Kell's DIY Nails

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...

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 ...

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 ...

Prepare yourselves for Holographic Goodness... Bear Pawlish, See You Next Tuesday This lovely polish comes to you from Bear Pawlish ; one of my very favorite indie polish brands. This is called See You Next Tuesday . Are you familiar with the acronym? I am a bit (ok, a lot) of a sailor when it comes to curse words. I find them to act as seasoning to my vocabulary. Many misconceptions exist about women who enjoy a peppered paragraph; for example 'It's not ladylike' or 'it's uneducated'. In my book a lady is an independent woman who sticks to her convictions and doesn't get hung up on the little things. If a curse word prevents you from getting to know the real person under it then you may be a little narrow minded. Ok, moving on... See You Next Tuesday is a purplish pink holo. It also has some duochrome to it when it shifts from fuchsia pink to coral and then to purple. It's a linear holo. I applied a base of Bridge The Ridge (my favorite right now) and...

Salon Perfect, Razzle Dazzle - Day 1 When I picked up Salon Perfect's The Manicure System I also got a few colors that included this one. Razzle Dazzle is a purple jelly packed with silver holographic glitter. 2 coats were good enough opacity for me. The formula is pretty thick but if you don't overwork the polish it applies pretty evenly. It also gives that great squishy jelly effect while covering up VNL (visible nail line). No need to fuss with glitter placement either. It does dry to a gritty glittery finish. Once again I am using The Manicure System to see how it holds up with a Salon Perfect color. See my 1st wear test: Kell's DIY Nails: Salon Perfect: The Manicure System Wear Test Results. I used 2 coats of the Top Coat to smooth out the gritty glitters. All went well with application and it actually held up beautifully through the 6 days I wore it. I worked out, did dishes, gardening, and pet care among other things during wear. Lots of exposure to water. ...

Hey Gang! I've been back from vacation for a week now and I'm ready to go back! Anyways, whenever we go to the river we always make several trips to the Walmart in Bullhead City, AZ to grab necessities and snacks (oh, and water too!). I also love to check out their Cosmetics Department because many times I find things there that I don't see at my local Walmart stores. Every trip I end up picking up something and this trip was no different. I actually found all three of the Hard Candy Eye Palettes in Sassy Eyes, Smokey Eyes, and Neutral Eyes (FYI: These are really great little palettes that remind me of the Tin Palettes from Too Faced; check 'em out if you get a chance!) as well as Salon Perfect's The Manicure System . I hadn't spotted this locally so I thought I would give it a go and we can see how well it works together! Sound like FUN?!? This system consists of a Nail Cleanser, Bonding Base Coat, and High-Shine Top Coat. The Nail Cleanser is ba...

Have I dropped off the face of the earth or what?!? Fitting since today is EARTH DAY!! Ha Ha! I've also decided I'm hilarious... The husband and I went to see DisneyNature's Monkey Kingdom today; it was really cute. What did you do today?  Well, let's get to the good stuff... I rocked these awesome nails the last 2 weeks of March and I loved every minute of it! I applied 2 coats of Black Pool which is a very opaque black cream. I then applied one coat of Dazzling Dance over Black Pool. I purchased 3 metallic, topper like colors in the beginning of March (The Gilded Dreams Collection) and this was one of them. It's a very unique topper in that it dramatically changes whatever you layer it over. It gave Black Pool a purple duochrome effect. It also contains tiny holographic silver flakes. It's really freaking pretty! I can't wait to layer it over other colors. Last I added some DIY Nails Decals in Spaced Out ; these ones are in Holographic Silver...

Rock Royalty is a dark purple with a hidden shimmer. When I first purchased it I thought it was just a straight creme but it has a shimmer that comes alive when sunlight hits it. It is super pretty. This shows 2 coats. It could have used a 3rd coat since its a little patchy but I didn't notice it until I went outside. Oh well. No one even noticed.

Vexed Violet is a very unique color but I love it; it's a little bit brown, a little bit gray, and a little bit purple. Because it's a shimmer it is on the sheer side; it took 4 coats to get to an opacity I was happy with. But the durability and wear was not affected by the additional coats. In fact this held up even better than usual. I will definitly be wearing this again.   You can see how this looks different depending on the light. Indoors it look grey. It doesn't look this frosty in real life; the brush strokes are not nearly as prominent.

Happy New Year! To ring in my New Year (which hopefully will be 110% better than 2014 - Good Riddance!) I went with an interesting combo that tuned out looking a lot like Fruit Cake! LOL I applied 2 coats of Zoya, Anja which I got in my Zoya Mystery Bag (it's a mini). Zoya's website describes it as   'a rich, deep, vampy red-toned wine purple with a glossy creme finish. This vampy shade is both sexy and elegant.'  but I see it as more of a dark burgundy. Either way it is a very vampy color and if you love black polish I think you will like this as well. In low lighting it looks black. Formula was a little on the thin side so I had to be cautious to avoid using too much product but otherwise it applied nicely. It definitly requires 2 thin coats for full opacity. Dry time was good as well. I then topped Anja with one coat of Dollish Polish , 1, 2, Freddy's Coming For You . This was one I meant to  wear in October but circumstances occured where I wasn't able to p...

I incorporated all of these items into a full face look so I could throughly test them out and show you what they look like when worn. To create this purple smokey eye I used the Mineral Eyeshadow Primer , Essential Smudge Pot in Poppin Party , and Studio Baked Eyeshadow in Burnt Plum . I started with a base of the Mineral Eyeshadow Primer all over my lid, brow bone, and crease. I've been using this stuff for about a year and I think it is comparable to the Urban Decay and Too Faced primers. The texture is really nice; it had a light and creamy texture that is easy to blend on the eye but try to avoid over blending it. It sets pretty quickly to a soft velvety texture. I like to blend it out over the lid, then the brow bone, then the crease. This prevents you from getting too much product in the crease which will then crease later in the day. A little goes a very long way and I always finish application by patting with my fingertip to avoid flaking. When applied correclty this will...

Today I'm rocking another shade from China Glaze's All Aboard Collection . I applied 2 coats of What Are You A-Freight Of? to all my nails. This is a really unique color to my stash. It reminds me of Zoya, Kelly but this one leans more of a red-toned purple. It's dark but it has a muted dusty quality that makes it really nice. Formula was a little on the thin side but still incredibly opaque. Use caution to avoid cuticle pooling, be sure to wipe excess polish from your brush. If you like to apply thicker coats this could be a one coater but I used medium coats so I added a 2nd coat to even things out. It self levels nicely but does take a little longer to dry for some odd reason. On my index and middle nails I dabbed one coat of Lumina Lacquer's Peculiar Pumpkin Posse . This glitter bomb features orange and black hexagons, orange holographic hexagons, large silver circles, silver holographic crescent moons and even a few silver hearts. All that in a clear base. The s...

Are you guys as excited as I am?!? Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, let me fill you in! Tonight is the Season Premiere of The Walking Dead ! Been waiting months and months for this day... Can you guess why I am wearing an accent nail of Lizzie? If you watch the show you know that one of the most explosive episodes last season was 'The Grove' . If you are behind on the show and don't want any spoilers you should cut out now. Lizzie was a young girl who basically had a mental breakdown and began seeing zombies as people. In this episode she kills her sister so she will turn into a zombie. It was quite a mind fuck. Since Lizzie was a clear danger to those around her (and shrinks don't exist in the zombie apocalypse) she was directed to ''Look at the flowers" and was dispatched. If you know what I mean.  On 3 nails:  All Aboard  is a muted deep purple creme. It's very pretty. The formula was a little on the squishy side but still opaque in 2 ea...

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...