Thursday's Talons ft New Purple Holos!

Currently reading: At Risk by Stella Rimington

Good morning lovely ladies,

I recently took advantage of the a-England sale to order my first a-England polishes.  I bought Iseult and Lady of the Lake, a beautiful purple holo which I'll be showing you today.  Another brand I also sampled for the first time recently is Catrice.  Back in June I purchased Dirty Berry which, although completely different from Lady of the Lake, I would also describe as a purple holo.

I couldn't decide which to use first so I went with both, using Dirty Berry on my accent nail.  Of course the sun wasn't out when I used these beautiful polishes so unfortunately I can't show you the holographic effects but in real life these were both stunning in the sun (and even in doors, as you see them).

Both polishes were really easy to apply and neither caused me any problems.

I then decided to stamp a floral pattern using both polishes and Bundle Monster plate 321.  As you can see, the results were quite subtle.

As I was creating this manicure, it reminded me of something that one of my favourite bloggers would do so I decided to go the whole way and finish it with something which you have never read on this blog before, a funky French à la Fingers.

What do you think girls?  It was totally out of my comfort zone but it's always good to try new things.  I just can't wait to use both these polishes again and hopefully next time the sun will be out!

Bye for now,

Laura

Saturday's Stamping ft Poptastic Holo Floral NOTD

Currently watching: Singin' in the Rain

Good morning girls!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend planned ahead of you.  To start mine, I'd like to show you a floral manicure I recently wore which started as two coats of Barry M Matt White.

 Unfortunately I didn't take photos at every step of this manicure but the next step was to sponge Kleancolor Holo Pink on to my tips.

 I then stamped a floral design using MUA Shade 2 and Bundle Monster plate BM 205.  I had a lot of trouble stamping this design and I made it even worse by smudging the black polish when I applied my topcoat.  Grr.

 To finish, I used my dotting tool to apply Holo Pink to the centre of each flower.

I felt this was a fun and cute manicure which I absolutely loved.  The smudging did annoy me but nobody who admired my nails picked up on it ;-)

What do you think of this manicure girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Floral NOTD

Currently listening to: Titanium by David Guetta
 

Good morning girls,

Today I am very excited to show you my latest freehanded floral manicure so I really hope you like it (and please don't judge the manicure on this first photo) :-)

 

 

I started off by painting my nails with two coats of a blue franken I made in winter called Icicle Storm.  I have no idea what polishes I used to make it but it has a lot of shimmer and a touch of glitter in it.  Application was awful as it's very thick ;-)

 I then used a white striper to draw three vertical stripes down the length of each nail and painted some roses on each nail using a paintbrush and acrylic paints.

Originally I wasn't sure if I should add green leaves to the roses but I'm so glad I did.  You can see the initial design in the first picture and compare it to the other photos.  Not only did I add leaves, I also added more touches of paint to the roses to improve their appearance.

In the end I was really proud of this design and surprised by how easy it was.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Monday's Manicure

 Currently watching: The Voice

Good morning girls,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead.

Today I'd like to show you the nail art I added to Yes Love 622, which I showed you yesterday.

 I stamped a floral image using All About Nails Honey Pink.

 Positioning proved slightly problematic but I liked the results; the colour of the flowers reminded me of cherry blossom.

Can anyone recommend a good, affordable baby pink polish for stamping?  This one showed up fairly well here but it's only a small bottle!

Bye for now,
Laura

Short Spring NOTD

Currently watching: The Apprentice UK

Good morning girls and welcome to the weekend :-)

On Thursday night I decided to cut my nails as they were making it difficult for me to type, text and tap my PIN into keypads. Unfortunately I lost control of my left hand when cutting the nails on my right hand so I ended up with shorter nails than I had planned. Never mind though, they will grow back! And I think short nails are on trend now anyway. Possibly.

I thought I'd bring out a real spring-time manicure as we've been seeing a lot of sunshine this week:

I used Nails Inc Spitalfields as my base.

I then used my dotting tool to make small flowers using Essence Groovy (teal) and Essence Pink Hibiscus.

[Please ignore the white marks on my skin, I don't know what they were]

What do you think girls? I actually received a few compliments on this manicure and quite liked it myself. It's simply but very easy to create.

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently reading: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I have a girlie manicure for you using all pinks:

(Barry M Pink Iridescent, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, Konad Special Polish)

Strawberry Ice Cream caused me problems although it's not the first time I've used this polish. It was very streaky so on some nails I used two layers and on other nails I used three coats.

I then added my glitter topcoat to add a bit of sparkle.

My final step was to stamp two flowers on my thumb and ring finger nails using a Born Pretty Store image plate (the Hello Kitty one).

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons

Currently reading: Game of Thrones

Good evening girls!

I hope you are all well and enjoying the start of your week. This evening I'd like to show you the manicure I'm currently sporting, featuring a franken I made:

I used an old white polish as a base and added some glitter and purple polishes. I haven't made many frankens but when I do, I tend to start with old polishes that I never wear on their own. This means they tend to be thick and do not apply well. This was apparent on two of my nails (index and middle finger on my left hand).

I decided to stamp using Kiko 332 and a floral image from Bundle Monster plate BM221.

I really like the way these two colours go together and I always love a floral manicure.

What do you think of this manicure?

Bye for now,
Laura

Saturday's Stamping

Currently reading: Game of Thrones

Good morning lovely readers,

I hope your weekend has started well and have you have something enjoyable planned for the next couple of days :-) Today I'd like to show you a floral manicure I did recently:

My base was Hibiscus by Natural Collection.

I then stamped using Konad Special White and Mash plate m25.

Sometimes the image came out in the centre of my nail and sometimes at the side but the original plan was to have the flowers at the side ;-)

A very simply stamping manicure but one which I quite liked.

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently watching: Birdsong

Good morning girls! How are you all today? Not long until the weekend now, yay :-)

Today I'd like to show you a manicure I created after being inspired by The Polished Perfectionist and Nail Stories:

My base was a white polish by Natural Collection. The first coat was very streaky but its appearance improved with the second coat.

I then painted three roses on my two accent nails using acrylic paint and a nail brush. This was my first time free-handing roses. What do you think of them?

To finish I then free-handed the tips of my remaining nails with All About Nails Honey Pink.

I think it's the first time I've ever done a manicure like this and I have to say I was really pleased with the way it turned out. I hope you like it as much as I do :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure

Currently watching: Have I Got News For You

Good morning!

As I hinted yesterday, today's manicure is some stamping over my new All About Me Pink Honey base.

It also features another new polish I recently added to my collection, MUA Shade 20.

I stamped using a full nail floral image from Bundle Monster plate 201.

Stamping was slightly problematic due to the fact the polish is the same colour as my stamper so trying to line it up with my nail was rather tricky!

What do you think girls? Have you stamped using this image before?

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure (NOTD)

Currently watching: Glee Season One

Good morning girls!

Did you all have a good weekend?

Here's my manicure to start off the week:

I used MUA shade 12 for the pink background and stamped using Konad Special White and Bundle Monster plate 224.

I had a lot of trouble stamping with my Konad polish; sometimes the image just would not transfer at all from my stamper to my nail. That's why the pattern is ruined on a few nails.

I've said before how much I love this floral image and I think the pink and white go well together but I feel added detail, eg coloured dots in the centre of the flowers or a gliiter top coat, would really lift this manicure. However, as this is a weekday manicure and not a weekend manicure, I'm leaving it as it is.

What do you think girls? Have you ever had problems stamping with Konad Special polishes?

Bye for now,
Laura

Milani NOTD

Currently listening to: Hey Soul Sister by The Warblers

Good morning girls!

Gosh this week has really dragged by for me, I'm so glad we've finally reached Friday. Roll on 3pm when I finish early today :-)

I mentioned recently that I'd ordered some polish from the USA, including a couple of bottles by Milani. I can't tell you how excited I was to finally get my hands on some coloured holographics!

Here we have the lilac Hi-Res, which I absolutely adore.

It has rained almost every day here for the last two weeks so trying to photograph this holographic beauty under sunlight just wasn't going to happen.

That's okay though because I love it under natural light, under grey skies, and under artifical light too.

Application was a dream, especially for those of us whose only past experience of holographic polishes has been GOSH Holographic.

I then stamped a floral design from the new Bundle Monster plates using my ever faithful Miss Sporty purple polish. It looks quite similar to a manicure I did not so long ago so really these last two pictures are for my newer readers who may not have seen that.

Do you own any holographic polishes? Which ones are your favourites?

Bye for now,
Laura