Zen Pool Nail Art

This week I decided to finally try out my nail art brush set with some "real" nail art! Jen's Nail Files is hosting a nail art contest (which ends tonight!) where participants create an interpretation of one of Darling Diva's polish names. I chose one of my favorite Darling Diva Polishes, the beautiful Zen Pool.

For my inspiration and reference I looked to one of Claude Monet's magnificent paintings from his Water Lilies series. I imagined a "zen pool" would be a beautiful and serene garden pond where one could relax and enjoy nature. I also added a couple of cute koi fish to play in the pool!

 Claude Monet Water Lilies, 1917

I'm really pleased with how this turned out! I wanted to capture all of the gorgeous colors Monet used: the light reflecting on the water and the blushing lilies, as well as his impressionistic style. I used to really enjoy oil painting and I had a lot of fun actually "painting" on my nails!

For this manicure I used about 16 different polishes, which I'll list at the end of the post, and several types of brushes. They all worked out really well, thankfully, although I did have to work very quickly and carefully.

Little jade Buddha is just ecstatic about nail art! And later I went outside in search of some green foliage or a tiny tree frog to pose with but, alas, the little froggies weren't out that day.

I'm definitely going to be trying more free-hand nail art soon! And probably something cute & nerdy, so stay tuned!

TOP, L-R: L'Oreal Royalty Reinvented, Sinful Colors Mesmerize, Sinful Colors Amethyst, Wet n Wild Lavender Creme, Jesse's Girl All Things Girly, Orly Lollipop, Sally Hansen White On, Zoya Jacqueline

BOTTOM, L-R: Essie First Timer, NYC Mint Macaroon, MAC Deep Sea, Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away, Zoya Josie, Revlon Indigo Night, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Misa Dirty, Sexy, Money

Hot Mess Lacquers: A Sprinkle of Versailles

How about a preview of a few upcoming Hot Mess Lacquers polishes? Inspired by the Queen of Cake herself, here is a trio of decadent Marie Antoinette colors!

 Source: Muna

Yup, they look so yummy you'll just want to eat them up! But don't. Please.

Hot Mess Lacquers Madame Deficit over China Glaze Pink-ie Promise

Let's start with Madame Deficit, a lovely rose-pink crelly with white, satin pink, and holographic gold glitter, as well as gold shimmer that gives it a lovely golden sparkle. This is a really sweet, girly color, but also soft and delicate and not over-the-top cutesy.

Madame Deficit has a sheer base that is easily build-able, however, I decided to layer it over another pink so the glitters wouldn't look too dense. This was two coats over Pink-ie Promise. It was very easy to spread the glitters out evenly, and I added a coat of Gelous on top to even it all out.

Hot Mess Lacquers L'Autrichienne over Zoya Jacqueline

This beautiful lemon meringue-looking lacquer is L'Autrichienne. I absolutely love this name, which was used to refer to Madame Antoinette (and not nicely!). It translates to "the Austrian" however it also sounds like "the other bitch". Well, it's certainly no secret that Marie was not well-liked by the French!

L'Autrichienne is a mix of satin pastel green and goldenrod glitter and holographic gold micro-glitter in a sheer eggshell base, with a subtle green shimmer. The shimmer was rather difficult to capture, but is visible in bright lighting. Being semi-opaque, I layered L'Autrichienne over Zoya Jacqueline and I love how it turned out!

Source: ipastel

Hot Mess Lacquers Bourgie Bitch over NYC Raindrop

Lastly, and possibly my favorite of the three, is Bourgie Bitch, a gorgeous sky blue mixed with satin pink and pastel blue glitter, holographic gold micro-glitter, and an amazing pink shimmer. I would buy this for the name alone, but the fact that it's a freakin' beautiful color is icing on the cake!

As you can see, the pink shimmer is easy to spot, and the combination of soft pink, blue, and gold is just so perfectly Rococo. Bourgie Bitch is also somewhat sheer, so I decided to layer it over a pale blue creme, and it came out perfectly. The formula is also great and easy to work with.

Hot Mess Lacquers are for sale in her Etsy shop, and also be sure to like Hot Mess on Facebook for previews and updates on upcoming colors, like these!

 Source: transparent

Borderlands Splash Screen Splatter

Anyone who's played the video game Borderlands knows, for one, that it's super awesome, and also that the art is AMAZING!

Along with comic book-style graphics, bazillions of guns, and wub wub, I also love all of the random splatters and bright colors in Borderlands. So I decided to do a (pretend) splatter mani inspired by the location name text on the loading screens.

L'Oreal Not a Cloud in Sight (aqua), L'Oreal Royalty Reinvented (lavender), and Jesse's Girl All Things Girly (coral)

Okay, so mine is a bit more girly! And I didn't actually use the straw splatter method-- I tried to, but it wasn't really "splattering" how I'd envisioned it.

First I painted on two coats of Not a Cloud in Sight (aqua creme) and then sponged on Royalty Reinvented (lavender creme) to create a messy gradient. Next, I just dabbed on All Things Girly (coral) with the polish brush and tried to make irregular-looking splatters. I think I managed to make it pretty splatter-y, and I love these colors together!

The aqua and lavender cremes are colors for spring that L'Oreal added to their nail line. The formulas are excellent-- opaque without being too thick, very easy to work with, and really pretty colors!

Yesterday I actually attempted more "detailed" nail art, and I'll have pictures of that up soon, too!

source

This post also contains 96.5% MORE WUB WUB!

Indigo Bananas Halcyon and Maui

More incredible polishes from Indigo Bananas! I really can't get enough of these stunning colors. Today I have the gorgeous Halcyon and Maui, and a bonus bourgie banana queen.

Indigo Bananas Halcyon

Halcyon is, very fittingly, a lovely indigo shimmer with pigment that shifts blue, purple, and pink. So depending on the lighting or angle, it can vary from navy blue, to rich purple, and even magenta.

This was actually one of the polishes I won through Indigo Bananas' banana fan art contest (SO FUN). Here is my rendition of Marie Banantionette that I submitted:

As one can expect with Indigo Bananas polishes, Halcyon had an excellent, well-pigmented formula that was easy to apply and opaque in three coats. Clean up was also much easier than I was anticipating with such a rich blue, and I don't believe I had any staining.

I finally tried Maui, one of Indigo Bananas' most popular colors and the first one that really made me go WOW, and it was everything I hoped it would be and more!

Indigo Bananas Maui

Maui is a dazzling multichrome polish that shifts from teal to navy to violet, and even fuchsia at extreme angles. There are also holographic microglitters scattered throughout that give Maui a ton of amazing sparkle. This color is absolutely perfect! It doesn't need undies, the shift is incredible and easy to see, it has an excellent formula, AND it sparkles rainbows! Definitely one of my all-time favorite polishes.

As I mentioned, Maui's formula is also just perfect: smooth and easy to apply, and opaque in three coats.

Oh yeah, I took a lot of pictures! There's just so much awesome going on and I really wanted to capture all of it!

All of the Indigo Bananas polishes I've tried have been so amazing; I always look forward to trying more of Andrea's beautiful creations.

Indigo Bananas polishes are for sale in her Etsy shop, and you can find lots of info/pictures/banana fan art/and much more on her website. Check her out on Facebook, too, for polish previews, news, and giveaways!

Liquid Lacquer Cherub and Collide into You

As soon as I spotted these two glitters it was instant love! Here are a couple of gorgeous polishes I recently bought from Liquid Lacquer, Cherub and Collide into You.

Liquid Lacquer Cherub over China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On
Cherub is beautiful mix of teal, pinks, silver, and holographic glitter in a clear base, perfect for layering over any color. I especially like it over pastels as it feels very "Springtime" to me. The soft pink and silver give Cherub a sweet and delicate look, and the satin teal complements them perfectly.



Cherub has a great consistency that was easy to work with and spread easily over the nail. The glitter is a touch sparse, but easily build-able. I was happy with two coats, as seen here.



Collide into You is my particular favorite, just look at this amazing color! This is a fantastic turquoise jelly with fuchsia and gold circle glitter with golden flecks mixed in. It's Summertime and swimming pools in a bottle, complete with a squishy blue base you could just dive into.



The formula was just superb, perfectly opaque for a jelly! The glitters really pop through the turquoise and it looked flawless in three coats.


I'm so glad to have finally discovered Liquid Lacquer polishes and am already excited to try more of them! Liquid Lacquer nail polishes can be purchased from her store, and you can follow her on Facebook for updates on restocks, news, and previews of new colors!