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!

Laquerdaisical Christmas Collection- Frosted Fancy

*PRESS SAMPLE- PLEASE SEE DISCLOSURE FOR DETAILS*


Hello my dears!
Today we have the other Laquerdaisical Christmas polish I was sent to review. You can see my review of Candy Caned, a beautifully festive thermal, HERE

This polish is a frosty glitter topper and today I chose to layer it over China Glaze Hanging in the Balance.

To read my full review and for more pictures please join me after the jump!

Laquerdaisical Christmas Collection Swatches and Review- Candy Caned

*PRESS SAMPLE- PLEASE SEE DISCLOSURE FOR DETAILS*

Last week I was sent two polishes from the Laquerdaisical Christmas collection and decided to split the post into two as this one is a very picture heavy post!

Candy Caned is a clear to red thermal with red and white large glitter and micro red glitters.

Transistion

For loads more pictures and to see my full review please click "Read More" 

piCture pOlish Badass Review and Swatches

Hello my dears! How are we all today? In my part of the UK it is very bright and warm today!
Today I have piCture pOlish Badass to show you today. This polish has a unique formula and finish and is so lush!

The formula for this is fantastic. You could literally do one thicker coat and it would cover completely although I used two thin coats and no topcoat for my photos. This polish is smooth without topcoat, the glitter doesn't make the polish bumpy at all! 

Look at this glitter!!! In the sun or direct light this polish really comes into its own.  This is not just any black polish! 

You can buy this polish and others from piCture pOlish 

Pegasus and Butterflies Nail Art

I love a good bit of stamping. I cant stand it when people say stamping isn't real nail art. It is real nail art folks and its fantastic! So many options with colour and decals you can pretty much achieve anything! Plus it can be a quick way of adding nail art to your dominant hand!

Today I chose Hare Polish Pegasus and plate MZR-O7. I used Konad Black Special Polish and my Magno XL stamper.

I waited before top coating (using Out The Door by INM) and even floated it over but it still smudged the beautiful butteries. 

I used 2 coats of Pegasus and it built up a lovely glitter density. Its a jelly finish so you get to see all the glitter floating around in the lush pastel purple base.

What do you think of this nail art? Do you own any Hare Polishes?

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 

Yume Lacquer Rainbow Heart Review, Swatches and Nail Art!

PRESS SAMPLE 
Today I have my last Yume Lacquer to show you. I have saved my favourite polish until last.

Rainbow Heart is described as "A medium rosy pink with a slight golden shimmer and holographic microglitter" on Yumelacquer.com and I couldn't have  described it better myself, LOL. It is part of the Moon Defender Collection and is inspired by Sailor Moon. 

This polish isn't unlike Pink Lady, you can see my review HERE, but I would say the main difference is that Pink Lady is verging on neon but this is much more of a rosy muted pink shade. I absolutely adore it! 

These photos show two thick coats with top coat.

Direct Sunlight 

To read my full review and see a million other photos (okay not literally a million) please join me after the page jump.

Yume Lacquer Time Distortion Review and Swatches

PRESS SAMPLE 

Hello! How are you all? I have just got back from a long weekend away so I am playing catch up!

Today I have a lovely polish to show you from indie brand Yume Lacquer. Time Distortion is a purple shimmer polish that is inspired by Setsuna Meiou / Sailor Pluto.



Pictured with three coats with one coat of topcoat.

More details and pictures after the break!

 Please click READ MORE below.

Cadillacquer Seek the Fire with Stamping

A quick and simple mani today using one of my favourite brands, Cadillacquer.

Cadillacquer polishes are so unique and I love pretty much all of them. They have colour combinations you wouldn't necessarily put together but always look good. My fave indie polish of all time, Masterpiece, is made by Cadillacquer.

Yume Lacquer Pink Lady Swatch and Review

PRESS SAMPLE

Hi my lovelies. I haven't blogged in what feels like forever but it in fact has only been a few days. Things are moving in a tiring slow motion here. An endless round of school runs and naughty boys.

Anyway.... I have Yume Lacquer on the blog again today, you may remember some swatches from a while back, You can see them here, here, here and finally here. 

Yume Lacquer is a about as geeky as they come, in the polish world that is! And that sure isn't a bad thing! Amanda, the creator of Yume Lacquer, bases her polishes on anime and manga. 

Today we have Pink Lady. a salmon pink shade which is bordering on neon. It has micro holographic glitter. 

This polish is inspired by Chibi Usa/ Sailor Chibimoon and comes from the Moonlight Defender collection. 

I added some brand related art, in a Tips and Topcoat style but obviously not as good! I need to get more brush practice in.

More after the page break, please click "read more" 

Tami Beauty Gleneagles Glamour Swatch and Review

press sample

Hello my lovelies!

Today we have a beautiful indie polish from Scottish brand Tami Beauty. Tami Beauty currently has one collection, aptly named the Scottish Showcase collection and it features three polishes. Today I have Gleneagles Glamour to show you!

For tons of pictures and a full review please click READ MORE :)

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!

Don't Let The Dead Bite Halloween 2014 Review and Swatches

PRESS SAMPLE 

YO! Its nearly Halloween so its only fitting we have a brand new spooky polish from China Glaze on the blog!
I was sent this polish by Nailpolish.co.uk for review along with an OPI which will be coming at ya before the end of the weekend!

Click READ MORE to see the full review and loads more pictures!

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!

Pastel Lines Nail Art

I haven't had a chance to do any nail art in a little while so here is one I did just after the Life in Lacquer July Challenge.My laptop broke and I have only just got a replacement and now comes the painstaking task of installing all my files again etc....


As you can see my nails are still square shaped in this nail art, what nail shape do you prefer?

This type of lined nail art is very simple to do and all you need is a small brush and some acrylic paint or some nail polish. I chose to do a triangular shape and then I just got a bit carried away!

I used KBShimmer Iris My Case and Moyra Limoncello. I painted the pattern using some Oumaxi acrylic paint. This paint is quite thin but it is easy to use.

I am not totally happy with this, the pattern looks streaky and off centre. But I quite like the colour combination. I love KBShimmer, I have never met a shade that I don't like.

Hopefully I will be back into posting regularly soon and Ill get a hang of this new laptop and sucky Windows 8!

Life in Lacquer Nail Art Challenge: GEOMETRIC

I am bowled away with the amount of people taking part and the positive feedback I have received! I have already found loads of new bloggers and nail artists, how about you?

Today's prompt is one of my fave nail art looks of all times. Geometric.

I actually did another look for this originally but I hated it so I did another. I had so many ideas but when I tried to do them they weren't turning out how I planned... One of those days where nothing went right LOL!

Glam Polish She Had A Lipstick Taser 

I love this polish! The base colour, the pink glitters, the crelly effect... EVERYTHING! Look at the way the glitter gives this polish so much depth. The hex glitter is very irregular in shape but I don't think that detracts anything from the polish.

I again used Nail Stickrs for the nail vinyls and Konad white stamping polish to do the designs.
The ring accent finger is Moyra 102 and I hand painted with acrylic paint for the pattern.

What do you think of my take on geometric? See others post from the #lifeinlacquerjuly challenge below and why not share some love and go leave a them comment :)

An InLinkz Link-up

*press sample, some products were provided for an honest review*

Life in Lacquer Nail Art Challenge: PINK

Today is the second installment of my nail art challenge!! I hope your enjoying looking at everyones nail art so far.

Todays prompt is pink. This is a very broad prompt and could even just be a swatch of a pink polish. I wanted to do prompts that everyone could take part in, from beginners to pros.

Heres my contribution...

Why, oh why, does my camera HATE bright pinks? These colours are so funky and summer orientated. 

This is Moyra 919 and KBShimmer Belle of the Mall. I bought this thinking it was red but mine is for sure pink. Yes it is a red leaning pink but its pink none the less. it was incredibly hard to capture.

I handpainted the roses and buds using acrylic paint and my new fave brush St Petersburg from Moyra, I am incredibly happy with how they turned out. 

What do you think?

Pop on over to our Facebook page and Instagram (@lifeinlacquer) and see what everyone else has come up with :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Dance Legend Thermal 175

WOW.
I love this thermal. Thermals are polishes that react with heat and change colour. If your nails are long enough you may be able to get a beautiful ombre effect!

Dance Legend 175 is a deep purple that changes to an orangey/pink red when warm. It is quite reactive and the colours are quite different so the change is very noticeable. It doesn't have to get really cold to change to you do get the see the dark purple quite a bit which is great.

The shimmer really makes this polish stand out, it makes it different from a lot of other indie thermals which have big, chunky glitter.

The formula is great. Only 2 coats needed. Pictures show 2 coats with topcoat.

I will admit something embarrassing now... I have a macro lens for my IPhone (Yes I use an IPhone for my pics) I have been using said macro lens wrong. Instead of using the macro I have been using the  wide angle lens... DUH!
Now I have figured it out I can do lovely up close images yay!

I added a little floral accent using a Vamp striper brush and white acrylic paint. I then added some diamantes to add some glitz.

I hope you love this as much as I do. This is my type of thing!

I won this polish in a giveaway run by Nail Stickrs. This came from Rainbow Connection but you can also buy direct.

Picture Polish Pirouette

I won this polish in a giveaway run by Sally Magpies a while ago and have only just got round to trying it! You can read another post about it here 

It is described as a Bijou Holo and is a collaboration shade with Tenshi No Hana, a french blogger.

This polish really comes alive in the sun! Oh mama, you can see that scattered holo! Its a dusty pink and the formulations is AAMAZING!
I apologize that the pics are not to my usual standard. We have a poorly little boy.

Please note I found it hard to photograph this. The picture MOST true to the shade is the bottle pic!

I could have worn this as a one coater if I was in a rush and its sooo smooth! Theres NO glitter! Also it was quite shiny without a topcoat. My pictures show it without topcoat (except for the artwork nail).

I didn't think I would like this as its pink and a tad girly but I really love it!

If you are in the UK you can purchase it from Sally Magpies or there are various other stockist available, you can check them HERE 

NAILS ON TOUR!! Holiday Round Up

I'm back my loves!
I really hope you enjoyed all the lovely guest posts and thanks again to all the contributors!

For our summer holidays this year we went to Holywell, about ten minutes away from Newquay in Cornwall, UK.
We always holiday within the UK and its always Newquay lol, we love it there. Its like a second home.

It rained like the whole time we were there but we managed to get to Holywell Beach. Holywell beach is stunning. Easily my fave beach I've ever been too.

CUE ARTSY FARTSY PICS....

My brother and son at Holywell beach.

 

The polish I chose for the holiday was a thermal called Nostalgia by Polished by KPT. A duochrome thermal polish. In some lights it has a pink tint and in others it has a green tint!
I wanted a polish that would go with most outfits and not be to garish. This polish was actually my third choice and to be honest I don't know why I didn't pick it first. I am in love with this thermal.
It covers great and in it warm state is a perfect duo chrome nude. Its quite sheer but I really didn't mind that this time. I am learning to embrace my VNL
It also reacts really well too so even on my relatively shortish nails I had the gradient effect a lot!

My nail polish lasted about 4 days before It started to badly chip but for me that's a record! I could not be more chuffed with this polish.


We also enjoyed going to Newquay Zoo, Crealy and Cornwall Gold. My husband bought me this gorgeous freshwater Pearl ring for an early anniversary gift (pictured above)