Saturday's Sparkles: Oh My Gold Glitter

Currently listening to: Worry About You by Tyler James 

Good morning ladies,

I moved house on Tuesday and spent the rest of the week making myself at home (and waiting for broadband to be installed).  All that remains for me to do is find a new place to photograph my manicures ;-)

 

 Today's manicure features Essence Oh My Glitter, which I have praised before.  It's a rich purple speckled with red, orange and purple shimmer.

 Tip wear is pretty bad unfortunately but I can look beyond that.

 I then topped it with a layer of gold glitter by Saffron (shade 8).

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons:Valentine's Double Stamping

Currently listening to: What a Buzz by Olly Murs 

Good morning dear readers,

It's been a while since my last post, hasn't it?  Unfortunately all I've done this week once I've come home from work is to switch my work laptop on and continue working.  I've managed to visit some of your blogs but haven't been able to post as my nail photos are obviously on my personal laptop and switching on two laptops has just seemed like too much effort...

But enough about me, let's move on to the photos you've come to see!

 

For this manicure I started with a base of Essence Free Hugs.

I then layered a coat of Saffron London pink glitter on top.

 My next step was to stamp the wonderful heart image from Bundle Monster plate BM 317 with Barry M Pomegranate.

This didn't *pop* as much as I wanted it too so I then stamped the same pattern in white using Easy Paris 48.  It's a bit early for Valentine's manicures (not that I'm complaining) but I'd happily wear this all year round.

What do you think girls?  Do you ever stamp the same pattern using more than one colour?

Bye for now,

Laura

PS Did you know I'm on Instagram as LH24Laura?  Follow me for pictures of new NOTD as well as manicures from my archives and snaps of my personal life.

Monday's Manicure: Starry NOTD

Currently listening to: Misty Mountains

Good morning lovely ladies,

Here's another new brand I'm trying this month, 2true:

 

 

 This brand is sold in Superdrug and retails for £1.99 although often there's an offer on which enables you to buy three products for £4.99.  I tried this brand in shade 48 (no name, annoying) which is a pale blue packed with silver shimmer.

 I added some Saffron shade 5, a blue, purple and silver glitter and then stamped some white stars using Easy Paris shade 48 and Cheeky plate ch26.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

2012: New to my Nails

Currently watching: Mary's Bottom Line

 

Hello lovely ladies,

 

As the year draws to an end, I thought it would be fun to recap the new brands of polish I added to my collection in 2012.

 

First up: Color Combos

 

 

Ebay purchases: Saffron London

My one and only Revlon:

Max Factor with the polish that took the blogging world by storm, Fantasy Fire:

As much as I wanted Revlon Whimsical, it was never released in the UK.  Luckily for me I found a dupe courtesy of the Korean brand Tony Moly:

 



Courtesy of a friend, I tried Models Own and NYC.  I now have quite a collection of Models Own polishes :-)



 

Treating myself to purple holos from a-England and Catrice:







Marks & Spencer's nail polish range caught my eye:



 

And finally, courtesy of Santa, Butter London:

 

There you have it girls, those were all the brands that were new to my nails this year.  Did you try any of them for the first time too?  What brands did you add to your collection this year?

 

Bye for now,

Laura

Saturday's Sophisticated NOTD

Currently watching: Young Apprentice

Hi girls,

I'm starting the weekend with a simple yet sophisticated manicure, which I hope you all like.

 This is Saffron London shade 62 as the base finished with Saffron London 9 on the tips.

 A beautiful combination of two polishes made for each other.

What do you think? Do you own any Saffron London polishes?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons: Half-Moon NOTD

Currently watching: The X Factor

Good morning ladies,

Today I'd like to show you a Barry M polish I recently bought, Coral:

 

I picked this up in August but I'm not really sure why.  To be honest, I don't think I'll get much use out of it as it's a jelly.

I didn't really have an idea in mind when I started this manicure so after discovering that Coral was a jelly, I covered alternate nails with Barry M Fuchsia.  Don't look too closely though, I had a lot of problems with smudging.

 To cover up most of the smudging, I decided to do a half-moon design and chose Barry M Gold Foil as my main colour.  I really like the combination of orange, pink and gold.

 However, I thought the end result was too futuristic so I added a coat of gold Saffron glitter.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons ft Jewelled Hibiscus

Currently reading: Comfort and Joy by India Knight

Good evening ladies,

Continuing in the same vein as yesterday's post, I would again like to show you a manicure heavily influenced by another blogger, this time by MyStefyNail

My first step was to apply two coats of Crystal Lilac, a very sheer duochrome by No7.  I felt this was the polish I had in my collection which most closely resembled that used by MyStefyNail.

 Next, I sponged some Saffron pink glitter polish on to my tips.  This was the messy stage, as evidenced by the patches of glitter on my skin.

 Then I used a Technic pink striper to draw to stripes along the tips of my nails.

 After that, I stamped a hibiscus flower on the top right of each nail, using Bundle Monster BM313 and Konad special polish in white.  The finishing touch was adding a silver jewel to the centre of each flower.

I was thrilled with this manicure because it's so different to my usual designs.  Plus, although I thought the jewels would fall off quickly, they actually stayed in place for five days before I decided to remove this manicure.  Talk about staying power!

What do you think of this girls?  Which bloggers inspire you to try different types of nail art?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons ft Pink Butterfly Gradient NOTD

Currently listening to: Almost Everything by Wakey Wakey

Hello lovely ladies,

This morning I have a pink butterfly gradient to show you, as the title of this post suggests.

My first step was to create a gradient using Essence Enchanted Fairy, Lm 21 and Barry M Fuchsia:

I then stamped black butterflies using MUA Shade 2 and Konad plate m36.

 Next, I sponged Barry M Pink Iridescent glitter on my nails.  This polish is full of tiny particles of glitter which shimmer in a rainbow of blue, purple, gold, pink and silver.

 My final step was to sponge a heavier glitter, Saffron London Shade 9, on to the tips of my nails.

 The Saffron polish consists of magenta and silver glitter.

Here are the polishes I used:

I was really happy with this manicure although on reflection it might have looked better with grey butterflies so the gradient was more obvious.  Maybe next time!

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure ft Models Own Floral NOTD

Currently watching: The Dark Knight

Good morning girls!

For my birthday, I was given my first Models Own polish, Purple Blue, and although I haven't tried it yet, that polish made me more curious about the brand, so much so that last week I bought Mystic Mauve, a pink foil.

The polish applied really easily, giving me no cause for complaint.

 I also really loved the shade (suitable for work and play, always a bonus) but of course that didn't mean I could leave it alone.

 Instead, I stamped a hibiscus flower on each nail using Barry M Silver Foil and Bundle Monster plate BM 313.  The flowers weren't as defined as I would have liked so I added a dot to the centre of each flower using another new polish, Purple Flash by H&M.

 I pondered about sponging silver glitter on to my tips but in the end I decided to freehand tips using Purple Flash.

When looking at the end result, I still felt there was something missing, so I sponged some glitter on using a Saffron London polish in shade 5.  Then I was happy :-)

What do you think girls?  Which stage is your favourite?

Bye for now,

Laura

Layered NOTD

Currently listening to: The Sun by Maroon 5

Good morning girls!

Today I'd like to show you a simple layering manicure I did using these two polishes:

No5 by Saffron and Dusky Mauve by Barry M

 I started with two coats of Barry M one evening, applied my fast-drying China Glaze top coat and went to bed an hour later.  In the morning I woke up with duvet lines and smudges!  I can't believe my top coat let me down like that!

I didn't have time to repair the manicure so I had to rescue it with this glitter topcoat.  I had no other option, even though it was a work day and I would never normally consider wearing glitter to work.

 I also wasn't sure about the colour combination but in the end I really liked the way this turned out.

 What initially looks like a blue glitter topcoat is actually full of blue, pink, purple, gold and silver flecks of glitter.  I love it!  Can't wait to use this eBay find again :-)

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura