Neon tribal-esque

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Thursday! TVD ended last week... I am le sad about it. But I loved the finale! Anyone else? I'm still stoked.

Anyway, I've just got a quick post for you. I'm going to be back in full swing on Monday, three posts a week. I really am this time. I've got stuff scheduled and everything, like I'm a real blogger.

Marta of Chit Chat Nails recently posted on Instagram that she was looking to sell a few of her sets of stamping plates. I've wanted the Red Angel stamping plates for ages but there was something up with them shipping internationally... not sure if that's sorted now but anyway, I decided to take the chance to get them! Then I stared at them for ages... before settling on a neon tribal-esque manicure. I don't think I've ever actually done tribal nail art before so this was a good baby step haha.

I started out with two coats of Essie Blanc, one of my favourite whites. Then I just sponged. On half my nails, I used (cuticle to tip, index and ring): China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada, China Glaze That's Shore Bright and Color Club Chelsea Girl. On my middle and pinky fingernails I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Color Club Wham! Pow! and Orly Va Va Voom. Then I stamped using Konad black and RA 114. Topcoat and I was good to go! These were so fabulously tacky and bright in person. I loved them.

My goal is to post a "nail art" manicure once a week, hopefully. So that means mostly stamping because I can't freehand to save my life haha.

What do you guys think? Have you done any tribal-inspired nails? Are you busting out your neons yet?

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

NCLA swatches: As If! and AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Tuesday :) Hope you're all having a great start to your week!

I've just got a quick post today. One of my favourite shopping sites, Nail Polish Canada, recently started carrying NCLA polish, so here are swatches of two of the pretties from the spring collection!

This is my first experience with NCLA polishes. I wasn't sure what to expect. They retail for $16 - so definitely more of a luxury brand and unfortunately the price can be fairly prohibitive for some of us. That being said, the colours are really gorgeous and chic.

First up is As If!, a "timeless lavender creme." The NCLA website also says it's "pastel perfection" and I must agree. I'm such a sucker for colours like this, they're always so flattering and feminine. The formula was a bit thin and patchy, so this was three coats plus topcoat.

And the other pretty for today is AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree, a "sophisticated, light mint pastel colour" that is "perfect for every season". MINT. Mint that doesn't give me major lobster hands! Happiness. Again, thin and patchy. Three coats plus topcoat.

You can get these from Nail Polish Canada. They retail for $16 CAD and you get free shipping on orders over $25!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

The products in this post were provided to me in exchange for an honest review. For more information, see my disclosure above.

Instagram rehash: recent manicures

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Saturday! I know I've been gone for a while... I had some technology issues  and was just feeling pretty uninspired. I'm starting to find my mojo again so I've been working on building up some swatches so I can start scheduling posts like I used to. It won't be every day (it still amazes me to think I used to do that) but probably three times a week. That's my goal, anyway.

So... yeah. Anyway, I've been a bit obsessed with double accent nail manicures recently. And mix and matches because I see them so much on Instagram and I love how they look! This is one I did a while ago but I really liked it. The pink is Zoya Lolly, the white is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (I use this polish so often haha). The glitter on my index fingernail is Whimsical Ideas by Pam Eloise (never saw that show but the circle glitter omg) and then I just stamped with a Bundlemonster plate. I failed really hard at doing a frame nail on my thumb so it's not visible except the side haha. Oh and black rhinestones near my cuticle for my pinky because black rhinestones.

Next is a pretty simple manicure. My love Jen sent me OPI The Man With the Golden Gun, so of course I had to try it! I decided to layer it over China Glaze Tart-y for the Party (such a cute name and colour). I love purple and gold together. Sadly, TMWTGG is a bit sparse, which I was expecting but still... boo! This is two coats with a lot of patient dabbing haha. I did love this manicure though! Tart-y for the Party had a great formula though, two easy coats for coverage.

I've been completely obsessed with mint polish for the past couple of months. It's an illness. I just need to hoard all of them. This was a pretty one - NCLA AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree. Formula was a bit patchy and uneven - I did two thin coats and one thick one to even everything out.

Zoya Vespa. Unsurprisingly (given my love for all things glitter and my general preference of wearing them gritty), I'm loving the texture trend. The Zoya Pixie Dusts are fabulous. They're gritty without catching on everything (sorry OPI and China Glaze,  you know I still love you) and I love how they sparkle. I've worn all the Pixie Dusts from the first set now and I'm desperately waiting for Nail Polish Canada to get the summer ones in because I need. I need all the textures, honestly. Except the pink OPI Bond girl that I refuse to say the name of because it grosses me out. Anyway, three coats.

All the texture pls. I love the China Glaze textures too. Jen said they look like ceiling and I totally agree and I dig that okay. The China Glaze textures seem closer to the Nails Inc leather effects/Milani textures in that they're cremes, rather than the gritty sort of glitter that Zoya/OPI are doing, but still. Hotness. I picked up two from the collection. Index and middle fingernails are In the Rough, ring and pinky fingernails are Of Coarse!. Of course I had to have the green and the blue. Two coats of each but these are quite opaque - I imagine someone more careful could get away with one.

And my  most recent mix and match! Or should I say mix and matte? ;) Yeeeep I am that cheesy. Anyway, I loved this one. I wanted something dark but fun... even though it's spring... because I do what I want haha. I used lots for this one. Index to pinky: Zoya Dahlia, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls topped with Lac Attack Dementor's Kiss, Zoya Chyna and China Glaze Concrete Catwalk topped with Different Dimension Social Suicide. My thumb was just Concrete Catwalk on its own. Two coats of all of the bases, one of each of the glitters. I left the Zoyas to their own devices, of course, but I did topcoat my other nails.

And that's it! Hopefully I'll be back and starting the posting on Monday or Tuesday. We have a lot of stuff going on over the next couple of days but I aim to find time to sit down because finishing up this post has reminded me of why I always come back to blogging. :)

What do you lovelies think? What have you been wearing lately? Are you on board with the texture trend?

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

piCture pOlish spam!

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy hump day :) I apologise for my absence once again... I've really lost my blogging mojo lately. My nails are still always polished and I'm still reading and lurking and stalking for new collections, but lately the dread of the amount of work it takes to edit photos is outweighing the joy I get from actually posting. I was feeling inspired last night so I decided to take advantage of it (swatchathon while listening to the Spice Girls... yeah baby) and swatch a bunch of my piCture pOlishes that I haven't shown you guys!

I know I've shown a few lately but I really love piCture pOlish. Such pretty colours and I absolutely adore the blogger collaboration shades - it's so cool to see what lacquerheads come up with! Not all of these are collaboration shades but I'll note which ones are. :)

WOW there's a fair amount of photos. Under the cut, as usual!

OPI chevron manicure

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Monday :) I hope you all had a good weekend!

Just a quick post today - I'm partaking in a nail art challenge on instagram (if you want to partake, the tag is #nailartmar). One of the prompts was chevrons, so I did my first ever chevron manicure!

I used OPI Samoan Sand as the base... two coats since I wasn't worrying about vnl. I can't believe it took me so long to get this polish - I always held off on it because I thought it would be too brown for me, but it's actually quite flattering (I think anyway)... then I used OPI You're Such a Budapest for the tips.

The first photo is with topcoat (CND Air Dry) and the second photo is mattified (using Essie Matte About You). I loved this manicure but I loved it even more matte!

What do you lovelies think? Have you ever done chevron tips before? I think I need more practice with them... I really like the way they look (is it weird that I thought this manicure was unusually classy for me?) but it took me waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to do them. I won't be trying again unless I've got a few hours haha!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!