China Glaze - Westside Warrior

Hi everyone!

Happy Saturday! I'm not really doing anything special today.. I think.

I'm still a pretty happy camper, but my final exams for the summer semester are just around the corner (urgh) so I'll probably be away for a little while (double urgh) studying.. but I'll give you a heads up when that date comes closer. No worries though, I'll have a guest blogger (my sister, who has more free time than I do and probably changes her polish more frequently now than me) taking the reins while I'm away.

I'll also be away for a week in August (I'm going to Washington DC -with a brief trip to NYC and Philly.. YAY)
I'll have scheduled posts by then, so hopefully we won't have any large gaps in posting. I'll still be around on twitter, so feel free to tweet me @livelylacquer !! :D

Anyhow, onto the polish.. today I have the only polish I purchased from the China Glaze Fall 2011 collection (it was the only one left, but it happened to be the one I wanted).. Westside Warrior!

I really love this colour! it applied easily and dried fast in two coats.It's a beautiful military/khaki green but my little sister describes it as "putrefied mold.. that's green" and refuses to go anywhere near it (hmm, I wonder if I can make this her pedi colour while she's asleep.. hmmmm)..

I also stamped a really nice vine pattern in gold overtop, which gave it a really nice kinda antique brocade look, but none of my pictures look right and in macro the stamping doesn't look that great, so I'm not going to post any pictures right now. Maybe later when my stamping technique is better I'll do it again.

Well, it's time to go off to DQ to get a blizzard. :D

Have a great Saturday!!

-Marisa

Color Club - Poptastic

Hello everyone~

Sorry for the really infrequent posts, but I've been feeling really uninspired lately, and none of the things I do to my nails as of late have felt up to posting quality.

Anyhow, aside from all of that, since the weather has been pretty bright and sunny out (not like summer-summer weather, more like pre-fall weather) I have a set of summer colours from last year! Yay!

Chelsea Girl

Twiggie

Poptastic

Wham! Pow!

Pucci-licious

Warhol

Almost Famous

I actually really liked this collection, it dried fast (I was expecting slower, like some of the other Color Club polishes I've tried) and the coverage wasn't bad. The more neon colours dry with a semi-matte finish (the photo of Warhol really shows the matte finish), so I'd recommend top coat for any of these. Out of the set, my favourite is probably Pucci-licious, but I'd wear these all again. Great summer colours.

Hmm, I think that's all for now. I hope you guys all have a great Friday!

By the way, if you haven't yet.. I think the Cult Nails Hypnotic collection presale is still on (it's $30 for the whole collection -> 4 polishes) and the Rescue Beauty Lounge Firebird VIP presale is on now!

Nfu Oh #56 over Orly Meet me Under the Mistletoe

Good afternoon everyone!

Today I have a relatively short post for y'all, since I'm going to go spend some girly nail polish time with my sister (I'm going to let her do my nails) soon!

I've been fussing over NARS Zulu lately (ever since I noticed that it's available on the NARS website), so I decided to post this layering combination, which is much more bright emerald green than the pictures show.

At certain angles it takes on a more teal-y look, but most of the time it's emerald green (the first thing I think of is the Emerald City from the wizard of Oz) which isn't really a problem for me, since I LOVE green. :D

That's all for now ladies, hope you all have a great day!

-Marisa

Franken - Queen Sophie

Good morning everyone!

I had a dream about frankening up a pretty purple holo a little while ago, so yesterday I set out to try to make it really happen! This franken didn't turn out exactly how the polish in my dream came out to be (it was a really light lilac colour), but it's still really pretty! It's actually not as linear as I wanted it to be either, more like something in-between a scattered and linear holo.

I used a little bit of China Glaze's TMI (HTF I know... :( ) with a little bit of blue to tint it to a red leaning purple.

I decided to name this one "Queen Sophie" after my cat, mostly because I like putting names to things and it also gives me an excuse to post a picture of her.. ;)

Ah, the queen lying in her chosen napping place.. I'm sure I have a lot of other (more embarrassing for her) photos lying around on my computer, but this was the only one I could find fast. Mayhaps those pictures will show up later.. :D

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy your Friday!

-Marisa

Nubar Indigo Illusion

Good afternoon everyone!

Gosh, I really do love days off! I managed to sleep in, but I did "accidentally" wake up at 5:30 in the morning thinking I had to haul myself out of bed.

I managed to edit all of those pictures I had in queue (isn't that the weirdest word ever? it looks totally wrong) but unfortunately I noticed that all of the pictures of one polish in particular (I'm looking at you Westside Warrior) will need to be redone. Le sigh.

But aside from all of that rambling, I have a gem I got in the eBay parcel that arrived a while ago to show y'all!

Sorry for the blurriness of that last shot, that was the best of the bunch of pictures I had taken.

But aside from that, isn't Indigo Illusion gorgeous? It's a smashing green to lavender-ish duochrome. Actually I'm thinking this may be dupeish to a handful of other polishes out there, so I'll do a comparison when the last one I have on my mind arrives (I believe it's a Zoya), which will be sometime in September.. So if you're interested, stay tooned! :D

Hmm, well I think that's all for today. Take care everyone!

-Marisa

Sephora by OPI - Mermaid to Order

Good evening (night?) all!

I figured I'll do a short post tonight, and hopefully another post later tomorrow. I'm stressing myself out by doing course planning.. and adding even more stress by trying to figure out when I want to graduate.

I won't bother you with details, but all of this stress seems to be taking a toll on my cuticles.. *sigh*

Anyhow, on a cheerier note, I have Sephora by OPI's Mermaid to Order to show y'all today. I got this polish as a gift before I was really into nail polish, and I don't really wear it too often since I have a crapload of untrieds in my stash.

This is an awesome frosty-metallic teal polish. It's really bright in the way that it glows, something about the way it shines makes it very eye-catching (at a loss of words, trying really hard to describe this one). The only downside is that its great finish also makes this one show lots of brushstrokes, and it doesn't dry particularly fast either.

Hmm, that's all for now, hopefully I'll be feeling a bit less stressed and more inspired later.. I have a bunch of photos I need to edit for later posts. :D

-Marisa

Nfu Oh #51

Morning everyone!

It's such a depressing day outside.. lots of rain. It's starting to feel like Fall already, especially when you go to the mall and all of the shoe stores are having the end of Summer sale. (Wait, summer? when did that happen?)

Anyway, aside from the boring rain thing going on outside, I'm feeling pretty good now, especially since my exams are over! HURRAH! :D

Since everything is sunshine and rainbows now, I thought I'd share with you a gorgeous polish I've been wearing for the past 4-5 days.

This is Nfu Oh #51 over China Glaze's Grape Pop, which is a deep purple creme. I also took pictures of Grape Pop on its own, but the colour turned out really weird and completely wrong. Maybe it's time to get a new camera.. hmm.

Hmm, and another shot from another angle.. :D

Sorry about the weird chip in my nail in the middle finger.. it wasn't really noticeable when it happened, but in this picture it is.

I actually really really love this! I might love the #52 combo a little bit more, but I guess all flakies are crazy awesome in my mind.I especially love how it changes colour at different angles.. I think #52 also had a duochromey kind of thing going on, but it's much more noticeable in #51.

What do you guys think? I think I want to order some more Nfu Oh polishes now.. I've got my eyes on a Nars Zulu Dupe (569) and I'll probably want more flakies.. ;)

Bye for now! Have a great day everyone!

-Marisa

Green Holo Goodness - CG L8r G8r & Nubar Reclaim

Hey everyone!

I can't wait until tomorrow is over.. usually around this time I get really nervous about exams.. even if it's just a midterm, so when this midterm week is over, it'll be a whole lot of relaxing and nailpolishing!

Today I have some gorgeous green holos for y'all.. but unfortunately one of them is HTF and pretty expensive on Ebay. I found China Glaze's L8r G8r by chance while going by a dusty salon. Actually, they had the entire 2bhot set, but they were selling that for $50 (I only like a few colours so I didn't think it was really worth it). They had an open pack too, so I ended up getting L8r G8r and TMI.

Anyhow, back to the nails..

The China Glaze OMG holos are probably the most holographic nail polishes I've ever worn. You can even see the holo indoors, which is awesome. It's a shame they're discontinued, because I'd buy this stuff up in the boatload. ;)

Nubar's Reclaim is pretty awesome too! It isn't as crazy holographic as L8r G8r but it is a gorgeous green that I LOVE.

By the way, this is two coats on each finger, and there is some VNL in the photo, but it isn't very apparent in person. And if you're wondering.. Yes, I do wear alternating colours occasionally. LOL

That's all for now, it's time to get back to work and study >.<

Psst. Tomorrow is also the launch of the Cult Nails Hypnotic Collection's Presale! You can get all 4 new polishes for $30! (Guess who needs them all? :D )

-Marisa

Nfu Oh #52 over China Glaze First Mate

Hi everyone, super short post today since I'm just taking a break from studying!

Today I have Nfu Oh's #52 (blue green base w/ flakies) layer over China Glaze's First Mate (navy blue creme). I really like this combination!

#52 is so gorgeous.. I think it's at/or the top of my favourites! Of course, I don't actually have an actual list yet.. but I may make one in the future. I think there are a lot of polishes that would be included on that list that I just can't think about right now!

I'd also like to take advantage of this last week of studying to invite you to leave me links to your blogs and/or blogs you'd like to see on my blogroll! I need more reading material!

That's all for today, hope you are all having a fantastic Saturday.. I'm going back to studying protein transport and modifications now.. @__@

Ciao!

-Marisa

Nfu Oh Haul and a Service Message..

Hi all!

Happy Fourth of July all!

Sorry for not posting for a little while, my long weekend was filled with paint, paint tape, and big boxes. My sister is moving to a new condo, so I've spent pretty much every moment of  my weekend helping her out (including painting at 1AM)!!

First up is my little service message.. I just wanted to tell y'all that I'll be posting a bit more infrequently from now until the 15th, since my second midterms are coming up and I'll be studying like mad! Regular service will resume after the 15th! Yay!

Anyhow, something fast for now, since I can't help it.. and these are just too gorgeous to swatch. :D

First up.. the basics and the glitters:

L to R: Top Coat, Base Coat, GS14, GS03

The holos..

L to R: 61,61 (extra bottle), 62,63

L to R: 64, 66, 65

Now.. the flakies!

L to R: 60, 56, 52, 51

.. And another shot of the flakies.. <3

Gosh, they are gorgeous from this angle! Love it! 

I actually really love the shape of the bottles, they're so cute! Out of all of them, I'm really loving 52 and 56.. not too surprising, since I tend to be a green/blue kinda gal. ;)

So! What do you think? Gorgeous or no? I do love holos but I think these flakies are awesome!

That's all for now! Till next time! If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment, or if you'd like an immediate answer you can tweet me @livelylacquer !

-Marisa<3

Worst Canada Day Mani EVER

Happy Canada Day all!

Today I'm going to show you possibly the worst Canadian-inspired nail art ever, done by yours truly.

Ok, it's not THAT bad.. but I think it's pretty bad.

Pictures first.. lets get this over with.. LOL

Polishes used: Covergirl Candy Apple, China Glaze Snow, Kiss Nail Art in black

Naturally, I wanted to do something cool for Canada Day.. but I ended up wanting to do something ridiculously complicated for the amount of talent I have (not much) ;D

On my pinky finger.. that's supposed to be a beaver. After I finished this, I had a look at it and realized my goose (index finger, looks more like a duck) was flying upside down. Oh well, we'll just call it confused. :D
So, from pinky to index finger (left to right) we have (what is supposed to be) a beaver, a caribou, a maple leaf, and a goose.

On my thumb I tried to write the Canadian National motto, "A mari usque ad mare" which is "From sea to sea" in English. My thumb doesn't look exactly how I wanted it to look.. but it does kinda look cool.. kind of like blood smeared writing on the walls like something out of CSI. ;)

Anyway, thank you for stopping by! I hope you guys have a great day.. I'll be painting walls and cleaning out cupboards today, but writing this post has entertained me enough to last at least the rest of this day. ;D

-Marisa <3