52 Week Pick & Mix Challenge - Dots & Three Shades of Purple.

Hi lovelies. How are you all? 

The themes for this week's 52 Week Challenge are dots and three shades of purple. I love dots and I love purple, so I had an idea of what this manicure would turn out like in my head for a while. But when it came to sitting down and doing it, I felt like doing a watermarble - so I changed all my plans and I ended up with something completely different (living life on the edge, I know!). 

Click below for more.

A2Z- E is for Elegant (plus Born Pretty Store Review Plate BP02)

Provided for review*

Hello lovely people. I hope you are all well. It's nearly Friday and it's my birthday tomorrow! So I'm a little excitable this afternoon lol. 

I have this week's A2Z and a review for plate BP02 from Born Pretty Store to show you today. E is for elegant and this stamping plate has some lovely lacey patterns, so I thought it would be nice to use for this theme. 

Click below for more.

Pick A Polish: Revlon - Emerald City plus Born Pretty Store Plate BP22 Review.

Provided for review*

Hello lovelies. Happy Monday. 

I've got another two in one post for you today. This time Pick A Polish and a review for plate BP22 from Born Pretty Store. The polish I will be showcasing this week is Revlon - Emerald City which is one of their matte suede polishes. This is an untried, I always get excited when untrieds come up for Pick A Polish!

Click below for more.

Green Nails for Depression #fightforlightandlive

Hi everyone. 

I don't usually post on a Sunday - but this is for a good cause so I had to take part. In honour of comedy legend Robin Williams, there has been a tag started on Instagram to raise awareness for depression. Today people will be posting their green manicures for this great cause. I don't suffer from depression myself but members of my family do, and I know it's a problem that affects millions of people. Despite it being such a big problem, I think it is also quite misunderstood and a bit of a taboo subject - so if this tag is going to make people more aware of what a struggle having depression can be then I'm glad to be a part of it. You can find out more about depression here on the Mind website.

Click below for more.

Life In Lacquer's Nail Art Challenge - Food

Hello lovelies. An early post from me today as I am off to the airport in a few hours and flying out to Morocco this evening yay! I still have posts scheduled for the blog though, so it won't be quiet around here and my boyfriend has even agreed to share my posts on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter while I'm away (thanks Richard!).

The lovely Jade of Life In Lacquer is hosting a nail art challenge through the month of July which I have decided to take part in. I am on holiday for the next week (I don't know if I have mentioned that much hehe), but I have managed to get myself way ahead on my blog posts so I can still take part, because I haven't done a one off challenge in a while. The first prompt is food, so that is what I will be showing you today.

Read on after the jump for more.

May Tri Polish Challenge - Purple, Red and Green.

Hello beauties. I didn't sleep very well last night so I'm still feeling tired, I'm glad to be home with my feet up :).

So it's time for the Tri Polish Challenge which means I had to force myself to use these three dreaded colours which I'm not loving this month. I'm determined to still post something every week though. I have to admit though I do prefer this week's look to last week's.

To see what I came up with read on after the jump.

Copycat Saturday - Neutral Floral.

Hello my loves. Happy Saturday :) I am going on a nail polish hunt for Barry M's new limited edition shade today, it looks so gorgeous I need it!

Today I have this week's Copycat Saturday manicure to show you. This will be my last Copycat Saturday for a while, I have been struggling with inspiration lately and I'm thinking it might be because most of my manicures for the blog are done to a theme. So I've decided to relax my schedule a bit and now I'll have every weekend to post whatever I like :) (although I'm sure I'll still do plenty of posts inspired by other's designs anyway). 

Anyway... this week I was inspired by this gorgeous design by maya_tempaku on instagram. I loved the colours in this design, although it may be a bit more appropriate for autumn not spring. But I shall rebel against seasonally stereotypical colours for this post.

Click below for more.

March Tri Polish Challenge - Green, Blue and Purple.

Hello girlies. How are you all? If you haven't already entered my giveaway it closes at midnight so check that out. I just want to make it clear also that the international giveaway excludes UK entrants, since I have my UK giveaway for that. I have had a lot of UK entries on my international giveaway, so make sure you enter the right one or your entry won't count!

So today is the last Tri Polish Tuesday for this month's theme; green, blue and purple. I have really liked this colour combo, I think they go well together. 

To see what I came up with read on after the jump.

Inspired By A Vase.

Hello everyone. Are you all having a good day? I am having a nice relaxing day off work :).

I was recently browsing Pinterest and came across a picture of a really interesting vase. I loved the shape and design so decided to do a version of it on my nails. I thought I had pinned the picture, but clearly not and now I can't find it.. I swear I am the most forgetful person ever!

Also I had a mad moment and chopped my nails off, I'm not sure if I prefer them a bit shorter or not.

For more details on this manicure click below.

My Birthday Cocktail Nails

Hello everyone. How is everyone? I have finally finished work, a late shift on a Friday is not my favourite thing.

Today I am going to show you the nails I wore for my birthday celebrations last weekend. I had a few friends over to my flat and attempted to make some cocktails. Naturally I needed to have my nails matching the occasion so I created some cocktail nails :).

I started with a black base using Rimmel - Black Cab.

I then freehanded the shapes of my cocktails using a white cream so the colours would show up against the black.

I used about a million colours for these nails so here goes... 

Thumb - an unnamed Color Club orange, NOPI - Hit The Lights, China Glaze - Hey Sailor and Barry M - Spring Green.

Index finger - Barry M - Blue Moon, Barielle - Surfs Up and Revlon - Violet.

Middle finger - Sally Hansen - Green Tea, Barry M - Key Lime and Barry M - Ltd Edition Pink.

Ring finger - Revlon - Violet, Barry M - Berry Ice Cream, Models Own - Peach Sherbet and Essie - Fear or Desire.

Pinky - Barry M - Ltd Edition Pink and Barielle - Surf's Up.

I outlined the glasses with OPI - This Gown Needs A Crown.

I was pretty happy with these, definitely fitting with the occasion. My thumb has to be my favourite. 

Which one is your favourite?

Thanks for looking.

Inspired By A Dress.

Hello lovelies. I hope we all have exciting weekends planned, I was working this morning so my weekend starts now!

I had no idea what to call this design, hence my very creative title. I was browsing the Topshop website and spotted this dress (which I think I might need). I thought it was very pretty, but instead of blowing £34 I decided to put it on my nails instead.

I used a base of Barry M - Watermelon. This is a lovely polish but stained my nails like a bitch, even when I doubled up on base coat.

I then used Revlon - Minted and a striping brush to make sort of like tiger/zebra stripes.

Finally I freehanded all the little squares with a detail brush and a white creme. This was ridiculously fiddly.

I wasn't sure about these at first, but they grew on me and I ended up quite liking them. They are far from perfect, tiny squares are hard to paint! I was also hoping to get more of the design on the nail, but that kinda went out the window, oh well.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks for looking.

Waterfall Half Moons

Hello everyone. This is my final scheduled post, by this time I will be nearing the end of my holiday and I will be coming home tomorrow.

Today I have a twist on the Nailasaurus' waterfall nail art. I really love her original design but I thought I would try it out with a half moon thrown in the mix too.

The base I used was Models Own - Apple Pie, the formula isn't great on that polish, it doesn't self level at all and is really hard to get even. But it is a pretty colour.

To make the half moon shape I used some of them hole reinforcer things.

Then using a striping brush I added the lines. I did this nail by nail so the polish wouldn't dry too much over the hole reinforcers and make them hard to remove. The colours I used were Rimmel - Green With Envy, Revlon - Blue Slate, Barry M - Greenberry, Cirque - Erda and an unnamed turquoise colour from Colour Club.

That was all there was to it, easy right? I really liked these nails, a lot of people complimented me whilst I was wearing them.

Have you tried waterfall nails yet?

Thanks for looking.

Floral Splatter Nail Art.

Hello everyone. How are we all? I am feeling pretty ill and I am working a six day week this week :( boo! I was hoping to have this posted last night but I needed my bed.

Today I have some nails to show you that I based on a make up palette that I have... but I completely forgot to take photos of it, oops. I have a brain like a sieve. 

For these nails I started with a black base (I used W7 - Black).

I splattered on the 4 pink colours. To do this I dipped one end of a straw in the polish and blew through the other end, super hygienic and very messy! Lol. The colours I used were Revlon - Violet, Leighton Denny - Plush Pink, Essie - Angora Cardi and Essie - Like To Be Bad.

I added a coat of Seche Vite to smooth the surface out and then used my Barry M nail art pen in white for the flowers. I really like my black one of these, but I found the white to be a bit runny and watery. Has anyone else had this problem?

At first I added another coat of Seche Vite and I was going to leave it shiny, but it looked a bit much so I matted it with my Rimmel Matte Top Coat.

I did quite enjoy wearing these nails, although they took quite a while to do and I made a huge mess! 

What do you guys think?

Thanks for looking.