Saturday's Stamping: Digital Butterflies

Currently listening to:  I Follow Rivers by Lykke Li

Good morning ladies,

The sun was hiding when I did this manicure and all I could see from my window was grey skies and raindrops yet I was inspired to bring out my holographic polishes.

 

 

I started by painting my accent nail with Nail Pop Dusky and my other nails with Milani Digital.

 Not knowing how well a holographic polish would stamp, I then stamped two butterflies on the accent nail with Nail Pop It's Mint and Konad m36.

 My final step was to fill in the butterfly wings using a dotting tool and Color Club Angel Kiss.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Holo Floral Stamping

Currently listening to: False Alarms by Josh Groban

Good morning ladies,

Trying out Color Club Angel Kiss at the weekend made me hungry for another holographic manicure so this time I chose Cloud Nine, a beautiful purple shade, as my base.

I then stamped a Bundle Monster floral pattern using BM 224 and Barry M Bright Purple.

 I think it's a great combination and I know I'll be teaming these polishes together again.

Of course I didn't manage to capture this polish at its best but that's okay, there will be plenty of opportunities to photograph it in direct sunlight in the next few months I'm sure.

 I have to finish by saying how impressed I am with the quality of these polishes.  Application is an absolute dream and there's no need for a special base coat.

What do you think girls?  Which is your favourite brand for holographic polishes?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons: Angel Kiss

Currently watching: Homeland Season 1 

Good morning lovely ladies,

Apologies for the mini blogging break; I stuck with my Fairy Godmother manicure for a while and didn't actually paint my nails until the weekend.  I've just realised now how well that manicure lasted as I don't think I had any tip wear or chips when I removed it and that was after a week.  Wow.

 

Anyway, moving on to my weekend manicure.  The sun was out on Saturday so I thought it was the ideal time for a holographic polish.

 I decided to go for the green holo in the Color Club 2012 Halo Hues collection, Angel Kiss.  When I was swithering between buying the whole collection and just buying a couple of colours, this green shade was definitely one which I thought I could do without.  Oh how wrong I was.

 I haven't managed to capture the full holographic effect as I didn't take any pictures in direct sunlight but this is such a pretty shade and I can see it being really versatile; a great polish for all seasons.  It's also really flattering and not at all difficult to wear.

What do you think girls?  Are there any polishes you've bought which you've been pleasantly surprised by?

Bye for now,

Laura

Sunday's Stamping: Lucky Holo Clover

Currently watching: There Will Be Blood 

Good morning lovely ladies,

Just a quick post for you today as I didn't manage to take many pictures of this manicure!  Inspired by all the Irish-themed manicures I've seen on Instagram and on your blogs lately, I decided to do my own for St Patrick's Day:

 

Two coats of (my new favourite brand) Color Club Cherubic, a gold holo, stamped with Kiko 401 and Bundle Monster plate BM03.

What do you think girls?  Are you a fan of themed-manicures?

Bye for now,

Laura

Monday's Manicure: My First Taped Mani

Currently listening to: What a Buzz by Olly Murs

Hello dear readers,

January is often heralded as the month for trying new things so based on the positive feedback from my first attempt at kawaii nail art, I thought I'd continue trying new things and go for a taped manicure.

 

 My first step was to paint my nails with two coats of Kiko shade 378 (nail polish names are listed on the website but not on the bottles, what's the point in that?), a soft, dusky mauve shade.  I love Kiko polishes; application is so easy and the quality is great, especially for the price.

 My next step, once the polish was completely dry, was to stick four strips of tape on my accent nail and paint the remaining space with Milani Hi-Res, a purple holographic polish.

 As soon as I painted my accent nail I removed the tape to reveal the results you see in these photos.  My lines weren't as crisp as I would have liked but I think I did pretty well for a first attempt.

What do you think girls?  Are you fans of the taped manicure?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons: Klean Holo Snowflake NOTD

Currently watching: Calendar Girls

Good morning ladies,

It seems to me that this is the year of the snowflake manicure and I'm so happy to be joining in the fun :-)

 I've done a couple of snowflake manicures already but this is definitely my favourite.

 My base is Klean Color Holo Chrome, a blue holographic polish which I absolutely love, despite the fact it's a nightmare to remove.

 I then stamped the snowflake image using Konad Special White and, you guessed it, Bundle Monster plate BM 323.

And the real proof that I love this manicure?  I kept it on for five days ;-)

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Purple Holo Butterflies NOTD

Currently listening to: Candy by Robbie Williams

Good morning girls!

Today I'd like to show you one of my favourite manicures, inspired by Theo over at Red Hair and Black Nail Polish.

 

 I used Milani Hi-Res to achieve a rainbow on each nail ;-)

 For my accent nail I used Barry M Prickly Pear for the base and stamped using Konad image plate m36 and a-England Lady of the Lake.  I then filled in the butterfly wings using Hi-Res.

I had intended to stamp using Hi-Res but it didn't show up well which is why I resorted to Lady of the Lake although I absolutely love the end result.

What do you think girls?  Who has inspired you recently?

Bye for now,

Laura

PS Don't forget to follow me on my new Twitter account @LH24Laura

Tuesday's Talons ft Holographic Half Moon NOTD

Currently listening to: Brooklyn by Wakey Wakey

Good morning lovely readers,

Today I'd like to show you a holographic half moon manicure I did using GOSH Holographic and Milanic Hi-Res.

I started with three coats of GOSH Holographic, the most troublesome polish ever.

I won't complain about application too much though as the end result is stunning and it's a polish I wear quite rarely due its scarcity.

I then used sticky reinforcers to create half moons with Milani Hi-Res.

I showed you a manicure in the same style a few weeks ago, which I got a great response for, but this time my lines are not as clean.  I don't think it matters too much though due to the holographic effect.

I liked the futuristic effect of this manicure but what do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons: Denim Holo NOTD

Currently listening to: Happy Ending by Mika 

Good morning girls!

Today I'd like to show you how I modified Barry M Denim:

 

 I added a coat of Kleancolor Holo Chrome, a gorgeously dazzling blue holographic polish.

 I've only worn this a few times since purchasing it but it's a real gem.

 It's a strong enough polish to look great in the sun and in dull light too, where the holographic effect isn't noticeable.  I love the "gritty" texture holos appear to have when the special effects are hiding.

What do you think of this colour girls?  Do you own any Kleancolors?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently listening to: A Team by Ed Sheeran

Good morning ladies,

How's your week been so far? Looking forward to the weekend rolling around? Today I'd like to show you a manicure I did last weekend featuring GOSH Holographic:

There was no sun to bring out the holographic-ness of this polish when I took these photos but even indoors you can see it's a pretty special polish :-)

Application is awful but let's not talk about that today as I'm sure I've covered it before ;-)

I then decided to add some fun nail jewels, which is why this had to be a weekend manicure. As much as I love nail jewels, they are not practical for everyday wear at all and it upsets me to look down at my nails and discover yet another jewel has become loose and vanished.

They're great for a short while though :-)

Are you a fan of nail jewels?

Bye for now,
Laura

Sunday's Stamping

Currently listening to: Hey Soul Sister by The Warblers (cannot get enough of this song!)

Good morning girls!

Remember a couple of days ago I showed you my new purple holographic Milani polish? Well I thought that was my new favourite polish. That was until I tried the pink version, Digital!

I LOVE this polish! It is my favourite polish ever.

Once again, it was impossible to capture the holographic-ness of it under sunshine due to recent bad weather but this polish looks really pretty under natural light too.

It is work-appropriate so I wore it to work on Friday and then proceeded to spend an hour in the bathroom as I had a nose bleed (did I say recently that Vaseline had put an end to my nose bleeds? Yeh, well it is worse than useless when I have a cold!) which allowed me to pretty much spend an hour admiring my nails in the mirror. I'm not joking.

I've tried to show the polish's rainbow qualities under artificial light but this picture is almost an embarrassment. It is stunning in real life.

Yesterday I then decided to stamp an image I hadn't used before from Bundle Monster plate 203 using Queenie by No7. I think the colours and pattern go quite well together!

What are your thoughts on this manicure girls? Do you like it?

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