CosmoProf Las Vegas - Blogger Meet-up and Show Day One

By now, I'm sure many of you reading this have seen other blog posts about the amazing gathering of beauty bloggers that converged on the CosmoProf tradeshow in Las Vegas, Nevada.  So much to see, do, touch, feel, and experience there!  This is my take in summary with more to follow in detail as the days pass.

The show was HUGE. The only way to see it all was to go down every row and have a plan. I didn't have a plan when I first arrived at the show and I quickly realized my folly. So, I wandered a little aimlessly that first day and found the Nubar, Zoya, Color Club, China Glaze booths and checked on a few others that looked like fun. Then I bumped into Beauty Judy!

We chatted for a bit and, this being my first show, I asked her how to go about it, she gave me some pointers when I asked for them and she was so nice and helpful and that woman has some gorgeous skin. To me, it looked absolutely flawless. She was heading over to and appointment over by the OPI booth so I tagged along to see what OPI had going on. We parted ways as I approached the OPI booth where I learned lesson #1.  Take business cards for the BLOG too!

This is "Eggplant Mosaic." Please ignore the dry skin. :)

It looks like this before you apply it over silver foil polish:

I was there to learn about the business and the channels for marketing Fashionista Nails, which is how I labeled myself with my badge...this made the booth guardians at OPI nervous and they denied me access. "Manufacturers Only" I was told. When I left, I bumped into Judy again who mentioned two other bloggers had just tweeted that they were inside the booth.  Kind of gave me one more reason to remember that OPI isn't my favorite brand. I like them well enough, just like others more.  Those other bloggers names I shall not mention, but they had a BLAST in there so you'll have to read about that should they tell me I can share. I don't want to share before they do and I'm soooo behind on my blog reading!

After a few hours of the "crazy zig-zag pattern of silliness," I headed back to the hotel, got out the laptop and my notebook and made a plan. (Lesson Learned #2 - use the tools provided to make a plan to see the show.)  I put together a list of the booths I had to visit and then revisited the list and put them in numerical order. This made the next two days sooooo much nicer.

Krystal of Polish Galore took it upon herself to organize some fantastically unbelievable cool things for all of the bloggers to do together.  Monday Morning we met with Deborah Lippman who told us about her upcoming collections - full post to follow shortly.

Monday Night we dined and talked with Katie Cazorla of The Painted Nail and The Nail Files reality television show. She was fun, funny and truly enjoyable. She'd be a delight at any party. I sat way at the other end of the long table so I didn't get to chat much with her, but that's ok. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Melissa, Katherine, Jen, Michelle, Maria and her bestie Ana. Suffice it to say, we were having our own fun at the far end of the table. Katie seemed to enjoy the time with us and I sure hope she did as much we enjoyed having her join us. There were pictures taken, but I don't have any. :( Help!

Tuesday

20% off Fashionista Nails? Oh YEAH!

Big sale starts today!  20% off on 3 or more sets. Just enter the code "MAY2011SPECIAL" at checkout!
Sale ends May 21, 2011 at midnight PDT.

There are so many new designs than you see above too, check em out!

LOVE

Gorgeous! (comes in a variety of colors too!)

This goes with my new dress PERFECTLY! <3

So get on over to www.fashionistanails.com asap and enter that code!

Happy shopping! What will you pick?

~Lacquered Lizard

Happenings and changes! Fashionista Nails

Something New on the Horizon!

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for sticking around this almost dead blog...I'm resurrecting it, but Lacquered Lizard will be a bit different in the near future.

You might first notice that the post is written by "Fashionista Nails!" and not "Lacquered Lizard". Don't fret, it's still me, just making some EXCITING changes as I begin a fun path down a new venture in Nail products - Maria, you inspired me.

I'll be posting here and everywhere nail related as Fashionista Nail

s! because I've joined the team and will be the marketing person for this super cool product that I love. I'll also be sharing more of the designs here, tips on how to use them best and fun things you can do with them besides the basics.

I'll post about other nail products still, so don't run away thinking I'm going to be all "salesy"...I just want to share how much I love the product and help anyone who is considering trying them to use them with ease from the start. (There IS a learning curve...just like Konading.)

So, I hope you'll stick around still as I ramp up the posts, share what I've learned and continue to learn about the nail world. Please know that I'll still be reading other blogs and commenting under this new "identity" to help get the word out.

There will be some fun contests and such coming up too, so that you all can have a chance to try Fashionista Nails and love them like I do! Watch Twitter and Facebook...fun times ahead, fun times.

This is the start of something new, something fun and something I will truly enjoy every moment of...and hopefully it will open doors to doing more marketing for other great Nail products!

Fashionista Nails Monday Madness Sale

Been thinking about trying them? Now's a great time!

Monday Madness SALE at Fashionista Nails!  Use the coupon MONMAD at checkout to get $5 off orders of $19 or more!

Today only! Nows the time to check 'em out!

Fashionista Nails Review

Recently, a dear friend I met a few years ago in another world (yes, another world) contacted me to let me know she was creating a product I just might be interested in.  Since we met in that other world, we've become friends in this one and she's seen the many photos of my fingernails I post up at Facebook, and she joined the "Nail Polish Collectors" group there. Fantastic group by the way, join us! Erin of the Tropical Mind Blog started the group and we share photos, lemmings, whatever. If you haven't joined that party, you are missing some fun (and maybe missing out on contributing some fun too!)

I digress.

My friend Esther and I chatted a bit and she offered to send me some rough samples.  I'm talking about something I've been tweeting and facebooking about for a few weeks now. Fashionista Nails!  

Ok, I know what you're thinking: "Everyone is doing nail covers. I've seen them, don't need to see anymore." Let me tell you and then show you what's different about these.

1. They are water decals, not stickers. Full nail coverage in a water decal. This means easy removal folks, this means you can move them around until you get them placed where you want them without messing them up.

2. They are precut so you just do a little snip snip and they're ready to play with.

3. They wear like regular nail polish, so if you keep the tips touched up, they'll last for a few weeks providing you stay out of water and all the regular things you want to avoid to keep your manicure looking nice.

4. And this is the best one: They are sheer...but not so sheer that you can't see the beautiful designs on your nails, but oh the fun I had with this part! You put them on over nail polish 

The first set I tried was named, "Seduce" and I wasn't crazy about it on the paper, but I put it on over Orly Glitz and Glamour to make the lines pop and it worked. I'm rogue like that...I read the instructions and then interpret them my own way.  Take a look: (and you can click pics to make them larger)

I will tell you now, that manicure is a week old there. :)  I got lots of compliments on this manicure.

So, I wore some other colors and took my time cutting out the next set...so that when I sat down, I could do them all and see how long application would take in the new format (precut!)  After laying down the polish bases, it took me about 20 mins to do the whole decal application/sealing thing. So it adds about the same amount of time as a basic Konad design, but you get a bit more...and you can konad over this stuff, add bling or what ever the creative muse tells you to do.

For the second set: "Fever" I decided to play around with the base color. On my pinkies I used a Pink Foil from Europe that has no name, ring fingers got Orly Glitz and Glamour again, Middle got Nfu Oh #61, forefingers got a coat of Sally Hansen Celeb City (or some similar silver foil) and the thumbs were a base of China Glaze Millenium.  So you can see how the different base colors can change the overall look. Check it out (and remember to click!)

These photos were also taken about a week into the manicure...so I remain impressed. I couldn't see the wrinkles that the macro setting sees.
I love how the ring finger looks more festive in a holiday kind of way...and the holo underneath the design is just amazing. My favorite one.

See?

Overall, I will probably get a few more to keep around for special occasions when I want to rock something completely different that allows for me to add my own twist. 

I think the price is right there with the "norm" for manicure items similar to this, but this is more versatile and honestly, it was fun to have a different base color under each one...kind of an artful skittle. 

I made a video and when I figure out how to post it to my Youtube from my phone, I'll post it up. You have to see the holo in action.

Fashionista Nails has a Facebook Page and a Twitter account in case you want to follow them. Last week they gave away a couple sets to followers. But you can see the designs here: http://www.fashionistanails.com/designs

What do you think of these?