Thursday, October 31, 2013

Thursday's Talons: A Purplicious Blackberry Secret

Currently watching: Monsieur Lazhar

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you a manicure featuring a design you may be familiar with.  It's also my second purple manicure in a row so I hope you'll forgive me on both counts.


My base is Essence A Lovely Secret topped with Essence It's Purplicious.


 I then stamped a series of stars using Barry M Blackberry and Bundle Monster plate BM04.


It's definitely old news now but I still love stamping over glitter :-)


What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Tuesday's Talons: Purple Flash

Currently watching: The Women

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you a manicure with some subtle stamping.


 I started with a coat of H&M Purple Flash.  Yep, one coat was all I needed to achieve this opaque finish.


 I love this shade, it's such a pretty metallic.


 Purple and gold always look great together so I decided to stamp a swirly fern pattern using Barry M Gold Foil and Bundle Monster plate BM20.


What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday, October 18, 2013

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

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Sunday's Stamping: Knockout Nails

Currently watching: Strictly Come Dancing 

Good morning girls,

Today I'd like to show you a manicure I created with the newest addition to my stash of nail art supplies, Konad plate s9.


Although I have a large collection of image plates, only two of them are Konad and those were the first image plates I ever bought.  Since then, I've chosen to buy the more affordable plates from Born Pretty Store, Bundle Monster, Cheeky etc but when I was browsing Amazon last week I was taken by the images on Konad s9 and decided I wanted it.


 My base is 17 Knockout Red and I stamped using MUA Shade 2 and Konad s9.  I was reminded how high quality Konad plates are and I definitely think it's worth paying more for the Konad brand when the images are intricate.  This is something I would do well to remember.


As much as I liked the initial results I decided to add some gold detail and filled in the flower petals with Barry M Gold Foil.


Then I decided to fill in the girl's bow too ;-)


What do you think girls?  What brand of image plates do you buy?

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday, October 11, 2013

Friday's Fingers: Crystal Stars

Currently reading: The Third Time He Left Me by Sarah Harris

Hello dear readers,

Isn't it always the way that the manicures you are most excited about are the ones that do not photograph well?  This is the type of manicure I have today.

 

 The source of my trouble is No7 Crystal Lilac, a sheer yet buildable pink duochrome.  I don't wear it often but whenever it's on my nails I absolutely love it and the variety of tones hidden in that polish.


 In real life, Crystal Lilac was darker on my nails than it appears here but not as dark a shade of purple as the bottle shows.


After adding a coat of Barry M Diamond Glitter, I decided the perfect finishing touch would be silver stars.


 The stars were stamped using Barry M Silver Foil and Bundle Monster plate BM20.  I love this design and I can't wait to try it again in a whole host of colours.


What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Mid-week Manicure: Butterfly Decals

Currently watching: Glee

Good morning ladies,

Today I'd like to show you a manicure I created featuring some butterfly decals sent to me by Born Pretty Store.


I started by painting my nails with a green holographic polish from Kiko, shade 401.  I love this shade, it makes me think of tropic rainforests. 


 I then decided to apply the butterfly decals to my thumb and ring finger.  I've used water decals before and haven't experienced any problems with them but for some reason these would not stick to my nails.  The first picture shows the original position of the butterflies and the second shows how the butterflies moved on my ring finger when I applied a top coat to make them stay on my nail.


 The effect is pretty but the fact the decals didn't stick to my nails was really annoying.  I still have plenty of other butterfly designs to try so I won't give up on these yet.  Fingers crossed that next time will be better.


If you like the look of these and want to try them, or any nail art supplies, for yourselves be sure to use my code APL91 to receive a 10% discount.

What do you think girls?  Has your experience of water decals always been good?

Bye for now,
Laura

Saturday, October 5, 2013

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

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Tuesday's Talons: Queenie's Topaz Leaves

Currently watching: Homeland Season 2 

Good morning ladies,

Today I have another autumnal manicure for you.  I feel slightly more justified this time as the leaves have well and truly started to change.

 

 I started with No7 Queenie as my base. 


It's a deep vampy red full of red shimmering particles.  I used three coats for a more even finish.  


 My original plan was to stamp gold swirls on this (similar to my previous manicure) but I just felt that would be too festive and would look better at Christmas / New Year.


 Instead, I decided to stamp autumn leaves using Beauty UK Topaz and Bundle Monster BM04.


What do you think girls?

Bye for now,
Laura