Instagram Inspiration ~ Roses

Hello!

I love using Instagram, both to post my own nails and to get inspired by other girls' beautiful designs. This week two users served as my inspiration for a hand-painted rose manicure - go visit ipaintnails_ and juliajor and you will see why! I've also posted photos of their inspiring rose manis further down this post ^_^

For my own manicure I did two accent nails of rose pattern, with the rest of my nails painted in Ciaté's Sweet Pea. To make the roses I took three shades of pink; I started by dotting the darkest pink on with a dotting tool, then I used a nail art brush to add highlights of the lighter pinks. Top coat sealed the nail art and glossed up my green nails.

I never normally would have tried this because my freehand nail art is terrible. However, Rachel and Julia's nails looked so pretty that I got brave and did it! My roses are nowhere near as refined as theirs (see below) but I loved wearing this mani.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Flying Bird Manicure

Hello!

For today's manicure I decided to pair my nail design with a temporary tattoo for the first time!

The manicure itself is something I've done and enjoyed a few times before - a pale colour alongside a glittery accent nail and a stamped bird. For this I used my ever-favourite Blueberry Muffin by Models Own, and my glitter is Noel Street by Nails Inc. The bird on a branch is from MoYou's Kitty 11 plate.

For the tattoo I bought a sheet of birds from Born Pretty Store and applied one of the small ones over the glitter accent nail.

What do you think?

I really like the idea and have bought a couple more inexpensive sheets of tattoos to try ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Cute Mustache Stamping

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

Hello!

Today I have been getting my stamp on! Born Pretty Store sent me a super-mustachey stamping plate to review and I have been enjoying 'staching up my nails!

The stamping plate has 19 mustaches! Some are textured in style and some are solid, so you can get a good variety on your nails. I thought they'd look nice over a skittle manicure of vintage pastels, so here we are!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/cute-mustache-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-pattern-qgirl-p-18898.html

They really are super-cute. I love this plate, especially the textured mustaches as they stamp really nicely!

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Cherry Pop Manicure

Hello!

For this manicure I decided to break out of my comfort zone a little and go for a POP! My normal nail style is more delicate so this time I took a hot neon - Bubblegum by Models Own - stamped polka dots over it, then added a cherry charm as an accent!

I finally got some nail glue so I can experiment with nail charms without the fear of them falling off. This particular charm is part of a set of 6 from Poundland - bargain!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Heart Nail Art Stickers

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

Hello!

Over the past few days I've been trying out some adorable nail stickers from Born Pretty Store. You receive 11 sheets of stickers, all with romantic heart themes ^_^

For this review I tried out some multicoloured patchwork hearts and some romantic white hearts. I applied the patchwork hearts over a cream colour for a vintage scrapbook look, and I applied the white hearts over pink and glitter for a super-girly look!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/sheetsset-colorful-heart-nail-stickers-romantic-love-pattern-p-18656.html

Aren't they cute?! These are one of those review items that I know I'll keep using ~ so I'm sure I'll be posting more pictures of them ^_^

Normally I prefer water decals to stickers as you get a smoother look - but I found that, so long as your nail polish is completely dry underneath, these stickers apply very nicely. They are good quality.

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Peach with a Pop!

Hello!

I've been meaning to wear Essie's Shop Till I Drop for a while now, and today I got round to it! It's a pinky-peach that I found in TKMaxx absolutely ages ago. I paired it with a single accent nail of Shades by Models Own for an extra pop of neon!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Lace & Paint Stamping

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

Hello!

I hope you've had a good weekend ~ it's been getting sunnier here in England which is cheering me up!

Over the weekend I've been trying out stamping plate Y001 from Born Pretty Store. It's a plate with three patterns - two matching lace and paint splatter - which are big enough to get a variety of the pattern across your nails.

For my first manicure I used the paint splatter pattern! Over white I stamped different parts of the pattern in rainbow colours. And for the second manicure I used one of the lace patterns in black over a cream colour for a romantic manicure that's just my style ^_^

http://www.bornprettystore.com/mixed-lace-patterns-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-y001-p-18403.html

I loved these patterns, especially the lace. But when I was doing my manicure I quickly tried out the other matching lace pattern and it didn't stamp quite as well as the one above, which is a shame!

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Princess Manicure

Hello!

During the week I had a look in Poundland and they had sets of little nail charms that I couldn't resist buying to try out! They came in packs of 6 assorted silver diamanté designs and I bought two different sets.

The charm I picked out to use first was a sweet little crown. I set it as the centrepiece of a skittles manicure using the pink Seventeen Sweet Kisses, the grey Seventeen Chaperone and the off-white Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud with a glitter gradient done with Models Own Pink Fizz.

I really adored the way this looked, especially for the price. At 6 for £1 they're a huge bargain.

I've never used nail charms before and so I didn't have any nail glue to secure it down. As such I just set it in top coat and it did come off after a few hours! Fortunately I have a Born Pretty Store order on the way with some glue and a couple more charms.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Chic Flower Stamping

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

Hello!

I am very happy to have some new nail art goodies from Born Pretty Store to show you! The first item that jumped out at me from the review pack was the "Chic Flower" stamping plate, and I've done two manicures to show it off ^_^

This stamping plate has 9 floral designs with delicate, romantic fine lines. The centre design is a full-nail reverse floral pattern, and I stamped it in silvery-blue over Barry M Eat My Dust to make the left-hand manicure below. I stamped a mix of the other flowers in metallic pink over Barry M Pit Stop to make the romantic manicure on the right!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/chic-flower-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-pattern-qgirl-p-18899.html

I love this plate, it's very much my style! The images are nice and big and, despite the lines being so thin, they stamped very well. You could do your nails all with one design like on the left or mix them up like on the right and either way they look good (at least I like them on my nails!).

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Barry M Speedy Quick Dry ~ Eat My Dust & Pit Stop

Hello!

Barry M recently released their Speedy range, a collection of quick-dry polishes in really pleasant Spring shades. Tesco had a "3 for 2" offer on so I bought two shades to try, plus a replacement bottle of Rosehip from the Gelly range. It is very dangerous to a nail polish addict when your local supermarket has a cosmetics department right next to the groceries!

Eat My Dust is a pale lavender-grey and Pit Stop is a warm grey. The polishes come with a flat, wide brush which I personally prefer and they go on in two coats. To properly test the "quick-dry" claim I opened up the stopwatch on my iPod Touch and timed my Eat My Dust manicure!

The first coat took just under 2 minutes to become touch-dry. The second coat took 3 and a half minutes to become touch-dry. In total it took me around 16 minutes to paint my nails and for them to dry, including doing some clean-up with a cuticle stick as I went along.

Eat My Dust:

Pit Stop:

Since I do my nails as a hobby I don't normally keep track of how long it takes, or rush to get them done as quickly as possible. So I'll leave it to you, the much-appreciated reader, to judge if the drying times are quick enough for you! What do you reckon?

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Bumble Bee Manicure

Hello!

I couldn't let Easter week pass without using a pastel yellow, so I decided to pair Models Own's Banana Split with a bumblebee stamp from Bundle Monster.

I think they look cute on my nails but I would totally run from these bees in real life!

Yesterday I managed to get out of the house and found a couple of nail-related bargains in Poundland and Tesco, so hopefully you will see them on the blog and my Instagram soon.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Lisa's Easter Manicure

Hello and Happy Easter!

My manicure for today features carrots and bunnies! I had a few ideas for bright pastel manis but none of them seemed right - then a bunny-fur colour with some cute stamping and decals came to mind and seemed perfect ^_^

My base colour is Barry M Almond; over this I stamped a carrot pattern in white using Cheeky's Home Sweet Home stamping plate. I topped this with adorable bunny decals from KKCenterHk and glossed it all up with top coat.

I love my bun-buns!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Egg Dye Manicure

Hello, and a very Good Friday to you!

Today's manicure comes thanks to Kelli of thenailpolishchallenge on Instagram. She posted an amazing tutorial showing how to achieve a watercolour marble effect using acetone - thank you so much Kelli!

For my own attempt I painted a white base and chose a turquoise shade, Misstique by Missguided, for my marbling. By happy chance the result reminds me of dyed Easter eggs - how perfect for today!

Because I chose a richer colour, my manicure isn't as pretty and delicate as in thenailpolishchallenge's tutorial - but I am incredibly pleased with the result and will definitely be trying it again.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Dozy Owl Manicure

Hello!

Today's manicure perfectly encapsulates how I've been feeling as of late... sleepy, sleepy, sleepy!

I have a nice little collection of decals from YRNails and one of them is a dozy purple owl. To complement its colour I painted a French manicure where the bodies of my nails are white and the tips are lilac. For this I used Barry M Matte White and Seventeen's Woo Me.

I most definitely empathise with those owls! Zzzzzzzzzzz...

Hugs,

Lisa xx