Poker Nails

**Press sample**

Look at me.... Blogging again!

Charlie's Nail Art sent me a few nail art bits to try and here are some cute little poker cards. These are actually quite thin so I think that you could even press them down to make them flatter.


I used China Glaze Four Leaf Clover as a base and then used a nail art pen to draw on the dollar signs (which my bloody China Glaze top coat smudged!)

You can purchase these and like tons of other nail art bits from Charlie's Nail Art HERE 

Where have I been?

Hello everyone!!

You may have noticed I have been missing for a while now. I have actually still been doing nails and taking photos but I abandoned the blog for a bit. I found writing up posts to be such a pain and really time consuming so I switched to just using Instagram.

Here is just some of what you might have missed if you dont follow me on Instagram....

I do hope to be posting here again soon, watch this space! 

Please join me over on instagram to all my latest work just search @lifeinlacquer 

or by following this LINK

see you all soon!

Cute Kitty Nail Art

Another quick and easy mani today :)

I saw a cute photo on my personal Facebook news feed the other day and just had to copy it on my nails.... Even my personal friends are not safe from me!!

Anyway I used Cream Puff by CND Vinylux as the base on all fingers. I then topped the index and little finger with Sick Lacquers Scatterbrains. The cute kitty is hand painted with acyclic paints and a small brush called Edinburgh Realism Grace 9.

I am thinking about taking a small break from blogging. I will continue to post when I can but I think it will only be about once a week. I feel I have not been bringing my best game so will go away for a bit and try and improve things for you all. 

See you all soon 

Arrow Doodle Nail Art

We have something less gross on the blog today, here is a simple nail art with a doodle feel.
I saw this image on Pinterest and it inspired me to create this nail art. Mine is no way as good mind you!

I used 

OPI Pink Friday 

Color Club Unknown (I think its Gingerbread)

Acrylic Paint 

Just a quick mani today but I am happy with it. The reverse French style would be cute as an all over mani too, 

What do you think?

Halloween Pumpkin Nail Art

Another Halloween type nail art today although this could also just be an Autumn themed one as its not particularly scary!

I used KBShimmer Dancing Green and Moyra 621 to do this mani. 

I think I also need to be honest with you all. I don't even know who bothers to read this or anything and sorry for the rant in advance.... 

I am really getting upset about my hand shakes and I hate the way my art turns out pretty much every time. I try so hard and I have an image in my head an then I cant even hold a paintbrush without my hand going stupidly shaky. I look at everyone else beautiful manis and even consider jacking everything in. I hate the way my photos look and GRRRR. A bad time indeed. *sobs*

I hope you like what I am trying to achieve. Thanks for reading.

Random Lines Nail Art

A couple weekends ago we took a little trip away for the weekend. Whilst I was gone I finally got my package from justnail.com.
I had some problems with getting it through customs, and a bloody huge fine, so that sucked but at least I have them now!
I have finally had time to sit and have a play with the Pure Color 10 brush.  You may know this brush as its also available from Stylish Nail Art Shop. It sure is a good brush!

I have been having some health problems in the last 6 months and it means that my hands shake badly so please be kind when it comes to this mani, it is the first time I have attempted hand painting in a while!

I used Moyra Gel Look 910 for this mani, This polish covers so well its unreal. It also stains your whole hand when you take it off. You just cant have it all lol!

I used a metallic white acrylic paint for this but unfortunately you cannot see the lustre of it in these pictures.


Thanks for taking the time to look at these and I hope to be a regular blogger again soon!

Autumn Leaves Nail Art

I am a big fan of Autumn. I love the colours, the weather and of course the darker nights.
I was really struggling for ideas the other day and one of my beautiful readers planted a seed of inspiration in my head, thanks Helen Benton!

Today we have a mani using some autumn colours and some hand painted vines.

To see what I used please join us after the jump! 

Life in Lacquer Nail Art Challenge July: FLORAL

After a little faux pas on monday, some of you may have already seen these! I was sat in my car looking at lions in Longleat when my twitter went a bit mental as I had published the wrong post DUH!

Today's prompt is Floral... I decided to give one stroke another go.I wanted to do something very feminine so decided to use pink and of course some glitter!

A couple days ago I bought the Cupcakes and Champagne collection by Ruby Wing from a nail friend only and I couldn't resist using one!
If you didn't know the collection of polishes are all scented and they change in the sunlight!
The scent is strong even with a topcoat on, its divine!

For this look I used Essie Neo Whimsical and Color Club Strawberry Shortcake. The roses are painted using some acrylic paint.

My one stroke still needs loads of work and my middle finger is the worst but I do still like the look of this nail art and I am pretty proud of the results.

You can see the other challenge entries below and please go and give them a view. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Marcus Manis!

Marcus is back! It feels like ages since he has had a guest spot here!

As many of you will know Marcus is my father in law and he is also an artist. He regularly comes around and dones my nails for me. Its nice to have someone who supports my mad obsession and even joins in!

Marcus is a skilled painter and hes really good at making mosaics.. More on that very soon.
Today's nail art is based on the colourways of a beautiful picture he painted in 2000 and now proudly hangs in my living room!

I love the way this nail art came out. Its bright and summer orientated! I feel the lined gradient came out looking like a beautiful sunset.

What do you all think? Do you enjoy seeing what Marcus comes up with?

 You can see more of Marcus's Art work HERE 

Cloud Nail Art

recently in my part of the UK it has been very very warm.
I dont like the heat. I'm a breeze and cloud kinda girl. Luckily today it clouded over and again lucky for me it inspired another cloud themed mani!

I am also really into negative space nail arts at the mo. I used a nail vinyl from Nail Stickrs to create the V shape at the base of my nail.
I was going to add some bling but then changed my mind as I didn't want to over do it.

I matted this too using Mentality's Matte topcoat. Not only do I love this topcoat but I find it so much easier to get better pictures as there is no reflection.

I used China Glaze Electric Beat and Essies Butler Please. I first used Electric beat as a base and then when that dried I used a sponge to randomly splodge on Butler Please.
Then I used my ole faithful St Petersburg Brush from Moyra and some acrylic paint for the clouds.

What do you think of this nail art? Would you have added some bling?


Press sample. Some of these items were provided for my review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Carmine Mani by Marcus

I'm technically on holiday at the mo... Can you believe Ive been so organised Ive scheduled posts!!
I cant have you all going without nail art can I?!


Marcus, as regular readers will know, is my father in law. Marcus seems to have really gotten into nail art and its great to sit down and bounce ideas around!


This mani features three reds

MaxFactors Glossfinity in 110 Red Passion, Zoya PixieDust in Chyna and China Glaze City Siren.

These colours all covered really well so no white base was needed. Marcus just used a thin brush to do the red design and then outlined in black. 

For this design we decided to topcoat over the PixieDust and man was that a glittery red!

You would need more than just the one coat of topcoat. 

We only used one though.

What do you think of this nail art? I think this is so fab! 

Its easy to do and can be done in any colour combo! You could even add studs or dots? 

Don't fret guys I will be back soon and we can chat all about my holiday... 

Bet ya cant wait ?!!

My Father in Law Does My Nails AGAIN!!

I think this may become a regular thing! 

My father in law has done my nails again..... I think he really loves doing this and hes showing real promise too, he'll have his own nail business soon you watch LOL 

He again did it in some sort of arty style but Lord knows what. I kinda switched off haha! 

He has some more ideas too so watch this space! He will be teaching us all art history through nail art! 

He used OPI Alpine Snow and two nail art stripers by Color Club.

Then a nice coat of Seche Vite to shine it up!

What do you think of Marcus's second nail art? I think it looks so good! 

Father in Law Does My Nails!

Keeping with the theme of Other Half Does My Nails... This time my father in law wanted to give it a go. 

He is an artist so I was very excited to have him do my nails and also a bit scared he could put me out of buisness lol!

Okay so he chose to do something inspired by Henri Rousseau and heres what he came up with

The tiger is hiding lol!! 

I think he did such a good job! I think I may be in trouble here! 

What do you all think? 

If you want to check out my father in laws website showcasing his art then please click HERE 

please take a look at everyone elses other halfs attempts below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Rose Nail Art Take 2!

After yesterdays annoyance I decided to give roses another go. 

I tried to use the water decals again over a lighter colour but you still couldn't see the decals colour. 

So I thought bugger this Ill give hand painting them a go (again) 

It has been a while since I have done any hand painting but I don't think they have turned out that bad. 

I used Sick Lacquers Cotton Candied and BarryM Gelly polish in Blueberry. I also decided to go matt today for a change and I LOVE IT!! 

I watched a few vids by Chelsea King a while back and I took inspiration from THIS video :D 

It also reminds me of like shabby chic Cath Kidston style and the Sick Lacquers polish really fits in with this design IMO. 

Photos are rubbish again! I feel like I have really fallen out of flow with my nails and this blog and hope to start a fresh in the new year with better photos. I know I am not a photographer but I want you guys to see my nails in the best way possible. 

So what do you think of these? 

Snowflakes and Glitter Nail Art

More Christmas nail art! Well 'tis the season and all.... 

Today I have used Nein Nein Nein, Okay Fine by OPI. Your typical grey, its a lovely shade and covers well. My clean up is a bit sucky today. I have noticed that recently my painting skills are abit crap. I think its because I haven't been keeping up with nails as much as I would like too. 

I am hoping in the new year to start with some very well intentioned resolutions in regards to blogging and getting back on this bi-atch :P 

I used OPI Alpine Snow for the snowflakes. 

The glitter is Pastel Fusion by Sick Lacquers, I think this glitter works really well as its subtle and looks quite wintery. I used a make up sponge to blend it down from the tip.

I really love this mani, and I like that I am back to hand painting. If only a couple rudimentary snowflakes LOL

Zoya Love Heart Nail Art

I have lost my Zoya virginity and my my am I in love! 

So much so that I have painted little hearts in acrylic paint! I have actually never don't free hand hearts before and this was relatively easy! The one thing I found hard was keeping them the same size. 

(proud of these pics lol)

This is two coats of Zoya Coco, a super pretty red brown, its like a raspberry brown. Very hard to describe. 

I find this type of colour really suits my skin tone and I really love them!

What do you think? Have you tried Zoya before?

Ben and Hollys Little Kingdom Nail Art

My son is a massive Ben and Hollys Little Kingdom fan so I thought I would have a go at painting them. 

OK so these aren't very good, but what would be the point only showing things that are fantastic?! I did work quite hard on these but for some reason Holly looks quite evil! 

L-R Hollys Wand,Holly,Ben,Gaston 

I used OPIs Dont Mess With OPI, Stranger Tides and Thanks a Windmillion for the blades of grass in the background (yes that's what that's supposed to be LOL) 

The rest is acrylic paint. 

On the plus side my son instantly recognised them as the correct characters and he really liked them so I was happy! 

Well we live and learn maybe the next time they will be better and less weird looking! 

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at these! Have you heard of Ben and Holly?

Mountain Nail art

Hello my lovelies! 

The wether has been so bleugh here! 

yesterday we had our father in law round and he is an artist so as you can imagine we were sat talking and painting for a while lol! 

So this is what we came up with..... 

Marcus *father in law* gave me some tips and painted some things for me to copy. 

I actually found this okay to do, not too hard! 

Okay so we have mountains,birds, a kite and a hot air balloon. 

I used Essie's Butler Please and Avenue Maintain and a little BarryM at the bottom of the gradient. 

The rest is acrylic paints. 

So what do you think? I think the gradient could have been better but its all good practice! 

Arsenal Nail Art

I hate football, like literally cannot stand it!

BUT my husband is soo supportive of my nail and all the stuff that comes along with it that I thought I would do an art just for him :)

The shot of the cannon is terrible and to be fair the cannon is pretty crap too but I havent done any hand painting in a while.I am quite happy with the result.

I chose to do the number 10 as my husbands fave player was Dennis Bergkamp. 

I used Essie Shes Pampered and BarryM Foil Effects in Gold. The rest is acrylic paint. 

The studs are from the Born Pretty Store.

What do you think? What is your fave team?

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?