Two Stamping Manicures

Hello!

Today I have for you two stamping manicures that didn't stay on long but were still quickly photographed. I bought a squishy stamper for the terribly cheap price of £1.52 (here is the link to it on eBay) and the change is taking some getting used to - my manis aren't quite perfect yet!

Here is the first manicure. I started with a base of Sally Hansen's Lavender Cloud and stamped on a blossom pattern in lilac from MoYou's Pro 07 plate. I then topped it with the birdcages from Cheeky's Home Sweet Home Plate. All the stamping in this post is done with Konad polish.

And for the second manicure I painted a base of OPI's I Vant To Be A-Lone Star then stamped on a floral pattern, again from MoYou's Pro 07 plate:

The problem with the birdcage mani is that the blossom pattern stamped on too "wet" and the birdcages were wonky. With the floral mani I made a mistake on my dominant hand and was too quick with the Seche Vite, smudging the whole thing!

How silly am I? Let's hope the next stamping attempt will go a little better.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Barry M ~ Vanilla

Hello!

Yesterday I showed you the first of my Barry M purchases and here I have the second! Vanilla is part of Barry M's new collection of matte polishes. I was drawn to its pinkish-neutral hue; it looked just feminine enough and very chic for Autumn.

I actually ended up applying Vanilla twice; the first time was a disaster but the colour was so nice I gave it another chance. I learnt that you have to be neat when applying it because the matte finish shows up any messy brushstrokes. You also have to be careful to apply the polish thinly - the first time I went too thick, it didn't dry properly and I ended up with a big smudge on my ring finger! All said, here it is (the first attempt, sorry!):

If you're a neat polisher with a bit of patience I do recommend this polish as the colour is truly lovely and the matte finish looks good if you get it right. However you can see above what can happen when you're not neat, or in a hurry - visible brushstrokes that don't look great.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Barry M Gold Dust ~ Superdrug Limited Edition Autumn/Winter 2013

Hello!

Yesterday I finished work early and, as the shops were still open, I was a bad bad Lisa and went into Superdrug to check out the new Barry Ms. I ended up leaving with two: one of the new matte shades called Vanilla, and a bar glitter which bore no name other than Superdrug Limited Edition and the code F 334, which I am now informed is called Gold Dust!

Gold Dust is made up of long, thin bar glitter in copper and gold colours. It cost £3.99 and looked so Autumnal I just could not resist. To show it to you I layered it over Vanilla (separate review to come!). On my pinky and ring finger is one coat, and on my middle and index finger are two. This is without top coat:

I know that people have mixed feelings over hairy glitter but this is so seasonal and I love it!!! Personally I find that two coats are perfect and add Autumnal sparkle whilst looking chic and trendy.

Application was smooth and the glitter distributed evenly over two coats. I had to push back the strands that were hanging over the edge of my nails but that's just what comes with the glitter type. After taking this photo I added top coat, and indeed one coat of Seche Vite sufficed to get a smooth finish - no glitter sticking up.

There is also a pink limited edition polish but I didn't see it in my branch of Superdrug. What do you think? Will you be going for either?

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Femme Fatale ~ Pools of Vision

This post contains products which were sent to me for review :-)

Hello!

Today I have for you a polish called Pools Of Vision by Femme Fatale Cosmetics. They're an Australia-based company who sell a ton of sought-after artisan lacquer brands, and this particular polish is from their own range. It's part of a set of 4 minis I was sent for review, and what an adorable treat they were to receive in the post!

For my manicure I applied 3 coats of Pools of Vision by itself then added top coat. The base is a delicate milky colour that leans towards grey, holding a mix of different sized glitters. I can spot blue, bright green, grey, aqua and white glitters in there :-)

The biggest surprise this polish held is that it glows in the dark! Rather than just doing a quick swatch I wore it as a manicure for work the next day, and I am so glad I did because I got a fab surprise when I turned off the lights to go to bed and my nails lit up. As a child I used to race to the science museum gift shop to get whatever glow-in-the-dark souvenirs they had so this is my kind of polish!

Here is Pools of Vision:

Doesn't it look lovely? Very gobstopper-like!

Application was smooth and the formula was good; I'm betting it would layer well over a light colour if you don't want to use 3 coats. If I could find a negative it's that some of the largest glitter didn't always sit well on the nail and I had to add a second coat of Seche Vite on two nails to smooth a piece that was sticking out.

You can buy Pools of Vision here: http://femmefatalecosmetics.com.au/shop/pools-of-vision/

I can't wait to try out the other Femme Fatale minis; one is just my style and the other two will be perfect for the holiday season.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

I Lily Love Blue

Hello!

This is the manicure I had on yesterday. I painted on a single coat of Barry M's rich, deep Blackberry then topped it with a coat of I Lily Love you by OPI for some lovely colourful glitter flakes! I was very happy to get ILLY back out; even though it was part of a Spring collection I feel it's great for adding a bit of sparkle to a deeper colour.

I was very worried that I would get a lot of staining upon removing this manicure because pigmented blues are often the worst culprits. So I used 2 layers of base coat and, before removal, I covered my cuticles in cuticle butter to stop my skin being stained - and it worked! Not a hint of leftover blue here.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Barry M ~ Pink Sapphire

Hello!

For this manicure I decided to shun the dreary weather outside and go for glitter on a whole new level. Barry M's Pink Sapphire is a top coat glitter featuring pink hexagons, holo silver bars and much smaller hot pink glitter.

Barry M's glitter toppers give good coverage anyway but I decided to go all-out today, using Nail Wish's sponging technique to get the maximum amount of glitter out of the bottle and onto my nails! So I painted my nails with a base colour of OPI's Elephantastic Pink then, once that was dry, I painted Pink Sapphire onto a cosmetics sponge and got dabbing. Here is the glittertastic result:

So much glitter!!!

I should point out that you can easily get a more subtle look by just painting a coat or two of Pink Sapphire straight onto your nails, but I was deliberately going for OTT. It's definitely a lot brighter than the weather outside!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Pink Rose Flower Water Decals

This post contains products which were sent to me for review :-)

Hello!

Today I am wearing a feminine manicure featuring these Pink Rose water decals from KKCenterhk. As I've said before, water decals are one of my favourite nail art products and these ones in particular are lovely. I waited until I'd cut my nails to try them as they are a good size for short nails.

The sheet contains 28 individual decals; to apply I just cut around the ones I wanted, dipped them in water for about 30-50 seconds then gave them a quick dab dry with some tissue paper. They then slid off the backing paper and were free to be moved around and positioned before I was happy and pressed them down onto the nail. They were a bit fiddly to keep hold of sometimes but I got them onto my nails!

For my base colour I used OPI's My Vampire is Buff, one of my favourite base colours for decals, stamping and things! I applied a different rose decal to each nail and here is the finished manicure:

*sigh* Roses make the best manicures!

You can buy the water decals from KKCenterhk's massive selection here:

N.NAIL Pink Rose Flower Nail Water Decals-WDHHY076

...and if you do place an order you can get 10% off with the code GEORDIENAILS :-)

Rosy hugs,

Lisa xx

Autumn Leaves Manicure

Hello!

I was still in the Autumn mood for this manicure (seriously, it's so chilly!) so I dug out a Bundle Monster plate with a leaf design, BM04. For my base I painted Ciaté's Cookies & Cream and then I basically used a few different golds, silvers and bronzes to stamp crisp fallen leaves over my nails.

I'm sorry for the slightly rubbish photos today! The second pic better shows the leaf detail even if the lighting is awful.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

OPI ~ Solitaire

Hello!

Today I am wearing OPI's Solitaire which I got in a mini set for my birthday. The first time I wore it I was lazy, applied too-thick coats too quickly and was disappointed. This time I was more careful and I've fallen in love with it! 

Solitaire is opaque in two coats but retains such a light look about it - like crisp snow with twinkles of frost. I find it perfect for the new cold weather and a refreshing change from my last dark manicure.

How dainty!

I find Solitaire looks whiter on my nails than in other swatches I've seen online - perhaps it's just the lighting but I am very happy with the way it looks in the flesh!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Vintage Pic ~ Barry M Rose Quartz

By "vintage" I mean it's been sat in my Pictures folder for nearly a year and I just had to post it for the sparkle factor ;-)

For this manicure I would have painted a nude base and added a good 2 or 3 coats of Rose Quartz for ultimate glitter.

Look at that sparkle! You can see that Barry M top coat glitters give great coverage but I might even revisit this manicure using Nail Wish's glitter sponging technique to notch the sparkle level up to "insane".

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Autumn Gradient Manicure

Hello!

This morning I am over the moon because I finally did a colour gradient manicure that I'm proud of! Since the seasons have changed so suddenly I wanted something suitably autumnal, and I had two lovely polishes by Boots 17 in mind.

I've had Spiced Plum for about 2 years now and it's a quintessential rich Autumn shade. For my gradient I paired it with Wishing Star, a shifting shimmer with gold, champagne and copper tones.

To do the gradient I used a washing-up sponge of all things! I firstly applied a base of Spiced Plum to my nails, then I used the sponge to dab on a gradient of the two polishes (The Nailasaurus does an incredibly helpful tutorial here). Here it is:

Gradient successssss!

I'm really glad I didn't give up trying to do colour gradients and I'm definitely going to carry on practising. For now I am very happy with my seasonal mani ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Lilac Flower Manicure

Hello!

Again today I wanted something sweet on my nails, and I went way back in my collection to find something suitable! 17's Woo Me is one of the first polishes I fell in love with, and to that I added some lovely textured flower stickers as accents.

I love having sweet nails and am starting to get used to them being so short!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

English Rose Nail Foil

Hello!

Just a quick pic today, taken while I was waiting on a slow printer at my volunteer job :-)

I cut my nails short yesterday (too short!) and decided to go for a sweet mani using my English Rose nail foil. I quickly painted a frosty white base first in case I missed any bits with the foil. Here it is!

Very romantic and subtle! I buy my foils from Nail Delights, they're a great value UK stockist.

Autumn has come on so suddenly, the days are a lot drearier and I'm thinking that I might have to invest in a little lightbox to keep showing my manicures clearly. I'll let you know if I do!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Ice Lolly Manicure

Hello!

Well, it is past midnight and I am in bed, miserable, with a cold. Since it's quickly becoming Autumn I decided to experiment with some last-minute summery nail art while I convalesce!

This manicure is a selection of ice-cream van treats ^_^ On the thumb we have a traditional ice-cream cone with sprinkles; on the index finger is a rocket lolly; on the middle finger is a Twister; on the ring finger is an orange lolly, and on the pinky finger is a Feast!

This may well be my last mani with long nails for a while as they're getting to that stage where they start to catch on things and threaten to break. I'm not too sad though, I love rocking all lengths of nails! Back to my sick bed now...

Sniffly Hugs,

Lisa xx

Rock Feather Manicure

Hello!

Following on from the glittering peacock feathers in my last post I decided to take the idea and do it in black and silver! This time I painted W7's black as my base colour then stamped Nailz Craze's peacock feather onto each nail. I then used the edge of a cosmetics sponge to dab silver glitter over the feather strands. Here is the result:

Honestly I'm not a fan (which is why I only took a quick snap). The glitter is messy, just generally I want to take it off and do something else to my nails! Hopefully I'll have the time and energy before work tomorrow evening.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Peacock Sparkle Manicure

Hello!

Today's manicure was inspired by an amazing Instagram polisher, thary_xoxo. She has lots of beautiful manis but the one that caught my eye was a twist on a glitter gradient, adding glittered feathers. You can see the original manicure here: http://instagram.com/p/Yq8MQPPh3G/

For my own version I started with a milky French base, Innocent by MeMeMe. On my middle two fingers I stamped the peacock feather design from Nailz Craze plate NC01. For my glitter I chose Royal Arcade by Nails Inc; I sponged it onto the tips of my unstamped nails then, using the edge of my cosmetics sponge, applied it along the lines of the feathers. Here it is!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Pinspiration ~ Autumn Tree Manicure

Hello!

Right now I'm having a little phase where I'm finding a ton of inspiration on Pinterest but I don't quite have the energy to to get it onto my nails! This is one of the manicures that did make it ^_^

The Autumn tree manicure comes from a "27 Trendy Nail Art Ideas for Fall" post. Unfortunately they don't seem to link back to the original owner of the manicure, which is a shame because they deserve a lot of kudos for this design. It consists of a light background with Autumn-coloured sponging for the leaves and finely drawn black branches on top.

For my own attempt I painted OPI's My Vampire Is Buff as the background. For the sponging I chose one of my bronzes then topped it with a sponging of the textured OPI Jinx. To draw the branches I used my Barry M nail art pen as I am not talented with freehanding and fine nail art brushes! I only did the tree on one nail as I know I would have spoilt the design if I decorated all 10. Here it is:

Mmm... I'd consider this to be somewhere between a win and a fail. The branches are nothing like as delicate as the original, which is to be expected given that the mani's owner is obviously talented with a nail art brush. I do love the idea and the Autumn colours though! Perhaps I'll try it again and get some practise with my branches :-)

Hugs,

Lisa xx