The Lacquer Legion: After Dark

Go shawty, it's LL day... 
No seriously. it's Lacquer Legion day and my nails are stupid short.
I broke one reeeeal bad and filed the rest to match. Whomp whomppp.

The theme for today's Lacquer Legion prompt is After Dark! Anything spooky scary goes. And I was seriously tempted to try Werewolf Bar Mitzvah... But it's a little late in the evening to paint a werewolf in a yarmulke. Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves... If you haven't watched 30 Rock you can just show yourself out of that joke.

Pretty much every Halloween nail art idea ever has already been done, so I went for something a little more abstract versus like, a pumpkin or a skull.
My pal Tiffany from Nail Polish Canada sent me over a Halloween plate to play with so I used that to create something cute!

It's like halloweeny newspaper blood splatter patterned goodness! I gotta say I really like how they look. It almost looks like a nail strip type design. The words everywhere look cool, even though my tiny nails don't allow for many entire words on there, and I love the blood peeking through!

I started with a base of one of my go-to whites, Color Club - French Tip.
I used red acrylic paint and a small brush for the splatters, I kinda just blobbed and smeared it on there. Very simple, no need to be precise.
The stamp is from Bundle Monster's holiday collection - plate BM-H07, and I used Konad black polish to stamp it.

I ended up not using any topcoat on these because I like the mixture of the finishes with the polish, paint, and stamping.

What do you guys think of these nails? Don't forget to share your Lacquer Legion manis all around the web with the hashtag #LLAfterDark.

The Lacquer Legion: Fandom

Another Lacquer Legion day already?! They keep sneaking up on me. I was just about to start a week of posts for something else and I happened to check my Instagram feed... Aaaaand that prompted me to actually remember that today is #LLfandom day! I am totally stoked on this month's theme because I do indeed faithfully belong to a fandom. The Supernatural Fandom! Oh boy, do I ever. I have been obsessing over Supernatural for quite a few years now and I still can't get enough.

I've previously done Supernatural nails twice before (here and way long ago here) but I had yet to tackle the logo that all Supernatural fans know and love - the tattoo that Sam and Dean sport on their chests... Their perfectly sculpted chests. (Too far? Or just far enough for LLfandom?)

I wanted to keep the manicure simple and just showcase the anti-possession emblem, like a tattoo on skin. I chose OPI - Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh as my nude skin shade.
I did the emblem with black acrylic paint and a small brush. I didn't do a perfect job if you're looking up close, but from arms length it looks pretty damn good!

Posin' with my big SPN coffee table book that I got for Christmas this year. Which I totally did not overreact about when I opened it. Totally.

There you have it! I hope you guys liked this mani! And don't forget to share yours on our Facebook page, or anywhere on social media with the tag #LLfandom.
I hope I'll see lots more Supernatural manicures! Or else.

The Lacquer Legion: On Holiday

This month, us fine folks at The Lacquer Legion decided to use summer vacation as inspiration and take our nails on holiday.

This theme can be interpreted so many ways because everyone has a favorite way to kick back and relax while on holiday (or maybe not relax and just shop,) so I am looking forward to seeing all the nails today!

I recently picked up a mini set of Orly's summer collection, Baked, and the colors were already arranged in a perfect sunset gradient and I just had to translate it onto my nails ASAP. Bonus points for it coincidentally being at the right time for this LL prompt!

The four colors in the set are: 

Orly - Tropical Pop (yellow)

Orly - Ablaze (orange)

Orly - Hot Tropics (fuchsia)

Orly - Saturated (purple)

The two middle colors have a really heavy gold shimmer that was a bit of a pain to deal with in the gradient because if you dabbed too much, all the shimmer would come to the surface and overpower the gradient. It took more effort than I am used to to get the perfect effect, but I worked it out! 

I decided that I wanted to add the sunglasses stamp from Cheeky CH37 to make it a bit different from a typical sunset-and-palm-tree mani. Buuuut I also had to add a palm tree just because. It was too pretty not to.

I freehanded the lil' tree with acrylic paint and a super small brush.

Hope you guys like this mani! Can't wait to go stalk Instagram and Facebook for all the great manicures from you lovely folks. Don't forget to use the hashtag #LLonholiday so everyone can see your masterpieces! 

The Lacquer Legion: Garden

Hey guys! I'm home from sunny Florida! Did you miss me? Just kidding, I know you did.
I have been crazy busy ever since my plane touched down though, because my university convocation was this week! I am an official graduate. However my univeristy career is far from over... It's back to the grind right away to hopefully get accepted into a masters program. I think I'd stay in school forever if I could, just to delay full adulthood.

I scrambled just now to put a post together for this month's Lacquer Legion prompt, because I don't wanna miss a month!
The theme is Garden, so we could all take inspiration from our lovely spring blossoms for this month's post... Except Newfoundland did not get that memo and we have no spring and certainly no gardens. The temperature is practically below freezing. I came home from Florida for this?!

Anyway, I decided to do a really simple floral manicure with ye old flower technique that I used to do when I was like 10! Mostly because it would allow me to do a manicure in less than 10 minutes because that was all the time I had if I wanna get this post up before midnight! (Plus I had to do it during the intermission of the hockey game. Come on Hawks!!)

See what I meant by simple? Ha! Despite how easy this look is to complete, I think the pink flowers look really cute on the off-white and the green adds a springy pop.

The bone-colored background is OPI - My Vampire is Buff.
The green? Essie - The More The Merrier.
The pink is a go-to fave, China Glaze - Dance Baby.
And the yellow, Essence - Sun Dancer.

I hope you guys liked this easy yet cute mani! And don't forget to share yours if you haven't already on our Facebook page, or anywhere on social media with the tag #LLgarden.

The Lacquer Legion: Glam

The school semester is finally over and it is time to get glam with the Lacquer Legion! And not a moment too soon. I've actually had a hard time even finding the energy to paint my nails at all this month so it was nice to have a reason to sit down and treat myself to a beautiful polish!

Great minds think alike, and once again my soul sista Chalkboard Nails and I have come up with the same idea... And because I am headed to work in just a half an hour, I had no time to rethink my plan and do something else. Plus I really wanted this polish on my nails. It's been untried for far too long. And I did an accent nail, so it's different, right? And I know you won't complain about seeing this beauty twice.

OPI - DS Glamour 
I swapped for this polish so long ago and was so excited to wear it, but just didn't! Why do we all do that so often? It makes no sense. This is three coats of the polish alone, but two probably could have done the trick if I wasn't going to be photographing it.

I also wanted to do a full-on rhinestone nail like I see all over Instagram from the best nail techs, but sadly I don't have any Swarovski rhinestones so this nail is decidedly lackluster compared to my rhinestone dreams. I used nail glue to stick these suckers on though so hopefully it will last for a couple days!



Hilariously, yesterday my mom found my "baby ring" - yes, a gold ring bought for a baby - and I thought that was the perfect accessory for this manicure. WWTFD? (TF for Tommy Fresh, of course.)

Glamor can mean so many different things for different people and I am so excited to see what everyone participating comes up with! I hope you guys liked this mani, and don't forget to share yours on our Facebook page, or anywhere on social media with the tag #LLglam.

The Lacquer Legion: Lucky

March's theme for The Lacquer Legion is Lucky!

I thought about lucky things, like lucky charms, and I was this close to trying to base nails on a pair of lucky underwear I used to wear to my best friend's hockey games in high school... But A) I thought that might be weird (however apparently I wasn't above telling you about it) and B) I can't really remember them.

So I kept thinking, and realized that the luckiest thing in my life is my dad!
He is seriously lucky. He always wins on scratch tickets, poker games, even the lottery! (He hasn't hit the big one yet... But I sure hope its coming.)

I decided I would get him to choose three random numbers corresponding to my polish stash list. So he picked from 1-1279. The three colors he chose turned out to really go well together!

#396: Color Club - Warhol
#519: Essence - Nude It!
#777: Nail-Venturous - Evil Barbie

I wasn't in the mood for anything too intense, so I did a base with the nude polish, added two pink nails plus a pink stripe on the thumb, and put the glitter on top. Voila! Easy but eye catching manicure with a fun idea behind it.

Not gonna lie, I was a little worried he would end up choosing orange, purple and brown or something. But he truly is lucky I guess! I hope I've inherited some of that lucky touch. Especially for my microeconomics final next month... That sucker is gonna need a lot of luck.

I hope you guys liked this mani! And don't forget to share yours on our Facebook page, or anywhere on social media with the tag #LLlucky.

The Lacquer Legion: Reinvention

Totally pumped to be sharing my first post for The Lacquer Legion! If you haven't heard about the LL yet, check out my introduction post. Basically, once a month me and my LL pals (Chalkboard Nails, Work/Play/Polish, and The Nailasaurus) put out a theme for a mani challenge for everyone to do! And of course, we do it too.
This month's theme is Reinvention.

The idea I had for reinvention was to finally try the reinvented version of stamping - making decals with stamping images!
A lovely tutorial was recently posted by my girl heartNAT, and once I saw it I had to do it ASAP.
But with bows. Obvi.

It's a little confusing to explain without watching the video, but here's the quick explanation:
1. Pick up an image on your stamper and let it dry.
2. Fill in the parts you want to color while it is still on the stamper. It doesn't have to be neat because you're actually working on the back of the design. But be careful not to bleed outside of the outermost areas. Let that dry.
3. Coat the whole thing in topcoat and let it dry again.
4. Carefully peel the fully-dried decal off of your stamper, trim the edges if need be, and apply to your nail on top of a coat of wet topcoat.
5. Add more topcoat to seal it in. Tada!

I did the base gradient using Lime Crime - Parfait Day and Lime Crime - Once In A Blue Mousse.
For the decal I used Konad Black, and filled it in with China Glaze - That's Shore Bright.
The studs are from Dollar Nail Art.
I'm loving all the components of this manicure and it is very me. Girly, but with studs also. Ha!

I freakin' love this method because it opens up a lot of possibilities. It is definitely a reinvented nail technique! I'm probably going to be obsessed with this now because I just want this bow on everything. Everythingggggg.

Have you guys done a Lacquer Legion manicure yet? It's not too late! Be sure to tag your posts on social media with #LLreinvention so we can see them! And share 'em on our Facebook page.
Hope you liked this post and I'll see you again shortly for the next Lacquer Legion challenge!

Welcome to The Lacquer Legion!

Hey everyone! I'm really excited to be sharing this post with you today - get ready for a new nail art initiative!
As a community, nail art and nail polish enthusiasts love helping each other out and being a part of group projects! I could name a bunch off the top of my head (such as the 31 Day Challenge) and they're definitely a favorite of the participants and readers alike.  We all know how hard it can be to get inspired for nail art, and collaborating definitely helps us keep going, makes us push ourselves to try new things, and we all work better when we work together!
So when my friend Sarah of Chalkboard Nails came to me about wanting to start a new community nail project, of course I was in.

With the help of two other lovely ladies - Leslie of work / play / polish and Sammy aka The Nailasaurus - we have formed The Lacquer Legion, and we hope you'll join in and be as excited as we are!

The Lacquer Legion will be a once-a-month, no-pressure endeavor, where we will put out a theme/prompt for your interpretation. On a set day, we all will post our resulting manicures! And we will use a hashtag to keep all our posts together and make them easy to find across social media.

And hey, we all find ourselves in a slump sometimes - no biggie if you don't wanna participate every month. The commitment is low but the end results should be great!

So what's the first theme?

Reinvention! This theme is really perfect for me especially, considering the blog reinvention I am working on. I really couldn't be more excited about all that is going on! And I'm delighted to be sharing this great opportunity with the rest of the Lacquer Legion and all of you guys!

If you have any questions, pop on over to facebook.com/thelacquerlegion for more info (be sure to “Like” it for updates)! The four of us will be watching the page to answer any questions.
We really hope you will participate in this awesome opportunity to have some fun with fellow members of the nail community!