Mid-week Manicure: Fairy Godmother

Currently watching: Grey's Anatomy

Good morning girls,

Here's a colour I haven't used for a while:

 

 This is Soft Grey by Beauty UK.

This is yet another of those polishes which has been in my collection for ages but rarely gets used.  I don't know why, perhaps because I find it difficult to think of corresponding colours for stamping.

 Anyway, despite how infrequently I wear Soft Grey, it only ever seems to come out when my nails are at their shortest, which they currently are thanks to my weekend filing session.

 Application of this polish was really easy and I only needed two coats.  I then added Sparkle Touch by Miss Sporty on my accent nail and used it for the tips only on my other nails.  The final look made me think of the fairy godmother in Cinderella.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Monday's Manicure (My Bundle Monster Entry)

Currently watching: The Voice

Good morning girls!  I don't think anyone likes Monday mornings but let's try to start the week off with a bang:

 

 

I started this manicure with two coats of a lilac polish by the Polish brand MV.

 

I then layered a coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire on top.  You can't really see the flashes of red that Fantasy Fire produced here but under artificial light they were really strong.

I then stamped using Miss Sporty 313 and Bundle Monster plate BM223.

To finish, I then stamped the star design using Barry M Gold Foil and Bundle Monster plate BM21.

I really liked this manicure and actually entered it into Bundle Monster's nail art contest to win a set of their new image plates.  Fingers crossed ;-)

What do you think of this manicure girls?  Have you entered Bundle Monster's competition?

Bye for now,
Laura

Gold Glitter NOTD

Currently reading: Cross Country by James Patterson

Good afternoon girls!

Today I'd like to share with you a simply layering manicure I've been wearing for the past couple of days:

My base is a gold shade by Miss Sporty, excellent for stamping but also quite nice on its own.

I then used my Saffron London gold glitter topcoat for extra glitz. I like that is has both big and small particles of glitter in it.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons

Currently watching: Everybody Loves Raymond

Good morning girls! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that Santa was good to you ;-)

Today I'd like to show you my first gradient manicure:

My first step was to use two coats of E.L.F Pearl as my base.

I then sponged on a lilac Wibo shade.

Next I sponged on 332 by Kiko and finally a dark purple Miss Sporty shade. It was supposed to be a purple gradient but the lilac looked pink and the dark purple looked navy...

In an attempt to rescue the manicure, I used a glitter topcoat with silver moons and stars in it.

This wasn't a total success but I think it's a fair attempt for my first gradient manicure. What do you think? And did you get any nice polishes from Santa?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons ft Red Angel

Currently watching: The Big Bang Theory

Good morning girls,

Here's the manicure I'm wearing today:

I used Kiko 332 as my base. It's a bit less blue in real life and more purple, like Cadbury's or Milka purple ;-)

I actually didn't like it on its own so I stamped using Miss Sporty silver and Red Angel plate RA108.

I was prepared for this stamping to be difficult but actually it was okay, largely because the silver polish I used for stamping didn't give a crisp image.

Have you used this image before girls? If so, how did you get on?

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Talons

Currently watching: Young Apprentice

Good morning girls!

Today I'd like to show you a new style of manicure I did, using crackle polish to paint my tips:

My base is a silver shade from Miss Sporty then I painted my tips with Barry M Crackle Nail Effects. Trying to get that in straight lines was tricky ;-)

I then stamped butterflies using a black Wibo polish and Konad plate m36

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure

Currently watching: Inception

Good morning girls!

I am very excited as this is my last week of work before I finish for Christmas :-)

With that in mind, I decided to spruce up yesterday's swatch with some winter stamping:

My first step was to stamp a snowflake using Konad Special Polish in white and Red Angel plate RA119.

I then sponged on some Miss Sporty silver glitter. It was my first time using this sponging technique. I will definitely be using it again.

To finish off, I applied a layer of Miss Sporty Sparkle Touch glitter.

I really liked this, despite the silver sponging leaving a bit of a mess around my cuticles! What do you think of this manicure girls? Are you a fan of sponging?

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

Thursday's Talons (Patriotic Double Stamping)

Currently listening to: Difficulty by KT Tunstall

Greetings dear readers!

I'm so excited to show you today's manicure:

I say it's patriotic as yesterday (30th November), when I wore this, was St Andrew's Day. St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and our flag is blue and white therefore my colours were very apt :-)

I started with a base of No48 by Easy Paris. Although the name features the word easy, application was anything but. I had to apply four coats and each one was more difficult than the last to apply. It was such a mess I had to double stamp in order to cover it up.

First I stamped animal stripes using Bundle Monster plate BM223 and Miss Sporty silver. I didn't want this to feature prominently in my manicure but I wanted my patchy white base to be covered up and lifted.

I then stamped using Midnight Sapphire by Boots 17 and my favourite floral image from BM224.

Here's a close-up so you can see the silver stamping more clearly.

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: No Strings Attached by NSync

Hello dear readers :-)

As much as I like Victoria, I couldn't leave her alone so I ended up stamping autumn leaves using Miss Sporty 312:

The pattern is from Bundle Monster plate BM04.

I've seen this pattern showcased by many bloggers and always thought it looked fab but I hadn't tried it myself until now (why I waited, I do not know).

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura