Sunday's Sparkles: Iseult Confetti

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I have a simple manicure full of sparkles to show you which isn't a winter-themed look but features the glitter we've come to expect during the festive season.

I started with a-england Iseult as my base, a very pink pale which I regret buying since it does not suit my skin tone unfortunately.

I then added a layer of Kiko Sparkle Touch shade 228 for some extra depth and sparkle.

It was at that stage I threw any plans for stamping out the window and picked up Essence Circus Confetti instead.  When in doubt, add glitter.

It's great adding multicoloured glitter to a neutral base as you can really see all the different colours of glitter.  Circus Confetti has to be one of my favourite glitter toppers purely because of the plethora of colours it includes.  Look at them all in the bottle!

What do you think girls?  What are your favourite glitter toppers?

Bye for now,

Laura

Friday's Fingers: Lady of the Lake's Flowers

Currently watching: The Big Reunion

Good morning ladies,

As you saw with my Chinese New Year manicure, I've been learning how to *paint* flowers on my nails recently.  I thought I'd show you my first attempt:

 My base is a-England Lady of the Lake, a beautiful purple holographic polish.

 The flowers were done with Barry M Prickly Pear, Easy Paris 48 and a dotting tool.

What do you think?

Bye for now,

Laura

2012: New to my Nails

Currently watching: Mary's Bottom Line

 

Hello lovely ladies,

 

As the year draws to an end, I thought it would be fun to recap the new brands of polish I added to my collection in 2012.

 

First up: Color Combos

 

 

Ebay purchases: Saffron London

My one and only Revlon:

Max Factor with the polish that took the blogging world by storm, Fantasy Fire:

As much as I wanted Revlon Whimsical, it was never released in the UK.  Luckily for me I found a dupe courtesy of the Korean brand Tony Moly:

 



Courtesy of a friend, I tried Models Own and NYC.  I now have quite a collection of Models Own polishes :-)



 

Treating myself to purple holos from a-England and Catrice:







Marks & Spencer's nail polish range caught my eye:



 

And finally, courtesy of Santa, Butter London:

 

There you have it girls, those were all the brands that were new to my nails this year.  Did you try any of them for the first time too?  What brands did you add to your collection this year?

 

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Lady of the Lake Stamped NOTD

Currently watching: Have I Got News For You 

Good morning girls,

Today I have a manicure featuring the stunning a-England Lady of the Lake to show you. 

This polish is a deep purple holo which looks beautiful even when the holo effect isn't on show (which is fortunate as the sun wasn't out when I took these photos).

 I decided to incorporate a slightly wintery Fair Isle look into this manicure so I stamped a star design from Bundle Monster plate BM 206 multiple times across the middle of each nail with Barry M Silver Foil.  Some nails were stamped more successfully than others ;-)

 I then added two rows of dots with a dotting tool and Barry M Silver Foil.

Do you like this look girls?

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: Glittering Gems

Currently listening to: Devil May Care by Jamie Cullum

Good morning dear readers,

I suspect you will have noticed in recent weeks that I have a new favourite nail art design.  I hope you're not bored of it yet because once again this design is making an appearance on my blog ;-)

 I didn't take photos of every step of this but my starting point was to paint my nails with two coats of a-England Iseult.

 Then I sponged on a layer of Essence Enchanted Fairy as I had intended to do a pink gradient but it didn't work as I had planned.

So, to cover up my mistake, I used a coat of Barry M Pink Iridescent glitter.

 Then I stamped the ever faithful hibiscus flower on the corner of each nail using Barry M Fuchsia and Bundle Monster plate BM 313 and added a pink nail jewel to the centre of each flower.  I also added a stripe of silver glitter to each tip using an Essence striper but it didn't show up very well.

What do you think girls?  Do you love this design as much as I do?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons ft Iseult Stamped

Currently listening to: Crashed the Wedding by Busted

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you the second a-England polish I purchased during their summer sale, Iseult.

Iseult is described as a "delicate romantic pink with opalescent pearly reflection" and is very pretty.

 I then stamped a full size floral design on each nail using MUA shade 2 and Bundle Monster plate BM 221.

 I love this stamp although I don't actually use it that often.

 To add a touch of sparkle, my final step was to apply a coat of glitter using this Color Combos polish.

Do you like it girls?  Do you own any a-England polishes?

Bye for now,

Laura

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