Friday's Floral NOTD

Hi girls!

Just a quick post today during my lunch break. I'm flying home tonight and then going away early tomorrow morning so I'm afraid I won't be posting this weekend. Not to worry though, I leave you with images of another new Kiko polish I bought last weekend:

I think this shade is less red, more pink in reality but as usual it was hard to capture the colour accurately on camera.

I then stamped a full nail image from my MASH plates using a purple Kiko polish

I liked the results although the purple floral design wasn't as obvious in reality as I would have liked; people only noticed the pattern if the light caught my nails or if they looked particularly closely at them.

Do you like this manicure? Do you like your manicures to be noticeable or subtle?

Bye for now,
Laura

Wednesday's Wishlist

Currently watching: Dawson's Creek

Hey girls! Yesterday was my birthday :-) Your blogger has now reached the grand old age of 25. As I've said, I'm working in Paris, so I didn't really get to celebrate but that's okay, I received lots of nice birthday messages.

While I've been in France, one thing has caught my eye every single day: the poster for Bourjois 10 day chip-free nail polish

Before I came here, I actually considered trying the Bourjois 1 second nail polish but I couldn't justify the price (£6 for 6ml). I haven't seen how much these long lasting nail polishes retail for but might they be worth a try? What do you think?

What's on your wishlist this week?

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure

Currently watching: Dawson's Creek

Good morning girls! As I said the other day, I picked up some Kiko nail polishes while on my travels around Paris. The first one I decided to try is no338, a pale lavender/blue shade, depending on the light, which I didn't already have in my collection.

I don't actually know why I chose this colour as it is definitely not work appropriate. Oh well, since I'm in France this week I can always pass it off as suitable for work in the UK. Hmm...

Of course I couldn't leave it blank so I decided to use one of the tip designs from my Mash plates, a bow with stripes across it.

I have so much trouble placing the stamp correctly; the image always slopes down.

Do you have any tips on how to place tip images well?

In the sunlight

Do you like this manicure? Would you wear it to work?

Bye for now,
Laura

Sunday's Stamping NOTD

Currently watching: You're Fired

Morning girls!

Are you having a good weekend? I went for an 11 hour stroll around Paris yesterday. Photos galore. I also found a Kiko store so I bought a few nail polishes ;-) I'll show you them later in the week, for now I'd like to show you the manicure I did last Sunday.

I love this pink polish by Polish brand Lovely but it takes hours and hours to dry so I hardly ever wear it. However, I decided to try it with Seche Vite to see if it made a difference.

Seche Vite did help with the drying time but the results weren't spectacular. Even an hour later, when I had to haul my suitcase on to the airport bus, I managed to smudge one of my nails.

The pattern is one from my MASH plates. I think it's meant to be cow print, not sure. Anyway, I like it! The colours don't show up very well here but it looked nice in reality and it was something a bit different for me. Plus, it was appropriate for work, which is always a bonus.

Do you like this manicure? Do you have any polishes that take an age to dry?

Bye for now,
Laura

Liebster Blog Award

Currently watching: Pekin Express

Hi girls!

How are you all today? Have you had a good week? Work has been difficult for me this week so I'm really glad it's almost the weekend.

A lovely way to start the weekend is with the Liebster Blog Award :-) I'm really touched that three bloggers gave me this award; thank you very much Cristina at Opinionated Little Finger, Olivia at Varnish Me and Sara at Sara Loves Pretty Little Things :-)


This is an award for bloggers with less than 300 followers and the idea is to pass it on to bloggers who you think who deserve more recognition. I think all the bloggers I follow have great blogs and all deserve more followers and recognition but the three people I'd like to pass this award to are:

Lyndsay at Pixie Polish


Vanessa at Nail Stories


TrixDemon at Nails and Nonsense from a Brit

Enjoy the award girls!

Bye for now,
Laura

Wednesday's Wardrobe Additions

Currently listening to: Impossible by Shontelle

Good morning folks!

There's nothing on my wishlist this week so I thought I'd show you my my recent wardrobe additions which I purchased at the weekend :-)

I finally bought a pair of denim shorts after weeks, nay, months, of looking for a pair. I couldn't bring myself to pay more for a pair of shorts than I would for jeans so I ended up with this pair from Asda for £8. They do have turn ups but they aren't stitched so they can always be unfolded.

I also picked up a denim jacket from New Look when they were offering students a 20% discount. It is a mini jacket, with short (3/4 length) sleeves, which is not at all the style I wanted but price won me over as I paid only £13 for this. In my mind, I will wear it with skirts, short dresses and maxi dresses. I just need to buy a maxi dress to be able to put that plan into action.

The shade of denim is somewhere between the two shades portrayed in these photos

It's my birthday next week and I was given some birthday money in advance so I decided to treat myself in Mataln to a skirt and a dress. I don't know why this skirt caught my eye, and to be honest I still haven't made my mind up about it, but it would go with my denim jacket and recently purchased white H&M bow tshirt. I also have a pink cropped cardigan which I think would match. It's very rare for me to think in terms of complete outfits but this skirt has obviously spurred me on.

Just as I was getting ready to head for the till, I spotted this dress. Again, it's not my normal style but, em, it has butterflies all over it and as you may have gathered from my last post, I like butterflies.

The butterflies have purple and blue shades on their wings and black sequins on their bodies. However, on the back of the dress the butterflies don't have sequins so you don't have to worry about snagging them when sitting down.

What do you think of this dress? Is it a keeper?

Do you like my purchases girls? Would you wear any of these items?

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure

Currently watching: Entre Les Murs

Bonjour les filles :-)

How are you? Did you have a nice weekend? Have you recovered from the shock of last week's disappearing posts and comments?

I am in Paris on business for the next two weeks but I'm still planning on posting and visiting your blogs as best I can. I tried to take a lot of photos before I left so I have at least a few posts planned ;-)

First up is Monday's Manicure:

My base was E.L.F Pearl and then I used various colours and butterfly stamping images from my Konad, Bundle Monster and MASH plates.

The idea was to use pastels but they didn't all show up well so in the end I ended up trying to cover up my pale pastel attempts with bolder shades.

I really liked the results :-)

What do you think of this manicure?

A selection of the polishes used for stamping...

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently listening to: La-bas by Natasha St Pier

Hello girls!

Thank you for all your comments on my first blogging anniversary :-) Apologies for the timing of this post, it was planned for this morning but when I logged in to post, I had no access to my blog. That was scary. Fortunately the issue was resolved by the time I came home from work so here we are.

Today I have a manicure which I think is quite different to my usual style. To begin with, I used MUA shade 12 as my background colour. As you can see, it's very glossy.

However, the above picture is not an accurate representation of the colour. It is a lot dark in reality, more like the shade shown in the picture below

I then used Barry M Mushroom and stamped a full nail design. This was a mess. I recently acquired MASH stamping plates and although they're bigger than the first Bundle Monster set, some of my nails are still too long for the images.
To try and hide the mistakes in my stamping, I decided to stamp two bold flowers using white Konad Special polish

It's a messy manicure if you look closely but from afar it's not bad and I quite like it.

I like the idea of double stamping but I need to practise my full nail stamping.

Do you like this manicure? Do you prefer using full nail images when you stamp or a small, single image?

Bye for now,
Laura

One Year Blogging Anniversary

Hello dear readers :-)

As the title says, today is my one year blogging anniversary! I started this blog when I was living in Poland and first discovered nail blogs. Many things have changed since then but my enthusiasm for my own blog, and all of yours, remains. Thank you for following me and for supporting me during this first year. Thanks to you, I see many more years of blogging in the future :-)

How long have you been blogging for? What made you start?


Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons

Currently watching: Grey's Anatomy

Good morning,

Just a quick post from me today. I don't particularly like this manicure or think it's anything special but I wanted to show you it because I finished painting my nails towards 9pm, I was in bed by 10pm and when I woke up, look, no smudges or duvet lines :-)

Glad I finally bought Seche Vite

My base colour is Accessorize Magical Mocha and my stamping colour is Asos Paint by Ciate in Blake

Have a nice day :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure

Currently listening to: Firework by Katy Perry

Good morning girls!

Did you all have a good weekend? I had a great weekend and I would like to start by welcoming my new followers and making the happy announcement that I have now reached 100 followers :-) Thank you all for following my blog, taking the time to read my posts, and leaving me comments letting me know what you think. I appreciate all your support!

Today's manicure features one of the Essence Jelly Belly polishes, a bright red called Cherry Juice.

Application was really easy and the finish is extremely glossy.

The only thing I have to complain about is drying time: hours and hours and hours. I am buying Seche Vite tonight!

Of course I couldn't leave my nails without a pattern so I decided to be brave and go for a nail tip design from my new MASH plates (more about these later in the week) using black as my stamping colour.

Trying to get a good, clean close up of this design was problematic. Stamping it was easier.

I have always shied away from the nail tip images, having been put off after one miserable attempt but this image was a good one to try (it's the one in the middle on the picture below) as it isn't symmetrical so placing it perfectly is less of an issue.

I'm excited to give some of the other nail tip designs a try though as I think they're very appropriate for work when some full nail images are less so.

Do you like this manicure? Do you often use nail tip stamping images?

Bye for now,
Laura

Saturday's Spotty NOTD

Currently watching: Have I Got News For You

Good morning ladies!

What are your plans for the weekend? Do you have anything fun and exciting planned?

I had a dress down day at work yesterday so to get me in the mood for the weekend, I decided on this bright and fun manicure:

Two coats of Barry M Blue Moon, two coats of Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream

Followed by polka dots with the help of my dotting tool in Barry M Pure Turquoise and Natural Collection Hibiscus

I really like this manicure but drying time was ridiculously slow. I think it's time to invest in a fast drying topcoat. The days of waking up with smudges and duvet lines ruining my manicures will soon be over!

Do you like this manicure?

Do you have any recommendations for fast drying topcoats?

Bye for now,
Laura