12/12/2014

A to Z of nails - G is for GOLD

Hi Everyone! 

It's that time again where I get given a theme and try and be as obscure as possible!

This week is clearly no different to any other, so without further ado, check out my design for "gold" week !

So, for those who cannot read music ( or for those who think my freehand skills leave a lot to be desired ) these are the opening few bars of the song "Gold" by Spandau Ballet ( showing my age a little here haha! )


04/12/2014

A to Z Challenge "F" is for Fashion!

Hey Everyone !

It's that time of the week again, and I'm actually more excited about this weeks theme than I should be.

I actually came about this weeks mani without even thinking about it. I was chatting to Charlie from Pocket Money Polishes when she reminded me about the F for fashion theme, I looked down at my nails that I was painting for the hell of it, and immediately thought "yup, these are the nails I'm going to use"

So my inspiration for this mani are these leggings from Black Milk. It's a lovely simple pattern, but catches the eye nicely, & I knew I had a MoYou London stamping plate somewhere with the same pattern on, so I dug it out, and there we have it !

I feel like I kinda cheated a bit by using such a simple design and a stamping plate too, but I still love them :)


27/11/2014

A-Z Challenge. E is for Elegant

Hey Guys! It's A-Z time again ! :)

This week is "E" So our theme is "Elegant". This week was fairly easy for me as I had an idea in my head immediately and just went with it  !!


21/11/2014

A to Z Challenge - D is for DARK

Hey lovelies !

This week's A-Z theme is "Dark" and as always it's completely open to interpretation, and as you all know I do like a little bit of obscurity, so I thought I would go for something a little different and "out there" ;)

So I new all the other awesome ladies doing the challenge would come up with something amazing, so I thought I would have a go at something amazing too :)

So my take on this weeks "Dark" theme is...

Black Hole. 

You can't get much darker than that, can you?


13/11/2014

A to Z Challenge ! C is for COPYCAT

Good Afternoon all !

It's time for another A to Z post :)

This week's theme is "Copycat". We had the choice to copy another nail artist, or a pattern, or anything really! This theme was wide open to choose whatever you wish.

So for my copycat design, I decided to copy this design from the lovely Jessnailed_it on Instagram.

Link to the original instagram page HERE


06/11/2014

A to Z - B is for BOLD

Hey all !!

This week has gone by so fast! So today's A to Z theme is "BOLD"

Now there are many ways to interpret bold, but the first thought that came into my head was super bright contrasting colours.
Nothing complicated about this weeks mani, the colours may blow your eyeballs out though.


31/10/2014

Happy Halloween blog post

Happy Halloween lovelies !!!

This is the post I have been leading up to all October :)

Herein lies every Halloween design I have made this year! Some of which you may have seen via my Instagram, but some are a few surprises I have sneaked in.

This post is going to be very photo heavy, so I'm going to try and soften the blow by not writing a novel before each one as a description.

First up is a Day of the Dead / Calavera inspired design, I wanted to concentrate on distinguishing features rather than attempt at a teeny tiny whole face on each nail with not a lot of detail.


30/10/2014

A - Z Weekly Challenge. New Weekly Challenge !!

Hey All !!

So last week was the last of the A-Z of polish challenge, but this week the A-Z challenge returns with a new theme !

This time round is more open to interpretation, which means t hat we all get to see a huge variation of ideas from everyone involved, and we have had a bit of a recruitment drive, and we now have a huge pool of talented nail artists who are joining in with the challenge via their blogs & the instagram hashtag #A2ZNAILS, so keep an eye out for that :)

Now for today's prompt... ANGLES !! 

So I wanted to stick with a slight Halloweeny theme as it's that time of year, so I went for a black / orange ombré on two accent nails using Barry M Matte in Espresso, and Barry M Gelly in Mango ( my go to halloween orange ) over a base of Models Own HyperGel in White Light.

To create the angles, I used some right angle nail vinyls from NailVinyls.com, and then topped it off with some Seche Vite to smooth out any bumps left over from painting on top of the vinyls.


23/10/2014

A to Z of polish... Z is for.... ZOYA !

Hey All !

So today is a sad day :( It's the end of the A to Z of polish challenge... It's the end of an era..


BUT NEVER FEAR !! Next week I will be joining in with another A to Z weekly blog challenge. More on that next week, but today is all about the Z's..

Hit the jump for my final A to Z of polish mani <3

20/10/2014

Four Seasons Blogger Collaboration.

Hey All !

Today is going to be something a little different to normal, myself and 3 other lovely ladies have decided to band together to create a seasonal nail art collaboration.

Hit the jump to see what we all did !

08/10/2014

MoYou London Plate review

Hi All !!

So I was lucky enough to be sent two stamping plates from MoYou London to review for them.

The plates up for review are Hipster plate 07 & Explorer plate 08 !

Hit the jump for the review and to see what I created. :)

03/10/2014

A to Z of Polish - X is for...

Xyloid !!

So it is another difficult week for me as I don't have ANY polishes beginning with X, so I've winged it yet again and gone with an obscure word instead.

Xyloid is a Greek word meaning "resembling wood"

So I obviously came up with some nail art to match ;)

26/09/2014

A to Z of Polish... "W" is for Watermelon & Waikiki !

Hello lovelys !

It's that time of the week again where we delve into the wonderful world of polish names !!

This week of course, is W. I chose two polishes that have been a staple base for a large number of nail art designs, so I thought today is the day they get to shine on their own. So on that bombshell... no nail art today ! !!

Hit the jump to see what colours I used.

18/09/2014

A to Z of Polish. "V" is for.... Vanilla !

Hey All !!

I hope you're all having a nice Thursday so far :)

So I went through all of my polishes to find a good "V" to use for today's challenge, but I didn't have one ! So I hot footed it out to Superdrug yesterday to get myself  "Vanilla" from Barry M's Matte range, and I ended up coming out with 11 polishes ! Ooops !

Aaaaaanyway, by the skin of my teeth, I managed an autumny inspired design. Hit the jump to see what I did. 

08/09/2014

I won something !!! / MoYou 20k Rainbow challenge

So, if you follow my Instagram, you may know I participated in the MoYou London Rainbow challenge, where you had to create different designs using MoYou plates with a dominant colour of their choosing.

It has been one of my favourite challenges yet & it really inspired me to produce something original using the plates I have. ( Luckily I have quite a few plates to choose from )

I tried to create something interesting with each design and it looks like at least one of them did well :)

Hit the jump to see my designs !!

04/09/2014

A to Z of Polish. T is for... Thunder and lightning!

Hey All !

So it's that time of the week again !

This weeks letter is "T" and one polish jumped straight into my head. "Thunder and Lightning" by Models Own.

This Polish is a gorgeous sheer black jelly with tiny holographic particles and it is absolutely gorgeous !

Hit the jump for awesome photos <3

29/08/2014

A to Z of Polish... S is for Strawberry Tart & Sun Hat & Silver !

Hey everyone ! 

It's that time of the week again where we see what we can do with a few bottles of polish & a love of all things literary ! ( Well not quite, but it sounds good ;) )

Hit the jump for photos & what I used :)

22/08/2014

A to Z of Polish - R is for Rosehip & Rhossilli !

Hey All !


It's that time again ! :) Todays Mani consists of two R polishes as I couldn't decide between them both.
They are both by Barry M, the first one is "Rosehip" which is from their Gelly line, and the second if "Rhossilli" from their Matte collection.


Hit the jump for a little look at what I came up with for these two wonderful polishes !!

14/08/2014

A to Z of Polish "Q" is for.... erm......

Hey guys,

So today was meant to be "Q" day for the A to Z challenge... but even though I have many many polishes.. none of them have a name beginning with Q, it seems that a few others were in the same predicament as myself, so we decided this week would be a cheat week !

So for those of us with no "Q" named polishes we are just going with a "Q" theme !

Hit the jump to see what I came up with.

07/08/2014

A to Z of Polish - P is for Papaya !

Hey everyone !

So after my shirt hiatus from the challenge last week due to unforeseen family circumstances, I am back with a double whammy of a post !

It's a colour I have never used before & my first try at a particular design !

Hit the jump for the results and polishes used :)

17/07/2014

A to Z of polish - M is for "Mediterranean"

Hey guys !

So I have joined up with a bunch of awesome ladies as they go through the letters of the alphabet every week with a different polish representing each letter !

So this week, the letter is "M"

There is only one polish that immediately springs to mind.

Hit the jump to see what it is !


12/07/2014

Nail Art Update

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 Hey guys !

 SO I've been recovering well from my operation & have been getting in on a few instagram nail art challenges over the last few weeks so I thought I would write a blog post to show you what I've been up to ! :)

 Hit the jump for the photos


29/06/2014

Moyra haul & swatches

Hi all !

Today's blog is all about a fantastic new nail polish brand I have been introduced to, it is a European brand called Moyra & they have a newly opened UK online store !!. I made my very first purchase last week & I can safely say I am not disappointed !

I bought a selection of ten different shades, all of which I shall be swatching here :)
So hit the jump for the review & photos !

11/06/2014

Vinyls ! Stickers ! and Stencils ! Oh My !!

Hi Guys !!

I wanted to share with you today some amazing nail mail I got from the lovely Sarah at She Sells Seashells online store !

I was recently one of the lucky few to be chosen to participate in the She Sells Seashells focus group for their new vinyl range & I absolutely loved everything I got sent to try out.

She Sells Seashells is a UK based nail art supply store, I've been shopping there since it first opened and I adore everything they have in stock from tiny little mermaid & unicorn charms, to gorgeous steampunk pieces to adorn your digits.

As a thank you gift for helping out with the focus group, everyone was sent a cute little package containing more wonderful vinyls and some sneaky peekies of yet to be released items !! One of which I shall be showing you after the jump !


31/05/2014

My favourite Disney Villians !

So next week is very exciting for me !

I am going to see Maleficent with a very good friend and we are like two small children waiting for Christmas. It's going to be EPIC !!

I'm currently sat at home trying to deal with a lot of physical pain ( which I won't go into ) & my way to deal with  that is usually to sit quietly and do something like watch a film, play card games, or paint my nails.

Now with the Maleficent film around the corner ( for me anyways ! ) I thought about doing some Sleeping Beauty inspired nails, but then as I was getting my paints together I was starting to think about what other Disney Villains there are, and what my favourite ones were.

So I had a think, and below is what I came up with :)


23/05/2014

Serum No 5 swatches part one !

Hi All !!

There's a little bit of good and bad news...

The bad news is I have placed myself on a nail polish buying ban. Boooooooo.

The good news is, it's because I am buying a house ! Yay !!

So my plans are to keep myself busy by creating blog posts of my existing polishes and seeing how far I get with that :)

I do have some polishes on the way already, but no more buys for a long time for me !!

Today's post is all about the gorgeous glow in the dark polishes made my Serum No 5.
I am a bit of a latecomer to their awesomeness & I am slightly embarrassed by how I didn't buy their polishes before !

I have owned a fair few glow in the dark polishes in the past, and they've always turned out to be quite a bit of a let down, but after seeing the glowing power of these I am seriously in awe.

Today's swatches will be "Glowin' of Eden"

13/05/2014

Catching up on some nail art !

Hi guys !!

So I've realised exactly how much nail art I have done over the past few weeks, and so I thought I would make a short blog to show you my favourites.

This will be a pretty picture heavy post ( my personal favourite ) So be prepared for lots of photos & a little bit of waffle from me.

I have a few other posts scheduled for the next few days, but this is a little last minute post as I realised my Nail Art folder was getting a little packed !

Photos are after the jump !

29/04/2014

Spring swatches from Pop Culture Cosmetics

Hi guys !!

Wow. Has it really been that long since my last post??

Oops !

Sorry about that, yet again real life got in the way & for that I apologise, I'll try not to let it happen again ;)

Now back to the matter in hand...

I have A LOT of polish to swatch for you and some nail art to show you as well. I think I will start with some swatches !

For this post I will be swatching some gorgeous polishes by the lovely Denise over at Pop Culture cosmetics who are an awesome indie brand based in the United States & has been one of my favourite indie brands for a few years now.

I bought these polishes over Easter & have been dying to get them on my nails but just haven't had the time.

Pictures after the jump!

15/04/2014

Barry M Silk nail paint swatches.

Hi Everyone !

 I've had an awesome amount of nail mail arrive ( with more on the way ) including the Barry M Silk nail paints that came out last month :) I am super into pastel colours at the moment because, hey, it's Spring ( sort of ) So I thought I'd get swatching these asap !

Pictures after the jump !

08/04/2014

Picture Polish "Illusion", plus some nail art & ramblings

Hi Guys !

 So it's been another few days since my last blog and I apologise for the gap, but yet again the day job has encouraged overtime so I've been taking advantage of this, hopefully the long gaps between blogs will cease after May ( when I shall be richer with lots of overtime payments haha )

 Shall we get down to business? I think so. I must tell you in advance, this is going to be a picture heavy post.. so don't say I didn't warn you !!!

Pictures after the jump !

30/03/2014

Mini nail mail post

Hey guys !

Sorry for the silence for the past couple of days, the day job managed to get in the way of everything this past week !

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to have an epic amount of posts for you as I went a little overboard on nail polish purchases this month... Oops !

Pictures after the jump !

24/03/2014

#Nailartmar update & helmer excitement !!

Hi guys !

So I finally did a nail art on my little phalanges that I am am super proud of ! It's been a long time since I've been 100% happy with my nail art. Most of the time I end up with a "meh" reaction from my brain and then I remove it after a day and try something else. But this time I actually wanted to keep it on for longer. But alas I had to remove it for the next days #nailartmar theme.

#Problems

Post continues after the jump !

21/03/2014

Rambling about... things, and Instagram challenges

Hi guys !

I've had a bit of a brain blank lately and when I started this blog I was expecting the thoughts and ideas to come flooding in from all corners of my brain.... They did not.

I've literally been sat at my desk staring into space for what seems to be an infinite amount of time so I thought to myself, "Hey it's 21:00 on a Friday evening... LET'S BLOG ANYWAY!!" So.. uh.. here I am.

*Nervous Grin*


14/03/2014

First post Eeek !!

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Hi There ! *nervous wave*

So some of you reading this may already know who I am from Instagram, Facebook, or I may have forceibly made you follow my blog just because <3

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Lisa, I am 32 years old, & I live in the SouthWest corner of England with my 18 year old cat Tiggy.

I currently have an Etsy Store where I sell false nails adorned with hand painted nail art by yours truly, and jewellery painted with my favourite polishes and embellishments.

I also have a fairly busy Twitter,  Instagram, and Facebook Page, and a failed attempt at a Tumblr ( I still don't understand how it all works ) so I thought the next step into getting my art and crafts seen by the masses ( hopefully ! ) is through a blog, and you can also have a read of my wafflings about my ideas for designs etc etc. if that's your thing.

The plan is to write posts about new nail supplies and polishes that I buy for myself, and the creations I make with those items, including some swatches and reviews here and there :)
I will hopefully start off with a new post every week until I can get used to this whole blogging malarky, then I hope to up that to a couple of posts a week, or maybe every day if I get a good enough following and the demand is there :)

So I think I have waffled enough for now !! Hopefully I will see you soon with my first proper post !

Lisa x