Paisley China Plates - Photos and Video!

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I'm so incredibly excited about today's post! I wasn't going to do nail art last night but I forced myself to at least try and I am so happy that I did. I've been wanting to do a design like this for awhile and when I saw an indigo and white paisley pattern in a Pottery Barn magazine, I went for it. While the design I saw spurred my creativity, the paisley patterns I ended up doing are just random patterns I thought would look good. I'm just so happy they actually managed to turn out! Paisley is tough! Warning: This is a picture heavy post. ;)

No Top Coat

With Matte Top Coat

I also have a really special treat for you guys - I made a video of me painting these! I had so much fun doing this that I might make it a regular thing. I sped the video up by 600% so these actually took me about an hour to do, but it's been consolidated down to a nifty 6 minute video. If you've got the time, let me know what you think of it. I have no clue what I'm doing with iMovie so it's still a major learning process for me, but I think it turned out alright. Would you enjoy seeing videos like this? I'd really appreciate your input :) 

I wasn't thinking when I created this video, but I used some of my iTunes music to play along with it...and youtube didn't like that. So there is not audio for now. I'll have to figure out how to remedy that in the future. This whole video upload thing made me want to pull my hair out...if you'd prefer to watch it on youtube directly, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfXdObiKvz0

Mani Monday - Best Buds for Deb Shops

Hi, all! It's Mani Monday time and I've got a funky and cute rose bud mani to share with you all. I put together a quick tutorial over at Deb Shops so if you're curious how to do this look yourself, head on over :) 

What do you think of these? I really struggle with roses so I'm hoping to perfect them eventually. After all, practice makes perfect! ;) 

Happy Polishing :) 

Jamberry Nails in "Galactic" - Review

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Hello, all! Today I've got a review of Jamberry Nail wraps to share with you. I had heard of Jamberry a few times but I hadn't really explored trying them out myself. Since I love free-hand painting, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about nail stickers. But, a quick perusal of their site shows a vast array of prints, patterns and designs, many of which would be insanely difficult to attempt free-hand. Jamberry boasts these can last up to 2 weeks so I could definitely see using these for when you've got a long trip and have to leave your polish behind, or if you're in the mood for some quick and fun nail art. 

The Digital Dozen does Monochrome - Day 5: Feathers

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Woohoo! I am finally finished with monochrome week on the Digital Dozen! I wasn't sure if I would make it but I'm proud of myself for pushing through and finishing it up. I actually really like what I ended up doing today even though at the start of it I wasn't sure if it would come together. 

Awhile back I was browsing pinterest and found a few awesome "pattern" boards and fell in love. I want my sheets, and clothes, and car upholstery to be made out of all these patterns. They're just wonderful. One such pattern that has really stuck with me since I saw it, was this feather design. 

The Digital Dozen does Monochrome - Day 4: Silhouette Flowers

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As promised, I'm slowly trying to get through monochrome week on The Digital Dozen. Although everyone is all finished with their posts (they rocked it this week! Check out their inlinkz below), I want to still get my posts up and be able to say that I have finished 3 challenges! I'm still counting it as completed despite being super late in finishing it ;) 

When looking for inspiration, I typically browse page upon page of content and will have about 20 tabs open of things that I think I might want to do. What I'm really waiting for though, is that one image that is so perfect and inspiring that it will immediately cause me to close all of those other 20 tabs and immediately start painting.  Today, these fabulous vector stock photos did that for me. 

The Digital Dozen does Monochrome - Day 3: Silver Daisies

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So I think I've officially earned the "terrible blogger" title. I feel so badly that I've been so far behind on all of my posts. I also apologize for the constant stream of excuses! I'm trying to get back on tract and I really want to finish up the Digital Dozen monochrome week even though I'm WAY behind on it all.

I really wasn't sure what to do to continue on with this challenge so I started looking everywhere I could for inspiration. I wear quite a few rings on a daily basis and most of them are fairly simple stacking bands. I usually try to find a ring combo that I love and then I just wear it for weeks on end. You may occasionally notice the thumb ring on my left hand (that's pretty much always on) and then on my right hand (which you hardly ever see, sorry), I almost always have a thick silver daisy band that I purchased from Sundance Catalogue. It's one of my favorites and I actually bought a matching one for my sister so it has an extra special place in my heart. It was my inspiration for tonight's mani! 

Liquid Sky Lacquer Valentine's Collection - Swatches & Review

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I'm really excited about today's post! If you haven't heard of Liquid Sky Lacquer and been drooling over them for years, then you probably live under a rock ;) But really, I have been eying Carolyn's polishes for so long so when she said she'd send me polishes I had a little party from excitement. 

Today I've got polishes from the Valentine's Day collection and they're all really fun and festive with great formulas. 

Laquerlicious - Swatch & Review: V-Day = D-Day

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Hi, all! I'm so sorry that I have been MIA this week. I feel so badly that I have yet to finish the Digital Dozen monochrome week. I've been so busy at work and so tired when I get home that I'm just useless. I'm hoping to catch up a bit this weekend though so be sure to check back. 

Tonight I have a fun Valentine's polish to share that's also for a good cause! Awhile back I reviewed some Laquerlicious polishes and loved them so I was very excited when Michelle contacted me again to review her limited edition anti-Valentines day polish. The wonderful thing about this polish is that it's part of her Polish for Pit Bulls campaign in which she donates half the proceeds of her polish earnings to the Fresno Bully Rescue. 

The Digital Dozen does Monochrome - Day 2: Mosaic Gradient

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Remember how yesterday I had hoped that my work week would be a bit more mellow? Haha, yeah, that didn't happen :( I got home around 7:45pm yesterday and was super drained and not up for nail art. 

For the past two Digital Dozen challenges, I've completed my manis the night before they're due (I know, I know, this is a terrible habit, but I'm a procrastinator!). Unfortunately, my lack of motivation last night means I'm scrambling a bit tonight ;) I'm going to try and do one more look after this so I can have something to share with you all tomorrow for day 3. Ah, the life of a polish addict!

Anyway! Day 2 is an orange monochrome mosaic gradient look! I'm really unsure of how I feel about this look though so I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

The Digital Dozen does Monochrome - Day 1: Floral

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Hi, all! How was your weekend? I spent a majority of it trying to catch up on sleep after an INSANELY long work week. Here's hoping this week treats me a bit better work wise...but blogging wise, it's going to be awesome! This is going to be a Digital Dozen filled week! Today not only marks the start of our awesomely awesome giveaway (have you entered yet?? You can do so here!), but also the beginning of Monochrome week! 

For those who don't know, monochrome consists of either black and white or varying tones of only one color. Today's look, is in line with the second definition where I use varying tones of one color...and keeping with my love of floral patterns, I decided to do a simple monochrome floral look! I'm not feeling too hot tonight but I found an awesome floral print here and wanted to do my take on it immediately. 

The Digital Dozen Loves YOU! - Giveaway

Hello, All!

I am so excited about today's post! You know that little nail art group I'm apart of called The Digital Dozen?? Well, we've put together our first giveaway of the year because, well, we love you!

If you're like me, you may still be feeling the holiday season on your pocketbook so we want to give back to our fabulous readers with a chance to win some awesome prizes. There are a total of 12 prize packages and any one of you could walk away with one of them :) 

The top prizes for this giveaway, sponsored by the ladies of the Digital Dozen, are two (yes, TWO!!) US $100 gift cards to a polish etailer of your choice. 

Thanks to our generous sponsors, we also have some these prizes to offer:

• Mega Bundle from MoYou including 10 plates (winner's choice), 3 types of stamps and scrapers, 4 rhinestone wheels and a surprise from the new MoYou jewelry range
• $50 store credit to spend with GG Couture
• $25 gift certificate to spend with Moon Sugar Decals
• Full-size bottles of Chirality Polish Party All the Time, Neptunus, Yoda Purpurata, and Gazoo
• 4 x Simple & Seasonal polishes from the winter collection
• All 4 polishes from the VooDoo Lacquer Winter Holiday 2013 Collection (Marshmallow World, Polar Express, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Holly Jolly Christmas)
• 3 x Renaissance Cosmetics polishes and 1x 10ml cuticle oil
• Plumilicious, Milky Candy Pack and one full bottle (winner's choice) from Candy Nail Polish
• Chloe and Misfit Toys from Ruby White Tips 
• Eponine and My Name's McGill from Quirk 

What do you think of that bag?? :D I'm excited and I hope you are as well!

To enter, check out the Rafflecopter below and follow the instructions in the widget. Easy as pie...though, I've never made a pie...are they easy to make? Maybe the expression should be easy as...cereal? ;) 

Happy Polishing and good luck!! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Simple Nautical Stripes

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Hello, all! I'm so glad that it's Wednesday (night)! I feel like the past 3 days have been as long as an entire week and I can't wait for Saturday to get here. I don't have a very exciting post for you tonight, but I figured I'd share it anyway. This will be short and sweet :) 

Several months ago I ordered the two of the Zoya NYFM boxes that included 3 special colors that are created by designers. I stole away with the Peter Som Spring/Summer 2014 collection, as well as the Zang Toi Ballet Babe Spring/Summer 2014 box. I got them and then promptly forgot that I had them. I have been using the boxes as hand rests for when I take my photos and was literally touching the boxes with polishes still INSIDE them for months. I was taking advantage of the Zoya 3 Free Promo yesterday and realized that I still had 6 unused/unopened polishes from them and suddenly it was like I had brand new nail mail! It was all very exciting and it made my day haha 

Daisy Daze on Deb Shops

Happy Tuesday! I don't know about you guys, but I'm so glad Monday is over - I worked over 12 yesterday! No thank you! But, the silver lining of that think of all the polish I can buy with that extra dough ;) 

Today I've got a tutorial post that I put together for Deb Shops. They've been rocking daisies a lot lately and I thought I'd do my own version of them with a quick tutorial. Head to blog.debshops.com for my how-to on this look and let me know what you think of it :) 

Happy Polishing :) 

Erin Condren Planner inspired floral print

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If you read my recent "year in review" post, you'll know that I'm looking to make Wondrously Polished into a more well-rounded blog that can become a resource for people looking to expand their nail art prowess. 

One of my biggest problems when it comes to my blog is keeping organized. I'm usually scribbling notes and lists on random pieces of paper that ultimately get lost in the hot mess that is my purse. So, I decided to remedy that issue and purchase my very own Erin Condren Planner! Now, for those who don't know, these are sort of the Rolls Royce of planners and are definitely pricey (they start at $50)...but, you get so much bang for your buck with these. They are customized with your name (or whatever you want!) and include motivational quote, pretty graphics, and spot on organization. Needless to say, I'm super excited for it...and I had to paint the cover image on my nails to celebrate ;) 

Ugh, commenting system changes...

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So, commenting systems on the blogger platform are terrible. I do not understand what the folks over at blogger are thinking when it comes to the in-house commenting system. Unless you want to receive an email for EVERY comment made on a post, there is not way to be informed that I (or another reader) have responded to your comment. 

Because of this, I made the switch many months ago to the Disqus platform in hopes of creating more dialogue with my readers and so you all know that I do in fact read and (usually) respond to your comments. But, and this is a big but, I constantly hear problems from other bloggers and readers about how they can't comment on my blog because I have Disqus. It's frustrating and I definitely don't want to alienate any of my current or potential readers. 

Renaissance Custom Lacquers - Swatches and Review

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Hello, everyone! I've got some swatches of some new polishes from Renaissance Custom Lacquers to share with you today. Meghan (of Will Paint Nails for Food) sent them all the way from Canada for me to try out and I'm pleasantly surprised by these. The first 5 polishes are from the Shimmer collection and are part of an open-ended grouping, meaning that Meghan and Laura plan on adding more polishes to this collection at a later date. I think they are some great staple colors with a little extra pizzazz and I'm curious to hear what you all think of them. So let's dig in :) 

Lion King Sunrise

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Happy Friday, everyone! I've got a really quick post for you as I finished these right as I was running out the door...to go see the Lion King Musical! I know, that doesn't seem like a cartoon would translate well to theatre, but it's amazing! I saw it probably ten years ago now and it was absolutely amazing! I'm so thrilled to be seeing it again and I knew I had to do some nail art to get in the mood for it. 

2013 - A year in Review...plus my 2014 goals!

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Happy Happy New Year, all! My first post of the new year will take a look at some of what I managed to do in 2013 and will also share some of my goals for the new year - 2014 seems very promising to me! Put your reading glasses on because I'm about to ramble on...This is a long post in both text and pictures but I hope you'll read through to the end! I'll love you forever and always if you do!