Illamasqua Speckle

Hello Ninjas!!

Hubby and I have visited some houses over the last few days and we're getting really excited about getting our first home! I do think my hand is going to fall off by the end of this process though and we've only just submitted the loan application! Oy, I need a signature stamp.

Tonight's manicure is two coats of Illamasqua Speckle which is a very pretty light purple with black hex and micro-glitter scattered throughout. Illamasqua describes Speckle as as speckled lilac finish and it comes from the I'Mperfection collection. This is shown with only one coat of topcoat but could probably have used two to get a super smooth finish. Overall, I really love the way this looked on and it was really easy to work with despite being completely packed with glitter.

Cinderella manicure!

Good evening Ninjas!

Sorry I missed Wedesday, I had a party to go to and didn't have any time between work and fun time to stop to post. Sorry about that! If it makes it any better, I specifically brought my laptop to my babysitting job tonight to post once the kids were asleep just so I didn't miss two posts in one week!

Tonight's very pretty manicure is done with a base of China Glaze Fade into Hue which is an awesome periwinkle blue. For some reason the polishes from the Avant Garden collection have been bubbling on me so I added a coat of Essie As Gold as it Gets to mask the bubbling issue. To make this pretty blue manicure a little blingy, I added a spiral of light blue rhinestones that I received from MASH for review purposes. When I posted this look in a facebook group, some of the ladies commended on how it was a Cinderella blue manicure and I agree! With all the shine and sparkle it's pretty princess-y too :)

Rhinestones provided by MASH PR for honest review. Affiliate link included in this post.

A day of reflection

Today's post is postponed in light of the tragedy that took place at the Boston Marathon today. This is an evening to hug the people you love tightly and be thankful for the health of those around you.

For anyone still searching for loved ones, google has created a resource for you here.

Jessica Nadia: Sterling Queen

Good evening Ninjas!

I hope you've been having a great week. The weather here in NC is lovely as can be, finally reflecting Spring! Of course Spring means green season here in NC so my car and the roads are covered in allergy inducing pollen. So far my allergies haven't been bad, I hope it stays that way!!

Tonight's manicure is two surprisingly easy coats of Jessica Nadia. This is from Jessica's Spring 2013 collection that I won in a giveaway a few month back. Nadia: Sterling Queen is a lovely light grey with a fine silver shimmer throughout. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly this became opaque considering the pastel nature of the base grey. This was a fun polish to wear!

Wordless Wednesday

Essie Navigate-her with Funky Fingers Taffy Town

Essie Navigate-her with Funky Fingers Taffy Town

Easter Mani Monday

Hello Ninjas!

Sorry about missing Friday's post, I was out of town at my Grandparents' house which is about 5 hours away. Since our visit out there was a belated Easter weekend, I figured now would be a good time to show you my actual Easter manicure.

Tonight's manicure is made up entirely of the awesome Zoya Lovely polishes that were sent to me for review a few months back. The base of this manicure is three coats of Jacqueline with Piaf, Julie, or Gei Gei dotted on with the rounded end of a bobby pin. I have to say that the bobby pin is much easier to use than actual dotting tools for me. Maybe it's because the pin is shorter? On the bright side, it's a cheap way to do pretty nail art! I was aiming for my nails to look like Easter Eggs, I thought they came out pretty well :)

Zoya Lovely collection provided by Zoya PR for honest review.

Wordless Wednesday: Green and Gold scallops

Zoya Logan, Zoya Ziv, Ulta Maine Attraction

Zoya Logan, Zoya Ziv, Ulta Maine Attraction

Zoya Logan, Zoya Ziv, Ulta Maine Attraction

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Review: Zoya Dahlia

Good evening Ninjas!

Anyone have plans for Easter? I'll be heading to a friend's house for a Misfit Easter lunch, I'm excited!

Tonight's swatch is a press sample provided by Zoya for my review. This is two coats of Zoya Dahlia from the PixieDust collection. Zoya describes Dahlia as, "a black beauty with a sugared sparkle." I liked this polish for the quick opacity and neat texture; it would probably look awesome gloss too!

Product provided by Zoya PR for honest review. Post contains an affiliate link.

L.A. Girl Teal Dimension

Hello Ninjas!

I went running again tonight. Only 1.5 miles but I also did strength training afterwards which made me feel accomplished. I really don't like the running part of my workout and the weights afterwards are sort of like a reward for running. That sounds weird doesn't it? You have to have cardiovascular stamina AND muscle strength to be a well rounded person though. Ah well, at least I'm still running!

Tonight's manicure is two coats of L.A. Girl Teal Dimension. I found the display of these new L.A. Girl scattered holos at my local Rite Aid and was super excited. These look just like the Zoya holos from the Ornate collection but there are more colors! The formula was very nice on this polish, great opacity in two coats and full of large holographic particles scattered throughout a jelly base.

Black and White and Blue all over

Good evening Ninja readers!

I hope you had a lovely weekend in whatever part of the world you're from. This coming weekend is Easter, I don't have any plans but I hope my lovely readers do. This week is weapons week at work which means that I get to learn sword moves!

Tonight's manicure is two smooth coats of Jessica Sophia under one monochromatic coat of Hard Candy Black Tie Optional. Sophia "True Blue" is a perfect University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill blue (aka, Carolina blue) and I foresee myself wearing it in future NCAA seasons when UNC isn't losing so early on. Sophia has a lovely silver shimmer throughout that makes it more than a plain blue cream polish. Black Tie Optional is Hard Candy's version of the currently popular Black and White glitter combinations that began in the Indie polish world. I like this polish much better than the China Glaze version as it was easier to apply and had more glitter per swipe of polish!

Duochrome Purple Layering

Good evening Ninjas!

The weather here in NC is just toying with my emotions this week. There have been days nice enough to wear summer dresses and others where I needed gloves and a hat when I went outside. Ah well, Spring will be here soon enough!

Tonight's manicure is one coat of Cult Nails Charlatan over two coats of Illmasqua Vice. I really liked the way that Vice looked with the rubberized finish and sort of wished I hadn't layered anything on top of it. I can always wear it again though! Vice is a really pretty magenta that Illamasqua calls a "deep cerise" where Charlatan is a sheer pink jelly with pink/blue duochrome particles suspended in it.

Zoya Logan

Good evening Ninjas,

How has your week been going? It's test/stripe week at the dojo and I earned my first stripe on my red-white belt! I'm having a lot of fun in the fire element and much to his surprise my husband is also doing really well.

Tonight's manicure is two pretty coats of Zoya Logan from their Ornate collection. Zoya describes Logan as, "a full coverage, yellow-toned forest green with dense, foil-like yellow-gold and blue-green duochrome shimmer!" I kept putting off wearing Logan because it had such hard competition for my affections against the scattered holos in the Ornate collection. I really loved wearing Logan though, it was less gold than I expected and a very rich forest green. I'm definitely a big fan!

A very decorated St.Patrick's manicure

Hello Ninjas!

Some of you may have read about the recent changes in FTC disclosure regulations and others may not know. The changes basically mean I have to make it painfully obvious whenever a product included in one of my blog posts was provided by the parent company for review. I've always noted this fact on the bottom of my posts but now I have to put it THREE places in my posts, The beginning, middle, and end. This is pretty ridiculous to me and I'm still not entirely sure what the FTC fines people for and what jurisdiction is has to fine people but I guess I have to cover all of my bases. Therefore, I want to apologize in advance for the annoying and repetitive disclosure that I have to add to this and future posts.

Tonight's manicure features products provided for review by MASH nails. Specifically, the rhinestones and stamping plate were sent to my by MASH PR for review purposes. The rhinestones I used can be found at their website here and the plate I used (MASH 50) can be found here.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, check it out! This is three coats of China Glaze Budding Romance stamped with a design from a provided MASH Plate 50 using Sinful Colors Casablanca. If you're ever in the market for a great opaque silver stamping polish, Casablanca is fabulous! Then, to cover up a few imperfections in my stamping, I added green and orange/gold colored rhinestones from MASH to the middle of my nails.

Stamping plate and rhinestones provided by MASH PR for honest review. For a better look at my review policy, please visit this page: http://www.laquerlover.blogspot.com/p/disclaimer-and-pr-info.html

Zoya London

Hello Ninjas!

The weather has been up and down all week here in NC. We started off the week with a bitter cold snap then had days in the 60's but it's getting chilly again. My husband is running his first half marathon on Sunday so I hope the weather is nice for that day!!

Tonight's swatch is Zoya London. I'm pretty sure they named this one London for London Fog, it's a very pretty grey! Zoya describes London as, "a fog gray with a sugared sparkle." Which means I was right about the inspiration for the name :) This one had great coverage, two easy coats for this color which was a relief after the three long-drying coats from the previous pastel colors.

Only two more colors until I finish up this collection, are you loving the textured polished or wishing companies would quit making them already?

London provided by Zoya PR for honest review.

Volts the pretty Cobalt

Hello Ninjas!

So now that I'm in fire element training, class is way more tiring. I think that's mostly because some of the moves involve a lot of pulling on your attacker and definitely a lot of bending your knees. Needless today, my arms and legs are tiiiired!

Tonight's manicure is Volts from Funky Fingers. This is a super bright blue that shows up a really pretty neon Cobalt blue once it dries. I don't know if you can tell but the polish dries a good three or so shades darker than the bottle color. This is three coats of color which were easily buildable. Without topcoat, this polish dries to a rubber/matte finish which is a big indicator that it is indeed a neon polish.

Zoya Nyx

Good evening Ninjas!!

Hopefully you had a great weekend and were refreshed on Monday morning. I'm having a little trouble with the time change still but I'm sure it will even out in my sleep cycle soon enough.

Tonight's swatch is three coats of Zoya Nyx. Zoya describes Nyx as, " a perfect periwinkle with a sugared sparkle." Nyx was easier to work with than the previous two colors. Now, this may have been because I learned how long I had to wait between coats or because the formula was just more opaque on this color but I was happy with Nyx. The pretty blue of Nyx is more of a stormy sky blue or cornflower blue rather than periwinkle but this is definitely a great spring color regardless.

Nyx provided by Zoya PR for honest review.