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!
_________________________

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!

******************************
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!

**********

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!

**********

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.

November Favorites

3. OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons - This quickly became one of my favorite nudes! Being a mini, the brush pretty much sucked, but it is a gorgeous polish nonetheless!

2. Lush Lacquer Pink Panther over L.A. Colors Bashful - I received 3 Lush Lacquer polishes: Mr. Bubbles, Pink Panther, and Lite Brite. Pink Panther definitely ended up being the star of the three and my favorite! I absolutely love it over light pink!

Lush Lacquer - Pink Panther

I always love Mr. Bubbles more and more every time I see it, so I expected it to be my favorite of the three Lush Lacquer polishes I got. Pink Panther was the one that really won my heart, though! This is three coats over a shimmery, pastel pink L.A. Colors number. Of course, they are terrible at labeling their polishes, so I am not sure what the name of it is.

Lush Lacquer - Mr. Bubbles

I am thrilled to finally own my very own bottle of Mr. Bubbles! I always love this Lush Lacquer more and more every time I see it on other blogs! 

Lush Lacquer - Lite Brite

Although I hated trying to photograph this beauty, I really love it over black! This is one coat of Lush Lacquer Lite Brite over Wet'n'Wild Black Creme.

I won this in a giveaway, with two other Lush Lacquers from Kayla Shevonne last month. They are my first Lush Lacquers, and I am really loving all three of them!

Abstract Turkeys

I originally planned on doing water marble turkey feathers, but they didn't work out, so I switched to a drag marble to create some abstract feathers instead! My grandma has Thanksgiving the Sunday afterwards, so these are my nails for this weekend! ^.^

Thanksgiving Turkeys

I originally had four whole paragraphs written up for this post... and they disappeared... -.- I could rewrite all that, but I really don't feel like it... So, long story short, I did turkeys as my Thanksgiving nails last year. You can seem them blinged out here, and here with Pure ICE Twinkle. I loved them so much then that I decided quite a while ago I wanted to do more this year. 

I started out with a gorgeous green polish from Finger Paints, 15 Minutes of Frame. I love Finger Paints' "theme" across their whole stock of giving most of their polish artsy names! ^.^

The turkeys' bodies are done with L.A. Girl Antique, and for everything else, I used a bunch of Migi duo nail art pens.

Thanksgiving Guest Post by Lydia

Today, posting for me, is the wonderfully talented Lydia from Purple Castle! She created a gorgeous free-hand design to share with us today! If you're a fan of Peanuts, you'll love it! :)

Hello Nails Like Lace lovely readers,

I'm Lydia from the Purple Castle and I'm very happy to be visiting today. Amber has the most amazing tutorials, comparisons, and nail art on her blog. She is super fun and I'm honored she has given me the chance to show you this manicure today.

I started by painting my nails with Wet n Wild Sugar Coat. Then I free-handed Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and a juicy turkey.

Fall Guest Post with Christa

I have a guest post for you today that more than makes up for my monstrosity of an attempt at fall-themed nails from yesterday! The wonderful owner of ChrissyAi has a gorgeous sponged tree mani to share with us!

Hi! I've truly been loving Fall, like most years. From the cooler weather, over sized sweaters, and of course right down to the nail art and color trends!

Something about bare trees has always caught my eye and kept it staring. Despite the semi-spookiness of it, I find it quite mesmerizing. Thus, the inspiration for this mani!

Fall Leaves-Inspired Dotticure

My camera battery charger is MIA since moving, and while iPhones take decent pictures, it just hasn't been cutting it for nail pictures. I have been really disappointed with how all of my pictures have been turning out lately. I really need to find that charger, because these could be so much better!

Anyway, driving into town one morning and seeing all the bright, fiery, fall trees with pops of still-green leaves is what inspired this manicure. Completed, it doesn't really make me think of fall leaves, but that's where I got the idea for the color scheme.

Finger Paints - Steal My Beating Art

Steal My Beating Art is gorgeous in 1 thin coat but I did 2 because 1 left just a teeny amount of visible nail line that I wanted to cover. It applies beautifully and is super shiny all by itself, no assistance from topcoat needed!

This polish is a bit dark and has a little more purple in it than what my camera was able to capture. It leans a little more towards being a fuchsia.

Jessica - Sparkle

I received this beauty from a wonderful co-blogger, The Lacquered Lady. I hadn't tried a Jessica brand polish until this one, and I must say, I am pretty impressed! Sparkle is so shiny and, well, sparkly, that it was really hard to photograph! It is a gorgeous blue jam-packed with tons of silver and some holo glitters!

Butter London - Marrow

Marrow from Butter London is a gorgeous dusty eggplant purple with a very light silver or lavender (I can't tell which) shimmer running through it. The shimmer wasn't very apparent on the nail, but it is a bit more in the bottle.

Guest Post - Mosaic Nails with Nailed it NZ

Today I have a guest post for you, featuring some beautiful work from the lovely lady who runs Nailed it NZ! This is a design that has been on my to-do list for quite some time but I have never gotten around to it, so I am really happy Jessie is here to share it with us!

Hi everyone, I’m Jessie from Nailed it NZ! Amber’s very nice and letting me do a guest post for her. J

I decided to do a mosaic design – it’s my first one, and although I’d change a few things if I did it again, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I hope you like it too!

Born Pretty Store Nail Art Studs Review

I have another review for you today of some products available at Born Pretty Store. I received a couple packages of studs; 2mm blue studs, and  2mm rounded pink stones. I did not count each individual stud, but there are tons in each bag! Enough for at least a dozen manicures or better! They came packaged like so:

On a side note, definitely make sure your nails are dry when trying to open these bags! Or ask for assistance, they were pretty tough to open without spilling with wet nails!

I decided to try out the blue studs first. I started with two coats Zoya Shawn:

OPI - Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! - Germany Collection

Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! took 2 coats for opacity. I probably could have made it work in 1 slightly thicker coat, but I prefer 2 anyway.

I didn't use topcoat, and you can tell. This one was still shiny on its own, but definitely could have used a little more help.

Shades of Blue Water Marble

I created a water marble using China Glaze Aquadelic and Kinetic Candy, and Essie Mesmerize. I started out with a base of Kinetic Candy, then used all three in the water for my middle and ring finger.

This is a look that I have done as a guest post on Fashion Footing for sometime in the future, but it is one of the best marbles I have ever done. Plus, I have entered it into Smashley Sparkles' marbling contest. I was so proud of it that I just couldn't wait to share! ^.^

OPI - Unfor-greta-bly Blue - Germany Collection

It is no secret that I love a gorgeous blue polish, and that is exactly what Unfor-greta-bly Blue is: gorgeous in one easy coat!

Zoya Avery vs. OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons

Since receiving OPI's Don't Pretzel My Buttons, I have been curious as to how it compares to Zoya's Avery. Surprisingly, I can barely tell a difference between the two polishes. I had to really dig and stare at them for a while to even come up with a few minuscule ones!

OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons (index and middle fingers) - 3 coats for opacity, a slightly thicker formula, dries faster than Avery, may be a tiny bit more pink in color, but it is very hard to tell.

Zoya Avery (ring finger and pinkie) - 2 coats, a little more brown in color, with a tad more natural shine on its own.

OPI - Don't Pretzel My Buttons - Germany Collection

Don't Pretzel My Buttons is one of my favorites from the Germany collection! I love a great nude polish, and this one was nearly perfect in one coat! It was a little streaky, though, and I have had to apply up to 3 coats of it before to smooth everything out. So I am not too sure on the formula.

It reminds me of a recent Zoya purchase, Avery, though. So I may need to compare them. Regardless, I love this one! Nudes have really grown on me recently, and this one is beautiful!

OPI - Suzi & the 7 Düsseldorfs - Germany Collection

I recently received a set of the OPI Ger-Minis from OPInionated About OPI and, being my first ever OPI polishes, I must say I am definitely impressed. While purple is usually not my favorite polish color to wear, I figured I would start off with it. I tend to shy away from purples, often times because they are so hard to photograph color-accurately. So I was really surprised when the pictures of this one were spot-on!

October Favorites

3. Pastel Rainbow Alphabet and Numbers

This is a look I actually wore towards the end of September, but it didn't make it onto the blog until this month. I loved this one so much that I wore it for at least about a week!

2. Wet'n'Wild Fantasy Makers' Once Upon a Time

Out of the three new Wet'n'Wild glitters for Halloween this year, this one is by far my favorite! It is so gorgeous with such great depth to it, but definitely requires a topcoat to maintain its beautiful shine!

Drag Marble - Essie Mesmerize & ChG Recycle

This was actually my first ever attempt at a drag marble, I started with Essie Mesmerize, and added China Glaze Recycle. I was going for a webish look, but I'm not sure how well I accomplished that!

Rather than going with a full wet nail, I let the base dry, then alternated two stripes of each color at the corner and drug from there. I'd say I could definitely use more practice!

Spider Web Drag Marble

I'm not very experienced with drag marbling, but thought I would try out a spider web-looking one for Halloween, anyway. I used a plain black creme and NYC Times Square Tangerine.

Halloween-themed Water Marble with Ghosts

I haven't done water marbling in quite a while, so I decided to pull out a few classic Halloween colors (Kleancolor Neon Orange, a black, and Pure ICE Wild Thing) and give it a go. This is what I ended up with:

Wet'n'Wild Fantasy Makers Halloween 2012

This is a set of polishes I have been in search of forever! It seems like they used to have new ones at Walmart every year, but I haven't been able to find them in at least 2 years. My mom found these ones for me at some place called Shop Ko. (sp? Whatever the old Pamida stores became)!

I realize they have probably been seen before, and I have had them for a month or 2 now, but I figured they would be more appropriate to show closer to Halloween! ^.^

Saran Wrap Mani - Wet'n'Wild Sunny Side Up and Zoya Reagan

Saran/Plastic/Cling Wrap (whichever you prefer) manis are so gorgeous and I really love the fiery look of this combo! I started with Wet'n'Wild Sunny Side Up, and topped it with Zoya Reagan. They are both beautiful on their own, but look amazing together!