Saturday's Stamping: Tea Rose Stamping

Currently listening to: Speed the Fire by Bo Bruce

Hello lovely ladies,

On Thursday I showed you a rather simple manicure featuring a glitter accent nail.  As much as I liked the manicure, I found myself adding to it...

Earlier that week I'd tried to paint my nails with Eyeko Tea Rose, only to find the polish was too old and thick to apply well.  Instead of throwing it out I decided to see if it could still be used for stamping.

 This felt like the perfect manicure to test it out on so I stamped a criss-cross image from Born Pretty Store plate QA57.

 I felt like I needed something else to tie all the colours together so I then stamped a silver bow on each nail using Barry M Silver Foil and Born Pretty Store plate m59.  I do love my bows but I always find image placement tricky!

What do you think girls?  Which designs do you find difficult to stamp well?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Bleu Asphalte Diamonds

Currently reading: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you a manicure that was inspired by Shades of Beauty.

Using the nearest colours I had to the ones she used meant my main colour was Bourjois Bleu Asphalte.

 I actually really like this polish although I don't often wear it due of my dislike of removing dark colours.  This manicure makes me think I should make more use of it, especially at this time of year.

 My accent nail features Barry M Silver Foil and Barry M Diamond Glitter, which is probably my favourite topper.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Wednesday's New Design NOTD

Currently watching: Glee

Good morning!

I know you're probably fed up of seeing this manicure by now but I made some changes to yesterday's manicure and I really wanted to share them with you:

First, I have to apologise for the quality of these photos. There was no daylight when I left my house so I had to take these photos in my car when I got to work and in the car park. Second, please excuse the wear on my thumb nail.

So, the first change I made was mattifying the manicure using my Rimmel mattifying top coat. I love the way it makes my nails feel like satin.

I then used a dotting tool and a Miss Sporty silver shade to put silver dots in the centre of the flowers. This is something I've never done before despite admiring it on many of your manicures. I can't believe how much it changes the look of the manicure and lifts the whole thing!

What do you think girls? Did you prefer this manicure shiny or matte with silver accents?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons

Currently listening to: Our Kind of Love by Lady Antebellum

Good morning girls!

As you know, it's hard for me to leave a plain manicure alone so I modified yesterday's Miracle Cerise manicure with some stamping:

I stamped using Bourjois Bleu Asphalte and Bundle Monster plate BM16.

I absolutely love this Bourjois polish for stamping and I really like this image too; although the image is neither long enough nor wide enough for all my nails, I still get good coverage and double stamping the odd patch of nail is easy with this design.

What do you think?

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently listening to: A Present for Everyone by Busted

Good morning ladies! Today I have a quick post for you as, due to lighting difficulties, I've only been able to take my pictures now so I'm typing quickly before I need to rush off to work!

I finally have another manicure for you:

My base is Soft Grey by Beauty UK

I then stamped a white pattern using Konad Special White and MASH plate m78. I loved the way that looked on some nails, the pattern was so crisp and clear, but as there was some smudging on a few nails I decided to cover it up with some more stamping.

I then chose two images, one from Bundle Monster plate BM21, the other from BM224 and stamped using Bleu Asphalte by Bourjois.

What do you think of this manicure girls? I'd love to know.

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently watching: Glee Season One

Hello ladies!

My Sally Hansen top coat chips so quickly I'm easily getting back into the routine of regularly changing my manicures.

Today I'm wearing Soft Grey by Beauty UK as my base stamped with Bleu Asphalte by Bourjois using image plate m64 by MASH.

I love this design, it's definitely my favourite from my MASH plates and seems to work well no matter what size nails you have.

What do you think?

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure

Currently reading: I Remember You by Harriet Evans

Hello dear readers,

How are you today? Did you have a good weekend?

Here's the polish I've chosen for today's base, Bourjois in Bleu Asphalte which I won in May:

This is the first and only Bourjois polish I've tried and I was really pleased with the application. This is two coats:

The only drawback was the tip shrinkage I got after using Seche Vite. I am so fed up of that topcoat now, can't wait to move on to another brand.

Now I don't know why I chose this colour because it's not exactly work-appropriate. Yes, my college days are over for the moment and I'm back at work :-(

However, once choosing this inappropriate colour, I got carried away and did some inappropriate stamping using China Glaze Peace on Earth (an olive green) and Mash plate m73.

What do you think? I like the colours together and I like the pattern but I'm not sure either colour suits me.

All feedback is appreciated :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure

Currently listening to: Higher Window by Josh Groban

Good morning girls!

I hope you're all starting the week on a high :-) A pretty manicure always helps things get off to a good start to here's mine, using Kiko 254 as the base colour, Bourjois Bleu Asphalt as the stamping colour and image plate BM221.

One of my gripes with using Seche Vite is that it makes my glossy nails difficult to photograph ;-)

Do you like this manicure? I love the colour combination and the stamp; it's definitely one I'll be making a lot of use of in the future. It's just a shame it was difficult to photograph.

Bye for now,
Laura

Sunday's Swatches

Currently watching: Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow

Hi girls!

How are you? What have you been doing this weekend? I'm spending this afternoon studying but I thought I'd take a break to finally show you swatches of my recently acquired polishes, including the batch of Kiko polishes I bought in Paris a few weeks ago.

First up is 346, which I featured in Monday's Manicure last week. It's not as dark as it appears in this photo of my colour wheel (next to Eyeko's Vintage Polish) but that's the best I could do unfortunately.

Then we have the three purple polishes: 338 (a blue and purple mix), 332 (a rich, Cadbury's chocolate kind of purple) and 255 (a dark purple packed with holographic glitter which I cannot wait to use)

Next up is 254, a dark pink with lots of shimmer.

You'll see this tomorrow in Monday's Manicure :-)

And finally, my first Bourjois polish! No, I didn't cave in to temptation and splurge, I actually won this bottle in Glamour magazine's May giveaway. The shade is called Bleu Asphalte and you will also see this tomorrow.

Although the colour blue is part of the name, as you can see, it's more of a dark grey shade and not something I previously had in my collection.

So there you have it, my lastest additions. What polishes have you been purchasing lately? Are there any you're after? I'm trying not to buy any more polishes as I really do have more than enough but...Miss Sporty's Zodiac is now on my wishlist :-)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Bye for now,
Laura

Wednesday's Wishlist

Currently watching: Dawson's Creek

Hey girls! Yesterday was my birthday :-) Your blogger has now reached the grand old age of 25. As I've said, I'm working in Paris, so I didn't really get to celebrate but that's okay, I received lots of nice birthday messages.

While I've been in France, one thing has caught my eye every single day: the poster for Bourjois 10 day chip-free nail polish

Before I came here, I actually considered trying the Bourjois 1 second nail polish but I couldn't justify the price (£6 for 6ml). I haven't seen how much these long lasting nail polishes retail for but might they be worth a try? What do you think?

What's on your wishlist this week?

Bye for now,
Laura