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

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

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

Monday's Manicure: Fireworks NOTD

Currently watching: Boardwalk Empire 

Good afternoon lovely ladies,

In recognition of today's date (ie Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Day in Great Britain) and the fact that tonight the skies will be illuminated by thousands of fireworks, I thought I'd do a fireworks manicure.

 

I started with two coats of MUA Shade 2 and stamped using Barry M Gold Foil and Bundle Monster plate BM21.  I love the look of black nails but you'll rarely see them on me as I hate the removal process.

 I then added pink dots using a dotting tool and Accessorize Pink Spice and filled in the stars with Milani Hi-Res.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Tuesday's Talons: Hi-Res Hibiscus

Currently watching: The Back-Up Plan

Hello ladies!

Remember how I said that while I was away I wasn't able to paint my nails?  Well here's the manicure I sported for the whole of my holiday:

 

 Milani Hi-Res as the base, purple stripes painted with a Technic striper, hibiscus stamped with Konad Special white and Bundle Monster plate BM 313 then topped off with nail jewels.

 This smudged one hour into my holiday.  I was not happy.  I won't even show you the state of this manicure at the end of my 11 days!

What do you think of this manicure girls?  Do you paint your nails while you're on holiday? 

Bye for now,

Laura

Monday's Manicure: Holographic Floral Nail Art

Currently reading: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Good morning lovely ladies!

Today I have a manicure to show you which is based on a design I showed you last week.

 I used Milani Digital as my base colour and tried to capture its holographic beauty for you.

 I then used a pink Technic striper to paint two stripes at the top of each nail.

 Next, I stamped a white hibiscus flower using Konad Special Polish in white and Bundle Monster plate 313.

 For the finishing touch I added a silver nail jewel to the centre of each flower. 

Definitely one of my favourite manicures of this year but what do you think?

Bye for now,

Laura

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

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

Thursday's Talons

Currently reading: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Good morning girls! A short and sweet post from me today to show you the manicure I wore last Friday :

There's not much to say here apart from to tell you that my base was the beautiful Milani holographic Hi-Res and I stamped using a Konad butterfly image with a black polish.

Due to poor lighting conditions, you cannot see the holographic beauty of this polish but in reality it is a rainbow of colours and thus quite possibly my favourite purple polish :-)

What do you think girls? What's your favourite purple?

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