Stamping With My New PUEEN Plates!

Greetings All!

More stamping plates? Oh yes! About 2 weeks ago I learned about the latest PUEEN set, and immediately ordered them here. They are slightly different from the normal round stamping plates, as the images cover the whole plate, similar to the 'one big picture' plates from MoYou. Since my nails have been growing after their 'Winter break', the number of stamping plates I can easily use is getting smaller and smaller, so I love having plenty of image to work with.

I couldn't wait to use them, so I have a couple of 'tester' manicures to show you. I'm calling them testers because I do need to experiment a bit with getting the placement right (the only downside to larger images. A normal rectangular stamp is generally fairly easy to line up, but you have to be a bit more precise with these ones). Still, I thought I would share them in case anyone is debating whether they need these (spoiler alert: you totally do).

This first manicure uses PUEEN 73, stamped with Revlon Hot For Chocolate over MUA Pistachio Ice Cream.

This particular plate is almost too good - I couldn't decide which bits to use! I still can't decide which bit I like more. This plate will get a lot of use.

Hot For Chocolate isn't the very best polish for stamping, but I really wanted to have pistachio and chocolate together. That's perfectly rational, right?

Next is PUEEN 72, because I appear to be working backwards through them! I stamped with Revlon Vintage over Sinful Colors Sweet Tooth.

Again, my placement isn't 100%, but that's why I need to play around with them first. I love these colours together though.

I'm really happy with these plates - the quality is excellent (like both my other sets), and there's so much variety and potential with them. Prepare to see much more of them on the blog!

Liquid Sky Lacquer Jekyll & Hyde

Greetings All!

So, I've become obsessed with thermals. The slightly warmer weather means they are working better on my cold hands, and I just can't get enough of them! I've stared staring at my nails everywhere, instead of just in the privacy of my own home. It might be silly, but I get a ridiculous amount of pleasure from my polish changing colour!

I've got swatches of...five thermals in the vault, but this polish has instantly become one of my favourites (my very favourite thermal is still Nails Inspire Fairy Lights!). It's a slightly more grown-up version of the effect, compared to a lot of my others at least. This is 2 coats of Jekyll & Hyde.

I love the change from dark, murky brown into a warm caramel colour, it's very reactive and it gives perfect 'tips'. My camera didn't really pick up the scattered holo, but it's there, and it's lovely.

Now for the transition pics. These have become my favourite pics to do, because they can be a bit of a challenge (depending on room temperature!), so it's really satisfying when it goes well!

I bought this polish from Rainbow Connection (where it's still currently in stock!).

NEW UK Indies - Freckles Polish!

*These products were provided at a discount for review purposes*

Greetings All!

Today I have swatches of a brand new UK indie polish. So new in fact, they haven't even been officially released yet! The launch date is March 28th, although you can preorder them here right now! So far there are two collections available, and I have a polish from each collection to show you.

First up is Let's Go Fly A Kite, from the Sprung collection. I used three coats here.

This is a lovely, fresh bright blue (my favourite kind of blue!) with blue, silver and lime green glitter. I especially like the lime green with the blue, it's very lush and Summery looking. Application was really good - I only just needed three coats to cover up a couple of patches, two coats would probably do in the majority of cases. 

Next up is a glitter topper from the Bridget Jones collection. I've seen a bit of Bridget Jones, but I couldn't cope with the whole film (I'm not a fan of chick flicks, or Renee Zellweger). However that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the polish! This one is called Tits Pervert, which I did have to Google, so that's now in my search history! I tried it over both a light and dark colour. First is one coat over Sally Hansen Jaded, because I love pale green and lilac together.

Plenty of glitter in this one! I was prepared to fish for the holo circles, but it wasn't at all necessary. They were jumping on the brush! The dark glitter I initially thought was a mix of blue and black, but they're actually very dark blue glitters that flash a beautiful sapphire blue. I've been seeing a lot of black glitter lately, so this is a refreshing change. I also like the variety of sizes, from teeny squares to large hexes.

With all the blue in mind, I also decided to wear it over blue. This is again one coat, over OPI Dating A Royal.

Again, I was really happy with the amount of glitter I got in one coat. I think it suits the darker colours best - part of me would be very interested to see what it looks like over black, because although you would lose a lot of the glitter, you would get these wonderful sparks of blue shining through. The large circles did mean this polish needed plenty of topcoat, but that's pretty standard for large circles. It's a price I'm happy to pay!

I was very happy with both these polishes - I still find myself 'lowering the bar' a little for new indie brands because I assume there is a learning curve (there's no way I could do it!), but really I shouldn't because there is no need to. These are both lovely polishes, and there are several more I will be ordering, especially from the Sprung collection, which is full of pretty Spring colours!

You can preorder Freckles Polish here, and they officially launch on March 28th. You can keep up to date with news and swatches on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For Bubbles

Greetings All.

I've been absent for the last couple of weeks, both from the blog and the nail world in general, and I feel I should explain why. Our oldest cat Bubbles died a week ago, after spending his last week in and out of the vets with breathing problems. It's been a horrible two weeks, and I really haven't felt like doing anything, including blogging. I've even been painting my nails less (which is very unlike me), although I must confess I've been doing quite a bit of polish shopping, in an attempt to make myself feel a bit better.

However in true polish addict style, the first thing I did after he passed away was to paint my nails in memory of him. I can't really do cats justice, so I did bubbles instead.

This is Bubbles, looking a little dishevelled, which is weird because he really enjoyed being groomed!

Bubbles was a soft, fluffy, scaredy cat with a very sweet nature. He was my little Gusty's best friend, and he will be missed.


I will be back to blogging from now on, because basically I have too much exciting stuff not to share!

Funky French Gradient With Studs

Greetings All!

I'm afraid I seem to be stuck deep in a black and red theme at the moment. Well, on my nails. I've had a black and red theme everywhere else for the last ten years or so! Decor. clothing, even my laptop, camera and Helmers are red. So I suppose it's actually surprising how few of my manicures are black and red, on balance!

I'm also very into studs at the moment. Again, it's surprising it's taken me this long!

I think it's obvious from this gradient that thermals have been having quite an influence on me lately! I would love a real red to black thermal, but this will do in the meantime. As per usual, I used Sally Hansen Right Said Red and W7 Black. It still looked a little plain, so I added some studs. I used 40 in total, and it's barely made a dent in the amount I have. I used to think they were sold in ludicrously high amounts, but now they seem just about right!

Black Cat Lacquer Poison Apple

Greetings All!

I am so in love with thermal polish at the moment! I just got some of the Dance Legend thermals (from my lemming list!), and I'll be posting about them soon, because they're awesome. So reactive.

Back to today, and I have the stunning Poison Apple to show you. I initially wasn't very impressed with this, it must have been a very cold day the first time I wore it! I couldn't get any colour change at all, except with hot water. However I gave it another chance, and I'm very, very glad that I did!

This is 3 coats of Poison Apple solo.

And now for the transition pics! This is my favourite part of thermal polish - I love getting my nails really warm, and then watching the darker colour creep in. Maybe I should get out more, but I find it very entertaining!

I bought this polish from Rainbow Connection, and it is currently still available! You can also buy it direct from Black Cat Lacquer. Not that I'm trying to enable you, at all! Come on though, look at it! You need this in your life!

Roses, Just For A Change

Greetings All!

I'm almost getting to the point where I'm getting sick and tired of roses. Almost. This was one of those classic 'I can't decide between...' manicures, in this case roses and glitter. So why not have both!

The roses are BM323 and Konad Black over Sally Hansen Right Said Red. The glitter is Iconic Effect Unicorn Blood over W7 Black.

I'm being a bit more self-indulgent at the moment with my nails. I'm not participating in any challenges for a while, and instead I'm just polishing whatever I feel like. So, probably more roses, and more black and red to come!

WAMM!

Greetings All!

Welcome now the now regular feature of Work Appropriate Manicure Mondays! I have so many nude polishes, and it's nice to get to use them. They are among my most used polishes anyway, but I tend to go through a phase of using the same one over and over, and this way I'm making the effort to mix it up!

One of the easiest ways to jazz up some plain polish is a bit of glitter, and as a proud glitterbunny I have plenty of it around! However, glitter and sparkle isn't always work appropriate. If you can wear any polish you want to work, well, I envy you greatly! But the rest of us have to find ways round it.

This is the pretty, sugary-sweet I Have A Dream by Pocket Money Polishes, over OPI Bare It In Trafalgar Square (a black label I treated myself to because...I wanted it!). The combination of a pale nude with pastel glitter does give quite a subtle result, but that's exactly what I'm looking for! I know it's there, and I get to have a sneaky look at my nails and get cheered up by glitter, without drawing attention to the fact I'm wearing polish. This is a perfect glitter for that. Matte topcoat is also a must, I feel!