Tutorial Thursday: Blue Valentine

I wouldn’t say that I’m jaded. I love Valentine’s Day and all the hearts and flowers that go with it. Just kinda bummed about it because I know I won’t be getting anything. I tell my husband every year not to worry about getting me anything with the small hopes he’ll see through it and get me something anyways. I know I should know better; men are notorious for not getting mixed messages and that’s one of the worst of them all, but I hate to have to come out and tell him yes, I’d like a card and flowers please!

So this tutorial is going to be short, simple, and blue. Blue for the feelings that a lot of people feel this time of year.

Supplies you’ll need: Three blue polishes. I used Polish Yer Hooves’ Don’t It Make Your Cow Eyes Blue, Sally Hansen Blue Frosting and OPI’s Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue (not shown). You’ll also need a fan brush and a pallet to pour your polishes on.

First step, and one that I forgot to take pictures of LOL, is put down your base coat. I used Blue Frosting as my base coat (and five layers later I reached full opacity). Pfft.

Step Two: Load up your fan brush with your lightest blue, which I used Cow Eyes for that.

With a very light hand, brush it over the top coat in a sweeping manner.

Step Three: Using your darker shade, lightly fan on some more lines. Doesn’t have to be perfect, just make sure some of your lighter blue can peek through.

You could even go a little less than I did with the darker blue.

Step Four: Using a nail art brush or a dotting tool, draw out a heart and then add little embellishments.

You can do this to each nail, but I chose to just do it on an accent nail. I love how this blue sparkles!

Top coat and you’re done!

Soooooo pretty! I love all the blues!

My flash kinda blew out this picture, but you get the point. I love how the holo in Cows Eyes just explodes!

Polish Review: One Idea, Two Awesome Customs

A month or so ago I got the wild idea for a polish. While I used to dabble in polish making myself, I have long since put away the bottles and glitters and given up. Too much work, not enough patience. But this idea was just sitting there knocking against my brain. I had to have this polish.

I contacted two different polish makers- Leigh Anne of Polish Yer Hooves and Rachel of Limitless Lacquer. Both of these girls make some PHENOMENAL polishes and have what seems like unlimited creativity when it comes to the polish world and how it runs.

I told them both that I wanted a tealy-blue jelly polish with white and red matte dots. I gave them this picture as a reference for color:

Don’t laugh LOL. These are the exact colors I was looking for. The tealy-blue and the orangey-red. I love these colors as they are vindictive of a vintage, retro Christmas to me and I am all about anything vintage or retro.

And they did not fail to surprise and delight me. Each polish is different in it’s own special way. They’re both gorgeous and I have already got a slew of compliments on both of them!

Without further adieu, I show you now… Retro Christmas from Limitless Lacquer!

This gorgeous tealy-jadey-blueish base has tons of white and red matte circle glitters floating inside. Rachel was concerned that the glitter would be hard to remove from the bottle so she gave me extras, which I have not needed as the glitter is very easy to remove from the bottle and place onto the nail.

Beautiful, huh?

This is Retro Christmas with the flash on. I love how transparent and yet pigmented it is. This is three coats.

And this is Retro Christmas without flash. Super shiny and oh so yummy looking.

Onto Vintage Christmas by Polish Yer Hooves!

This little gem is a tealy-blue shimmer jelly base with red and white matte glitters floating about. I didn’t want a ton of glitter, just a bit. Kinda sparse. And she delivered!

I love how gorgeously shimmery this polish is. It goes on like a dream and is relatively opaque in three coats.

This is a gorgeous look and I could just imagine it over either white undies or for an even bigger kick under black. I may have to try those!

SOOOOO freaky beautiful!

If you ever have an idea for a polish, please make sure to look to your favorite Indie designers. Most of them have custom listings on their Etsy pages or they can come up with one. Pretty much every one of them are more than gracious enough to hear your ideas and turn them into beautiful polish creations if they have time.

I am so glad I asked Leigh Anne and Rachel both to create this polish for me. Both Retro and Vintage Christmas are fabulous and I love the fact that while it was the same idea I got two completely different polishes from two awesome Indie designers!