Happy Holidays from Lacquered Lover with a Santa Manicure!!!

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the holiday season!  I have a super fun manicure to show you today, but first, some news!  This will be my last post of 2011!  I want to thank all of you for visiting my little nail polish corner of the Internet!  2011 was a fantastic year for me, I had the opportunity to start this blog and watch it grow with all of your help and it's just been an absolutely wonderful experience!  I look forward to it continuing in 2012!  I leave for vacation with my family tomorrow to celebrate the new year so I won't be back on until January 4th but don't think I forgot about you!  I plan on taking pictures of my nail polish adventures along the way! 

In other news, Lacquered Lover is getting a major overhaul early next year so keep your eyes open for a major "polish change" to come on the blog!  I'm super excited about it and can't wait to share it with all of you!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!!!

Santa nails!  I actually did this manicure a few weeks ago for an amazing event called SantaCon.  There are SantaCons all around the world and it acts as a fundraiser for charities while people get to dress up in holiday outfits and have a fabulous day!  I couldn't decide what kind of a Santa manicure to do, so I did three different ones all rolled into one!  The red base for all of them is China Glaze Phat Santa from the 2010 Holiday Collection which is just a stunning deep red cream!  I love this polish so much!  Then I used a white striping polish for all the white, gold striper for all the gold, black striper for the black and a silver one for the belt buckle!  I think the Santa coat was my favorite!  Here I showed you both hands and some close ups so you can see that it is possible to do nail art on both hands!

Here is just a little picture of me in my full Santa costume from that day:

So there you have it!  The last post of 2011 and some fun nail art!  I hope that you and your loved ones all have a wonderful holiday season and new year that is full of love, happiness and health!  I can't wait to come back in 2012 with some new reviews, tutorials, swatches and all fun things nail polish related for you all!  Thanks again for a fantastic year!

What do you think of the crazy Santa nails?  Any fun plans for the holidays?

Happy Hanukkah! An Attempted Menorah Manicure!

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers.  Today's post is another Hanukkah manicure, or at least an attempt at a menorah manicure!  For the first time you will see both my hands together!  Yes, I have two of them!  :)  But first, I want to wish a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazing mom!  (Hi Mom!)  Unfortunately I can't hang out with her on her birthday this year but I'm very excited to celebrate when my whole family goes on vacation together next week!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Ok I know the lighting in the pictures aren't the best (and neither is the nail art) but it's kind of cute!  Yes, I realize my flames came out more like Hershey Kisses but it was my first try!  The polishes in this post are both Sinful Colors.  The blue background is Midnight Blue which is a gorgeous deep royal blue shimmer and the Gold is Flower Girl from their nail art line!  I love how pigmented their nail art polishes are!  I tried to freehand the flames to show the 8 candles that would be on a Menorah!

So there you have it, an attempt at a menorah manicure!  Once again Happy Hanukkah to all those who begin celebrating tonight and Happy Birthday to my awesome mom!

What do you think of the menorahs?

Hanukkah Manicure featuring Deborah Lippmann I Love The Nightlife, NARS Night Flight and Zoya Trixie!

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend!  As some of you may know, Hanukkah is fast approaching!  The first night starts tomorrow at sundown so I decided it was time to try out some Hanukkah themed manicures for my fellow Jewish nail polishaholics!  Since I attempted a few times to do a dreidel and it just wasn't happening for me, today I give you a little manicure in blue and silver as a start to the holiday!  And now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Please excuse the messy job I did painting my nails late last night!  I started off with two coats of NARS Night Flight.  You might remember I reviewed this polish a few months ago when the entire Night Series was released.  Night Flight is a gorgeous midnight blue with just a hint of shimmer!  I love this blue!  Plus the formula on it is so rich that it looks amazing on the nail!  Then since I hadn't done a tape manicure in awhile, I decided to do an accent nails with my favorite silver Zoya Trixie.  Trixie is super pigmented and is opaque in one coat, so I cut thin strips of tape to make stripes!  Lastly, I decided the manicure needed a bit of glitter so I added Deborah Lippmann I Love the Nightlife.  I swear every time I wear this polish I love it more!  The formula is a bit thick and the glitter comes out in clumps but you can use the brush to pretty easily distribute the glitter around.  I just love the mirrored disco ball look that it gives!

What do you all think of the first Hanukkah manicure of the week?  Have you tried any Hanukkah manicures yet?

Fun Friday Featuring a Cupcake Manicure!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  I realize that this whole week had "fun" manicures but today's manicure is extra special and this blog post is dedicated to someone awesome!  I've been at my job for over 2 years now and one of the best parts of it is I get to see my "work wife" Anoush every day!  She never fails to make me smile, she's an awesome person to be around (and she makes me coffee!) and I just love getting to hang out with her every day!  It helps that she loves nail polish as well and it's always fun when she comes over for a polish date or when I bring nail polish in for work for her to play with. Needless to say, we're very close!  Since today happens to me the lovely Anoush's birthday (Happy birthday Anoush!) I decided to do an extra special manicure for her!  She's an awesome baker and she loves glitter so I had to find a way to combine the two, so here is what I did for her!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

CUPCAKES!  This was my first try at a cupcake manicure and I think it came out pretty cute!  The base is one of my favorite polishes, Deborah Lippmann Forget You, a black jelly packed with multi colored glitter!  Then for the cupcake, the base is Zoya Robyn with stripes of Essie Borrowed and Blue.  The icing is NARS Shiro-Nuri which is by far the most opaque white polish I've ever used!  Then lastly the cherry on top was from my Sinful Colors red striper and the sprinkles were Color Club polishes from the Poptastic collection whose name I can't remember!  It's a bit messy (and these pictures are pre-clean up) but I like my little cupcake!  Plus, you can never go wrong with a Deborah Lippmann glitter!

So happy birthday Ms. Anoush!  I can't wait to celebrate you and hope you like your special manicure!

What do you think of the cupcakes?  Have you done any fun Friday manicures recently?

Penguin Manicure Featuring Orly Sweet Peacock!

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  Today's post begins with a story.  I love penguins.  I always have.  On our first date that wasn't really a date, my now amazing boyfriend and I went to the Central Park Zoo and had a blast in the penguin house.  The first present he ever bought me was adopting me a penguin and a penguin necklace.  Every few months we go and check in on "our" penguins, so let's just say that penguins are near and dear to my heart.  When I first started doing some nail art, I promised him that at some point, I'd do a penguin for him!  So last night, the day finally came.  And now, without further ado, on to the polish!

PENGUIN!!!  Ok I know he's a little goofy looking, but it was my first try so I'm ok with it!  The base is the gorgeous Orly Sweet Peacock that was another gift from my awesome Secret Santa Anissa and what a stunning blue!  It was practically a one coater but I added a second for good measure but I love the gorgeous blue foil finish!  Then I drew both the penguin outline and the white belly by hand with Sinful Colors Stripers, did the eyes with a dotting tool and drew the beak and feet in gold by hand!  I can't help but smile today as I look down at my goofy little penguin!  I got the idea for the shape of this manicure from the amazing MaD Manis so check it out for a great tutorial!

What do you think?  Are you a penguin fan?  Have you been trying any fun nail art lately?

Snowflake Winter Manicure Featuring Zoya Kristen and Orly Royal Navy

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  Life in New York has gotten a bit crazy lately between the holiday season that is upon us and my new found efforts to get into graduate school!  So please bear with me if my posting is slightly more sporadic in the upcoming weeks/months.  I am going to continuously be swatching when I can and sharing my nail polishes with you all!  So, since I didn't have time to swatch last weekend, you guys are going to be getting a lot of fun nails of the day and nail art!  Today I will show you my first two attempts at snowflakes that feature two brand new nail polishes!  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Snowflakes!  I had so much fun doing this manicure!  This was actually my second attempt at snowflakes, the first I'll show you a bit further down.  Since Zoya has been doing all their flash promotions on their facebook page and twitter, I took advantage of one and got the three grey colors from the new Feel Collection.  What you see above is two coats of Zoya Kristen.  I LOVE this color!  It's a blue based Grey, very similar to Essie Chinchilly but more blue and it's such a gorgeous grey!  I knew I wanted something fun but subtle, so I figured silver snowflakes with my Milani Silver Nail Art Striper would show up a bit but be very pretty.  I was too afraid to try a snowflake on every finger so I only did two on each hand and on the other fingers I used a silver sparkle Sinful Colors nail art striper to make it look like falling snow!  I ended up loving the combination!

This was my first attempt at a snowflake manicure from last week!  I used Orly Royal Navy as the base that I got from a lovely nail polish secret Santa (Hi Anissa!  Thanks again, I love it!)  Royal Navy is a gorgeous deep blue with bright blue shimmer in it that's absolutely stunning!  I can't believe I never had this color before because I am in love with it!  I topped it off with an accent nail of a silver snowflake because it was one of those days that was bitterly cold and it just seemed to fit!

So there you have it.  Snowflake manicures!  I love them!  They are super simple to do and look so pretty!  What do you all think?  Have you tried a snowflake manicure yet?  Would you like to see a tutorial on how to do them?

LACQUERED LOVER AND RICKY'S MATTESE ELITE GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  I hope you all had a wonderful winter weekend!  Today I finally have the winners of the amazing Mattese Elite Giveaway hosted by Ricky's!

Congrats Maria!  She has been notified via email and has 48 hours to respond!  Everyone else who has won a giveaway from me recently, be advised that your packages will be going out this week!  Stay tuned later today for more swatches and reviews!

Deborah Lippmann The Future is Yours Swatches and Review

Good afternoon my fellow lacquered lovers!  This is just a Deborah Lippmann filled week now isn't it?  Today, I have another gem from the Barney's exclusive collection.  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Above:  2 coats of The Future Is Yours

I absolutely believe that this is the nail polish we will all be wearing 500 years from now when we have colonies on the moon.  The Future is Yours is a very sheer white/purple/blue iridescent polish.  Now I'm careful with calling it iridescent and not duochrome because the color doesn't shift the way it does with a duochrome, but more has flashes of brilliance in different colors.  I liked this color ok but it was far too sheer for my liking.  So, I did what I do with all sheer polishes and layered it over one coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme:

Gorgeous!  Purple, teal, blue, turquoise, it's like a peacock!  This color is just stunning over black!  I can't wait to try it over a dark purple and a dark blue to see how it changes the flashes!

What do you think of this polish?  What colors would you like to see it over?