Lori - Deviant Potions

Here's another mani using a Deviant Potions creation, this time it was Lori's turn.

Lori is a stunning holographic top coat.

I used 1 of Lori over a coat over Sinful Colors Let's Talk. Then I taped out a design originally done by the uber talented Cassondra Faye and added a coat of black polish. And this was the result once the tape was removed.

My camera almost exploded trying to capture the stunning holo glow of these polishes together. Just beautiful!

Macro Shot

Chevron-y Wonderment!

Hidy Hi Campers!

This mani was my first successful Bestie Twin Nail collaberation. I worked with the lovely Maja and we did our take on a design originally by A Thousand Nails.

This mani was a total brain bender involving numerous coats of polish, quick dry top coat and 2 kinds of tape, but I kind love it because it was such hard work.

I used Barry M Matte White, OPI by Sephora Frankly I Don't Give A-dam and Sinful Colors Back to Black, with a random glitter topper over the white.

It's not perfect, but it's mine haha

Blood Spatter - Deviant Potions: Another Halloween Mani

Hola Chicas,

I am fully in the Halloween mood now and I'm also a massive The Walking Dead fan, so I was eagerly awaiting the UK premier of the new series.

I'd ordered a couple of polishes Deviant Potions "Walking Dead" collection and was hoping they'd arrive in time for the premier, and they did!

Blood Spatter is an off white crelly with different sized matte and holo red glitters. Formula was a dream to work with and I used 3 coats as my base for this dripping blood mani.

 

Right Hand

Left Hand

I wanted a dark, congealed blood effect rather than a bright fresh blood, and to achieve this is used Nails Inc Victoria, which is a luscious, deep purpley-red jelly.

Thumb

I used my double-ended dotting tool dipped in the polish to create the drips of blood.

I topped it all with a coat of HK Girl top coat, and Bob's your uncle!!!!

I had such fun doing this mani and got lots of comments on it, even the Hubs said he thought it was pretty cool, and that's unheard of lol.

Flushed - Ethereal Lacquer: Another mani for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Hi Everyone,

After experiencing an absolutely epic nail fail whilst attempting a twin nails mani with my new Instagram chica Maja (@majsran) I decided I needed a nice, simple mani. So I swatched one of my new purchases from Ethereal Lacquer which I purchased from Rainbow Connection UK.

This is Flushed.

Flushed is a sheer, soft pink polish with the most beautiful rose gold shimmer. This is 3 normal coats topped with 1 coat of HK Girl top coat.

For the feature nail I did a base of Barry M Silver Pink and then 2 thick coats of Flushed over 3 pieces of tape. I removed the tape, topped with 2 coats of HK Girl and added a little diamante purchased from the Born Pretty Store.

This mani is so feminine and pretty. A little more girlie than my usual style but perfect for my support of Breast Cancer Awareness during October.

Swirling Mist - Halloween Mani

Me again!

I'm on a roll today aren't I.

I love Halloween and I've been playing round with some ideas and looking for inspiration for manis that aren't the usual ghost/vamp/pumpkin type nail art.

As I was scrolling through my Instagram feed a few weeks ago I came across a stunning mani that I knew I had to try and recreate. This doesn't happen very often as I prefer to try to come up with my own designs, rather than out-and-out copying someone else's, but I fell in love instantly with this one by Chalkboardnails.

On a base of Sinful Colors Back to Black I used the acetone water colour method on Barry M Matte White to create the smoke effect. I'd never tried this method before so I used this tutorial on YouTube to see how to do it.

This is how my first attempt turned out. It reminds me of swirling mists or smoke.

 I love this so much and I'm so glad with how it turned out considering it was my first attempt! I can't wait to try the effect with different colour combinations.

HK Girl Top Coat

Hola chicas,

Like everyone in the nail community, I am constantly searching for the elusive perfect topcoat. It needs to be fast drying, long lasting and super shiny, it needs to smooth my glitters without taking 5 coats and not smudge my nail art. I'm not asking for much am I lol.

Well, I think I may have finally found my superstar. My little lovelies, I am pleased to introduce to you...HK Girl!

LOOK AT THAT SHINE!!!!

I am in love with this topcoat. Pictured here over Sinful Colors Back to Black, this is 1 coat only. I wore this with Haunt for 4 days and had no chips and no tip wear which was fantastic considering I cooked, cleaned and typed daily. It also smooths even the chunkiest of glitters. 

It's an indie polish produced by a lovely lady called Jill and she really has a stellar product on her hands. It is also available in several different sizes,  go check out her site Glisten & Glow for more information. UK Ladies, you can get your hands on HK Girl from Rainbow Connection UK, along with tons of other amazing indie polishes.

Haunt - Ethereal Lacquer

Hi All,

Ethereal Lacquer are an indie nail polish maker producing 3-free, vegan friendly polishes. I've been following them on Instagram for quite a while and have always lusted after their colours, but until recently they didn't ship to the UK so I just had to admire from a far. Then, in September, a fabulous indie polish distributor Rainbow Connection UK moved to the UK and opened up the world of indie polishes for me.

I purchased a couple of Ethereal Lacquers and today's review is of Haunt, a perfectly named polish for Halloween.

3 Coats - Warm

Haunt is a purple jellie with light blue flakies, blue shimmer and crushed pearls. It is a thermal polish that transitions from mid purple when warm to dark purple when cold. The change is quite subtle and my camera just refused to show the change.

This is such a beautiful polish, even without the colour change. The picture shows 3 coats topped with HK Girl top coat. The formula is really easy to work with, very sheer but easily buildable for depth, and it really is haunting.

Head on over to Ethereal Lacquer to have a look at their full range, including the newly released Wychwood Collection.

OPI Ski Teal We Drop

Hi Everyone,

This is a swatch of OPI Ski Teal We Drop. I've got a real thing for teal at the minute and I'm in love with this mani!

In sunlight

This polish is a beautiful rich, deep teal colour. The formula was a little on the thin side but really easy to work with.

Indoor shot

I did 2 coats which gave a lovely even finish and topped with 1 coat of Seche Vite. The gold studs were purchased from the Born Pretty Store. I tend to prefer silver or black accessories but I think the warm of the gold really compliments this colour.

Autumn's Here

Hi Everyone,

I love the change of the seasons, especially when Autumn and Winter roll around. And after all of the neons and pastels of the Summer I was really looking forward to breaking out my darker colours.

I picked up a couple of nice polishes in the Sephora sale whilst on my holiday and couldn't wait to use them in my first autumnal mani.

The polishes are both Sephora by OPI. The purple is called Who's Spinning Tonight? It's a gorgeous deep plum creme with a subtle bright purple shimmer when the light catches it. Frankly I Don't Give A-dam is a very soft grey creme that I think is so feminine. This is 2 coats of both colours, plus top coat, and the formula was really easy to work with. 

I ran out of Essie Good to Go which is my "go to" top coat so I decided to give Seche Vite a try as so many people rave about it. In all honesty, I'm not in love. I haven't experienced the shrinking that some people get but I don't think it's as shiny as Essie, although it does dry just as quickly. I'll try it out on a few more manis and some glitters before I form a final opinion, but rest assured I'll post a review once I've made up my mind.

I'm also rocking a new nail shape! Due to my terrible neglect of my babies on holiday I got some pretty awful chips along the free edge. I couldn't bring myself to take them down to nubs again so I decided to keep as much length as I could and turn them into baby claws. I must admit I wasn't keen to start with but they're definitely growing on me, and it's always fun to try something new :)

My First Mani for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Hola!

Some of you may already know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and this is my first mani in support of the cause.

I did a sponged gradient using OPI Steady as She Rose and Kiss Me on My Tulips. Rose is a soft, blush coloured creme that leans towards the more purple side of pink (if that makes sense). The formula isn't great, it tends to streak and if you work slowly gets quite chalky. On it's own you need 2 or 3 coats to get it even. Tulips is a bright fuchsia pink and is super easy to work with. I added 1 coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and topped with top coat. On the ring fingernail I topped with OPI I Lily Love You which is a sheer bright pink base with different coloured iridescent flakies.

This cause is one that is close to my heart because 2 and a half years ago I lost my wonderful mum, Trudy, to breast cancer. She was diagnosed in July 2010 and initially responded so well to the treatment that her doctors thought that she would be likely to make a full recovery. Unfortunately, the doctors didn't know that the cancer had already spread and she eventually lost her battle on 12th February 2011. I miss her every day.

This mani is in memory of my Mummy and all those who lost their battle too. And it is inspired by all of those brave women still fighting!!!!!

Trudy Purkiss

24.05.1959 to 12.02.2011

I'm Baaaacckkkkk!!!!!

Hey Everyone,

We had an amazing holiday in the States with our family and friends but my nail care routine went out of the window whilst we were away!

I did this mani just before we left and it was supposed to be a "Twin Nails" project. Twin Nails is a feature made popular on Instagram (IG) where you pair up with someone from the community and decide on a mani design and then each do your own version. You then post a pic of the 2 manis next to each other so everyone can see the results.

My twin came up with the design but was unable to make it work. My effort wasn't perfect but I worked hard at it so I wanted to share it anyway. I used striping tape and my dotting tool for the chevrons and dots. Colours used were Maybelline Color Show Coral Craze and Sinful Colors Back to Black.

Manis for MJ

You may or may not be aware that this past Thursday would have been Michael Jackson's 55th Birthday, and to mark the occasion a member of the Instagram nail community (@tiffstastefultalons) thought up the hashtag #manisformj.

The idea was to create a nail design inspired by the King of Pop to be shared on Instagram on his birthday, and every mani had to have a silver glitter bomb on 1 nail.

My Hubs rarely has any input with my nails but we're both huge Michael Jackson fans so I told him about this idea and asked him what he though was MJ's most iconic look as I wanted to do a nail design based on it. He said for him it was the black and white outfit with the sparkly white glove. I thought it was a great idea and we came up with this design together.

For this mani I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, Barry M Matte White and Collection in Razzle Dazzle. I added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and top coat.

I enjoyed the collab with my hubby on this one and it was super fun to wear.

Sky Blues Inspired - Dark & Geometric

The new football season started again a few weeks ago here in the UK and I'm a season ticket holder and avid supporter of Coventry City Football Club, also known as the Sky Blues.

We'll be going to lots of games so I thought it would be fun to do a series of match day nails that somehow feature the colour Sky Blue. And here is the first...

I started off with a base of Maybelline Color Show in Shocking Seas on my pointer and ring fingers and then added a coat of Sinful Colors in Hottie. I then created a triangle on the pointer and a "V" on the ring finger using striping tape. I then added 2 coats of Barry M Navy to all fingers and removed the tape. I added some small black rhinestones (purchased from Born Pretty Store) to the accent nails and topped with a coat of Essie Good to Go.

Shocking Seas leans to the chalky side but is fairly easy to work with. Hottie is a gorgeous light blue jelly with small hex pink and blue glitters and fine sparkles. It's so lovely. Barry M Navy is my go-to deep blue. Super easy to work with and such a stunning shade.

I loved this mani, it was so fun to do and I got so many compliments on it.

I'm really looking forward to coming up with ideas for this series, although I won't be posting any for a few weeks as we're off on holiday soon (woohoo!!!!).

Two-tone Textured

Hi all,

Apologies for the lack of posts, we've had so much going on recently but I'll be doing a couple of posts today to catch up.

So, as you all know I loved the Barry M textured mint mani I did a few weeks ago so I bought the pink one from the range too. In all honesty, I didn't love the the pink as much as the mint and I knew as soon as I'd painted my first nail. So I decided to introduce the mint and made the mani two-tone.

For the accent nails I did a diagonal stripe of silver glitter, topped with Essie Good to Go to smooth it out, taped over it and then painted the pink and mint on either side, then removed the tape.

Here's a closer look at an accent nail.

I didn't love this mani but it was cute for a couple of days.

Super Sparkles

Hola!

This weekends mani was something super quick and simple because we left early Saturday morning for our trip to Carlisle for an away game to watch our beloved Sky Blues (Coventry City Football Club).

 This is Barry M Pink Sapphire Glitter over 2 coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black

Black on Black is a super glossy black jelly. As black's go this was fairly easy to apply, a little on the runny side, which is unusual as I usually find blacks to be gloopy.

Pink Sapphire is a clear base with fuchsia pink and silver medium sized hex glitter and silver bar glitter. It also has some really fine fuchsia glitter. This polish is SO pretty and sparkly. When the light catches the silver glitters they shine all sorts of fiery neon colours, which typically were super hard to catch on camera. I managed to snap the lime colour on my ring finger in the pic below!

As the football season has started here again in the UK I decided it would be fun to do Sky Blue themed nails each weekend so keep your eyes peeled for these in the coming weeks.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend, thanks for reading!

Seeing Stripes

Morning Everyone!

I'm so excited to share today's mani. I've been obsessing over this design after seeing it on the awe-inspiring @chorubim on Instagram. Her work is flawless and she is a huge source of inspiration to me, so go check her out.

So this is my recreation of her mani! I can't put my finger on why I love it so much but I do. I find it so chic and different and I can't stop staring at it lol.

So, I used Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Lychee for the base and the 2 nude nails. I then sponged on a gradient using Essie Turquoise & Caicos, Lychee and Watermelon from the same range. After letting that dry completely I applied striping tape on top of the gradient, increasing the space between each of the pieces of tape. I then painted 1 coat of OPI Matched Luggage over the tape. Matched Luggage is a gorgeous, off white jelly with the barest hint of pink to it. Then I removed the tape and applied top coat.

I hope you guys like this as much as I do!

Muted and Chic

Hi,

So after my last few colourful/in-your-face manis I was in the mood for something a little more muted. Maybe I'm gearing up for the arrival of Autumn or something.

Anyway, this is 2 coats of Barry M Nail Paint in Cappuccino, with a L'Oreal Confettis gradient feature nail. super shiny!!!!

My New Obsession - Textured Nails

Hi Everyone,

I guess I'm more than a little late to the textured nail polish craze, but better late than never I suppose.

Ridley Road is an eye-catching bright minty coloured polish. The formula was surprisingly smooth and easy to apply, although you do have to be a little careful when applying the 2nd coat because it tries to bleed around the textured edges of the first coat, but it's nothing that can't be corrected with a steady hand or a little clean up. The texture developed as the polish dried.

I have to say, whilst I was doing this mani I had the overwhelming urge to whip out the top coat and smooth this baby out lol. But once I got over my OCD of perfectly smooth polish and embraced all of this concretey wonderment I fell head over heels in love! So much so I've purchased the pinky/peach colour from the same range. I got so many comments and compliments on this mani!

I couldn't really capture the texture of this polish but this is 2 coats and a couple of embellishments to funk it up a bit. Enjoy ...

Barry M - Gelly Hi-Shine

Hola!

Last week I posted a pic of my latest little nail haul and I finally got around to swatching some of them.

I'm reviewing Guava and Watermelon from this range. Both are super pigmented and you could probably get away with 1 coat if you applied it carefully, although I did 2 as I get a little heavy handed and ended up with bald patches lol. The "Gelly" in the name refers more to the finish of the polish rather than the formula, as these polishes are more of a creme than a jelly. You definitely couldn't use them for layering or glitter sandwiches! They were super shiny even without top coat and dried really quickly.

This is 2 coats of Guava, with L'Oreal Confettis on top and 1 coat of Essie Good to Go top coat. It's a lovely aquamarine blue and I think it goes really well with the black and white polka dot effect of Confettis.

This is Watermelon from the range, it's a beautiful deep forest green and again went on really easily. I've wanted to do stone/marble nails for a while and thought this would be a great base. The finished design was maybe a little darker than I have hoped for but I'm in love with it! I used little balls of cling film (saran wrap) to apply the black and gold on top of 2 coats of watermelon. It was super hard to capture the colours of this mani.

As always, let me know what you think.

Coming up... Barry M ~Textured Nail Effect review.

Coming up...

I went on a bit of a shopping spree today and bought these little beauties home with me!

From left to right: Watermelon and Guava from the Gelly range, Confettis by L'Oreal and 2 more Barry M, limited edition Yellow and Ridley Road from the Textured Nail Effect range.

I love Barry M polish. It's affordable, good quality and they have some of the best colours ever.

Can't wait to try these out, keep your eyes peeled for the swatches and reviews coming shortly.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Happy International Nail Art Day! - Taped Mani

My Born Pretty Store haul arrived a couple of weeks ago and as you can see I ordered a few different coloured tapes, a nail art wheel, a new double ended dotting tool and some clear and black stones in different sizes.

I've been wanting to try out a taped mani and seeing as today is the first International Nail Art Day I thought I'd give it a try.

I started off with 2 coats of OPI Matched Luggage which is a a pretty off white jelly with the barest hint of pink. It's fairly sheer so when I wear this one alone I like to do 3 coats.

Then I placed my tape. This step took a little while. It was harder than I thought it would be and at 1 point I had bits of tape everywhere lol. But I'm sure it'll get easier with practice.

Once I was happy with the tape placement I put drops of polish on to my nails and then squished (technical term lol) all of the drops together using a piece of cling film (saran wrap) placed over the nail.

When I was happy with the effect I removed the cling film and then removed the bits of tape. And this was the result:

I'm really quite pleased with how this turned out. It feels summery and fresh and I got to try out a new technique!

The colours used were Essie Turquoise and Caicos (my current fave colour), OPI Steady As She Rose and 2 from the Maybelline Colour Show range, Coral Craze and Cool Blue.

Let me know what you think of it, thanks for reading.

My Essentials - Nail Care

I've just taken off my gradient mani ready for something new and I thought this would probably be a good time to tell you what my essentials nail products are when it comes to taking care of my nails.

Everyone's nails are different, so what works for me may not work for you. I learned this from my first nail blog obsession, Loodie Loodie Loodie. It was this lady that taught me the science side of nails and she has super informative posts on all sorts of subjects, from the importance of moisturising to the right and wrong ways to file your nails. She hasn't posted for a while now but some of her info is great.

It was also Loodie that lead me to the discovery of my most important nail essential, Pure Nail Oil, made by a lovely lady called Ana. But my love for that deserves its very own post so I'm only mentioning it in passing.

So my essentials are as follows:

Acetone - I find that using acetone actually dries my nails out LESS than standard polish remover. This may be because it is quicker at dissolving the polish and is therefore in contact with my nails for less time than standard remover. I pick mine up from my local Sally's and a 500ml bottle is usually around £3.50. I also massage olive oil into my cuticles before removing my polish which helps to minimise drying out, especially when swatching a lot in a small space of time.

Orange Sticks - After doing myself a mischief with a metal cuticle remover these little babies are now the only thing I use to remove my cuticles. They're also really useful for nail art. I just pop a little dab of clear nail varnish on the end and use them to pick up and place gems and studs on my nails.You can pick them up pretty much anywhere that sells beauty products.

Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover - I find that this is the easiest to use, and most effective cuticle remover that I've tried. I use it once a week, apply around my cuticles, leave for 15-30 seconds and then gently push back my cuticles with my trusty orange stick and follow up with a swipe along the cuticle line with a cotton bud to remove the dissolved cuticle.

Nail Brush - Pretty self explanatory but I like to give my nails a good scrub after taking off polish.

Save The Nail in Bridge the Ridge - This is an awesome ridge filling base coat that has stopped my need for buffing the bejeezus out of my nails. If I'm wearing a mani that doesn't require undies then this is my go to base coat.

And finally...my crowning glory... Pure Nail Oil - I keep the bottle at home and take the little pen out and about with me. I use this nail oil 4 or so times a day; first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and then a couple of random applications throughout the day. This really is fantastic stuff.

So, they are my essentials. I hope you found this post helpful and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

My First Gradient

So, having dabbled in a little nail art and drooled over all of the beautiful gradients around I decided to have a go myself.

On a Nina Ultra Pro white base I used Essie Turquiose and Caicos, China Glaze Don't Be a Luna-tic and Nicole by OPI Khloe had a Little Lam-Lam for the gradient. I added a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for a little sparkle and finished it with my current fave top coat Essie Good to Go. And this was the result...

I was over the moon with my first attempt! And to celebrate I thought I'd enter my first ever competition, which was a gradient comp on Instagram, so I added some polka-dots to it too...

And there we have it. Hope you guys like it as much as I do. I can't stop staring at it! Apologies for the sub standard pic quality, I promise I'll get better :)

The First Post!

Hola, bonjour, namaste, ni hao, hello and welcome to my nail blog.

I'm super new to all this blogging lark (this is my first blog!) and I'm guessing that the first thing I should do is introduce myself, so...

My name is Becky, I'm 29 (30 in January but shhhh don't tell anyone), and I live in the Midlands in the UK. I'm married to my teenage sweetheart Craig, we have an 8 year old boxer dog called Murphy and I'm addicted to all things nail related!

I've been an avid reader of nail blogs for the past 6 months or so and last week I started a nail only account on Instagram (@nailmadbamos). I've been considering starting a blog for a little while now and I've finally decided to take the plunge.

In the past I've mainly just swatched polishes until recently dipping my toe into the wonderful world of stamping and nail art and I found that I really enjoy it, so this blog will be a mix of all 3 and hopefully you'll all enjoy it too.

Can't wait to start reading your comments and feedback.

Becky x