Nail Polish Direct Haul, China Glaze at 20% Off... WINNING!

Ive been shopping, finally! Well online shopping but it still counts.
Nail Polish is a UK online nail polish retailer that stock all the good brands, they now even sell some gels.
There is a code for 20% off all China Glaze polishes so of course I had to make the most of it. These actually came in two deliveries as I bought some then decided I needed more.

Join me after the jump for all the names and details of the code!

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!

O.P.I Gradient and Stamping Nail Art

I recently bought some new O.P.I and thought I would do a little nail at with them!

I haven't bought any newer O.P.I's in a while but when I saw these lovely shades I just had to! I am in love in corals and pinky shades at the mo, which is strange as I used to hate orange or pink shades with a passion. I think I may have turned into a girl.


For this subtle gradient I used Sorry I am Fizzy Today and Live Love Carnival. Sorry I Am Fizzy Today doesn't have a great formula unfortunately. Its streaky and hard to apply and took three coats and I still wasn't happy, but I am willing to forgive as I LOVE this shade. It is unlike any other pinks I have.

They may look quite similar shades in my photos but as you can see in the bottle shot they really are different.
I then added some stamping using a MoYou stamping plate. Its an abstract design that reminds me of something you would see on an fabric from the 1980/1990's.

What do you think of this nail art? Have you tried any of these O.P.I shades?

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!

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.

JULY NAIL ART CHALLENGE

In July I will be running my very own nail art challenge!
Its a first for me but I really want another way to connect with other bloggers and nail artists.

I have chosen a range of prompts. Some easier than others so there is something for everyone!

You can post your pictures on Life in Lacquers Facebook page, your Instagram, Facebook or blog. Make sure to tag them #lifeinlacquerjuly and tag me @lifeinlacquer so I can see them! My tag is always @lifeinlacquer whether it be on Facebook or Instagram.

I will then share some of the pics on my Facebook page, of course with credit!

I'm posting this now so you have loads of time to prepare lol. You dont have to do everyone, I won't hunt you down!


Will you be taking part? Let me know below!
And PLEASE share this image around and get as many people involved as we can!

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)

GUEST POST Butterflies by Nailallure

As the lovely Jade is on holiday I am honoured to do a guest post for her. Have a good holiday, Jade!

Since we've enjoyed some sunny days recently, I thought it would be nice to do a fun, bright and girly manicure. Pink butterflies seemed a good choice for a cheerful manicure like that!

For this manicure, I painted the pointer and little finger with Models Own Hypergel Cerise Shine. The middle finger and thumb are painted with Models Own Hypergel White Light. The ring finger has on Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Razzle-Berry, a blue textured polish.

I stamped the image with the butterflies from the Cheeky Jumbo Plate 2 - Tropical Holiday with Mundo de Uñas 2 - Black stamping polish. I used the lead light technique to colour the butterflies pink. This is basically using a dotting tool to colour in the stamped image with a translucent polish. I used a jelly polish Nails Inc Henley Regatta for this.

I added blue rhinestones to two nails and finished with topcoat. Hope you enjoyed the manicure as much as I did!

Oh my! these are so sumemry! Thanks Nootan and please pop over to see her blog and Facebook! 

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?

B is for Butterflies Nail art

New BarryM Gellys are MINE! 

I havent bought any mainstream polishes in soooo long as I have really only been excited by indies. BUT when BarryM brought out the new Gellys it rekindled my love for the ones I already own and then I decided I needed more! 

The new gellys I have bought seem in no way as thick as the others I have which I am a bit disappointed about as I love using them for art and stamping but as we all know they will thicken up in time. 

This is another one of those faffing nail arts where I have no idea or plan I just go with it..... 

So this is what I went with. 

I went for a waterfall (Nailasaurus inspired) then added some Happy Hands B Is For Butterflies to the ring finger. 

Macro bottle shot  *i didn't get any flowers or butterflies on my nails :( *

The middle finger is a sponging technique using the the Gelly polishes, I think it looks washed out like watercolours, I just call it mottling LOL 

I used, from the Gelly Range, Huckleberry as the base and then Prickly Pear and Greenberry for the add ons. Oh and I used a Color Club glitter striper too (squint and ya may see it LOL) 

Like I said they are a lot thinner so that was a tad annoying but I still like the overall look.

I am in LOVE with pastels and I think we will be seeing a lot of them again this summer.

What do you think? Do you love pastels? 

Pastel Textured Mani With Pearls

Today has been really nice weather so here's a lovely pastel mani to bring out your tan!

I was really not sure about textured polish but I actually really like this!

These are Station Road, Ridley Road and Kingsland Road by BarryM.

I have blogged about another textured polish by InVogue, which you can find HERE

This polish isnt textured enough that it annoys me, but textured enough to feel and see it. 

The yellow (Station Road) has glitter in it but I coulent really notice it that much, 

The pearls are from Sparkly Nails. They come in packs of 45 and sell for £1.50.

You can buy the pearls, along wuth a massive range of nail art products HERE

They are really easy to use. Just use a damp orange wood stick to pick them up and place onto damp topcoat. Sometimes I place them onto nail adhesive to make them really last. 

Sparkly Nails also offer same day dispatch and free delivery for orders over £20. 

What do you all think of textured nail polish? Love it or hate it?

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

Bright Leopard Print with Studs

Im Back!!!!

Have you missed me?

My laptop was poorly so it had to go to laptop hospital.

All is well again so here i am!

Today we have a very bright summer mani

I used BarryM Gelly in Guava and W7 in Its Pink!

I also used BarryM in Black for the print.

The W7 polish is the brightest colour I own and unfortunately I couldn't get the camera to capture the colour properly :( It is a lovely pink neon. 

The studs are from the Born Pretty Store.

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?

Tropical Paradise

It has been so hot here recently and I just had to do a tropical themed nail art. 

I apologize about my terrible cuticles! They are just getting worse and worse!

For the gradient I used BarryM's Lemon Ice Cream as a base. I then used a makeup sponge and Essie's Fear and Desire and Orange it Obvious to create the fade.

I used Kleancolors Holo Poppy for the glitter. 

The Palm tree is painted using acrylic paint.

I hope you are all having a lovely hot week!

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!

Glitter, If You Moust!

I'm in love! 

This is OPI's If You Moust You Moust. Taken from the Vintage Minnie Mouse Collection 2012.

2 coats for perfect coverage. Although it was a tad streaky at times. 

A Beautiful Bright but light pink.

 I used Kleancolors 24 Carat for the glitter. Holo gold glitter with holo diamonds. This glitter is one of my fave glitter polishes I own as it really shines!

I used a sponge to apply the glitter to avoid over clogging the nail with excess polish.

My Life In Lacquer, My Custom Polish!

 

 Today I received my own custom made indie polish by TarasTalons!!

I have been waiting by my front door for this polish and I am so happy with the result. 

I really wanted a bright glitter and I knew I wanted lots of different sizes of glitter. 

 I really like the coverage of this polish but I think it would be easier to apply with a wider brush,but Tara doesn't usually make polish with such big pieces so i cant expect her to stock a new bottle just for me :P 

This has a FANTASTIC amount of glitter in and this is only ONE slightly thicker coat of polish!

 I did want the base clear but the pink neon hex glitter did turn the suspension base slightly pink, Although i actually really like the base colour and i cant see it makes a huge noticeable difference:P

 I wanted to show the glitter over black and white and over a few differnt colours and I just love them all! 

It would work really well as just a feature nail or even as a whole mani. Very summery and bright and i think this is also very on trend as i have seen a lot of neon's and glitters this year!

I chose to call this "My Life in Lacquer" as I wanted a polish and a name very personal to me and theres nothing more personal than a blog (well maybe a couple things, *wink*)

 I think my fave out of these is the blue or the green. I love an excuse to have multi coloured nails though!! 

I used Barry M Matte White and Black for the first pics 

I used Barry M Bright Purple,Lemon Ice Cream, Blueberry Ice Cream and Sinful Colors Pistache. 

All these pics have ONE thicker coat of My Life In Lacquer over 2 Coats of underneath colour. No top coat.

If you are also looking to own a custom designed polish by yourself or an original UK made indie polish then please check out TarasTalons HERE. 

You can also you the exclusive Life in Lacquer discount code for 20% off any order. 

Enter Code lifeinlacquer20 at checkout :)

so what do you guys think? 

Is there a colour combination you prefer?

Accessorize Electric Purple

 This is Accessorize in Electric Purple. It dries a silky matte rather than a shiny finish, which i actually love! 

The colour is a beautiful, forget me not purple. 

It was really hard to photograph the actual shade of this polish. 

I would say that to my eye, in real life, it is a far more purplish hue. 

Although one of my neighbors said they saw it as a more blue shade.

 Well whatever the shade, it is one of my fave polishes at the mo. Really summery and looks great with embellishments. 

The one thing i will say that is has the same tendency as a metallic polish, it brings out your nail imperfections. So make sure you use a good ridge filling base coat. 

This is 2x coats with no top coat

This polish along with other Accessorize polishes are available from +Superdrug