Floral Inspiration ~ Nail Machine

Hello!

Today's manicure was inspired by Nail Machine on Instagram! Her mani was a hand-painted blue rose pattern with a gold-lined accent nail - just my style, and absolutely gorgeous.

I have found out through many attempts that, unfortunately, painting designs by hand with nail art brushes just isn't my talent. It always ends up looking thick and clumsy! Luckily I have many stamping plates with designs to compensate for this, and my MoYou Pro 17 plate had a rose pattern that would do the trick.

I started with the gold accent on my ring fingernail: using French tip guide stickers and Chrome Olive by Models Own I painted a thin, curved line. Then above that line and on the whole of my other nails I used an off-white, Cream Soda by Barry M, as my base colour. I then used my MoYou stamping mat to make decals, stamping the rose pattern in Cream Soda and colouring it in with three shades of blue.

Cream Soda isn't quite opaque so the roses ended up pretty undefined, but I am still happy with the floral look I ended up with. Apologies for the poor lighting - I'm still very tired all the time so it's been difficult to take photos at the ideal time of day.

Thanks to Nail Machine for the inspiration!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Charlies Nail Art ~ Treble Clef Decals

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

Hello!

Today I have an item from Charlies Nail Art to show you: treble clef nail decals! Part of being an ambassador means I get to try out nail products that I haven't tried before, and these kinds of decals are one of them.

The treble clefs are small, wafer-thin plastic motifs which are copper-coloured on one side and black on the other; you can choose which colour you'd like to show on your nails. I used them by first painting my nails - with Barry M Pearl, in this case - then applying the decals with tweezers onto a layer of wet top coat. I used both points of the tweezers to keep the decal pushed down as the polish dried. I then added more top coat to seal them in!

What I've found trying these decals for the first time is that they're fun to use and (at least I think!) they look good on the nail. I especially liked this treble clef design. A disadvantage is that they can be hard to keep flat, and I ended up getting a little polish over the decals as I pushed them down. I would try them again.

Check out my sidebar button for 15% off your entire Charlies Nail Art order - the discount code is GNAF15!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Bird & Blossom Manicure

Hello!

Today I am wearing some gorgeous pink blossom water decals with a bird on the index nail! The decals were sent to me as an extra gift in a review pack from Born Pretty Store.

To give the decals more depth I decided to apply them over a soft gradient of white to light pink. The polishes I used were Barry Ms Cotton and Rose Hip. You can just about see the gradient in the finished design ^_^

I adore patterns like these - clean, soft and feminine!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Cat & Blossom Manicure

Hello!

As promised in my last blog post I have my latest manicure to show you - blossoms and a Japanese money cat!

To get inspiration for this manicure I basically reached into my box of stamping plates and pulled out a random one, which turned out to be MoYou's Suki 17. This is a gorgeous plate featuring very intricate Japanese designs. I hadn't yet used the money cat image so I decided that the time was now! I used my MoYou stamping mat to make decals - one of the cat and the rest blossom flowers - and applied them over the light grey Ion by Sally Hansen.

I've been very tired but I am glad that I got this manicure done and photographed! Now to find inspiration for my next design... ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Flashback Friday Manicures

Hello!

Today I thought I'd do a round-up post of what I was wearing on this date during the years 2013 to 2016!

I actually have a new mani on my nails right now, but unfortunately I was so tired that I slept all day and didn't get to take a photo. It is a Japanese cat and blossom design over grey polish, and I hope to show it to you during the weekend.

So, 2016! On the 10th of March last year I was wearing cute flower stems over a glitter tips manicure. I used my MoYou Princess 11 plate and the glitter is Northern Lights by Models Own.

In 2015 I went outside my comfort zone with an attempt at a chic black and gold manicure. I used striping tape to apply the black, and the gold flakes are OPI's Man With The Golden Gun - easily the most expensive and silly polish purchase I have ever made!

In 2014 I was also wearing Models Own Northern Lights - I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or if the 2016 mani was a flashback! In any case I went for full coverage this time and applied a lovely singing bird water decal as an accent.

And in 2013 I had the striping tape out again, this time having it on my nails as part of the finished manicure. I was still taking flash photos in my bedroom at this stage.

Do you have a favourite? I hope you can see some kind of progression in quality from my 2013 manicure to now - I'm taking photos outside in daylight now, at least!

I hope to be writing again soon with that Japanese manicure.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Lace & Butterfly Manicure

Hello!

Today I had the idea to do a design that I've already done in black - it's a bordered lace manicure!

For this white version I started off with a coat off the sheer French polish Essie Mademoiselle. I then stamped on some lace using my BP02 Chic Lace stamping plate from Born Pretty Store. To do the border I used my white Barry M nail art pen to carefully outline my nails. After adding top coat I decided a lovely finishing touch would be a white butterfly charm which I bought from Charlies Nail Art, adhered with nail glue. It's silly, I wasn't even intending to use a Charlies product today - but it worked its way in there!

And, for comparison, here is the black version I did a while ago:

I actually much prefer the white, but what do you think?

As my snazzy sidebar button says, you can get 15% off your entire Charlies Nail Art order with my coupon code, GNAF15 xx

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Charlies Nail Art ~ Colour Wave Nail Wraps

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

Hello!

Another day as a Charlies Nail Art Ambassador! Yesterday I showed you some rhinestones I purchased, and today I have something that was specifically sent to me to review: colour wave water decal wraps.

The wraps cost 89p and consist of a sheet of 10 decals that you cut to your own nail shape. The patterns are a mix of rainbow colour waves. To apply them you just dip them in water for about 30 seconds, slide them off the backing paper then adhere them to your nails, rubbing gently to stick them in place. I took the optional step of applying the wraps over one coat of white nail polish to give the colours added vibrance.

I had to start this manicure again because I made the mistake of trying to apply the wraps over completely dry nail polish and they wouldn't stick down! I think this is a top tip for water decals in general: apply them over touch-dry polish. Once I did this the wraps adhered just fine and I achieved a look that I was happy with. I finished off the mani with top coat for protection.

I hope you like these as much as I do! 89p is a bargain and, of course, you can get an extra 15% off your entire order with my Ambassador's coupon code: GNAF15. Check out my snazzy new sidebar button!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Charlies Nail Art ~ Rhinestones

Hello!

I thought it would be nice to inaugurate myself as a Charlies Nail Art brand ambassador by doing a manicure using some of my purchases! Check out the new button on my sidebar featuring a 15% off code especially for you - GNAF15.

I also want to try writing full blog posts again in addition to posting manis on Instagram. As I've written about before, I have health problems which include depression and feeling very tired. This makes it rather difficult to blog consistently! That said, my hobby does cheer me up so it's worth making an effort for.

Back to the nails! I did a French manicure using lovely little pink and blue gems bought from Charlies Nail Art at 75p per pack. I also used a clear gem that I already had in my collection.

To achieve my French manicure I applied Maybelline Winter Baby using tip guide stickers for a neat shape, followed by a coat of Essie Mademoiselle. I used nail glue to add a sprinkle of the gems as accents...

I was super-pleased with how this turned out. Not meaning to boast, but this is possibly my neatest French mani to date!  And I think the gems added the perfect finishing touch ^_^

Hoping to write again soon...

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Charlies Nail Art Ambassador!

Hello!

I am proud and excited to let you know that I am now an Ambassador for Charlies Nail Art! Charlies is a UK site with a wide range of nail art goodies including decals, glitters, foils, stickers and wraps. Their prices are definitely on the bargain side. They ship worldwide but of course are especially great if you're British like me and want a speedy nail mail fix!

What does my being an ambassador mean? Basically it means you all get a 15% off discount code - GNAF15 - to use when you order. I will also be sent product samples to try out. This is in exchange for me spreading the good news of Charlies Nail Art via honest reviews of their nail art goodies, be it here on the blog or on my Instagram.

Why did I want to be an ambassador? I started out as a regular Charlies Nail Art customer and was always happy with my orders and proud to post the resulting manicures on Instagram. I also liked that I was supporting a UK site - I'm happy to shop worldwide but sometimes it's nice to shop "local"! A big plus is that I feel like I can be an ambassador and remain honest to you - Charlie's already told me that an honest review is good for her credibility, so that gives me a lot of confidence.

To start off with I've done a little collage of some of my Charlies Nail Art manicures, shown above! You can buy the products here:

Barbie Graffiti Water Decal Sheet - 99p - http://www.charliesnailart.co.uk/barbie-graffiti-nail-art-wrap-sheet/
Gold Nail Foil - 39p - http://www.charliesnailart.co.uk/metallic-nail-foil-in-11-colours/
Nail Wraps - from 89p - http://www.charliesnailart.co.uk/nail-wraps/
Silver Nail Studs - 89p - http://www.charliesnailart.co.uk/round-metal-nail-art-studs/

Hugs,

Lisa xx