Thursday's Talons: Floral NOTD

Currently listening to: Titanium by David Guetta
 

Good morning girls,

Today I am very excited to show you my latest freehanded floral manicure so I really hope you like it (and please don't judge the manicure on this first photo) :-)

 

 

I started off by painting my nails with two coats of a blue franken I made in winter called Icicle Storm.  I have no idea what polishes I used to make it but it has a lot of shimmer and a touch of glitter in it.  Application was awful as it's very thick ;-)

 I then used a white striper to draw three vertical stripes down the length of each nail and painted some roses on each nail using a paintbrush and acrylic paints.

Originally I wasn't sure if I should add green leaves to the roses but I'm so glad I did.  You can see the initial design in the first picture and compare it to the other photos.  Not only did I add leaves, I also added more touches of paint to the roses to improve their appearance.

In the end I was really proud of this design and surprised by how easy it was.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Sunday's Swatch ft Turquoise Chic

Currently watching: The Big Bang Theory

Good afternoon lovely ladies,

Today I'd like to show you a franken I made called Turquoise Chic:

I used a nude jelly called Cotton Candy by Essence and added various blue polishes to create this shade.

I didn't have time to stamp so I added a layer of Essence Julia for some glitz :-)

This wasn't the original shade I was aiming to create and when I first applied it I was disappointed as I thought it looked the same as MUA Shade 5 and Eyeko Vintage Polish but actually it's less green than those two shades:

What do you think girls?

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

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

Monday's Manicure

Currently watching: Inception

Good morning girls!

I am very excited as this is my last week of work before I finish for Christmas :-)

With that in mind, I decided to spruce up yesterday's swatch with some winter stamping:

My first step was to stamp a snowflake using Konad Special Polish in white and Red Angel plate RA119.

I then sponged on some Miss Sporty silver glitter. It was my first time using this sponging technique. I will definitely be using it again.

To finish off, I applied a layer of Miss Sporty Sparkle Touch glitter.

I really liked this, despite the silver sponging leaving a bit of a mess around my cuticles! What do you think of this manicure girls? Are you a fan of sponging?

Bye for now,
Laura

Sunday's Swatch ft Icicle Storm

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing

Good evening girls!

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend and, if you're in the UK, enjoyed watching the amazing semi-final of Strictly Come Dancing :-)

Today I'd like to show you a franken I made a couple of weeks ago, Icicle Storm:

I think the reason for the name is clear when you look at the polish in the bottle but once applied to my nails, the polish loses its connection to the name and the blue becomes a lot deeper than I wanted it to be.

These pictures show three coats of polish but there is still visible nail line. I didn't have the heart to layer on another coat though.

Although this polish contains both shimmer and glitter, only the shimmer is really noticeable on my nails. I have the odd fleck of glitter here and there but as with my other franken, it is difficult to transfer the glitter from the bottle to my nails.

I'll definitely use this polish again but I may try to lighten it so on my nails it looks more akin to what's in the bottle.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Sunday's Stamping (and my first Franken)

Currently watching: X Factor

Hello girls!

Are you having a good weekend? Yesterday I discovered how fun it is to create frankens. Mine didn't turn out at all as planned but I think I may have a new hobby ;-) Here's my first, Fairytale Ending:

It looks much better in the bottle than it does on my nails. For some reason, hardly any of the glitter actually transferred on to my nails.

I then stamped using Bourjous Bleu Asphalte and MASH plate m64. I hadn't tried this pattern before and I'm not sure I will use it again to be honest. It looks like henna, which I like, but for some reason I just don't think it works. What do you think?

I applied a coat of Nail Tek Foundation, which dries matte, rather annoyingly, and then had to layer over another coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat. I haven't been using Nail Tek Foundation long enough to see results but I can say straight away that one disadvantage of it compared to OPI Nail Envy is the fact it dries matte.

What do you think of this manicure girls? Do you make frankens?

Bye for now,
Laura