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...

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...

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...

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...

For the last week of summer I decided to go out with a bang; a lemon lime holo. Then, I took forever to post it. My bad. The new job has been exhausting to say the least. I've been so tired... But I set aside a chunk of time today to bang out some posts just for you. The irony is we had rain this day so my lighting sucked. My apologies for the less than stellar photo. I also wanted to talk to you guys about my new favorite base coat for holos. You may (or may not) know that holo nail polish can be a little finicky. It will often help application if you use an 'Aqua Base'. Basically, it's just a certain type of base coat that works especially well under holos. For the longest time Nfu-Oh's Aqua Base was my best base coat for this purpose but after doing more research I realized that Nfu-Oh probably isn't cruelty free. Plus, they have never responded to any of my inquiries. These @lagirlcosmetics #matteflatfinishpigmentgloss lippes are so b...

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 ...

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 ...

I know I've been slacking on my blog lately but that's life; it's complicated and really not anything worth mentioning so let's just focus on today. Shall we? #PennyThePolishPickingPuppy turned 7 on May 21st. To celebrate I put one of her very favorite things on my nails; Tennis Balls. That's not all we did; we took a trip to Petco (Where The Pets Go) and had some fun checking out toys & treats. In addition to her hashtag on Instagram she also has a YouTube Channel . She sometimes picks my polish for me. Jamberry Nail Wraps are fun but not very practical. They take some getting used to as far as application goes and they hold up even worse than nail polish (at least for me). There are 2 things I really dislike about them; 1) Filing off the free edge and 2) after a few days the cuticle end begins to loosen and when I wash my hair or even run my fingers through my hair, my hair gets caught in the wrap. It rips my hair out and feels really bizarre; like nail...

Sorry I didn't have this up in time for St. Patrick's Day but life has been kicking my ass lately. Here is 2 coats of CND's Shellac in Serene Green . This is a really pretty deep forest green with shimmer. It came in the Charmed Set I bought awhile ago. It applied beautifully. I amped it up a little with some gold water decals from DIY Nails .

I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas (or other holiday) festivities!  I've got another Christmasy mani for you today... I applied 2 coats of Zoya's Veruschka which is one of the MatteVelvet shades that dry matte. This is a deep evergreen with beautiful shimmer. It applied very nicely and since it is a matte it dried quickly. These MatteVelvet's might not be around for long so I suggest getting them now while you can; they are some of the most beautiful mattes. Then I dabbed on one coat of Lumina Lacquer , Hooked On Christmas . Sadly, this particular polish is no longer available but there is one called Jingle Bells that you might like. I love circle glitter and this is various sizes of circle and hexagon glitter in red and various shades of green. There's also a variety of matte, metallic, and holographic finishes. The clear base is a very thick suspension base which required a slightly longer dry time. It also dried a little bumpy but a few coats of ACI's I...

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 heard good things about ACI Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat when used as either a base coat or between coats so I thought I would give it a try. I applied my go-to base coat of Barielle, Hydrating Ridge Filler . I then applied a coat of High Tide, a coat of Gelous, a coat of High Tide and lastly a coat of ACI In A Hurry Quick Dry Top Coat . Gelous does take awhile to dry so it did extend application time but let's see if it extends wear time as well as I've heard. After 4 days this is pretty impressive especially since I wasn't very delicate with them. After 6 days my index nail looks pretty rough but this nail is really thin and flexible right now not to mention it is peeling. My other nails look pretty good still. Sorry about the lack of sunlight in this photo; we've got a storm moving into So Cal right now. This is my left hand so let me show you my right hand (dominate  hand) too. Again, my index nail is looking rough but this one is in the same condition as...

CORRECTION: The Giveaway is for the Me Couture Collection. See Tomorrows post for corrected photo and Giveaway Post; Sorry for the confusion! Barielle sent me their newest collection, Jetsetter , to review and a set for me to giveaway. They also sent some of their awesome nail treatments as well . I love the mix of colors in this collection; they are all right up my alley. All are shown with 2 coats and I didn't have an issue with formula on any of them.   Kiss Me Kate is 'A creamy beige/pink' but I see it as a peachy nude. It's very opaque and easy to apply. It is a thicker formula but not enough to be bothersome during application. This is a nice palette cleanser but on me it made my skin take on a red tinge.  Autumn In Seoul is what Barielle calls 'A deep, copper shimmer'. I find this to be more bronze. It's beautiful; it seems to glow from within. The formula is very thin and seems to be sheer but after 2 coats I found it to be plenty opaque.  I wore ...

When it comes to Halloween and October it turns to the macabre and spooky in my life. Scary movies, haunted houses, the ouiji board, and don't forget the scary decorations. It figures that I wouldn't put cartoon pumpkins and cats on my nails. No smiling spiders here. LOL That's where Jane's Tiny Things comes in... with her Fright Night Decals .  From Left to Right: FingerPaints , Catwalk Queen with Goblin Decal. * OPI, Don't Talk Bach To Me with Witch Decal. Julep, Adrianna with Zombie Decal. * OPI, Don't Pretzel My Buttons with Vampire Decal.   Frankened White Polish (1/2 Zoya, Purity & 1/2 China Glaze, Dandy Lyin' Around) with Evil Clown Decal. I apply these decals like temporary tattoos and applied a coat of ACI's In A Hurry Air Dry Top Coat . *OPI is no longer Cruelty-Free but I purchased the Germany Collection back when they were Cruelty-Free.

What do you think of my play on words, there? On my Index & Middle: China Glaze, But Of Corpse . A metallic green apple or lime green. On my Ring & Pinkie: China Glaze, I Love Your Guts . A metallic berry pink. This complimentary pair of polishes are from the Apocalypse Of Color Collection and they are quite unique. I'm not sure if you would call them frosts, metallics, textures, or glitters. The base is a frosty metallic loaded with fine black glitters. They are gritty glitters that give a very unique finish to the polish. It's textured but not as heavily as most textured polishes. A few notes on the formula: These thicken quite quickly as you polish your nails and I found thinner coats worked best. If I applied a coat too thick it would crack much like a Crackle Type polish. Otherwise I found the formula to be fine, not spectacular, but fine. These also dried quickly. I applied a coat of ACI's In A Hurry Air Dry Top Coat and surprisingly it still kept it's t...

Here's two more polishes I have to show you from the All Aboard Collection . Don't Get Derailed - A dark murkey olive green creme. AMAZING formula; thin and easy to apply. Very opaque. This is 2 coats on all my nails. Mind The Gap - This is a shimmery olive green with flashes of gold. Formula was nice and easy to apply. It is a little on the sheer side so I layered one coat over Don't Get Derailed on my ring nail. This reminds me of one of the new NYX Wicked Lippies ; Trickery. So far I am very impressed with this collection, how about you?

Right after I finished yesterdays post my Dollish Polish order arrived; I ordered her LE The Walking Dead release called Walker Bait and 4 Halloween Themed Glitter Minis. I had to put Walker Bait on right away. Walker Bait is this awesome deep olive green super holograpic polish. It's like Toxic Avengers' creepy cousin. The formula is much more opaque than your typical holo and only required 2 coats. But it is like other holos in that you don't want to overwork it when applying. In the past I have been able to remove the large sqaure caps for easier polishing but this cap did not want to budge; not sure if maybe the bottles have changed or if I just couldn't remove this one. This polish was named after the character Glenn in The Walking Dead because in one of the earlier seasons he was referred to as Walker Bait. It is a fantastic color and since I sadly missed out on Toxic Avenger I'm glad I got this one. It was originally released a few years back but it was re-...

Hey Gang! Barielle sent me one of their newest collections for Fall to show you. Since I'm not one to do a swatch-a-thon (seriously tough on my nails) I did some nail art. I was inspired by Let Them Have Polish when she did this with a Zoya Collection recently. Index and Middle: 2 coats of Boho Chic as my base color; dotting done with Vintage Gown. Ring and Pinky: 2 coats of Moda Bleu as my base color; dotting done with Taupe Notch. For the dotting I used different sized dotting tools; you can pick up a set here . After it was completly dry I added one coat of In A Hurry Air Dry Top Coat. The Me Couture Collection consists of 6 colors; 5 cremes and 1 creme with slight shimmer. These all have a very consistent formula and are easy 2 coaters.  From Left to Right: Boho Chic : The bottle shot looks teal but on the nail its a forest green creme. Moda Bleu : A dark navy blue creme. Brighter than Milani's Enchanted Sapphire, deeper than China Glaze's One Track Mind. Taupe Notch...