Friday's Fingers: Textured Essie

Currently listening to: Bells of New York City by Josh Groban

Good morning ladies,

Sometimes, when my evening does not go as planned, I end up getting up very early the following morning and painting my nails before I go to work.  This never ends well.

Last week I painted my nails with Essie Cascade Cool at about 6.30am.  At 12.30pm I sat on my hands and ended up with the texture of the chair cushion imprinted on my nails!

 My rescue plan that evening was to add a layer of 17 Daisy Darling glitter and floral stamping with Barry M Pomegranate and Konad s9.

Have you ever had a nail disaster like this?

Bye for now,

Laura

Mid-week Manicure: Claire's Butterfly Sequins

Currently listening to:  You're  Still You by Josh Groban

Hello ladies,

Today's manicure features my first polish from Claire's Accessories (or is it just Claire's these days?).

  T

A fellow blogger recently alerted me to the fact that Claire's stocked multi-coloured glitters, akin to the type I'd only previously seen sold by indie polish makers so I felt obliged to see what I could find in my local shop.

 There were so many colours I was tempted by but not knowing the quality of the brand, and not needing any solid colours, I decided to stick to a couple of glitters.  This first one is called Sequins and consists of black, white and pink confetti suspended in clear polish.

 I layered it over Barry M Silver Foil and then stamped a couple of butterflies on each nail using MUA shade 2 and Konad plate m36.

 I like the way this turned out and I'm excited to try Sequins over a white base.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Monday's Manicure: Beth's Blue Flowers

Currently watching: Grey's Anatomy

Good morning ladies,

I'm starting the week with a simple floral manicure.

 The base is Models Own Beth's Blue, a pretty cornflower blue shade.

 A variety of floral designs was stamped using Konad Special Polish and Konad plate s9.

Which design is your favourite?

Bye for now,

Laura

Mid-week Manicure: Christmas Sweater

Currently listening to: Let Me Go by Gary Barlow

Good morning girls,

This time next week Christmas Day will be upon us (yay!) so in order to make the most of festive manicures I'm planning to post every day until then.  I hope you'll enjoy what I have to show you :-)

Today's manicure features Nails Inc Tate, a blood red shade, as the base.

I then stamped using Konad Special Polish in white and MoYou London festive plate 04.

 As with my previous experience of using this plate, the image wasn't as crisp as I wanted it to be and I did have some transfer issues.  For that reason, I decided to use a different design on my other hand, which I'll be showing you tomorrow.

What do you think girls?  Have you started wearing your Christmas sweaters yet?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons: Berry Christmas Sweater

Currently listening to: Les Voyages en Train by Grand Corps Malade

Hello ladies,

As the title suggests, today I have a Christmas sweater manicure to show you.

I decided to use Catrice Dirty Berry as my base, a grey-toned purple polish which I think I've had for a couple of years and used only a couple of times.  I absolutely love how it looks which made me question why I've worn it so rarely and I think it's because a) I struggle to find polishes which stamp well over it and b) my old camera could never capture it regularly.  Now that I'm using a different camera these photos are colour accurate so at least that's one issue solved.

 I then stamped a Christmas sweater pattern using MoYou London plate Festive 04.  On my thumb and index finger I stamped using Easy Paris shade 3 then, unhappy with the blurry transfer of the design, switched to Konad Special Polish in white. 

 I thought the Konad polish produced crisper results but these pictures don't really show a difference so now I'm not too sure. Are there any white polishes you would recommend that stamp well?

 This is the first time I've used MoYou London stamping plates and while I do love the designs, I nearly cried when I saw how big the images are because they are just far too big for my nails.  I find the images in the third Bundle Monster series are the perfect size for me and as you can see below, the MoYou London ones are considerably larger.

What do you think girls?  Have you tried MoYou London plates before?

Bye for now,

Laura

Sunday's Stamping: Knockout Nails

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing 

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you a manicure I created with the newest addition to my stash of nail art supplies, Konad plate s9.

Although I have a large collection of image plates, only two of them are Konad and those were the first image plates I ever bought.  Since then, I've chosen to buy the more affordable plates from Born Pretty Store, Bundle Monster, Cheeky etc but when I was browsing Amazon last week I was taken by the images on Konad s9 and decided I wanted it.

 My base is 17 Knockout Red and I stamped using MUA Shade 2 and Konad s9.  I was reminded how high quality Konad plates are and I definitely think it's worth paying more for the Konad brand when the images are intricate.  This is something I would do well to remember.

As much as I liked the initial results I decided to add some gold detail and filled in the flower petals with Barry M Gold Foil.

Then I decided to fill in the girl's bow too ;-)

What do you think girls?  What brand of image plates do you buy?

Bye for now,

Laura

Saturday's Stamping: Digital Butterflies

Currently listening to:  I Follow Rivers by Lykke Li

Good morning ladies,

The sun was hiding when I did this manicure and all I could see from my window was grey skies and raindrops yet I was inspired to bring out my holographic polishes.

 

 

I started by painting my accent nail with Nail Pop Dusky and my other nails with Milani Digital.

 Not knowing how well a holographic polish would stamp, I then stamped two butterflies on the accent nail with Nail Pop It's Mint and Konad m36.

 My final step was to fill in the butterfly wings using a dotting tool and Color Club Angel Kiss.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Sunday's Sparkles: Butterfly Fairytale

Currently listening to: Worry About You by Tyler James 

Hello ladies,

Today I'd like to show you a polish I bought a while ago online from Korea Department Store.  It's always risky buying online as it's hard to tell how accurate the sample pictures are and I have to say I was disappointed by how pale and sheer this polish turned out to be.

Not to worry though, I made it work by applying two coats over a coat of Essence Sweet as Candy.

 I then stamped butterflies with H&M Purple Flash, Konad m36 and Bundle Monster 307.

What do you think girls?  Do you ever buy your polish online?

Bye for now,

Laura

Monday's Manicure: Flying Snowmen NOTD

Currently watching: One Tree Hill

 

Good afternoon dear readers,

 

So enamoured was I with my previous snowman manicure that I decided to try another one:

 

This time Yes Love shade 3 was my base colour.  I stamped using Konad Special White and Bundle Monster plate BM 318, added some colour to the snowmen using my dotting tool, sponged Barry M Matt White on my tips and, for the finishing touch, added dots in the background.

What do you think girls?

 

I won't be posting tomorrow so I'd like to take the opportunity just now to wish you all a very Merry Christmas :-)

 

Bye for now,

Laura

Sunday's Snowman NOTD

Currently watching: Scrubs

Good morning lovely ladies!

I have to start by apologising for not posting for a while.  I came back to my parents' house on Wednesday for the holidays and of course I brought my camera loaded with pictures of my recent manicures but... I forgot the cable to connect my camera to the laptop. 

Yesterday I finally had the chance to paint my nails afresh and be at home during the day when there was enough light for me to take some decent photos using my parents' camera.  Most excitingly of all, I was able to use my new Butter London polish, The Dark Knight!

At work we do Secret Santa and The Dark Knight was the gift I received from my not-so-secret Santa.  I was thrilled to get this as not only is it a pretty polish, it is also my first Butter London.

The Dark Knight is a black base packed with tiny particles of pink, blue, silver and gold glitter.  I know some people use underwear with this polish but by applying two coats over my base coat I achieved perfect opacity.

I decided the polish would make a great background for a snowman design so I made an accent nail by stamping a snowman using Konad Special White polish and Bundle Monster plate BM 318.  I then added black buttons and a carrot for the snowman's nose with a small dotting tool.

I absolutely love the end result and am so happy I now have a Butter London polish in my collection.  I can't wait to add more from the range ;-)

 

What do you think of this manicure girls and which Butter London polishes are in your collection?

 

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons: Klean Holo Snowflake NOTD

Currently watching: Calendar Girls

Good morning ladies,

It seems to me that this is the year of the snowflake manicure and I'm so happy to be joining in the fun :-)

 I've done a couple of snowflake manicures already but this is definitely my favourite.

 My base is Klean Color Holo Chrome, a blue holographic polish which I absolutely love, despite the fact it's a nightmare to remove.

 I then stamped the snowflake image using Konad Special White and, you guessed it, Bundle Monster plate BM 323.

And the real proof that I love this manicure?  I kept it on for five days ;-)

Bye for now,

Laura

Sunday's Christmas Sweater NOTD

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing

Good afternoon dear readers,

This winter I've fallen in love with red Fair Isle designs and all the Christmas sweaters people have been wearing (as well as painting on their nails) so today I thought I'd share my attempt:

 

 My base is 17 Knockout Red and I stamped using Konad Special White.

 I stamped the stars with Bundle Monster plate BM 206 and the other patterns using Mash plate m57.

 My stamping is a bit messy and it was extremely time consuming as each nail was stamped five times (!) but overall I'm pleased with this look.

What do you think of this?  Are you wearing a Christmas sweater today? ;-)

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: White Snowflakes NOTD

Currently watching: EastEnders 

  

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I have another snowflake manicure for you:

 

My base is Eyeko Coral Polish which I then stamped over using Konad Special White and Bundle Monster plate BM 319.  Placing the snowflake in the centre of each nail was difficult but I didn't do too badly ;-)

With a dotting tool I then added two rows of dots to each nail.

 

What do you think girls?  What's your favourite image for winter nail art?

Bye for now,

Laura