KBShimmer Totally Tubular Inspired Nail Art

(**Press Samples**)

Hello everyone and happy Thursday! 

  Today I have a crazy busy manicure haha! I'm kind of calling this my "kitchen sink mani". I just couldn't stop doing things to my nails. The whole idea originated from my bottle of KBShimmer's Totally Tubular. I kept swirling it in my hands and being hypnotized by the amazing blend of colors and shapes. And so this mani was born, inspired by the beautiful colors in Totally Tubular. I will be sharing swatches of KBShimmer's full Summer collection very soon! 

 On my middle nail is Totally Tubular by KBShimmer. I will be reviewing the polish itself soon. For now, I really want to focus on this colorful nail art that got me through my days at the Mayo Clinic.

  So, as I mentioned above, the nail art itself was inspired by the colors in Totally Tubular. I loved the mix of Teals, Magentas and Blues. So, on all my nails but my middle nail I did a White base of Cult Nails Tempest. For my water marbled nails I used Bettina Aqua, Pink Bikini and Premium Wash. I then topped off my marbled nails with O.P.I Polka.com.

 For my gradient nails I used Bettina Picnic, Sparkle and Glitter Jean. I topped off my gradient nails in Aphrodite Lacquers V.I.P Room. I finished off the entire manicure by topping all of my nails off with some KBShimmer Clearly on Top and then some INM Northern Lights sparkle top coat.

 I CANNOT believe I forgot to take pics of my thumbs! I really loved how the marble pattern turned out on them. I had never been able to get a full flower design on my nails before! So, I'm so sorry, but here are some crappy cell pics of my thumb marbles. I think they were about Four days old at this point. 

 I loved wearing these nails. My days at the Mayo Clinic were really intensive, exhausting and not entirely successful.. But my nails were looking FIERCE the whole time. I got so many compliments from  people while I was there. It was nice to have the distraction of my colorful nails and hair while I was going through all that stuff. 

  Oh and some cool stuff happened right before the Mayo trip. I got to meet the awesome Kelly of vampyvarnish.com!! It was an awesome lunch meeting with my Florida beauties and Kelly. Thank you Courtney for the lovely photo!! From L to R: Steph of Imperfectly Painted, myself (goodness I need to do my roots soon!!), Maria of Cult Nails, Kelly of Vampy Varnish, Kari of Once Bitten and Courtney of Phyrra. 

Thank you all for stopping by today!! If you have any questions about Mayo, feel free to ask in the comments, I will try my best to answer them. I just didn't want to get into all that in the post itself. 

XO!

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Sation Candylandia Gradient Nail Art and an Update

(**Press Sample**)

Good afternoon everyone!! 

  Last night I took a little poll on the Facebook page to see what you guys were interested in seeing today. Out of all the options you guys voted for "a gradient", so a gradient it is :D! Many of you also suggested a Textured gradient, that will DEFINITELY be happening soon! Today's gradient features some lovely, awesome shades from Sation's Candylandia collection. For this gradient I was inspired by [THIS PAIR] of Black Milk Clothing leggings.

  Before I go onto the nail art I wanted to give you guys a little update on my visit to The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. Not much happened as this was an initial consult visit. I did get scheduled to go back in June for about Four days of tests. It is going to be a long process, but I finally feel like I am at the right place, with the best doctors. I have not felt hopeful in a long time, this visit changed that for me.      

  The doctor who consulted with me was like no doctor I've ever spoken with before. He really inspired a lot of confidence in me and was very kind. He actually listened to what I had to say and showed legit concern. This is not something I want to be going through, but I am glad I am finally being treated by a great team of doctors at an amazing facility. 

  Now for a miss Muffin update: my poor kitty has a cold! But worry not, she has been to the Vet. She was given a shot of slow-release antibiotics. She is acting fine and active, eating etc, but I didn't want to bug her over the weekend as I could tell she felt "off". How 'bout that gradient!!? 

 This look started with a base of Sation's Love is in the Heir, which is a light, Greyed out Blue crelly. Using this shade as my base color mae all the difference when it came to building up my gradient. The light Blue tone really brought out the colors I was using to gradient over my light Blue shade. For the gradient I used colors from Sation's Candylandia collection. I went with Plenty of Frogs, Cast a Spill on You and Super Nail-tural Powers. I.LOVE.THIS.GRADIENT!!! I loved it SO much I didn't even do my signature coat of INM Northern lights!! WHAT?!! LTHP didn't put Northern Lights on a gradient?!!!!!! I know, I know haha... But just look at that shimmer from Cast a Spill on You(Blue) and Plenty of Frogs! 
 This was probably the easiest gradient I've ever done and I chuck that up to combination the base color and the formula of the shades I used to gradient. The shimmers really made the seams blend effortlessly and created such beautiful airbrushed-looking surfaces. Choosing the correct base color for gradients really does make a difference and I am just now learning this myself. I should film a tutorial on how I do my gradients, huh? I know everyone has their own way of doing them, and you guys have been asking for a while... I've just been a horrid Youtuber :(.

 Here is a shot of my base color Love is in the Heir. This shade comes from Sation's Marie Antoinette inspired collection. This shade is a soft, muted Blue with some slight Grey undertones and a subtle twinkling Silver sparkle. Finish-wise it is between a creme and a jelly, more jelly than creme. The formula was smooth, even and easy to work with. I used Three thin coats since I wanted to show you guys a swatch of this shade as well. Girls with longer nails, or those of you who are not a fan of "visible nail line (VNL)" might need a few more coats for full coverage. I really enjoy soft, dreamy shades like this one. Do you?

 I am SO sorry about the hiatus over the past week. I'm hoping to break that cycle of absences for a while. I have SO much nail polish to go through. I also got some new stamping plates, the Pueen sets! I had not gotten new stamping plates in like a year or so! I am SO excited about these Pueen plates though, they are ADORABLE!

 And just a quick reminder that Google reader will be going away on July 1st! I've set up shop over at Bloglovin. I just LOVE how easy it is to use and they also have an iPhone/Droid app! Make sure you are following LTHP on Bloglovin so you don't miss out!! Also, [HERE] is a full list on ways to keep up with the Let them have Polish! nonsese!

 I've really missed you guys so very much! I hope you guys liked this gradient! I kinda wanted to eat my nails when I wore it :)!

(**Press Sample**)

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Muffin Monday!! Sation Of Corset I'll Call You and Guillotine Grape

Gah it's so late!! 

  Sorry!! Muffin.. Muffin refused to pick me a polish this week lol. So I ended up going with two of the shades she rejected haha. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. It's pretty late and I'm pretty tired. That said, I LOVE this look! 

 My base shades are Sation's Of Corset I'll Call You and Guillotine Grape. For my gradients I used the same Two shades. Doing gradients with Of Corset I'll Call You was fantastic because it is a soft, squishy Pink. I've found that using jelly-like polishes on gradients makes them such a breeze! I topped my gradients with INM Northern Lights.  The stamps were done using China Glaze Passion. The stamp on on my ring finger is from Bundle Monster plate BM202 and the lace-y patterns are from BM323. I finished the whole look off with one final coat of SV.

 And here is a fun collage of Muffin's indecision haha!

Have a good night my darlings!! I will be back sometime tomorrow!!

(**Sation products provided for my consideration**)

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Muffin Monday!! Julie G Dream in Pretty

Hello my lovelies and happy Muffin Monday!! 

  Sorry about today's post being so late. Muffin mad her pick yesterday. Muffin picked like a boss this week. I set up and Mr. LTHP lured her to the room and she made her pick on the first try. She went for an adorable color from the Julie G line by Jesse's Girl called Dream in Pretty. 

 For some reason I was feeling tropical so this is the look I came up with for Muffin's pretty pick.

 I started with a base of Two easy coats of Dream in Pretty. On my Middle and Ring fingernails I did some Sunset inspired gradients with Julie's Fave and Dream in Pretty. I topped my gradients off with Seche Vite followed by a thin, sparkly coat of INM Northern Lights. For the all the stamps I used a plate I got in a swap with a Dutch friend and Konad Black Special Polish. I do not know the brand of the plate but it was number SdP-71. I then went back and free-handed the Black ground under my Palm trees with Cult Nails Nevermore. I ended up really loving this look... And kinda wishing I was on a beach with a Corona in my hand...

 Here is a look at Muffin's pick, and my base color, Dream in Pretty. This is one of those pretty Lilac- Pink creme shades that I cannot get enough of. The formula on this shade was SO amazing. It has just the right amount of pigmentation and it is very self-leveling. I used Two coats for full opacity.

 The Julie G line by Jesse's Girl recently had an expansion of 27 colors and I kinda wish I had access to them.. Silly Florida not having Rite Aids :(... BUT, I keep hearing that the more we request on Ulta's FB that they carry Jesse's Girl the sooner they might do so!! So lets all go over to the Ulta FB page and ask for Jesse's Girl cosmetics at their stores!

Thanks for stopping by!!

(**Julie G nail color provided for my consideration**)

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31 Day Challenge 2011-2012 Re-Cap Post!!

Hello darlings!! 

  This is a quick post to update you guys on my new "31 Days of Nail Art" Tab. It has been updated with the photos from the 31 Day Challenge looks of 2012. But just for fun...

Day 1: Red 2011-2012

To see the rest of the looks just keep on reading :D! 

 For more details on these manicres you can head to my 31 Day Challenge tab under the Categories column or you can head to the [31 Days of Nail Art 2011-2012] Page at the top of the blog ♥.

Ok! I'm off to finalize my "top of 2012" lists... I keep changing my mind lol!! There were seriously SO many amazing colors this year!! 

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X-Mas Rush!!! Snowy Holiday Gradients

Good morning my lovelies!! 

 Today's look really captured my heart. When I saw this in my head, it was not nearly this pretty. Don't you love when that happens? I wanted to do something very snowy and subtle, yet eye-catching. I also really wanted to use some of the adorable "Holiday-ish" stamps I'd never used before. So I settled on snowy gradients with pretty snowflake stamps. The matte top coat was and afterthought, and as it turns out, the perfect finishing touch for the effect I wanted to achieve. 

  This look started with a clean White creme base of Zoya Purity. Once my base was dry I started working on my gradients. For the Green to White gradients I used Zoya Shawn and O.P.I Don't touch my Tutu. For the Red to White Gradients I used Zoya Rehka and O.P.I Don't touch my Tutu.  
  Sponging with a creme and a jelly made the gradients blend beautifully, flawlessly and very easily! It also made the clean-up fairly quicker because Don't touch my Tutu is a sheer White jelly so it came off my cuticles and skin with no problem. I really like the look created where the White jelly met the Creme polishes. The Red to White gradients required more build-up as Rehka went a little Pink when layered over the White creme base. 
  To really smooth out the gradients and give them a snowy effect I did a layer of Cult Nails Doppelganger. I was so tempted to stop there and just leave the gradients, but I really wanted to stamp. For the snowflake stamps I used Bundle Monster plate BM323. The Silver snowflakes were done with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep and the Gold with China Glaze Passion. I then top coated with Seche Vite and placed some "glequin" accents on the flakes. I finished the whole look off with a coat of Twee & Honey's This is Matteness- matte top coat to give the finished mani a frosted glass kind of look.

 That does it for today's look! I hope you guys like my frosty gradients :D. I am so relieved that I finally have all the shopping done!!! Yay!!! Now I can really focus on cranking out some awesome Holiday looks!!!

What do you guys think?

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