Sidewalkers and Skeletons

So I know I said I would be posting more but I have really become the worlds worst procrastinator over the past few months. I end up putting off taking pictures so much that the manicure is off before I can gather any evidence to show that I ever wore it.

However, this manicure I did manage to picture!

I started off with Barbara Daly's Goodbye Yellow base coat, followed by two coats of Sidewalkers by NYC and then Grand Central Station top coat, also by NYC. I then stamped using Shade 23 by MUA and Bundle Monster plates BM-225 and then BM-211 on my accent nails for a slight variation. I topped this off with Rimmel top coat.

I really liked the colours used in this mani, I think they matched the design pretty well and they were nice and unusual, not the kind of colours you usually see on peoples nails! The design was also nice and subtle, not standing out too much.

Thanks for reading!

101 Violet Dalmatians

I have a little bit of stamping to show you today (messy stamping mind you!). I was in a bit of a rush when I did this manicure so please excuse the sloppy stamping, I had no time to go back and sort it, but que sera sera!

I first applied Barbara Daly base coat, two coats of Nails Inc's Bluebell and one coat of Avon's Very Violet (which is a beautiful lavender/pinky purple duochrome, sadly it was covered up by the stamping although it was more visible in real life than in the pictures). I then applied NYC top coat, stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-211 in Pink Tease's Black and topped that off with Rimmel top coat.

You can see a little bit of the lovely duochrome hiding in the picture above but I'll definitely have to swatch it on it's own to show you properly at some point!

Quite a few people likened these nails to dalmatians (hence the name of this post) and some others seemed to think they looked like dinosaur eggs...

Thanks for reading!

Fuschia Nets

I have a polish from Avon's new Color Trend collection and a spot of stamping today.

Avon's Fuschia is a matte finish metallic purple/pink full of silver flecks. On it's own with no top coat/stamping it looks amazing, I really wish I had taken a photo for you guys! I guess I'll just have to swatch it properly some time.

I applied Barbara Daly base coat, two coats of Fuschia and NYC Grand Central Station top coat. I then stamped with Pink Tease's Black with Bundle Monster plate BM-223 and finished off with Rimmel top coat.

I really like this fish net/damask design as it's one step prettier than your standard fish net look. It's a little fancier!

Thanks for reading!

Amethyst Feathers

Purple is definitely my favourite nail polish shade to wear and this polish definitely didn't disappoint me. Sadly I don't have a picture of this glorious colour on it's own as I was originally planning only to stamp on my accent nail but I got a bit carried away with the stamping and covered all of my nails...

On to the design!

I applied Barbara Daly base coat, two coats of Amethyst from Body Collection and 2true top coat. I then stamped with half of the feather design on Bundle Monster plate BM214 with Technic's gold striper polish (their metallic stripers are great for stamping). I finished off with Rimmel top coat.

Amethyst is a lovely dark aubergine metallic purple polish that I loved on it's own. To be honest I probably preferred it without the stamping but I still like the feather detail. A nice autumnal design I think!

Thanks for reading!

Pink Mirror

I have the beautiful sister of Blue Mirror to show you today, with a little added stamping.

This foil polish is just as lovely on it's own as the blue version is, just slightly less metallic. Still very eye catching  though! Sadly I was so excited about stamping that I forgot to take any pictures of it on its own. Never mind.

I applied Barbara Daly base and one coat of W7's Pink Mirror (yes it's a one coater, how perfect is that?!).  I then used MUA black and Bundle Monster plate BM208 with the two different smashed/scattered looking patterns. I used the partial coverage design on all but my accent nails and the fuller design on my accents. I then used Rimmel top coat.

I really like this design, the partial coverage design reminds me a little of the sections on a butterfly/dragonfly wing, I might have to incorporate that into a design someday!

Thanks for reading!

Angel Flowers

Guest appearance from my mum's nails today!

So for ages (I'm talking months) I was hankering after Max Factor's Angel Nails and when my Tesco's finally put their make-up products on three-for-two I could finally justify the purchase of more polish, despite having a box full of untrieds! But it was three-for-two! I had to do it!

This week my mum asked me to do her nails for her and what polish did she choose? Angel Nails.

So here is Max Factor's Angel Nails from their Nailfinity line with added purple stamping.

I applied OPI's Chip Skip, Barbara Daly's Goodbye Yellow Base and two coats of Angel Nails.  I then stamped with Nail Supreme's purple and Bundle Monster plate BM-224 and topped that off with OPI top coat.

Angel Nails has fantastic application. It's a thin polish but the coverage was great and the colour was opaque in two coats. It is a very pale champagne pink micro glitter and it is soooo shiny, people kept asking my mum if she had foil on her nails!  She received so many compliments at her work and she was super happy with this mani. I'm pretty sure most of that bottle of polish is going to end up being used on her instead of me, she loves it that much!

Thank you for reading!

Peacock Nails

I love peacock feathers. I think their shimmery iridescence is absolutely stunning so when I saw people using the Bundle Monster plate BM212 (which I own) to make peacock nails I just HAD to have peacock nails too.

I had always wanted to do peacock nails and first saw the plate being used when I was searching YouTube for peacock nail art. This is the video I first came across using the plate.  I also saw a blog post by Gwenn at Sugar Nails using this plate too.

I started off with a Goodbye Yellow (Barbara Daly) base and a Rimmel base as the green polish stained my nails really badly, despite a base coat, the last time I wore it.  It's one of my favourite polishes but I always hated wearing it but the base combo seemed to stop any staining, so I'm very happy :)

I then painted two coats of Peacock Green (perfect name for this mani) by Models Own. I added a 2true top coat then I stamped using Nail Supreme's gold and the BM212 plate.  I then used a dotting tool to place alternating dots of Maybelline MNY in 553 and Barbara Daly's Carnival. And topped all of this off with a Rimmel top coat.

All the tutorials and blog posts I saw using this stamp all stamped with a silver polish and I couldn't understand why.  Peacocks have a very warm, golden shimmer through their feathers so I decided to use gold and I definitely think it was the right decision.

I received sooooo many compliments for this mani and it is definitely my favourite of all the manis I have ever done, so this will probably be a regular appearance on my nails!

Thanks for reading!

8. Stripes...

8 Get your stripe on. Vertical, horizontal, diagonal, one, two, seven?! oh what to do!


This is gonna be a pretty pathetic post, I'm warning you now.

To start with I didn't have my striper brushes yet so I didn't have an easy way to make stripes unless I did stamping. Then I had no stamping plates with proper stripes on them so I had to use a warped stripe design and finally I forgot to take pictures until I was halfway through removing the manicure... So all you have are pictures of solo fingers that kinda survived.  So here we go!

I applied Rimmel base coat, three coats of Fun Fair by Barbara Daly, MUA black for the stamp and Rimmel top coat.  I used a Bundle Monster plate but I can't remember what number it was and it's too late to go rifling through my nail stuff now!

When this was a full manicure it was lovely, I was even getting compliments from teachers!  But in these pictures it looks awful!  But oh well, life goes on, it's only a manicure...

Thanks for reading!