A Pair of Snowflake Manicures!

Hello!

Now that it's December I've started to go a little festive with my manicures, and today I have two blue snowflake looks to show you - Winter Butterfly and Shimmering Sweater.

For my butterfly mani I layered some stamping to get a snowflake-patterned wing effect. I started with a base colour of Blueberry Muffin by Models Own, then stamped on some snowflakes from one of my Bundle Monster plates. On top went the lovely butterfly wings from Nailz Craze plate NC01. As well as finishing with top coat I painted a layer of it between the two stamping designs, so they wouldn't muddle together.

Next I did a very shiny Christmas pattern mani! My mam chose the colour for this one; the result is nice and festive. I started with Blue Odyssey by Max Factor then stamped on the snowflake sweater pattern from my other Nailz Craze plate, NC03, using Holographic Hero by Gosh.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Sparkling Wings & Flourished Manicures

Hello!

Recently I've been doing plenty of stamping - a Born Pretty review pack and MoYou order meant I've had a lot of exciting ideas to try - and so this post shows off two of my latest stamped manicures! I'm thinking of cutting my nails short again just to get a bit of variety in, but even then I've still got some stamping in mind. I hope this isn't too monotonous for my readers?

The manicure I'm wearing right now features a sparkling pink glitter, Rose Chic by Maybelline. This polish can be worn as a gorgeous textured glitter but here I've smoothed it out so I could add some stamping in the form of a floral flourish, taken from MoYou's Mother Nature 05 stamping plate. My base coat is Picture Polish Revolution in the hope that it will make the glitter easier to remove!

The manicure I had on beforehand was a butterfly manicure, using one of the many wing designs on MoYou Kitty 12. For this I started out with one coat of Essie Ballet Slippers for the nude part of the nail. Then I took three holo polishes - Holographic Hero by Gosh, Wistful by TopShop and Red Taboo by Layla - and used a sponge to mix and dab them onto my nails as colour for the wings. I stamped the design on and top coated! I also wore one of my MoYou hand tattoos, some origami butterflies, which I've shown in the photo.

As you can see I overlapped a bit with my colour sponging which I'd hoped I could cheekily pass of as stylistic, but I don't think as many people liked when I posted it on Instagram.

Depending on how I'm feeling, the next mani you see may be of short nails - and perhaps featuring something other than stamping, just to mix it up for once!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Pusheen Manicure

Hello!

OK I am SUPER happy with this new MoYou stamping plate of mine, Suki 03. It has lots of little kawaii bits and bobs - sushi, sweets, animal faces, veg, all ready to be stamped on their own, leadlit or turned into decals. Most importantly for this manicure it has Pusheen the cat!!! I adore Pusheen so she had to be the first to go on my nails.

I tried to recreate the style of Pusheen so went for a light grey base, a layer of light holographic stamping in a cute doodle pattern, then my main stamping in black. I used Sally Hansen Ion for the base, Gosh Holographic Hero and MoYou plate Princess 11 for the under-stamping, and Konad Black and Moyou Suki 03 for the main stamping. I also topped off my mani with a few tattoos from my MoYou Hipster hand tattoo pack!

I've only just finished this manicure but I was in such a rush to blog about it because it's making me really happy to look at! It's funny, I have so many stamping plates with gorgeous, intricate patterns that I love - but sometimes you just need something simple and cute to put a huge smile on your face.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Rainbow Butterfly Wing Manicure

Hello!

I'm feeling terribly depressed today so here is a cheering-up mani featuring no less than 5 holographic polishes in a butterfly wing design!

The stamping plate is Nailz Craze NC01, the stamping polish is W7 Black and the holos are, in rainbow order:

Layla - Red Taboo
Layla - Coral Glam
Layla - Emerald Divine
NailNation 3000 - Parma Violet
Glitter Gal - Frappe

Oops, and the little dots are Holographic Hero by Gosh!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Gosh ~ Holographic Hero

Holo ahoy!

Ever since Gosh released Holographic Hero I've been popping in and out of Superdrug looking for it with no joy... until last week, when I spotted one lone bottle and snapped it up! It's great to see a holo polish on the British high street!

The bottle cap states in great big letters that this polish is "one night wear for holographic lovers" so I wasn't expecting much mileage. In fact after 24 hours I only had a tiny chip on my index finger which was easily patched up. This morning, 2 days after applying it, I had a big chip of polish come off my thumb but I needed a new mani anyway. So I am pleasantly surprised by the wear time!

You can't wear top coat over Holographic Hero because it ruins the holo finish, so I tried a "sandwich" technique I'd heard from other polishers: I applied 2 coats of HH, one of top coat then a final coat of HH. Here's how it looked:

Yaaaaaaay, holo goodness! The silver linear holo is beautiful and I was a very happy Lisa ^_^

And here it is the day after, still perfect and still shimmering away:

I am so pleased I managed to get a bottle!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

A Little Haul!

Hello!

Yesterday I went into town to print off my CV for a job interview (eek!), and while I was there I was very naughty and treated myself to a few goodies!

Firstly I went to Superdrug, where for the first time I saw one lone bottle of Gosh's Holographic Hero! People are saying that it's not as good as the original one, but seeing a holo polish on the British high street was too great a temptation to resist! Also, I was delighted to see Barry M's new Gelly collection and two of their new Jewel glitter polishes on display. I chose the Pomegranate Gelly polish (but will probably go back for more) and the two glitters, which were Rose Quartz and Gold Mine. There was an offer on Barry M where you receive a free crackle polish with a £6 purchase, so I chose the purple one ~ honestly I don't use crackles anymore but will try it out, and if it's not for me I will try to find it a happy home ^_^

Next, I had a quick rummage through my trusty local cosmetics stall, and found two bottles of Sally Hansen that caught my eye. The HD polish is called Blu and the Salon Manicure one is Navy Baby, which has a beautiful shimmer in the bottle. I also bought a cuticle remover gel as I am desperately trying to improve the condition of my nails.

And finally I popped into Lush to look for the product that everyone's been talking about, Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter! Already I can tell you that the scent is heavenly. I am going to try my best to be consistent and apply this 2-3 times a day, and I'll let you know if it helps!

Hugs,

Lisa xx