Before & After: How much is that cutie in the window?

Hello!!

Today I'm posting my final 'Your Favorite Color' manicure for the Nail Challenge Collaborative, and it's one I'm pretty fond of. :)

I started with Barielle Dinner At 8, one of my favorite reds:

Barielle Dinner At 8

Then, on three of the fingers, I added a coat of Me.Lissa Nail Lacquer QR Code, a very fun black-and-white glitter in squares, rectangles, and bars of various sizes.

For the accent nail, I stamped the QR Code image from Mash-51 in Wet N Wild White Creme, and then painted it in with the same polish to create a white background. When it dried, I stamped over it again with Konad Black:

Me.Lissa QR Code

Wet N Wild; Konad; Mash

I love how this came out! I did get a little smudgle at the bottom, and this is one of the reasons why I'm excited to try the new rectangular stamper I just got. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and check back later tonight (meaning probably very early tomorrow, lol)--I have an indie review that includes one of my new favorite holiday polishes to share with you. :)

Giving thanks for all of you that take time to support me and my blog,
M.

Comparison post: Black & White glitters, done Halloween style!

Hello!

Ages ago, a reader asked if I could do a comparison post on my black-and-white glitters. I said I would, but then it got pushed back and backer. I have it today, and I hope it's not too late to be useful! And to make it festive, I've given it a Halloween twist by putting them over Misa Um You're Too Delicious.


Let's take a look! Here's what I have:

Thumb: China Glaze Whirled Away
Index: Laquerlicious Zebra Kisses
Middle: Me.Lissa QR Code
Ring: InDecisive Nail Lacquer Newspaper
Pinkie: Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

China Glaze Whirled Away; Laquerlicious Zebra Kisses; Me.Lissa QR Code; InDecisive Nail Lacquer Newspaper; Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

China Glaze Whirled Away

Laquerlicious Zebra Kisses; Me.Lissa QR Code; InDecisive Nail Lacquer Newspaper; Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

Many of you are probably saying that a girl really only needs one black-and-white glitter, and certainly doesn't need 5 of them. To that, I say the following:

....la la la la I'm not listening la la la la la...... Did you say something?

Anyhow, hee hee, here are my thoughts on each of them, because I truly do love each and every one:

China Glaze Whirled Away: I know this got a lot of thumbs-down in the blogosphere, but I truly love it. I love the different sized hexes and yes, I even love the bar glitter. It's really fun and has a circus-like feel to it.

Laquerlicious Zebra Kisses: Shards, shards, shards!! And shards that behave well! They don't stick up or snag, and they add pizzazz to any manicure.

Me.Lissa Lacquer QR Code: I adore square and rectangle glitter to start with. Give it a variety of sizes, and it looks like someone took a chess board and blew it up in space, so the bits are just floating around. And it may be the most perfectly named polish ever.

InDecisive Nail Lacquer Newspaper: What I love best about this is that it's black-white-and-gray; the addition of the gray gives it an extra textural feel. I also love that the glitter in this is smaller, so I can create a more dense visual feel when I want it.

Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared: This was my first black-and-white, and I was so happy to get it. It also has a smaller feel to it, when I want to add something to the manicure, but don't want it to become the sole focus--but in this case I can do it with squares, and I think I've already established where I stand on squares. :)

My apologies again that it took so long to get this up--I try to be fast with reader requests, but this one just kicked my tushie!

Hugs and loves,
M.

Review: Me.Lissa Lacquer

(Some of the products in this post were provided for review.)

Hello!

What a day. Let me just say that. I'm glad it's over. Because now it's time to focus on pretty polishes!

Today I have three pretties for you from Me.Lissa Lacquer. The name of this brand caught my eye because I love the name Lyssa--I love it so much, that's what I named my darling puppy. But everyone always hears 'Alyssa' or 'Melissa', and because of that I've started telling people that her name is 'Lyssa, like Melissa without the Me.' So when I saw this name, I absolutely had to go check out the polish. A silly reason to check out a polish maybe, but it turns out when I did, I found quite a large number of polishes I really liked, and knew I wanted to review the line for you if I could. :)

Melissa sent me three glitter toppers to show you, including one that just happens to be my favorite polish on her entire site. ::evil grin::

First up is Internet Stardom, part of her Social Media collection (I love that idea for a collection, btw). The colors that form the backbone of this polish are teal and orange, while gold and white play a supporting role. The shapes and sizes vary, mostly hexes and squares, with just enough stars to make a statement:

Me.Lissa Internet Stardom over Zoya Keiko

This is one coat over Zoya Keiko; I chose a grape-purple creme to really celebrate the teal and orange and I really love the result. This is one coat with a bit of dabbing; to get the stars you'll have to fish a bit, but that's pretty standard for glitters of that sort, I think. They came out pretty easily regardless, so no problem there. The formula was good--I was able to get an even coverage without much work at all, and if I wanted more coverage, that would have been easy to build with a bit more dabbing or a second coat.

Next up is NY On Summer Afternoons, from her Gatsby collection. This has a variety of colors in it-- blue, yellow, gold, peachy-pink, soft green, black, white, in hexes and squares of various sizes:

Me.Lissa Lacquer NY On Summer Afternoons over Julep Cassie

Without the black, I think this would be reminiscent of a flower garden around someone's house; the black gives it edge that turns it into a more urban vibe, and a funky, cool feel. I chose to put it over Julep Cassie, a nude (on me) peach, so that each of the colors could shine through--there is a lot going on here, and I wanted the glitter to be the star. This is one coat, with just a titch of dabbing--it went on without any problem, and I just dabbed to make sure I got even coverage.


But oh...oh, this last one...oh, man, it's my favorite by far. I love me a black and white glitter, that's no secret, but these days there are a ton of them out there, and a black/white glitter has to have something that makes it special to get any notice. This one--called QR Code (how cool is that??!!)-- is made up of squares and rectangles! Rectangles! It also has bar glitter, but I'm counting those as very slender rectangles, lol (it's my blog and I can if I want to!!):

Me.Lissa Lacquer QR Code over Julep Alaina

That makes this my first official rectangle glitter polish, which makes it cool enough just for that reason alone, but I love that it does give a different feel from other black/white toppers. She named it perfectly, it does remind me of those square UPC things, but even more, it makes me think of some crazy distorted chess board, like out of some warped wizard chess tournament that was blown apart by some wizard that was ticked off when he lost! I layered it over Julep Alaina, a neutral light gray, to keep a gray-scale feel to the manicure. This would look striking over any bold color--red, teal, purple, yellow, green, orange, you name it. It applied wonderfully, not dabbing needed, great formula. I love it and I have a feeling I'll need a full size bottle of it to replace the mini I'm going to blow through in no time. :)

Me.Lissa Lacquers are three-free, and sell for $8.50 for full-sized bottles, and $4.50 for minis. You can find her Etsy store by clicking here; she does a variety of polish types (not just glitter toppers). When you're there, be sure to check out Abuzz, T'Pau, Like, and if you're looking for the perfect New Year's Eve polish, take a look at Ain't No Party Like A Gatsby Party. :)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're having a wonderful week. :)
M.

(The glitter toppers were sent for my honest review. The undies were all purchased by me. :) )