The Lacquery

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Zoya Kennedy + Milani Gems

This is one of my favourite manicures of all time. A smooth, creamy nude contrasted with rainbow glitter creates an elegant look that is also SO MUCH FUN. I painted my nails with Zoya Kennedy and on my ring finger used OPI Play the Peonies with a coat of Milani Gems on top.

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NailPolishCanada.com Favourite Swatches of the Week!

Hey guys! NailPolishCanada.com recently contacted me asking if they could feature The Lacquery in one of their weekly newsletters that presents some of their favourite nail polish designs on the web. My featured design is my Tiffany & Co. nail art (original post here).

You can check out the full newsletter here!

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Spotted Frog

Here's a design I did a few months ago. I intended to do leopard print on my nails but the colour combination and pattern more closely resemble some kind of rainforest frog, in my opinion. Maybe "frog nails" won't be a trend that catches on, but I hope you enjoy it anyway...

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Neon Leopard

This manicure was WAY brighter in real life; so bright that my camera could not handle it. I used a few colours from Orly's Summer 2012 Feel the Vibe collection: Beach Cruiser (pink),  Melt Your Popsicle and Glowstick. Also used were OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, China Glaze Liquid Leather, Zoya Phoebe and some unnamed Color Club teal shade.

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Canada Day Nails

Here's a quick post featuring my Canada Day nails! I shied away from using any maple leaf design because I can't draw those darn leaves with a pencil, let alone nail polish.

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Essie Eternal Optimist + A Cut Above

Essie Eternal Optimist is a lovely beige pink that I tend to wear a LOT. It's perfect for when you just want simple, pretty nails. Here I did a coat of Essie A Cut Above on my ring finger to add a dash of glitter!

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Neon Accent Nail

I wanted to create a crazy manicure with an accent nail that would contrast with a pale nude like Essie Topless and Barefoot. I wasn't too sure how I felt about this look, but it was fun to wear anyway! Instructions are below the photos.

Please excuse the dry cuticles and poor paint job...I did this quickly!

The accent nail was quite simple:

1. Start by painting your nail white.

2. Sponge on various neon colours to make a funky rainbow.

3. Add a quick-drying topcoat and wait until completely dry.

4. Cut a thin stripe of tape and place it along the centre of your nail.

5. Paint your nail black.

6. Quickly and carefully remove the tape and you will reveal a rainbow stripe down the middle!

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Butterfly Wings Tutorial

Here is the tutorial I promised! You can check out the original butterfly wing nails post here.

For this demonstration, I just did the design on my ring finger. I painted the rest with OPI Are We There Yet?, a shimmery peachy-orange shade. Unfortunately, my camera and the terrible lighting can't show you its beauty.

Let's get started!

1. Paint your nails with a base colour. On my ring finger, I used Revlon Peachy.

2. Once the base colour is mostly dry, paint a sponge with the other wing colours. You can paint overlapping stripes directly on the sponge and then stamp it over your nail in order to create a smooth gradient effect. Alternatively, you can sponge the colours on the nail one at a time.

The top colour on the sponge is China Glaze Make Some Noise, the middle colour is OPI Brights Power and the bottom colour is Revlon Peachy. I painted the sponge with Revlon Peachy even though it was already on my nail as the base colour just to create an even smoother blend between each shade.

Here's what the sponge gradient looks like.

3. Once your gradient is dry (I used a fast-drying topcoat after Step 2), you can start your design! I used a black nail art striper, but you could use a thin paintbrush or a toothpick dipped in black nail polish.

Draw a curved line on the lower half of the nail.

4. Next, draw curved lines going toward the upper corner of your nail, dividing the wing into different sections.

5. Connect all the lines so that the top of each section is rounded. Then fill in the top of the nail with black nail polish.

6. Next, make white dots in varying sizes. You can use a dotting tool or a toothpick dipped in white nail polish.

7. Add topcoat and you're done!

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New Layout & Butterfly Wings!

I am very excited to premiere this lovely new blog layout created by my dear friend Tyler! It was about time to shake things up!

Today I have a manicure that took me a LONG time to attempt; I wanted to try it almost a year ago, long before creating The Lacquery, but I thought it would be a waste of time and nail polish since I didn't think it would turn out well. I'm so glad I finally did these butterfly wings because they were so much fun to wear! I chose these pink and purple sparkly butterfly wings in honour of my niece who had a butterfly-themed birthday party a couple years ago!

I will be posting a tutorial on how to get this look in the next few days!

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China Glaze Stone Cold + Some Like it Haute

Here is Stone Cold from China Glaze's Hunger Games collection. It's a charcoal grey polish with silver microglitter that dries matte. I used topcoat in these photos since I like it even better when it's shiny! I added two coats of Some Like it Haute from China Glaze's Eye Candy 3D collection on my ring finger. I can't capture the beauty of this one in photos...it's fine charcoal glitter mixed with large holographic glitter. Gorgeous! You may need two layers of topcoat for this one or a thick topcoat like Seche Vite so it dries smooth.

My nails were already chipping when I took these photos...sorry!

Stay tuned for a new blog layout soon! I will be doing more frequent posts once it's finished!

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Funky French

by: Julie

Here's a funky twist on the classic French manicure! I alternated Zoya Phoebe, Zoya Mitzi and Essie Super Bossa Nova for the bright tips and then added Orly Prisma Gloss Silver to make them sparkle. I finished it off with a cute butterfly sticker!

I can't wait for all the Summer 2012 neon collections to come out from Essie, China Glaze and Orly...those would make awesome funky French manicures!

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Blue/Nude Mixed Animal Print

by: Julie

I saw THIS awesome manicure on Beautopia Nails and I needed to have it on my own nails! I wanted to do a different colour combination, but I couldn't get the blue and nude look out of my head. I used Essie Topless & Barefoot as the nude base and Zoya Phoebe (from the Zoya Mod Mattes collection) as the blue. If you'd like to try out the leopard print nails, you can check out my tutorial here. I used black striping polish for the zebra print nails and simply swiped it across the nail randomly to achieve the look.

That's it for today! I'm going to try to post more often from now on. If you have any requests for designs, tutorials or colour swatches, e-mail The Lacquery at [email protected] or send us a tweet by following @thelacquery

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Peacock Nails

by: Julie

This didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to, but it looked fine from a distance. I used my peacock feather earring as a model and just swiped light strokes of brown polish onto the nail and made big dots of gold, turquoise and navy blue on top.

Colours used: Color Club turquoise (name unknown), Revlon Minted, Orly Filthy Rich, Zoya Indigo, Misa When U Say My Name, Color Club brown (name unknown).

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Spring Flowers

by: Julie

Here is a bright flower design for spring. The colours are fun, but I think I will do some classic daisies next time!

The flowers are very easy to make - place 5 dots of one colour in a circle and 1 dot of a second colour in the middle. To fill the rest of the nail, you could draw leaves, stems or add random dots!

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Easter Nails

by: Julie

I wanted to do a more complex design but I didn't have enough time...so here are some pastel polka dot nails!

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French Manicure

by: Julie

Me? With a French manicure? Hasn't happened since I was 9 and my older sister took me to get one in a sketchy mall salon. I never thought I was a fan of the classic French manicure, but I decided to try it out for myself...and I actually ended up liking it! It's not too tacky on real nails. I freehanded the white tips, though I had to grab a Q-tip and nail polish remover to clean it up a bit (okay, a lot). Somehow I managed not to feel like a contestant in a toddler pageant while wearing this manicure.

I used a coat of Essie Pure Pearl-fection to give the manicure a pretty, pearly sheen! I also added a butterfly decal to spruce it up a little bit.

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Roses

by: Julie

Here are what I call "blob roses". You just make blobs of a light pink on your nails and add in random shapes with a darker pink to make something resembling roses. You then create small leaves and fill in the empty spaces with polka dots!

I wanted to create a mixed print look, so I did a nail on each hand with just polka dots and another with plain lavender-pink. I added a matte topcoat to the nails with roses because I wanted them to look like vintage wallpaper.

Colours used: Misa Office Polish-tics, Orly Lollipop, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, Essie Your Hut or Mine, Essie Navigate Her, China Glaze Sea Spray, GOSH Matt Effect Matte topcoat