Silver snowflakes - my first adventure into stamping!

Wow - this is embarrassing. My soon to be sister in law very kindly gave me a wonderful gift for my birthday, a Konad stamping kit. I was thrilled and resolved to start stamping asap. 4 months later......

But better late than never. And as it's Christmas, what other stamp could I use, but snowflakes:)

The base coat is Accessorize Electric Purple. I used Barry M Silver Foil Effects for the stamping and Bourjois It's Raining Stars for my silver glitter accent nail. 

This was hard work; I stamped off centre to disguise the fact that I struggled to get the whole image on my nail! Some of these took several attempts, but I have to admit I'm pretty pleased with them. 

Purple Leopard Print

It's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday, .......................etc.

As this scheduled post posts, I shall be pouring a bottle of wine, unwrapping some Ferrero Rocher and snuggling on the sofa with my wonderful fiancee. Happiness is a tipsy Friday night.

These leopard print beauties are the last of the 'oldies' stored on my computer; from now on, it's Christmas manicure time! 

I love the base colour, Electric Purple by Accessorize, so much that I've almost finished the bottle. I'll be needing a back up asap:) The Models Own glitter is Bora Bora. 

Christmas manicures here I come:) 

Clouds!

Some nail art for you today guys:) I totally nicked this idea from Jane at nailside, so no kudos for originality, but I do love this manicure, particularly the colour scheme.

Btw, you'll notice by the length of my nails that this is a few weeks old - I actually hated having them this long, they get in the way! I don't know how some of you other blogging lovelies do it:)

The blue is an un-named mini Accessorize polish that I got in a gift set a while ago, while the beige is the wonderful Lychee by Barry M. 

Meanwhile, the silver is one the many drug-store polishes I bought whilst in Argentina over the summer - it's surprisingly good considering it cost me less than 50p! Great coverage, this is one coat only. 

An easy manicure, I urge you to visit the nailside to follow the tutorial if you fancy giving it a go:)

Accessorize Coraliscious with gold glitter Accent nail

Ahhhhhhhh, an oldie but a goody; strong colour with a glittery accent nail:)

IRL the Coraliscious is much more eye-catching - almost neon! The accent nail was a couple of coats of Models Own Ibiza Mix, a mix of blue/green and gold glitter, topped with Barry M Yellow Topaz Glitter, my newest rediscovery:)

P.s - still on my hols peeps, this is scheduled x

Pink and silver leopard print madness!

Wow, the weather today is AMAZING! I've been chillin' all day (apart from a brief, but epic, gym session!) and and now relaxing indoors watching Star Wars. Happiness is drooling over Han Solo. Swoooooooon.

Anyway, I'm still on my mission to clear out the old piccies from my computer, so here is a mash up of pink and silver and glitter and leopard print; basically, most of my fave things combined:)

Gaaaaah - smudges on the leopard print! But still, a great combo I think:)

 

The pink base is an unnamed polish by Accessorize, it came part of a multi-pack, it's a gorgeous colour. The pink glitter is Bling by Nail Pop and the silver is Barry M Silver Multi Glitter - one of the best polishes EVER!!!!!

I hope you're all enjoying the sun, I'm off for a small glass of wine in front of Star Wars:) 

Electric Liquorice!

It's almost Friday! Wayhay!

Work is going at a bit of a slower pace at the mo, so again, I'm sat in the sun with a cold one (juice this time though, don't want you getting the wrong idea about my drinking habits lol) - and trawling through old photos that I've forgotten about. 

This one is gorgeous; Accessorize Electric Purple topped with Barry M Confetti in Liquorice. 

This was a tricky one to photo; the colour purple does NOT make my camera happy lol:) The above is probably the closet attempt.

Btw, it has occurred to me that my furbabies have not featured recently; they're currently scampering around me, hinting that they'd like some kitty treats - I swear Dreamies are cat crack! - so here are piccies of them indulging in their current favourite activities.

Boo trying to hid behind a leaf (fail for her) and Smoky sleeping in the laundry basket, thus ensuring a good layer off fur over any clothes taken out of the dryer (fail for me and bf!) 

Nail Pop Dazzle with Adora-bleu bow

Bonjour peeps:)

Hope you are all well? I've had a bit of time in the sunshine today so I'm feeling a bit happier after a looooooooooong week.....oh crap, not even a full week, a mere three day lol!

Anyhoo, I've been struggling a bit for inspiration recently, and on Sunday this reached a crisis point; nothing, I repeat NOTHING, I could think of worked, I must have tried 6 different manicures. So, I gave up and Googled 'nail art' - and found some great ideas, including this one at One Nail To Rule Them All - which I decided to recreate:)

Now, I'm being 100% honest here, this is  a direct copy. Although I've used different polishes, I've pretty much used the same colour scheme. I simply could not think of anything better, Alice at One Nail To Rule Them All is a total genius and trying to better her was not going to be possible!

Please excuse the lobster hands - the purple is a tough colour to get right! I used Accessorize Electric Purple as a base and then layered Nail Pop Dazzle over it, a great clear polish filled with pale blue and lilac glitter. I used Bourjois Adora-Bleu (still a flipping amazing name!) to draw the bow and then added white dots, and outlined using my new Barry M Black Nail Pen:)

Love this manicure - bravo to Alice at One Nail to Rule Them All! 

Grey and purple stripy-ness!

Ahhhhh, I love it when a plan comes together! I decided to simply pick two of my favourite polishes and go where the mood took me; this is the result:) 

The above are my current favourite polishes; Rimmel Grey Matter and Accessorize Electric Purple. Both give a dense, full colour, ideal for this manicure. I painted the stripes over with my fantabulous Models Own nail pen.

Happiness is a stripy manicure:)

Swatch - Accessorize Bumblebee

Hey peeps - urgh, I'm hanging, so I'll keep this short and sweet. I have for your delectation today a gorgeous  orange polish: I never thought I'd type that, orange is hardly my favourite colour to have on my nails. But this Accessorize speckle polish is lovely, really warm and delicious looking. The name Bumblebee is adorable as well.

This was a very sheer colour, so I popped it over a base or Barry M Block Orange, but afterwards I wished I hadn't. Block orange is very bright, whereas Bumblebee is a delicate, pumpkin-y colour. Next time I wear this polish I'll wear it on it's own, even if there is VNL - I love it that much!

The polish is spliced with matt black glitter, and creates a beautiful speckle - hence the name:) 

speckly:)

Purple Tribal Nails!

Hey guys, I'm back! Apologies for the long absence (5 days, I know, but it feels like it's been ages!). Work has been insane, so I've barely had time to paint my nails, let alone blog! In fact, I wore a manicure for a whole 4 days this week - unheard of in my world:)

Anyhoo, here is another tribal mani - I just love the way it forces you to pick interesting colour combos and paint carefully:) So here it is.......

I used Barry M Prickly Pear for the base, and then layered Accessorize Electric Purple (one of my favourite polishes ever) and Rimmel Grey Matter over it. I used my Models Own black art pen for the lines.

 

I'll be back soon peeps, promise, I just may not be able to post every day, probably going to have to be every other day. Work's only going to get more hectic.............sob!

Swatch - Accessorize Speckle Jupiter/Ladybird

It's Thursday baby - the weekend is nigh!

Righty, have another Accessorize polish with a muddled named for you! Shocking after the Pink Spice confusion. The polish I'm going to show you is called Jupiter on the bottle. However, looking through various swatches at other blogs such as Brit Nails and Never mind Suzi , it seems to also be called Ladybird. Baffled! Totally baffled! And actually really annoying. My camera is totally unable to focus closely enough on the bottle to show you the name, so hopefully you'll trust me when I say that my bottle says Jupiter.

Anyway, enough whining, onto lovely swatches:) These are 1 coat of Jupiter/Ladybird over a coat of Maybelline Deep Red.

Can you believe that when I first tried this polish I almost binned it? I didn't put a base colour on and tried to build the colour up with multiple layers instead. As the red base is so sheer, it took 3 coats; the black glitter almost covered the colour totally and made it look muddy and just horrid. 

It was only after seeing some swatches on Brit Nails (links above peeps, I urge you to check her out, she crazy talented) that I thought about layered. Face palm!

Swatch - Accessorize 3D Glitter Magic

Whoop whoop - half way through the week my lovelies:)

Another swatch from my haul at the weekend - Accessorize Magic, a 3D glitter. This polish caught my eye, but for a while I ignored this polish, because I already own another 3D glitter by Accessorize, Dream, and I wasn't that bothered about it:( However, as I coulnd't get it out of my head, I bought it......and I'm actually pretty impressed:)

It's a clear polish jammed packed to the rafters with small specks of purple glitter and small pink glitter hexes. I put this over my trusty Barry M Blackberry (Gelly) as I don't think it will build up to full coverage on its own.

I'm actually really pleased with this. Unlike Dream, the contrasting, larger glitters stand out in this polish. It gives a lovely depth to what might otherwise be just a standard purple glitter. 

Oddly, from afar, this polish has a similar sheen to Max Factor Fantasy Fire! This polish has restored my faith in Accessorize glitters:) Phew!