Wednesday's Colour Block Nail Fail

Currently watching: The Apprentice UK (Series 4)

Good morning dear readers!

I have a few more stripey manicures to show you which I am very excited about but I'm going to give you a break from my new love and share with you a recent nail fail using the three colours shown below:

 Yes Love, Nails Inc Spitalfields and Barry M Pure Turquoise.

I saw a beautiful block manicure in this style on a blog recently and decided to try and recreate it, using different colours.

 This was my first attempt at colour blocking and my first attempt at a tape manicure.  I think you can see from the pictures that it was a disaster.  It was all very "lumpy" as I ended up making the yellow strips too narrow so had to widen them without tape when the polish had already started to dry and then I did the blue strips without tape too.  Perhaps I shouldn't even call it a tape manicure since the majority of this ended up being free-handed.

Are you fans of tape manicures and the colour blocking trend?

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

Saturday's Stripey NOTD (aka Using Nail Stripers for the First Time)

 Currently watching: Have I Got News For You

Good morning girls!

Welcome to the weekend :-)  What do you have planned for the next couple of days?  Anything fun?  Unfortunately I have to dedicate the majority of my weekend to studying but you can be sure I'll allow myself lots of study breaks to catch up with your blogs ;-)

Do you remember a few weeks ago I bought some nail stripers?  Well I used them for the first time during the week and came up with this:

I start with a base of All About Nails Honey Pink and then applied random stripes of colour using five of my six stripers ( I didn't think the sixth colour, black, would work for this manicure).

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the stripers were to use.  I don't have the steadiest hands but even "shaky" stripes look good!

 

I really loved this manicure and am so excited about all the possible designs my new nail stripers open up!

Do you like this manicure girls?  Do you use nail art stripers?

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday's Fashion

Currently listening to: Born To Make You Happy by Britney Spears

Good morning lovely ladies!

Today I'd like to step away from nail art and show you a bag I recently purchased which has possibly become my new favourite bag:

I bought this from Primark last week for £9.  I wasn't actually looking for a bag but it caught my eye and I just felt like it would be silly to walk away from it.

 

It's in the style of a satchel with two ornamental buckles, a lock, a handle and a shoulder strap.  Inside, in addition to the large compartment, there is a zipped pocket and two small pockets, all decorated in the pretty floral lining shown below.  I don't think I looked inside when I bought it so when I opened it to have a proper look at home I was really rather pleasantly surprised by this lining.  For a Primark bag, I think it's beautifully finished.

This week I've been at college and I've been able to use this bag to cart my books and lunch around in.  I always have difficulty finding bags which are big enough for my college materials but this one is ideal; it's so spacious.  Plus it's ideal for spring as it captures two spring trends: pastel colours and floral cut outs.  As you may have gathered by now that I'm completely enamored with this bag!

What do you think of my bargain buy girls?  Are you a fan of Primark bags?  Have you made any bargain purchases recently?

Bye for now,
Laura

Thursday's Thanks (Blog Awards)

 Currently watching: Lorraine

Hello girls!

Tonight I'd like to thank Divine Blush for giving me these awards:

Thank you very much!  Please visit Divine Blush's blog if you aren't already familiar with it :-)

The rules of these awards are:

1. Thank the person who has nominated you.
2. Pass on the award to 10-15 bloggers and notify them.
3. State 7 random facts about yourself.

I've actually already been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award before so, with that in mind, I'd like to give the One Lovely Blog Award to the following lovely ladies and their lovely blogs:
MeMa's Mani's
Rainbowify Me
Polish and Charms
Art Evolve
Nail Stories
Gold Speck Nails
Cutesville
Brit Nails

Well done girls :-)

As for facts about myself, I'm going to give this a miss today!

Bye for now,
Laura

Gold Glitter NOTD

Currently watching: The Big Bang Theory

Good evening girls!

Tonight I'd like to show you a very simple but effective manicure I wore last week:

My first step was to use two coats of Essence Cherry Juice red jelly.

I then layered a coat of Saffron gold glitter over the top.

Voila, instant eye-catching nails :-)

What do you think girls?  I think this is the first time I've paired red and gold together but I absolutely love the combination.

Bye for now,
Laura

PS A quick question: when you leave a comment on my blog do you have to go through the "word verification" step?  I'm sure I disabled word verification on the old version of Blogger but I don't know if I need to disable it on this new version.

Monday's Manicure

 Currently watching: The Voice

Good morning girls,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead.

Today I'd like to show you the nail art I added to Yes Love 622, which I showed you yesterday.

 I stamped a floral image using All About Nails Honey Pink.

 Positioning proved slightly problematic but I liked the results; the colour of the flowers reminded me of cherry blossom.

Can anyone recommend a good, affordable baby pink polish for stamping?  This one showed up fairly well here but it's only a small bottle!

Bye for now,
Laura