Hearticure

That's supposed to be like dotticure, but with hearts...but yeah, just sounds like something to sort out a heart condition. Oh well!

I was sent this fab little stamping plate from Born Pretty Store.  I chose it because I thought the little apple pattern was just adorable, and I prefer full nail stamps to little ones, but since Valentine's Day is fast approaching, I thought I'd share a heart manicure with you!

Some lovely designs on here that I can't wait to use :)  Hopefully I'll be able to get a few of them in to the Flip Flop Challenge, otherwise it'll be a little while before I can try out the other images!

The plate doesn't have a cardboard backing like the Konad ones do, but I didn't find the edges to be sharp (and I tried jabbing myself with them, just to ensure I'd checked it thoroughly for you!)

Sorry, the background on this picture is atrocious!

I used a base of Barry M Bright Pink and stamped using a Konad white stamping polish.  I topped this off with a matte top coat, and then picked out a few hearts to cover in Barry M Red Glitter.

The middle finger didn't transfer too well, but I assume this is down to the face that I drenched the plate in acetone to clean it, and didn't dry it off before putting more polish on...  I'm still learning!  All the others transferred fine :)  And you can see in the image below just how clean the lines were.

I honestly can't tell any difference between the quality of the stamped image from this plate compared to any of my Konad plates.

I can certainly notice a difference in price though!  This plate is only $1.99 (about £1 :o )!  Check it out here :)  Don't forget, there's free worldwide shipping, even if you only order one plate!

And if you do decide to place an order, for this or anything else, you can use the code LKL91 to get 10% off!  There's a huge selection of great nail art products at seriously good prices, so it's really worth a look.

New Technique: Sugar Spun Manicure

Ok, so this wasn't a total disaster!  Yay :)  I really did think it was going to be...especially when 10 minutes in my polish just wasn't doing the strandy thing.

But anyway, here's the finished manicure!  Quite a cute manicure for Valentine's Day maybe?

I used Barry M Matt White, did my strandy business with OPI Flick Chick Cherry, and then added the heart with Barry M Bright Pink.

I did my ring finger first (I figured if it was horribly difficult I could just leave it at a ring finger accent), and you can see I hadn't quite waited long enough.  When I started it was just about making strands long enough to cover half the width of my nail, if I was super quick.  When I moved on to the next nail I was getting really long, fine strands.  Like thinner than hair.  This is what you want!  I just whizzed it back and fore across my nails :)  It honestly took about 20 minutes to get to that consistency though.  I don't know if that would've been affected by the fact that it's an old polish and full of all those nasty chemicals they don't use any more.

My thumb does not feature in this photo because...er...it didn't quite work out.  This is what happens if you leave the polish too long.

It looks like I had a horrible accident whilst chopping the vegetables for tea.

Anyhoo, you can now head over to my Facebook page to vote for which new technique you'd like me to have a go at next week!

If you have any suggestions for techniques, please leave me a comment and I'll add it to my list :)

Have you had a go at the sugar spun technique?  Or are you like me and shy away from trying new (and messy) things?