Essie Fair Game

Nothing to Disclose

Have you ever immediately regretted a polish purchase right after that first stroke of application? Who am I kidding, of course you have! With our vast collections of polish as bloggers there is bound to be more than one regretful polish purchase. Today I'm sharing one of my inst-regrets, Essie Fair Game.

Fair Game wasn't a horrible formula, but it was on the thicker side and not very self-leveling. The color was hard for post cleanup because the top pigment would come off but leave the silvery layer still on the nail. I'm glad I use a peel-off base for swatching because this one would have left my cuticles a metallic mess for the rest of the day! My swatch is two coats of Fair Game with base and top coat.

Being disappointed with this color makes me regret not snagging one of the other polishes from the Fair Game Resort collection instead. It's also a little hard for me to swallow that I purchased this in 2011, the same year I started my blog, and I'm just now getting around to swatching it! Oops.

Being that my sister has been eyeing this color and she is devoted to only Essie, I'll be passing it along to her after fixing the formula with a few drops of thinner.

What polish do you regret purchasing? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

Color Cues: Week 13

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If you've been blogging for any length of time you know that staying inspired is one of the great blogging challenges, right behind staying consistent with your posting. Being that this blog is my hobby there have been times where I've failed on both of those accounts, but I always find my way back to Lovely In Lacquer.

I'm also incredibly stubborn and hard on myself, which is why I refuse to let a good idea like Color Cues die! So here we are lovely readers, once again. This week's Color Cues is brought to you by a lovely artist who goes by Alicia Marie. I found her art on Society 6, a superb source for artsy fartsy inspiration.

I was inspired by her only piece on the site, titled very simply 'Watercolor'. Painting has always been a source of happiness in the world of art for me and when I was taking painting class every semester in high school I always especially enjoyed the challenge and simplicity that watercolors provided.

With the recent popularity of the OPI Sheer Tints we've seen a huge influx of watercolor style nail art, including the popular Lead Light technique. Alicia Marie's Watercolor reminded me of that but more so of the doodles I loved to do on my notebooks. I was never an accomplished doodler but I did frequently do the same looping and dots design featured in this week's inspiration piece.

I'm very out of practice with nail art but I keep telling myself that once I get a properly sized paintbrush I'll rediscover my love of painting on these very small canvases.

Do you draw any inspiration from this new watercolor nail art style? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

Guilty Pleasures Polish Gladiolus To See You

Gifted Item

A couple months back I stumbled across a thread in a Facebook group by Guilty Pleasures Polish, where she was looking for names for her new spring collection. Feeling lucky and inspired I submitted names for the collection and was surprisingly chosen as a winner.. three times! She was rewarding the creators of the winning names with mini bottles of the polishes that you had a hand in naming.

The three colors I named were Gladiolus To See You, Good Morning, Glories!, and Impatients-ly Waiting.

Today's swatch is of Gladiolus To See You. This shimmery coral pink is a perfect layering combination with Essie Cute As A Button, which I've paired it with. The polish itself is super sheer and probably wouldn't reach opacity in upwards of three coats, so I chose to layer it instead. My swatch is two coats of Cute As A Button with one coat of Gladiolus To See You.

The formula was fairly standard and aside from not being opaque I didn't have any issues. The shimmer is slightly frosting so you do get some brushstrokes, however it's not anything incredibly obvious.

Overall I'm incredibly flattered that my names were chosen, and it's always neat to have polishes in your collection that come with a story.

What do you think of this color? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

OPI Yodel Me On My Cell

Nothing to Disclose

Eep! Hello lovely readers, I've been away for far too long. It's been five days since my last post which feels like an eternity! My work schedule changed and I had to move some things around to make time for blogging, but I'm coming at you with a swatch from OPI today.

Yodel Me On My Cell is from the 2010 Swiss Collection. It's kind of crazy to think this polish is already four years old! This polish comes from a collection which had a lot of other hit polishes like Diva of Geneva and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous. I can't be the only one who misses when OPI did collections like this!

This polish is a stunning teal blue with turquoise and glass green shimmer throughout. OPI really hit it out of the park with this color and I think that's why it's so popular. There's some light brush strokes but nothing that would be visible if these weren't macro shots of my nails. My swatch is two coats of Yodel Me On My Cell with base and top coat.

The formula was rather thin, but I think it was an advantage for this particular color. Yodel Me On My Cell has so much shimmer that the thinner layers act like a jelly and allow the layers beneath to show through and create a lot of depth.

This color was so hard to photograph. Normally if the photo doesn't turn out I can slightly tweak a few settings in photoshop to get a color accurate swatch, but this one wasn't having any of it. The color looks slightly more green in person, and the shimmer is richer.

What year do you think OPI put out the best collections? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

Essie Cantaloupe

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I'll admit, I have a deep affection for the J. Crew aesthetic. I'm constantly browsing the site, getting email updates, and I always stop into the store when I'm at the mall. My sister is hands down the more fashion forward of our pair, and she is always curating a specific look to her entire wardrobe which I admire. This includes her very selective choices in nail color, unlike myself who just buys every color I'm in love with (obviously).

Essie Cantaloupe is a color I snagged from my sister's small collection and I have to say that I'm smitten. It's the perfect "J. Crew-esque" warm weather shade with it's terra cotta pink color. Cantaloupe is sure to be in much heavier rotation on my nails this spring since I now know she has it! My swatch is shown with base and top coat.

Cantaloupe's formula was fantastic, applying evenly and smoothly in just two coats with minimal clean-up required. I'm still hunting for the perfect color to wear on my beach vacation this summer, and Cantaloupe's effortlessly classy, chic, and fun hue has definitely earned a spot for final consideration.

What's your favorite store to shop at? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

Lilla Smalto 15

Gifted Item

Happy weekend my lovely readers! I hope all of you who also occupy North America are having a beautiful spring day, and those of you who come from all over the world, I hope you're having blue skies and sunshine no matter the season. Today I'm swatching the second of my trio of Lilla polishes!

Smalto 15 is a gorgeous silvery gray polish that can best be described as the silver sister to Essence Irreplaceable. The entire time I was polishing my nails along with after the polish had dried, I couldn't help but draw similarities in the shimmers of the two colors. There is something luminescent and dainty about this gray polish that pushes it to a new level and left me feeling like my nails looked very sophisticated and subtle but not boring.

My swatch is three coats of Smalto 15 along with base and top coat. The formula was thin but easy to work with, and I would probably layer it over a gray base like Zoya Dove next time to conserve polish since the bottle is so small.

Upon removal this color will definitely leave your cuticles shimmery, so use a manicure scrub afterwards to clean up and remove any excess sparkle!

What do you think of Lilla Smalto 15? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

Rose Water Decal Nail Art

Press Sample

I've been curious about trying water decals ever since seeing a rose-over-glitter-nails manicure that made serious rounds on Pinterest a few years ago. Born Pretty was courteous enough to offer me an opportunity to try some of their decals so today I'm bringing you some nail art! I rarely do nail art on the blog anymore because I don't feel I'm quite up to par with the rest of the community, but I still enjoy wearing a good stamped manicure or a few rhinestones here and there.

The decals are the "Nail Art Water Decals Transfer Sticker Charming Colored Flower Pattern 1 Sheet #G105" from the Born Pretty Store website. I'll just be referring to them as the rose water decals, but you can find the exact item by clicking the link above.

The rose decals themselves were relatively easy to use although the instructions were a bit confusing at first. The decals come all together on a white paper backing with a clear protective sheet on the front. I cut apart the two decals I wanted to try and followed the directions of letting them soak in room temperature water for 10-20 seconds after peeling off the protective backing. I think my mistake was that I peeled off the clear plastic rather than the paper backing, so they initially applied with the wrong side facing up. Luckily the decals aren't super sticky so it was easy to fiddle with them until I got the proper placement.

I thought water decals were going to be similar to a temporary tattoo, but I was happily wrong! The less adhesive nature of the decals gave me ample time to place them and they didn't truly adhere to my nail until I dried them with paper towel and added top coat.

My index and pinky nails have three coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, while my middle and ring nails have three coats of OPI You Callin' Me A Lyre?. I then stamped with plate M63 over my middle two nails with white polish, and added the decals. Everything was topped with a coat of Seche Vite.

I pretty much immediately regretted putting the rhinestones and pearls on, as I feel it cheapened the overall sophisticated and subtle vibe that the rose water decals provided. Next time I use these I'm definitely keeping the rest of the manicure more subdued, or at least more neutral. I'm thinking they would look lovely over a newspaper transfer background, with possible subtle tone on tone small polka dots on the other nails. I guess I'll have to be using these again soon!

If you're interested in nail art supplies through Born Pretty, they have an extensive array of products to try for very reasonable prices. As always Born Pretty was kind enough to provide my readers with a 10% off coupon code [Y10X31], so be sure to use it if you plan on making a purchase. I don't make any commission off of the coupon code so it's purely a way for my readers to save a bit of money.

Have you tried water decals before? What was your experience? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!