Kell's DIY Nails

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...

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...

Sometimes I don't make any sense and this is one of those times; I'm getting ready to watch the Season Premiere of The Walking Dead but I put a Buffy The Vampire Slayer polish on. I'm not sure why I did that but this combo was just calling out to me and I like to listen to my polish. Well, it's got the Apocalypse in common... If The Apocalypse Comes Beep Me is a magenta purple jelly packed with various fine pink and purple glitters, there are even some flakies throughout. This was a rough one to apply; for some reason this polish separates really quickly; the middle gets really thick and goopy with the glitters so I found I had to add some thinner and still had to shake it/roll it quite often to keep it workable. I used 3 coats to even everything out; it tended to apply patchy. The brush also didn't want to cooperate too well. But after you get it to this point you can see how incredibly complex this is. It's so deep and beautiful. In This photo you ...

I needed something quick and durable this particular week so I grabbed for a texture. This is actually from a 2013 Holiday Collection that was a bit of a sleeper but it's a fantastic collection of textures. I remember stalking my local Sally Beauty Supply stores for this collection. Enchanted Winter is just a fantastic texture polish; this is a great color and a great formula. It's a very sparkly mauve pink. Not to mention it's a dupe for  Nicole by OPI Cinna-Man of my Dreams. Sadly, this is no longer available. I applied 2 coats for perfect opacity and it applied so nicely I had very little clean up. Dried quick too! I used L.A. Girl Marine Base Coat and no top coat. I was so busy I  wasn't able to do my nails for two weeks and this held tight! Amazing! I really love Finger Paints Nail Color; they have a great selection of colors and are priced right.

Wet n Wild's Here's To The Wild Ones Collection got me; I picked up 3 of the nail colors , one eye shadow palette , and ALL of the lipsticks . Yep, all of them. I absolutely LOVE the Megalast Mattes; such great pigmentation, feel comfortable, and last forever. All around fantastic lipstick. However, my favorite out of everything is this nail polish. I'm addicted to these olive toned greens and the shimmer and glitter flakes in this polish are mesmerizing. I Moss Have It is a deep olive green with golden shimmer that glows from within a murky base. The formula is awesome, but use a different brush. When first applying the polish I noticed the brush was literally dragging the color off my nail. I pulled out my dusty Julep Plie Wand (I really should use this more because it actually does feel great in my hand) and all was right with the world. With the right brush this is a very opaque, smooth formula. But with the standard ManiCurve Pro Brush it applies it on the sh...

Check out this awesome red/orange neon my friend, Abbey, sent to me! Sunlight. It was super hard to get a good picture because it is so bright it freaked out my camera/phone. Sunlight, again. Pool Party is from the Poolside Collection which was released for the Summer of 2010. I've also got Kiwi Cool-Ada & Flip Flop Fantasy from this collection. Formula is a little on the sheer side and I did have some visible nail line but it wasn't enough to bother me. You can always use an opaque white base under neons but I honestly don't mind a little bit of VNL; especially when the formula self levels well (which this did). I used 2 coats for most nails but a few nails did require a 3rd coat, for some reason a few of them looked sheerer than the rest but that's probably due to my application. Consistency was on the thin and runny side but I didn't experience any pooling at the cuticle because I didn't load up my brush too much. The first coat was ...

e.l.f , Party Peach & Dollish Polish , Bazinga! I was going somewhere bright and funky and ended up with autumn. Perhaps a little pumpkin spice... 2 coats of e.l.f. , Party Peach , a (not-so-much-peach) orange cream. Very opaque but a little thick and streaky; I added some thinner and it helped. I really love orange. I was on their site and realized they don't have much for individual polishes right now but it looks like they have new trios . A few of them have peaked my interest... Dollish Polish , Bazinga! is a really fun glitter in a clear base; there's a very slight yellow tinge to the base but it didn't affect Party Peach when layered on top. Dollish Polish uses a special suspension base to prevent her glitters from sinking to the bottom and settling. This results in a thicker formula. I layered one coat over my base color; and used a bit of a dabbing method to get an even application of glitter. These glitters are really fun, if I wasn't r...

Where have I been... I went crazy. Not like clinically insane but I kinda put a little too much on my plate. I think I'm having a bit of a 'What am I doing with my life?' crisis. Is that also known as a mid-life crisis? I don't know because I'm only 35. Could 35 be mid-life crisis time? Someone please let me know. I've slacked a bit on my nails because I either don't feel like doing them (Gasp!) or I just don't have time. I've been really pushing myself on some other projects of mine so some things had to fall by the way-side. Towards the end of June and through the beginning of July I did these really cool 'Mermaid' looking nails. Both of these glitters are by Barielle ; from the Bling-It-On Collection . The Teal with large gold hexagons is called Sea Urchin . It's a frost and the formula is a little thick but I didn't have any application issues. It also has a duo chrome shift to gold. The other hexagon glitters are teal ...