Saturday's Stamping

Hello girls,

Just wanted to let you know that I'm guest blogging over at Aimee's Nails today with this manicure:

More pics are on her blog so please have a look!

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday's Framed Fingers

Currently watching: The Apprentice UK

Good morning dear readers!

I'm quite excited about today's post as it features a new type of manicure for me. But before I show you my efforts, let's start with my base colour, Kiko 346:

I absolutely love this colour yet this is only the second time I've worn it after purchasing it last spring!

I'm not sure how to describe the shade although the pictures are quite accurate. Green agate maybe? Dark green jade?

Now we get to the framing :-) I'm sure there's plenty of potential here for colourful and creative designs but as this was my first time I wanted to keep things simple. I used my dotting tool to place dots of Barry M Silver Foil around the edges of my nails.

I then decided to stamp a butterfly in each frame using Konad plate m36.

What do you think girls? Is this a trend you like?

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently watching: Requiem for a Dream

Good morning girls!

I have to start by thanking you all for the lovely comments on my previous manicure, they really meant a lot to me. Today's manicure is nowhere near as interesting but I hope you like it anyway.

I used Pink Hibiscus by Essence as my base. It's a great shade, full of shimmer and sparkle, but while it was drying I bumped my nails at least five times so I needed something to cover up all the dents. The best polishes for a rescue operation like this are crackle polishes and glitter topcoats. I didn't want to have to deal with glitter removal so I chose Barry M crackle polish in pink.

What do you think girls? Are you still using crackle polishes or have you moved on to magnetic polishes?

Bye for now,
Laura

Short Spring NOTD

Currently watching: The Apprentice UK

Good morning girls and welcome to the weekend :-)

On Thursday night I decided to cut my nails as they were making it difficult for me to type, text and tap my PIN into keypads. Unfortunately I lost control of my left hand when cutting the nails on my right hand so I ended up with shorter nails than I had planned. Never mind though, they will grow back! And I think short nails are on trend now anyway. Possibly.

I thought I'd bring out a real spring-time manicure as we've been seeing a lot of sunshine this week:

I used Nails Inc Spitalfields as my base.

I then used my dotting tool to make small flowers using Essence Groovy (teal) and Essence Pink Hibiscus.

[Please ignore the white marks on my skin, I don't know what they were]

What do you think girls? I actually received a few compliments on this manicure and quite liked it myself. It's simply but very easy to create.

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently reading: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I have a girlie manicure for you using all pinks:

(Barry M Pink Iridescent, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, Konad Special Polish)

Strawberry Ice Cream caused me problems although it's not the first time I've used this polish. It was very streaky so on some nails I used two layers and on other nails I used three coats.

I then added my glitter topcoat to add a bit of sparkle.

My final step was to stamp two flowers on my thumb and ring finger nails using a Born Pretty Store image plate (the Hello Kitty one).

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday's Talons ft Aztec

Currently listening to: Super Bass by Nicki Minaj

Good morning dear readers,

Today I'd like to show you a duochrome polish I recently purchased from the Accessorize range:

Now my photos do not do this polish justice at all so I'm going to have to use it for another manicure soon and try to take better pictures but basically Aztec is one of the most interesting colour-changers I have seen.

It looks purple in the bottle yet when I applied my first coat the only colour I could see was sea-green. To be honest I was slightly worried that I had picked a bad bottle.

The second coat made everything better though (although after looking at these pictures I think I'll wear three coats next time) and the polish was a nice purple shade. These pictures make Aztec look very dark but in reality the colours flash from purple to green to yellow to gunmetal grey. It looked especially awesome under my classroom light yesterday ;-)

Of course I couldn't leave it alone so I stamped two butterflies using Barry M Nail Effects in gold and Konad plate m36.

What do you think girls? Do you have any duochromes?

Bye for now,
Laura

This or That?

Currently listening to: Video Games by Lana Del Ray

Good morning girls!

Today I thought I'd do something a little different and consider myself tagged by Rainbowify Me :-)

Coke or Pepsi?
Pepsi

Ice cream or frozen yoghurt?
I'd have to say ice cream because I don't think I've tried frozen yoghurt. I'd like to though!

Clothes or make-up?
Well, I like both but I'll go for clothes (on the condition that the term "make-up" excludes nail varnish ;-) )

Hair spray or frizz lotion?
Hair spray

TV or book?
Book, definitely. I love getting lost in a good book. Anyway, there's not a lot on tv these days that I consider worth watching.

Pool or beach?
Hmm...beach, although walking on hot sand is so painful

Water or soda?
Water, it's pretty much all I drink

Sandals or boots?
Sandals

Purse or backpack?
Purse

Team Jacob or Team Edward?
Tough one. Probably Team Edward.

Wizards of Waverly Place or Hannah Montana?
Hanna Montana

Mall or online shopping?
Mall. I definitely need to try my clothes/shoes on before I buy.

Tennis or soccer?
Tennis, although I haven't played since I was a child

MAC or Maybelline?
It depends who's paying ;-)

I hope you found that interesting, please consider yourselves tagged and let me know if you do this!

Bye for now,
Laura

Saturday's Stamping ft Fantasy Fire

Currently listening to: Super Bass by Nicki Minaj

Good morning girls!

Let's start the weekend on a high note with a pretty manicure featuring the elusive Max Factor Fantasy Fire :-)

I decided to use H&M Fashionista as my base before layering a coat of Fantasy Fire on top of it.

In real life, Fantasy Fire is really very pretty and adds dancing specks of red to my nails when worn on top of this purple polish. Unfortunately the photos do not do it justice. Next time I'll layer it over a different colour to see if I can capture the colour-changing glory with more success.

For my stamping I used Barry M Nail Effects in gold and Born Pretty Store image plate m65. I really like these image plates; a fraction of the price of Konad plates yet I've had no problems with quality. Oh and please ignore the ripples in my ring finger nails. These were not that obvious in reality!

[My best attempt at capturing the red flecks of Fantasy Fire]

What do you think girls? Have you joined the Fantasy Fire craze?

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons ft Pretty Butterflies

Currently listening to: Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5

Good morning girls!

Today I'd like to show you a manicure I did featuring a kind-of franken:

I was looking at my polish collection when I saw this pink jelly Essence polish and realised that I hardly ever wear it because it is so sheer, requires about four thick coats for me to actually like looking at it on my nails and takes ages to dry, even with a speed dry topcoat.

So I decided to add some Essence Julia glitter to see if that would make the polish more finger-friendly.

I used three coats to get this result and I know the glitter isn't that prevalent but I like this.

I then stamped using various butterfly images and Konad Special Polish in pink and Essence Pink Hibiscus. On my accent finger I used Barry M Nail Effects in silver.

What do you think girls? Are you fans of jelly polishes?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons ft Freehanded Flowers

Currently watching: Top Gear

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I have two firsts for you: my first attempt at free-handing flowers (fail) and my first showing of this golden polish by Polish company MV/Editt Cosmetics:

I've had this polish for about two years but I don't think I'd ever tried it before today. I have mixed feelings about it and can't decided whether I like the colour or not.

I must have been feeling creative when I painted my nails as I decided to use my dotting tool to freehand some flowers using Essence Just in Case for the petals and Natural Collection Raspberry for the centres.

I think I'll stick to my flower image plates in future. Free-handing is hard!

Bye for now,
Laura

Sunday's Simple NOTD

Currently watching: Keeping the Faith

Good afternoon dear readers,

Today I'd like to show you the last in my collection of the Boots 17 magnetized nail polishes:

This is my third polish from the range and now that I know how to use the magnet, application is really easy. I only needed to use one coat of polish per nail so as well as being easy, this was also a quick manicure.

Of course you know me, I rarely leave my nails without some nail art but instead of stamping, I decided to apply some nail stickers:

(The sticker film is not at all obvious in real life)

I really like this manicure and I think this blue polish is my favourite from the Boots 17 magnetized collection. What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday's Fingers

Currently watching: One Tree Hill

Hi girls! My fortnight of working 7.30am - 6.30pm is finally over so now I can get back to regular blogging! Yay :-)

Today I'd like to show you the manicure I'm currently wearing:

Please take into consideration the fact that I did this manicure at about 6.30 this morning ;-) Bearing that in mind, it looks like spring is finally on its way as I was actually able to take decent photos in daylight before going to work!

Anyway, on to the manicure itself. During the week I'd seen a Disney-themed manicure here on The Nail Network blog featuring Sinful Colors Cinderella and I really liked it so decided to do a direct copy.

Unfortunately I don't have the Cinderella polish so I used Barry M Blue Moon as my substitute which has a lot less shimmer in it.

I then stamped the shoe image using Konad Special Polish in white and Bundle Monster plate BM213.

It was the first time I'd used this image so I'm pleased that I was finally inspired to. It was easy to stamp as well.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons

Currently reading: Game of Thrones

Good evening girls!

I hope you are all well and enjoying the start of your week. This evening I'd like to show you the manicure I'm currently sporting, featuring a franken I made:

I used an old white polish as a base and added some glitter and purple polishes. I haven't made many frankens but when I do, I tend to start with old polishes that I never wear on their own. This means they tend to be thick and do not apply well. This was apparent on two of my nails (index and middle finger on my left hand).

I decided to stamp using Kiko 332 and a floral image from Bundle Monster plate BM221.

I really like the way these two colours go together and I always love a floral manicure.

What do you think of this manicure?

Bye for now,
Laura