Swap In The City UK

Hi everyone.

Tonight I want to let you know that I am honoured to be providing manicures as L does Nails at an amazing event called Swap In The City UK (SITUK), which takes place on Sunday 25th August 2013 at The Royal Horseguards Hotel in London.





Okay, now for the info!

'An afternoon of fun and relaxation, SITCUK offers indulgent beauty treatments and sampling in the SITCUK ‘Beauty Fusion’, including nails, hair and well-being treats. You’ll also have the opportunity to swap your good quality clothing and meet like-minded women, whilst giving back to charity and making a difference to the environment!

SITCUK has held several successful events including being a part of The Good Fashion Show during London Fashion Week 2012.
SITCUK events allow women to have a positive impact on others, by donating quality items to the swap or taking part in the clothes auction.
Items are kindly donated by celebrities for the auction and the proceeds go to charity partners of the event. All whilst being pampered and having a fun-filled ladies event in luxurious surroundings.'

 The event is being held at The Royal Horseguards Hotel, which promises a five-star luxury experience overlooking the Thames and I absolutely can't wait. There will be price draws too...and everyone likes a freebie. Please visit SITCUK for further details and to buy tickets.

If you are in London, why not come down and join us?

xx

Swaps!

Hi friends.

You may not be aware, but I do swap polish with other bloggers - on a regular basis in fact. For some reason though, I haven't really shared what I've received. I'm not even sure why.

Here are a few of the items I've received this month.

Beautiful Essie's from Marisa - my first ever!

Part of the Starry Temptress collection (2011) sent to me by Munchy, along with:

These beauties.  I can't wait to try them all and in fact I've already started!

 Essie's 'Tart Deco' with a little bit of glitter. I've had such a busy week, I've had zero time for nail art! By the way, I've changed my nail shape. I've been getting increasingly fed up with my nails curling inwards at the edges and it order to alleviate the curling, I've filed them into an almond shape (pictures to come).

I'm off to bed now, lamenting the fact that I have to go to work tomorrow even though I don't usually work on Friday's. I've got deadlines coming out of my ears and to ease the stress of next week, I'm going to try and do as much as I can tomorrow. Wish me luck!

xx

Tutorial: Nail art stamping - lots of pictures!

Hey everyone, I hope you are well.

I've listened to what you've said and have made a pictorial to let you know how I create manicures with nail art stamping.  I'm sure other people have their own special techniques, but for those who are interested, here is how I do it.

I must apologise for the photographs; some were taken in natural light and others under the orange light of my kitchen. They aren't optimal conditions, but I did the best that I could....

First, start with your favourite base colour OVER A BASECOAT. Don't scrimp on the basecoat if you don't want stained nails. This is 'Purple Diamond'.

Sponge on your second colour. Put some polish on your sponge and dab it off onto a paper towel, then dab your nails, starting on the very tip first and then working towards the middle of the nail.

Sally Hansen's 'Red Carpet'.

Add a layer of glitter! This is 'Pinky Glitter' and these three gorgeous polishes were given to me by Marisa at Polish Obsession in a swap we arranged recently.
Use a layer or two of top coat over the glitter to smooth out the surface after the glitter. Doing this helps your stamping pattern to look like it's 'floating' on your nail. That's the preparation done.

Materials to use are a stamping polish or a highly pigmented regular nail polish, stamper, scraping knife and image template. You can get a starter kit from various places. I got my first a year ago here. Bundle Monster does fantastic plates for a fraction of the price Konad charges.

 Cover your chosen image with polish.

 Scrape away the excess polish.

Immediately roll the stamp onto the image...

 When you remove the stamp, the image should be transferred onto the rubber.

 Blue didn't go with the polish I was wearing so I tried again with a white 'special' polish from Konad. This polish IS good, but sometimes you can get a normal polish that is cheaper but just as effective. MUA does brilliant black polish which only costs £1.

Position the image and slowly roll it onto the nail with a little pressure. Roll it all the way over to ensure that the image is transferred. It should transfer nicely but if it doesn't, lightly swipe the image off your nail with a cotton bud dipped in nail polish remover. If you covered your main polish with a top coat, you shouldn't have any issues with smudging.

Cover your nail with a clear top coat. Put a big drop of polish on your nail and try not to let the brush touch the nail when doing so. Don't worry if you flood your cuticles with polish at this point - you can remove it later.

 Finished product!

I tried my very best to make this as concise as possible... 

This is what works for me - what do YOU do?

Thanks for reading folks, I'm off to bed :)

xx

Bargain hunting and a wicked swap

Ay me. Why do I always choose to blog late at night when I'm supposed to be getting an early night? I'm a glutton for punishment, clearly.

How are you all?

Yesterday I went rummaging on my lunch break. You know about my love affair with Seche Vite right? Well, I've finished the bottle I bought. I went to Boots on the hunt for a new one, but they had every other Seche product save the one I wanted. I desperately needed a fast dry top coat and I found these - buy one, get one half price:

 Hmmm. Not a patch on my SV, I'm afraid. Okay, so they would usually cost £6 or so each, but the Insta-Dri does not dry my one layer of base and 3 layers of colour in 30 seconds. Nope. Not even in a few minutes. It may be dry to touch but my nails are still tacky and prone to imprints.The Nail Thickener? I don't know yet, I'll come back to you.

 

I also got these pretties in Clarks. From £39.99 to £11.99? BARGAIN!

Lastly, I've had the pleasure of completing at transatlantic swap with Shadow. Yeah, I'm pretty stoked at the moment. I'll be back with nails sometime this week.

Stay happy.

xx

I got some nail mail

Hi friends, how are you all doing?

I've been MIA (again) and it seems to be getting worse.  In addition to this, I'll be returning to work on Thursday of this week and my schedule is now going to change drastically.  I've enjoyed my maternity leave for the last seven months, but now it's time to go back to reality :-(.  How else am I going to fund my polish habit if I don't?

I've had a few packages through the post recently:

 Some lovely new goodies that I bought for a bargain and swapped with amused Polish.

 Some water decals that were sent to me from Vivalanails. I'll be doing a review of these as soon as I get an opportunity to paint my nails (which I gave a massive trim today).

 Here is the prize that I won from Nail Art Express  after taking part in the Chinese New Year contest. If you are interested in entering any contests, Ying is actually running another contest with three fantastic prizes to be won. I don't know if I'll even have the time to enter myself, but I thought I'd share with you just in case you are game.

 I picked up these little beauties at Brent Cross on the weekend. Fenwick's have a little Barry M stand in the front of the store.

I'm also having a little change around at home. The polish trolley that I got for a Christmas present is now too small to hold everything so I've put it in the bathroom so that the kid's rubber ducks have a new home.  I'm going to see if I can find something bigger tomorrow.  So for now, this is what my polish will living in; two Asda shopping bags!

New Polish. Drooool!

Hi everyone (and a big welcome to my new readers x)

A few days back I receive a package of goodies from a swap with Kristina.  Not only did she send me some yummies, she also sent me some the 'Slamming Red' that I have been banging on about for a while. I nearly shed a tear of happiness but my hubby was looking at me funny, so I sucked it up.  Thanks again, Kristina!

 L-R: Purple Medallion, Slamming Red and Lovin' It.

 L-R: Ms. Hautie, Red Velvet, Resort to Red.

 L-R: Snake Skin, De-Luxe-Cious, Untamed Luxury and Covered in Diamonds.

Amour 'Rain Glitter' and Orly 'Out of This World'.

Last night I commenced a swatch-a-thon and even managed to do a manicure that lasted overnight (O.M.Gosh!). Unfortunately I am currently nursing an awful headache and don't have the gumption to start watermarking those pictures tonight (have you noticed that most of these pictures aren't watermarked?)
Whilst I wait for these painkillers to kick in I'm going to settle down and watch Glee whilst eating a huge bar of Cadbury's Fruit'n'Nut.

Nitey, nite friends
x