Friday's Fingers: Midnight Sapphire Polka Dots

Currently watching: Relocation, Relocation 

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you a very simple manicure I created:

 

My base colour is a cream shade from Color Club.

 The polka dots were created with 17 Midnight Sapphire and a dotting tool.  Simple yet eye-catching.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Elizabeth Street Dotticure

Currently watching: Homeland

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today's manicure features a design which is completely different to anything I've done before so I'm excited to find out what you think of it.

 

 I used Nails Inc Elizabeth Street as my base and added dots using MUA Shade 2 and my dotting tool.  Initially I added three dots to two nails, covered the whole of my ring finger nail with dots and left two nails plain.

 I then decided to see what it would look like if the two plain nails were covered in dots too...

I really like both designs although I prefer the first one.

Which is your favourite?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Tiffany's Mint Bow NOTD

Currently watching: Africa

Good morning girls,

I decided that since I really have no need to add to my polish collection colour-wise, it might be a good idea to add to it brand-wise.  Bearing this in mind, when I saw that Look Beauty was offering a 50% reduction on its make-up range I couldn't resist picking up a couple of nail polishes.

 

 

 The first one I tried was It's Mint, a great shade for spring.  Application was easy, the quality is great and I'm really happy with this polish, especially as I paid only £2.50.

 For my nail art I used my dotting tool to add It's Mint polka dots over Easy Paris shade 48 and my accent nail was stamped with Born Pretty Store plate m59.

What do you think girls?  Are there any brands you'd like to try this year?

Bye for now,

Laura

Saturday's Stamping: Kawaii NOTD

Currently watching: The Graham Norton Show

Good afternoon lovely ladies,

Today I have some nail art in a new style (for me) to show you:

 

To start with I painted my nails with a clear base coat then, once dry, placed stickers over the bottom section of my nails, which is what I always use when creating a half moon manicure.  I painted my nails using Essence Free Hugs (pink) and Easy Paris shade 48 (white).

 I then added polka dots using my dotting tool.

For the finishing touch I stamped a purple bow at the base of each nail using Barry M Blackberry and Born Pretty Store plate m59.

What do you think girls?  Have you tried this style of nail art before? 

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 Polka Dot Manicure

Currently listening to: Wild Horses by Natasha Bedingfield

Good morning girls!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend and, if you're in the UK, enjoying your extended weekend ;-)

Today I'd like to show you a very simple polka dot manicure I did featuring ELF Pearl and Easy Paris 90:

 

I think this is the first time I've worn the Easy Paris shade and although it's not a colour I would have chosen myself (it was a gift), I actually love it.  I would describe it as an orange-toned red packed full of shimmer.

Application was smooth.  What you see here is three coats.  Maybe some of you would only use two coats but I felt three were necessary to cover my nail line.

 

 I then used my dotting tool and Pearl to create a polka dot pattern.

The end result reminds me of Minnie Mouse :-)  What I really love about this manicure is that the finishes of the two polishes (one shimmer, the other pearlised) give my nails a satiny appearance.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday's Framed Fingers

Currently watching: The Apprentice UK

Good morning dear readers!

I'm quite excited about today's post as it features a new type of manicure for me. But before I show you my efforts, let's start with my base colour, Kiko 346:

I absolutely love this colour yet this is only the second time I've worn it after purchasing it last spring!

I'm not sure how to describe the shade although the pictures are quite accurate. Green agate maybe? Dark green jade?

Now we get to the framing :-) I'm sure there's plenty of potential here for colourful and creative designs but as this was my first time I wanted to keep things simple. I used my dotting tool to place dots of Barry M Silver Foil around the edges of my nails.

I then decided to stamp a butterfly in each frame using Konad plate m36.

What do you think girls? Is this a trend you like?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday's Talons

Currently listening to: She Makes Me Wanna by JLS

Hello ladies,

Remember I recently said that although I have a folder of manicures I've seen on your blogs which I love and would like to attempt to recreate, I very rarely actually try to do them? Well today I tried:

The inspiration for this manicure came from Cutesville and you can see her original manicure here. Thanks for inspiring me :-)

I chose a different accent finger and my dots are unintentionally bigger but overall I was pleased with how this turned out. I used Barry M Matte White and MUA Shade 2 for this manicure as well as my dotting tool and Born Pretty Store image plate m59.

What do you think? Do you try to recreate manicures that you love too?

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

Tuesday's Talons

Currently watching: Top Gear

Good morning ladies :-)

Yesterday's random cracked manicure grew on me a lot during the day, especially the original blue and pink together, yet I still changed my manicure when I got home. Here's what I replaced it with, inspired by Cath Kidston designs:

I used white as my base and placed blue polka dots, using my dotting tool, on all my nails.

I then stamped two red roses on each alternate nail using BM14 and unwisely tried to fit three roses on my middle finger nails. I always make this mistake.

Close up, I love this manicure but from far away the rose details are not clear at all and not many people in real life care so much about my nails that they would ask for a close-up lol.

Do you think this manicure turned out well? Do you feel disappointed if people don't admire your nails?

Bye for now,

Laura

Saturday's Spotty NOTD

Currently watching: Have I Got News For You

Good morning ladies!

What are your plans for the weekend? Do you have anything fun and exciting planned?

I had a dress down day at work yesterday so to get me in the mood for the weekend, I decided on this bright and fun manicure:

Two coats of Barry M Blue Moon, two coats of Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream

Followed by polka dots with the help of my dotting tool in Barry M Pure Turquoise and Natural Collection Hibiscus

I really like this manicure but drying time was ridiculously slow. I think it's time to invest in a fast drying topcoat. The days of waking up with smudges and duvet lines ruining my manicures will soon be over!

Do you like this manicure?

Do you have any recommendations for fast drying topcoats?

Bye for now,
Laura

Polka Dot NOTD

Currently watching: This Is England '86

Hi girls, and a big hello to my new followers,

Just a quick NOTD for you today using Natural Collection in Hibiscus to create a spring/summer polka dot manicure:

I love it and received a few compliments on it as an added bonus :-) Too bad I'm experiencing a lot of tip wear and some chipping after less than 24 hours.

Bye for now,
Laura