London Calling

Happy Sunday everyone!  I'm having one of those weekends that feels like longer than two days, so I'm very happy :)  I was intending to post yesterday but I went to the park instead - got to make the most of British summer while it lasts (which could well only be a day or two).

And on the subject of British - today's nail art is London-themed.  I used the MoYou London Tourist Collection 01 plate, which I bought ages ago because it looked awesome but have only just got round to using.

For stamping I used Konad stamping polishes in white, red and blue, along with Barry M Black and Silver Foil.  The polishes used for the base colours are Barry M Cotton, Nails Inc Southwark, Ciate Boudoir and Barry M Red Glitter.

So this isn't a particularly coherent look, and I'm not really happy with how it turned out.  But I did use a few new techniques!  So for the little Queen's Guards I attempted two colour stamping.  The Union Flag stamp that I used on my thumb is all just one stamp, but I wanted to use both the red and blue.  So I made two decals - I stamped in each colour then removed the bits of the image I didn't want from the stamper with a toothpick, then made a decal by applying top coat over the image on the stamper and letting it dry.  I think this shrunk slightly though so it doesn't quite fit my nail, but we'll just pretend that's the look I was going for.

I also didn't intend to stamp 'London' on my index finger, but my London Eye ended up so off centre I had to add something else to make it look intentional.  Think my stamping still needs a bit of work!

If you've used this plate, I'd love to see what you've come up with :)

Royal Baby!

So it's just been announced that Kate and William have had their baby today, and the country has a new little prince :)

Think that means it's time for some nail art!

I prepared these a week ago, hence the blue and pink!  I've been waiting very patiently for her to hurry up and give birth so I could post this.

I used Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, Nails Inc Grosvenor Street, MUA All Nude and on my little finger I used my pink Barry M nail art pen.

I did intend to give the duck a crown, but evidently I forgot!  Any guesses what they're going to name the baby?

Sticker Nail Art

Happy Sunday!  I hope you've all had a nice relaxing weekend :)

I have another product from Born Pretty Store to show you today.  This time it's a sheet of gold nail art stickers.

This sheet is HUGE.  There are 12 different sections each with 25ish stickers, depending on the size.  12 multiplied by 25ish = a lot.

There's a great selection too.  There's lots of bows and some pretty frames and flowers.  There's also some cute little characters with phrases such as 'I love you', and I love the jewellery-looking stickers on the top right - how great would these be for some tips??

Here's a couple of looks I came up with.

Firstly, I saw the crowns and came over all patriotic, so I did this simple British manicure.  God Save The Queen and all that.

The polishes I used here were Barry M Gold Foil and Matt White, OPI Flick Chick Cherry, China Glaze Manhunt and Barry M Gold Glitter.  Then I used Sharpies to draw the Union Flag, and topped it off with a crown sticker.

There's not a lot to say about the use of the stickers - they're as easy to use as you'd imagine!  Just peel them off and stick them on :)  I didn't have any issues with tearing, and they smoothed out lovely with one coat of Seche Vite.

Next up, I thought these baroque-style stickers would make great half moons!

Most of the designs come in three or four different sizes, which means they fit all the nails nicely :)  Here I used China Glaze Call of the Wild, with Barry M Gold Foil and Gold Glitter for the accent nails.

You can see these stickers here.  They're $4.51 (£2.98) with free shipping worldwide.  As always, if you decide to treat yourself to anything, you can use the code LKL91 for 10% off (which means you can buy 10% more :p ).

Union Jack French Tips Tutorial

This is a tutorial to create union flag tips!  I did this a little while back for the 31 Day Challenge, which you can see here.  Back then, I used black, white and silver, but today I'm using the proper colours :)  Play around with it and find a colour combination you love.

To create this look, you'll need:

• Blue polish (China Glaze Man Hunt)
• White polish (Barry M Matt White)
• Red polish (OPI Chick Flick Cherry)
• Your thinnest nail art brush
• French tip guides (if you don't have any, you could use some tape for a straight tip instead)

Here's the step-by-step picture tutorial:

1.  Prepare your nail as normal.  When your basecoat is dry, stick on your french tip guide.  You can cheat a bit here and bring it down your nail bed a little, so you have more 'tip' to paint.

2.  Paint your tip blue.  Try painting across the nail to make sure you get right up to the edge of your sticker.

3.  Take your white polish and your brush, and paint along the edge of the sticker.

4.  Thicken up this line until it's straight, and add a line going up the middle of your tip.

5.  Add in two diagonal lines going from the centre of your cross out to the corners of your nail.  These should be skinnier than your first two lines, but they do need to be wide enough for you to paint a red line on!

6.  Using your red polish and your brush, follow steps 3 and 4 again.  Make sure you leave a white margin around your red lines.

7.  Add red lines on to the diagonal lines.  These shouldn't go all the way to the middle!  Although I'm sure they'd still look great :)

8. Peel off your sticker  If you need to, you can use a little acetone on a small brush to tidy up your line.  Apply a coat of your favourite top coat, and you're done!

31 Day Challenge - Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

Good morning everyone :)  It's Friday - yay!  I have very big plans for today involving changing out of my pyjamas at some point, and going into work to claim my expenses.  Exciting times...

Anyhoo, today is day 28 of the 31 day challenge (only 3 to go!  Hopefully I won't fall behind AGAIN in that time!).  Today's challenge prompt is 'inspired by a flag'.

I contemplated doing something inspired by the Seychelles flag, for no reason other than I think the design would make a pretty good manicure, but I couldn't be bothered with attempting to use tape...  Instead, I decided to stick with British.  My mum gave me some french tip guide stickers when I was home last weekend, so I thought I'd give these a go and paint some union flag tips.

I painted on tips of Barry M Matt White, than added the detail with Barry M Black and Star Gazer 232 (honestly, why don't companies just give their polishes names...?).

I think I was a little heavy handed with the silver, but I'm really pleased with how my thumb and ring finger turned out.  Less so with the index finger...  I did move the tips a little further down my nail bed than my actual tips are, and I think I could've got away with going a bit further still, which would've given me a little more room to play with.  And hidden my weirdly long nail beds.  I really like it though, and I think it'd also look pretty good over a red or blue nail bed (which I'd have to do if I was doing this again, seeing as the manicure I posted yesterday stained my nails...oops).

What do you think?  Would you try something like this?

Have a look what flags have inspired all the other lovely ladies participating in the challenge:

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner

Kat at Hooked On Polish

Diana at Nails By Diana

Meredith at Perfectly Polished

Kate at The Painted Pony Nails

Cee at Absolutely Cee

Nail Narcotics

Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed

Shelby at Shelby's Swatches

Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 

Mixed Mama

Joanna at Sweet Polish of Mine

Patty Greenberg

Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 

Mari at Nailista 

Greta at How Was Your Day?

Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 

Gini at Sassy Paints 

Chameleon Stampede 

Pam at Nail-E-Glance 

Me, Myself and Polish