A final Christmas themed manicure.

A final festive themed manicure, this time using a variety of my new GALS Princess and Fairy stamping plates, more on them in the new year!  Now on to the manicure, a quick word of warning though, these were taken after a long day of working in the kitchen so they are not in perfect condition, apologies!

You can see how nicely the new plates stamp, more nice on them very soon!

Unseasonal Stamping

Here is one of the least seasonal posts you'll see on here this month, I've had it saved in my drafts for ages and while I'm scheduling some posts over the Christmas holidays I thought I'd squeeze it in.

For this manicure I used Kiko 355 as a base with Jade Jump & Blue-Away by Sally Hansen for the stamping.  355 is a bold yellow shade, perfect for summer, why I decided I had to wear in in the middle of November I'm not sure, the stamping was also in two pale summery shades, a minty green and a sky blue.  I chose these two as I wanted to see how well they stamped.

I used this chevron style image from Cheeky plate CH8 with Jade Jump on one side and Blue-Away on the other.

This stamping didn't quite turn out how I wanted, I was hoping the colours would look a bit more different to each other than they did in the end.  I also managed to bash a couple of nails before they were fully dry so they look a little beat up.

Overall I am not really too happy with how this manicure turned out, I do love the shape of the stamp though and both Sally Hansen polishes stamped really well so it wasn't a total waste of time, I'll be quite happy to take it off though!

MUA Blush Perfection - Bittersweet

Today I have a blusher review for you, another scheduled post I've set up while I'm off spending Christmas with my nearest and dearest.  

Fairly recently MUA (available at Superdrug) started doing cream blush, as with all their products it's available at a truly bargain price, just £2!  I have quite a few cream blushes and I like wearing them so I couldn't pass up on the chance to try out another shade at such a low price. 

I chose Shade 1 Bittersweet which is a soft pink shade.

The blush is a nice soft texture and applies well, it's easy to blend; either with your finger or with a buffing brush and lasts pretty well for a high street product at such a low price.

I did find initially that there seemed to be a bit of a clear film on the top of the blusher when I bought it, I'm not sure what it was, maybe something added in production to protect it, but I had previously read about it on another blog so I was half expecting it.  After a quick sweep over with a tissue the film disappear and you are left with the pigmented blusher underneath.

The colour is great, a soft subtle pink which can be built up to give a brighter more vivid look or lightly swept on the give a natural flush.

Overall, I am really pleased with this blush, it's a great bargain every day blusher and having used it quite a few times now I am definitely tempted to try out the others in the collection.

Mavala Orion

Another little filler post while I continue to fill myself with Christmas cheer. Today I have a flakie to show you, not one of my favourite flakies or one of the more in your face ones available but a pretty one none the less, Orion by Mavala.  I think this might have been part of  a limited edition collection as I haven't ever seen it in shops or anywhere online really. I am wearing a base coat of Barry M Grapefruit under this polish as it's pretty sheer.

With a flash or under bright artificial light you can really see the very fine shimmery glittery through this polish, and some of the flakies.

In bright light it takes on a very jelly-ish finish, looking really juicy, depending on the angle you have your hand at you can also see the flakies pretty well.

Although it's a subtle sort of flakie I like this polish, the juicy finish and pink colour are pretty and feminine and a little different than just a regular pink polish.

Gymnastics World Cup

With it being the Christmas holidays I don't have quite so much free time to post on the blog at the moment, too many mince pies to eat and fizzy beverages to drink, so I thought I would throw in a couple of catch up posts that I have written recently but not posted due to my month of festive manicures in the run up to Christmas.

My friend and I recently went to the Gymnastics World Cup event which was held at the new Emirates Arena in Glasgow.  It was a great day and obviously I had to do a nice Team GB themed manicure to help spur the athletes on.  Here's what I came up with.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it's a fairly simple manicure; plain white polish with Barry M Jewel Britannia on thumb, pinkie and index finger and then some cute Union Jack heart shaped water decals on my middle and ring fingers.

Here they are in all their glory in the arena:

I love how these turned out, they were very simple but also very effective, not quite so effective that GB actually won but still. ;)

Christmas Jumpers!

Hello lovelies, hope you all had a fantastic Christmas yesterday.

This manicure didn't turn out exactly as I'd hoped, they were supposed to be like lots of other lovely Christmas jumper manicures I'd seen but they look more like festive coloured random stamping I think, I'd like to try them again at some point to see if I could get them to look more like the jumpers.

Here's what I used; Kiko 391, Orly Here comes Trouble, Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Blood Orange and a white nail are pen for the stamping.

I cleverly forgot to take note of which stamping plates I used but I'll try and remember to add the details once I've checked my stash or if you'd like to know ask in the comments to jog my memory.

So, not exactly Christmas jumpers but nice and sparkly and festive none the less!

Merry Christmas!

Good morning and Merry Christmas!  I hope you all got lots of lovely gifts and are currently enjoying lots food, fun and festivities with your nearest and dearest.

Today's post features another festive manicure and more snowflakes.  I used one of my Christmas presents that my parent's brought me from Spain, a new glitter from Kiko number 407 (there will be a post about the new limited edition glitters shortly) and stamped some snowflakes over it using BM-323 which has a lovely snowflake design on it.

Now on to the photos, I love the way this turned out so there are a few... well, more than a few. ;)

I was really pleased with how this looked, especially considering how quick it was to do.  The Kiko polish only took two coats to get it thoroughly opaque and then a quick stamp over the top.

And a quick messy shot before the stamping to give you a better idea of the colour of the base.

Enough pictures, time for everyone to go back to their mince pies and presents, hope you're all having a lovely Christmas. xx

Santa Stickers

I love the combination of Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Blood Orange and Models Own Scarlett Sparkle so I decided to use it again here under some Santa stickers for a simple festive look, here's what I used:

And here are the results, excuse the horrible left over top coat which is still on my fingers, it didn't show up until I took macro shots!

In low light or with a flash this manicure looks really sparkly and lovely.

I'm pleased with how this turned out, it was really simple to do but looks very festive and effective.

British Nail Bloggers - Weekly Round Up!

It's another Festive themed week at Pie's Eyes, including a Candy Cane manicure and a Snow Scene head over and check them out.

Emma's showing her favourite "party glitter" Nails Inc Rainbow St a party on the nails at Emma's Little Corner!

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has some Festive Robins for you this week! Check out her Christmas Tutorials page if you fancy recreating some christmas manicures.

Steph has some new friends she'd like you to meet =D

Has Enigmatic Rambles mastered the festive wrap styled nails? either way they are very pretty!

Anna of Anna's Polish Addiction has a new favourite polish - a gorgeous indie from Glitzology, she's also posted Nails Inc Disco Lane and two Christmas manis.

This week The Teenage Shopaholic has been... getting Christmassy! She created a cute Christmas mani to get into the festive spirit

Christmas Candy!

A quick double coloured stamp over a white base today, I used Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Blood Orange and Watermelon as they're nice festive colours, Barry M white as the base.  I have cleverly forgotten to check which plate I used but I think it's from the most recent Bundle Monster collection.

 

Here are the photos:

 

 

Stamped Christmas Glitter Skittles!

That title is a bit of a mouthful!  But, it is what they are.  I decided to do a festive skittle look with some of my glitters but when I was finished it looked a bit plain so I decided to jazz it up with a few stamps.  Here's the polish I used:

 

 

China Glaze - Blue Bells Ring, Nubar - Sky Sparkle, OPI - Bring on the Bling, Barry M - Blood Orange, Models Own - Scarlett Sparkle, Orly - Here comes Trouble, OPI - Crown me already, Kiko - Black and a white nail art pen for stamping. 

 

And these are the plates:

 

HD05, HD07, HD10, BM321 and BM213.

 

And here's how they looked:

 

No pictures of my thumb as my hand looks like The Claw in all the shots with it in, I stamped the sleigh from BM213 on it in black.

 

I quite like how these turned out but I wish they matched a bit better, they are VERY random skittles and I prefer a bit more of a theme.

Snow Scene.

 

Today I have a snow scene manicure to show you.  I started off with a pale blue Kiko polish, sponge some white over the tips, applied a coat of Models Own Indian Ocean and then applied a coat of Nubar White Polka Dots (perfect snow polish).  On top of all those layers I added some more of my Christmas stickers, and here are the results:

 

 

I am so pleased with how these turned out, I think the extra time and layers in the background really add to the overall look, it didn't take very many stickers to make the manicure look really effective and that's definitely down to the interesting background.

 

Although all the base polishes took a bit longer than usual I definitely think they were worth it and I'll be trying this technique again soon, I hope!