Femme Fatale Lacquer * Mermaids in the Midst

Hey loves!  I have been majorly lacking motivation for nail art lately, so heres a nice swatch of Femme Fatale Lacquer Mermaids in the Midst.

I decided to layer it over one coat O.P.I. Dutch Ya Just Love OPI.

One coat O.P.I. Dutch Ya Just Love OPI

One coat O.P.I. Dutch Ya Just Love OPI

I really like this color!  Its a pretty grape purple with gold shimmers.  I was super surprised this only took one coat!

Femme Fatale Lacquer's Mermaids in the Midst is absolutely amazing!  Its a plum jelly base with medium holo teal, small holo copper and lavender hex glitters.  

One coat Femme Fatale Lacquer Mermaids in the Midst
over one coat O.P.I. Dutch Ya Just Love OPI

One coat Femme Fatale Lacquer Mermaids in the Midst
over one coat O.P.I. Dutch Ya Just Love OPI

One coat Femme Fatale Lacquer Mermaids in the Midst
over one coat O.P.I. Dutch Ya Just Love OPI

This had a great formula and application.  I didn't have to fish to get the glitters.  The only problem I ran in to was the smell.  I thought it smelled like hair dye or something.  I sealed with one coat of Seche Vite.  

Check out Femme Fatale Lacquer online where all polishes go for $8.00.

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Stardust Polish * Lavender Dream

Ohh my gosh!  Look at this gorgeous holo polish by Stardust Polish.  This is two coats Lavender Dream with O.P.I. Gargantuan Green Grape on the accent.

Stardust Polish Lavender Dream &
O.P.I. Gargantuan Green Grape

I really wanted to try a Stardust Polish holo ever since I saw Black Hole [think Color Club Beyond, but a tad weaker linear effect].  I'm so glad I got this, now I want every holo Drema makes!  

Stardust Polish Lavender Dream &
O.P.I. Gargantuan Green Grape

This soft lavender polish is perfect for spring and the holo makes it that much more awesome!  The formula was good, dry time was fast.  I topped with Seche Vite.  OF COURSE as soon as I snapped a few pictures capturing the holo, a massive downpour started; these are the only decent pictures I have.  Don't worry though, this won't be the last time you see this polish! 

Visit Stardust Polish online and check out all the amazing polish for sale.  The holos go for $10 each, others range in price from $8 to $9.25.  Follow @StardustPolish on IG for sales, discount codes, and restock updates.

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Follow me on Pinterest & IG @nauti_mermaid

New Blog Name!!

Hey Loves!  As you can see, I have changed my blog name.  After spending well over two hours deleting embarrassing Facebook status updates about and as a result of alcohol [among other things] I did some serious soul searching.  I was obviously going through a rough time in my life at the end of 2011 and all through 2012.  Anyways, I decided I didn't want to be seen as the crazy party girl anymore.  That's not who I am at all, and I feel really stupid about acting that way for almost a year.  So, I will no longer be posting weekly drink recipes.  I may post the occasional interesting one I come across or one that I particularly like.  But I want this to be about the nails!  I love polish and nail art and I want to share that with you all.  I hope y'all stick around!  Sorry for the sappy explanation, I just wanted to be honest!

If you've been living under a rock [aka don't follow me on IG] I got 'nauti' from 'nautical' since I obviously have an obsession with all things nautical.

Catch Up Post! Vintage Roses, Neon Gradient & [Early] Swatch Tuesday!

Clearly I suck at keeping up with my posts on here.  I'm so used to posting on IG all the time as soon as I'm done with my manis :( Anyways, I FINALLY attempted vintage roses that turned out VERY successful in my opinion!

Vintage Roses

Vintage Roses

I used a crazy amount of nail polish for this.  Ya ready?

Yellow Base: Milani Yellow Whiz

Roses: Essie Mod Square, Cascade Cool, and Fiji

Leaves: Essie Pretty Edgy and Navigate Her

Pink Holo Accent Nail: Color Club Miss Bliss topped with Milani Jewel FX Hot Pink

When I get a little better I hope to do a tutorial for this look! 

I also did a kick ass neon gradient!

I used China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and Japanese Koi over SC Snow Me White.

ChG Neon Gradient 

ChG Neon Gradient

ChG Neon Gradient

Like my sweet new black light?!

Gradient vs. Ombre: What the Fuck is the Difference??  IS there a fucking difference?

The answer is YES THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!  and no its not because ombre is a trendy hipster term.  Damn hipsters.

I digress.

The difference between a gradient and ombre is as follows:

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Gradient uses two or more DIFFERENT colors...such as mine above.

Ombre uses different shades of the SAME color...such as fading from light green to dark green.

Think of it like this: GradienT, differenT; OmbrE, samE

**********

Annnnnd it IS Swatch Tuesday after all [tomorrow], so enjoy this swatch of SC Dream On.

Two coats Sinful Colors Dream On

Two coats Sinful Colors Dream On

I did two coats Dream On, no undies, no tops.  Its a beautiful vivid purple that dries squishy-matte.  I am so in love!  BUT it chips so easy!  I did this late Sunday night and I had three fingers chip before I even got to work at 8:30 this morning! :(  I'm sure it had to do with the fact I didn't topcoat it, but I loved the matte look.

So apparently I can't stick to a certain "schedule" with my manis and posting, so I'm just going to post on my blog as I do my nails.  I'll still do drinks [obviously ... TIPSY Tips lol] but it might just not be specifically on Friday any more.  And Swatch Tuesday might happen on a Monday or something.  We shall see.  Life is hard when I have to decide between cooking myself dinne [or like, showering or drooling over Don Draper on Mad Men] and doing my nails

As usual: follow me on Pinterest & IG [@nauti_mermaid].

Swatch Tuesday! Stardust Polish Summer Cocktails Collection

Hello Loves!  Today I have the whole Summer Cocktails Collection by Stardust Polish up for review :]  The amazingly sweet Drema, maker of Stardust Polish sent me all these babies to swatch and review <3  Don't they just look good enough to drink?  Well don't! She sent along cocktail recipes for that! [how perfect is she?!]

Brace yourselves: this is a LONG post! lol but you're getting FIVE cocktail recipes on a Tuesday - so I'm making up for not posting last Friday.

Stardust Polish Summer Cocktails Collection

First up is Spiked Lemonade.  Its got a shimmer crelly canary yellow base with small orange hex, light and dark pink circle glitters.  I did three coats, no undies, no top coat.  The formula was really smooth and  application was great.  I didn't have to fish for glitters at all.  Dry time was fast.

Three coats Stardust Polish Spiked Lemonade

To make Spiked Lemonade

You'll Need:

2 1/4 cups Sugar

5 cups Water, divided

1 tbsp grated Lemon Zest

1 3/4 cups Lemon Juice

1 cup Light Rum or Vodka

Ice

Make It! 

In a large sauce pan, combine 1 cup water, sugar, and lemon zest.  Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Stir in lemon juice and remaining water.  Pour into 2 quart pitcher and put in fridge to chill.  Stir in rum [vodka] and serve in a glass garnished with a lemon slice.

What a prefect chill-by-the-pool drink and mani!  Match your nails to your drink.  Love it :]

Neeeext is Kerasi.  Its got a shimmery peach base packed with small red square and orange hex, medium yellow hex and light pink circle glitters.  So so pretty!  This one was a tad streaky, some nails were good with two coats, but I did three just for the sake of even-ness.  No undies, I topped with Out The Door Top Coat to seal the glitter.  It had a good dry time [even before I used OTD].

Three coats Stardust Polish Kerasi

To make Kerasi

You'll Need:

2 oz Peach Vodka

1 oz Cherry Juice

1/2 oz Peach Liqueur

1/2 oz Cherry Brandy

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

Sparkling Wine

Ice

Make It!

Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a champagne flute [mmm fancay!].  Top with wine and garnish with a cherry.

I've never heard of this but boy does it sound good! 

Next [one of my favorites] Sea Mist.  This polish has a gorgeous sheer shimmery mint base with light mint medium hex and small bright red hex glitters.  I did three coats, no undies, sealed with OTD.  This also had great dry time.

Three coats Stardust Polish Sea Mist

I liked this so much, so I decided to pair it with Golden Afternoon sent to me by Drema from her first Alice in Wonderland Collex.  I used two coats of Essie Turquoise & Caicos topped with one coat Sea Mist.

One coat Stardust Polish Sea Mist over two coats Essie Turquoise and Caicos
with Stardust Polish Golden Afternoon as a double accent nail

To make a Sea Mist

You'll Need:

1 oz Coconut Rum

1 oz Triple Sec

1 oz Pineapple Juice

Splash Blue Curacao

Ice

Make It!

Shake all ingredients with ice.  Strain into a glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry. 

Easy Peasy!  I want one of these NOW! 

Now we've got Pink Bikini.  This is a great neon pink jelly polish with a hint of holo dust.  I can't remember now if I did three or four coats.  I think three.  But its a super sheer base that would be great for a jelly sammich.  It dried to a semi waxy finish, which I LOVE! I need to re-do this mani and wear it out in the sun to show off the holo.  I swatched this at night, so I only have my light box pic [sad face].  Dry time was fast on this also.  Great smooth application.  I didn't use undies or a top coat.  My picture really doesn't so this picture justice.  Just imagine a pink highlighter, and you almost have the color :]

Three [maybe four] coats Stardust Polish Pink Bikini

To make a Pink Bikini

You'll Need:

6 oz Raspberry Lemonade

1 1/2 oz Rum

1 oz Amaretto

Ice

Make It!

Shake ingredients in a shaker glass and strain over ice.

Annnnndddd last but not least Blue Lagoon.  It glows guys!!!  Blue Lagoon is a medium blue polish with a hint of pearl shimmer.  Great application.  Usually glow polish is matte and chalky, but not this.  Like I said on IG, its a glossy matte, if such a thing exists.  There is just the slightest amount of texture in this polish too.  I did two coats, no undies, no tops.  I charged this up under my desk light for 60 seconds to get this glow.  It is very bright - my phone camera didn't capture it too well.

Two coats Stardust Polish Blue Lagoon 

Two coats Stardust Polish Blue Lagoon - glow

To make a Blue Lagoon

You'll Need:

1 oz Vodka

1 oz Blue Curacao 

4 oz Lemonade

Ice

Make It!

Fill a glass with ice and add ingredients in order from vodka to lemonade.  Garnish with a cherry and a slice of lemon.

Overall, this collection was much improved from the Alice in Wonderland collex.  Not that the first one was bad, I really enjoyed those polishes, but the formulas on the Summer Cocktails polishes are so much better.  Very creative glitter mixes too; I love that small circle glitters were incorporated.  And who doesn't want to add a neon and glow polish to their collection?

Visit Stardust Polish's shop where polish prices for the Summer Cocktails Collection range from $6.75 to $7.50.  Be sure to follow @StardustPolish on IG for updates and sales! 

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Follow me on Pinterest and IG @nauti_mermaid

Nail Art! Nauti[cal] Nails & Autism Awareness Mani

GUYS! I suck at consistently posting!  Sorry!  I just typed my little heart out reviewing all five of the Summer Cocktails polishes from Stardust Polish for tomorrow's post.

So, enjoy these because I can't type any more and I slacked on my Friday nail art post.
Nauti[cal] Nails
Colors used: Revlon Royal, dotted with Color Club Cherubic; Essie Good as Gold topped with Milani Jewel FX Gold; and China Glaze Hey Sailor, dotted with Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Annnd my Autism Awareness mani...

Colors used: Stardust Polish Blue Lagoon topped with Different Dimension Light It Up Blue.

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Follow me on Pinterest & IG @nauti_mermiad 

Swatch Tuesday! Lavish Polish * High-Light-Her Nails

HI!  I am beginning to suck at remembering what day it is!  Better late than never I suppose.

Today, I have Lavish Polish High-Light-Her Nails.

Two coats Lavish Polish High-Light-Her Nails
over Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Two coats Lavish Polish High-Light-Her Nails
over Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Two coats Lavish Polish High-Light-Her Nails
over Sinful Colors Snow Me White

My phone did NOT capture how absolutely amazeballz this polish is!  It is seriously like a fluorescent yellow highlighter in a bottle with some square iridescent glitter thrown in.  I did two coats over white.  Easy application, good formula. I can't wait for summer so I can wear this to the beach!

I got this lovely for $9.00 when LP was on Etsy [they have since moved to Big Cartel].

Visit Lavish Polish on Big Cartel, Like them on Facebook, follow on Twitter and @LavishPolish on IG :]

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Follow me on Pinterest and @nauti_mermaid on IG!