Euphoric Lacquer Caution! Black Cat Crossing & Got Candy?

Hey guys! Today I have a couple Halloween manis featuring polishes from a new-to-me shop, Euphoric Lacquer! As you know, I always love trying out new brands, and I adore Halloween polishes, so I was super excited to try these babies out :)

For this one, I did a gradient of Lime Crime Lavendairy, a pastel lavender, and Pastelchio, a pastel pistachio green (over a white base of butter LONDON Cotton Buds to make the colors pop) and then I used Euphoric Lacquer Got Candy?, a clear base with a mixture of teal, yellow, purple, and pink hexes in various sizes. Loved this mani! Wore this one on October 1st - to celebrate the official beginning of holiday season in my book :)

outdoors, sun

outdoors, shade

On my nails:
1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off base coat
1 coat butter LONDON Cotton Buds
1 coat (sponged gradient) Lime Crime Pastelchio/Lavendairy
1 coat Euphoric Lacquer Got Candy?
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

Caution! Black Cat Crossing is a charcoal gray scatter holo glitter. Very pretty, love how sparkly it is! To complete the look I layered over it Enchanted Polish Beetle Juice, a clear base full of a mixture of gold, black, and green holo glitters. I loved this look so much I actually wore it til it chipped - pretty unusual for me! Super sparkly :)

outdoors, sun

indoors, daylight lamp+flash

outdoors, shade

On my nails:
1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off Base coat
2 coats Euphoric Lacquer
1 coat Enchanted Polish Beetle Juice
1 coat HK Girl Topcoat

Definitely adored both of these manis - and was very impressed with my first taste of Euphoric Lacquer! :)

To check out Euphoric Lacquer be sure to visit their Etsy~

Have a wonderful day! ♥ 

Happy 4th of July!

Hello, hello, and happy 4th of July to you all! Today I have a pretty patriotic gradient mani to share with you. I struggled a bit with what to do for my nails today (so many options for fun red white and blue nails!) but decided on a gradient with Color Club Miss Bliss, a pink-red holo, Over The Moon, a sky blue holo, and Harp On It!, a silver holo. I then added some extra bling with Wet n Wild Fergie, a mix of pink, silver, blue and purple star glitters. I love the finished look, check it out!

outdoors, sun

outdoors, shade

 On my nails:
1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off Base coat
2 coats Color Club Harp On It!
2 (sponged) coats Color Club Miss Bliss/Harp On It!/Over The Moon
1 (dabbed) coat Wet n Wild Fergie
1 coat KB Shimmer Clearly On Top

Apologies for how messy my cuticles are -- I have a hard time cleaning up gradients still (this is only my second sponging attempt) and I didn't want to try to clean too vigorously and end up messing up the nail. Fergie was hard to work with, kind of -- certainly did not spread across the nail nicely, and I had to place each star on there individually. I didn't really pick it up expecting it to be great in that respect though -- I liked the colors. And those go perfectly with this mani, so I am happy! I like how they are more vibrant and contrast against the pastel-ish holo background. Overall I am very pleased with this attempt at patriotic nail art! :)

outdoors, sun

Have a wonderful July 4th, wherever you may be! ♥

I'm Back! Giveaway Winners + Neon Gradient & Candy Lacquer Razzle Dazzle

Hey guys -- it's been awhile! Sorry for taking a bit of a longer break than planned... the past two weeks have been the last two weeks of the semester, and I had more tests, projects, presentations, papers, etc. all at once than I've ever had before, it was crazy! Luckily, I made it through :) and took my last final a few hours ago -- it's summer break for me, hurray!
I am hoping I will now have more time to dedicate to my blog this summer. It might still be a couple weeks before I get back to regular posting because of vacation plans (yay!) and a malfunctioning USB slot issue on my computer (boo!) and then when I get back and settled into my summer routine (two classes and an internship... will be a busy summer!) I hope I will be able to post several times a week like normal.

As for my giveaway, again apologies for not wrapping that up quicker! I just finished emailing the five winners, as seen below and in the Rafflecopter widget on the giveaway post. Congrats ladies -- and thanks so much to all who participated! I hope to have another giveaway sometime this summer, so keep your eyes peeled :)

Entry #4142Patrycja

Entry #5146Ashley S.

Entry #1140Heidi P.

Entry #3994Sofia B.

Entry #797Jessica E.

 And now on to actual polish, yay! If you follow me on Instagram (ptrnails -- follow if you haven't already!) you already saw this crazy mani a couple weeks ago. I wanted to do an insanely colorful neon gradient mani. I started with Cult Nails Tempest, a white creme, as a base, then used the sponge method with China Glaze Ride the Waves, a deep ocean blue jelly, Beach Cruise-r, a very pink-leaning purple neon shimmer, and Essie DJ Play That Song, a warm purple neon creme. Then, since that wasn't crazy enough, I topped it all off with Candy Lacquer Razzle Dazzle, which is full of rainbow matte neon glitters in all sorts of fun shapes. Check it out!

indoors, flash + natural light lamp

outdoors, shade

On my nails:
1 coat Innisfree Eco Peel-off Base coat
2 coats Cult Nails Tempest
2 (sponged) coats China Glaze Ride the Waves/Beach Cruise-r/Essie DJ Play that Song
1 coat Candy Lacquer Razzle Dazzle
2 coats KB Shimmer Clearly on Top

outdoors, sun

This was my first time working with sponges, so it was quite the adventure, haha. I had no idea how messy gradients were! I am still not satisfied with my clean-up on this mani, I had a hard time cleaning up my cuticles all the way, but as far as the mani design itself, it came out just as I was hoping and oh so fun! Will have to play with gradients again soon :)

You can find Candy Lacquer at their Etsy shop, Bigcartel store, and Facebook~

Have a lovely day♥

First Gradient Mani -- and it's HOLO!

Hey guys! I will have another Halloween mani for you later today (gotta do it first!) but right now I have my very first gradient mani to share with you! I have been wanting to try a holo gradient for awhile now, because I think they are just so pretty and magical looking. It was sort of a fail first attempt, but I thought it would still be fun to share :)

I used two Layla Hologram Effect polishes, Coral Glam and Ocean Rush. I used my Nfu Oh Aqua Base coat first, then two coats of Coral Glam. Then, I painted Ocean Rush on just the tips of my nails. After that, came the sponging! I don't actually have any makeup sponges I could use, but I had heard of the cling wrap method, so I decided to try that. I didn't actually look at any tutorials though, I'm kind of terrible at reading and following directions :P so my method was just to cut off a small piece of cling wrap, scrunch it up so all the edges kind of met in the center, paint directly onto the scrunchy bit, and then just kind of dab it onto my nail. I first did this with Ocean Rush, and then I went over it again with Coral Glam. On some of the pictures you will also see a silly little flower glitter that I thought would be fun -- I stole it out of Rainbow Honey Sakura Matsuri Namesake. Check it out! (very picture heavy, sorry!)

outdoors, sun!

indoors, artificial light

indoors, natural light lamp

indoors, flash

indoors, window, sort of sun

indoors, window, overcast, not too holo but cute!

I think this turned out overall cute, but I wish the gradient was a bit more... gradient-y? I think next time I will not paint blue on the tips but sponge on the tips as well, to make it less solidly blue. Still, hope you like it! Have you done gradients? How did they go? Got any tips? :)

Have a great day! ♥