December Nail Art Challenge Week 6: Days 30 & 31

Zoya - Logan

Logan is another gem I picked up from Zoya's Ornate collection. Tired of seeing the same ol' mundane, humdrum poses with polish bottles? Yea, me too. How about a Mountain Dew can instead? Matches this beauty so well! ^.^

December Nail Art Challenge Week 5: Days 23-29

Snowman Topcoat with Colorful Tips

For the Christmas Theme challenge of the December nail art challenge I am participating in, I cheated and did that mani early, using a glitter topcoat snowman polish. This beauty (though it was pretty hard to photograph, I tried sun, shade, indoors, and everything, it is more than evident in person) reflects some gorgeous colors: pink, purple, fuchsia, and sometimes a little orange, too.

Even at three coats, I had some visible nail line, so using a pink (Finger Paints Steal My Beating Art) and purple (essence Break Through), I decided to add some simple french tips to cover that in colors that would match its glow.

Guest Post with Drinkcitra

Traci is another blogger I am a frequent follower of. I love all the beauties she shows, so I am really glad she is here with a mani for us today!
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Hello beautiful readers of Nails Like Lace! This is Traci from drinkcitra.com. I am both honored and excited to be guest posting on Amber's blog! I visit Nails Like Lace regularly because she always has amazing nail art and swatches to share. Thank you for this opportunity, Amber!

Snowflake and Snowman Tips

For this look, I started out with a two-coat base of essence Date in the Moonlight, then added a coat of a blue/green shimmer, Pure ICE Oh Baby!, and another of Wet'n'Wild Hallucinate. Painted everything on with acrylic paint, then topped it all off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Sally Hansen - Sorbet

This is one of the polishes from their (not so) Smooth and Perfect line. I immediately fell in love with this entire collection when I first saw it in stores a few years ago, so my lovely hubby picked them all up for me for Christmas that year.

Unfortunately, I have always had a huge issue with them bubbling, regardless of how many chances I give them. Every time I decide to wear one, I have so much continuing hope for them because they are so pretty, and I somehow convince myself that if with each chance, I apply thinner and thinner coats and give each coat more and more time in between to dry, that just maybe it won't bubble. Alas, it never fails.

The polish will be 100% dry and beautiful for a few hours, then out of nowhere, bubbles appear all over, and for no reason! Still, I gave this one a shot again. I didn't use base or topcoat. I applied the polish as thin as I could, waited half an hour between coats, and only applied 3 of them. It stayed pretty for the pictures, but every nail had at least half a dozen bubbles by the next day!

Just as with my initial review of this polish, I still love it. It is really gorgeous. I just wish it would behave!

December Nail Art Challenge Week 4: Days 16-22

Guest Post from A Girl and Her Polish

I have a pretty awesome guest post to share with you today. One of the blogs I follow frequently is A Girl and Her Polish, so I am thrilled that she has a beautiful step-by-step look for us!

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Hello Everyone! Happy Holidays!

I am so happy to be guesting today!  Miss SLL has been someone that I have been following since I got into this crazy nail blogging world!  I felt very honored when she asked me to do a post for her!
On to the mani!

I wanted to do something really special for my post and I think I accomplished that.  This is a gradient/stamping design that kind of developed as I was working on it.  

Essence - Date in the Moonlight

Quick swatch post today. I do wish the beauty of this came through better, but it is such a pretty, dusty blue with gorgeous blue shimmer throughout! Of course, I am a sucker for a great blue polish, and this one definitely did not disappoint!

OPI - Swimsuit... Nailed it!

Usually I am not the biggest advocate for metallic or foil-finish polishes... Unless they're blue. Meredith sent me this beauty, and oh am I ever glad she did! I realize everyone has pretty much seen OPI's Swimsuit... Nailed it! before, but, here it is again because it is just gorgeous!

Polish Memes Update

Updated the Polish Memes page and added 20 more polish-related funnies! :)

December Nail Art Challenge Week 3: Days 9-15

Sinful Colors - Blue by You

I have no idea why it took so long for this gem to fall into my hands, but oh was it ever a wonderful union!

For being packed to the brim with gorgeous teal shimmer, it applied very smoothly. It only required two coats and shone brilliantly, even in little light!

Essie - Mesmerize

An absolutely stunning blue? Yes, please!

Guest Post by Lacquer Nirvana

It is no secret that blue polish is one of my favorites, so I am stoked that Micki from Lacquer Nirvana is here to share one stunning blue beauty with us today!

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Hi everyone!

I am Micki from Lacquer Nirvana. This is my first time guest blogging and I am so happy to be doing it on Amber's blog; a favorite of mine.

At Lacquer Nirvana I do Blue Monday, where I share a blue polish. I really love blue and I also love glitter, shimmer and sparkle!

So today I am sharing a blue from my untrieds; Road House Blues from OPI. It was a little boring so I decided to add NYC's Big City Dazzle topcoat and I applied it with a makeup wedge sponge after my base dried. I was going to just do a little on the tips but I love glitter so much I kind of got carried away!

Take a look:

December Nail Art Challenge Week 2: Days 2-8

Puzzle Piece Nails Tutorial

I did not have time to properly caption this video, but it was a requested tutorial many months ago, and I finally had time to squeeze it in really quick, so I wanted to get it up ASAP. It is pretty self explanatory, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! :)

Born Pretty Store Stamping Polish Review

I didn't realize how terrible the quality of these pictures were until I had removed the polish from my nails, and this was the best of the bunch. Sorry! :/ You'll see the white stamping polish again during my nail art challenge shortly, because I used it for my "inspired by your country" nails, though! :)

These bottle are very tiny. There is no actual size on the bottle, but they are about the size of a regular mini polish. They are spectacularly opaque, though! I was pretty surprised! I've never come across a white polish (haven't tried those made specially for stamping) that is as opaque as this one! I even did it over a dark blue to really test it, and it performed wonderfully! I foresee this being my go-to white stamping polish until it runs out!

I picked a couple of random designs from the Bundle Monster 300 series to stamp with. To be fair, I wanted to try each polish with a thin-line, or more detailed stamp, as well as one with fuller coverage. Keep in mind, I suck at stamping. That is one area I have yet to perfect, so some of the missing spots and whatnot are probably my fault! ^.^

Born Pretty Store Flocking Powder Review

This was my first shot at flocking powder nails, and instead of a full mani, I though black, furry, velvet tiger stripes on an orange background would be cute! I leaned some things that are in no way fault of the product. I did my pinky first and discovered that when using the powder, you have to leave a little extra playing room or it'll look squished in there and messy. So I did the stripes on my middle finger thinner and further apart. Having thin stripes, not as much of the product stuck so they weren't as velvety.

So I haven't quite found the happy medium with this stuff yet when it comes to nail art. The full-nail look is spectacular, though! This stuff is so fine that I didn't have any issues at all with bald spots or pieces being too large to stick to the polish! As with all flocking powder, it's not ideal to wear as a manicure for more than a few hours (for me anyway), but that's no fault of the company, that's flocking powder in general! I did, though, have the greatest few hours of petting my nails! Surprisingly that didn't make the powder rub off either! ^.^

Guest Post from Lacquer Me Silly

Frosso from Lacquer Me Silly is here today to share a gorgeous holiday-themed dotticure with us! I'm a sucker for a beautiful dotticure, and hers is gorgeous!

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Hey all my fellow Nails Like Lace fans!

I’m excited and a little nervous to be doing my very first guest blog post! I’ve been following Amber for quite some time and Nails Like Lace is one of my regular blogs I visit, as some of you may recognize me from the comments section. I always enjoy the creative nail art and techniques Amber does so I’m hoping this post lives up to the Nails Like Lace name!

My first attempt at nail art was when I bought my trusty set of dotting tools. I’ve expanded a bit since then, but dotting is always my favorite especially since I do pretty basic nail art.  Since everyone and everything is in full on Holiday mode right now I did a basic red, white, and green dotticure.

Essie - Going Incognito

This is a gorgeous, dark green that almost leans towards being slightly teal. It was wonderful in just 2 coats, but did require topcoat to retain a beautiful shine.

December Nail Art Challenge Week 1: Day 1

I've never done a month-long nail art challenge, and I think it is about time!

I'll be posting these weekly so that I will not be posting every day, and will also be able to fit in some other stuff this month without posting multiple times a day.

Since the first week of December only has one day in it, I have for you week one of our nail art challenge: Inspired by a band.