Good evening!  So I've done a little work re-shaping my nails, squaring them off a little instead of the oval shape I had previously.  Unfortunately I need some time for my nails to grow out until they're evened up, my middle nail is shorter than all the others argh.  To show case the new cut though, I decided to do an ombre mani using all Lillibun Lacquers.  This features Enchantress' Kiss, Seer's Sight, and Oracle's Blessing sponged on in a gradient, then stamped using a plate from Moyou's sailor collection.

Zen Jadey Mani Type Thing

So I'm home from work today... funny story.  I was helping my boyfriend move our couch to rearrange our cabling, so as I knelt down beside the couch, my darling little klee kai puppy tackles me.... in the face... and licks my eye... and now I have conjunctivitis.  Doh.  But that just means more time for me to do manis!  I've had it in mind to do this mani for a while, I love this green shade from China Glaze!  It's called 'Exotic Encounters', and I paired it with Black Satin by Chanel.  The stamp is from Moyou London's Suki collection, and the stamps are from the born pretty store.

Red Floral Mani

This evening, I decided to do some nail art featuring the new Lillibun colors.  The base is Enchantress' Kiss, stamped with Pueen Cosmetics stamping buffet collection using konad white and mash black polishes.  The flowers were reverse stamped, and accented with Essie's Good as Gold.

Migration Mani

After a long day of swatching (which took way longer than I thought it would, argh), just threw something together for the night.  My hands have taken much abuse from all the acetone so I'll probably be a couple of days of letting them rehydrate, but here's my mani for today.  I did a gradient-y backdrop using sponging and dry brushing techniques, then stamped for the swirly patterns, then did another layer of dry brushing, then stamped the birds and topped with matte coat.  So many steps but I kind of like the results!

Mystic's collection Round 1

Hello Everyone!

     I've been a bit slow on updating lately, long hours at work have left little time for me to work on Lillibun or nail art.  However, I am excited to share swatches of the first batch of Lillibun Lacquers to get sent out for feedback testing and review!  Already I've made a few personal revisions on some of these polishes for better formula consistency and colors, but I am looking forward to the feedback to make further revisions and perfect these colors and really help lock down the quality bar that I want to set for Lillibun as a brand.

    I am a firm believer in transparency in all things, so I will be keeping you all updated with progress and revisions that are made and am always open for feedback and suggestions.  This first collection though, I am calling the Mystic's collection.  Here are all the colors together:

And swatching shots of them individually.  First up is

Oracle's Blessing

Oracle's Blessing is a deep blue packed with green interference sparkles, giving it an almost metallic green sheen when viewed in sunlight.  This is a 2 coat formula, very easy to apply and definitely my favorite color of the bunch.  I've even had several people at work notice this shade and comment on it.  The photos really aren't doing it justice, I've tried multiple lighting setups but it really can't capture the way this sparkles in light.

 Witch's Hex

This was the first color that I made, and has undergone some minor revisions since mostly to make the application easier and more consistent.  It's slightly more translucent than Oracle's Blessing, I'm showing Witch's Hex with 3 coats here but it's definitely wearable at 2 coats.  It's a deep royal purple color, filled with blue interference sparkles.  Again, the photos don't quite hold up to the real thing.  There are certain lighting, particularly sunlight, where it starts to look metallic with the amount of shine packed into this formula.

Sorcerer's Flame

Sorcerer's flame is an intense red jelly that's filled with gold interference glitter.  Like Oracle's Blessing and Witch's Hex, it shows up best in sunlight where the sparkles really pick up and glint.  This color applies as full coverage in 2 coats.

Druid's Slumber

Druid's Slumber is an emerald green polish with gold and green interference sparkles mixed in.  It is actually a thermal that shifts to a darker emerald at the tips, but it's quite subtle so that I am considering removing the thermal property in the final product.  It has a wonderfully creamy consistency and is probably the easiest to apply of the bunch, it goes on smooth and opaque in 2 coats

Enchantress' Kiss

This color is an off white creme with a subtle pink shimmer.  The formula goes opaque in 2 silky coats. It's the simplest shade of the bunch, but goes well as a base for nail art.

Seer's Vision

Seer's vision was the first color that I wanted to make when I got into creating nail polish.  It's been a back and forth battle with trying to get a good formula for this shade, but I think I am finally happy with the results.  It's a pastel blue creme with flecks of purple and silver in the light.  It has an easy 2 coat application for full coverage.

I hope you like all of these shades!  Again, I am always open to feedback and suggestions, please feel free to comment and/or e-mail me at Lillibun@gmail.com

New Lillibun Blue

I feel like I've been falling behind on polish mixing and manicures, I have been crunching at work so I haven't had a whole lot of time to do my nails lately.  In any case, I've made this pastel blue a couple of times before, each time tweaking the formula due to various reasons.  This has been the first polish color that I wanted to make, but each time I mixed it, I was constantly dissatisfied.  The first time it was too chalky, the second time it turned out too matte.  This time I'm a bit happier with the results, and I hope you guys enjoy it as well!  I've come up with the names for the colors for this set as well, full release details to come this weekend.

For this manicure though, I used my own polish mix for the base, stamped using pueen cosmetic stamps.  The butterfly is Essie's good as gold with OPI's alpine snow, and the lighter blue is Julep's Susie.  Hope you all enjoy!

New Lillibun Red

I have a very busy polishy weekend planned ahead of me.  First up, I should be receiving the new pueen encore set of stamping plates that I will be posting about and reviewing.  Secondly, I will sending out the first batches of Lillibun Lacquers for testing (so excited!!) so expect a huge post with swatches and details about the colors.  There are 6 in total, being called the Mystics collection.  More to come soon!  In the mean time, here's my mani of the day:

This mani features another Lillibun polish.  An even 2 coats for total coverage, it's a deep red with gold interference.

New Lillibun Nude

Last night, I mixed a nude/off white mani that I decided to use this morning for my mani of the day.  In person, this polish has a soft pink interference that's unfortunately not being picked up by the camera.  My camera also did some strangeness in picking up the lighting on my index finger, making it look cell shaded -_- but it's painted the same as the pinky.

New Lillibun Blue

Good evening!  My mani of the day focuses on one of the polishes that I am preparing for Lillibun's launch, I don't have a name for it yet but I am quite happy with this formula as it has the best application of the polishes I've made thus far, and sets the bar for where I want the others to be at.  This was a smooth 2 coater, really easy to apply and dries quite quickly.  It's a deep blue jelly, packed with green interference sparkles.  I've included a macro shot below so you can see the sparkle in action

In certain lights and angles, the green is stronger, but otherwise overall the polish takes on a blue tone.  I can't wait until I am ready to share this with everyone!

New Lillibun Thermal Green

For some reason, I've been really into the color green lately... so I decided to mix up my own green thermal nail color!  I will likely be revising this formula to be one of the colors that I launch Lillibun Laquers with.  When I have the formula ironed out more, I will take more detailed shots and macros so you can see the full effect, as well as show off its thermal properties.  I'm thus far pretty proud of this color, I wish it had a little more contrast but I don't want to sacrifice the green shade that it has.  When it is cool, it's a rich deep emerald.  When warm, it lightens a little bit but maintains its brilliance.  It also has flecks of green and gold interference, as well as a slight gold shimmer.

Any ways as far as the manicure goes, I used a water decal from the bornprettystore and stamped it with pueen cosmetic stamps to complete the look.  Hope you all enjoy!

Julep floral mani

Happy end of Monday!  Just wanted to share my mani of the evening, this one using primarily polishes that I got from this month's Julep Maven's box!  The base is Julep's Susie and Bergen, along with OPI's Alpine Snow applied using the saran wrap technique.  The flower is from Pueen's stamp 72, and is colored with Julep's Colette and Sera, then backed with Alpine Snow again.  Gold dots are Essie's good as gold.  Eesh that's a lot of polish colors used @_@  The flower was made using the reverse stamping technique, where I left the stamp image on the stamper, coated it with a layer of top coat, then dabbed in the purple colors.  A time consuming process, but I do love the results!  Hope you all enjoy!

Lillibun

Good evening everyone!   Just wanted to make a really brief post to make note of the change of my blog and instagram account names.  I discovered another blogger who had a verrrrry similar username to my own, and I had considered name changing any ways for when I launch my nail polishes so I just figured it would be a good time to make the switch.  I apologize for any confusion!

Pink and lacey

A matte lacey manicure to start off the week!  For the base, I used OPI's Sweet Heart, stamped with Pueen Cosmetic stamps using konad black and white polishes.  Then mattified with OPI's matte top coat and embellished with studs from the born pretty store.

Blood as Thick as Gold

Finishing the evening with a swatch of Blood as Thick as Gold by Polished by KPT!  I really wish the weather were cooler so the thermal can show throughout the day.  It's a really gorgeous shade of red when cool!  Absolutely loving these thermal polishes, and am looking forward to getting more in the near future!

Vanda

First shot done in my new DIY lightbox!  Definitely liking that it's much more true to color now, and without harsh shadows.  In any case, today's mani features Vanda by Polished by KPT.  I have been eyeing this shade for a while, but it's been sold out in her online shop.  However, I was able to meet up with Katherine in person at the Subzero festival in San Jose, and pick up a bottle from her in person!  It was definitely worth the trip, as I had never used thermals before and got to see their effects in person, and I have to say, I am now a huge fan.

It's a bit of a warmer day today in the bay area, so my manicure has been staying more on the gray end with just the tips changing to purple, like in the above photo.  However, just for the sake of showing off the thermal transition, I dipped my fingers in cold water for another shot

I just can't get over how beautiful that thermal effect is!  

Lightbox!

Wellp, I finally got around to making my own light box last night, finally finished it around 3am.  I'm pretty excited about having this because it gives me a lot more flexibility in photographing my manicures, and hopefully consistency!  Any ways, it's not a looker but it does its job.  If you want instructions on how to construct one of these yourself, this is the guide I followed:

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent/

All in all, the cost was about $30 mainly because I didn't have lights that I could use, so I had to buy them.

KPT thermals!

I've been a follower of Polished by KPT's brand for quite some time now, having seen so many beautiful swatches of her thermal polishes.  I've had my heart set on Vanda especially, which was sold out in her shop by the time I had visited it.  However, I went out to the Subzero festival last night in San Jose and met with Katherine herself!  Having never used thermal polishes before, it was really awesome to see these polishes in action and of course, her color variety was stunning.  Plus I got to pick up the color I first fell in love with, Vanda!  I am super excited to start playing with these, hopefully I will have time to do a nail design tonight with one of these.

On the left, Blood as thick as gold.  On the right, Vanda

First polishes!

An update on the progress of my polish mixing experiments!

I now have 3 successful batches of polish that are all set for feedback testing!  I plan to have a total of 9 colors by the time I send these guys out, and now that I have overcome some of the hurdles of mixing polishes, I hope those colors will produce quicker than these 3.  The first color is a red jelly with gold interference flecks.  The second is a royal purple with blue interference flecks.  On the far right is a simple pastel blue creme, that has very faint hints of sparkle (may bump this up in the final formula).  

Hope you guys are having a wonderful weekend!

Hooray it's Friday!!  Just wanted to share my manicure of the day with you all.  The base color for this is Zoya's Ray, stamped with Essie's Good as Gold and embellished with studs from bornprettystore.com.  I've been meaning to do cut out-type designs for a while but never tried it until now, have to say I'm quite a fan of the look and will probably be doing more in the future!  It's super simple to do as well, just some scotch tape and scissors.

Once upon a time, I thought that all nail polish removers were made equal.  I figured, hey it's just acetone, all it does is remove nail polish, how much of a difference could there be?  So I would buy the cheapo knock off brand acetone and scrub away at my nails to try to clean up every bit of polish.  Wellp, boy was I wrong.  Over the past weekend, I decided to try out Zoya's Remove Plus nail polish remover and I have to say, it was a dramatic difference.  Polish came off faster, cleaner, and my nails feel significantly better!  And finally, I am able to clean away stray polish with a brush.  Previously, I could only do it with q-tips so I couldn't clean in any of the crevices of the nail.  Any ways, I just felt the need to gush about this product momentarily because I personally couldn't believe how much of a difference it made.  Cheers!

(Photo taken from Zoya Website)

I have had a crazy couple of weeks juggling having to do overtime at work, moving, and trying to start up this nail polish line all at the same time.  I wish I had more colors to share by now but coming home at 2am doesn't leave a whole lot of room for mixing colors unfortunately.  However, I did want to share the first of the colors that I hope to launch later this year.  After playing around quite a bit, I've finally come to a formula that I've been happy with.  Any initial thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated, and once I have a set of colors prepared, I will be sending samples to friends and family for more feedback.  After that feedback loop, I will probably start contacting bloggers for feedback as well.  So without any further ado, the first color!

So this polish photographs more blue than it really is, it's actually a royal purple with blue interference shimmer.  Even the mani below has it showing a lot bluer than it really is.  Forgive the messy edges, this is what happens when you rush to do your manicure at 2am after having gone 2 sleep deprived weeks

This weekend, I will start building a light box to photograph these nail polishes to hopefully get more color-accurate results.  Now that my moving is finally settled and we're turning in our keys today, I hope to have a lot more time to be mixing more colors soon!

My first mani of the month has me going back to a bit of my simpler roots, my nails need a break from the May daily challenge, so I wanted to do something easy that I can stick with for a few days.

I do want to spend a moment to talk about that blue though, photographed in their bottles below:

For a while now, I have been planning to mix and market my own line of nail polish, though I don't expect it will launch until much later in the year.  As quality and consistency are a big concern of mine, I am taking my time testing formulas and getting feedback from people to get a good startup line going, before I release these colors.  It has been a big learning experience and I have certainly stumbled a bit here and there, this color was actually one of my stumbling ones that I will be unable to launch as the white pigment did not dissolve properly, and I am now waiting to get a liquid white concentrated pigment to use instead for a more consistent formula.  However, I still wanted to share it because I actually like the accidental effect that the white pigment gave, it's really subtle but it gives the blue a very slight modulation to its value, giving it a textured granite-y look up close.  

I am all for total transparency in my processes and for any feedback and suggestions people might have on mixing nail polish, as I am new to this scene and have a lot of room to grow.  Feel free to contact me any time at puppiesandpolish@gmail.com, I would love to hear from you.  I'm keeping it simple for now with just cremes, but as I get comfortable there, I do plan to expand into more fancy-type colors before I launch.

As May comes to a close, I looked over the manicures I did over the course of the month and collected a few of my favorites for this post.  For the majority of the month, I participated in Moyou's 10k challenge which was a fantastic experience that I am kind of sad is drawing to an end.  It was a great opportunity to try designs outside of my normal comfort bubble, and seeing the work that other nail artists were doing was very inspirational.  However, I think my nails are happy to not have to suffer the acetone treatment on a daily basis any more, and I'll be able to wear my favorite designs for a few days.

Wishing luck to everyone who participated in the contest, win or lose, I learned a lot from the challenge and am eager to move forward with my nail art!