New Year's Eve Nails

Currently watching: Absolutely Fabulous

Hello girls!

I've been seeing lots of pictures of your New Year's Eve manicures so I thought it was about time to show you mine even though I know in some countries 2012 has already arrived.

Lacking inspiration, I asked my dad to choose my base colour for me. He selected a royal blue (shade 51) by Yesensy.

I then sponged on some Miss Sporty silver. The idea was to sponge it in three diagonal lines but my sponging was neither neat nor precise so on some nails I have more silver polish than blue polish.

I then placed three blue jewels along the middle *stripe* of each nail to lift my manicure.

What do you think?

As this will be my last post of 2011 I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers, new and old, for supporting me this year and encouraging me to continue blogging. The experience would not be the same without you and I'm really looking forward to sharing 2012 with you all.

Happy New Year!

Bye for now,
Laura

A NOTD First

Hi girls!

I have some exciting news for you: today I'm guest posting for Theodora over at Red Hair and Black Nail Polish :-) This is my first guest post so I'd really appreciate it if you would read my post and also follow Theodora if you don't already because her blog is truly one of the most fabulous blogs there is and her nail art is simply stunning :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons

Currently watching: Everybody Loves Raymond

Good morning girls! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that Santa was good to you ;-)

Today I'd like to show you my first gradient manicure:

My first step was to use two coats of E.L.F Pearl as my base.

I then sponged on a lilac Wibo shade.

Next I sponged on 332 by Kiko and finally a dark purple Miss Sporty shade. It was supposed to be a purple gradient but the lilac looked pink and the dark purple looked navy...

In an attempt to rescue the manicure, I used a glitter topcoat with silver moons and stars in it.

This wasn't a total success but I think it's a fair attempt for my first gradient manicure. What do you think? And did you get any nice polishes from Santa?

Bye for now,
Laura

Christmas Manicure

Currently watching: The OC

Good evening ladies! Thanks for all your kind words about yesterday's manicure :-) Today I'd like to show you the manicure I shall be wearing on Christmas Day:

I don't know if I will continue doing festive manicures after Christmas so this may actually be my last festive/wintery manicure of the year...

For this manicure I used two coats of China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses (green) and two coats of Nails Inc Victoria and Albert (red).

I've had this China Glaze polish for almost a year now but this is the first time I've used it and I don't know why, I absolutely love it.

To finish, I stuck silver hearts down the middle of each line. I think they helped to disguise the fact my lines weren't straight as I didn't use tape for this manicure. I'm really impressed with the staying power of these hearts; they've already lasted for 24 hours and have even survived me washing my hair :-)

What do you think girls?

I'm not sure if I will be posting tomorrow so in case I don't, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a fabulous day, however you spend it.

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday's Fair Isle Nail Fail

Currently watching: The Big Bang Theory

Good evening ladies,

Today, at this late hour, I'd like to show you my *artist's impression* of Fair Isle:

I used E.L.F Pearl as my base then stamped using Victoria and Albert by Nails Inc and a black polish.

I can't remember what image plates I used for this (if you're interested, leave me a comment and I will let you know) but as you can see, my stamping was a bit of a disaster. It looked okay from far away though ;-)

What do you think girls? Have you had any nail fails recently?

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Thanks ft Top 10 Manicures of 2011

Currently watching: Grey's Anatomy

Hello ladies!

Today I would like to thank Rainbowify Me and Whimsical Glam for giving me the Top 10 award :-)

The rules of this award are that you should thank the blogger who gave you the award, display the picture, share your Top 10 beauty products, and then pass the award on to 10 other bloggers and notify them of the award.

I've actually already received this award so I thought instead of telling you my Top 10 beauty products (which I don't really have anyway), I would choose my Top 10 manicures of 2011. Here they are (in no particular order), I hope you enjoy seeing them again :-)

Which of my Top 10 is your favourite?

The bloggers I would now like to pass this award on to are:

Wickless and Polished
Paint That Nail
Strong Nails
Nail Loopy
Nails From Fairy Tale
Polish Amor
Captivating Claws
Nic Nack's Nails
Chalkboard Nails
Prettyfulz

Well done girls, I look forward to finding out your Top 10 beauty products/manicures of 2011/polishes etc :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Wednesday's Winter NOTD

Currently watching: One Tree Hill

Good morning dear readers :-)

Today I'd like to show you a wintery manicure I'm wearing today:

My first step was to paint my nails using E.L.F's Pearl. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I do not like this polish. Application isn't great and frosted polishes are always difficult to work with anyway.

I then stamped my tips using black polish and MASH plate m57.

To finish the manicure I then stamped a red star from Bundle Monster plate BM206 using Kiko 254.

My stamping was a bit misplaced on some nails but overall I think this design worked quite well.

It even reminded me ever so slightly of a Fair Isle pattern :-)

What do you think of this manicure girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons ft Red Angel

Currently watching: The Big Bang Theory

Good morning girls,

Here's the manicure I'm wearing today:

I used Kiko 332 as my base. It's a bit less blue in real life and more purple, like Cadbury's or Milka purple ;-)

I actually didn't like it on its own so I stamped using Miss Sporty silver and Red Angel plate RA108.

I was prepared for this stamping to be difficult but actually it was okay, largely because the silver polish I used for stamping didn't give a crisp image.

Have you used this image before girls? If so, how did you get on?

Bye for now,
Laura

Badges Galore!

Currently watching: The OC

Good evening girls!

I hope you are all well and enjoying the run-up to Christmas. This evening I would like to thank Ashesela at Art Evolve and Theodora at Red Hair and Black Nail Polish for giving me two badges recently, the Glitter Badge and the Nail Art Friendly Blog Badge :-)

Ashesela is a blogger I've been following for a relatively short time but I love catching up with her posts and seeing her swatches and manicures :-) With the Glitter Badge you are supposed to post a picture of your favourite glitter manicure so here is mine:

I used MUA Shade 1 for this with Essence Julia as my glitter topcoat.

I would now like to pass this badge on to the following bloggers:
Red Hair and Black Nail Polish
Neverland Nail Blog
Rainbowify Me

I look forward to seeing your favourite glitter manicures girls :-)

As for the Nail Art Friendly Blog Badge, I would like to thank Theodora for awarding me this as she is truly one of the most inspirational and talented nail bloggers I know and I am delighted that she considers my nail art worthy of this badge :-) I would now like to pass this badge on to the following bloggers:

Canadian Nail Fanatic
Sekhmet's Purple Castle
Whimsical Glam
Katie's Stuff

Congratulations girls :-) If you are not already aware of these blogs, please check them out, they are all fabulous!

Bye for now,
Laura

Saturday's NOTD

Currently watching: Frozen Planet

Hello girls!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on Thursday's Talons. I'm really happy to know you liked my butterfly manicure but of course I couldn't leave it alone, I had to add some colour:

I used acrylic paints and a small nail brush to colour in the butterfly wings.

I loved it :-)

What do you think?

Bye for now,
Laura

PS Thank you to those of you who have been passing awards and tags on to me recently. I appreciate them all and I will be posting about them next week :-)

Thursday's Talons

Currently watching: Young Apprentice

Good morning girls!

Today I'd like to show you a new style of manicure I did, using crackle polish to paint my tips:

My base is a silver shade from Miss Sporty then I painted my tips with Barry M Crackle Nail Effects. Trying to get that in straight lines was tricky ;-)

I then stamped butterflies using a black Wibo polish and Konad plate m36

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura