Monday's Manicure: Barry M Butterfly Nail Art

Currently listening to: Echoes by Bo Bruce 

Good morning ladies,

How good it is to be back!  First post of 2014!  I started a new job at the beginning of January and since then have spent most weeks away on business, staying in hotels with limited wi-fi, limited opportunities for nail art and no opportunities to photograph any manicures I might have created.  I've tried to make time for nail art whenever possible at weekends so I do have a small selection of manicures to show you, starting with this one featuring a whole host of purple shade and some butterfly stamping.

I used Eyeko Lilac Polish as my base and then added a layer of Essence It's Purplicious glitter.

I then stamped various butterfly images on my nails using Barry M Blackberry and MoYou London plate Pro Collection 09.

I hadn't used any of these images before so it was a good chance to try them out.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

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

Friday's Fingers: Lilac Stars

Currently listening to: Happy in my Heartache by Josh Groban

Good morning dear readers,

I don't know if you're aware that purple is my favourite colour so although I've already shown you a purple manicure this week, I have another one to show you today.  Hope you don't mind.

 

 

I picked Eyeko Lilac Polish for this manicure, which I haven't used for a while.  I was given this polish as a gift almost three years ago when Eyeko polishes used to be £3.50.  I checked on their website and was surprised to see that the brand doesn't appear to sell nail polish anymore.

 To add some sparkle, I painted vertical stripes along each nail using the Essence silver striper.  I wish I had this in more colours.

 I then randomly stamped stars using Easy Paris shade 48 and Bundle Monster plate BM05.

What do you think girls?  Do you still have Eyeko polishes in your collection?

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

Friday's Fingers: Red and White NOTD

Currently watching: Boardwalk Empire

Hello dear readers,

Today I have yet another simply manicure which I thought would work well on my short nails:

 

 I used Eyeko Coral Polish as my base, painted the white lines using a Technic striper and used my dotting tool and Barry M Matt White for the polka dots.

What do you think girls?  Does this count as a festive manicure? ;-)

Bye for now,

Laura

Monday's Manicure ft Freehand Fail

Currently listening to: Payphone by Maroon 5

Good morning dear readers,

Remember a couple of weeks ago I said it was easy to freehand roses?  Well I need to take that comment back as today I have a freehand fail for you :-(

I started with two coats of Eyeko Vintage Polish:

 

 I then used Barry M Matt White and my dotting tool to place white polka dots on each nail.

 Then I used my acrylic paints and attempted to paint three roses on each nail.  I don't know what went wrong but they just weren't as good as last time so I removed this manicure as soon as I'd finished photographing it.

Have you had any recent fails?

Bye for now,

Laura

Friday's Minty Butterfly NOTD

Currently listening to: Exit Wounds by The Script

Hello lovely ladies!

The weekend is in sight so to end the week in style I'd like to show you a manicure featuring Eyeko Vintage Polish and Technic white nail striper.

I started with two coats of green polish and then added white vertical stripes down the length of each nail.

I love these Technic stripers, I really do.  They are so easy to use and for the price (3 for £1.99), I have absolutely no complaints.

I finished off this manicure by adding two black butterflies using a black MUA polish and Konad plate m36.

 What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently watching: The Apprentice UK

Hi girls!

Just a quick post tonight to show you a subtle manicure I did for wearing at work earlier this week which started with a coat of Eyeko Tea Rose Polish:

I really like this shade as I think it's quite flattering. I only used one coat here but if I was wearing it alone I would use two.

I then added two layers of my new pale pink Yes Love 622 polish. The difference isn't obvious but the polish added a touch of shimmer.

My final touch was to stamp two Konad butterflies using Barry M Silver Foil.

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

Monday's Manicure(s)

Currently watching: One Tree Hill

Good morning ladies!

Did you all have a good weekend? What did you do?

Late last week I received an image plate from Born Pretty Store which I'd been excitedly waiting for so I thought I'd try it out this weekend:

This is the first manicure I used my new image plate (m59) for. I used a white polish as my base and then stamped a houndstooth print using Konad Special Polish in pink and MASH plate m63.

I then stamped a black bow to finish the manicure.

It turned out pretty well I thought except for a few issues. If you didn't know this already, let me tell you that stamping on top of a topcoat is a nightmare. The polish won't stick to your topcoat. And if you don't use a topcoat to seal your stamping, it will gradually peel off.

Aside from those issues, I loved this manicure and would happily create it again. What do you think of it?

I then decided to try another bow manicure, loosely based on a few I'd seen using China Glaze For Audrey. I don't have that polish but I thought Eyeko's Vintage Polish would be a good substitute. Wrong!

The green polish didn't show up at all over E.L.F's Desert Haze so I ended up using Barry M's Pure Turquoise which wasn't great either.

Since the bows were so faint, I decided to lift the manicure by dotting white polka dots in the empty space.

I must say I was disappointed by this manicure and quickly removed it after taking these photos as I just couldn't imagine wearing it to work. I'll show you what I'm really wearing on my nails today soon!

Bye for now,
Laura

Saturday's Stamping ft Hello Kitty

Currently listening to: O Come All Ye Faithful

Hello girls!

Thanks for all your lovely comments on yesterday's manicure :-) Today I have a manicure in a similar style, this time featuring Hello Kitty!

My first step was to paint my nails with a layer of Eyeko Petite Polish.

I then used Milani Digital Holographic to paint my tips (the beauty of this holographic polish couldn't be captured by my camera but believe me, it's stunning).

I then stamped Hello Kitty using my Born Pretty Store plate M71. I've had this plate for months but I was always too scared to use it for fear of misplacing the image. I know I misplaced it here a couple of times but in the end I didn't care :-)

My final step was to fill in Hello Kitty's bow and nose using acrylic paints, also for the first time.

Overall I absolutely loved this manicure and I really hope you do too!

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday's Fingers ft Red Angel

Currently watching: Moon

Hello girls!

Have you missed me? Once again, a lack of light prevented me from taking photos of my recent manicures and blogging about them but yesterday I managed to take some pictures in my car so here they are, for your eyes only:

I did a French manicure using Eyeko Petite Polish as the base and a regular white polish for the tips.

I then decided to stamp using Kiko 346 and two of my new Red Angel plates, 110 and 120.

I decided on a heart image and, for probably the first time ever, also had an accent nail with a slightly different heart image. I wasn't very pleased with it though so I added a coat of Miss Sporty glitter. That didn't make it any better unfortunately.

What do you think of this manicure girls? I wasn't a fan of it but it has inspired me to do more French manicures with stamping.

Bye for now,
Laura