Bubbles

Evening folks.

Tonight I want to show you a bit of stamping that I did recently.

 The plates used were B06 and B10 from KKCenterHk

I'd had intentions of painting the fish in their respective colours, but at that point I was lacking the will and the patience. The white stamping polish didn't want to work with me, hence the reason why some of the bubbles look more like semi-circles! The images on the plates were crisp and clean, so yes, I do think I need to replace my polish.

 

This is one of those manicures that looked a lot prettier in my head...ho hum.

Have a brilliant weekend all...and wish me luck for my last day at college tomorrow (sob, sob).

xx

Floral water decals.

Happy Sunday friends...and a happy Mother's Day to those who are celebrating today.

Although we celebrated Mother's Day back in March in the UK, I actually saw my own mum (after quite a long time) along with my siblings and niece today. I cooked up a big dinner and everyone seemed to have a nice day catching up. 

I'm now sat here typing with two nubbins and three nails with low breaks on them. Usually, I'd be lamenting this but I'm actually pleased to have a reason to get some UV gel out and start practising with it. You may even find that I hack my nails off and replace them with same falsies - I'm not sure yet!

I was wearing these full water decals from KKcenterHk on Friday:

You will already know about my far from secret love affair with water decals. I have less time to myself nowadays and I suffer from a chronic condition that has been kicking my behind for some months (which makes me exhausted a lot of the time), so I appreciate a 'quick fix'.  I have several sets of decals that are similar looking, but it is the first time I have tried this brand.

This is NOT 'actual polish'. It's a decal, okay. It's a lovely pattern, but it is not different from the other decals I have used.

My fingernails are wider than the decals but I could have put on a colour which matched the decals beforehand. I didn't bother though.

The packaging stated that these could be worn for up to seven days with a topcoat. Unfortunately, they were chipping and peeling on me by the end of the day despite two layers of topcoat. Yes,  I did wash up without gloves, but I really didn't think that this much deterioration would have taken place so soon:

I'd hoped that I could have gone to college with gorgeous nails on Saturday morning but alas, I had bare, stained broken talons. My clients asked me why my nails were bare and I was actually quite embarrassed.  Unfortunately, on this occasion, water decals didn't come to my rescue.

*product sent to me for review

Have a happy start to the week folks ;)

xx

Water marble water decals.

Hello friends!

I've reached over 800 readers via Google Friend Connect and I'm so chuffed. Thank you all so much for visiting, reading, viewing, commenting and following (in whichever way you do so). It really means a lot to me. 

Okay, to the nails we go!
As another demonstration of my love for water decals, I've decided to show you how I use them.

Now I know that some of you will be perfectly aware of how to use water decals, but I'm sure that there are some other readers who aren't so familiar with them.

 The decals are basically transfers that are attached to cardboard. These were sent to me for review, but you can buy them and other designs here at KKCenterhk.

I started off with a gorgeous pearl shimmer polish by Hard Candy. Sorry, I don't know the name of it because the label has come off!

 I cut off the pattern I wanted and let it soak for about 10 seconds.

At this point, I was able to press the card between my thumb and index finger and slide the transfer off the card. I personally only like to slide off half of the transfer and remove the rest of the card after I've positioned it where I need it; if you slide the whole transfer off the card, you run the risk of it folding up on itself. If does do this to you, put it back into the water and you may be able to straighten it out again.

 Place the transfer where you want it...

 Et voila!

 

These decals are quite clever. They look like intricate water marble patterns and I managed to fool a few people into thinking I'd created them myself with polish (only for a few seconds though - I'd NEVER try to fool people like that!). The only thing that annoyed me was that they smudged and nearly disintegrated when I used my Seche Vite top coat. I don't know if it was the polish or the quality of the decals, but I could only wear this manicure for a day because I could see where the pattern had been destroyed and I had started to obsess over it. Just a little.

Oh, and I bought this 'glow in the dark' top coat recently too.

 Erm. The polish glowed quite a bit after I 'charged' it by holding up to an artificial light...it didn't do too well on the nail though.

Probably not a polish I'll be using again in a hurry, I must admit.  I like the concept, but the formula was gloopy and took ages to dry. I chose not to use Seche Vite because I didn't want to dampen the 'glow' effect.

I hope this post was of use to someone and not just me trying to teach grandma to suck eggs (sorry).

Have a good week.

xx

Denim zippers!

Hey everyone.

I don't know how many of you have ever created your own 'zipper' manicure either by way of free-hand paint or with embellishments, but I have been meaning to try it for ages. I actually have TWO zipper images on some stamping plates, but up until now, I haven't used them. I'm not about to go into how many plates are sat here covered in the same blue cellophane wrapping I received them in.

Anyway, I digress.  I was contacted a while ago by Maggie at KKcenterHk and asked to review one of their items. Of course, I accepted...and guess what I chose?

Gold zipper water decals by N.Nail. Ahhhh yeaahhh.

I used the very beautiful Tristam by a-england as a base colour (two coats).  This polish was actually bought exactly a year ago and is still the only a-england polish I own.  If only the photographs could actually convey how lovely this shade it. The holographic qualities are amazing and it was PERFECT for denim manicure. The pink polish was from a nail art pen and I added a little glitter too.

 The water decals were spaced wide enough so that they were easy to cut and they didn't take long to detach from the card after soaking in water for a few seconds. I was pleased to see that they were sturdy and didn't stick together or tear when I removed them (yay!). There is nothing worse than a thin decal that sticks to itself when you remove it from the card! I am also happy to report that the decals did not disintegrate when I used my top coat either - I hate it when that happens as well.

These decals can be bought from KKcenterHk and they also come in silver (for those of you who prefer a less gaudy manicure). Feel free to use my discount code : BLGA402AS10 to receive a 10% discount if you want to make a purchase.

I was trying to make it look like there was pink underwear under that denim on my nails...I didn't do a very good job. Perhaps if I'd painted on a lace pattern, that might have helped. Not sure.

I actually really liked these decals (and you aren't surprised are you?).  I did draw a bit of attention to myself when I wore this, but then I got a little embarrassed and had to take it off.  I think the pink underwear idea was at the forefront of my mind when people were complementing me *blush*.

So would you have gone for zippers or something a little more sedate? Let me know your thoughts, as always.

xx