Tara's Talons: Neptune Swatch & Spectacles Ring

Hello lovelies!

I'm in a super good mood today for some reason... I think it's because I felt spring in the air for the first time this year this morning and the sunshine has been out all day! To compliment my happy mood and because I was so eager to get home from work and try it, I have yesterday's lovely nail mail from The Tara Emporium to show you :) I was lucky enough to snag the last bottle of limited edition Neptune at the same time I picked up the coolest gold plated spectacles ring, which I had spyed on Tara's Instagram account!!!

I've got studying and some blog design coding to battle with this evening so it's just a quick swatch. Though, with a name like Neptune, it won't be long before it appears in a Saturday Swatch post; so many awesome accent nail art choices with that name! I can't believe I didn't spot this beauty before being such a greyphile?! It's a semi-matte, opaque, silvery-grey base with mixed sized glitters in greens, blue, bronze and gold. Beauuuuutiful!

This was two coats with topoat. I just love that shimmery, metallic grey base and the glitters suit it perfectly! It is jam packed with glitters so can be a little bumpy on application but a topcoat evened it all out nicely. You could even get away with using a thin coat of this over another grey base for a more subtle look... I may just try that! 

How cute is this ring?! I love it! Me and my other half have a sort of 'in joke' about his hate of people wearing this style of black framed specs with no lenses hahaha, so it tickled him too!

MissLanage x

The Monday Meme

Wow, last week in February already, time is going waaaay too fast this year!

This is an endless problem for any NPA (nail polish addict)! It's not just red, but I do find this problem particularly with reds, pinks and purples. Blues, greens and sparkles I never struggle with; but with the aforementioned it's hard to find 'the one' lol... I'm not alone in this problem right? Do you find it's only certain colours you struggle with?

It tends to be an issue that arises when you have a particular manicure in mind, that needs doing yesterday hahaha!

MissLanage x

Saturday Swatching: Happy Hands!

Apologies for the late post today... I had a late one last night, like, 4.30am late! Too old for these things nowadays lol!

So today's swatch is my first ever polish from Happy Hands! This is Lady Goodman, a sheer pink base with a mixture of pink, purple and gold hexes, purple glitter, and some teeny tiny pink glitter :) It's like a much more beautiful version of Revlon's Girly. Being an lady myself LOL, I'm having tea, and so is Lady Goodman!

I did three coats of the Lady Goodman; it went on like a dream, not clumpy or lumpy at all. On the accent nail I did two coats of the lilac before stamping the cute lil teapots and cups in gold. Finished up with a nice generous layer of topcoat.

I LOVE this indie polish, its just gorgeous and the formula is perfect! So girly and dainty and I think the accompanying tea themed stamping is pretty cute too. Now I have this one, my Happy Hands wishlist is ever growing! As if I didn't have enough polish infatuations already?! hahaha.

Happy Hands - Lady Goodman, Colorshow - Iced Queen, Barry M - Gold Foil, Color Club - Topcoat, MoYou London - Tourist 03

MissLanage x

*NEWSFLASH* Vitality Magazine

Oooh exciting stuff to share with you today ladies!! And it's Friday! *squeal*

A few weeks ago, you may have seen on my facebook/twitter/instagram that I was "busy recreating some of my nail art for something quite exciting indeed"... Well, that something was a lil spot in BABTAC's Vitality Magazine - For those who aren't familiar, it's an industry magazine that goes out to all the BABTAC registered beauty workers! They reached out for people's designs in a Facebook post, I didn't see it, but luckily the lovely girls at my Nail School - Isis Beauty Academy - emailed me to say I should get in touch... I did and a few weeks later, they asked for two of my designs (top left)!

I had to recreate them as I had accidentally deleted over 1000 original images in a slip of the finger literally the day before they contacted me - OOPS! I thought I had backed them up... but no! A lesson to us all to save, save and save that stuff again! All the same, I had fun doing these mani's again, especially the African scene which they liked very much :) 

You can see my original Gold Chevron mani HERE and my African Safari mani HERE.

I know it's only a small spot, but I am super excited about it! All those professionals in the industry that will get to see my work - Awesome feeling... As was reading their lovely comments (I especially love the title - 'Cutting Edge' lol) and in fact, being asked in the first place.

MissLanage x

GOT Polish Challenge: Chevron

Nearly the end of the week beauts! Phew, it's been a bit of a slog!

Today - Chevrons! It's a look I love, and by far my favourite colour combination is white and gold... But I did that not long ago, so, time for something I haven't tried. I picked another selection of Barry M's for this one... All been in my collection the longest time, it was the brand I started off with (yes Bazza, I blame you for my snowballing nail polish addiction lol!) and one of them I hadn't even tried!!!

I started with a base of bright purple, just one coat and then followed up with two coats of the yet untried glitter! I then stamped the chevrons in silver and topcoated. This mani literally took me 15 mins lol, I spent more time faffing around taking pictures!

Was actually pleased to only have my lil nubby nails for this; my Cheeky plates are just no good when I have any length... I must invest in a plate with a larger chevron image! Any you can recommend? Please let me know! Loving this glitter, how have I managed to never use this before?! Still in two minds as to whether I should have stamped the chevrons in gold though?!

Barry M - Bright Purple, Magenta Glitter, Silver Foil, Color Club - Topcoat, Cheeky Jumbo 10

MissLanage x

An InLinkz Link-up

Guest Post at Fingerfood Nails

Morning peeps!

I'm lucky enough to have guest posted for the lovely Sam over at Fingerfood Nails - Yay! - I was inspired by water...

Check out the full post HERE! 

MissLanage x

TPC - Brown, Pink & Grey

Tri Polish Challenge time again folks!

This week I chose three Barry M's including the pink and brown from the new silk collection. They were just screaming out to be used in a dotticure!... For some reason this mani made me think of Easter?!

I started with two coats of grey for the base. I then used the large end of the dotting tool to add the pink spots and the medium end for the brown ones. Finished with that all important topcoat ;) lol!

Surprised myself because I really love this colour combination again, despite not liking the sound of the three together... And the contrast between the shiny base and the pearly spots is purrrty! Can't wait to try some more art with these silks, I did have a go at water marbling with them the other day but... it was a fail! They just didn't like the water :(

Barry M - Grey, Blossom, Truffle, Color Club - Topcoat, Large/Medium Dotting Tool

MissLanage x

An InLinkz Link-up

The Monday Meme

It's that time again lovelies...

Hahaha, no ladies, topcoat is not optional! Especially if I have done your nails all pretty lol, I want them to stay that way for more than 5 minutes! Besides protection, it gives a gorgeous shine and in particular, brings nail art to life... It'll also hide a thousand mani sins right?! ;) So why wouldn't you use topcoat?! My favourite (which I have said a million or so times I'm sure) is the one from Color Club - FABTASTIC! What's your favourite???

MissLanage x

Saturday Swatching: Nail Lacquer UK

Today's regular Saturday Swatching features a pretty cool polish. It's a collaboration UK indie between Nail Lacquer UK and Naileymabob; I was lucky enough to win this polish in Naileymabob's 'New Look Blog Giveaway' recently. I have a bottle and Naileymabob has a bottle... and that's it! It is self titled - Naileymabob... I wasn't sure on accent nail art for such a word (sorry chick lol), so I stuck with a nice, plain gold accent to compliment the hexes.

Naileymabob is a sheer blue base and is fit to burst with blue glitter and hexes, gold hexes and large red discs. I plumped for layering just one coat of the Naileymabob over one coat of a slightly brighter blue. I did one coat of the gold on the accent nail and topcoated. Simples! In hindsight I wished I layered over blue moon but nevertheless, I liked it :)

Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream, Nail Lacquer UK - Naileymabob, Barry M - Gold Foil, Color Club - Topcoat

MissLanage x

The Barry M Silk Collection

Afternoon all!

Hope everyone is alright after those terrific storms last night! Not only am I surrounded by floods and then have a bomb scare near my workplace, now there are trees down all over the roads and railways! I'm staying safely indoors thank you please :) so spent my morning swatching the gorgeous new Barry M Silk Collection!... I was only going to buy four of them, but when I got to Superdrug on Wednesday, they had buy one get one half price... so I couldn't pass up the whole set given the two I wasn't so bothered about, would then work out free, right?! LOL. 

As usual with me, I will swatch all the colours and then review at the end... the third picture of each is with a topcoat; I was intrigued to see how that would look...

This is the white - 'Pearl' - Aptly named!

With topcoat it came alive even more!

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Next, the beige/nude - 'Truffle' - or Champagne for me!

I don't think a topcoat brought anything extra to the party with this colour...

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Third in line, the green - 'Meadow' - Hmmm... not too keen...

Again, topcoat didn't do much for it, and the colour still isn't growing on me!

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This is the pink - 'Blossom' - I love it!!!

Simply stunning colour and finish, with and without topcoat!

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Now the blue - 'Mist' - Another stunner!

Though I love the silk finish, I think like the Pearl, a topcoat brought this one alive!

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And saving the best 'til last, lilac - 'Heather' - My favourite!

This one, like the pink, looked great both with and without a topcoat.

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So what do you think? I'm loving this collection! Perfect, delicate shades for spring and going into summer. I remember when the first pictures came out, a few of us bloggers/polish addicts, were relieved to see 'matte finish' in the description. I expected with a sheen they would be just TOO metallic. But after trying a topcoat on these I'm surprised, some look amaze!

The formula is great, three thin coats best achieved a perfect, opaque finish; but they dry really fast so that was no issue at all. The silk effect was definitely well achieved in this collection and just gorgeous with that pearlised sheen within it. Could be named satin as well as silk?! I think they will stamp real good so will be bringing you some silk stamping in the week :) They may well end up being my favourite collection of the year!

MissLanage x

GOT Polish Challenge: Valentines

Woohoo! Nearly the end of the week and it's Valentines Day tomorrow! 

Love is in the air...

For this GOT challenge mani I knew I wanted to use my new MoYou whole image Artist plate which has little old style cherubs, cupid, hearts and flowers all over it; I just had to decide what colours... It's a shame I've only got my nubby nails at the moment, but I still managed to get a good bit of art on them :) I did consider giving myself some tips and a gel overlay (I am a training technicican after all) but I like my natural nails, no matter their size!

All the polishes I chose are well over a year into their lives and it's a Bazza special haha! I decided to go with a nude base to start with, once I'd done a couple of coats I decided I wanted it to have a slightly more pink tone to it... so I added a thin coat of pale pink and then one more coat of the nude. Perfect! I then wanted to add a little atmosphere to it so sponged on a little gold here and there. Next I used a light brown colour to stamp on the roses and cherubs; then finished with topcoat.

I just adore this stamping plate! These vintage images are gorgeous, I especially love the kissing couple on my ring finger, so cute! I'm really pleased with the way the base came out too, sooo many layers when I think about it, but it was perfect and just what I envisioned! Very delicate and romantic! What do you guys think?!

Barry M - Nude, Strawberry Ice Cream, Gold Foil, Cappucino, Color Club - Topcoat, MoYou London - Artist 10, Makeup Sponge

MissLanage x

An InLinkz Link-up

Magic Goose Swatch & Review

Hey my lovelies!

 This was due to be posted yesterday but I had edited the post and then must have pressed save instead of publish... doh! But, better late than never, I bring you 'I wished for a castle' from Magic Goose. I had been coveting this lovely polish online when I was contacted to do a review, perfect timing and I feel privileged indeed! This is a stunning opaque grey with a sprinkle of holo and some pink and blue hexes. I love it!!! Grey is my favourite anyway, but this is beauuutiful!

I used two coats of the I wished for a castle and didn't go mad with the topcoat like I usually would; instead I did just a thin coat because I really liked the delicate texture on this, so pretty :) if you would rather a smooth finish I would follow 'My Mint Nails' formula of doing one thin coat over a regular grey polish... I took these pics in white daylight and unfortunately it washed out the holo finish just a little :(

Check out the latest news from Magic Goose on Facebook HERE! I think I'll be ordering myself a full size bottle of this in the near future!!!

MissLanage x

*this product was sent to me for honest review*

The Monday Meme

Monday is here again and the cat is back to bring a smile to your face... and mine!

LOL, they certainly couldn't be my friend because everyone in my life knows what a devoted polish addict I am, even my work colleagues! They all know how much I love nails and blogging about them, and how motivated I am to get qualified and forge a career in the nail industry. So I'm not sure such a blasphemous thing has ever been said to me... My other half might have started the sentence once upon a time, but quickly realised by my aghast reaction, not to finish it hahaha!

Are your loved ones supportive of your polish worshipping?

MissLanage x

Saturday Swatching: Darling Diva

It's the weekend at last ladies and time for Saturday Swatching, a weekly dip into my indie collection.
I've had a sickness bug this week so feeling pretty bleurgh... and my nails are nubbs after a much needed trim and file :( This mani cheered me up a little though!... As did finding out I won the very special 'Nailymabob' polish, made especially by Nail Lacquer UK for Naileymabob's New Look Giveaway *squeal*

Today I am featuring the lovely 'Soft Kitty' from Darling Diva Polish! It's a sheer lilac shimmer base with pink and lilac hexes, and a sprinkling of holo glitter thrown in! I luuurrrve puddy cats and sparkles, so this had been on my wishlist for some time. Of course my accent nail features a kitty, a white one in a lil homage to my childhood pets - two white cats - Tiggywinkle and Dorigo :)

I started with two coats of the pale pink, then two coats of the soft kitty on all but the ring finger. I then used a couple of coats of white striper to paint in the cat head and ears, outlining and then filling in. I added the nose and ears with a dotting tool in the same base pink and then used the black striper to add whiskers. Finally I dotted two black, then white, then black again eyes (haha) before sealing with topcoat. This indie is uber pretty and the pale pink is a beauty, love the combo!

Maybelline Colorshow - Nebline, Darling Diva - Soft Kitty, LA Colors - Black & White Stripers, Color Club - Topcoat, Medium Dotting Tool

MissLanage x

GOT Polish Challenge: Green

Hmm... I don't like green, not on my nails and not really in fashion... unless it's a pastel/jade sort of colour, but even then I'm not over-keen. So I sat and thought about things I like that are green. The recurring theme was lawns and plants, explaining the pretty garden scene finding it's way on to my nails today. The lime colour isn't quite a year old, but the others are and a couple are over three!

I started with two coats of the darker, but still bright, green polish. Once dry, I sponged on the lime polish and I was dead pleased with the effect that resulted; it really looks like a lawn! I then simply took a small dotting tool, dipped it in bright pink and light pink polish, and created the simple flowers with five and four petals respectively. I then finished with the yellow centres and a topcoat.

I was sooo pleased with how this turned out, my other half was a fan too. I'm not an accomplished sponger by any means, especially with these colours, so had no idea how it would turn out. It's gotta be a recent favourite for sure! They'd be perf' for a festival this summer don't you think?!

Barry M - Spring Green, Key Lime, Shocking Pink, Strawberry Icecream, Yellow, Color Club - Topcoat, Small Dotting Tool, Makeup Sponge

MissLanage x