Find Me At My New Blog!

As some of you may know from my previous blog post, I've created a new blog and website! My new website is a place for me to share my love of blogging while also being a home to my design portfolio and services. My new blog will still have posts about beauty and lifestyle, but it'll also have posts about graphic design, social media, branding, and other topics I'm interested in! It's been so much fun here at Lipstick & Lacquer for the past few years, but I'm so excited about this new endeavor and I hope you'll join me over on my new site!

You can check out my new blog and website at www.laurenschroer.com and follow me on Bloglovin' here!

Blog Update

Hi everyone! Sorry for kind of disappearing this week and not posting! I've been hard at work on an exciting new project! 

I'm currently rebranding my blog and graphic design website and will be combining the two! I'll be relaunching my website and blog in 1-2 weeks! My blog will contain more design, blogging, and business related content, while still including beauty and lifestyle content as well! I feel like with my blog and design work combined into one website, it'll give readers a chance to get to know me better and I'll have a better opportunity to share more of my knowledge and interests too. My website will also be a place for me to share my design portfolio and services for anyone who's interested! I don't have a set date for the relaunch, but keep an eye on my Instagram and Twitter for any updates along the way! I'll of course post here when my new website launches too! I'm really excited about this new endeavor and I hope you guys are excited too!

Real Floral Manicure | Nail of the Day

For Easter weekend I wanted to do a fun, springy manicure! I came across this Ciaté Flower Manicure kit in Bada Bloom (such a cute name!) at Winners last summer, so I decided to finally try it out! It's a kit that comes with little dried pressed flowers, a nail polish, a top coat, tweezers, and a nail file. 

To get this look, I first applied Seche Base as my base coat. Then, I applied 2 coats of a pastel blue polish. The kit came with a Ciaté pastel blue polish in Ferris Wheel, but I found that after even 3 coats of it, it was still sheer and streaky in places so I ended up using a Formula X by Sephora polish in Infatuated instead. Once the blue had dried completely, I then applied a layer of the Ciaté top coat, followed by picking up and placing 1-2 flowers onto each nail. I used the back of the tweezers to gently press them into the top coat so that they'd stick. After doing each nail like that one at a time, I applied another layer of the top coat as they recommended. Then I took the nail file from the kit and gently filed any flowers down that were hanging off the top edge of my nails to smooth the edges. Once all my nails were dry, I felt like my nails were still quite bumpy and I could feel the flowers poking up through the top coat in places. To smooth them out as much as possible, I ended up applying another layer of the Ciaté top coat, and when that wasn't enough I went in and applied Seche Vite over the top. With those 3 layers of top coat my nails were much more smoothed out.

This manicure wore better than I expected over the weekend. After 3 days of wear, the purple flowers were all still in tact, but some of the pink and blue flowers had begun wearing off. I think this is a beautiful manicure if you have an event or just want a springy manicure for a couple of days, but it's not a super long wearing one. I think in the future I'll try just applying flowers to one nail as an accent nail, that way if the flowers wear off I can just repaint that one nail to go with the rest of my manicure. It was still a fun look to wear on my nails though and I got many compliments! People seemed to be really impressed that they were actually real flowers! It's a good manicure for people who aren't very good at nail art to try too, since all you have to do is place the flowers on your nails!

I don't believe these Ciaté manicure kits are still available, but it would be super easy to achieve a look like this with dried flowers you can find elsewhere. Ebay has a ton of inexpensive ones!

Would you ever try a manicure with real flowers? What other fun nail art decorations have you tried?

Also, I'm running an Instagram giveaway and it closes tomorrow! Check it out and enter if you haven't!!

Julep Maven Box | April 2015

I got my Julep Maven box in the mail the other day so I thought I'd show you what I got inside of it! I used my Jules points to get this box, so it ended up being free for me too which is always nice! I actually forgot what I had selected for my box when I received it, so opening it was a little bit of a surprise for me! I got the April Classic With a Twist box. This box included 2 polishes and a clear brow gel, which is new to the Julep product range. And, as per usual, I also got some candy in the box with a little packet of Gobstoppers (nail polish, brow products, and candy? Julep knows the way to my heart)!

The two polishes I got in my box are stunning shades for the spring and summer. I got Jenna, a tangerine creme, and Connie, a bright magenta plum creme. Both of these shades are quite unique to my collection and I'm really excited to try them out! I think they'd both make gorgeous toe colours as well. When swatched, Jenna applied evenly and opaque in just 1 coat, but Connie required 3 coats for an opaque finish because it had a slightly more jelly texture.

In this collection, Julep had quite a few new brow products available. I ended up choosing a box with only the clear brow gel because I wasn't particularly interested in the other ones since I enjoy my Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade so much. I'm always down to try a clear brow gel though, because it's such a daily staple for me! The product I received was the Lock Down Your Brows Iconic Brow Gel. It comes in a silver tube (which is always good, so I don't see how gross it'll eventually look inside) with a really tiny wand for precision. The brow gels I've used in the past have all had standard mascara wand type applicators, so I'm excited to try this small one to see if it works better for me! It claims to tame your brows in a natural way and last all day long without crunchiness or flaking. It also claims to condition the brow hairs and prevent breakage, as well as encourage regrowth in sparse areas. I don't know if it'll live up to those claims, but even if it keeps my brows in place all day I'm sure I'll be pleased enough with it.

I really couldn't be more pleased with this box. Sometimes in Julep boxes there are one or two products that I'm not super interested in, but this box was a hit. I really can't wait to use all of these products, and the fact that it was free just makes it even sweeter!

Sign up to get your first Julep Maven box for FREE!

(Because what's better than free nail polish?)

Pretty Pastel Polishes

Spring, to me, is a time for pastel nails. Especially with Easter coming up, I know I'll definitely be wearing some nice pastels on my nails. They're a fun way of having a colourful manicure without being too bright. You can even wear a different pastel shade on each nail for a fun Mini Egg-like manicure! Here are some of my favourite pastel shades!

Julep Kelsey / Julep Lilou / China Glaze In A Lily Bit / Essie Cascade Cool / Essie Bikini So Teeny / Essie Under Where? / Essie Fashion Playground

What are some of your favourite pastel polishes?

March Favourites | 2015

It's monthly favourites time once again! Today I have my March favourites to share with you! March was a bittersweet month for me. Some things came to an end like the Target I worked at closing down and Glee having its series finale, but I also have some new and exciting things in the works too! I'm so glad it's spring now, though it has been cold lately. Hopefully by the time I write my next monthly favourites post we will have had some nice weather! Anyway, onto the favourites!

MAC x Toledo Ripe Peach Blush Ombré / I know, this is a limited edition product, but I really did get quite a lot of wear out of this blush this past month! It's a beautiful peachy pink shade that gives the cheeks a nice healthy glow. I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it over the spring and summer!

Colourpop Super Shock Shadows in La La and Desert / I finally got around to trying out the Colourpop shadows this month and the formula really is as good as everyone says it is! The two shades I got are both light, warm toned golden browns (one metallic, one satin), but they make for lovely everyday eyeshadow colours.

H&M Gold Bar Pendant Necklace / I've wanted a bar pendant necklace for a little while and I spotted this beauty at H&M this month for only $5.95! I've worn it quite a few times this month and I really love it! I hope to find a similar necklace in silver to wear on days I wear silver jewelry!

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge / I love this sponge. I've gone through a couple of them because they do stain and get a bit grubby looking, but they work so nicely at applying foundation! Lately I've been opting for a more moisturized and glowy complexion, rather than heavy and matte as I wore during the winter months, and this sponge helps me achieve that look!

Sephora Cream Lip Stain in Marvelous Mauve / Apparently this is a highly sought-after lip product at the moment and I'm so glad I have it in my collection. I found this at Sephora at the end of February and managed to scoop up the last one in the store. Since then I haven't seen it in stock at any Sephora I've been to, so I'm lucky I got it when I did! It's a gorgeous neutral mauvey pink shade on the lips and it seriously lasts all day long. I now have 3 shades from this range and I'd love to get more!

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Bellissima / I've had this lipstick for quite a while actually (I hauled it last June) but I always thought it was too light of a lip colour for me. Well, I tried it on again this month and ended up loving how it looked! I even included it in my most recent Get Ready With Me video since I find it to be a beautiful colour for spring!

Sephora Formula X in Thrilling / I'm still on a nude polish kick, and I gave this one a try this month and really loved it. The formula and application were fantastic, and it also lasted over a week on my nails with very minimal chipping (and I was working with my hands quite a bit)! I'm so "thrilled" with this polish (see what I did there? ;) haha!).

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven / One of my goals this year was to read 1 book a month. Well, this was supposed to be my February book but I didn't end up finishing it until mid-March (whoops!). I did really enjoy this book though! It's said to be comparable to The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor & Park (two books I enjoyed as well) and I can see the similarities in the book styles for sure. I'd say if you like YA fiction to give this one a read! It's also being made into a movie apparently so I'm excited for that!

Those are my favourites from March! What products have you been enjoying the past month?

Get Ready With Me | Navy Liner + Peach Lips for Spring

Hello everyone! I've been wanting to make more videos lately so yesterday I filmed a Get Ready With Me featuring this spring look inspired by a photo I recently posted on Instagram. I really love this look and will definitely be wearing it a lot this spring and summer! I love the subtle hint of colour the navy liner gives and the peach lip is so nice for the springtime. If you have any more video ideas for me, let me know! I'm thinking of doing a spring lookbook when it's a little bit warmer out too!