Friday's Fingers: Blue Gradient Butterflies

Currently reading: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Good morning ladies,

Today's manicure features Color Club Harp On It, a silver holographic polish as the base.

It also features lots of lovely butterflies :-)

 

 I used a variety of blue polishes, from left to right: Barry M Blueberry, Barry M Pure Turquoise, Ciate Lauren, Barry M Indigo and 16 Midnight Sapphire.

 The stamping was done with Bundle Monster plate BM 307.

 The darker shades showed up better than the light ones but overall I was really happy with this design and I even managed to capture the holographic effect of Harp On It.

Bye for now,

Laura

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

Monday's Manicure: Nails Inc Loves Paris

Currently watching: Top Gear

Good morning girls,

Today's manicure is a tribute to Paris, a city I love.

My base is Nails Inc Elizabeth Street, a very pale pink, which I then covered with a layer of Essence Night in Vegas.

 I stamped my accent nail with a black polish and MoYou London plate Tourist Collection 07.

 I then stamped my other nails with 17 Knockout Red and MoYou London Pro Collection 09.  Unfortunately the polish wasn't dry when I stamped so my pinkie nail smudged quite badly.  In other words, don't look too closely ;-)

 What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Saturday's Stamping: Midnight Snowflakes

Currently listening to: La-bas by Natasha St Pier

Good morning ladies,

Today's manicure sees a return to my favourite image plate for this time of year and some surprising sparkle.

I started with a base of Boots 17 Midnight Sapphire.  I used only one coat as I knew I would be stamping over it and didn't need it to be fully opaque.

 I then added a coat of Kiko Sparkle Touch.  The last time I used this I had a pink base and the sparkle didn't show up at all so, following your advice, I tried it over a darker colour and am pleased to report it's much more effective.  Look at the difference!

 I then stamped using a white shade from Easy Paris, Bundle Monster plate BM 323 and Born Pretty Store plate QA58.

 I don't usually mix and match my image plates but I'm glad I did for this manicure.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Friday's Fingers: Mayfair Christmas

Currently listening to: Streetcorner Symphony by Rob Thomas

Hello ladies,

Today's manicure was inspired by one I saw on Instagram by @pukupuku15.

I started with a base of Nails Inc Mayfair.

 Starting with my thumb nails, on each alternate nail I added a green and red glequin from Born Pretty Store.  That looked really good on its own so it may be a future manicure.

 The next step was to freehand Boots 17 Knockout Red on my index finger and Ciate for ASOS Lily on my ring finer.  I then added a strip of silver glitter with Essence More Than Glitter.

 The final step was to add two white pearls on the red and green sections.  If I did this manicure again I might skip this step but I was really happy with how this turned out, especially as it's so different to my usual style.

What do you think girls?  Who would you recommend following on Instagram?

Bye for now,

Laura

Mid-week Manicure: Magical Autumn Flowers

Currently watching: Location, Location, Location

Good morning girls,

Taking advantage of the last few days of autumn, today I'd like to show you an autumn-themed skittle manicure.

From left to right: Nails Inc Porchester Place, Stylure 102, Barry M Coral, 17 Knockout Red, Nails Inc Tate

 I used the majority of these colours for another autumn-themed manicure last month I think and really loved how they complimented each other.

 Unlike last time however, I decided to stamp using brown instead of gold and oh how glad I was with my decision.

I stamped using Accessorize Magical Mocha, which showed up better over the orange tones than gold would have and looked so beautiful over the red shades, and Bundle Monster plate BM 205.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Friday's Fingers: Midnight Sapphire Polka Dots

Currently watching: Relocation, Relocation 

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you a very simple manicure I created:

 

My base colour is a cream shade from Color Club.

 The polka dots were created with 17 Midnight Sapphire and a dotting tool.  Simple yet eye-catching.

What do you think girls?

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

Thursday's Talons: Silver Swirls

Currently listening to: Friendly Fire by Tyler James

Good morning girls,

I don't often wear dark colours on my nails but when choosing my polish for this manicure my eyes alighted on an inky blue shade which I just had to wear.

 

 

 This is 17 Midnight Sapphire by 17 and the accent nail is Barry M Silver Foil.

 I avoid dark colours to prevent staining but actually, I'm happy to risk some staining if it means I get to wear beautiful shades like this more frequently.

For the stamping, I used both polishes and Bundle Monster plate BM 314.  I am so in love with this look, it might possibly be my favourite manicure of the year!

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Autumnal Paisley

Currently watching: Educating Yorkshire

Hi girls,

Over the past week or so there's been a shift in the weather which lets us know that autumn is on its way.  It's too early for manicures featuring autumn leaves but I was inspired to do my first autumn-themed manicure this week.

 

 

My chosen colours, from left to right, are Nails Inc Portobello Market, Nail Stylure Orange, Barry M Coral, 17 Knockout Red and Nails Inc Tate.

 The shade on my index finger is one of the polishes I bought online from the Korea Department Store.  I hadn't worn it prior to this manicure but it's a rusty orange shade which I think I'll get a lot of use out of this autumn.

 I then stamped using Barry M Gold Foil and Bundle Monster plate BM 315.

 Although I think the shade my thumb is a bit of a miss, I love how the rest of the colours go together.  I can't wait to try more designs using this colour scheme.

What do you think girls?  Is it too early for autumn manicures?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Strawberry Fail

Currently watching: Spiral

Good morning ladies,

I've run out of manicures to show you (oh no!) so I'm resorting to a nail fail I created at the weekend...

 

 I started by doing a half-moon manicure on four nails with 17 Knockout Red and added white dots with my dotting tool.

 I painted my accent nail white then stamped using a strawberry from a Cheeky plate.  The image was just an outline so I filled in the strawberry with red, green and yellow.  I then added a row of red dots to the tip of my nail as I felt there was too much white space!

What do you think girls?  

Bye for now,

Laura

Nautical Love NOTD

Currently listening to: Titanium by David Guetta

Hello lovely ladies,

I've loved seeing all your Valentine's-themed manicures over the past couple of days, despite not producing many myself.  Here's one I had planned for ages which went, mostly, according to plan:

 I used 17 Knockout Red as my base and drew horizontal lines across each nail with my white Technic nail striper.  My accent nail was painted with Barry M Denim.

 I then stamped a heart on my accent nail using Red Angel plate RA 110.  I initially tried to stamp in red but for some reason the polish wouldn't stick to my stamper so I ended up stamping in white and then stamping over it with red polish.  It was probably for the best as I doubt the red would have shown up very well on Denim.

 

So what do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura