Kell's DIY Nails

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! 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...

Hey Gang! I have an awesome polish to show you along with even better news! Last Sunday was the premiere episode of Fear The Walking Dead so I wore this awesome polish especially for the occasion. You can watch the premiere episode HERE for free and be sure to tune in tomorrow night for the next episode. I know lots of people are getting confused about Fear The Walking Dead so here's a little clarification: FTWD is a brand spanking new show (last Sunday was the very first show). You do not need to have watched The Walking Dead . This one starts off fresh when the zombie apocalypse begins in Los Angeles ( TWD is in Georgia). It is basically going to show the same zombie apocalypse but from the view of a family in Los Angeles. So, check it out! This polish was created with The Walking Dead in mind; and it is part of the TV Frenzy Collection . This collection features quite a few polishes crafted with popular TV shows in mind; you should pop over to see if your favorite ...

Applied 2 coats of Scarlet Letter from the Charmed Limited Collection . A really squishy looking red that was very easy to apply. It looks like a crelly (creme & jelly) on the nails. It's a great red. After curing my last color coat I added some heart decals from Icing to my ring nail. I bent the gold metal heart on an orange stick to give it a curve so it would better fit my nail. I then carefully applied a very light coat of Zillionaire , which is clear base filled with multicolored iridescent flakes. You can build it up or keep it light but it will never reach opacity alone as it is meant to be a topper. This combined with the UV Top Coat sealed my little decals in very well. They lasted the entire time on my nails without peeling or getting caught in my hair or on my clothing. These turned out very cute; so far my experimenting has been 50/50. Hope you all have a lovely day! I spent most of it in bed since it is my one day off this week. Red Siam Crysta...

Today's post is one of my very favorite! Every year I like to include an epic Christmas polish; one that I think is all of Christmas rolled into one bottle!  I give you... X-mas Me Silly from Polish Me Silly ! From their website:  ' It is meant to look like a christmas tree with a rainbow of ornaments and yellow, pink, and bright green stars floating throughout it to top it off.... It consists mostly of hexagon glitters and star glitter. It has a jelly green base to make it less transparent and tiny holographic green glitter to represent the tree. All of the colors of the rainbow are in this polish! lol The colors in this polish look beautiful together and it is absolutely stunning on. This is the perfect X-Mas polish...' X-mas Me Silly can be built up to opacity but I opted to layer one coat over Hard Candy, Crush On Ivy. I've had this Hard Candy in my Untrieds for ages and I love how it looks with XMS over the top. Formula was really great and easy to apply; just be ...

I've been addicted to buying all of The Lady Varnishes polishes from a certain someone's stash sales. This is one of those indie polish makers who knows how to make combos that I have a hard time resisting. The fact that I get them at really great prices through the stash sale mentioned earlier makes them irresistible.  Among the Clouds is a pale periwinkle varnish, with indigo flecks and a subtle gold to green shimmer. I got that straight off the esty listing because I was having one heck of a time figuring out how to describe it. Can't I just say it's good? Like really good?? What you see here is 3 coats. I used thin coats and it dried super quick. The formula is on the thick side but a good thick; easy to apply and I didn't have to fuss to get good placement of the flakes. I absolutely love the shimmer in this and the complexity of the blend. It's also scented; this particular one I believe is Lilac Blossom and it smells really nice. Check out that bottle s...

We are now on our very last challenge; Week 8 of the Polish Swap Society's Nail Art Challenge is  WHO'S THAT HOMBRE? Create an ombre/gradient look with the help of this tutorial   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQe6jGUkVQA . When I swatched Barielle's Keys Collection I instantly knew I wanted to use Hawaiian Sunset , Topless In St. Tropez , and Panama Piña Colada for this challenge. I instantly saw a sunset on my nails and that's pretty much how it turned out.  Here is my base color of Barielle's Panama Piña Colada. 2 coats. No top coat. The only thing I didn't like about this technique is my latex sponge actually started disintegrating as I used it. Pieces of the sponge were being transferred to my nail. Not so nice. So, I ended up trashing the sponge and instead I used a piece of clean white cotton tshirt material. I folded it up to get a thick square which actually worked great. Just make sure it's not fabric that sheds. I have no idea why my sponge s...

Are you wearing your green today?!? I sure hope so or you just might get pinched!! The month of March has been very inspired for me and I've done more nail art this month than usual. I did some Mardi Gras Nails that I adored and was very proud of.  I also did a few different green manis earlier this month that I still need to post, but first I want to show you the nails I am wearing today.   Shade. Sun. I started with 2 coats of Jessica, Lime Cooler . This fantastic pastel lime green creme is from the Summer 2012 Gelato Mio! Collection. I picked this up from Ninja Polish quite a while ago because it made me think of Essie's Navigate Her. It's no dupe but I like it even better. I used 2 coats. The first coat was pretty streaky and would drag if you over worked it so I gave the 1st coat plenty of time to dry before adding the 2nd. It then became nicely opaque. Formula was a bit thick. I also got a wonky brush with this polish; the brush is nice and fans out over the nail ni...

2 coats with Seche Vite. I'm sorry to have to do this but I'm showing you a HTF polish today. This is Gold Old Buffy by Essence ; part of the 1st release of the Vampire's Love LE Series. Since I am a hard-core Buffy The Vampire Slayer (both the movie and TV series) fan I just had to have this. I have been lemming it since it was first released. I finally snagged it from a private seller a few months back. It's an opaque black jelly base filled with gold micro flakes. So awesome! Formula was on the thick side but not difficult to apply. Dry time did take a little longer and I experienced bubbling but a coat of Seche Vite smoothed things out. It's a little on the sheer side but 2 coats got me to an opacity I was happy with. I plan on amping this mani up a bit as well so stay tuned.

One coat of Zoya, Opal over China Glaze, Smoke and Ashes. It's time to break out some dark and mysterious nails with Halloween approaching. I fiddled around at my Smart Deco IntelliDesk with some dark colors and some color shifters and came up with this; It looks like the Wicked Witch meets the Emerald City. One coat of China Glaze, Smoke and Ashes. No top coat. I layered one coat of Zoya, Opal over 1 coat of China Glaze, Smoke and Ashes and it's pretty darn awesome. Can you believe that Smoke and Ashes only took one coat? It's a very opaque black base loaded fine green glitter flakes; it's fantastic. I'm not normally a fan of black polish but this one is a necessary part of my stash. The formula was also very easy to control and apply. Smoke and Ashes was released with their Hunger Games, Capitol Colors Collection . Opal's formula was pretty awesome too; you can keep reworking it until you get the coverage of flakies you desire. It's anothe...

Cult Nails, Seduction. 1 coat over: Cult Nails, Flushed.  Could Flushed get any better? Put this iridescent flakie top coat over it and... Yes, it can. Seduction was the cousin to Clairvoyant or Unicorn Puke as it was originally known. For a while there Cult Nails was owning the Flakie Glitter market. People were clamouring to get them. Me, I kind of just sit back and wait for something comparable to come out. I hate trying to buy the popular polish; it ends up being such a drain mentally, physically, and monetarily. After all the excitement died down they were completely sold out of Clairvoyant (AKA Unicorn Puke) and it had been discontinued. However, they still had Seduction in stock and then they had a pretty good sale so I snapped this lovely up. The formula is amazing and really easy to apply. This was one coat with a few extra swipes here and there. It gives great glitter payoff and its not thick, goopy, or gritty. A fantastic flakie glitter. I lo...