Review: Lucky 13 Lacquer "Deck the Halls"

Good morning!

I'm always a little surprised when I meet people that don't know there are independent nail polish brands out there in the world.  So when I try a new one, I feel like it's part of my job as a blogger (small though I am) to tell people about it.

I have tried Lucky 13 Lacquers before (see here for example), and I have always been impressed with their amazing product and customer service.  The polish I'm showing you today, "Deck the Halls" from the holiday collection, is no exception.  It's totally gorgeous, and I received the shipment less than two weeks after ordering.

The item description reads: "Tiny silver, medium emerald, medium cherry red, and a splash of extra large cherry red glitters in a clear base.  This polish just screams 'Christmas'! 

I layered it over ORLY "Luxe" to bring out the red and green color.  Unfortunately this makes the silver glitter difficult to see.  I think it reads as more of a texture than a separate color from the gold.

These two pictures were shot indoors.  I was trying to capture the bright glow that this polish gives off, especially over the gold base.  I only used two coats of "Deck the Halls," but as you can see I got plenty of glitter on my nails.  I did fish out pieces of the big, red hex glitter for my pointer and ring fingers because I love the interest that the different glitter offers the overall look.  The formula was smooth, and the glitters were plenty.  

This is so festive.  It really does scream "Christmas," and I plan to recommend this to my fellow polish enthusiast friends.

Christmas Lights Nail Art

We had our Girl's Night In Christmas get together on Friday.  As I had my first holiday party the next day, I decided to try something new and universally festive: holiday lights!  I used this method, which I saw posted on Pinterest last January.  I've been waiting all year to try this design.  It did not come out perfect, but I got a ton of compliments, and I can't wait to try it again.

I used a white glitter polish instead of the recommended white or off-white.  I wish I had more pictures, but my new camera is being finicky, and I haven't quite figured it out yet.

More Holiday Nail Art

Ho ho ho!  I feel so jolly today that it's practically spilling out of me.  So far this week, I have done holiday-themed nails every day.  And today I've got a two for one!

First, aren't these little guys so adorable?!  I just want to name them and keep them with me forever!  The blue on my thumb, middle, and pinky fingers isn't showing up very well in the pictures.  It is a lovely Wedgwood blue with a blue-grey glitter on top.  Reminds me of frost.

The penguins are for tomorrow.  I took the day off work, and I'm going to walk around Zilker Park in my festive finery, eat some delicious cart food, and of course, see the Christmas tree.

At the beginning of the week I was feeling more subdued.  Yes, glitter can be subdued.

I started with a gorgeous cherry red and then sponged on some lime glitter for a cool gradient effect.

I am constantly searching for new inspiration.  I'm almost positive I will discover and execute the holy grail of holiday nail techniques...two days after Christmas when no one will want to see it until next year.

Christmas Trees and Whimsical Dots

It's the first day of December, which means...time to bust out the holiday designs!  The end of a semester is always a busy time for me with teaching and being a student, but I really want to try to infuse a little festive cheer into my daily life.  To that end, I'm going to try and show a little spirit every day this month.  I'm starting with these whimsical little trees.

flash

no flash

As you can see, I also (finally) got my camera replaced, and the pictures look...different.  I need to play around with it a bit to figure out the best way to get a decent picture.

Halloween Nails and Shenanigans!

I'm sitting on my couch, eating fried apples, and feeling festive.  I love this time of year, and it's finally starting to feel cool and autumnal here in Texas.  So in honor of my favorite day, Halloween, I had four different costumes and four different nail looks.

Phi Alpha Theta held a Fall Harvest Party the Friday before Halloween at our school.  I came as a spider woman complete with webby nails...

It's kind of tough to see, but I wanted to capture the sparklyness.  

Saturday was a blast!  We went down to 6th Street to check out all the costumes and party the night away.  On this night, my nails were far more subdued, nothing special, but I knew I wouldn't want to have too much trouble redoing them the next day, so I went with a glue basecoat.

 Unfortunately, pictures were not at the front of my mind.  The only picture I got of my costume that night was blurred to say the least. I was dressed as a carnivale-style bearded lady...but I couldn't get the crepe wool to stick to my face...luckily my friend Karen is handy with a marker.

I *might* be vogueing.  It highlights the beard.

I wore pretty much the same thing, with a few alterations, on Wednesday night when we went out again to see what might be seen.  On that night, I did the same nails, but since the beard hadn't worked so well for me previously, I substituted in a crown and a set of dark fairy wings.

Me and Karen

End of the night...we bought and ate bacon.  Perfect.

Finally, finally, we come to last night, and the third installment of the Post-Apocalyptic Tea Party.  The idea is, the apocalypse has come, and now we gather together for one afternoon to drink tea, play croquet, and possibly shoot some zombies.  All good times.

Last year

And this year, BEWARE!

I LOVE the newspaper skirt I made, but it didn't hold up past a few hours.  Oh well.

Best. Roommates. Ever.

Some Sweet Nail Designs for Halloween

Why is the fall always so busy?  I've barely had time to try any new, festive designs, but I'm so proud of the ones I have done.

My friend Karen challenged me to try my hand at creating sugar skulls.

I just couldn't pick a favorite picture.  I love this design so much.  I'm going to have a hard time replacing them with anything.

Last week I did some simple jack-o-lanterns, nothing fancy, but I got a ton of compliments on the finished results.

 Any suggestions for a new, fun Halloween design?

Stained Glass Nails (Freehand)

Good morning!  A few weeks ago, I saw this post on Reddit.  Gorgeous, right?  It stuck in my mind, so I saved the post knowing that I would want to recreate this look at some point.  About a week after the original post, I had my opportunity thanks to a fabulous, multicolored, tribal print skirt that I love to wear but always have a hard time matching to my manicure (cuz, you know, I do that sort of thing from time to time.)

Here are my results:

As you can see, I stuck pretty close to the original color palette since it went so perfectly with my skirt.  But I'm definitely looking forward to trying it in many different color combinations.  It looks like it took a lot of work, but it was really pretty easy to do.

I might have gone a little overboard on the pictures of this one.  It just looked so amazing.  Seriously, this is one of the best manicures I've done in a while, AND I got a ton of compliments.  So I'd say I was happy with it overall.