Vintage Bird Manicure

Hello!

On Wednesday inspiration struck me to do a vintage-style manicure combining stamping and water decals! So for my base colour I chose the creamy Coconut by Barry M and over it I stamped cursive lettering in black, from MoYou stamping plate Princess 11. I have a set of vintage bird water decals that KKCenterHk sent me for review ages ago, and I used a selection of them across my nails. Here are both hands!

This mani is just my style so I'm very happy with it! It's funny that, on Instagram, the manicures I especially love aren't always as popular ~ but I guess it's good that we all have different tastes ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Models Own ~ Beach Bag

Hello!

Today I'm trying out another of my Models Own Christmas presents! Beach Bag is from their Polish For Tans range and it's an orange creme neon. It's so luminous and definitely more suited to sunny weather (and indeed tans), but here I am rocking the look in January ;-)

For a little nail art twist I used striping tape to add a thin line of White Light down the sides of my nails!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Chic Black & Pink Manicure

Hello!

Today's manicure is inspired by another talented Instagrammer! NailsbyArelisP posted a red carpet inspired manicure of pale pink nails with a very thin black French tip. I recreated this with Barry M Rosehip and Xtras Black, using striping tape as a tip guide.

http://instagram.com/geordie_nails

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Pink Patchwork Manicure

Hello!

I absolutely love using Instagram - it's full of inspiring manicures and it's an easy way for me to share my photos when I'm not feeling well. Today's manicure is inspired not by someone else's nails, but by a gorgeous patchwork pattern shared by flannelnails and made by her talented daughter (she also has some gorgeous manis on her account too so give her a look!).

My base colour was the vintage pastel pink Sweet Kisses by Seventeen, with an accent nail of Nails Inc's Power Pink. Onto the Power Pink I stamped some polka dots; I used sellotape to create a heart stencil for my index nail, and I did a stamping accent on my pinky nail as well. Here it is!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Stamping Plate L008 ~ Arabesque

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

Hello!

Over the last few days I've been trying out manicures using Born Pretty Store's L008 stamping plate. This is one of their larger plates and it features lots of gorgeous floral patterns. The images are nice and big, very easy to stamp with!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/various-arabesque-pattern-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-l008-65cm-p-17926.html

As there are so many patterns on this plate I did a few manicures to show them off. This first one shows the bold floral patterns along the top of the plate - gorgeous designs that you could colour in or stamp in one colour. I stamped them in purple over a textured polish, Nails Inc's Clerkenwell leather effect, for a henna look!

I then did two more manicures. The one on the left shows the petal pattern stamped in pink and blue over metallic; the one on the right shows the pretty flower-and-butterfly pattern over a glitter gradient!

I love this plate a lot; floral patterns are just my style and there are tons to choose from on the plate!

As always you can get 10% off your Born Pretty Store order with my coupon code, CMBQ10

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Pale Floral Manicure

Hello!

This current manicure is looking lovely on my nails, but it is indeed a little paler than I intended! It was meant for a review of Born Pretty Store stamping plate L008 (sent to me for review) but I think I'll do another one that better shows off the pattern and instead post this manicure as my Nail Of The Day ^_^

My base colour is my favourite nail polish ever, Blueberry Muffin by Models Own. I have a thing for pale blues and this one is just perfect - not bright, not chalky, a gorgeous delicate blue. Onto Blueberry Muffin I stamped my floral pattern in white. For my pinky fingernails I did an accent of off-white with a little gem at the bottom.

Maybe you can see the raindrops from living in lovely, wet England!!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Models Own ~ Pink Fizz

Hello!

Pink Fizz is another of the Models Own polishes I got for Christmas. It's a full cover delicate-pink glitter, going on in 2 or 3 coats depending on how you like your glitter (I went with 3 because I'm a perfectionist).

For my manicure I did my thumbs and ring fingers in full glitter and did glitter tips on the rest. For this I painted a coat of sheer French polish on first then used a washing-up sponge to dab the Pink Fizz onto the tips of my nails. Top coat glossed everything over!

I love the shade of this glitter - it's slightly more pink in the flesh, I think the cold Winter sun made it look more pale!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Models Own Speckled Eggs ~ Duck

Hello!

Duck is one of the Models Own polishes I got for Christmas! It's the blue polish in their Speckled Eggs range and I've wanted it for ages. Within the blue are speckles of black glitter to give a duck egg effect.

The polish applied like a dream although it did require 3 coats. It looks gorgeous, here it is:

How cool is that?!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Stamping Plate L006 ~ Classic Patterns

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

Hello!

Today I am showing you a selection of manicures using one of Born Pretty Store's new larger rectangle stamping plates! Plate L006 has lots of nail art staples - 14 full nail designs including stripes, patterns and dots, and 8 individual images including moustaches and an awareness ribbon.

Since there are so many images on this plate I did four separate manicures to try and show it off to its fullest. All the images I tried stamped well and the full nail patterns are nice and big - no problems getting them onto my nails at all!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/selected-classic-patterns-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-l006-65cm-p-17924.html

These first two manicures show off the plaid pattern and skull, and the geometric stripe pattern (I used the bottom of the pattern to make a little triangle on my nails too!):

 The second pair of manicures show the tiger stripe pattern and the polka dots, awareness ribbon and moustaches:

I'd say this is a great stamping plate to go for because it has so many of the "basic" patterns you'd want for nail art. I especially appreciated the polka dots and the plaid, and of course the awareness ribbon is great because you can stamp it in different colours to match your cause.

As always you can get 10% off your Born Pretty Store order with my coupon code, CMBQ10

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Models Own Polish For Tans ~ Shades

Hello!

Last week I discovered that my local big Tesco has started stocking Models Own! They have a huge display with pretty much all of their polishes, much more than my local Superdrug stocks. They also had an offer on - I think it was 2 for either £7 or £7.99.

Part of the Polish For Tans range, Shades is a pinky-coral creme neon that's very bright and cheerful. I am paler than pale and proud of it, so I'm not exactly the target customer for Polish For Tans, but I loved the way this polish looked on me. I am not afraid to wear whatever polish looks pretty! ^_^

Here are two coats with no top coat:

Shades will make a reappearance very soon as I used it as my base for a Born Pretty Store stamping review I have coming up - stay tuned!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Stamping Plate 34 ~ Romantic Butterfly Patterns

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

Hello!

Today I am showing you a Born Pretty Store stamping plate which I particularly loved using. It has a butterfly theme and features full-nail patterns and gorgeous butterfly wings. It's also on sale at $1.49 right now, which is an utter bargain for this plate.

First off, the butterfly wings merited a manicure of their own. These are detailed and delicate - one that will fit all of your nails and a larger one for your thumbs or to use as a pattern. I stamped the smaller one over a rainbow pastel mani.

I decided to show off the full-nail patterns over a colour-changing pink! Again, the images are detailed and so pretty. Here are my manicures:

http://www.bornprettystore.com/romantic-butterfly-patterns-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-p-17917.html

I am so in love with these wings. Of course this is a review, and I was sent this plate as a sample, but I genuinely adore it and can't recommend it enough. I feel lucky!

As always you can get 10% off your Born Pretty order with my coupon code, CMBQ10

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Stamping Plate 29 ~ Nail Art Theme

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

Hello!

Here I am with a new review package from Born Pretty Store to try out! I've started with stamping plate 29 from Born Pretty's own range, which has a very apt nail art theme.

This plate is a polishaholic's dream! It has a variety of nail polish designs including a full pattern of polish bottles, dripping lacquer and a gorgeous female silhouette. The images are nicely sized - although the "Keep Calm and Polish On" text was slightly too tall for my ring fingernail (it would only fit on my thumb), the rest of the designs fit really well. I stamped a selection across my nails over a pale pink base of Barry M Rosehip. Here we are!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/nail-theme-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-p-17912.html

 My favourites have to be that elegant silhouette and the bottle pattern!

As always you can get 10% off your Born Pretty order with my coupon code, CMBQ10

Hugs,

Lisa xx

New Year Manicure

Hello and Happy New Year!

For my New Year's mani I wanted the look of fireworks going off on the horizon, so I picked out three Models Own polishes and went for it!

I started off with a coat of Southern Lights, a dense purple holographic sparkle glitter - in my opinion this and its pink counterpart, Northern Lights, are two of the best glitters you can buy on the high street. On top of this I added a coat of Freak Out!, a scattered glitter mix of blue and purple pieces. I finished off the mani with a Pukka Purple tip and plenty of top coat.

Hugs,

Lisa