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!

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! 

Moyra Beatrice with rose nail art

Meet Beatrice, another gel look polish by Moyra. As you may already know I really like Moyra polishes. They have a wider brush, fantastic formula and they are a bargain!

As I said this is a gel look polish so is supposed to be more shiny. Usually I topcoat all my mani's but today I haven't so you can see that it is in fact a little more shiny. Only a little mind you!

More details and pictures after the page break. Click read more, to well, read more! 

Fish Scales Nail Art and Tutorial

PRESS SAMPLE

This week I saw a lush nail art by Sammy from The Nailasarus and suddenly remembered that I had some fish scales stencils from Nail Stickrs that I still hadn't tried!

To see the tutorial video and what polishes I used, join me 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!

Moyra Estelle 907 Review and Swatch

Today I got some nail mail from Moyra UK and I couldn't wait to get this shade on!
Moyra is a European brand which is now sold in the UK. I have reviewed a few of their polishes before and use them regularly.
They are a budget brand (the most they cost is £4, think BarryM type pricing) but they are by far my favourite budget brand. They are better than BarryM in my opinion as I just love the Moyra brush. Its flatter and wider so, for me, makes application easier.

This is Estelle. Also known as No. 907. A lot of the Moyra polishes don't have names but use numbers instead.

This is from their Gel Look range. They are highly pigmented but not thick unlike the BarryM Gellys. I find them very easy to apply and the pictures show 2 coats with KBShimmer Clearly On Top topcoat.
It was quite shiny by itself but also slower drying.
No streaks or blotches which I have found to be a problem with other dark reds.

Estelle is a strange shade of red. In direct light it can be quite bright like the pictures but in low or artificial light it turns to quite a muddy deep red. Think old blood...Gross.
Although it bares a resemblance to gore, it still looks very classy and I do really like it.
I have always been a great fan of reds and feel they do suit me.

All in all this shade is fab and there are no complaints from me!
This shade and many others are available from Moyra UK, prices start at £3 (£2 sale running for a very limited time)

Life in Lacquer Challenge:INSPIRED BY ANOTHER NAIL ARTIST OR BLOGGER

Ill start of by apologising. I am really late on this prompt but I do have a good excuse I swear!!

As you can see we have had a big change here at Life in Lacquer.... We are now a dot com! This is a big step for me and its really made me feel quite accomplished!
I also have a fantastic new layout courtesy of Shiny Magic. They are so reasonably priced and was really easy to install.

Okay so back to the last prompt of the Life in Lacquer July Challenge. I chose one of my fave bloggers Let Them Have Polish.
She did a fantastic look called Rainbow Ombre and she also made a tutorial. All of which can be found on her original post.

Here's my take...

I used the exact method she did my following her YouTube tutorial. 

The colours I chose are bright so to me it looks a bit like a galaxy nail art! 

The shades I used were

Moyra Bubblegum Limoncello 622

Moyra 102

China Glaze Electric Beat 

OPI Pink Friday 

Manhattan 67N

Essie Mojito Madness

CND Vinylux Cream Puff (base) 

I used Sick Lacquers Pastel Fusion over the top to give it some glitz. This bottle is not pictured in the bottle shot (I forgot, sorry!)

I then matted it all using Mentality Matte Top Coat. I love this topcoat and the effect it gives. 

The clean up wasn't great as I got it everywhere, but I am still happy with the look. I also found Let Them Have Polishes video really easy to follow. 

So what do you think of this nail art? 

Also what are your thoughts on the new look? There's more to come with the look so its a work in progress.

Lightening Nail Art using Nail Stickrs

A quick, simple and easy nail art today!

This look is so easy to do all you need is two polishes and some nail vinyl stencils. These ones are from Nail Stickrs.
Nail Stickrs are an American based brand but they ship to the UK for about £1.50 ish so very reasonable! I also happen to know that they have some very exciting new styles coming soon!



I used Moyra 602 and Jasmines Wish (853). Jasmines Wish is a stunning textured polish. A teal with a golden glitter effect.

I have really tried to get this colour as accurate as possible, it was a pain to photograph! 

Doesn't it look like a Drusy?!

Its formula is great. Cover fantastically in 2 coats and of course you don't need top coat! 

I love pairing textured polishes with ordinary ones!

What do you think of this? 

Nail Stickrs are available from Here. Moyra has a brand new website Yay!! You can find it Here.

Press sample. Some of these products were sent for my honest review. 

Lace Floret Water Decal Nail Art

Hello!!
It feels like ages since I blogged last. Super busy getting crochet things made... Ive even bought a label maker. This just got real!

These dainty water decals were sent to me by Sparkly Nails. Sparkly Nails are based in the UK and stock a massive range of nail art items.

Water decals are so simple to use. All you have to do is cut the one you want out, remove plastic and then soak in water for a few seconds. Slide the decal off of the sheet and then on to your nail.... Simples!


The only thing that can make them a tad harder to use is seeing the white decal on the blue backing paper but holding them up to the light helps.


I made the ombre using a make up sponge and Moyra 912 Jacqueline and Manhattan 67N. Manhattan don't name their polishes and it really bugs me when nail polishes don't have names. I think its part of the fun (especially if they are humorous names, I'm talking about you OPI )

These decals and many others are available from Sparkly Nails


*press sample, please see disclosure for details*

Wedding Nail Art

Todays is our fourth wedding anniversary :)

We got married in a small registry office whilst I was 36 weeks pregnant. Not a shotgun wedding I swear :P

I did a nail design based on the colour theme and the outfits we wore.

I thought I wore a straight neckline but turns out I wore a sweetheart one haha! 

The butterfly sticker from Nail Stickrs represents a butterfly broach I wore gifted to me by my nan. 

The butterfly is beautiful and glittery! Also its not really thick so sits on the nail nicely.

I used Moyra 87 and Manglaze Mayonnaise for the purple and white and acrylic paint for the rest. 

Unfortunately the picture isn't the best. 

Sometimes its a battle and sometimes I don't win. 

Heres to more years together! 

 some products were sent to me for my honest review. Opinions are my own.

Moyra Nail Haul

Hey!
Isnt nail mail just the best type of mail ever?! Well it beats bills, I can tell you that!

a couple of weeks ago Moyra UK had a sale. 30% off every polish, so that made each polish only £2.10 each! Deal or what!?

I have used Moyra polishes before (review HERE) and I use their nail art brushes all the time. The polishes are fab quality for the price. They have a wide range of effects and colours. I especially like the Sands and Gel effect.

Here is what I got...

I have also ordered a few others, but they are not released until next weekend. 

I have already had a little play with these and I can say I am very happy with the quality for the price. 

Even at full price (£3) they work out cheaper than BarryM effect polishes and I can safely say I prefer these. As you all may know I hate BarryM Gelly polishes with a passion, the newer ones anyway. The formula sucks butt. They are streaky yet thick!? 

The Moyra Gel Look formula is so much better. The pink one above(919) is a one coater pretty much and not thick at all. 

I cannot fault these really. 

I will have some nail art using these to show you very soon! 

Moyra is available in the UK exclusively from Aliz on FACEBOOK (website coming soon) 

All polishes are £3 each and the postage is £3 for up to 25 polishes :) 

First Attempt at One Stroke!

I have been trying to learn one stroke nail art. MAN its hard!

I practise every now and then when I have time but I need to give it alot more time.

This is the first time I have risked ruining a mani haha. I don't think it turned out too bad for a first proper attempt.

I used a one stroke brush from Moyra UK to do these and also the St Petersburg brush. I love Moyra Brushes! They are great quality and I swear they make all the difference. I spent years trying to get by with cheap eBay ones and I swear these have already improved my nail art loads!

The polishes are Tropical storm by Happy Hands and Essies Shes Pampered. My fave red EVER!

What do you think of my first attempt?? Id love some tips too if anyone has any!? I'm currently watching A LOT of YouTube videos mainly by Cute Nails. 

Cartoon Nail Art

I have always wanted to do a cartoon themed mani. In fact I did one a while back but it sucked sooo bad!

I started by picking out some bold primary colours. I thought It would be easy but it turns out I own like one of each!

I chose Chick Me Out by KBShimmer, Mojito Madness by Essie, Keeping Suzi At Bay by OPI and Red Passion by Maxfactor Glossfinity.

I started by doing two coats of each colour on each nail then waiting a little before adding the designs. I used acrylic paint and my fave brush, St Petersburg by Moyra UK, to do the designs. If you are in need of some really fantastic nail art brushes for acrylic nail art I really could not recommend Moyra enough. Aliz is fantastic and will help with any questions you may have :)

I then top coated and waited overnight before I used Nail Stickrs to make the "boom" shape. I was going to write Boom and Pow in them but I made them too small :(

The only reason I waited overnight was because it was SOOOO late by the time I finished this (about 2am) I didn't want to risk mucking it up.

I placed the Nail Stickrs where I needed them and made sure to press down along the nail walls. Then applied Alpine Snow by OPI over the top. I always remove the stencils when the polish is WET. I feel it works so much better and is less likely to ruin the design.

Using St Petersburg I outlined the explosions with black acrylic paint. Added topcoat by KBShimmer and....
TaDa all done!

Again the vinyl stencils worked wonders! I am loving them right now.

Nail Stickrs are available to purchase HERE (they do ship to UK) and you can see another mani I did using Nail Stickrs HERE


*some of these products were sent to me as a press sample. My opinions honest and of course my own*

Neon Disco Nail Art by Marcus

Marcus is back to do another nail art for you all!

When I was away I bought some new Neon and Pearl acrylic paint and we were dying to try them out. 

I also have 4 new nail art brushes from Moyra UK that I had been lusting after for a really long time and they do not disappoint!!! I am hoping to do a more in depth post on these soon so keep your eyes peeled (gross!) 

Marcus used Glitter Gal Brainfreeze for the base. This black in an amazing holo......

So Marcus saw the neon's and thought of DISCO! 

The neon paints didn't cover worth a damn so we put white underneath but I'm still not happy with the way they cover. Le sigh.

My picture isn't great as I HATE the way the light bleaches some of the image out... Any tips on this then please drop me and email lol.

Okay so this nail art is disco lights and on my ring finger there is a raver man! 

I don't think I have ever seen a nail art like this and I am not 100% on it but I know Marcus was happy with the shapes and the effect. 

Hes just pretty far out man....

GUEST POST Textured Foil by Pocket Money Polishes

Hello Lovelies!  
Charlie from Pocket Money Polishes taking over the blog today. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do for my guest post today, especially when Jade declared I could do "ANYTHING!". As I looked through my untrieds I spotted a new textured polish from Moyra that I have been really excited to test about but have failed to get around to for one reason or another (blogger problem, ho hum). Moyra is a new brand to the UK and retails for a really reasonable price of about £3 a bottle - don't be fooled by this price tag though, the quality on all of the ones I have tried has been AMAZING and they are 3 free with the products made in Italy/Germany (so no Chinese cosmetic testing on animals). By the way you should be able to click on any of these images for a closer look!

 

I am wearing the shade 854 from their original sand collection - the finish is similar to an OPI Liquid Sand and takes a little while for the polish to dry down to its final finish but PHWOAR is it worth it. This polish twinkles with silver and pink sparkle AND there is a slight duochrome to the finish which moves it through the blue spectrum and into a purpley one. I kind of failed to get this to show up in the light box but TRUST ME. Really very pretty polish. I used two coats but it gave a really good and even coverage in one. Ok the one warning/bad thing about this polish: it is super pigmented blue and I know from experience this will be a stainer if you don't properly protect your nails with base coat. I doubled up on basecoat, I use OPI Natural Nail which dries in 30 seconds so it is no biggy. When you're removing make sure you swap your cotton regularly and swipe from cuticle to free age to really minimise any of the staining you get from scrubbing/soaking. The other tip is to use vaseline around your nails to protect them from the polish - any residue or polish that gets onto the vaseline (or lip balm) should just wipe cleanly off.

Finally for my accent nail, I always try and mix things up on my ring finger - just how I do things. I used Nails Inc The Serpentine as a base - it's a lovely inky petrol navy kind of blue creme. I picked mine up really cheaply from a nail sale and have used it SO many times. Once this was touch dry I grabbed some nail foil and matte side down applied bits of foil for this distressed holo foil look. I picked mine up from Born Pretty Store but you can get this product all over the place now. A good thing about most foils is you get an insane amount of product so you can use it loads of times for different looks and it's only ever about £1 to buy. I used a holographic rainbow foil and just chose sections from the spectrum that I thought would compliment the sand polish. This foil can crinkle under topcoat (I tried it after I took these pictures) but because this is kind of a distressed design it still worked. Crinkling is only really a problem when you're going for full nail coverage with a foil. I hope you've enjoyed reading this post and that you'll come and see what I am up to over on PMP.
Big thank you to Jade for inviting me to guest post today!    

Thanks so much Charlie! I love textured polishes and foils! I think im going to have to get some more Moyras! 

Moyra Vivid Sands Power Pink

I have another amazing Moyra polish to show you today! 

This is Power Pink. Its a textured polish and it also has glitter in it. 

I can compare this texture to that of OPI Liquid Sands, its not like super super textured. 

The formula on this is AMAZING. I could have gotten away with just the one coat but I (probably out of habit) did two. 

Capturing this polish was so bloody hard! Its a true neon, very bright indeed! It much more pink toned in real life. 

This just screams summer! 

You can buy this and many other Moyra polishes from the Facebook page :) 

This polish was sent to me for my honest review. 

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