Legally Lacquered Giveaway!

Legally Lacquered, another great nail diva, is having a giveaway in honor of 150 followers!

A hard to acquire bottle of Nfu-Oh #61 !! Be sure to head over to her blog: Legally Lacquered, to follow and enter to win!

I wish I had some awesome photos to show of this magical polish (but alas, Google will have to do for you guys. I do not feel like getting in trouble for using copyrighted photos LOL). HOLOGRAPHIC at it's finest! much more brilliant than OPI AND China Glaze OMG combined. Yes it is that serious!!
The funniest part is I made her 150th follower. I don't know why I feel like that's such an honor but I know how hard it is to get followers and people who actually appreciate your hard work. So much luck to her blog success ! If I had a bottle of champagne, I'd pop the bottle now in celebration!
I could just be in the seriously geeky mood but HEY! Giveaways are what we have to be happy about right?

Cupcake Sprinkles

I surely did jump on the glitter sandwich bandwagon.

Now, I don't know who came up with this first but I've seen it floating around a few blogs and decided to try it for myself! It reminds me so much of sprinkles on a cupcake or ice cream. A lot of people compare it to Deborah Lippmann's Glitter In The Air and I honestly don't own that polish yet so I wouldn't know, but I HAVE seen photos and I'd have to slightly agree.

Sandwiching glitters between sheer layers of polish creates that same murky, or should I say, muted glitter in a jelly base(?) without having to pay $18 for a bottle of nail polish.

It helps to use sheer polish because more opaque colors would just cover up the glitter rather than letting it show through.

I ALMOST made a mjor mistake. I wanted pink nails to wear to my son's Kindergarten graduation and I didn't want it to be a baby pink. I wanted a darker pink and I found that in a bottle of Sinful Color's Soulmate.

It would have been a truly awesome color if I had known ahead of time before painting my nails that it was basically opaque in ONE coat.

I literally sat there staring at my nails for a good ten minutes wondering what I should do now.

If I started the glitter sandwich process using Soulmate, it would not look the way it should.

That's when I grabbed Fingerpaints Rose Patina, which is a sheer rose with gold shimmer.

It was the closest I could get to Soulmate. Still not the same shade whatsoever but good enough!
For the glitter, I used Wet N Wild's Party of Five Glitters. I heard it's comparable to DL's Happy Birthday, but I don't have that one either LOL soon I will dish for that polish. SOON!

I know, a bottle of Ibuprofen? LOL it was the only thing I had closest to hold at that time to take a photo hahaha.

I finally got off my lazy butt to grab the bottle! You will notice that the lighting in my apartment varies. So the photos aren't exactly fair. This photo shows the gold shimmer in the Rose Patina. But the pink is actually much more pink than these photos. Not so "orangey".

Don't forget to enlarge these photos for details. All my photos are clickable!

I enjoyed this manicure immensely. I will definitely do this again but with a more pastel color.

Here's that orangey tone I spoke of previously. It drives me nuts.

Just a closeup of the "sprinkles" I'm getting a little better with the steady hand! I had practically NO cleanup here!! I think that's triumph. Hopefully I can get this technique down on the vampy colors hehe

Thanks for reading!

Song Currently Playing On This Post:
Afrojack Feat. Eva Simons - Take Over Control

Guest Nails ~Mama Sparkles~

I haven't decided if I want to do guest nails every week or whenever I see nails that I love!

I always get permission of course.

These beautiful nails belong to my absolutely wonderful friend Mama Sparkles.

She used Confetti Belle of the Ball which is a beautiful lavender creme, under Sinful Colors Frenzy, A GORGEOUS pink, purple, teal glitter. One of my favorite fine glitters.

A more accurate photo of the colors.



Song currently playing on this post:

Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly - Before I Let Go

Get Over Here!!!!

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!!

I have finally gotten into the groove of updating this blog and I am finally giving you all what I promised. Scorpion inspired Mortal Kombat mani. Now I was torn on how I would actually DO this. I used this render art as inspiration:

See the lines on his costume? I couldn't decide between that as inspiration or the scorpion's tail (not the tail.. but the tip that strikes.. I don't know what it's called off the top of my head and don't really feel like using Google to find out LOL)

The polish I used for the designs are:

Sinful Colors Secret Admirer

Milani 3D Holographic in 3D

L.A. Colors Art Deco in Gold Glitter

I then used tape to do the design. I free handed the gold glitter and it friggin shows! LOL

The Sinful Colors Black has muted silver sparkles in it to give it a textured look. I didn't want to use plain black because I noticed that Scorpion's outfit is like a charcoal color. I don't have charcoal (yet!) so I went with this. I think it was a good choice!

I went with this style to reflect the scorpion tail. It's called a Chevron tip. I couldn't decide which photos to use so I decided to use them all LOL I'm getting a tiny bit better at applying my polish!

Here's where things get funky! This is my right hand. I was inspired by the lines on Scorpion's vest. I alternated where the colors are in this, to give a funky look to it. My boyfriend liked the mani, of course, I'm a tougher critic and thought that I could have done way better.

Just a different lighting. No flash. Not fantastic but I think it looks alright.

And there you have it. My Mortal Kombat inspired mani. I'm thinking of doing the same with Kitana ! What do you think? hehe

Could you imagine? frosty blue/silver with black corset lacing? INSPIRATIONS!

Thanks for reading everyone! Next post I will do, Guest nails of the day! I'm going to start featuring my beautiful friends and their nails on my blog! Stay tuned.

XOXO

Song Currently Playing On This Post:

Stone Temple Pilots - Creep

Hello, Hello, Kitty!

Hi everyone!

Okay, as I told you all in my previous post, I've been slacking off pretty badly lately updating my blog. I HAVE been doing my nails though, so worry not, I promised to share my journey with all of you, and I plan to make that a reality. I WILL NOT FALTER! *hee hee*

I may as well explain a little of what has been going on with me.

I've been having some issues with my relationship, on top of having issues with the relationship with my son's father. The two put together while being on a new *hormone* birth control, has me feeling like my mind & heart is in a blender.

The stress is so incredibly overwhelming and sometimes I just cannot deal. I break down a lot.

I was diagnosed with manic depression as a teen and I'm afraid it is something I never got over.

Manic depression is what the docs call, bi-polar disorder, depending on the level one person is at, it's either severe, or mild. I'd love to believe I have mild bi-polar but who knows.

I can be up one second and totally down about nothing the next. Trust me, it's truly debilitating.

Most times, I feel so worthless and can barely move.

I guess I don't work well under pressure.

I'm trying to work through it and find solace and comfort in my obsession (NAILS!) LOL

I miss my boyfriend and I wish he would understand the amount of stress I'm under and the pain I feel.

Well.. bright side because there IS ALWAYS a bright side to all situations. I have two new old manicures to share. My Mortal Kombat inspired mani that I've been promising for like, 2 weeks LOL and one that was a surprise, thrown into the mix of it all..

HELLO KITTY!

Now, please remember, I haven't even tested the waters with hand drawn nail art or Konad, or bundle stamping thingie monster stamp. -__-

I'm only referring to Sephora's featured Hello Kitty polish!

They have several lovely colors. My boyfriend surprised me one day and bought me 2.

Minty & Banana Cream. I mean, really, I only wanted them for the bottles! The colors are so common.

The brush is very short (I cannot stand mini brushes and mini polishes) and the formula of the polish is streaky. I will give it the benefit of the doubt though, because I am very inexperienced with polish. It might have just been my terrible technique. (remember, I'm not doing reviews, just perfecting my steady hand!)

Also, bear in mind that I was indoors and this damn color was so hard to capture! It's a very MINT green. Not teal, or blueish, or aqua as the photos show.

I tried to get all fancy shmancy by using a matte top coat over it, Essie's Matte About You, to be exact.

Then I tried to get extra fancy by adding shimmery tips. *sigh* it envisioned better in my mind than it turned out on my fingernails.

The super cute HK heads hehe, I love them

This is BEFORE I applied the matte top coat.

Essie's Matte About You! (just showing the bottle in case anybody is interested in purchasing it. It works great!)

My failed attempt to capture the sparkles in the tips, for which I used Jesse's Girl Firefly

This was a "better" attempt at showing the tips' potential in a no flash photo.

Outdoors, in the sunlight, FAIL!

Last but not least. The bottle of Jesse's Girl Firefly so I could show you what would NOT show up on my nails in photos. It's great, I recommend this polish! So shimmery and beautiful and wait until you see it over black!

It goes without saying, that I, Roxy, needs to finally make my lightbox.
Maybe next week?

Thanks for reading!

Song Currently Playing On This Post:
Pro Nails - Kid Sister

Could It Be.. UNICORN PEE?!

I know I've been away for a while, I haven't been too inspired to work on my blog. I don't know what the hell it is, but I get so depressed, I can barely move.
I hope I could be more inspired to finally update this blog the way I truly want to.
Maybe I should start doing yoga, or meditating, or go to church.

I need something to keep the peace in my drama filled life.

I can't quite remember which day I finally received my Clarins 230 in the mail but it's finally MINE!
*giggles menacingly*
Okay, as you all know, my nails aren't the length I want them to be to actually swatch this and so many other people have swatched Clarins 230 way better than I could possibly do it. So today will just be photos of my lovely bottle. LOL I know hurrah hurrah whooptie doo.

Click to enlarge the outdoor photos. you will NOT be disappointed. Trust me

Once the nails are longer, I promise awesome swatches!

Song Currently Playing On This Post:
Spank Rock - What It Is (Todd Edwards Remix)

Mortal Kombat INSPIRED!

I got an awesome idea today..
While talking to my boyfriend about video games, Mortal Kombat popped into my mind (it also helped that it's my google chrome theme LOL)
I've decided that once this week long treatment with my Nail Envy and candy striped manicure is over, I will do a Scorpion inspired mani.

Hmm.. is this a first? I hope I spark some inspired looks for nails!! I have a bunch of ideas. Not sure if I should do black matte, a gold french tip with gold glitter.
How about, metallic black/grey, with chevron black tips? We'll see.. I have a bunch of variations in mind.

In the meantime, check out this awesome MK9 render art of Scorpion!

Song Currently Playing On This Post:

Stone Sour - Bother

M.I.A. & A New Manicure

I got caught up in a little trouble a few days ago, been a bit down since, so I'm sorry for not doing any posting the past few days.

Good news is, I'm back and with a new manicure!

I'm currently under treatment using OPI's Nail Envy. Never tried it before, kind of excited to see what it's about. Your first initial use, you use two coats as a base, then everyday for a week you use one coat. After 1 week, you remove it and start all over again until your nails are at their maximum strength, then you switch to Nail Envy Maintain. As you all know, I'm taking biotin vitamins. I'm on this quest towards stronger, healthier nails. I hope it works, because my nails have ALL types of problems; peeling, paper thin, discoloration.. UGH! It's so aggravating. I'm used to breakage every day. But lately since I've been more careful, I have yet to break my nails (Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself.)

There's some slight discoloration on my nails, thanks to Sinful Colors polish, I keep forgetting the name and I have that bottle BURIED somewhere.

This particular design, I wasn't too thrilled with. Being inexperienced and shaky handed (is that even a term? LOL) it was a PITA (pain in the a**) PLUS I used Sinful Colors new Neons that didn't thrill me much. They're very sheer and quite streaky. The green pissed me off the most! Yellow would be close second since it is EXTREMELY streaky. I don't know, I'm really thinking of purchasing a new set of neon colors. Maybe I will hunt down China Glaze's Poolside collection and call it a day.

Starting with THESE neons, they need a white base indefinitely or else you will need about 18 coats to get the color that is in the bottle (no joke, and NOT fun!)

I used Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White. Yeah, I'm messy, I figure with time I'll get it right.

Now here's the truly hard part *le sigh* candy striping..you will see ALL my horrible errors but the good part is, it gets covered anyway but I'm really hoping I can someday get this candy striping down. It's annoying and time consuming but I LOVE the way it turns out, it's so pretty. WHEN IT'S DONE RIGHT!

I was TRYING to go for a summery look using neon and crackle.. Maybe I used the wrong color crackle.

Using Sinful Colors Neons in Neon Melon, Summer Peach, Irish Green & Pink (yes, pink it's called)

And all the nails about an hour to 2 hours later. I take a long time because I get easily distracted.

The green is not so "blue" it's a very vibrant green. But takes about 3 coats WITH a white base to see that vibrancy

Candy stripes covered in Sally Hansen's Crackle Overcoat in Snow Blast.

At this point I had to switch from my camera to my phone because my memory stick was full!

Song currently playing on this post: M.I.A. - Sunshowers