Christmas Trees

Something a little more subtle today, which I won't be doing again Christmas Manicure Month is not about subtle!  I used a plain black base of Kiko and then stamped a different tree on each finger.

 

 

The plate is HB33 which I posted about here.

 

Lyn Harris for M&S - Festive Bargain!

Lyn Harris is the perfumer behind Miller Harris, a niche perfume line founded in the UK in 2000, there are a fantastic collection of fragrances available but they aren't always budget friendly so when I heard that Lyn Harris now has a collection at M&S I was keen to try them out.

 

There are 6 fragrances in all, there are details on all of them here.  I decided to pop into M&S today to try them out and I am very glad I did, this weeks Deal of the Week is 50% of beauty gift sets, including all the Lyn Harris range, so that's a full sized EDT and a body cream for just £12.50!

 

The EDT alone normally retails at £25 a bottle so this really is a great deal.  As far as I know it's on all week, while stocks last, and can be bought in certain stores and online, so if you fancy trying out one of the new Lyn Harris scents it's definitely worth checking out.  You can see the online section here.

 

 

 

 

Have you tried any of the new Lyn Harris scents?  What do you think of them?

Candy Canes!

Another Christmas manicure, and this one is probably not anything new, there have been versions of it all over the web lately.  I decided to make mine slightly different by accenting the regular candy cane nails with a little stamp.  I also cheated a bit and stamped my stripes using a Bundle Monster plate as my free hand stripes would have been a disaster:

 

First off, a festive shot with the tree:

 

I used the same combo of Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Blood Orange and Models Own Scarlet Sparkle that I used last week to create the red base, this works amazingly well and you only need one coat of each to get a really bright sparkly finish.

For the white stripes and stamping I used the polish from a cheap nail art striper that I got in Spain, no idea of the brand, sorry!

I love how this turned out, especially when you catch it at certain angles under bright light and the glitter really pops through the matte white stamping.

British Beauty Bloggers - Weekly Round Up!

Emma has taken on her polish nemesis Fantasy Fire at Emma's Little Corner.

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing has been continuing her month of Christmas themes with Snowman nails. There's a tutorial too!

Danielle has some Christmas nail art this week with Snowflakes, Candy Canes and a festive Glitter Gradient over at Totally Nailed Rachel has been doing the 12 Days Of Christmas Challenge over at Phoenix Nails.

It's all about Christmas again this week at Pie's Eyes. A Christmassy French Manicure and some Christmas Stickers & Glitter are two of the featured festive designs, why not head over and check them out to get yourself into the Christmas spirit!

Beccy has been testing out her lastest indie polish purchase, Hare's King of Carat Flowers, at Two Days. 

Slow Jo at Northern Nails is showing off her mani she did for her outing to the , Good Food Show, in Birmingham a few weeks ago!

Kerrie gets festive this week with lots of Holiday themed nail art, including a holographic tape manicure go check it out!

Nada, adds some bling to her nails to create Blinging Skittles! check it out!

Alyssia of Rose Tint My Nails has been a busy bee this week! Continuing with the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge and swatching polishes that she received in a grab bag from Polished Criminails! So go and take a look!

Santa's Jacket

 

Today is an example of why I don't do freehand nail art very often, I am just not neat enough at all!  I saw this idea last year on various blogs and then it popped up again this year all over Pinterest so I decided I should give it a go.  First let's take a look at the polish I used:

 

 

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Blood Orange

Models Own Scarlett Sparkle

Barry M White

Kiko Black

Barry M Foil Effects in Gold

 

And here's what I did with them (and a dotting tool), the idea is that each nail should look like Santa's fur trimmed jacket held snuggly closed with a thick black belt, the reality isn't quite so clear...  Santa was clearly drunk when he got dressed this morning, check out his squint belts!

 

Here's a closer look at one of my nails, not too bad an effort but not quite Pinterest standards yet.

 

Although these aren't as neat as I'd like them to be I'm relatively happy with them, they look very festive and I think it's still fairly obvious, even with my nail art skills, what they're meant to be.

 

 

Holly French Manicure

Another Festive French today, again I am annoyed by how yellow my nails look in the pictures, they really don't look that bad in person so I'm annoyed that I look like a 40 a day smoker in every picture I take of them!  Other than that I am pleased with how they turned out, on to the pictures...

 

 

The colouring of my nails in real life is much more like the index finger in this shot than the other three.  I like how gel like and glossy the pink has turned out.

 

 

 

 

I used Bunny Nails plates in HD07 for the holly stamp, the polishes were Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Blood Orange ad Watermelon, perfect for festive stamping.

 

Santa & Golden Sparkles

Another festive manicure today, this time I used Barry M White as a base on most fingers with a Models Own Scarlett Sparkle accent on my index finger and added a LE Boots N07 gold glitter over the top.  I also added in a couple of little Christmas stickers, Santa and a Christmas tree today, here's the results:

 

 

I'm please with how this turned out, you can't beat a little bit of festive glitter!

Body Shop Home Fragrance Oils

 

Something a little different today but still Christmas themed, sort of!  I recently tried out a couple of these fragrance oils from The Body Shop and I have been so impressed with them that I had to do a post.  Initially I picked up the Ginger Sparkle version as I am a sucker for anything ginger scented and I love the body range that they have in this scent. 

 

It's a gorgeous warm, sugary ginger scent and ideal for Christmas, I was so impressed I decided to try out another of the Christmas fragrance oils, Cranberry Joy, this one is a zingy fresh fruit scent and also lovely, although not half as strong as the Ginger Sparkle.

 

 

As well as the Christmas releases I also picked up three of the regular fragrances (I had a 50% off voucher so I decided to stock up); Exotic, Pomegranate & Raspberry and Vanilla & Tonka Bean.  The oils are £4 each and available both in store and online.

 

Exotic is by far my favourite, it's fresh fruity and gorgeous, it's also pretty powerful so I have been using just a few drops to scent the whole room.  Vanilla & Tonka Bean is lovely too, a warm, comforting fragrance that is lovely for winter, it's not as strong as the Exotic scent though and a lot more subtle.  Pomegranate & Raspberry is a slightly sweeter version of Cranberry Joy, very fruity but not hugely powerful, of all the oils I have tried so far this one is the least strong.

 

I have been using all these oils on my radiators, adding a few drops to the bar at the top and allowing the heat to send the fragrance around the room, it works wonderfully well and means that you literally don't need anything except the oils and a  radiator, no need for burners or anything else.

 

Overall, I love these oils, they are such a simple way to scent a room and for £4 they are pretty good value too.  If I was to recommend a couple to buy that I like best I would go with the Christmas Ginger Sparkle and the Exotic, they are both gorgeous fragrances and strong enough to scent the room with a few drops.

 

Christmas French Manicure

Today I've done something I haven't done in AGES, a french manicure.  My nails are usually pretty stained from having polish on all the time so the sheer nude colours needed to do a french manicure don't tend to look good with the staining shining through.  I have been very good recently though and worn a base coat and tried to avoid very stain inducing polishes in the hope I could try out a Christmas themed french and here are the results:

 

How cute are the joyful little snowmen?!  As you can see my nails are still not totally stain free so there is a bit of colour difference near the tips, I don't think it looks quite so obvious in real life though, damn you macro setting on the camera! ;)

I did a regular french polish and then just added some more of my Christmas stickers over the top to create a snowy scene.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out, despite my rather sloppy tip painting.

I like the placement of the index finger stars better on my right hand which is the one which I don't always photograph, the spacing is slightly neater, I think.

Overall, I am so pleased with how this turned out, of all my Christmas manicures so far this one looks most like it did in my head and I am keen to try something similar again this month if I have the time.

Stamped Snowmen

This month of Christmas manicures is really not going how I had planned it, I had another disater last night which left me at 10pm with naked nails after three attempts at various different ideas I had.  By the time I'd had three goes and it got to 10pm I was not in the best of moods so I decided to do a super quick one coat paint job and stamp on top, this is the result:

 

 

 

One coat of Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Blue Plum and stamping with barry M Silver Foil. 

 

Blue Plum is definitely being relegated to the stamping only pile from now on, the colour is nothing special and the tip wear is horrible (this time it's definitely tip wear and not the fault of Seche Vite as I used No7 topcoat) but it does gain points for being fully opaque in one coat.

 

 

 

I used another Bunny Nails HD plate (HD10 this time) for the stamp, again, as with the others I've tried, this plate stamps beautifully, I can't wait to try out Santa and the reindeer next.

 

 

So, again, not my most succesful set of nails but considering I did them in about 20 minutes fairly late on last night they turned out not too bad, let's just hope Blue Plum hasn't stained my nails too badly, it looks like it might have the potential to!