Kids by MGMT inspired nail art

This is one of my favourite music videos, ever. When MGMT first came out, I listened to their first album a lot. This music video was made by a film student with a couple of his friends and some Youtube clips, and has millions more views than the official Kids video. I love the make up and lighting in the video. It's not flashy or professional, but I think it fits really well with the song. 

I haven't watched it for a while but today, I was looking at some flakie nail polish and I realised that it reminded me of this video. So I decided to do an MGMT inspired mani, complete with nooby nail art.

Don't look too closely at my little Abby (left) and Rafael (right). 

I used BYS nail art lacquer in black and white for the faces on my thumbs (with a dash of red and pink for the lips), and Nicole by OPI No Limits as the base coat. Picture Polish Festival is the flakie overcoat I used, and I stuck a few chunks of a BYS gold hexagonal glitter over the top. It's hard to properly capture the effect because I don't have a decent camera, and have to take pictures with my phone camera.

Nicole by OPI No Limits, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, Picture Polish Festival, Essie Jelly Apple and BYS nail art lacquer.

No Limits is a deep, inky blue-black that reminds me of the night sky. The flakie over the top made it look like the twinkling lights in the video. I'm still learning how to do nail art but with practice, I'm getting better :)

Welcome... To me?

Well, first of all hello.

For as long as I can remember I have always been a fan of makeup. Stealing my mother's lipstick. Done it. Making a mess with powder in the bathroom. Check. Pretended to go to a party with all that make up on. Yes. It didn't help that my mother used to send me to kindergarten with lipstick on (only for special occasions and always very sheer). I had a definite moment with nail polish in grade six, though. It was sort of love at first brush and the story goes something like this... 

The monthly magazine, that I could afford at the tender age of 12 with my then-non-existent pocket money, featured an article about simple nail art and included a cut-out section of tiny little pictures and letters to stick on your nails. It showed techniques like using sticky tape to create geometric shapes and how to get simple stencils like love hearts, stars, etc. I was in awe, I wanted to do all of it, immediately!!! My sister tried the sticky tape technique while I stuck the tiny letters spelling my name (lucky both my first and middle names have five letters each) on my hands. I stuck them with a very cheap, clear polish and I enjoyed them for my weekend.

The one that enlightened me, just think 1998 version 

When I got to school the following Monday, I got so many compliments, even from the boys!!! I'm sure it was my charming personality that went so well with my fashion forward nails that caused such an impact, however, from that moment on, I learnt a little effort could bring on big rewards when trying to create something pretty (for myself mostly).

For the next 13 years, I experienced with lots of colours, textures, glitters, qualities but it was mostly only one colour/texture at the time. 

The last five months, due to the fact that I can enjoy the post-paid internet and great quantities of it, I have been enjoying the wonders of the many nail art blogs on the web. It is incredibly to see all the designs and translations of trends that women (and I'm sure there are men too, I just haven't found them) have come up with. Also, the variety of nail polishes that exist on the market has left me wanting them all!! Too bad my budget is limited (or is that good?).

So thanks Tasha for coming up with this awesome idea of creating your own nail art blog and thank you further for inviting me to write on it. This is giving a reason to create pretty things at least once a week and test (what I thought was limited) creativity.

SO... After all that banter, here's my first nail creation. 

The first step for this design was for me to learn to paint my nails properly. I used to paint them with heaps of strokes and whatever was left on my skin, I would scratch off after I had a shower. It looked good but I probably wasted a lot of water trying to get my skin soft enough to just scratch it off. I have learnt three strokes will only paint your nail, not your skin, and will also give you a more even coverage with less coats.

After a week of trying (and finally succeeding!) to paint my nails within the lines, I started with two coats of Bloom in Adriana, a bright pink with very fine blue shimmer and a suede finish. It is super quick to dry, so after five minutes I applied L.A. Girl Rock Star in Supernova. This one took a little longer to dry and left it for half a day before applying the next coat. When the glitter finally dried (to the no smudge point), I put sticky tape to 

on half my nail to apply essence Colour & Go in Hard To Resist. Finished it with Cutex Top Coat and done. 

This look reminded a bit of the title card of Saved By The Bell (remember that show?) but after looking it up in wonderful Google, it looked nothing like I had recalled. I'll just say it reminds me of the 80's. The hairy glitter is very 80's, isn't it? 

On one last note, I discover the glitter nail polish though this post. It looks amazing in the photo and was  so happy to know that I could get it at Groove Chermside for $2.50. I could not believe my luck! It looks really good when the light hits it at a good angle but it takes too long to dry and more than two coats are needed to get a good coverage of it. I guess if you have the time, patience and drying drops, this is a perfect. 




I think this first post has pretty much covered everything . A bit of personal information, the actual nail "art" (I'm not sure I should call it that yet) and even a small review.


Looking forward to sharing lots of designs, pretty colours, glitters, tips and all things nails with you.


Till next time.

Nail art: a noob's tale.

I adore nail art. I'm always amazed by the beautiful and creative designs that Laqueristas and nail techs come up with. I've dabbled a little in nail art in the past, but I've never been overly impressed with the results. It always looks too messy, and not perfect enough. 

So today, I'm proud to show off some free-hand nail art that I did. It was inspired by this post, from this even more inspiring blog. I present, the Rockabilly Manicure!

Bonus: Background Boyfriend!

I used Sportsgirl Tomato for the half moon, Butter London Yummy Mummy as the base, BYS Matte Black for the leopard spots, and OPI Bling Dynasty for the leopard spot accents. A coat of Seche Vite evened out the surface of my nails and made them super shiny.

I made it one of my New Year's resolutions to be more edgy and adventurous, fashion-wise. I love the current moon manicure trend, but I've been too nervous to try it, until I saw this design.

Stay tuned for more nail art noob adventures!

Ozotic Elytra 528

Hooray, I've gotten around to posting a nail polish review! I've been agonising over what to review first, but I've finally decided on this little Australian-made beauty.


Ozotic nail polish was recommended to me by a friend and fellow laquerista. They make a range of gorgeous nail polishes with various effects (holographic, duo chrome etc.). The first Ozotic polish I purchased, Elytra 528,  is a multi-chrome particle glitter polish. The polish colour changes from pink and purple to teal and green, depending on your movements and the light hitting the polish. It's quite a thin polish, and needs to be layered over another polish. A dark polish will bring out the best in the stunning, shifting colours.

I tried to capture all the variations in colour of 528, you can see the shift from pinky-purple to green in this picture. I used 3 coats over a matte black, and then a coat of Essie Good to Go. The glitter is so fine and smooth you can get away with no top coat, but I work with my hands so I need all the help I can get to make my polish stay on! The length of my nails is a little uneven, because I lose a nail almost every shift. Speaking of work, this polish inspired tonnes of comments the first time I wore it there.

You can buy Ozotic polishes from Picture Polish. They are an Australian company, but they do ship worldwide. It is a little on the expensive side for those outside of Australia, but this colour will be a stunning jewel in anyone's polish collection, and is totally worth it.

First Post!

Welcome to Lucky Lucky Lacquer!

I'm Tasha, a 25 year old from Brisbane, Australia. 

I love nail polish, reading nail polish reviews, participating in beauty forums and looking at purdy swatches. 

I started this blog to share my own swatches and reviews, and to hopefully help other laqueristas as much as your blogs, vlogs and general internet chit-chat have helped me. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my blog!