Christmas Manicures

Hello!

Happy Christmas Eve! I'm here with a selection of manicures I've done this festive season. As well as the photos, I've posted links to where you can get many of the products I used. Hope you enjoy them!

1. Christmas Tree Manicure

This mani uses the gorgeous green glitter Henley Regatta by Butter London - a TXMaxx find - topped with a Christmas tree nail charm for Charlies Nail Art.


2. Snowy Scene Manicure

These are water decals from Born Pretty Store! I loved the snowy trees.


3. Tartan Manicure

Another Charlies Nail Art find! I was especially happy with how these water decals applied and thought the tartan was perfect for Winter.


4. Christmas Glitter Manicure

This manicure is a mix of two glitters - Beyond Gorgeous by Madam Glam, topped with Keeper of the Grove by Femme Fatale. I think this makes for the ultimate Christmas glitter!


5. Metallic Knit Manicure

To give some edge to a Winter Knit manicure, I chose black and silver as my colours. The stamping plate is Fashionista 03 by MoYou London.


I hope you liked my manis, and have a great Christmas!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Water Decals ~ Florals and Fruits!

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

Hello!

Today I have two colourful sets of Born Pretty Store water decals to show you! One has florals matched with funky overlay patterns, and the other has both individual fruits and full fruit patterns.

As always with Born Pretty water decals, I was really pleased how these applied. You do cut them to shape yourself, but that means you can get a perfect fit and play around with the decals.

With sheet BPY32 I sampled both the plain and patterned florals to make my manicure:

http://www.bornprettystore.com/patternssheet-born-pretty-leaf-flower-nail-water-decals-transfer-sticker-bpy32-p-33972.html

With sheet BPY22 I took four of the individual fruits and placed them over pale matching colours for a Skittles manicure:

http://www.bornprettystore.com/sheetsset-born-pretty-fruit-pattern-nail-water-decals-transfer-sticker-bpy21-p-33964.html

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Water Decals ~ Desserts!

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

Hello!

Last week I received a package from Born Pretty Store containing a mixture of review items and goodies I'd bought for myself, so I have had plenty of inspiration for my nails! Today's review shows off some super-cute water decals.

BPY28 is a water decal sheet with two different yet complementary patterns - one with cupcakes, and one with a variety of desserts like ice cream and doughnuts. They are adorable and versatile because, as well as applying them as a full-nail design like I have, you could also cut out the individual desserts and create your own mani ^_^

Here are the two designs, each applied over a white base:

http://www.bornprettystore.com/patternssheet-born-pretty-various-dessert-nail-water-decals-transfer-sticker-bpy28-p-33967.html

I really loved wearing these decals, especially the mixed dessert pattern. The sheet is on sale now so you can get both patterns for $0.99 total!

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

European Postcard Manicure

Hello!

Today I'm wearing water decals from Charlies Nail Art! They're a vintage postcard design of European landmarks: the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I applied them over one coat of Barry M Cream Soda...

I am so so happy with them ^_^ They are just my style - and they were only 89p!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Black Metal Manicure

Hello!

I just placed an order with Moyou London to get 2 stamping plates I've been craving for a while now - Gothic 12 and Trend Hunter 01! This manicure uses the Gothic plate.

I used to be a goth and I still listen to some black metal music. One of my favourite songs is called The Hangman of Prague by Marduk, so I used some of the images on my new Moyou plate to create a look inspired by the song and which is also fitting for Halloween...

I love my Moyou plates so much!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Smouldering Embers Manicure

Hello!

Both Halloween and Bonfire Night are coming up, and I had an idea for a glitter manicure to encompass the two. I call it smouldering embers!

My base polish was Black Tie by Jade, a sparkling opaque black jelly. I then sponged on a gradient of Love Letter by Ciaté, an orange-tinted pink glitter, using a normal washing up sponge. I used two coats of Sèche Vite to make the mani nice and glossy.

I hope the idea comes across!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Gothic Lace Manicure

Hello!

This is a manicure I would have liked back when I was a goth! I used to love wearing lace gloves. For the mani I did black French tips then stamped on some white lace using my Born Pretty L020 stamping plate...

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Lace and Studs Manicure

Hello!

I'm back to show you a lacy manicure with a Halloween edge!

I started off with two coats of a French sheer, Mademoiselle by Essie. Next I took my Born Pretty Store L020 stamping plate and stamped on a floral lace design in black. I then used my Barry M black nail art pen to draw a border around each nail to accentuate the manicure. I finished off with some silver metal studs from Charlies Nail Art. And everything was kept in place with Sèche Vite!

I really hope you like this look - I was quite pleased with how it turned out!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Water Decals ~ Kittens and Macarons!

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

Hello!

Today I have two more sets of Born Pretty water decals to show you! One features cute kittens and the other features my absolute favourite French patisserie treat, macarons.

Both sets of decals applied extremely well! After about 20 seconds in water they were ready to be fit to my nail. You do have to cut them yourself to fit your nail, but an advantage of this is that you choose how to use the decals.

Firstly, my kitten manicure! I applied the kitties over a white base...

http://www.bornprettystore.com/patternssheet-born-pretty-cute-claw-nail-water-decals-transfer-sticker-bpy19-p-33956.html

Next, my macaron mani! I applied these decals over a light pink...

http://www.bornprettystore.com/patternssheet-born-pretty-doughnut-dessert-nail-water-decals-transfer-sticker-bpy26-p-33965.html

I really loved both!

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Water Decals ~ Vintage and Apples!

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

Hello!

Today I have manicures using two sets of Born Pretty Store water decals to show you! One features an apple design and the other a vintage butterfly and floral pattern.

I always find that Born Pretty's water decals apply really well, and these were no exception! They only needed about 20 seconds in waters before they were ready to be fit to my nail. They smoothed down well and I was able to remove the excess decal by gently pulling them over my nail tips.

You do need to cut the decals to your nail shape yourself, which is a little extra time, but that means I was able to make French tip shapes for my vintage manicure:

http://www.bornprettystore.com/patternssheet-born-pretty-butterfly-pattern-nail-water-decals-transfer-sticker-bpy38-p-33979.html

I really love this design!

For the apple manicure, I took the pattern and applied it over all my nails. I painted my nails white first to make the colour of the decals really pop!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/patternssheet-born-pretty-fruit-apple-pattern-nail-water-decals-transfer-sticker-bpy21-p-33959.html

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Born Pretty Stamping ~ Mermaid Scales

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

Hello!

Today I'm back with a manicure that I've been wanting to do for ages but didn't have the right pattern for! It's a fish scale mermaid manicure using stamping plate BP-109 from Born Pretty Store ^_^

As well as the fish scale pattern, the stamping plate has three other linear patterns to play with - but I had mermaids on my mind! I stamped the scales in gold over the shimmering Barry M VIP.

http://www.bornprettystore.com/born-pretty-55cm-round-nail-stamp-template-wave-line-design-image-plate-p-33742.html

I am super happy with this! The pattern stamped absolutely perfectly and was more than large enough to cover my nails.

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Rose and Butterfly Manicure

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

Hello!

I'm back with a review of a stamping plate by Born Pretty Store! It's plate BP-99 and it features lovely, realistic roses.

One of the plate's patterns is a cluster of roses next to a butterfly, and I decided to use this design across my nails. For maximum effect I used my stamping mat to make decals so I could colour in the roses, leaves and butterfly with a nail art brush. Everything stamped really nicely and cleanly. Here is the result!

http://www.bornprettystore.com/born-pretty-55cm-round-nail-stamp-template-butterfly-flower-design-image-plate-p-33732.html

I'm so pleased with this manicure and hope you like it too!

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Stamped Bird Manicures

Hello!

I've been lacking in inspiration a little recently, so I went back to some of my favourite manicure ideas and recreated them! These three all involve birds - a Bird & Lace mani, a Birdcage mani, and a Bird & Glitter mani. They all use Moyou's Kitty 11 stamping plate, plus plate Tourist 07 for the lace xx

I'm thinking of recreating an antique butterfly mani next!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Charlies Nail Art Manicures

Hello!

Charlies Nail Art is the UK website that I use to buy things like water decals, rhinestones and charms for my nails! They're a really lovely company so I'm more than happy to show my support for them, and in return I have a discount code especially for my readers: GNAF10 xx

This post is a collection of manicures done using bits and pieces I've bought from Charlie's. Do let me know if you check them out! ^_^

1. Strawberry Manicure! This is the mani I'm wearing right now and it's cheering me up a lot with its bright colours. They are full cover water decals.

2. Bunny Manicure! I applied rabbit water decals over Models Own Utopia, with a golden accent nail of Models Own Chrome Olive.

3. Dried Flower Manicure! I started with a delicate sheer purple base of OPI's Care To Danse, then applied two mauve dried flowers. I added two layers of top coat to make them look like they were under glass.

4. Boudoir Manicure! I painted my index, pinky and thumbs in pastels, then used my MoYou Flower Power plate and stamping mat to create dark floral stamping decals for my middle nails. I finished the mani with a sinle rhinestone and a perfume bottle nail charm.

5. Beach Manicure! These are also full-cover water decals, creating a bejewelled seashore across my nails ^_^

I hope you like my manis; I had lots of fun making them xx

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Essie Bling Manicure

Hello!

For this manicure I decided to pair a classic French manicure with an ultra-sparkly accent nail. My polishes of choice were two Essies - the sheer Mademoiselle and the chrome-purple glitter Stroke of Brilliance.

One of the best nail polish "cheats" I've learnt is how to turn a top coat glitter into a full-coverage glitter bomb! All you do is paint the polish onto a washing-up sponge and then dab it onto your nails. The sponge soaks up the excess base, so on your nails you end up with all the glitter and not a thick mess!

So, I used this technique on my ring fingernail as an accent and applied two coats of top coat for a smooth finish. I would recommend using a peel-off base coat if you're doing this on more than a couple of nails, removal is tricky! I used French tip guide stickers and a plain white polish to do a French mani on the rest of my nails. Here is the result...

I hope you like it! I loved seeing the hit of sparkle ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Dozy Owl Manicure!

Hello!

In my water decal collection I have a few sheets of YRNails owls that always look cute on short nails! I chose the purple dozy owls since I'm a dozy sleepy Lisa, and I applied them over Barry M Cotton.

 I bought the decals from YRNails here ^_^

Zzzzzzz...

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Star Trek Uniform Manicure

Hello!

Sorry for being so quiet on my blog ~ I have lots of pictures of my nails up on Instagram but I've been too tired to keep up the full written posts. That said, I'm trying out designs on my newly short nails and wanted to show you this one!

I love Star Trek so I've done a half-moon manicure with glossy black and metallic colours representing the uniforms. My black is from Xtras and my colours are all Models Own Colour Chromes: Red, Olive, Turquoise and Grey. I used page reinforcer stationery stickers to create the curves.

I also added a MoYou Hand Tattoo for a technological finish to my mani!

I hope you like it!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Fun With Stamping Decals!

Hello!

I've been having so much fun making stamping decals with my new MoYou workshop mat, practising with different polishes, plates, colours, styles... so much so that I have six whole manicures to show you!!

1. Vintage Floral Manicure

This is Barry M Rosehip topped with a vintage rose pattern from MoYou plate Pro 17. I coloured in the roses on my stmaping mat ^_^

2. Butterfly Wing Manicure

This uses a wing pattern from MoYou Kitty 12, coloured in with lots of different brights and applied over the sheer Essie Mademoiselle.

3. Soft Floral Manicure

This is one of my favourites! My base is Models Own Blueberry Muffin and I made silver stamping decals from my Born Pretty floral plate with lilac coloured flowers. I used matte top coat to keep the mani nice and soft.

4. Pastel Rainbow Starbucks Manicure

Just for fun while I had my stamping mat out, I made a couple of coffee cup decals! I painted my nails in a pastel skittles, applied the decal to my ring fingernail and stamped on a coffee pattern from MoYou Cookbook 05 on the rest.

5. Rainbow Starbucks Manicure

As above, but with more primary toned colours! I also coloured in the coffee cup sleeves to match the colour of the nail. The problem with this decal is that the word "coffee" is backwards... I should have tried flipping the decals over!

6. Parisian Floral Manicure

This is my manicure today! The base colour is Nicole by OPI's Sweet surrender, a beautiful bargain I found in Xtras for £2.99. On top I have the Eiffel Tower from MoYou Tourist 07 and a floral pattern from Pro 17. I really love this one.


Hugs,

Lisa xx

Moyou London ~ Your Magic Workshop Stamping Mat Review

Hello!

I haven't had the energy to blog for quite a while now, but I just had to come back with a review for Moyou's new stamping mat! I bought it for £9.00 here (along with a couple of new plates to try it out with!).

Firstly, I love stamping but have had no luck making stamping decals; every attempt has been a bit of a failure and a heartbreak for me! So I bought the Your Magic Workshop as my last hope, spurred on by Moyou's YouTube tutorial for Cath Kidston style nails.

Here is the mat in use (on top of the paint-stained art box I normally use)...

The mat seems to be made of silicon and has mapped-out areas for polish mixing and nail outlines to help get your decals right. In the photo I've painted a clear polish onto the mat, left it a short while, stamped my designs on top and used a nail art brush (I bought a whole set from Poundland, you don't need to splash out) to paint on the floral details as shown in the YouTube tutorial. After this photo I used tweezers to lift the decals from the mat and stick them onto my nails. I used a mixture of the tweezers, a wooden cuticle stick and cotton buds soaked in remover to neaten my nails. Top coat finished my mani.

So far I've done two manicures using the mat and this technique. Here they are!

I am super-happy to have achieved these manis at this stage, since they're really only a practise. They're not perfect but I can now easily see what the issues are - I needed to use a proper white stamping polish for the Cath Kidston nails so they were more opaque, and I need to experiment with clear nail polishes to see which ones work best.

I've already got ideas for two new manicures and am currently trying to decide which to do first! This stamping mat will keep me busy for a while, I can see it ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Reverse Chrome Manicure

Hello!

Following on from my previous comeback post I did a new manicure in the "reverse French" style, using tip guide stickers to create that curve of colour at the base of the nail! This time I used my Models Own Colour Chromes for a futuristic look.

I painted my nails with the following polishes: Chrome Red, Chrome Olive, Chrome Turquoise, Chrome Pink and Chrome Grey. I then stuck my tip guides at the base of my nails and painted a layer of black on top.

 

This mani gives me unintentional Star Trek uniform vibes, and I adore Star Trek! The Colour Chromes are quite possibly my favourite Models Own collection and I just want to keep thinking up new ways to use them.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

A Touch of Glitter and a Diary!

Hello!

First of all, apologies for my absence! My blog has been quiet for a month but today I have a new manicure to show you and a little diary entry for anyone who might like to read it and find out a little more about me :-)

I have talked about this on the blog before but I suffer from depression with related physical and mental health issues. I've been unwell for going on 15 years now, since I was quite young! It's severe enough to be classed as a disability and has a huge impact on what I'm able to do day-to-day. Nail art is a great hobby which makes me feel a tiny bit fulfilled (and cheered up when I have pretty designs on my nails to look at and wonderfully lovely comments from readers). However, I do have periods of time where I'm not up to doing my hobby so much and I can't always predict when or how long those periods might be. Most of the time I can still manage to post on Instagram fairly frequently but I just had a week of wearing the same chipping nail polish and wasn't up to doing anything about it!

Fortunately I'm feeling a little better now so last night I cut and filed my nails to a nice new length (they were dry and damaged from that week of not looking after them), then I got out two of my absolute favourite polishes for a fresh mani! Blueberry Muffin by Models Own is the most gorgeous pale blue and Noel Street by Nails Inc is an amazing foil-like silver glitter. I allowed two coats of Blueberry Muffin to fully dry then used French tip guide stickers to add a sort of reverse French curve of glitter to the base of my nails.

The mani is a recreation of one I did a year ago, which I posted as a throwback on my Instagram while I was getting ready to sort my nails out. Here is the original, in pink:

I'm really fond of this idea and I hope you are too! With luck I'll be able to continue with blogging and painting my nails now ~ I still have some wonderful Born Pretty Store goodies to show you and I really will have to apologise to my BPS rep for such an awful delay.

Hope to be back soon!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

January Nail Art Challenge: Forest Creatures

Hello!

I'm taking part in clairestelle8's January Nail Art Challenge, and the theme for the 17th was Forest Creatures! Luckily for Christmas I received MoYou's Enchanted 01 stamping plate, which features a whole host of forest creatures in gorgeous leafy designs.

I chose Facets of Fuchsia by Revlon as my base polish for a deep, mysterious twinkle. I decided my forest creatures would be a curious bear and majestic owl, so I painted Konad White and Models Own Chrome Green onto the stamping plate for a contrast between the animal and the surrounding leafy design. I stamped more Chrome Green leaves onto my index and pinky nails as a border for my animals!

The next theme in the challenge is Clocks. It's maddening because I have a specific stamping image I want to use, but I can't find the plate and I think it's stuck down the side of some furniture somewhere. Oh noooooo.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

January Nail Art Challenge: Fave Animal and Gold

Hello!

I'm still very happily participating in the low-stress January Nail Art challenge by clairestelle8 on Instagram! This post shows you my entries for both the 10th and 13th of January, and you can see all my Instagram posts here ^_^

The theme for the 10th was "Fave Animal", and it's no contest... I love cats, especially our family cat Vienna, and also the cartoon kitty Pusheen! I happen to have her on a stamping plate I own, Suki 03 by MoYou, so she was the star of my mani. I started with a base colour of Lunar Grey by Models Own, stamped on a subtle background ice cream pattern in holo pink and topped it off with my Pusheen stamping...

The theme for today, the 13th, was Gold. I couldn't miss the opportunity to use my most ostentatious polish, The Man With The Golden Gun by OPI. It contains flakes of 18ct gold! I applied it over the bright Bermuda Blue by Models Own, and added a swirling pattern accent nail in gold as well...

See you soon with more manis!

Hugs,

Lisa xx