Kell's DIY Nails

Hey y'all! Just wanted to let you know I recently posted a few photos to the Manglaze Facebook page of the new shades they launched a few months back. Don't hate me cuz I'm nautical 'Til next time...

Warning: Possible triggers in this Post; Photos of incisions, IVs, and internal organs. Well, Hello! It's been a minute (more like 3 years)... I recently had a procedure done that I thought might warrant a blog post; yes, this is a nail blog. I fully realize this isn't really a typical post you would see here. Before I decided to get my tubes tied, I researched to learn as much as I could. I also watched a lot of YouTube videos on people's experiences to prepare myself. My experience ended up being different from a lot of them. This is not due to any pre-existing health issues. As a result, I wanted to put this out there for anyone looking for information and wanting to know what to expect and what can occur.  Before I delve in, I do want to give an update and talk about why I don't post here regularly anymore. I'm sure none of my regular readers are surprised as my posts had been dwindling down and I did explain as to why that was in those posts. Pretty...

Once again I shall apologize for my absence; it is not the fault of the job this time... but family health issues. In fact I am typing this from the hospital. But enough of the downer stuff. This is a manicure I wore for the last week of January. The deep blue is Midnight ; from the Nerd Lacquer website: MIDNIGHT is what you shall wear when you've really made it -- and also maybe right now, because why not? Deep inky blue linear holo studded with royal holo sequins, little flecks of black (as is proper) and silver sparks. Mysterious, magical, and achingly gorgeous. (See what I did there, Discworld fans?) I don't have the words to describe how much I love this, but the formula was buttery and smooth; opaque in 2 coats. No issues with glitter placement. On my accent nail I applied a stunning silver called Phasma . Phasma is what they call CONVERTIBLE because it comes with a tiny packet of glitter; large and small silver holo, black micro, plus black holo textured glitter. You c...

I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day... Or Walking Dead Day! Was that mid-season premiere awesome or what?!? As I browsed my stash to find a good polish for Valentine's, I realized I still had Lynnderella's Matter of the Heart that I picked up in a stash sale some years ago. Sadly, the formula was quite bad; very runny, sheer and the base would not suspend the glitter. So when life hands you lemons you make lemonade... And when you get a crap polish you either layer it or Franken it. I did attempt to layer; but I just could not get the glitter on my nail due to the very runny & thin base. I'm not sure if it went bad over time, if I got a bad batch, or if it had been doctored with too much thinner in the past. Who knows. I grabbed a light pink cream that had sat untouched for at least a few years, Julep, Reese . She's a nice polish but I don't wear light pinks too often. I mixed equal parts Reese & Matter of the Heart and got lucky because it end...

For my birthday I went back to my Nerds! I wanted a deep garnet red and this newy from Nerd Lacquer is a gorgeous one. I especially thought it would be great since I saw the new Star Wars movie a few weeks ago. Kylo is a glowing blood red with violet shimmer and black micro glitter. The base is a little bit jelly like and I did need a 3rd coat on most nails to deepen the color. It was on the thick side and I had to work a little more during application but it is a stunner. I need to put this on my toes soon. My apologies if I really don't need to explain the name but this refers to the villain in the latest Star Wars installment; Kylo Ren. Are you a Star Wars fan? What did you think of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I have my theories but I'm not posting spoilers.

  In early January I needed something quick and easy to put on because I desperately needed to change my polish but I was low on time so I went for a texture polish; Finger Paints , Winter Chill. This particular shade is no longer available which is a shame. It's a beautiful flat off-black with pink and blue micro glitter. As you can see it applied beautifully. For some reason textures are like a BB Cream for your nails; they look amazing. It dried very quickly and wore great. Just be aware that dark textures tend to show a lot of dirt so they require additional hand washing. I actually just ordered some Pixie Dusts' from Zoya and have been looking for the new Wet n' Wild Color Icon Holiday/Winter Collection which appears to be textures as well. What do you think of texture polishes?

For New Years I went this a very glittery, blingy, chunky glitter from Nerd Lacquer called That's Numberwang . Another nod to That Mitchell and Webb Look . A jelly like magenta base with tons of different glitters thrown in (aqua holo, royal blue, fuchsia, and copper) .  Shade. The formula on this was pretty tricky; It definitely required the dabbing method and while 2 coats worked generally... there were spots that required an additional coat. It does have that transparent jelly feel to it. It's a glitter bomb and therein perfect for New Years. Even though I didn't do anything for New Years Eve.  At least my nails had a party. How was your New Years? Do anything exciting?

For Christmas I went with another one of Nerd Lacquers' new formulas; Some Bastard Who's Presumably Responsible . The site calls this a muted dusty olive but I'm leaning more sage green. Throw in bronze and black glitter and some golden flakies. It's a little more glitter packed than The Zed Word but it still has a subtlety to it. Apologies for the less-than-stellar lighting; bad weather. Formula was very similar to The Zed Word and applied nicely in 2 opaque coats. The tips were a little sheer but it wasn't bothersome in real life. My favorite part of this is the golden flakies against the sage green base. A great color combo. I had to google the reference to this polish since I had no clue what the name meant. Turns out the creator of Nerd Lacquer must be especially fond of a show called That Mitchell and Webb Look because she made a few different polishes that refer to it. Apparently, it's a British Sketch Comedy show.

Hey Gang! Long time no post... It's been over a month! The new job is coming along as can be expected but it's been a little exhausting especially since I've started the 9/80 schedule (Every other Friday off in addition to my usual Saturday & Sunday). I wasn't supposed to start this schedule until my 6 month mark but due to departmental needs I got to start two weeks ago.  Yesterday was my very 1st Friday off so I managed to get some posts up for you! Even though I didn't post much in December I still stuck with Nerd-mas and wore all Nerd Lacquer ! After my last post ( Regal Copper ), I wore The Zed Word . This is a new profile for Nerd Lacquer ; it's a golden off-white shimmer with silver, red, and green micro glitter. No large chunky glitters in this baby, it's pure subtle bad-assery. Then, the fact that this is a Zombie (yes, I know, I shouldn't have typed it) themed polish only propels it further into the bad-ass zone. I freaking love Zombi...

Keeping things short & sweet with my next Nerd Lacquer in my Nerd-mas Series. Lots of photos to follow... Sunlight. Regal Copper is one of the newer Nerds; this red/orange base is packed with red, orange, copper and golden shimmer and glitter. This particular polish is packed with more glitter than the norm so application was a little trickier this time around but it still only required 2 coats for opacity. My tips look a little sheer in the photos but it wasn't noticeable in real life.

Barielle was kind enough to send me their Natural Essential Eye Shadow in Black so I wanted to give you some swatches, a review, and an eye look I did with it. This is what it says on the Barielle Website: DESCRIPTION Get the perfect neutral eye make-up look with this gorgeous palette featuring six eye shadow shades in a variety of natural/nude hues. Give your eyes more dimension with these six must-have shades with a subtle shimmer for a perfect naturale eye. Contour, line and highlight to create just the right amount of definition for spectacular natural eyes! Includes precision brush for perfect application and blending.  DETAILS Size:  6 Pans - Total Weight 0.21 Oz (6g)  Ingredients:  Talc, Mica, Magnesium Stearate, Dimethicone, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Polybutene, Synthetic Wax, Mineral Oil, Tin Oxide, Methylparaben, Propylparaben. May Contain: Mica (CI 77019), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Ferric Ferrocyanide ...

Hey Gang! So I know I'm a week behind... But I've been working on paperwork for my new job, cooked for Thanksgiving, and then yesterday there was terrible news of the Mass Shooting in San Bernardino. Basically, it's just dumb luck that I even post at all. I had this genius idea to do NERD-mas for all of December. Basically, I love Nerd Lacquer but for the longest time it was touch & go in order to get your hands on it. So, I have accumulated a huge Nerd Army and now that Nerd Lacquer seems to be back somewhat consistently I thought I would try and blow a few out. This means I will only be wearing Nerd Lacquer all of December. Oh, and it will be ones you can still buy! There is a little bit of a snag; I start my new job on the 14th and this may create a bit of an absence of posts. It all depends how stressful the job is and I won't know that until I am actually in the thick of it so bear with me. I want to post here I really do but life really gets in the w...

A few weeks back I shared with you an update on my life; I was experiencing a lot of Ups & Downs. One of which was a fellow polish fanatic who was struggling with cancer. I'm very saddened to report that she passed away shortly after my update on November 13th. It is always so surreal when someone passes away; even though Angela & I didn't know each other too intimately I still got used to seeing her Facebook posts and seeing her comments on blogs we both followed. I feel like I have a hole where she was in my life (if only my social media and blog life). Angela and I are also very like-minded so we didn't ever take issue with each others' personal posts on Facebook. Or if we did we knew how to be adults about it and move on. Angela's favorite color is purple so I thought I would compile some of my favorite purple manis in her memory. China Glaze, All Aboard & Picture Polish, Lizzie.  Salon Perfect, Razzle Dazzle.  Glam Polish, Elvir...

Hey Gang! Last Monday was my little dog, Nikki's, 8th Birthday. To mark the occasion (along with a Wag.com Haul) I had the perfect nail polish. My #sweet #BirthdayGirl! #NikkiTheNailNut #Maltepoo #Maltese #Poodle #PoodleMix #dog #dogs #dogstagram #dogsofinstagram #HappyBirthday #TheBig8 #EightYearsYoung A photo posted by Kelly Tomlinson (@blkvelveteen20) on Nov 16, 2015 at 1:19pm PST Sunlight. Algonquin is an amazingly unique color that was released for last years' holiday season. This dusty purple loaded with iridescent micro shimmer and flakies also has a very unique 'lit from within' glow to it. It is absolutely ethereal. The formula was a little on the thick side but not difficult to apply. I applied 2 medium coats to achieve opacity. If you prefer thinner coats you will probably need 3 coats.  Dry time was average and I added a top coat of In A Hurry. This particular polish was LE and is no longer available through most retailers but you c...

Have you noticed e.l.f. has been releasing lots of new products lately? One of which caught my attention because I'm always drooling over people with their Maybelline Baby Lips. I wanted something in the cruelty free product world like that! Now, (Thanks to e.l.f.) we have it. In all honesty I really don't know how these stack up to the Maybelline Baby Lips since I won't buy anything from Maybelline but I think these are very similar, if not a little better.

As you read this I will be on my way to Panamint Valley for our annual Veteran's Day Camping Weekend. How bizarre was it that Veteran's Day was observed on a Wednesday?!? Threw off our camping weekend and it will now be a short one. To celebrate Veteran's Day I had to find a polish that encompassed the bad-assery and awesome-ness of our Vets; so I went with a Nerd! *** Heads Up, this one's gonna be picture heavy *** Nerd Lacquer, Viper is a dirty olive green that has been kicked into high gear by adding golden metallic sheen, bronze and gunmetal glitter, round gold sequins, and a bit of umber metallic shimmer. The little bronze glitters really jump out and look like a burnt orange. The gold sequins look like gold medallions buried in black gold sand. Such epic EPICNESS! Is that a word??? Who cares!!! Click below to continue reading...

Sooooo... This post seems to be a tad late; Hah! Thus is LIFE! First, the polish details: Look At The Flowers Lizzie is a murky green jelly packed with pink, white, pale yellow, green, pale pink, black, and white various glitters. It's a unique and adorable mix. Since it is packed with glitters you will want to keep it upside down so you can get plenty of glitter on your brush. I would also recommend applying with the dot or blob method; let a bead of polish drop onto your nail bed, wipe the brush off on the neck of the bottle, and then smooth the bead of polish over your nail. This will give you a nice, even application with a nice distribution of glitter. This polish looks like it will be sheer but 2 coats done as mentioned above gave me really good coverage. I don't see any visible nail line. On my middle nail I decided to try one of the 'Walking Dead' decals from Green Goddess Creations . I applied 2 coats of Julep, Nadia . This is a very pretty pale golden...

Did you think we would get through October without a Walking Dead themed polish? Sunlight. This looks like more of a scattered holo but it was linear too. Son Of A Dick is a deep chocolate brown holo. I used 2 coats for opacity. I love the way it looks but sadly the formula was a bit rough for me; it was thick & goopy. I would shake it up during use to keep it as workable as possible. I thought about adding thinner but I thought I remembered seeing something about not using polish thinner in this particular polish. Indoors; Fluorescent light. On my ring nail I applied one coat of Dollish Polish, The Curse Of Michael Myers which is a glitter bomb consisting of various shapes of orange glitter and a sprinkling of some red and yellow. This was one easy coat. This is a very 'Halloween' glitter. I love it. Sadly, neither of these are available. Son Of A Dick was a special LE release for the Season 6 premiere and the other was part of last years' Halloween Collection. Kee...

Shade Last Saturday I went to Knott's Scary Farm to see Elvria and her show, Elvira's Asylum . I'm a HUGE Elvira fan so my main goal was to meet her in her Boo-tique but I quickly found out it wasn't all that simple. In order to get a ticket to the Meet & Greet you had to be there when the park initally opened and bought $50 worth of Elvira merch. I have never been to Knott's before so I had no idea that it would take an hour and a half just to park. Needless to say we didn't get inside the park until 10 minutes before 9pm. Luckily, we got into the first show just in time. Incase you're wondering about the show it consists of Elvira's usual shenanigans (I mean that in a good way too). You will get a lot of her banter, wit, and jokes along with dancing skits with her team of dancers and an arial trapeze artist. She even does a little rap number. It's a pretty short show but I'm a fan of B Level Entertainment and raunchy humor so I a...