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...

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.

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.

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...

www.lanesloves.com

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

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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...

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. 

 

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.

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*

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...

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!

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!

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

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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!

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

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...

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.

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?!

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

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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...

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

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...

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.

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! 

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

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...

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!

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.

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

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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...

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.

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

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Cartoons & Comics

Hello lovely peoples!

As promised on Thursday, I have pulled some classic cartoon/comic nail art out today for the '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' challenge. This ol' goody has been on my to-do list for the best part of two years hahaha, I don't think I'll ever have enough days in my life to do every design I would like to try on my nails.

I chose to go with all Barry M for this one starting with two coats of Get Set Go from the Speedy collection for the base. Once that was well dried I used the Bazza Black & White Nail Art Pens to draw the frame and highlights and finished with coat of 3in1.

This look is so fun I'm loving it. I've sort of put it off for so long because I've dreaded doing the frames, if you get messy with the black clean up can be a mare to say the least. But doing it with the nail art pen worked a treat and any excess on the skin simply peeled away once dry. Better result than I expected, you beaut Barry!

That's all for tonight folks, have a great weekend and don't forget to check out what my fellow tarts did with the cartoon/comic prompt below...

Rebecca x

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Throwback Thursday: Christmas Lights

Good evening beauts!

Things have been a little slow here on the blog this week as they have at home. I've been feeling totally out of control of my own body with these SVT episodes and have spent as much time as possible (which is a lot folks) sleeping. Today was the first time I ventured out of the house in a few days because I literally HAD to start my Christmas shopping before it's too late to get things posted. I only managed a measly two hours before I was knackered but I thoroughly enjoyed the cold afternoon, early dark, twinkly lights and even a tiny glass of Bucks Fizz in Boots!

I think these nails featuring the lovely Ciate Mineral Clarity from last years advent calendar are a perfect throwback for today, simply perfect! You can see more details in the original post HERE.

I'll be sharing my '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' mani on Saturday because I just haven't been up to painting them so far, between tomorrow evening and Saturday morning I hope I'll be able to pull something together!

Goodnight loves.

Rebecca x

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Grey & Colour

Hello, helloooooo!

Unfortunately I didn't get to return to work yesterday, instead I spent 10 hours in A&E. Looks like my heart op wasn't so successful after all and my body is just super tired out! Luckily I already had this mani done and post scheduled... This weeks prompt in the '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' challenge is 'Grey & Colour' which is like music to my ears being the total grey-phile I am and my personal pattern is 'Circles'. I knew exactly what I was going to do with this because I had literally just received some nail mail which included coloured bubbles water transfers!

I used two coats of Maybelline Colorshow Cool Touch for the base and then used these cute coloured bubble water transfers from Born Pretty Store to add my required colour and circles! Finished with a lick of Barry M 3in1 Topcoat. 

I love this Colorshow shade it's one of my favourite greys in my collection. I'm pleased with these transfers too, I got several different colour sets so I'm looking forward to thinking up some other designs to incorporate them into.

If you want to make a purchase from Born Pretty Store you can use my code: R2X31 for 10% off and remember to take a look at the other ladies grey & colour work below while I go take a much needed nap.

Rebecca x

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Your Job

Hello, hello and happy Friday peeps!

This week's '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' theme is a good one because it's a little challenging and also allows everyone to get to know each other a little better which is awesome! My job is in Reception & Facilities for an NHS Clinical Commissioning Group so A LOT of my time is spent on the telephone organising things, ordering things and helping people out. It's a very busy, random role with lots of good colleagues and I love it, I can't wait to return later next week after my post-op recovery is complete!

For this mani I finally cracked open one of the numerous Wynie polishes I picked up for a bargain €1 while on holiday in Spain this summer. No.806 is a gorgeous shade and pretty close to that 'NHS blue' we all know. I used three thin coats for the base and was very happy with the formula. For the telephone/bubble art I used a small nail art brush & dotting tool with Barry M Black & White polishes. I added the white highlights with a nail art pen and the black outlines and words with a Sharpie before finishing with topcoat.

I'm pretty pleased with how this slightly off-the-cuff mani went, it was a bit last minute because I felt kinda rough yesterday. I was really pleased with the Wynie polish so I am just dying to try the others now, look out for them in posts coming soon!

I hope you enjoyed finding out about the 'everyday' side of me I can't wait to read about the other ladies' job roles and you can check out all about them down below...

Rebecca x

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Humpday Hare: When The Melting Clock Strikes Midnight

Good evening beauts!

I was super excited to receive a new Hare Polish for my collection today from an amazing lady's polish destash. When The Melting Clock Strikes Midnight is a gorgeous white jelly with ultra chrome flakies that twinkle with purple, teal, blue, green, pink and gold. I am in polish love...

This is two thin coats of WTMCSM over Barry M Coconut undies. Once dry I used some half moon vinyls from She Sells Sea Shells, painting in the gaps with Gold Foil Effect to create this 'ruffian' nail art and finished with topcoat.

The lighting just wasn't quite right tonight and I couldn't capture the true beauty of all the colours shimmering from the white... This makes me a little sad lol. I'm going to have to make some new adjustments for these dark winter nights. To help you visualise imagine the most delicate magical dragon's egg hehehe.

See you with the next installment of the '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' challenge tomorrow.

Rebecca x

Throwback Thursday: Armistice Day

Hi loves!

Don't worry I didn't lose a day somewhere I do know it's Wednesday but I've done a bit of a swapsie this week and I think it's deserved. My Humpday Hare is moving to tomorrow to make way for a special #TBT today. I did this mani for Remembrance Sunday last year and I wanted to bring it back this year to mark today, Armistice Day (or Veterans Day for those of you in the USA).

I really loved this mani and it's because I love the sentiment of today too. It's important that no matter your views on the government, military or wars you honour all those that have fallen for you, for if they had not volunteered you may have been forced to be in their shoes.

Lest we forget...

Rebecca x

Saturday Swatch: Picture Polish Eyre

Good evening beautiful people!

I'm still laid up as my wounds heal and the bruising flourishes but I must say that the good Dr has done a great job on my heart, it's ticking along nicely for the first time in as long as I can remember and that is an AMAZING feeling! In other news, as promised yesterday here is the swatch of the very lovely Picture Polish Eyre who along with Pandora had been unbelievably neglected on the shelf for a year or so...

Eyre is a metallic blue scatter chrome holo and it's wonderous I love it, it's especially perfect for this time of year. This is two thin coats with topcoat and has the fabulous formula we all expect from a PP.

Well I'm off for a cuppa and my bed, I've got at least a few more days of resting up to go but with the majority of my body feeling anew I'll be sure to keep my blog-game up.

Have a fab weekend all!

Rebecca x

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Black & White

Good afternoon loves.

It's Friday and I'm at home recovering from the heart op' I had on Wednesday which you can read about HERE. This means no fun or fireworks for me this weekend - Boohoo! Fortunately I can still do this from my sick bed so here is this weeks installment of the '40 Great Nail Art Ideas' challenge. The theme this week is black & white and my personal pattern is 'Chevrons' which I paired with negative space for an eye catching result.

This was super simple and even quicker to do which surprised me. I placed two chevron (zig-zag) vinyls from She Sells Sea Shells on each nail and pressed down firmly at the edges. I added the black & white with Barry M White and Avon Licorice then finished with Bazza topcoat.

I wasn't sure I'd like the bit of white free edge peeping through but actually I think it really adds to the negative space look which I just love, there's something about leaving a bit of the natural nail on show that can make a bold mani like this delicate somehow.

Now it's time for me to get back to resting in bed before I get too sore and stiff. Don't forget to see what the other tarts have been up to this week below...

Rebecca x

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Humpday Hearts Manicure

Morning folks!

So today it's humpday and oh what a humpday it is, the day of my heart surgery *prrrp* I have known for a while that I have a heart murmur but I've recently been diagnosed with more troubling arrythmias too. Basically my body is 'the house that Jack built' and my ticker's wiring is dodgy so it's either a bit too slow or way too fast with only short periods of 'normal' in between, but then again I've never been normal in any sense of the word lol!

I'll be having something called a Catheter Ablation today where they will pace my heart to identify the dodgy bits before destroying them and hopefully restoring 'normal'. This is all done via catheters in the femoral veins in the groins - Pretty amazing really! We don't yet know what exactly they'll find or how easy it'll be to fix but all things being well I should be home tonight :)

As a distraction yesterday I decided to paint my nails in this stitched hearts theme which I thought was rather fitting. I started with two coats of Barry M Coconut and followed up by stamping with Cappucino using the Cheeky Vibrant 15 plate. I then coloured in the hearts with a small brush using bazza's Strawberry Ice Cream, Lemon Sorbet, Berry Ice Cream & Blue Moon before finishing with topcoat.

Well I'm off to the hospital for the day now so wish me luck! I've got a challenge mani planned for you guys on Friday then there'll be a swatch on Saturday after which, I'll be back!

Rebecca x

Monday Manicure: Shattered Glass

Hi loves!

I missed you all on Saturday because there were no pumpkins left for me to carve and share with you, and I totally forgot to schedule my Picture Polish swatch so I will have that up for you this Saturday instead. Today I thought I'd share my version of the 'shattered glass' trend that's everywhere at the moment - I'll be using foil for a super quick and easy mani that was a bit of an experiment really hahaha!

I used two coats of Maybelline Colorshow Blackout for the base, once totally dry I painted on a coat of foil transfer solution and left to dry until clear. I then pressed on this sort of holographic kaleidoscope look nail art foil all over the nail and finished with a topcoat a few minutes later to avoid wrinkling. I just picked this as the best bet for the look I wanted out of a big bargain pack I got on Ebay.

It's not exactly like what I had in my mind but I have seen this nail art show up looking so many different ways that I don't think it matters at all, and it does look like broken mirror if you ask me lol... Makes for a great winter mani whatever it is that it looks like that's for sure.

I'm back on Wednesday with a hearts mani to fill you in on my dodgy ticker and the surgery I'll be undergoing that day to fix it - fingers crossed!

Rebecca x

40 Great Nail Art Ideas: Halloween

Boo!

It's Halloween in just a few hours time and how awesome that it falls over the weekend :) I'll be getting my pumpkin carving on after this ready to (hopefully) share with you in a post for the festivities tomorrow! I had a few ideas in my mind for what I wanted to do for my spooky mani but the whole creepy house scene thing was something that had been on my list since my first year blogging and I decided that this was the year I was going to grow the kahonas to give it a bash. I'm so pleased I did!

To begin with I sponged an ombre using Barry M Hot Pink, Bright Purple & Indigo and added a little semicircle of Silver Foil for the moon. I then used a mix of MoYou London Festive 15 & Gothic 04 images to build up the black scene in Avon Licorice. Finally I used a small nail art brush and Models Own Flip Flop to add some neon green highlights in the windows and topcoated.

I am so in love with this because I totally surprised myself when it turned out as good as my hopes were high! I easily put myself off things thinking "I can't do that" but I really must push myself more often because I can and I'm just being a woose lol. The detail of the images on these stamping plates is just awesome, look at the lil pumpkin outside the door on the index finger - LOVE!

A little nail art sponge recommendation for you ladies, get yourself a nice new washing up pad (not the scourer bit obviously) and cut it up. The sponge is really close knit so doesn't create bubbles and it doesn't stick to your polish in teeny tiny, annoying little bits like makeup sponges tend to either. You also get an awful lot of sponge to play with for next to no money!

See what else is spooky with the tarts via the links below...

Rebecca x

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