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Monday, 28 December 2015

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: New Year

Goooood evening my loves I do hope you've had a happy holidays!

I have emerged from Christmas hibernation and am now very much looking forward to New Year, I'm a fan of new starts in general and I think a new year is the best regular one we get. As I've been mentioning over the last few weeks I've been putting the final pieces into place for exciting plans and the 1st of January will be the official 'launch' date so that together with finally getting my mitts on all my 2016 planner goodies has me positively bouncing with excitement so I wanted a sparkly, celebratory, firework-esque kinda mani...

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I started off with two coats of the super stunning Barry M Black Grape from their A/W Midnight Gelly collection. Then I took both Color Storm & Blogger from my Picture Polish stash to layer this pretty glitter/confetti ombre before finishing with some Plumpy Topcoat.

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This is exactly what I had in my minds eye, a bit of grown up glam that's got me in the mood for some Champers! That Bazza base is just to.die.for and I must get more use out of it before the winter is out.

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So that's a wrap for this weeks challenge, don't forget to check out what the other ladies have on their nails for New Year below! In the meantime I shall at last fill you in on my exciting news...


My new planner blog and online accessory shop launching January 1st!!! You may have picked up that I am a planner & stationery addict, always have been and always will be, I'm also a dab hand with arts and crafts and have finally put those talents/passions together in one thing so watch that space as it fully develops over the next few days, wish me luck!

Rebecca x

Thursday, 24 December 2015

Review: LadyQueen Christmas Nail Wraps

Good evening loves!

I was recently contacted by some lovely people over at LadyQueen to do a review of some of their products and as I was already looking at some of the nail art transfers available on their website I thought why not?! One of the items I chose for review was the super festive Merry Christmas Snow Nail Wraps because I'm all about being able to do quick mani's during fantastically busy times such as Crimbo...

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Unfortunately this mani didn't turn out to be quite as quick as I'd hoped because on peeling up the first sticker I realised they were red and transparent stickers on a white backing card. I wanted the white background so first had to paint my nails with a coat of Barry M Cotton

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Due to having the white undies the nail wraps just wouldn't stick down well enough to the surface of my nails and their fairly deep c-curve, they became puckered around the edges and pulled up the paint from my nail. The curve at the cuticle was also too round for my wider area which left a little white space in places.

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Overall I think the quality was good as far as thickness, printing and stick but the downfall was my painting an undercoat of white and the awkward fit on my shaped nails. If you would like to try your hand at some super-easy nail art then pop on over to the LadyQueen website and use code QWMS15 for 15% off any purchase.

I hope you're all enjoying the festivities tonight, have a very Merry Christmas!

Rebecca x

*the featured item was sent to me FOC for my honest review*

Monday, 21 December 2015

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Christmas

Hello my lil beauts!

I've gone a bit off schedule with this '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' mani because A. I wanted it to be a bit closer to actual Christmas and B. I felt utterly poo all week last week lol! I tried to muster some energy for a fantastically festive piece of nail art over the weekend but in the end I went as simple as it gets because I just couldn't muster enough and I don't need much excuse to pull out a negative space mani...

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Started with stamping MoYou London Festive Plate 03 in Barry M Pomegranate and finished with a lick of Plumpy Topcoat. I did say it was simple!

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Who doesn't love a candy cane?! I remember cheap boxes of 12 candy canes (usually from Superdrug) being a staple Christmas gift for school friends throughout my childhood and early teens hahaha, simple times!

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I'll have a couple more posts for you this week but in the meantime enjoy all the festivities in these exciting days leading up to CHRISTMAAAAAS! :)

Rebecca x

Thursday, 17 December 2015

Throwback Thursday: Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Hi-di-hi peeps!

This Throwback Thursday we are visiting good ol' 2012 again with this super cute and super festive Rudolph the red nosed reindeer mani. I'm totally starting to feel the festive spirit in the air now although today it might be the saharan smog and blood rain that's on the way LOL... I do love taking time to look back and see how much things have changed especially at this time of year as we draw closer to a whole new shiny twelve months!

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You can see my original post from way back when HERE. While you do that I'm off to finish wrapping up the last of the Christmas pressies to arrive and get them in boxes ready to post out to family far and wide tomorrow!

Warm winter love to you all,

Rebecca x

Friday, 11 December 2015

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Winter

Hip hip hooray, it's Friday!

The theme for this weeks challenge is 'winter' and how fitting it is because it surely feels like winter out there right now. I had to brave the yukky winds and rain this afternoon to go and pick up a prescription and I can't tell you how relieved I was to push that front door closed on the world again; I've even had to turn the heating up a notch or two tonight brrrr...

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For the base I used two coats of Maybelline Colorshow Marinho which is a lush deep, delicately shimmery blue. I then stamped the snowflakes on using Barry M Silver Foil and MoYou London plate Festive 03. Finished it up with a coat of Models Own Jack Frost and Sally Hansen Silver Slingblade.

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The glitters in Jack Frost and Silver Slingblade are so different that I think they really help to give that 'snowfall' feel to this mani. Super wintery no?!

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Have a lovely weekend everyone, I shall be wrapping some Christmas gifts ready to send out in the post next week, not long now!! Don't forget to check out what winter looks like to my fellow nail tarts below...

Rebecca x

Thursday, 10 December 2015

Throwback Thursday: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Good morning!

I'm going a long ol' way back to December 2012 when I was a mere baby blogger this Throwback Thursday. I thought it would be fun to share some of these much older mani's so you can see just how much my nail art, photographs and posts have changed; it's so easy to forget where we started with something and it's nice to be reminded of how far you've come. That's exactly the reason I started blogging and I'm chuffed to still be here three years later...

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You can see the original Christmassy post from 2012 HERE, I've just noticed that it was done for Sat-ART-day!! Who remembers that?!!?! I love this cute design and I might just have to recreate it one of these days...

I'll return tomorrow with the next installment of the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge, it's nearly Fridaaaaayyyy! :)

Rebecca x

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Humpday Hare: King Of Carat Flowers

Hello, hello loves!

It's humpday and definitely time for a Hare Polish. I wanted to go for one of my older ones this time and King Of Carat Flowers was the one that caught my eye, it's a beautiful soft dusky grey gelly packed with a mixture of gold and lilac glitter pieces with iridescent blue glitter and delicate gold flecks. It sings to the grey-phile in me and feels super wintery I love it...

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This is two coats of the stunning Hare finished with Barry M Plumpy Topcoat and some pretty floral 'Good Girl' stickers from Essence which have tiny little diamantes in the centres; I think they make a nice little accent to this delicate indie polish.

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This mani almost feels like a mini winter celebration which is most fitting for me at the moment because although my health is still up and down, I've been busy working away on those exciting 2016 plans I mentioned a week or so ago and I'm doing a little happy dance inside... Not long now! 

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I'll see you beauts tomorrow with a Christmassy TBT mani and I'll be sure to fill you in on those plans as they unfold over the coming weeks!! :)

Rebecca x

Saturday, 5 December 2015

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Glitter Topper or Flakie

Happy weekend lovely people!

It's been miserable windy & rainy weather here the last couple of days and looking at the raindrops on my window panes was very much the inspiration for today's '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' mani. I needed to use a glitter or flakie topper and some decals, I chose to use another kind of those Born Pretty Store bubbles decals as seen in this post HERE because they are just awesome! I really should have thought it out better and made the glitter much more of a feature but hey, I'm just glad I'm still hanging in there with it at the moment lol...

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I kicked this off with two coats of Barry M Sky Blue. I then applied the Born Pretty Store water decals in this lovely green/blue colour and finished with two coats of my favourite glitter topper, an absolute golden oldie Sally Hansen Silver Slingblade. Super quick and simple and totally reminding me of rainy days!

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I'm trying out different camera and light settings at the moment so please bare with the range of photos you may see over the next few posts #firstworldproblems. I think I managed to catch this one well enough to share with you guys and I hope you enjoy it.

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Well it's time for me to bunk down on the sofa with a cup of tea, catch up TV and my planner. Hope you all have a cosy weekend and stay safe out in those high winds if you are venturing out!

See what my fellow tarts have been up to with glitter below...

Rebecca x

Thursday, 3 December 2015

Throwback Thursday: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Evening all!

Been quiet again this past week I know loves, it's been a pretty rough few days but I'm hoping that I am just about rounding that darned corner and starting to feel a bit better so things should start picking up the pace again soon! Meanwhile I have been plotting and planning big things for 2016 which I will be letting you all into as this year ends and on that note... Have you noticed it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here?! Time to join in the festivities...

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I'm not quite sure where the time has gone but this mani is from around this time last year and I'm pretty sure it marked the putting up of the tree in my house, you can read more about how I did it HERE. I'm not quite feeling the decorations yet this year so think I'll go with the 12 days before rule and for the first time ever I haven't treated myself to an advent calendar, I guess that's what being 30 does to you! LOL.

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I do love this mani, I'm a massive fan of a dotticure and somehow making a tree shape out of one brings me pure joy hahaha, I think I might have to try a new recreation of some sort over this festive season.... Hmmm....

Rebecca x