NOTD: Mari Moon Gradient + Stamping

Hi everyone!

Only a few words today... I have a bunch of pictures so I don't want to make this post too long!

For today's design I used Speciallita Hits Mari Moon Polishes in Dreamer (base of nail), Cutie Pie (middle) and Cool (tip of nail) in a gradient over Cult Nails Time Traveler (my go-to dark base colour). I then stamped the paint splatter-esque design from the m70 (konad) plate using Cult Nails Nevermore. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and I'm happy to say that this design will make it onto my list of jewellery designs. I'm still working on the designs I want to be able to offer. Currently I'm working on a galaxy pattern... anyhow, here are the pictures!

What do you think? I'm so pleased with how this manicure turned out! I'm especially happy with the Mari Moons - I think I'm going to need back ups of these and the other set (I currently have the modern one).

Thank you for reading! Have a great week!

Marisa

PS: Have you seen that post by Polish Galore on the China Glaze stuff at CosmoProf? I am SO oogling those China Glaze Holographics!

NOTD feat. N.Nail B76

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the lack of recent posts, I finally got my camera back yesterday so now I have lots of recent photos to share with you all!

Today's post is what is actually on my nails (on my right hand anyway- my left hand is nude at the moment). I used Gouda Gouda Two Shoes from OPI's Holland collection as the base colour, and then stamped on a pattern from the N.Nail plate B76 using Illamasqua's Load.

Overall, it's a pretty subtle look on my nails. Lately I've been obsessed with neutrals (like the OPI NYC Ballet collection) and cobalt blues (major lemming is RBL's IKB 2012, but I'm unwilling to fork out the cash for that one, and it's sold out now anyway thank goodness). I saw the 8 pack set of China Glaze Neons for sale and... I just couldn't do it. Neons tend to make me looked more tan than I already am, and I haven't been able to get my head around it yet. Maybe when the sun comes out to shine for the summer (it has been rainy and cloudy here since ever) I'll change my mind and go back.

I didn't have any trouble with stamping from this plate at all (yay for me!). I absolutely feel like I've seen this design on another plate from a different brand though, which is kind of odd. Then again, I think the same patterns have been used on plates coming from several different brands so it shouldn't surprise me much. 

Now for a giveaway update... I've been looking for potential giveaway prizes, and I haven't really found any that I think will good enough. I was thinking about looking at the recent releases and trying to choose something from those, but I haven't been feeling any of them. I've looked at OPI, China Glaze, Butter London, Essie and Deborah Lippmann, but nothing has really stood out to me. I'm going to continue looking!

In terms of Fall collection previews I've been seeing, I'm pretty excited about the China Glaze On Safari collection (saw nail wheel swatches of those) but not too amazed by the OPI Germany collection. A lot of the colours look pretty vampy, and vampy is something I don't really wear that often. We'll see.

The N.Nail stamping plate featured in this post can be purchased here. KKCenterHK is an online store that sells various nail products (and lots of other beauty stuff). At the moment they have an anniversary sale (25% off)! you can also get a 10% discount using the coupon code: livelylacquer. I'm not sure if you can combine the two discounts together though.

 Anyhow, I've been rambling on for a while, and I should probably stop! I hope y'all enjoyed the NOTD and thanks for reading!

Marisa

**The product(s) featured in this post were provided to me for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Current NOTD

Hi everyone!

I had my last midterm today and I just feel really.. drained. I need a nap.

Sooo, a short-ish post today. This is a mix of stamping/random tape colourblocking. I've really been into stamping lately, so you'll probably see more of that in the upcoming posts and such.

This is another image from the N.Nail B65 plate (SPPMB65) from the e-shop KKCenterHk, which I reviewed in this post. I used China Glaze's Kinetic Candy for the design, and Recycle for the base. I then used tape to make some random triangle-y bits. Triangle-y bits? Yeah, my brain is fried.

Sorry for the dry cuticles etc, winter is definitely the worst season for my skin.

Hope y'all enjoy! You can purchase this stamping plate from can purchase this stamping plate from the KKCenterHk online store. In the meantime, if you use the coupon code livelylacquer (valid until January 31, 2013) you can get 10% off your purchase! Yay!

Thanks you reading! I'm going to take that nap now :D

Marisa

**The product(s) featured in this post were provided to me for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Review: N.Nail Stamping Plate B65

Hi everyone!

Today I'm going to review a stamping plate I received from KKCenterHk, an online store based in Hong Kong that sells beauty supplies. I have been on a foreign nail polish kick lately so I'm really excited to be able to bring you all this post, since they also sell a lot of brands that are unknown to me and have some exciting polishes available (like magnetic and glow in the dark ones!).

I have also been wanting to try stamping more often, but I don't have access to many full nail designs (which I generally prefer). In short, this was an awesome opportunity.

In my package from KKCenterHk, I received these two items:

 An N.Nail Scraper and stamper set (JR1055)

And the stamping plate! This is the N.Nail B65 plate (SPPMB65).

I used the center image for my stamping adventure!

I used China Glaze's Lemon Fizz for the base, and Cult Nails' Vicious for the stamp. Sorry about the smudging, I was a little heavy handed putting the top coat on and it managed to smear some of the design. (Doh!)

PROS:
- I had no difficulty using the stamping plate. The images I tried came out very well. This random broken up/messed up parts of the images are more or less my fault (for being a newbie at stamping).
- Images on the plate are very cute -I can actually see myself using this plate fairly often. I also didn't really think I'd like this image from the product picture on the website, but it's actrually quite cute. from far away this design reminds me of lace on my nails.

CONS:
-The stamper itself is kind of small, but it is usable. I generally prefer longer handles because it just feels like I have a better grip on things, although my positioning still needs some work anyhow. :P
-The scraper. I found the blade too short. it's around 2-3mm from tip to plastic handle, so my excess polish usually ended up getting stuck on the lower bit of the handle and was really hard to clean from the little ledge between the blade and the holder. After the first few tries, I ended up going back to using one of my old cards to scrape away the excess polish.

To conclude, I found the quality of the stamping plate to be very good (in my opinion). I'm not sure if $4.74 USD/plate is a decent price (in comparison to other brands) because of my inexperience with stamping plates in general, but I think I wouldn't hesitate to purchase more of these plates (and possibly some other goodies) from this store.

You can purchase this stamping plate and many other beauty items from the KKCenterHk online store.

Thanks for reading!! :D

Marisa

**The product(s) featured in this post were provided to me for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Odd One Out - Dirty Glitter Zebra NOTD

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, but I was still feeling pretty under.. for some reason lately little things have been bugging me, and I haven't really felt like putting a lot of effort into my nails. I'm thinking I'm pretty stoked for the eBay package with all of my long awaited Nubars.. and I don't want to do anything fancy in case the package comes.. so I can do my nails right away when it comes. Do any of you feel that way when it comes to nail mail?

Anyhow, I managed to do one hand today.. the sun didn't really come out at all, and I couldn't take any pictures of the holo polish I'm wearing on my right hand in the sun (the indoor-lightbox pictures will be in a later post though).

So.. I present to you.. the Odd One Out - Dirty Glitter Zebra NOTD!

Hmm, just noticed this one is kinda light.. so here's another picture in lower lighting.. where you can see the glittery bits..

Sorry about how oily my fingers look.. I just rubbed some shea butter on!

I'm relatively pleased with this NOTD, even though it is basically my second time stamping.. and it isn't as clean as I would have liked it to be.

What I used:
BM16
White BG - China Glaze Snow
Black Stripes- Billie Cosmetics Black
Greenish Grey BG - Essie Sew Psyched
Glitter Topcoats - China Glaze White Cap and Fairy Dust

That's all for now! Have a great day!

-Marisa

Nubar - Peacock Feathers and my first attempt at Konading

Happy Tuesday everyone,

We had an election yesterday (Canadian federal election) and I could say a lot about it.. but.. let's just avoid it.

Anyhow, my sister recently bought Nubar - Peacock Feathers off of Ebay, and she was kind enough to bring it over so I could get my paws on it. Peacock Feathers is a nice deep purple duochrome that flashes blue, gold and green in the sun (like a peacock's tail feathers..). I used 3 coats for the pictures below (sorry for the slight tipwear, I didn't have time to take pictures until now, and it didn't help that it rained miserably all day yesterday).

Peacock Feathers in the shade, a deep eggplant purple (you can see a bit of the duochrome here on my index and middle fingers)

Peacock Feathers in the sun, with green and gold showing.

I thought the formula was good (maybe a tad on the watery side) but I had no difficulties applying the polish. It's a very mesmerizing polish, and I think I may get some of the other Nubar duochrome polishes in the future. The wear on this polish isn't too bad either, this was done Sunday and it only has a slight bit of tipwear even though I had bashed my nails around while doing some gardening.

My sister also had ordered some Konad and Bundle Monster plates.. so today I had fun playing around with stamping.

For the stamping I used BM15 and BM20 in Color Club - Fashion Addict (which is a slight holo) over Peacock Feathers

BM15, BM20 in Fashion Addict over Peacock Feathers (shade)

BM15, BM20 in Fashion Addict over Peacock Feathers (sun)

Not too bad for my first time stamping either.. I think I'm hooked! :D

Nubar - Peacock Feathers is currently discontinued, but can be purchased on Ebay.

In other news, we've just made a large order of polish from online, and should be getting it sometime in the next two weeks!

Have you tried Konading before? What stamps are your favourites to use? What is your favourite duochrome polish?

-Marisa <3