I feel like Illamasqua was one of my first higher end polish brand obsessions, so I am completely bummed that they are no longer easy to get a hold of since Sephora no longer carries them. At one point I could get them at Nordstrom but then they were gone from there too. I’ve caught them a few times on Hautelook, but I’ve kinda given up on searching for them when I can get other things without such a hassle. I have a pretty sizeable Illamasqua collection, and I told myself that I should start going through my untrieds. I pulled out Illamasqua Dedicate to try out today and jazzed it up with UP and some stamping. Let me show you what I came up with. Continue reading “Illamasqua Dedicate”
Tag: Max Factor
The Lacquer Ring – Stars
Ello gov’nor! I’ve been wanting to answer the phone at work that way for a long time, but I don’t think that is going to fly. What do you think? I’m feeling kind of silly today and have no idea why. I think that it may be the funky weather, the holidays or PMS…ok, tmi so let’s move right along. It’s that time again when The Lacquer Ring is ready to wow you with our most awesome designs! See? I told you I was feeling silly. Today’s prompt, courtesy of Lesley, is all about stars. At first I wanted to use some stamping plates but then I remembered that I had some nail decals that I hadn’t used so BAM…it all came together.
The items I have used for today’s mani are KBShimmer Stonewashed (press sample), Max Factor Fantasy Fire (gift) and Salon Perfect Star Struck Nail Decal Kit (press sample).
I know that I talk about KBShimmer. I can’t help it–just look at this polish!!!! Stonewashed is such a perfect opaque creme. This is two smooth coats, and it really doesn’t get any better than this.
If I could topcoat everything with Max Factor Fantasy Fire I probably would. I just had an image of my car being topcoated with Fantasy Fire…is that weird? I applied a super thin coat of Fantasy Fire over Stonewashed just to give it that lit from within look.
And finally here are the stars. I have to work a little more on my decal placement but overall I give this mani a meh. I thought it was going to reach polish boner territory due to the awesome base, but I think it just became too much and now it’s just a semi.
So what do you think about this mani? Did the decals ruin it for you? Regardless, I strongly recommend that you check out KBShimmer Stonewashed cause it’s just divine. Anywho, don’t forget to check out the other stellar designs from my girls. My girls as in the other members of the Lacquer Ring, not my boobs. Just thought that I should clear that up just in case. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon!
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #34
Hey, how is your Saturday going? I’m enjoying my day so far even though I woke up early and did some cleaning around the house. I ended up going out to dinner with my bro, sil and baby peanut. He is such a cutie pie and is growing so fast! He was a very good boy as usual and played with his crayon the entire time.
Isn’t he just a delicious little cutie pie? So besides cute babies, I do have a mani to show you today for Stamping Saturdays. Are you ready?
I started off with two deliciously creamy coats of Kiara Sky Ms Behaved which is a smoky greyed out purple. The formula was fantastic which has been my experience with Kiara Sky as a whole.
In order to make this polish really shine, I applied one coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire. Gorgeous, right?
I then stamped this image from Konad M79 which reminds me of wrapping paper, but I just really like how it looks. I went pretty simple this week, and I really ended up liking this. What do you think?
So, I have tons of swatching to do this weekend and I hope I get through it all before my nails fall off or something. I’ve already swatched the China Glaze Fall Collection so now I am trying to decide between The Giver Collection or the Holiday Collection. It’s so hard to decide because they are all so pretty!! Anyway, thanks for stopping by today–I’ll be picking a winner soon so expect that announcement in the next hour or so. So excited! Talk to you soon.
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #11
So I just want to preface this post by saying that I’m not really happy with today’s Stamping Saturdays offering. I think I did a sloppy job, and I go from thinking it isn’t too bad to actually hating it but I figure that I should post it anyway because not every manicure is going to be perfect. I’m feeling kind of blah today for a variety of reasons so I apologize for the lack of “pep” in this post. Let’s get right to it, shall we?
I started off with two coats of Nails Inc. Baker Street which is probably one of my favorite blues ever. This color is just so amazingly electric that I can never get enough of it.
I always love to see the combination of a bright blue and Max Factor Fantasy Fire so I applied two thin coats over Baker Street.
Lastly, I used an image from Bundle Monster Plate BM 310 for my stamping design. I’ve used this image quite a few times because I love it, but I don’t think it quite works with this mani. I don’t know if it’s the color or something else, but I don’t like how this turned out. I think I’ve had a pretty good run of awesome stamping manis, so a dud was bound to happen, right?
While I was finishing up writing this post, I was watching Thelma & Louise and that final scene of their car flying off the cliff was so perfect! I love that movie! Last night I went to watch the movie Divergent and I was actually surprised that I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say it’s a great movie, but I think it serves its purpose which is to entertain. I felt that the characters could have been a little more developed and I wanted to see more of Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn before they were killed…womp womp. Anywho, I’m looking forward to watching Noah next week. Are there any movies out right now that you can recommend? Let me know what you think of this week’s mani–I won’t be butt hurt if you tell me it sucks–haha! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I will talk to you soon.
Loading InLinkz ...
Stamping Saturdays #3
Hello there and welcome to Stamping Saturdays! I was planning to get this written and posted earlier in the day, but I just didn’t have time to do anything while I was at work this morning. After that, I went to a couple of nail places but didn’t really find anything….except a few bottles of Channelesque! Yayyy for backups!!!! For today’s stampicure, I started out with my base color of Channelesque which I reviewed here.
Yep, you know I love this color! Because I wanted to make Channelesque a little blingy, I added one thin coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire on top of it.
I know that this looks uneven, but I didn’t really care because I was going to stamp over it anyway. Doesn’t it look pretty with that purple and sparkly tinge?
I am a huge fan of houndstooth print in everything (nails, clothes, shoes) so I decided to use Pure Ice Silver Mercedes to stamp on the houndstooth design from plate BM-322. I absolutely love how this turned out. I wish that that the beautiful base stood out more, but when I went outside with this design, it was like my nails were glowing.
What do you think of this design? I’m already starting to plan my design for next week because I have so many ideas! I hope you’re having a nice weekend so far and thanks so much for stopping by today. Also don’t forget to check out my other girls’ designs. Talk to you soon.
Amanda from Mae’s Beauty
Siobhan from For The Love Of Nail Art
Seche Empress
Ever since I first reviewed my first Seche polish (Seche Irresistible review here), I’ve been wanting to try more of their polishes. When I saw that my nail place had gotten some new colors, I decided to pick up another one which is how I ended up with Seche Empress. This is such a Fall vampy color, but I am so going to rock it now. Today was so gorgeous and warm outside so it feels like the weather is finally more California-appropriate. I really enjoyed it! How unlike me! I can be such a grump…probably just like grumpy cat.
Seche Empress is a very dark purple creme that looks basically black in most lighting. It is incredibly pigmented but doesn’t stain which is awesome. I did notice that the first coat was incredibly patchy and I had a few bald spots. I then applied a second thick coat ant that seemed to fix it. Since I have have tried two of these Seche polishes now, I think it’s safe to say that they are of good quality. However, I find that because they tend to dry a little quicker than other polishes, you have to work fast or else it gets goopy. They don’t dry like Seche Vite fast, but I did notice that these polishes dry faster.
Do you remember those ‘This is your brain on drugs.” commercials from the 80’s?
These are your nails.
These are your nails on drugs.
Yes, I like to call Max Factor Fantasy Fire, crack. It is liquid crack for your nails. I really wish that my pictures could show how awesome this looks in real life. I wasn’t able to capture the purple/blue/green color shift in my pictures so poo to that, but I think most of you have probably already seen how amazing this polish can look in the sun.
Lastly, I wanted to mention that I will be closing my blog sale this Sunday. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me re-home so many of my pretties. It was hectic at times, but the money was a huge help while I was stressing about being jobless. Thankfully that is no longer a concern, but I still want to do one last purge. From now until Sunday, I will be offering a 20% discount on all orders (excluding shipping). While I have shipped internationally in the past, I will only be shipping to US addresses for this last round. You can check out the items I have for sale here.
Let me know what you think about my nails on crack. I’m kind of loving them right now! Thanks for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon.
31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 28: Pattern Inspired Nails
I can see the finish line…I can see it! After today’s challenge, there are only 3 more challenges left, and then we are done! I am pretty sure this is my first AND last challenge…not that I didn’t enjoy it for the most part but it was just to much and way too long. While I wondered that the heck to do for the pattern inspiration, I saw this really cute paisley pattern dress in my closet so I decided to just use my paisley stamp and not worry too much about it.
Want to know how I created this mani? Read below….
I freaking love Jungle Queen. It’s one of my favorite–if not my favorite–polish from the On Safari collection. This is two smooth coats.
And this is Jungle Queen with one coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire which I am now calling Jungle Queen On Crack.
I used Essie Nothing Else Metals to stamp the paisley design from Bundle Monster plate BM 315.
I’m not feeling too talky today…I am not feeling well at all. I had some pizza and it somehow started a lot of bad stuff in my stomach. lol Let’s leave it at that. hahaha Let me know what you think of this mani and don’t forget to check out Nicole’s IKAT nails over at Polish Me, Please!
Stamping Sunday: Using Two Stamps In One Manicure
This is my third week participating in Stamping Sundays, and I think I finally like how my manicure turned out. First of all, I want to complain a little bit about how disgustingly hot it has been in Southern California. I spent hours in the pool yesterday which was the only way I thought I would get any relief. It doesn’t look like it’s going to get cooler any time soon so I’m going to have to just deal with it.
This is the first time I use Deborah Lippmann Dancing In The Sheets and I really like it. Orly Mysterious Curse, which I love, appears to be a very close dupe.
I finally decided to use my bottle of Max Factor Fantasy Fire, and it is all my little lacquered heart had ever hoped for. Look how gorgeous this looks with just one coat! I can’t even imagine what it will look like layered over different colors.
And lastly, I used stamp BM 310 and Wet N Wild I Can’t Stand Up Straight. We weren’t obligated to use two stamps on each nail so I decided to just alternate these two stamps. I like how this came out but it almost pained me to cover up the Fantasy Fire goodness.
What do you think of my effort today? I hope you like it as much as I do. Thanks for stopping by and keep cool!
