Go Pink Wednesday and a Celebration!

As October comes to a close so does our weekly Go Pink Wednesdays manicure. We have really enjoyed finding information to help you and those you love be more aware of Breast Cancer and how you can help yourself and those around you.

Image Credit: Paule Attar Salon & Spa

We wanted to end the month with a celebration of sorts. Every year there is a celebration of sorts in the form of Breast Cancer Walks. The number of walks done in the United States every year is immeasurable. There are several large groups that do yearly walks across the nation in major cities, namely The American Cancer Society is celebrating 20 years of walks and estimates they've had over 8 million walkers in those 20 years, with over 1 million in 2011 alone according to their FAQ page.

These Breast Cancer Awareness walks are inspiration as well as awe inspiring. Many survivors as well as their loved ones, co-workers, kids, pets and strangers come out to walk alongside each other in solidarity. The walk symbolizes many things to many individuals but the bottom line is hope.

Image Credit: expressnightout.com & Lea Pool

 Hope for a future without the disease, hope for a future with their loved ones, but truly and simply hope for more tomorrows.

A close friend of Dom's, Tiffany Kyees, had the chance to participate in the Team In Training Nike Womens Marathon event to run/walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society a couple weeks ago. While we have been focusing on Breast Cancer Awareness, cancer in general deserves to be known and fought against. Her personal journey to raise money, awareness and personal triumph is amazing and just as important. She celebrated her participation by wearing a purple tutu along with asorted purple gear. Tiffany shared some personal thoughts about her journey that you can read HERE. When asked about her experience she had this to say,

Tiffany running during the event!
Image Credit: Tiffany Kyees

"Such a beautiful and amazing experience. I highly recommend people doing a team in training event at some point in their lives. There was a woman there who ran and pushed her cancer fighting son in a wheelchair and a woman that spoke at our inspiration dinner who spoke of her bone marrow donor and how she got to meet him. They are like family now and he even flew out to San Francisco to run the race next to her! Such special stories!"

Jessica Mojica of Bakersfield pushes her son Nathan Garcia,
who is suffering from stage 4 brain cancer
Image Credit: Tiffany Kyees

We wanted to show this hope for tomorrow as well as the celebration and inspiration that the walks symbolize in our last manicures for October. Many walkers dress up in silly pink costumes, pink wigs, tutus and other outlandish and fun pink inspired outfits. These manis are our outlandish pink outfits... We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed creating the crazy, over the top manis.


Dom created her everything but the kitchen sink mani with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Orly Artificial Sweetner and Rimmel London Posh Pink. She used a bit of flocking powder, some fimo hearts and flowers as well as some rhinestones and what you have is one heck of a celebration mani!

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, Orly - Artificial Sweetner &
Rimmel London - Posh Pink

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, Orly - Artificial Sweetner &
Rimmel London - Posh Pink

E created her outlandish mani on a bed of OPI - Kiss Me On My Tulips and an accent nail to include Dollish Polish - I'll Have What She's Having. The rest includes: loose glitter, rhinestones, nail decals, and star glitter.

OPI - Kiss Me On My Tulips (indirect sunlight)

OPI - Kiss Me On My Tulips (direct sunlight)

Hopefully you've enjoyed our participation in the Go Pink Wednesdays... Please don't let the Breast Cancer Awareness end with October. Continue to check yourself and remind loved ones as well. It really could save a life... one that you might cherish as much or more than your own.

with love and hope for a cancer free future,

and

Drip Mani Tutorial with Cult Nails!

Hey there :) Happy Halloween Eve!

Dom & I have been participants in the Go Pink Wednesdays campaign to bring awareness to Breast Cancer through pink manicures on wednesdays during the month of October. It's been a great experience and I've loved coming up with pink themed manicures; however, it's also my favorite time of year! Once I started thinking about how I could incorporate the two, pink BCA & Halloween, I knew I had something I could really enjoy! Well my favorite pink/halloween-ish manicure was my Pink Drip Mani. It seemed several of you really loved it as well so here we are... a tutorial!

Let me preface this tutorial with a few things though...

What you DON'T need:

• Doubt
• Nail art abilities
• Skill/talent
• any special tools

Never doubt yourself... I am no more talented than you and if I can do it, so can you! Nail art is just that, art. Art is subjective and in the eye of the beholder. Never feel like it is an achieveable skill, it is always within you, just believe. Again, no special skills or talent is necessary for this look and many others, just a little patience would help! Lastly, in my opinion there is no real need for any special nail art tools. Do they make life easier? Yes! But truly they are not necessary as long as you look around and get inventive with the tools available to you. 

What you DO need:

• Two polish colors- preferrably two that are very different
• General items like acetone/polish remover, cotton balls, paper towel
• A round tipped item to make dots
• ball point pen
• toothpick 
• pencil eraser 
• bobby pin
• or if you have a set- Dotting Tool
• A thin brush or item to draw a line with
• toothpick
• orange stick/cuticle pusher
• pencil
• or if you have one- a brush or nail art striper
• A picture or some sort of visual idea of what you'd like your drips to look like
• Base/Top Coat

I tried to include as many pictures as possible to cover how you, our lovely reader, might learn best from the tutorial. Below are singular photos. As a side note I had some technical difficulties like my camera battery was acting up, the daylight was fading fast and a demanding toddler LOL... so some of these photos aren't the best quality and some clean up in the final shot was a little lacking, so please forgive me :)


STEP 1

Start with a base color, fully base/top coated and dry. I chose my favorite green, Cult Nails - Deal With It from the summer release, CoCo's Collection. This green is slightly sheer and I am a crazy person with VNL (visible nail line) so I did 3 thin coats in this photo. This polish is a dream to work with, builds nicely and clean up is a breeze. As a side note... this is the perfect Halloween type green. I just love it! Plus the beautiful shimmer is just too much!!

STEP 2

On your base place anywhere from 1 to 3 dots on each nail at varying levels with your contrasting other color. For this mani I chose Cult Nails - Nevermore. I like to refer to Nevermore as the best black ever. It is seriously shiny, beautiful in ONE coat and quick drying. If you never buy another Cult Nails polish- buy Nevermore... I promise you won't be disappointed!!

This step takes a smidge of consideration. The part that makes the drip look so interesting is how different each one looks. I also try to be aware of where my previous dots were so I don't accidentally repeat a dot pattern.

STEP 3

This step is pretty simple in the fact that all you need to do is draw a line from your dot to the edge of your nail. The line does not need to be thick and works better if it isn't as thick as the dot. Don't worry about how thick or clumpy the paint looks... it'll smooth out with top coat.

STEP 4

Ok... first I apologize I did not take a separate step 4 photograph as I got distracted and before I knew it was almost done and onto step 5 before I remembered! SO SORRY! :(

So this step is the one that looks the hardest but is really the easiest in my opinion. What you're ultimately doing is connecting the lines. I do this by drawing a curved line from one line to the next. Almost curved lines like a spider web? Don't go too far down since you'll want room to do the final detail work. That way if you decide to make the tip of your nail look like it has been dipped more then it's just adding.... ****REMEMBER**** less is more in this particular look... the artistry is in the details so work in small amounts. You'll want to keep those lines as curved as possible to achieve that true drip look.

STEP 5

In this step you are simply finishing up the edges, filling in the empty spots where you have curved lines and putting on your final touches. This is the part where you want to really look at your drips and consider how you want them to look and what sort of nuances do you want to show. In the steps 3/4/5 I added partial drip lumps on my middle finger and a couple of separate drips on the pinky & middle fingers. You'll want to go on the sides of your nails lightly with your tool so the drips have the appearance of continuing off your nails. This is the messy and unfortunate part. You'll get paint on your fingers and into the edge/crack of your nail. This is where a good clean up regimen will be needed. The black looks lumpy and clumpy but I promise it all levels out with a good top coat. (side note: the clean up brush I use is a concealer brush made by e.l.f.  and $1, available at Target)

FINISHED!

Clean up the edges of your nails and top coat!

3 thin coats of Cult Nails - Deal With It, drips in Cult Nails - Nevermore
base coat Duri - Rejuvacote & top coat of Seche Vite

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and it helps you achieve your desired drip mani :) Let me know if you need any assistance or if there is a step that isn't clear :) Be sure to post your drip manis to the fan page on facebook!

xo & Happy Halloween,

All of These Awesome Indies, What's a Girl to do?

Amy Milder is the brain behind Literary Lacquers and her love of polish and books birthed this awesome new indie line! I had a chance to chat with Amy a bit about how her line started and really have enjoyed getting to know her! When I get a chance to try out  new indies, I love to hear the story behind the line and get to know a bit about the maker. So, here is a bit of my conversation with Amy Milder.

Dom:  Why Literary Lacquers?
Amy:  I wanted a way to combine my two biggest passions, books and polish. I grew up reading and I'v never stopped. I read (on average) 3 books each week.

Dom: What is the significance of the name?
Amy:  I love the alliteration! It's like a poem.

Dom: Do you remember your first polish experience?
Amy:  I have two early polish memories. The first time I remember wearing polish was when I had received one of the those Tinkerbell makeup kits as a very little girl. The kit had scented powder, a ever-so-slightly tinted waxy lip balm and pink nail polish. I loved that stuff. My other memory was of visiting relatives, I think I was about 6 or 7 years old, so this would have been the late 70's. My older teenage cousin painted my fingetnails for me with a W'n'W polish that was dark blue with glitter. I didn't know that polish came in blue or with sparkles! My mother only had red and pink. I thought my cousin was soooo cool. I saved my allowance and talked my mother into taking me to Woolworths in the Cherry Hill Mall (NJ represent!) and bought my very own blue glittery polish as soon as I could.

Dom: What made you want to make polish and how did you get started?
Amy:  I have a unique sense of color and texture. I am what's called a synesthete, to me, sounds have color. When I work with characters or quotes to create polish, I record the passage and play it back to see what colors and textures the words sound like to me and create the polish from there. I started working with micas and pigments in the late 90's when I was working with melt-and-pour soap. One of my polishes now (Jealous Oberon) uses the exact same mica that I used for my first melt-and-pour creation (gold sparkle from TKB). I also worked doing stained glass and mosaics in the 00's, which gave me a deeper understanding of color, reflection and translucency, but boy did THAT trash my fingernails and hands ... I still have scars from the cuts! In the past few years, my love of polish has grown and once the indie polishes started appearing, I believed that I had something original and interesting to bring to the market. I got stuck in the Great Polish Base Drought of '12 and had to wait and wait and wait to get enough base to even consider production and sales, but that gave me time to work on my formulations and dream!

Dom:  Love-In-Idleness, inspiration?
Amy:  The inspiration for LII came directly from the play Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.
Act II, Scene I

Oberon:  Yet marked I where the bold of Cupid fell.
It feel upon a little western flower, 
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound.
And maidens call it "love-in-idleness."
Fetch me that flower. The herb I showed thee once.
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature it sees.

This little flower, love-in-idelness, or western wild pansy, creates a potion that causes all the trouble for the young lovers and Titania in the second part of the play. In the world of this play, love is not rational or a matter of choice, rather it is something that happens to you. Once the potion is used EVERYTHING gets mixed up. Soon, both Lynsander and Demetrius are both in love with Helena and completely disinterested in Hermia and Titania has fallen in love with the laborer, Bottom (whose head has been changed into and ass - of the donkey variety - by the mischievous Puck). Hijinks ensues!

I literally dreamed this polish. I fell asleep thinking about what I wanted it to look like an saw it as a finished product in my dream. I woke up and scribbled in my dream journal and then built the formula from there. I wanted to use the iridescent glitters to add the sense of magic and mystery. I also wanted a polish that didn't require bright light to show it's beauty. The glitters in L-I-I look fabulous inside, especially under fluorescent lighting like the ones I have in the office of my day job.

Dom:  Are you a collector of polish and if so what is your most prized polish?
Amy:  I am a collector. I've refrained from counting my stash because I am in serious denial about the number of bottles I own! I am also guilty of "They're not he same, they're SIMILAR" syndrome, especially when it comes to blues and purples. My most prized polish? It's hard to pick ... The polish that really kick started my obsession is Deborah Lippman's Across the Universe, but I wouldn't say it's my most prized ... Even thought it's a little cliched, I'm going to have to say Lynnderella's The Glittering Crown. It's gaudy, it's a pure unadulterated and unapologetic glitter-fest and I love it!

Amy is really an interesting woman with some awesome inspirations and ideas!  Not only is she a super artistic and passionate woman but she is also environmentally conscious! All of Literary Lacquers packing materials are 100% recycled and her Green Wrap is recyclable and compostable!

Love-In-Idelness was my immediate favorite from Amy's collection and I knew that I had to have it. She has made two versions, one with hex and one without. I opted for the no-hex version and couldn't wait to get it in my little hands! Amy describes the polish as,  a very complex polish, with a light purple base; jam packed with fairy magic and iridescent glitters of many shapes and size and purple square glitter. It is beautiful!  I tried a couple different variations with this polish and I hope you like them!  For all the photo's below I used Beauty Secrets Base Coat and Orly Glosser as a topper.

Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

Rimmel London Wild Orchid w/ 1 coat of  Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

Jelly Sandwich w/ OPI At First Sight and Love-In-Idleness in full sunlight

This polish is amazing and paints like a dream.  I did not have any problems with application and the build was awesome. With three thin coats this polish reaches full opacity and the depth of this polish could not be captured in photos!  It is just beautiful and I love it!  

Luckily, for those of you who have yet to try Literary Lacquers, there is a sale currently going on thru November 5th.  With the code 100FBLIKES you receive 20% off your order!   So get shopping ladies!

You can find Literary Lacquers at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LiteraryLacquer 

You can also like Literary Lacquers on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LiteraryLacquers