Julep - Joan

As promised, today I have a swatch of Joan by Julep. 

Joan is a red base with reddish/yellowish flakies that shine in different lights. I was happy to see that this was a 1 coater, putting on 2 coats just made the flakies more dense, but full opacity was reached in 1.

To spruce it up a bit after a few days of wear (which I saw a lot on the tips) I decided to use Julep - Rebel for a quick french.

Rebel is such a pretty, shiny rainbow silver, unlike anything I have in my stash currently.

As I've been very busy at the Hospital every day it's difficult for me to crack out quality mani's right now, so Friday I will make do with what I have and show you all how I store my polishes and my set up for Acrylics/Nail art. 

Have a Happy Wednesday!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Julep - Sienna

Hello all, 

I got my first ever Julep Maven box this month and my first color I tried was Sienna. My problem with swatching is, I can never do a swach without a little nail art! Before I get too excited, here is the swatch :

Sienna is a metallic gold that's very shimmery, shiny. Application was 3 coats and removal was easy, but it left me with a bunch of shimmer particles (that wore off in a few hours) all over my fingers. I must say that I do love this polish so far. I currently have Joan on as I type and I love it as well. (Look forward to a swatch of Joan this week).

Now for the nail art!

Sienna is obviously the base color, the black is Maybelline - Twilight Rays, which is a black base with gold flecks, perfect!

Tape is Definitely my friend. I was amazed that I was able to use one piece of tape for the whole hand (my other hand was a different story). This pinky was obviously my last finger so it did get a little funky, but not noticeably at a glance.  As Sammie at The Nailasaurus  has said, Black and Gold is one of the top 5 combinations of all mankind and I definitely agree!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Wet n Wild n Sharpie

Hello everyone. Today I believe I've made a great discovery. I don't see this too often, but why not?

Sharpie nail art. 

That's right, those smelly sharpie markers? They're AMAZING at creating small intricate details.

Exhibit A: 

I was just sort of doodling, but this is Wet n Wild - Heatwave and Wet n Wild - On A Trip (swatch below) under my Sharpie doodles. I used a coat of Seche Vite and I was surprised that there was absolutely no smearage. This is something I can definitely see myself playing with this some more (you know how cool it would be to draw Hello Kitty without her face looking like someone stuck her in a furnace?) . 

This is Heatwave and On a Trip, sans Sharpie. I LOVE Wet n Wild, especially the megalast. The formula is smooth, the brush is perfect and application is only 2 coats. I love their cremes, they're always so bright! 

I'm excited to try out Sharpie art again, maybe I'll even pick up a few more colors to see how that turns out. 

Have a happy, happy weekend everyone.

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Pure Ice - Private Show

Hello everyone! 

I recently went to walmart and of course everytime I go anywhere and I know they sell Nail Polish, I HAVE TO SEE WHAT THEY HAVE! So naturally I went to check it out and I was surprised to see a beautiful display (in the middle of the aisle none the less) of Pure Ice! I looked around and saw many colors that looked dupish to the ones I already have until I saw this beauty, Private Show :

Private Show is a black base with blue, purple, red and silver micro glitters. Application was three coats and it made my camera freak out a bit because of the glam factor of the glitters. I love how smooth application is with pure ice, but of course removal was as expected with so much glitter : terrible. I think it's 10 times as worse to remove glitter from acrylics because the glitter seems to stick more to the acrylic, no matter how much I file.

I wanted to see how Shimmer Nail Polish - Elsa looked as a simple tape mani over this as this was the result :

It's a very subtle look unless it's in a certain shadow and it kind of reminded me of a super glittery tuxedo minus the buttons and bow tie. 

Here is a bit of a blurrier picture to show all of the glitzy glitter bomb :

Elsa is the first Shimmer Nail Polish that I bought and I have to say, I love it! There are so many amazing colors to choose from and I definitely need to think of some nail art to play around with this one.

You can find Shimmer Polish here on Etsy.

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

MyAwesomeBeauty Competition

Hello All! Today I have some nail art that I've entered in the MyAwesomeBeauty competition found here .

The rules were simple, to use 3 colors of polish/acrylic paint while also incorporating tape. This is what I came up with :

And here are the colors I used (as well as Nina Ultra Pro - Black)

From left to right : 

China Glaze - Secret Periwinkle 

 Sinful Colors - Innocent

 China Glaze - Turned Up Turquoise 

And last but not least, here is my entry 

Wish me luck!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Versatile Blogger Award

Hello everyone! As posted yesterday I was nominated by Kat Stays Polished for the Versatile Blogger award. Thank you so much Kat! As a very new blogger, it means a lot to me and I really like this award because it puts new blogs in the spotlight! Unfortunately, it's very difficult for me to find new blogs BUT :
If you'd like me to add your blog to my post, I would be more than happy too!

Here are the rules to this award:

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging
2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the bloggers who have nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post

7 Random Facts about Me!

1. I have a rabbit name Harvey.
2. I have so many clothes, there isn't enough dresser/closet space for them all. Half of them still have the tags on.
3. I currently have about 215 nail polishes in my stash.
4. I own 5 game systems.
5. I have 17 piercings.
6. I also have a chihuahua named Mocha
7. I'm Native American.

Thank you again for the award Kat!

Valentine's Day Mani Finale!

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day everybody! Even if you don't celebrate Valentne's Day, these Manis should still make you as cheery as if you did!

I have not one, not two, but THREE Valentine's treats for you all.

Here is your first treat :

I used a buttload of colors here and used a dotting tool to sprinkle the pinks on.

The pinks I used from lightest to darkest were :

Color Club - Blushing Rose

Ulta - Flamingo

Santee - Flower Pink

Lycra - Pink Punk

Santee - Fusion Pink

Rimmel - Stop Traffic

I then took a small brush and used Wet n Wild - Ebony Hates Chris to outline the black heart and finished it off with Kleancolor - Madly Matte.

Overall I think this one turned out OK, it wasn't what I envisioned in my head and the Matte made it turn out all lumpy, but oh well.

Your next treat is my favorite :

I got the inspiration for this one from the Hello Kitty cookie jar that my Mom got me for christmas.

For the pink I used Lycra - Pink Punk Sinful and I used Sinful Colors - Snow Me White with a dotting tool for the dots and hearts.

This is the Mani I'm sportin' for Valentine's Day, it's a lot brighter in person.

I finished this off with a coat of Seche Vite.

And your last, but not least treat is one that I did on my friend Tiana. She came up to me and asked me for a Valentine's Day Mani that was "like mine, but not." This is what we came up with :

I like that this one was simple yet cute. I'm especially surprised that I was able to get the heart on her ring finger so even! I used the same colors as mine,  Lycra - Pink Punk Sinful and Sinful Colors - Snow Me White. 

Once again, Have a Happy Valentine's Day! I just got my first Shimmer nail polish today and have some nail art plans in mind for it coming up next week. 

Also, Thank you very much to Kat Stays Polished for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. I'll follow the rules and get that post up tomorrow!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Valentine's Mani - Day 2

Here we are with Day 2 of my Valentine's Day - Week nail art. This is a much more simple mani and one of my favorites that I've recently done. 

For the sparkles/hearts I used Kiss Nail Art Paint which doesn't have a name. But it's a sparkly pink, even though it looks more purple above 

For the Pink/Purple I used China Glaze - Split Perso-Nail-Ity from the new Tranzitions line. To get the color to change from pink to purple, all you need to do is add top coat. I used Seche Vite. 

I don't know if it was because of my acrylic nails or if anyone else had this problem, but my nails stained a terrible purple upon removal. I used Seche Vite Base Coat, which usually curves the staining to nothing but this time it didn't work. I had to file my acrylic all the way down to the nail bed and on some nails even my nail bed was stained. It was TERRIBLE. The application was a bit gloopy as well and it took 2 coats to try to even it out (even though it still wasn't even on some nails, like my thumb).

I like the concept of this nail polish, but hopefully not all experiences with this are the same as mine

Here's a close up of the hearts and such

Tomorrow's Valentines day so look out for my Valentine's Day Finale!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Valentines Mani - Day 1

Hello everyone!

Today we have part 1 of 3 for Valentines Day week. I absolutely LOVE valentines day. Not because of the love, not because of the story of valentines day and not because of how nice everyone seems to be. No, it is a fact that I love valentines day because of the TREATS!

What a better way to begin this week, and show my love of valentines treats alike than a cupcake mani?!

I used a handful (no pun intended!) of colors here, even though it doesn't really look like it.

We have:

Starting with the base : NYC - City Sweets Pink

The cupcake and cupcake bottom : Color Club , Which didn't have a name on the box it came in or on the bottle, Upon further swatch investigation online it looks like it's called Blossoming Rose from their Blossoming Spring 2012 Collection. 

The white outline is : Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, I also added this under the Blossoming Rose on the tips of my nails so it appeared lighter (which worked!)

The red hearts on the top : Nailtini - Bloody Mary

The pink hearts on the bottom : Finger Paints - Watermelon

And finally, the sparkles on the cupcakes : Spoiled - I Gotta Confection To Make

Whether you have a Valentine or not, don't worry. You'll ALWAYS have chocolate!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Cheetah Print Nail Art

Today we have some nail art that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. My inspiration came from This post over at Top Coat It. I LOVED the color combo so I couldn't help but recreate it myself!

The colors I used were :

Wet n Wild - Ebony Hates Chris, which was my black

Spoiled - Distant Memory, which looked shimmery blue in the bottle but turned out to be more creme in real life.

and

Sally Hansen - Crystal Beading , I knew after finishing the cheetah print it needed something more and I just so happened to see this out and the open and BAM! there it was. 

I topped this all off with Seche Vite Dry Fast top coat.

I love me some cheetah print, zebra print, any print! The more out there it is, the more on my nails it should be!

Since next week is valentines day, I've been brain storming nail art ideas and I have a few that I'm really excited to try! Expect to see a Love Bomb of nail art next week!

Have a great weekend!

Love From Leesha's Lacquer

Liquid Sand by OPI

Usually I wait when it comes to nail trends until the polishes are on sale, but I couldn't help myself when I saw the latest trend, Liquid Sand. After my $80 Ulta shopping spree I picked up this beauty right here,

 Get Your Number by Opi.

Below is the difference between one and two coats. On the left is two and the right is one. And no, I did not take the picture with my mouth! I had a little help! I'm sure I would have accomplished an amazing feat if I had! 

What worried me the most about this was not being able to use top coat. I am NOTHING without my Seche Vite top coat! Due to not having my precious top coat, I'm on my third day with this polish and I do see wear on the tips. It goes without saying that it's a but rough on the top, but again, after a few days it begins to smooth out a little bit. Overall I really like it, I know some people can't stand the roughness of it, but I welcome it because anyone with acrylic nails knows how difficult it is to itch a scratch with acrylics!

And, of course I had to try out a little nail art to see how it would go over the rough texture.

I was surprised to see that the black, which was Wet n Wild - Ebony Hates Chris turned out to be matte when it dried. It also was obviously texturized. That picture was taken 3 days after I first applied Get Your Number and you can sort of see a bit of wear on the tips.

In conclusion : I love me some liquid sand!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Superbowl Nails

I must say, my dad sure knows how to pick a winning team (sarcasm). It seems that whatever team my dad picks, that's the team that my family is rooting for and this year he picked the 49ers, who for those of you who didn't watch, lost 31-34 yesterday. 

I free handed the white stripes and black stripes on the SF nail with acrylic paint and I guess you could say I cheated a bit because The outlines of the white were done with sharpie. The nail polishes I used are as follows.

Green - Limelight by Ulta - A 3 coater

Red - Murray Hill Mauve by NYC - A (suprisingly) 1 coater

Gold - Deadly Dose by Wet n Wild - A 2 coater

Brown - Sketchy Character by Finger Paints - A 2 coater

And here's my little half moon football on my thumb.

What did you guys do for super bowl? Did you pig out like I did? Brisket, is indeed, my downfall!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer

Welcome to my Nail Blog!

Hello everyone, my name is Leesha and after many months of debate I've decided to start a nail blog! I've followed many wonderful blogs, a few of them you can see on the left, that have inspired me to start this. So let me introduce myself (and my nails) to the Polish Community!

These guys (or are they girls?) right here are my nails. My, they look mighty long (and a bit rough looking), you might be saying. That is because these babies right here are acrylic. Yes, that is right, I do my own acrylic nails, not because my natural nails are little nubbins, but because this past summer I made a discovery.  I taught myself how to do my own acrylic nails. 

I managed to dig up a few pictures of my nails before my acrylics so you can see what my naturals look like.

Of course, they're not of the best quality, but you get the idea! I'm really into nail art and I've found with acrylic nails, the nail polish seems to stick better. My natural nails are also very flimsy, which caused major breakage so growing them any longer than what was above was out of the question. 

I have tons of stuff planned for this blog of mine, from my stash of polish (I made a sweet new nail polish rack from a tutorial that I came across), to nail art (Superbowl nails anyone?) and new trends (I got my hands on some liquid sand nail polish that I'm eager to try!). I'm excited to start my nail journey!

Love from Leesha's Lacquer