawaiian sunset and the shadow of the trees.  I just love these nails, but I wanted to do something different since I'm a bit of a non-conformist :-P  So, I chose a pink and purple gradient and used yellow and black to stamp Hawaiian symbols, there is a konad stamp that is all Hawaiian symbols! YEAH!

I tell ya, I have come a long way in the gradient department. You should see my first attempt :-P BAAAAAD!! I have a love hate relationship with it because it is so pretty but I can never do it quite right.  Today's is not too bad, plus I covered it up with some stamping.  I still need to learn how to do it better! Tell me what you think.

Base-Sinful Colors Purple Diamonds
Gradient-Sally Hansen Love Rocks
Stamp-m29 using SH Lightening & Kleancolor Black

Left Hand.....I couldn't get my watermark to stay on this. weird :-P

Well, I was bummed to take off my puzzle pieces from yesterday, but I am quite pleased with these.  Now who wants to take me to Hawaii?? Anyone? Anyone?

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all your comments. 

Now go check out the other ladies participating!

Day 7-Ebony and Ivory (aka Black and White)

This manicure was really a no brainer for me as far as coming up with an idea.  I play the piano, and a piano is black and white.  So there you have it. I play classical music and have two tattoos that are music inspired.  My favorite composer is Frederick Chopin....the Fantaisie Impromptu is my arch nemesis. It is such a beautiful song but sooo hard. Some day I will get it right :-P
So, the question was which stamps to use since I have a bunch of music inspired stamps.  In the end I chose to go with my newest ones.  Not much more to say...it actually went pretty smoothly and quick.  I just need to get better at putting the stamp on straight.  I think I may have figured out the trick by the end of this manicure.  I will have to do some more testing and then I will let you know the technique (if I can explain it)

Black Base-Milani Black Swift with Orly Androgynie on top
White Base-Sally Hansen Hard to Get
Stamps- sheet music is m73 using Black Swift & the piano is m58 using Spoiled Correction Tape

My lovely piano 

I have included the Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu played by the uncomparable Rubenstein if you want to listen to a beautiful piece of music.  I just listened to it for the umpteenth time and it still brings me to tears. I'm a dork, I know. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all comments you leave!

Don't forget to check out the other ladies that are participating too

Day 5-Blue Mash

I have been eyeing this manicure on pinterest for some time now.  I have no idea who it belongs to as the link takes me to a social networking page that I don't have an account for.  But I have been wanting to do something similar and decided to do it for this mani.  I really like it.  I have so many blues and in so many different shades that I couldn't decide what to do.  I literally sat my blues out in front of me and stared at them until one of them told me which one to use. :-P I kid. No, my polishes don't talk to me, I'm not THAT crazy.  I did sit there for a long time trying to decide though.  Eventually, I decided to go with a metallic Maybeline and a glitter Finger Paints.  The Maybeline was called Blue Blowout, which I have only ever used for stamping.  I was a little disappointed in the application of it as it was very streaky.  I know this happens with metallics, but this was unusually so.  The Glitter was called Art you Wondering and took three coats to cover, which is also pretty typical.  Well, onto the pictures.

Metallic Blue- Maybeline Color Show Blue Blowout
Glitter Base- is Finger Paints Art You Wondering?
Teal Base-Sinful Colors Rise & Shine
Striper-Kiss White
Stamps-BM317 & m59 using Spoiled Correction Tape

This was my inspiration mani....if you want to see it on pinterest  click on the picture

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

Check out the other ladies that are participating below.  It is a great way to see so many different and fabulous interpretations of one color! 

Will 'O' the Wisp

I just recently went to see the movie Brave with my daughter.  If you are a mother of a daughter and have not gone to see it, you absolutely must!  It was a truly moving and adorable movie.  Not only was it a Disney movie where a girl didn't need to be saved by some boy, but it was a story about a girl coming of age and what it's like to butt heads with her mother.  What woman doesn't know what that is like!!  I don't want to give anything away but Holly and I held onto each other at the end and cried.  It was a very good bonding moment.  Part of the story involves a mystical creature from Scotland called the Will 'O' the Wisp.  The Will 'O' the Wisp is a ghostly light that leads travelers from their path into dangerous places or situations, often marshes or bogs.  In the movie it leads the young Merida to what she believed was her destiny. I find this idea to be both intriguing and just plain cool.

I also did these nails on the Will 'O' the Wisp for a contest for Nat over at No Holos! Frankens and Nail Art Blog.  This contest speaks to me in so many ways....being the history and nail nerd that I am.  The contest is all about history, myths, and legends.  How cool is that!  I am entering for the beginning stamper prize (as I am still a beginner).  The prize for this is Hard Candy Frenzy, CoverGirl Lip Perfection in Dazzle, and Nicole Save the Last Dance.  I sure hope I win!!  So, onto the nails.....

Base-China Glaze Agro
Flower stamp is Maybeline Color Show Bold Gold using stamp BM-316
Wisp stamp is Maybeline Color Show Blue Blowout using stamp m24

One of the things I love about art is that it is open to interpretation.  I love the little wisp and how it came out.  I would follow it through the woods ;-)

As always, thanks for looking and I appreciate all your comments!

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