Deja vu...but not in blue

Hi!

I loved my blinged up turquoise nails for last week's GOT polish challenge so much that when it came to chosing my nails for a night out last weekend I decided to recreate them - in a neon hue! The stamping-glitter-stud combo is cure to become a favourite this summer I think! This time I used Models Own beach bag from their polish for tans collection and while I love the colour the formula left a bit to be desired. This is three coats, which I don't mind in itself, but it was so thick I had to add thinner halfway through the second. I must admit I did my toes with it too, but I wouldn't expect a polish to go as gloopy as it did after only two uses, especially as I expect people buy these as their "summer" manicure colour (that is afterall what they're marketed as, no?) I often find this with Models Own, their colours totally knock my socks off, but the formula sometimes doesn't live up to that. I'll move on...! I used Models Own Bora Bora as the accent nail, and added studs from Born Pretty Store and stamping from the Pueen Buffet set with Barry M Gold Foil. Teamed with an LBD and my dancing shoes, and I was in cheesy disco heaven!

My camera freaked out a little bit at the colour, it really is that bright! I absolutely love it, no doubt about that, I just wish the formula was better. Have you picked up any MO polish for tans? I do think it's made my pasty sausage fingers look a bit more tanned!

Hx

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GOT Polish? Blingggg!

Hi!

This week's GOT polish theme is bling! Now, I can bling it up as much as the next glitter addict, but I went for a bit of subtlety. Just a bit mind. I used Rimmel Turquoise Sky as the base, with Maybelline Knitted Gold and Sinful Colors Paris on the accent nail. I stamped two nails with Cheeky XL C and Barry M Gold Foil, and then finished with some small square studs from Born Pretty Store.

I actually really love this, and might try something similar when my toes need changing in a few days...I've only ever stamped my toes once and it was a disaster, so maybe this time it'll make it to the blog! I've not posted my toesies in a while...

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Adventures in Stamping - Favourite flower

Hi!

The first Adventures in Stamping Sunday challenge was to base your mani on your favourite flower. My favourite are daffodils (hurry up spring!) but I don't have a daffodil image in my plate collection (is there one?) so I improvised. The image I used from Cheeky CH12 could be taken for daffodils if you squint, and I used green and gold to simulate the colours. The green is from a set by Royal Cosmetics that I got for Christmas (it's nice enough, just has that lovely smell - you know it aint 3-free...) and Barry M Gold Foil for the stamping. The glitter accent is Milani Gold Jewel Effect with a fine gold holo glitter on top.

I didn't think I'd like this mani, but I actually really do. I had it in my head that green and gold would be too festive, but it really does remind me of spring. The green isn't a shade I'd normally choose for myself either, but it actually suits me somewhat. You learn something new everyday...

Hx

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33 Day Challenge day 28 - lines!

Hi all!

I must say, I'm rather proud of this manicure! I didn't want to just go for stripes for the 'lines' prompt, so I made a stamper decal using Konad S6, Konad Black and Barry M silver and gold foils. I paired it with black and gold studs, and gold and black studs on the thumb (Models Own Bora Bora and gold studs painted black!). I had a few bubbles and a wrinkle when I applied the decals, but I actually think in this case the foil polish was quite forgiving and it didn't look horrendous. Well, I hope it didn't!

Possibly my favourite mani of the challenge? It's high up there at least! Not long to go now...

Hx

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33 Day Challenge day 2 - most used polish!

Hello!

Day two and I'm still on time...I'm sure it wont last! Today's prompt was to feature your most used polish, excluding black and white and I struggled to think of one. It's rare that I use a polish a lot (as I have way too many!) and even with the most used ones there would be a few contenders. Looking through the tags on the blog I realised there was a polish that I reached for more than any other. So much in fact that I had to crack open my back up bottle for this manicure! Good old Barry M Gold Foil, my absolute favourite gold for stamping. And I stamp with gold a lot! This polish is perfect for stamping, it has never let me down right from the first use to the last scrape.

For this manicure I started with a base of two coats of Nails Inc George Street, and accented with Nails Inc St Martins Place - both from the recent Nails Inc Todays Special Value on QVC. George Street is a really nice nude, although the formula was thick it wasn't quite a one coater as it was still a little streaky. Once that was dry I stamped using my good old Barry M and Pueen 26.

A simple, elegant result, I hope you'll agree! You can (almost) always rely on Barry!

See you Friday for day three!

Hx

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Adventures in Stamping - Shall I compare thee to an autumn day?

Hi! And what a lovely autumn day it is!

This week's adventures in stamping theme was autumn, and I don't think my manicure could get much more autumnal! I'm so pleased with how it came out, for once it was exactly how I pictured. I started with one coat of China Glaze Desert Sun, and then added random strokes of China Glaze Cranberry Splash, Avon Lucky Penny and Chanel Peridot. Once that was dry I stamped over it using Barry M Gold Foil and Gals Fairy GA35. Here is the result!

And here is the base before I stamped. super easy to do and minimal effort for a really effective result!

What do you think, autumnal enough? I love it and I'm torn between leaving it on another day and taking it off to get another couple of 33 day challenge manis (which starts tomorrow, eek!) done this evening...decisions decisions!

Hx

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Papaya Print

Morning!

I'm partial to a coral colour on the nail, especially in summer, and so because my nails are misbehaving and I got rather too snip happy with the clippers (leaving me with no free edge at all and sore fingertips) I cheered them up with a coral and gold simple stamping combo. The base is Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Papaya - smooth, easy, corally-salmon two coater, stamped with Barry M Gold Foil Effects and Konad S1. I treated myself to the stamping plate just for this design and I can see myself getting lots of use from the basket weave alone, so a good investment for my first genuine Konad purchase!

Don't forget to enter the British Nail Bloggers Giveaway!

Hx

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Adventures in Stamping - Butterflies and Dragonflies

Hello!

Yes, I know it's Wednesday and I'm only just getting around to posting my Sunday Stamping mani, but better late than never, right? This weeks theme was butterflies and dragonflies, and since I've done flutterbies lots of time, I went for the dragons.

My base is Nails Inc Picadilly Circus, topped with two coats of Candeo Orchid. So pretty on it's own, but I then added gold dragonflies from a Salon Express plate with Barry M Gold Foil.

Something exciting happened to me while I was wearing this mani, hopefully I'll be able to share it with you in a week or two, and maybe even create a celebratory mani ;)

I apologise again for the lack of posts, I seem to be lacking a bit in inspiration. When I do my nails I'm so blah about them that I don't want to post them. At the moment I'm just wearing a plain orange creme! (But it's a beaut - I'm about to Instagram it) I'm sure I'll sort myself out soon!

Hx

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Kiss Me I'm Irish!

I'm sure you've had your fill of St Patrick's day manicures, but I'll share mine with you anyway! I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but it needed to include some stamping to fit with Adventures in Stamping's Sunday stamping prompt, so I went for some green and gold skittles. The main colour is Barry M Spring Green. Then I added OPI The Man With The Golden Gun to my little finger, stamped with Barry M Gold foil and Bndle Monster 303 on my ring and index. On my middle finger and thumb I did a reciprocal gradient (see Globe and Nail for the original tutorial) with Spring Green, Nails Inc Spring Mews and China Glaze Holly-Day. I did think of adding some gold, maybe a fine gold glitter, to tie it in with the rest of the nails, but I was so chuffed I'd managed to do it without effing up that I thought I'd better leave it. If it ain't broke and all that...

So that was my obligatory green mani for the year! I do actually have some Irish heritage, so you can kiss me if you like ;) 

Tomorrow, I'm starting on a new challenge, with Miss Crumpet's lovely nail tarts again. We're starting the Tri-Polish challenge- using the same 3 polishes for 4 different manicures in a month...this month's colours are coral, green and purple...wish me luck!

Hx

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Adventures in Stamping - using French tip stamp

Evening all!

I've had such a busy day today, I couldn't wait to show you this manicure because I LOVE it and it came out better than I had hoped, but this has been my first chance to sit down and do it! I hope it has been worth the wait!

This week's challenge was to use a French tip stamp - it wasn't stipulated that you had to use it for a French manicure though - and I didn't! I started with a base of two coats of Barry M Bright Red. Once that was dry I used Fench tip guides to mark off about a third of my nail from the cuticle, which I then painted gold with Barry M Gold Foil for a kind of deep Ruffian. I left the tip guides on, and once the gold was dry I stamped over it with Konad Special black and a kind of Aztec-y design from BM219. It was hard to line up evenly, but I don't think I did too bad a job! I then outlined the gold section using a nail art brush and Konad black again.

There's a bit wonky, a bit smudgy and there's Konad black polish (BITCH to clean up) everywhere. But I adore them. Maybe it's the 80s child in me, but I felt like walking around in a power suit with shoulder  pads the size of elephant ears all day today...

And, just to show you the base on it's own. I took a picture at two coats to check it was opaque enough, and look how shiny! Barry never lets you down.

I may not be posting as much this week, it's my eldest son's 5th birthday on Wednesday and I have visitors all week (and a houseful of 4 and 5 year olds for a party) so wish me luck! I do still owe you a the final HoloWeek post, so look out for that tomorrow.

Hx

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NOTD - Peachy Plait or Fishtail Fail?

Morning!

I must have pinned 11tybillion of these fishtail/braided designs, so I decided the other day to try one, in my favourite peachy tones. I used Barry M Peach Melba, Collection 2000 Hot Looks Fruit Salad and Barry M Gold Foil. I did two accent nails, ring and middle, with the plait detail and the other three fingers with the separate colours. Every version I've seen of this has been beautiful, and the tutorials have looked so deceptively easy - but can I just say I didn't find this easy at all! It was a pain in the arse, messy, took ages because I had to let each stripe dry before I could do the next one and when I was finished I didn't like it. Hmph. I forced myself to keep it on (mainly because it was about midnight by the time I was finished and I couldn't face the prospect of going to bed with naked nails) and it's grown on me I guess. It doesn't look so bad now it's cleaned up, and I've had some compliments on it so I guess it doesn't look too bad...

Maybe if my nails were a bit longer it would look better? I don't know, I'm just not sold on this one, on me at least. Maybe it was just more effort than it was worth! Kudos to everyone who does on every nail - you have more patience than me!

So what do you think, peachy plait or fishtail fail?

Hx

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NOTD - Pretty Paisley and a huge thank you

Hi!

This morning I have another stamping manicure to show you. When I got the new set of Bundle Monster image plates, this was the first design I chose. It's super pretty and feminine and just really lovely. I used Orly Lucky Duck as the base, which looked more teal in the bottle, but turned out to be a lovely Mallard green (but stained like coffee down a new blouse...). Then I stamped with Barry M Gold Foil.

Now, I have a huge thank you that I own to a very special person from my birthday group. You see, I didn't order or pay for these plates. I came back from taking my son to school one morning and there was a package from America sitting on my doormat, with them inside. At first, I thought there had been a mistake, that Bundle Monster had somehow mixed up my order from last years plates. The invoice had my shipping address on it, but someone else who I'd never heard of as the invoice address. Then, the rational part of my brain realised that it must have been one of my birthday ladies, and the lovely Tracy was prime suspect, and my suspicions were confirmed when I worked out the phone number on the invoice was a Swedish one. Such a lovely, kind thing to do! I honestly don't have the words to thank you enough, Tracy, but I hope you know how much it means to me, and how much I treasure our new found friendship :) And I promise I will pay forward the RAOK soon...

Hx

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NOTD - Just Peachy...

Hello lovelies :)

Peachy colours are one of my favourites. I think they just suit my skintone and are just a little bit "different" without being too out there. For this manicure I combined Barry M Peach Melba with one of my favourite patterns from the second Bundle Monster set, stamped with Barry M Gold Foil.

I love this combinations - and Barry M did too! I tweeted it to them, and they retweeted it so I got lots of nice comments. I think my nails were quite nice at this stage too *sobs* grow little nubbins, grow!

Hx

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Adventures In Stamping - Gold, Silver and Bronze

...on sad little nubbins :( My peels have gotten a lot worse recently, so I went for a cull. I suspect it's due to changing my polish remover, because my usual one was out of stock. I always suffer with my index fingers and thumbs peeling, and they never grow as well as my other nails. Even with them this short both of my index fingers and one thumb still have pretty bad peels, so I've decided to keep them short and try to grow them out. I actually like the shape they are now, so it's not so bad.

Anyway, this week's sunday stamping challenge was to use Gold, Silver and Bronze, and after GB's spectacular effort at the Olympics last night (apart from the football, we'll forget about that. Damn penalties...) I was inspired by the design of the medals. I painted my nails with Barry M Copper, Silver Foil and Gold Foil and stamped this liney pattern from BM316 with Konad Black Pearl. I waited until the morning to top coat it, and it still smudged. Well, actually it kinda bled...weird.

I think it kinda looks like the pattern on the medal, and the ribbon. Kinda, right?

And here are the sad little naked nubs. LeSigh. Will I ever have nice long nails? 

Hx

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