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...

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...

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.

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...

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! 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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

We're back with another Wear Test! I told you I would be trying China Glazes' new EverGlaze Extended Wear nail color and that's exactly what I did. This wear test actually turned out quite a bit better than my last. I'm sure you can already see that from the above photo. So, let's get to it.

Applying for jobs is a full-time job ya'll.... I've been hitting it extra hard lately. I've had some success (which has been a long time coming) so I'm really hoping good things come of it. Meanwhile, I did manage to paint both my finger nails and toe nails this gorgeous summery shade. Zoya, Myrta is described on Zoya's website as: 'a warm medium orange coral with red undertone, gold and silver metallic shimmer, and a foil-like finish. The coral color of Myrta is soft, but the foil finish gives it added warmth and glow.' I think that description is dead-on accurate. I love these types of corals for summer. It's no secret that one of my all time favorite nail polishes is Essie's Escapades which is also in that same color family. It's a shame that Essie is no longer cruelty free. The formula on this polish is ideal; it's buttery smooth and applies with ease. 2 coats and done. Very little clean up needed. Zoya polishes ar...

It's another Wear Test! After I perused some blog posts/reviews about some of the latest 'Extended Wear' type lacquers I actually found a resounding amount of reviewers that felt the FingerPaints new Endless Wear System was better than the China Glaze and Orly ones. So, I decided to give it a run. Here's the deets: Many reviewers mentioned the formula on this polish as being better than the others and I have to say I felt the formula applied beautifully. It was just the perfect consistency and I had very little clean up if any. The brush worked well for a clean line at the cuticle and I didn't have any issues with drag. The formula is on the thin side and I did notice it was a little sheer but not enough to require a 3rd coat (I used 2 coats). With this Endless Wear System you don't use a separate base coat; the Long Wear Color has a built-in base coat. Dry time on the color was fast too. It's All About The Frame is a beautiful light beige ...

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 ...

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...

Behold my Easter Nails! I went with something that could also be worn through the end of tax season. This picture does the polish no justice what-so-ever. I had to try and take a photo during the course of the work day so I just snapped some quickly whilst holding a chocolate bunny. I started with 2 coats of Field Fox which is a gorgeous muted pale neutral pink. It looked so much better in person! If you are someone who loves neutrals then don't even think about buying this, just buy it! I was thinking it might have been on the sheer side but it's not. It's opaque and easy to apply. I will definitely wear this again. On my accent nail I went with some bling, Chiffon Twirl , another one from The Gilded Dream Collection. I thought this rose gold shimmer would be really sheer but I only needed 2 coats to get to the opacity in the photo; no undies. Nice surprise. Again, I wanted to add some decals so this time I went with the gold flowers in the DIY Nails Mehndi Set....

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...

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 .

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.