My First Fauxnad w/ Savvy Garland and Orly Luxe

 There were a couple of things that I forgot to mention on my previous December Hauls post. I have always been intrigued by fauxnading/konding, but never got around to ordering the plates or stamper. Well, I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Konad stamper and a set of Red Angel plates last month. I actually haven't played around with them much, but I did do a manicure with them the first week I got them. The issue I have with konading/fauxnading is that I get overwhelmed and can never decide on what polish combos to do. I ended up just picking random colors on this one and substituted my stamping polish several times, since the ones I picked initially didn't show up well.

I started off with two coats of Savvy Garland. It's a beautiful dark green shimmer polish that I bought at Sally's last year.

I then stamped over it using Red Angel plate RA-112 with Orly Luxe.

 The particular image I used allowed for mistakes because it was difficult to spot where I messed up unless you were looking closely. I was happy the way it turned out even though I had a few issues with my stamping, but like they say practice makes perfect. ^_^

Orly 2011 Holiday Soiree Collection: Oui, Au Champagne and Androgynie

 Orly's Holiday Soiree Collection has six colors in the collection, but I was only interested in three of them. I passed on Le Chateau which is a navy blue creme, Ma Cherie which is a bright red jelly and Ingenue which is a mauve, shimmery, metallic duochrome. The only three I picked up are Oui, Au Champagne and Oui.

Oui is pretty much the same as Ingenue. The only difference is that Oui is purple rather than mauve. I used two coats on the pictures below. 

Au Champagne is a white polish with shimmer throughout the base. It almost reminds of me of China Glaze Frosty, but this is not as glittery. I used three coats on this one and a top coat, since it dried to a satin finish I wanted to bring out the shimmer a bit more.

Androgynie is a black jelly base with small and large holographic glitters. Many people have been underwhelmed by this polish, but I LOVE it. What's not to love here? Jelly? Goood. Holographic glitter? Gooood! Haha that's a line by Joey from Friends, except he was talking about food. I used two coats and a coat of top coat.

 If you turn the polish bottle upside down a few minutes right before you apply Androgynie, you will get more of the larger holographic glitters on your nails. That's a tip I use for all my glitters though, since glitters are heavy and tend to sink to the bottom. The collection is still out at Sally's and is $5.49 usd if you use a Sally's card. ^_^

Orly Matte Vinyl

 Matte polishes aren't a finish that I have a lot of experience with, and that's mostly because the application can be a bit tricky. I love that they are fast drying polishes and they are a great way to do a quick mani if you don't have much time on your hands. The thing I don't like is that the application has to be done carefully to avoid globs. There have been some great tips put out there on blogs as far as what is the best way to apply matte polishes and while I think they are ingenious, I really don't want to waste that much time on a manicure. I want to be able to apply my polish as I normally do without the extra hassle of applying top coats in between layers of the polish. So, that being said, my best tip to you is that you just have to be patient with matte polishes. Allow each coat to dry a minute or two and when applying additional coats you will need to do so with a light hand. This will prevent any dragging and if you see a few spots that have more polish than others, don't fret, these polishes will level out and those spots will dissipate as the polish dries.

 The reccomendation seems to be that no base coat is needed, but I went ahead and did a coat of gelous before applying the polish and I followed with three coats of Matte Vinyl. This is in the shade.

In direct sunlight.

This one I added just for fun and this not the actual color of the polish. I just thought it looked pretty darn cool in this lighting.

 This is not a polish that can only be worn for Halloween or in October, but it is a great choice. It sort of has that spooky look to it, and you could always mattify any regular black polish if you don't have a matte black polish. 

The Lacquer Room's First Ever Giveaway Featuring Lynnderella Snow Angel!

 Ok guys so here it is, my blog's first giveaway. I had delayed on posting the giveaway because I was unsure as to how I wanted pick a winner and I didn't want to make it too complicated, so I scrapped the form! I am going to make this super duper easy for everyone, therefore I will not be asking you to tweet, blog, or fill out a form to be able to win these prizes. I will only have one winner. Before we get on to the requirements, let's have a look at what you can win!

The star of the show here is Lynnderella's Snow Angel.

Orly Bonder and a Wet n' Wild Fast Dry topcoat.

An e.l.f cuticle pen and a the holy grail brush that most nail polish lover's use for cleaning up around your cuticles, including myself, an e.l.f concealer brush.

Saly Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pumpkin Spice, Rimmel in Grey Matter and another Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Hot Magenta.

Finally, OPI's Black Shatter and Sinful Color in Green Ocean.

 All these products are brand new, never tested, opened or swatched and purchased by me with the exception of Snow Angel. Snow Angel was given to me by Lynnderella so that I could do a giveaway on my blog. Seriously guys, she is the sweetest person ever. Here is a link to her blog where she does her sales http://lynnderella-lynnderella.blogspot.com/. Her glitters are incredible so if you have the chance to buy some of her creations, definitely don't miss out!!

 If you have made it this far down on the post then I am assuming that you really are interested in entering this here giveaway, so without further adieu, here are the requirements:

•  Be a follower on my blog of course! Although, I hope if you do follow me it's because you like my blog and look forward to my future posts and not just because of this giveaway! No? Yes? Maybe? Well, whatever your reason may be for initially following my blog, I hope you'll stick around!
• Last but not least, comment on this post telling me why you would like to win. I know you're saying "What? Only two requirements??" Yup! Only two! There is no need for any extra hooplah to enter, unless of course, you WANT to let other people know about my blog. If that's the case, then I'd be very much grateful.

 So, if you only have to comment then how will you know you won?? Hmm.... iiiiinteresting question! I will do a post specifically for this reason. It will have the winner's name, that is your username since I will be using the name that appears on the comment, on the title of the post. Something like "Congratulations Blank!" I will use random.org to pick a winner. If this is your userid then simply email me letting me know you want to claim your prize at hklinda1976@gmail.com within 48 hours after the post has been posted, otherwise I will chose another comment with random.org. I will then get all necessary information to ship the item to you. The contest will end 10/07/2011 at 12:00am Central Time, so if you're comment reaches my email after this time then you will not be entered into the contest.

 ONE MORE THING! This is totally optional if you win, but I would like to do a followup with the winner. Something along the lines of doing a guest post on my blog. You don't have to agree to this if you win, only if you want to, but I think it would be neat to see the winner showcased with maybe a NOTD or even random cat/dog/kid or whatever kind of pictures the winner wants to have posted. It'd be even more awesome if we could get a NOTD with one of the prizes!! Ok, that's all I have for you guys! Good luck to all who enter the giveaway!

Orly Here Comes Trouble w/ Orly Fresh accent nail

  There are times that I don't feel like taking off my nail polish, yet I crave a new look. The perfect fix for this is to simply add a layer of glitter and voila you have a fresh mani. I was wearing Ulta Salon Formula in The Jungle Look and while I loved the color, I felt like it was time for a do-over after three days of wear.

Here is The Jungle Look. I am holding a home made cookie. Yup, I need to work on my baking skills! This was the color and food I did for Liquid Jelly's FFAN  (Friday Food and Nails) post, although it's a different pic.







 I didn't want to work too much for a fresh mani, so I just applied one layer of Orly Here Comes Trouble over The Jungle Look. To add even more oomph, I decided to take the polish off my index fingers and use two coats of Orly Fresh. My husband says this manicure is better suited for St. Patricks's Day lol. I must say, though that I agree!

 I had to file my nails down again after a break on my index finger and looking at these older pics really makes me miss them!

What do you guys think about the color scheme? Everyday look or save for St. Patty's Day?

Drinking my blues away!

 Before we get on to some blue spam, I would just like to apologize for my lack of posting these past few weeks. Now that I have a blog, I seriously have no idea how so many other bloggers can post daily. It is such hard work and kudos to them (or you if you're a blogger) for always being there for us nail fanatics!

Also, I am in the midst of working to do a giveaway, but I'm really clueless as to how to even begin so please bear with me. I don't have all the details as of yet and really the only reason for this giveaway is because Lynnderella was kind of enough to send me a Snow Angel to give away on my blog back when she did her first sale. I didn't do the giveaway right away since I wanted to be able to add a little more to the prizes. Now, that I have accumulated a few things, it really is just a matter of me getting informed on how best to do the giveaway. So just hold tight and I will post deets as soon as possible!

 Enough chit chat and on to the pretties!!!

First up is Sinful Colors Paradise, this is such a pretty color for spring.

Zoya Crystal. This polish took foreeeeever to dry!!

Zoya Breezi 

Kleancolor Cobalt 

Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. Tons of compliments on this one! 

Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! 

Sally Hansen Cosmic Blue. It was so difficult for me to get an accurate pic of this amazing polish because in real life it is not as grainy as it seems here.

Throwing Water into the Ocean by Lynnderella over Orly Royal Navy.

 So that's it for today's post! Let's go Cowboys!! Score is 17-7 Cowboys at the moment. Tomorrow I will be posting my Sunday football half moon mani. Stay tuned!

Lynnderella's Golden Surprise = Change

 Golden Surpise isn't actually the name of this polish, in fact this polish has no name at all. Lynnderella included this polish as an extra gift since the handle on one of my polishes was different. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared nor noticed this, but I was uber excited to have this polish sent to me.

 This polish is similar to Connect the Dots, except that it contains mostly gold glitters. It almost reminds me of Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday, but this polish is a lot more complex. I used Orly Luxe as a base and I think it's the perfect background to compliment all the different colors in this polish.

Shade picture.

Sun picture.

Another sun picture. 

I don't know if this polish will be available in the future, since this was sent to me as an extra. However, there is great news regarding Lynnderella's Halloweeen Collection. I won't deny that I have been stalking Lynderella's blog every single day, sometimes multiple times, in hopes that she will post the new Halloween Collection. I adore her creations and cannot help myself, but yesterday this stalking paid off! When I opened her page, what do I see?? An update showcasing the names of the nine, yes nine, polishes that will be in her upcoming Halloween Collection!! I was so freaking excited that I literally jumped up and down. This will be my only purchase for the month of August, but really what more could I want?

*Check out the names of her Halloween Collection here and don't forget to enter Lacquerish's Snow Angel giveway here. Entries for this giveaway end August 8th.

Tuesday's Nail Art: Neon Flowers

   I was watching Food Network Challenge on Sunday and the cakes were supposed to be about the 80's time era. Pretty much everyone was using neon colors, since those were popular back in those days and it just made me crave neon on my nails. I have never worn neon colors on their own because I think they're really loud but lately I've been on a neon buying frenzy. I suppose I owe that to all those girls out there strutting around with their neon colors. I love they way they look on other people, but I still haven't tried the solid neon look on my nails. ( I hope my husband doesn't end up reading this, or else he'll be even more upset about my nail polish buying if he finds out I'm buying colors that I don't necessarily wear!)   

   I'm still not ready to do the solid neon but I did come up with this idea to incorporate neon without being too loud. These are the products I used: M.A.C. Vestral White, Orly Va Va Voom, Sinful Colors Irish Green, Sally Hansen Celeb City and Finger Paints Top Coat.

   I started off with M.A.C Vestral White. I have been searching for a good white color and I still haven't been able to find one. This actually took 4 thin layers to prevent the streaking from showing up. I don't like to apply so many layers but it does end up looking really nice if you just work with it. 

   I am going to be doing 4 flowers on each nail, two pink ones and two green ones. I alternated the position of the flowers to make them seem random. To make the flowers you just need to place four dots as if dotting the corners of an imaginary square. I did two fingers at a time because the "lines" on the flowers are formed better if the polish is a bit tacky. Once it's a little tacky, I used a dotting tool to make the "lines". I started from the middle of each dot and dragged the polish towards the center. This will give the flower a more realistic look.

   Here I did the same with Sinful Colors Irish Green.

   After all your flowers are done, using the same dotting tool, I placde silver dots using Celeb City in the middle of the flowers. I chose silver rather than yellow because I wanted to give the design a more blingy look.

   It's not visible in the pictures but once you add the top coat. OMG. It just makes the whole design that much better. The top coat fills in all the "lines" that were created and makes it look really flawless.

   Here is a sun picture. Even though the design is flowers, I feel that it has that summery look because of the neon colors. Hope you enjoyed!

Monday's Nail Art: Brushed Silver

   I really wanted to get this post up earlier in the day, but then I received a call from my aunt telling me that my dad was doing worse today. He has been in the hospital since last Sunday and seemed to be doing a lot better, until today when we found out he was in pain because of a bacteria in his blood. So, I was really not feeling inspired to write anything and just kept staring at my laptop and pictures of my nails. Anyways, I decided to take a trip to my "polish room" (it's really just a walk in closet) and I now feel in a better mood after spending some time surrounded by my lovelies.

   I actually did this manicure in the waiting room at the hospital where my dad is in. The only reason why I did that was because he's in the chemotherapy ward and most people who go to that floor are outpatient, so the waiting room is empty 95% of the time. Otherwise, I would not have even thought of doing my nails at a hospital. The inspiration for this manicure was actually our truck. Lol, yes, our truck. It's black and full of chrome stuff on it, and I love the way it looks in the sun, so I decided to do something to that effect on my nails.

   These are the products I used: Orly Liquid Vinyl, M.A.C. $$$$$ Yes, silver striping tape and black hexagonal glitter.

   I started off with two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl. I love black so much that I almost left it as is!

   I then took M.A.C. $$$$$ Yes and created a diagonal french manicure. It took two coats to get it opaque. This is the first time I use this polish and I don't think I will ever wear by itself, since it left too many brush strokes. However, I liked how the brushed strokes showed on this particular manicure because to me it resembles brushed silver.

   After that I took L.A. Colors Art Deco nail art polish in black and just created some swervy lines from the lower left corner going upwards. I would reccommend making the lines longer than what I did to make them more visible after the next two steps.

   I then took L.A. Colors Art Deco nail art polish in silver and kind of went over and in between the black lines. This is why I should have made the black lines longer.

   This step is optional, but I decided it need a little more dimension to the design so I added black hexagonal glitter in random places.

   The last step was to cut pieces of the striping tape and place them where the black and silver polish meet to create a crisp line. I used the striping tape because it resembles the chrome I was going for and I really like the contrast of the striping tape next to the satin finish of M.A.C.'s $$$$$ Yes.

   Since, I was at the hospital I didn't have any clear polish to finish off the look so this last picture has no clear coat. To make the striping tape last longer a good top coat like Seche Vite is necessary or else the edges will begin to lift up. Overall, I was happy with the way it turned out an I think this would be a great manicure for a wedding or a prom since my husband said it looked to fancy for a regular day at work lol. Although, I pay no attention to him and wear what I want when I want, even if it's too "fancy". So, that's it for today's post. Enjoy!