Wednesday 31 October 2012

Happy Halloween!

Hello!

Well it has been a scary Halloween so far, as I had to have my blood taken and of course I went all faint! And sadly that is the extent of my Halloween fun as I don't do parties and I'm not sure I could get away with trick-or-treating at my age and weight ;-)

However, I did do two special manis over the past week for the occasion. The one I have on now is little devils stamped over a fiery sponged gradient! Here it is...


...and the other was spooky pumpkins stamped over bright, bright orange:


Woooooooooooooooo!

I did love experimenting with my nails for Halloween, but I can't believe I used to be a goth because I'm really wanting to go back to girly manis now! I guess my days of rebellion are over :-(

Hope you all have lots of fun today!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Saturday 20 October 2012

Barry M ~ Orange Web Effect

Hello!

For Halloween, Barry M have released a limited edition orange 'Web Effect' polish. From what I've heard it's the same formula as their Croc Effect, but nonetheless a cool idea. Recently they've had a promotion in Superdrug where you buy 2 Barry Ms and get a crackle/croc/web polish free, so I picked this up along with a Gelly and a Jewel :-)

I asked the lovely ladies in the 'A Brit of Nail Polish' Facebook group for advice on the best application, and I was told to apply it to touch dry polish with as thin a layer as possible, using the other side of the brush to brush off any excess. This worked and I got a good result, so thank you!! For my base polish I went for a very light pastel green, Absolutely Shore by Essie. Here is the result with top coat:


I wouldn't exactly call it a web, but it's still pretty cool! It does not suit my skin tone at all though, so I'm not sure if I will be wearing it long :-( Still, props to Barry M for all the great ideas they've been coming out with as of late.

Spooky hugs,

Lisa xx

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Pinspiration ~ Pink, Lace and Ribbons

Hello!

For today's mani I remembered an amazing manicure by Red Sonja I have pinned on my Nail Inspiration board on Pinterest: pink nails, some French, some solid, with lace and baby bottle stamping. For my copycat mani I used Nails Inc.'s Power Pink (the one that came free with InStyle magazine) and replaced the bottles with Bundle Monster's full-nail ribbon design. Here it is!


I am so happy with this look and never would have thought of it myself. Thanks so much Red Sonja for the inspiration!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Gosh ~ Holographic Hero

Holo ahoy!

Ever since Gosh released Holographic Hero I've been popping in and out of Superdrug looking for it with no joy... until last week, when I spotted one lone bottle and snapped it up! It's great to see a holo polish on the British high street!

The bottle cap states in great big letters that this polish is "one night wear for holographic lovers" so I wasn't expecting much mileage. In fact after 24 hours I only had a tiny chip on my index finger which was easily patched up. This morning, 2 days after applying it, I had a big chip of polish come off my thumb but I needed a new mani anyway. So I am pleasantly surprised by the wear time!

You can't wear top coat over Holographic Hero because it ruins the holo finish, so I tried a "sandwich" technique I'd heard from other polishers: I applied 2 coats of HH, one of top coat then a final coat of HH. Here's how it looked:



Yaaaaaaay, holo goodness! The silver linear holo is beautiful and I was a very happy Lisa ^_^

And here it is the day after, still perfect and still shimmering away:


I am so pleased I managed to get a bottle!

Hugs,

Lisa xx