Guest Post! Kissed by a Rose

Lisl here! It's been a long time since either Arden or I posted (long story short: life happened), but Casa de Polish will not be neglected.  I'm super excited because my two best friends from elementary school guest posting today!  Take it away Karebear and Sher!

Hello, Casa de Polish followers, minions, and fans!

Karen and Sarah here, two of Lisl's longtime bffls. We are both beginner nail artists, with more passion than practice, and today we set out to try out this pink mani with black rose accent nail from one of our other favorite nail blogs, Pshiiiit.

We went through Sarah's collection to  find colors that closely matched the original and came up with:

Base coat: Essie - Feed Me

Main Pink: Unforgettable Moments - Pink Lai

Dark Pink: Essie - My Place or Yours

Light Pink: Essie - Blanc

Main Green: Julep - Courteney

Dark Green: Butter London - Thames

Gold Highlight: Nail Rock - Venus Gold

Top coat: Seche Vite

STEPS

1. Base coat, pink coat with a black accent nail

Sarah:

First, I painted my nails with Essie - Feed Me. I don't think this is actually a base coat but I've been using it as one. Next, I painted all but one of my nails with two coats of Essie - My Place or Yours and then the accent nail with one coat of the very solid, very mysterious Noir polish of unknown origin. I've never had a decent black before, so I was very excited to find this in the cupboard under my sink!

2. Roses.

Karen:

I started by dotting two dots of Unforgettable Moments - Pink Lai where I wanted to paint the basic flower shapes. I then filled them out into irregular blobs, and waited for them to dry. Protip: Make sure the pink flowers are small enough so that you can add leaves around them.

I then added shadows in the darker pink My Place or Yours with a dotting tool. While the roses dried, I added leaves in the main green color, also with a dotting tool. I finished off the roses with white highlights (light pink would work well as well). 

As you see from the photo, I started out with a dotting tool, but ended up using a mechanical pencil to do smaller dots because it had a more precise tip. I then shaded the leaves with dark green, and added gold highlights to make them pop.

Here is a handy gif if you are more of a visual learner than I am:

3. Top coat & Cleanup

Sarah:

Seche Vite is arguably one of the most useful polishes in my opinion, as it makes everything super shiny and smooth to the touch. I ran out a few weeks ago, so inviting Karen over was very strategic on my part.

4. Admire

They are so, so pretty!

We hope you enjoyed this rose mani. Try it yourself and let us know what you think!

33DC Flowers - One Stroke Roses!

Hey y'all! Todays, well technically yesterdays, prompt for 33DC was flowers, so I decided to give one stroke flowers another try.  This time, I followed a tutorial on how to make "spiral roses."  So mine do not look nearly as cool as the ones in the video, but it's only my second time doing one stroke ever, so I'm cutting myself a lil' slack.

33DC: Indian Nails!

Hey Y'all!  This week's theme in the 33DC Arden and I are taking part of was Indian nails!  Since I've been spending a fair amount of time pinterest-ing wedding gowns with one of my best friends, I decided I'd base a manicure off of one of the dresses!  (The one I chose was the one that is in the picture above).

One Stroke Flowers (Adventures with Acrylic Paints!)

Hey Guys!  It's Lisl.  I am just so excited to share this new manicure with y'all!  This is my first foray into the one stroke technique!  I first saw pictures of one stroke flowers on Pshiiiit, and knew I had to give them a try.  

I Can't Afford That: Stella McCartney Roseberry Lace Dress + Debut of my Mash Nail Art Brush Set

Aaaah!!!! So much to write about today, guys!  (By the by, this is Lisl, if you can't tell by the fact that I opened with "Aaaah!!!!")  Today I'm writing about my obsession with this amazing, amazeballs (that's right - two different kinds of amaze) Stella McCartney dress, and I am ALSO showing off my new nail art brush set.  Can we handle that many things at once? 

Keep reading to find out if we can handle that many things at once!

Crumpets Nail Tarts: May Tri-Polish Challenge Day 3

Hey y'all, it's Lisl. So here is my third Tri-Polish Challenge manicure for May presented without comment.

Just kidding! I have so many comments! Read on!

Before I start the commenting, here's the deal with the Tri-Polish Challenge.  It's a challenge organized by Crumpet's Nail Tarts.  The rules are simple.  Every month there are three assigned colors.  This month it's grey, blue and red and I chose the nail polishes Cover Girl Non-Stop Stone, Butter London Blagger and OPI Quarter of a Cent-Cherry.  Now I just have to create four manicures using those three polishes!

For manicure #3 I was inspired by all the pretty rose manicures I've been seeing recently, like the ones on Polished Elegance and Nailasaurus. I started out using striping tape to make vertical stripes on each nail, with Sally Hansen White Out as a base.

I Can't Afford That: Valentino Ricamato Daisy Cap Sleeve Dress

'Sup, it's Lisl. Welcome back to "I Can't Afford That", my sporadically appearing feature where I paint my nails in the style of expensive clothing that I want so bad, but will never own.  Today I've got a manicure inspired by this beautiful white floral Valentino dress, which, should you have an extra 5,000 dollars lying around, is yours to buy and keep and probably spill ketchup on.  Huzzah!

Crumpet's Nail Tarts: April Tri-Polish Challenge Day 3

Hey guys,  here (a little late) is my third manicure for April's Tri-Polish Challenge!  For a quick catch up on the challenge, you can check out the rules here and see the first two manicures I did here and here.  The basic premise is that there are three official colors for each month, and you do four manicures using the same three polishes!  For April I chose L'Oreal Not A Cloud In Sight, Essie Fear Or Desire and China Glaze Make An Entrance.

So for my third manicure I wanted to do a simple and easy leopard print.  I'd played around with making leopard designs for fun on scrap paper so I figured it couldn't be too difficult. Well, I have to say what came out at the end isn't very leopard-y.