GUEST POST Dotty Mani by BGPolish

Hey there you lot! I'm new around here.. My name is Catriona from BGPolish and I am doing a guest post for the lovely Jade! I thought about a lot of different things I could do for you today, but I finally came up with something! Gold and Silver Bubbles!

In this look I began with painting my nails in Barry M Silver Foil and then I painted two large lines on either side of the nail coming downwards and two shorter lines in the middle with Barry M Gold Foil. After this I took Silver with a large dotting tool and dotted over the gold, and a small to dot gold on the silver.

I topped this with Seche Vite, and I really hope you like it, I also hope you can understand my ramblings. If you liked this design please pop over to my blog and have a look around, and thank you so much to Jade for putting up with me and letting me guest post! - Always.


Thanks so much for posting for me Catriona and I love your metallic mani!! 

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!

Mega Mix Nails Review Part 2

You may remember a couple of days ago I tried a new product called Mega Mix.

Mega Mix is a product that turns your nail polish or mica/glitter pigments into gel polish.

My first testing wasn't a complete success, you can read it HERE


So I thought it best to try out a more pigmented polish and see how that faired.
I figured that my most pigmented polish might be a Gelly by BarryM so I used Pomegranate.

As per my previous post I applied BarryM Pomegranate on the index finger and a mixture of Mega Mix and nail polish on the remaining three nails. 

2 coats on the index and 4 on the rest. 

This mixture fared considerably better than my previous one of Essie and MegaMix. 

Its not perfect though. You can still see my smile line and it has a jelly like appearance. 

But how can we expect it to be opaque when its effectively "watered" down by mixing in the clear gel? 

Would it not be better if the gel was tinted white?

Another point worth making is that this is time consuming and I ran out of mixture half way through so I do wonder if by mixing up a new batch half way through would the colour or coverage be the same?? 

What are your thoughts on this?
Do you prefer gel to polish?

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? 

Lightining Nail Art!

I have been super busy this week with a couple crochet orders I have to finish so here is a quick lightening themed nail art!

This was one of those late night faffings. My husband and brother were on Fifa so I thought Id have a mess around.

I used two polishes for this. BarryM Gelly in shades Guava and Grapefruit.

I love the Gelly range as they thicker. They are great for stamping and art although I do find the application can be a bit more tricky as it is that bit thicker.

I used the Bowie stamping plate from MoYou but i think that was like special edition or something so I am not sure if it is still available... But I do have another MoYou plate and that has bolts on it too. 

I haven't used these polishes in so long and pretty much forgot I had them lol. After using these I then ordered the new shades and a few others from the range.... OOOOPPSS!

This is so funky and bright! And its been awhile since I have done any art at all.

The gradient nail didn't go completely to plan and I think it looks like more of a tie dye nail LOL

What do ya all think?

An InLinkz Link-up

Blue Flower Nail Art

Today I have some pretty stickers from Sparkly Nails to show you.

I really wanted to use my new Girly Bits polish called Cosmic Ocean so I used it over this LAME gradient. It is so much more noticeable in real life but pastels are my enemy! I can never get them to show their true colours!

Cosmic Ocean is so sexy. It makes a huge difference to the polish and mani overall. It gives it a blue iridescent glittery shimmer that really makes it pop!

I used BarryM Gelly in Guava with Blueberry sponged onto the ends. If you squint you may be able to see it!!

The stickers are very easy to apply, they are the spongy type of stickers. After I have applied the stickers I just top them off with a top coat. 

I think they go really well with the blues.

You can buy these stickers and other nail art bits HERE and you can check out Girly Bits HERE

Hope you are all having a good week so far!


*these stickers were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own HONEST thoughts and ramblings*

Breast Cancer Awareness Week Day 4

Today we have something a bit blingy! 

I have used studs and two different sizes of pearls both purchased from +BornPretty BPS 

I used Essie Cascade Cool and BarryM Gelly Grapefruit. 

All topped off with Color Club topcoat. 

Again my pics are not great. I really need some help lol 

I used a Fan brush to make this design and set the pearls and studs in the topcoat. 

What do you think of today's design? I love a bit of bling! 

Please spare a moment to look at the other girlies work tonight... Breast Cancer Awareness Nail-Supporters

Pish Posh and Polish	Nail Parade!	No More Nail Polish Mum!
Monkey Nails	Emma's Little Corner	The Pink PrincessZ
Life in Lacquer	Neon Sparkly Nails

80's Themed Nail Art

I haven't been able to post that much recently, I have been super busy planning a surprise birthday party for my husbands 30th. 

As you can probably guess from the picture it was an 80's themed party. 

Well the party was last saturday and now you all have my undivided attention! I will hopefully get back into the swing of posting nearly every day :) 

I just had to use my new bold Essie polishes for this mani, I used Essie's Lights, Essie's Butler Please and BarryMs Lemon Ice Cream. 

I used Cheeky plate CH51 from the summer 2012 collection and Konad Special polish in Black. 

I hope you enjoy this bright mani and i hope you all haven't missed me tooooo much ;p 

Zebra Print Nail Art

 

Here I have again used the mottling technique used in posts HERE and HERE

I think this is one of my most fave techniques as its so easy to do and cant be achieved on both hands easily.

 

I used BarryM's Blueberry Ice Cream as a base then used BarryM's Guava, OPI If You Moust, You Moust for the mottling and Accessorize Damselfly for the glitter.

 

I used a Bundle Monster Stamp for the zebra print but I also painted over it with black polish to make it stand out more.

 

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

 

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!

BarryM Gelly Guava Bubbles

 This is a BarryM Gelly in Guava. A new addition to the Gelly family.

Unfortunately I the photograph doesn't show the colour as i had hoped. 

Its a bit more turquoise in real life. 

I was really disappointed with the consistency of this product. It was quite thick and hard to apply. But the colour is truly beautiful! I am not a fan of a thick polish, it reminds me of a cheap polish. 

Its actually put me off using this polish again which is sad as its so beautiful.

The bubbles are done using OPI If You Moust You Moust and Barry M Nail Art Pen in White.

French Tip Drip

 Nail Delights sent me these lovely smART stencils to try out. They reminded me of dripping water so I couldn't resist a blue gradient.

I found the stencils really easy to use as they don't pull up the underneath polish like normal tape or masking tape. they are made of a more plastic type material and they are really sticky but not in a way that damages the polish.

Colours are 

Fuchsia by China Glaze as the base. 2 coats

Blueberry Ice Cream and Gelly Blackberry both by Barry M

They come in a wide range of designs and cost £1.50 a pack and you can by them HERE

 

^ Here are the stencils ^

Star's On A Chain, Necklace Inspired

Just a simple one today, stars hanging from a chain. Reminds me of charms hanging from a necklace or bracelet. 

Base is Essie's Neo Whimsical 

Dark Pink is Hello Kitty Got Dat Thang 

and Silver is Barry M Foil Effects in Silver. 

I used a dotting tool and some card making peel offs as a stencil for the stars. 

 

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?

Barry M Ice Cream Collection

Ive been without a camera for a while, hence why i haven't posted recently. Did ya all miss me ?!

Well i have a camera now, so here is some Barry M Ice Cream swatches :)

I got these on my last haul from +Superdrug on a 3for2.

First up is Blueberry Ice Cream, a lovely creamy light blue. This is quite an opaque shade. Here is 2x coats with no topcoat.

  It applies well, although there was some visible brush marks. This would easily have been smoothed out with a top coat.

Next is Lemon Ice Cream. A sunny bright yellow. Here is 3x coats with no top coat.

This needed three coats to be opaque but totally worth it! i mean look at this lovely summer shade!. Again this applies really well. 

And last up is Berry Ice Cream. A pale, pastel violet. Here is 2x coats with no top coat. 

As you can see its a very pale shade but it does have a really good coverage and is opaque in 2 coats, 

This shade is really nice but is my least favorite of the three.

Out of all three my fav would have to be Lemon Ice Cream with Blueberry coming in a close second. 

I love pastel shades and Barry M doesn't disappoint. Especially when they are only £2.99 Each! 

You can purchase them HERE

My Haul 22/05/2013

Today I received these absolute beauties in the post.

 +Superdrug  were having a 3 for 2 on all cosmetics so i couldn't resist!

What i have here is 

TOP PHOTO 

Barry M's in  Lemon Ice Cream, Mint Green,Berry Ice Cream,Blueberry Ice Cream and Vivid Purple

LEFT PHOTO 

L'oreal Confetti, Maybelline ColorShow Polka Dots in Speckled Pink,Shooting Stars and Rain forest Canopy. 

RIGHT PHOTO

Gosh Holographic Hero, Hello Kitty Got That Thang, Accessorize Electric Purple

I just had to get the Hello Kitty Polish, just for the bottle! I had to have it on my shelf :) 

I used to own Gosh's Holographic Hero years ago when i worked in Superdrug. It was the most i had ever spent on a polish and even with my discount i still had to think for a few weeks before i actually bought it. Unfortunately it went gloopy not so long later so when i saw it online i had to buy it, just for old times sake :)
 Purchase online HERE

Paris Nail Art

 This is my very lame attempt at Paris themed nail art!

I chose this design as my sister is going to Paris tonight on a school quiz. 

I did the Eiffel Tower three times and its still terrible! The annoying thing is that i did it PERFECT the first time but then I went and smudged it :( 

But i must say the flag are darn near perfect!! 

I used Barry M White as a base x 2 coats

Racey Rouge by Sally Hansen 

Barry M Gelly in Blackberry and Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black