Manicures and Tattoos!

Hello!

I've done three manicures recently featuring some of my MoYou hand tattoos. The first one was a feathers manicure which you can find here, and the other two are in this post!

First we have what I dubbed a "Magical Manicure" ~ a glitter gradient of my Princess glitter mix from Charlies Nail Art, with some unicorn and dinosaur tattoos from my Origami tattoo pack:

Secondly we have a sparkling flower manicure - a floral pattern from Born Pretty stamping plate BP-L015, coloured in with Echarpe de Seda by Jade. The flower tattoo is from my Tropical tattoo pack:

What do you think?! I've asked for more MoYou tattoos for my birthday so, if I'm lucky, I will have more to play around with soon.

I also have two discount codes for you to buy the glitter and stamping plate I used in these manicures! Get 15% off at Charlies Nail Art using code GNAF15, and get 10% off at Born Pretty Store using code CMBQ10.

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Two Nail Charm Manicures!

Hello!

I hope you're having a nice Bank Holiday Monday! The weather has cooled down a little in the North East and personally I am very relieved. I don't handle the heat too well!

Two of my latest manicures have used metal nail charms, so I thought I'd show you them together ^_^

The first manicure is a butterfly design! For this once I used my "Summer's Day" water decals and butterfly charm from Charlies Nail Art. I cut the decals to make three French tips and one full nail as an accent. I glued the butterfly to my middle fingernail.

The second manicure was heavily inspired by metellitsa on Instagram! I switched up the index nail by painting it white and adding my charm, but everything else is the same design. My feathers are from Born Pretty stamping plate BP-75 and the charm is from Poundland. Any guesses as to what this little critter is - a fox, maybe? A raccoon? Answers in the comments, please!

Do you prefer one manicure over the other? Let me know!

Hugs,

Lisa xx

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

Tartan Water Decals

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

Hello!

Today I am reviewing a tartan water decal sheet from Born Pretty Store. I have Scottish ancestry so I love a bit of tartan, especially in the Winter!

I was sent tartan design #24 which is a strong and traditional red pattern. The decal comes as one sheet which you cut out to fit your own nails. The sheet is big enough to make 10 decals for small-to-medium sized nails, I would say.

Unfortunately I loved the pattern but had quite a bit of trouble with these decals. They were transparent enough to require a base colour. Also, when applying them, the pattern tended to distort and the decals break up a little at the fingertips. Here is the best manicure I could get using them (sorry for the photo quality, I was having issues with my phone!):

http://www.bornprettystore.com/colorful-grid-water-decals-stripe-nail-transfer-stickers-p-22023.html

I tried again to do another manicure but the result wasn't better! So these decals weren't for me. What I would recommend instead is that Born Pretty Store do multiple stamping plates featuring plaid patterns which work beautifully. Here are links to two that I was sent to review and loved...

http://www.bornprettystore.com/heart-diamond-grids-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-l013-65cm-p-19368.html

http://www.bornprettystore.com/nail-stamp-template-love-heart-plaid-pattern-qa84-p-14903.html

...and here is a tartan manicure I did with the second one, QA84, which I was very happy with:

I hope this review was helpful at least! ^_^

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

Hugs,

Lisa xx

Lisa's MoYou Christmas Presents!

Hello!

I received lots of lovely nail goodies for Christmas, and amongst them were three MoYou stamping plates - Enchanted 01, Enchanted 13 and Hipster 02 - and a set of MoYou scrapers. Despite my blogging break I still had great fun trying them out, so here I am finally with three resulting manicures!

Enchanted 01 features forest animals and leafy florals. The detail is intricate and the animals are delightful! I started off with a polish I found in Poundland called Pink Sherbet; I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it turned out to be! I stamped on my designs of choice in Chrome Mauve by Models Own, and then I re-stamped the animals on top in black. My stamping wasn't perfect but I still thought the critters looked cute...

Enchanted 13 has intricate animal illustrations and leafy floral patterns in the same style as plate 01, but the theme is cats and dogs. I am a cat lover (specifically our family cat, Vienna) so naturally I wanted an all-kitty manicure! I also wanted to try out another Christmas present, Chrome Olive by Models Own, so I used that as my base and stamped the cats on in black. I ended up adoring both my presents - the polish had a gorgeous colour and finish, and the cats were beautifully detailed.

Hipster 02 is a fun plate with a variety of designs - the ones that drew me in most were the social media icons, fun little illustrations and a tartan pattern. I did this manicure to say "Happy New Year" on Instagram: a fun yet simple skittles of Models Own Colour Chromes (Chrome Red, Chrome Olive, Chrome Blue, Chrome Pink) topped with the Instagram icon!

I hope you like the results of my Christmas presents! I haven't stopped experimenting with them so I'm sure there'll be more manis to come ^_^

Hugs,

Lisa xx

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

Paris Manicure

Hello!

I've done a manicure to honour those in Paris because I have a personal connection to the city and it feels right to note this on my blog. I studied French at university and, as part of my course, I lived in the banlieue (outskirts) of Paris and was a teaching assistant to schoolchildren who will now be in their late teens. I only hope that they are safe and well.

I also want to say that I support everyone's different ways of commemorating (or not) the multiple tragedies that have happened in the world over this past week. We're only human. For those seeking to help in a practical way, it looks to me like the charity Direct Relief is doing amazing work all around the world to respond to disasters.

For my manicure I did a simple Eiffel Tower motif over black. The design is from MoYou's Tourist 07 stamping plate, which I stamped on with Konad White over W7 Black.

A tout le monde à Paris... je pense à vous et je vous souhaite le courage et la sécurité pour ce nouvelle semaine.

Hugs,

Lisa xx