OMG nail strips review

*PRODUCT SAMPLE, PLEASE SEE DISCLOSURE FOR DETAILS*



Howdy!
Can you believe Christmas is over? Its been a whole month since I blogged last but it seems like forever ago.

I was sent these nails strips a while ago from OMG Nail Strips. I do apologise for taking an age to get them up but life sometimes gets in the way, especially over the festive period!

To hear my honest thoughts on these please join me after the JUMP!

Pastel Galaxy with MoYou London Stamping Nail Art Tutorial

PRESS SAMPLE 

Hello my lovelies! We have been having a discussion about nail colours on Life in Lacquers Facebook page, why don't you pop over and join in?!


Today I have a review and video on MoYou London Hipster Plate 7. Here's a quick look at what I came up with

For the tutorial and more pictures please join us after the jump! 

Water Marble Nail Art Decals

I feel so proud of myself right now! After 5 hours of practise I finally got water marbling to work for me!

I sat at my table last night and and just messed around with the polishes I had, I also got some great advice from Tracey from Bite No More. I found that my Essie polishes worked best and that's what I used to create this look.
The main thing that has put me off marbling in the past is the mess. It looked so much hassle and so much clean up. Then I saw @yagala on instagram making a water marble decal and I knew I had to try it! @Yagala also has a YouTube channel which you can see HERE 

For loads more pictures and all the details, join me after the jump!

piCture pOlish Aurora

Can I start off by saying that I have in no way done this polish any justice. I took around a bazillion (that's a real number I promise) pictures in so many different lights but I still couldn't capture the pure beauty that is Aurora.

Join me for some picture spam and lots of "ooo's and ahhhh's" after the JUMP!

Marcus Manis: Bridget Riley Inspired

Hello my lovelies!

Its that time of the week where we see what nail arr Marcus has been doing. If your new to the blog then ill just take a minute to fill you in. Marcus is my father in law. He is an artist and hew also enjoys painting and having his nails painted. When he comes to visit we sit ans brain storm about designs, Marcus usually goes for something inspired by another artist.


Anyway here is what he came up with this time.

 More pictures and details after the JUMP!

Moyou Nails Stamping Plate and Polish Review.

A couple day ago I was sent a lovely package from Moyou Nails. I had been waiting for a while and turned out my first one must have gone walkies. 

It contained 2 stamping plates, a gold stamping polish, a stamper and scraper. 

I haven't tried Moyou Nails before (not to be confused with Moyou London) but I liked the look of the designs I was sent.

Here's my first play....

The gold stamping polish is really good. It has like a glitter effect to it, its not just plain gold. It picked up really well and showed up great against the dark background. 

The base is Vant To Bite My Neck by OPI. 

The stamper and scraper work fine and pick up well but they are not what I would usually use as I prefer the Magno XL Stamper as it is squishy.

The only gripe I have about these plates is that the designs are not wide enough for me. I don't have wide nails particularly and usually the XL images are FAR too big so I am a tad confused as to why these design are so skinny.

That is why the middle finger design is different.... But that could have been intentional lol!

All in all I love the polish and it didn't smudge when top coated so I would recommend that but the stamps seem to small. They would be great for me personally for feature nails or something as they would never be wide enough for my thumb (and I suck at lining up two stamps lol) 

You can buy these stamps, polishes and other bits and bobs from HERE

Press sample. Some of these products have been sent to me for my honest opinions.

Guest Post on Nail Parade.

Today I am over on the Nail Parade with a guest blog post.

The post features my first ever pictorial. Yay!

What do you think?

You can see the post and check out Rach's other art using THIS link! 

Foil Squiggle Nail Art

I have wanted to try foils for so long so when Effect Beauty offered to send me some I jumped at the chance!
 I wanted to have a play and not, for now, go for the full nail foil coverage.

The foil comes rolled up in a plastic pot so its great for storage in ye olde Helmer. The actual sheet of foil is really long, I could do this nail art about 20 times I think! Obviously you would use more foil if you were doing a full nail.

This was really really hard to capture! 

I used a dotting tool to add the foil glue onto the nail in a random squiggly pattern. Then waited until the glue went from white to see through. I then placed and pressed the foil onto the nail and pulled it off. And this was what I was left with!!

In love with this, it catches the light and reminds me of a very exotic fish tail or something ha ha.

I used Mentality Polish Scoundrel. A black with a minute shimmer.

This foil and others are available from Effect Beauty and you can get 10% off with the code LACQUER :)

some of these products were sent to me for my honest review

Easter Inspired Nail Art

Today I have actually managed to get a post done on time! 

This mani is inspired by Easter. I have a draw full of bits and bobs and today I chose to use the gold leaf. I highly doubt this is real gold leaf seeing as I payed about a quid for it but it looks good! 

The gold reminds me of Easter egg wrapping! I didn't want to go for the whole bunny and chick thing as that tends to be what the majority of other people are doing. 

I wanted to use a pastel shade as it really reminds me of spring. BUT I just couldn't find one that I felt went with the gold. 

I dislike gold.

Immensely. 

I used Barry M Gelly in Huckleberry and the Gold Foil Effect. I HATE the newer gellys. They are so thin! I like the thicker consistency of the others I have. They used to be great for stamping and art but that's not the case now. What happened +Barry M ?

The "gold" leaf was quite hard to get neat. I don't think its possible to get the application perfect. Its thin and a pain in the butt to use but it gives this mani an Easter twist.

What do you think? Have you ever used gold leaf?

And if you are celebrating Easter then have a great day, if not have a great day anyway!

Mehndi Summer Doodles with Marcus

Today we have a collab between me and my father in law Marcus.

We were running late with our usual biweekly takeaway and we couldn't decide what to do. The idea is great but we could do with messing around with it abit to fine tune this.

I did the base and Marcus did the doodling. I love Mehndi designs and when I told Marcus this he was keen to give it a go!

I chose to do the base bright and funky as I havent really seen this type of design done before.

I painted my nails white and then used a sponge to add the colour. I used Vant To Bite My Neck by OPI, Chick Me Out by KBShimmer and Robyn by Zoya. I layered these and then sponged on some subtle glitter.

When this was all dry Marcus used the White Nails Supreme pen to create the design. He took to these pens like a duck to water. I was a bit jealous lol! 

Like i said we didn't have as much time as we usually do so we are going to come back to this theme at a later date. I am still very very happy with it!

I also love that this is a collab! I liked actually being part of the design,

What do you think of our creation? Do you like it when Marcus features on the blog?

Moyra Polish Review

Today I have a review of a brand called Moyra. They are new to the UK and stock a MASSIVE range of polish, nail tech items and nail art. 

I was sent three polishes to review and I have two to show you today, shade no 87 and no 304.

I decided to do this as a piece of nail art. When I saw the Metal Effect shade 304 I instantly thought STAMPING! 

So this is shade 87 on its own....

Oh how I love purple and this polish is no exception!

 The brush is a brilliant shape, not thin like Revlon but not as wide as Essie. You all know how I LOVE a good brush! 

I also like the longer handle on these bottles too. BUT I have to say I am not crazy about the way the bottles look.

The formula was great too, two coats in these pics. 

**The "rim" look on the ring finger is caused by my topcoat, not the polish**

Then I added some stamping using no 304.....

LOOK AT IT! Oh my! 

This stamps even better than my actual silver stamping polish! I am so happy with how this looks!

If you are looking for a silver stamping polish I would recommend this for sure.

Moyra polishes (so far) get a massive tick in my book! AND would you believe they are a budget polish? 

These are selling for £3 each at the mo.

They are available to buy from FACEBOOK and a website is on the horizon.

Have you tried Moyra yet?

These polishes were sent to me for my honest review.. Please see my disclosure for more details

KBShimmer Full Bloom Ahead and Stamping Decal

Its a white crelly. 

I instantly love it. 

I then matte it.

It reminds me of a speckled egg. 

I love it even more.

THE END!! 

Hahah said polish is Full Bloom Ahead by KBShimmer. Its a white crelly featuring loads of glitter of different colours and sizes. 

I needed three coats to make this opaque but you can still kind of see my smile line. I don't mind this though as its not like super noticeable. The glitter distribution is good too, no fishing.

I then made a stamping decal using some acrylic paint in green and Cheeky Plate CH33. I do mine actually on the stamper instead of on a sheet of plastic. I also do not use topcoat to make them as I find its too much faffing and messing around and I always mess it up. After I have made the decal on the stamper I leave it to dry then stamp it on nearly dry polish on the nail and Tada. 

After all that I matted it all using my new topcoat by Mentality. This top coat is bloody great. It drys so much faster than my Orly matte topcoat and theres none of that bloody streaking. I recommend this to anyone. 

I think this looks really good and its been a while since I have made a decal too. 

What do you think? 

MDJ Creations If You Like Glitter...

Today we have a beautiful glitter topper by MDJ Creations.

I dont use much pink but this just screamed to be put over something nice and bright!

The topper features gold, silver and holographic glitter pieces. 

This screams summer to me so I just had to add a bit of stamping. This flowers just look so cute dont ya think? 

It really catches the light and is very flashy! I love a bit of glitz. 

I am not girly at all but I really like this! 

I used two coats in the pic over Zoya Areej. Another good thing about this is that you only need one coat of topcoat to smooth it out. 

You can buy MDJ creations handmade polishes from her ETSY store and please go over and show some love on her FACEBOOK page. 

This was sent to me for my honest review, please see disclaimer for details.

Sick Lacquers Swatches and Review Part 1

I am a very lucky lady! 

Today I have some swatches of three indie polishes by Sick Lacquers. 

I do have more from Sick Lacquers to show you but I'm teasing you all by breaking it down :P

Sick Lacquers are available to buy on Etsy and are handmade by Peggie and her son. 

You can purchase them HERE and they do ship to the UK.

Without further ado.....

This First one is Berrys and Cream

2 Coats + Seche Vite topcoat

All i can say really is wow! Your going to get a lot of that on this post HaHa! This features different size purple glitter suspended in a creamy white base. The more you layer it on the deeper the effect gets. I love that you can see all the glitter from the previous coat just peeking out. If you look at the (crap) Macro shot you will see the different shapes of glitter this polish has to offer. 

The formula is fab and the glitter lies pretty well flat without topcoat.

Next up is Buttercup. This is 3 coats with topcoat. 

Your going to need to wear shades for this cheeky neon-esque shade. Not too bright its offensive but eye catching enough to get you noticed!

This features micro, slices,hexes and even cute star shaped glitter. You could either wear this alone or over another polish depending on your mood, and if worn over another polish it would turn down the brightness. 

The larger hexes don't lay as flat but that's expected really with larger glitters. In the macro shot it looks way worse than it looked to the "naked eye"

Taste the Rainbow. 2 coats with Seche Vite.

WOW, I wanted this to stay on my nails for forever and a day. 

This polish is another glitter suspended in a creamy base. This literally has all the colours in the rainbow, well all the good ones! Formula was great as with all the others. 

I cant really say any more about this polish, but you haven't got something like this, then its a no brainer.

What do you think of these super beautiful indies? 

Please also take a look at their FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM and show some love!

*some of these products were sent to me for an HONEST review. The views on this product are COMPLETELY my own.*

Mr Bump Nail Art!

I'm back baby!! 

Last week I dropped the laptop and smashed the screen DOH! 

I now have it back so normal blogging can resume!! 

In honor of the constant mishaps in my life, here's Mr Bump!

Products Used

Essie Avenue Maintain 

BarryM Confetti in Bubblegum 

BarryM Matt White

Acrylic Paint

Seche Vite top coat

This post is also the first post using my new Canon and the first time I have used watermarks. 

What do you think? Are watermarks necessary, do they detract from the photo? 

Artsy Rose Nail Art

Today 2 of my new stamping plates by Cheeky turned up.... 

So expect to see lots of stamping from now on! 

This is from the Home Sweet Home Jumbo plate 2013. 

I purchased them from +Amazon.co.uk. But because they came directly from Asia they took approx 12 working days to arrive. 

They have a nice range of patterns on. The full designs are a lot bigger than usual, but this isn't necessarily a good thing. looking at a few designs I am wondering if they will even fit on my nails. 

Only time will tell I suppose. 

But i really am looking forward to trying the new designs as there are some really funky ones! 

Products Used 

CND Sticky Base

BarryM Matte White 

Essie She's Pampered

Konad Special Polish in Black 

Seche Vite 

To do this I made circles in Shes Pampered first then indiviually stamped over them after. 

I think this does look a bit messy but i actually really like that, this pattern reminds me of Clarice Cliff in some ways. 

This also fits in to the new white nail trend! I have seen a lot of people wearin white nail polish recently, i remember the first time I wore white nail polish a few years ago.....

 My auntie said it looked like Tip-Ex LOL....

Special FX Chameleon Swatch and Review

This is a Special FX Polish called Chameleon. 

I will admit right now that when I saw this in the bottle I was hesitant, Im not a fan of oil slick type of polishes and when I saw the gold hues to it, I was really put off. 

I am NOT a fan of gold HaHa!

But boy was I wrong! 

This polish is beautiful on and it has a really deep sexy purple base that catches the light.
As you move your hands around you can see the different colours come to life! 

I really love the way it makes my hands look LOL!

The pictures are with 2 coats and no topcoat. 

The formula was good, first coat was streaky as hell but a thicker second coat sorted that out. 

The brush is too thin for my liking though.

The bottle really looks cheap, I am sorry but to me it looks like something you would see in Poundland or something. I feel it lets down the product inside. 

But other than that I am surprisingly in love with this polish!

FX Nails sent me this product for review and unfortunately I cant find this for sale on their site. I will look into it and update this when I get more info

You can look at FX Nails other products including their Fickles Heat sensitive range (keep your eyes peeled for swatches!)

HERE

Essie Lights with Glitter

Here is Essie Lights!

A beautiful bright pink. Its a creamy type of neon, and its bloody beautiful!

I think I would have used this whole bottle up by the end of summer. Its probably the brightest shade I own. Its not like a really eye burning neon but more of a creamy bold colour.

The formula is lush and is opaque in two thin coats.

The glitter is Guilty Pleasure  by InVogue.

I simply used a sponge to fade the glitter out.

What do you think of bright colours? What are your fave summer shades?

Starry Night

 I was sent a few packets of nail stickers From Nailtopia and I found it really hard to decide which ones to use as they are all soo pretty! 

Today Ive chosen to use these stars. They are gold glitter and they have a really high glitter content. 

They actually look like they are made from the glitter i also have on my nails, not like overly sticky out like stickers usually are. 

Nailtopia sent these and i received them the next day! I love not having to wait for things. 

I used the same technique I used for the Trees nail art HERE 

The background is BarryM Blueberry Ice Cream with BarryM Cobalt Blue and BarryM Gelly in Guava. 

The glitter is my all time fave Kleancolor 24 Carat. I use this glitter more than i use any other glitter, its beautiful!

To purchase these stickers and a wealth of other nail art supplies check out Nailtopia HERE 

*These decals were sent to me for an HONEST review by Nailtopia. The views on this product are COMPLETELY my own.*

Island Daisy

 I love this colour and when i saw it on my nails I thought daisies would look lovely. 

They would have looked lovely, if I could do them! 

The base is Island Coral by Sinful Colors. Pictured here with 2 coats and Poshe topcoat.

For some reason i just couldn't get these too look good and then ended up messing one up completely. 

So here's my attempt at daisies. 

more practise needed!