Afternoon Tea Adventures - Number Ten Manchester Street Hotel

Hey there lovely readers!

Hope you are all well & had a lovely Xmas! I thought I wouldn't get the chance to blog again before the new year but luckily I brought my laptop home with me just in case the need arose & I managed to find some time away from all the eating & family times. As its been a while I thought I'd tackle my favourite kind of tea & cake talk with another Afternoon Tea Review!

Earlier this year the lovely Meg aka RainCoatesBeauty came over to my end of the pond for a visit. I;ve been following Meg on Twitter for a while, the girl is hilarious & a lot of what she tweets is often exactly what I'm thinking, her Trump tweets in particular are absolute GOLD. I honestly think she is my Canadian twin!

Anyhoo when I heard she would be passing through London I simply could not let her go without meeting for a date & naturally the activity of choice was obviously going to be an afternoon tea of course!

I decided to book the Dieci Afternoon Tea which is situated within the lovely Edwardian style boutique Number Ten Manchester Street Hotel, a short stroll away from Baker Street, so it is very nice & accessible.

Festive NOTD - Christmas Wreath French Tips!

Hey there lovely readers!

I have seriously slacked with the Christmas nail art this year...bah humbug Aysh! But on account of being away in sunnier climates for part of the month (where, lets be honest, festive inspiration is harder to come by right?) I think I'll let myself off whilst at the same time pat myself on the back for managing to do any at all haha! But here we are with a fourth & final Festive mani for the year...Christmas Wreaths!

Festive NOTD - Snowflakes plus Step by Step Tutorial

Hey there lovely readers!

If you caught my previous post HERE you'll recall the gorgeous polish I shared with you all, in all its chameleon chrome goodness, the super pretty Zealous by For Your Nails Only. 

As I was utterly obsessed with this polish & had no desire to remove it from my nails I decided to use it as a base for my next festive mani & I think it worked out really well! 

NOTD - Zealous by For Your Nails Only

Hello there lovely readers!

Ooooh but do I have a beautiful polish to share with you today, I've actually used this in my next festive nail art design, but I wanted to share some swatches with you first of Zealous all by its onesie as I feel it deserves it on account of being just...so...darn...PURDY!

Festive NOTD - Lilac Pastel Starry Night Sky

Hello there lovely readers!

So I'm back from my holiday in the beautiful Dubai, which has completely captured my heart & then some, I already cannot wait to return next year! But for now lets get back to continuing all things FESTIVE with some suitably Christmas-y nail art shall we?

Festive NOTD - Red, Green & Gold Smoky Ombre

Hello there lovely readers!

Tis the season to be jolly & thus one is finally getting up my first nail art for the season! 

NOTD - Creme & Chrome Geometric Nails

Hello lovely readers!

Here is a quick mani I put together where I couldn't decide if I wanted me some vampy, creme or chrome nails...so I decided to go for all three! Go hard or go home right?

NOTD - Autumn/Fall Tree Dotticure

Hello there lovely readers!

Before we wave a fond farewell to Autumn this year I wanted to share with you one of my favourite Fall Nail Art designs I did but totally forgot to put up on here! Plus I'm just not yet ready to get rid of all the comforting Autumn feels just yet!

NOTD - Geode Nails plus Step by Step Tutorial

Hey there lovely readers!

When it comes to one of the biggest nail art trends to hit 2017, I think its safe to say that Geode nails were definitely a fore runner & has been one of the most popular looks of the year. 

What are Geode nails exactly? Think Amethysts, Jade, Crystals & other semi precious stones/rocks carved in half & the pretty designs magically revealed within the rock being then recreated into a fantabulous funky nail art design!

Getting Lippy - Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Ayesha

Hello there lovely readers!

So after falling completely & utterly head over heals obsessed with the Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Bow & Arrow, it was inevitable that another shade would be purchased in the near future.

I absolutely love everything about this range of liquid lipsticks, the super lightweight formula, non drying smooth matte finish with zero cracking? Winning!

NOTD - Thanskgiving Three Tone Ruffians!

Hey there lovely readers!

There's currently a technique that I am utterly addicted to right now & that is Ruffian Nails! If you are unfamiliar with this look, a Ruffian design is basically a french manicure....reversed. So the trademark smile line is down by the cuticle end of the nail instead of the tips as is the norm for your standard french manicure.

NOTD - Moustache Nails for Movember plus Tutorial

Hey there lovely readers!

You may be aware already that during the month of November, many menfolk partake in Movember, a great initiative where the month is spent abstaining from shaving & an attempt to grow some stellar facial hair goes into effect, the purpose being to raise awareness for men's health issues & specifically cancer. 

NOTD - Warm Lace

Hello there lovely readers!

Today I have another nail art design I created for this months Instagram nail art challenge I always love to partake in, these are hosted by the fab Clairestelle8 FYI & are always so much fun to do! Every month there are weekly themes for us nail art addicts to create a design for. Come find me on @aysh_xox :) Anyhoo the theme next to come up for this month was Lace.

I wanted to freehand a white lace pattern onto a warm duochrome base as I really feel white pops so stunningly on duochrome's especially!

NOTD - Falling Feathers!

Hi there lovely readers!

Hope you are all well & had a good Halloween & Bonfire Night! I had so much fun putting together this years Halloween themed nail art, I hope you enjoyed them too! But, as sad as it makes me, tis time to close the door on the spookiness (for now!) However tis not quite December yet (seriously though, WHERE has this year gone?!) so before we get stuck in with all things FESTIVE, that still gives me November to squeeze in some other manicures, including a few fall themed designs, as it is my favourite time of year after all!

Disney Nail Art Series - Halloween Special - Snow White Poison Apple

Hello there lovely readers!

So All Hallows Eve is almost upon us dark ones thus I wanted to squeeze in one last mani. For my final Halloween nail art design this year I wished to incorporate it as another installment to my Disney Nail Art Series as this was an idea that was floating around in my head since the start of October that I really wanted to attempt & thought it would be perfect for Halloween...the Poison Apple from Snow White

Halloween Nails - Jack O Lantern Pumpkins

Hello there lovely readers!

Now I hadn't planned on doing Pumpkin nails for Halloween this year, however the other day I found myself doodling away whilst on hold on the phone, as you do, & after my call was done I looked down to see I'd drawn me my very own pumpkin patch filled with grinning Jack O' Lanterns...

Halloween Nails - Day Of The Dead Sugar Skulls!

Hello there lovely readers!

Time for another Halloween mani & I believe we are on number 4 now! The next prompt that came up in the Instagram nail art challenge I'm currently partaking in was Skulls. Well this gave me the perfect opportunity to create some Day Of The Dead Sugar Skulls, perfick for Halloween & a design I've been wanting to do for ages!

NOTD - Dragon Egg Nails plus Step by Step Tutorial!

Hello there lovely readers! 

Taking a wee reprieve from Halloween Nail Art for the moment (not for long though!) as I really wanted to share this mani with you! 

You may remember the stunning Chameleon Flakies I reviewed a few posts back from Beauty Big Bang? These little pots of wonderfully magical flakes transform an ordinary polish into a stunningly ethereal multichrome flakie finish. 

Each shade has a different colour shift effect, the J2443-3A flakies, when applied over a dark polish, gave a stunning purple to green colour shift, have a peek at my post HERE to see how pretty it is. Well naturally I was eager to see how the other shade I picked J2443-4A would fare so couldn't wait to give it a try & this time, keeping in with the dragon theme I decided to use it as the perfect base to create me some Dragon Egg Nails!

Halloween Nails - Blood and Bats!

Hello there lovely readers!

Here we are at Halloween Mani number 3 already! 

Every year I like to roll out a gory blood themed mani of some kind for Halloween, usually in the form of delightful drips. When this weeks theme in my nail art challenge came up as Vampire/Bats I decided to just put the two together & rustle up this Bats & Blood manicure, killing two birds (or bats in this case) with one stone....

Halloween Nails - Spooky Cemetery Scene!

Hey there lovely readers!

Time for another Halloween mani! I've never done a Cemetery/Graveyard scene design before yet always loved seeing so many interpretations, so when this theme popped up as one of the prompts in an Instagram nail art challenge, I though it high time I give it a go!

Whilst I'm not entirely happy with my freehand Cemetery design itself, I'm still absolutely in love with this mani, especially that base!

Halloween Nails - Ghoulish Yin Yang Ghosts!

Hello there lovely readers!

We are officially now in my favourite time of year, Autumn & October with its abundance of candles & cosy nights soothes my soul greatly & of course most importantly tis October which holds the best holiday of all...Halloween!

Not sure how one will be marking the occasion this year, every time plans are made I always seem to end up changing mind last minute & having a low key celebration...lets see how it pans out this year. In the run up to the big day, you know I like to get into the spirit of things in my favorite way of course!

I have lots of ideas floating around, though how many of these will actually see the light of day remains to be seen. But lets start things of with a ghoulish vibe shall we with some spooky ghost nails with a Yin Yang twist! I saw this design on YouTube & absolutely LOVED the idea of incorporating two tone ghosts to form a Yin Yang symbol, easy to do on account of their curvy ghoulish shapes.

NOTD - Rose Gold Chrome Nails...Without Gel!

Hello there lovely readers!

Ever since the chrome nail trend took off, its been my mission to achieve shiny sci fi mirror chrome metallics but without the hassle of gels. A few months back I reviewed the delightful Chameleon Powder, or Unicorn Powder as I prefer to call it, from Born Pretty Store, which whilst giving a super pretty shimmer duochrome finish, didn't fully satisfy my chrome needs. So the hunt continued & eventually my prayers were answered by European brand IsaDora who have released a special magic dust that 1) Not only works with regular polish but 2) Gives a metallic chrome finish...HUZZAH!

Getting Lippy - Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Bow N Arrow

Hey there lovely readers!

So every girl needs her Holy Grail nude lipstick in her arsenal right? When hunting for a good lip product, its not just the shade itself that's important, though of course this factors greatly, but also the formulation. Smooth application & non drying finish is a MUST for this gal with lips drier than the Sahara!

Not as easy a task as it may seem my friends, hunting for one that ticks all the boxes! After trying & testing many a lippie I'm happy to say I've finally found my HG nude & tis an offering from Kat Von D no less, one of her Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks to be precise, in the shade Bow N Arrow.  

When I heard that Kat Von D was opening up a counter in Oxford Street Debenhams store, I naturally, like many other beauty obsessed humans made note to pop in & peruse at the earliest convenience!

NOTD - Negative Space Wave!

Hello there lovely readers!

Today's nail art design was one of those moments that I have, quite frequently if I'm honest, where I literally have no clue what the heck I'm doing, I just simply say a few prayers to the nail goddess & hope for the best. The result this time...a negative space, dotticure wave look.

NOTD - Birthday Celebrations & Back To School Nails!

Hey there lovely readers!

Mondays are always rough but returning back to work was a struggle this week. If you follow me on the socials you'll know I waved goodbye to my twenties this weekend so saw fit to celebrate with some of my favourite things in the capital! Starting things off with The Tale As Old As Time Afternoon Tea which I had booked earlier this year & have practically been counting down the days for! To say I was excited is putting it lightly & it was just as wonderful as I'd hoped...review to come soon of course!
We then went to see Aladdin at the theatre & whilst The Lion King still has my heart, this definitely comes up as a close runner up as it was fantastic! Before finishing the night on a high in Soho (where this now 30 year old STILL got asked for ID, high fives!)

My friend & I then spent a blissful Sunday recuperating with Brunch in Westfield Stratford at Balans Soho Society (highly recommend) before heading to The London Cat Village to spend some time with the fur babies. I seriously need to right up a review of this place as I love it...cake AND cats? Basically heaven ;) So all in all a pretty darn satisfactory birthday I'd say. Bring on the thirties!

Speaking of returning back to things, last week saw the younger human generation head back or begin that time where their young minds are molded for the future! Not that I envy them, even though adulting can be majorly hard at times, the thought of going back to school fills me with dread!

NOTD - Dragon Skin Nails with Beauty Big Bang Flakies

Hello there lovely readers!

I always love discovering new nail art supply stores & recently Beauty Big Bang came upon my radar thanks to one of my favourite nail artists on Instagram (@hanninator) She reviewed some utterly STUNNING flakies that I knew immediately upon seeing that I simply had to try!

Even though I adore ALL nail polish, there's just something about flakies that gives me palpatations & these sure did that! The Beauty Big Bang Chameleon Flakes come in wee pots of 0.2g in a range of colour/finishes, even though they all look similar in the pot, once applied over a dark polish they transform your nails into the most magical multichrome flakie finish that immediately brings dragon scales to my mind, isn't it just stunning?

NOTD - Anna Sui New York Fashion Week Inspired Nails

Hello there lovely readers!

I have a bit of a backlog at the moment of nail art that I want to share on this here blog, as I've mentioned before I've been partaking in a few nail art challenges on Instagram of late which are not only fun but have been really good for me to get creative & challenge myself when it comes to my nail art which as you know I love!

You can have a peek at my Instagram of course (@aysh_xox) where I've been regularly posting my designs but seeing as I have this space on the interwebs too, I wanted to share them on here as well.

I LOVE finding inspiration for nail art in EVERYTHING. However one of my favourite places to seek inspo is in the world of fashion. There really is so much room to have fun & explore. One of the first challenges I took part in, I was overjoyed upon hearing Fashion was the theme. 

I went to browsing online for a piece to inspire me & I was immediately caught by this beautiful Anna Sui dress that Gigi walked on the runway during New York Fashion Week & I simply had to recreate it on my nails.

TTDEYE Polar Lights Yellow Green Contact Lens Review

Hello there lovely readers!

Along with my nails & afternoon tea reviews, I'm sure you're familiar by now of my fondness for switching up my eye colour & rocking a coloured contact lens on occasion. 

You can read all of my contact lens reviews HERE which predominantly feature the brand Klenspop, who in particular specialise in cute kawaii lenses that enhance the eyes beautifully.

As much as I adore these however, I wanted to try something a bit more different & natural looking so decided to have a browse in other places to see what I could find & stumbled across the brand TTD Eye on a friends Instagram account. The lens she wore looked so stunning yet really lovely & natural so inevitably I headed straight to the website to order me a pair which happened to be the Polar Lights Yellow Green Lens.

TTD Eye offer free worldwide shipping which is a bonus & these came to about $25 so around £20 as they were on sale at the time, double bonus! 

Disney Nail Art Series - The Lion King

Hello there lovely readers!

I could not let August go by without throwing in a new manicure for my Disney Nail Art Series now could I? Speaking of, how on earth is it almost September already? This year seems to be going by at an alarming rate!

My next Disney manicure is a bit special to me I guess as it is up there as one of my favorite Disney films & was actually the very first Disney movie I went to watch at the cinema...The Lion King.

NOTD - Holo Diamond Sequin Flowers

Hey there lovely readers!

I recently stumbled across this wee pot of pretty blue holo diamond sequins in my stash, I believe I must have picked them up on one of my Born Pretty Store hauls, my go to place when it comes to nail art supplies.

Slapping myself on the wrist right there at neglecting them so on account of them being just so darn pretty, I then went to thinking on ways in which I could incorporate these in a mani & the thought that immediately came to mind was using them as petals! The shape of the sequins are perfect to create some pretty blooms so I went on ahead & did just that.

NOTD - Rose Gold God by NEXT

Hello there lovely readers!

Whilst browsing through NEXT the other day waiting on my friend who was picking up an order, I found myself drawn like moth to flame towards the beauty section as I always like to have a peek at their perfumes. During my perusal I was delighted to notice that NEXT seem to have expanded on their cosmetics significantly with the Make Me Beautiful range including an intriguing selection of face & lip products, however me being me I was naturally drawn to the nail polish offerings of which I was happy to notice was very vast indeed & features a wide collection of mattes, shimmers, glosses & glitters. 

Afternoon Tea Adventures - The Hotel Du Vin

Hello there lovely readers!

Gosh I am so behind with writing up my afternoon tea escapades of late. I've experienced some lovely ones over the past few months that l want to share with you but I don't know where the time is going lately! But did you know that its actually Afternoon Tea Week right now?! So perfect time to rectify the situation I'd say. So lets make a start today with a review of another lovely afternoon tea in one of my favourite places to visit, Henley.

I've already written about my first afternoon tea experience in this delightful town at The Red Lion Hotel which was fabulous, so do have a read of that. When I heard that there was another offering within Henley then you can be certain that I was eager to try it! This afternoon tea in particular is at The Hotel Du Vin. I actually saw a fellow blogger friend Instagram a photo of the tea, I knew straight away I had to try it & I can assure you it had NOTHING to do with the fact that candy floss would be served as part of it...*side eye* O_o

NOTD - Sweetpeas and Stripes

Hello there lovely readers!

Oooh its been a while! These past few weeks have been all manners of manic with work, life & everything in between. Thankfully I managed to squeeze in a brief holiday to the Poldark lands aka Cornwall to visit one of my lovely friends plus catch some much needed time out. I could happily have stayed there forever as I adore it there muchly....who knows maybe one day.

As we seem to have been rather cheated of a summer this year (seriously Mother Nature, whats the dealio, I thought you & I had a special arrangement?) I've been resorted to creating summer vibes via other means, mostly my favourite way of course, on my nails.

It really uplifts my mood greatly when I'm wearing a pretty patterned mani & I'm an absolute sucker for florals, they soothe me so much so whenever I get a chance you can be sure I'll be rocking a floral manicure a lot of the time! My wish one day is to recreate stunning floral mani's like Follow That Way...seriously this girls skills are insane, her floral mani's are like works of art!

NOTD - Cupcake Nail Art Tutorial

Hello there lovely readers!

Its no secret my love of the sweet things, being the afternoon tea addict that I am I couldn't NOT be partial to a slice or ten of cake hmm? If anything its absolutely necessary for blogging purposes, if I didn't adore cake...no afternoon tea reviews...sad times.

When I can combine my petite joys in life with my other greatest passion, nail art in case you didn't know that already....yes I can feel the waves of shock emitting from you O_o, then that makes me a happy sweet toothed bunny! As you can see I got my inspiration for todays nail art from that bonny wee treat everyone loves to indulge in....cupcakes!

Getting Lippie - MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lippie in Burnt Spice Review

Hey there my lovely readers!

If you follow me on Instagram (@aysh_xox) you may have noticed that amongst the usual, nail, kitty & outfit posts that make up the majority of my feed, I've recently started sharing some of my favourite lippie products as well. I figured that seeing as this is a beauty blog also, why the heck not share some of my top choices on here as well, thus mixing things up a tad in between all the nail art :)

A late starter to the lippie game, for many a year I had been a simple slick of balm & go girl as I suffer from horrendous dry lips, making lipstick wearing just a nightmare. I alone probably kept Chapstick in business. However a few years down the line after discovering the wonders of lip scrubs & moisturisers I decided enough was enough & I wouldn't let the condition of my lips deprive me on all the lippie fun!

Disney Nail Art Series - Maleficent

Hey there lovely readers!

So I felt it was about time to add another manicure into my Disney NailArt Series that I've started here on my blog. 

So far I've thrown together some Beauty and The Beast nails & a suitably fairy-tale perriwinkle blue Cinderella themed design as well. I thought the time had come to switch things up a tad & give one of the glorious villain diva's a turn in the nail art stakes. 

Alongside the Disney princesses there are also some utterly fabulous goddesses in Disney playing the role of villain whom you can't help but love & I look forward to experimenting & creating something fun for them too!

The first Disney villain I wanted to rustle up something for is one of my favourites Maleficent. Of course Sleeping Beauty is a vintage classic when it comes to Disney & a firm favourite of mine, but I also loved the live action adaptation retelling this intriguing villains story in a really wonderful way with Angelina Jolie in the lead role. 

NOTD - Fourth of July Nails!

Hello there lovely readers!

As today's nail art has distinct red, white and blue vibes going on I think its obvious what occasion is inspiration is here ;) Every year I like to throw together a mani to mark my American cousins over on the other side of the pond's Independence Day celebrations. Any excuse to get my nail art on!

I was muchos happy with my Fourth of July nails last year which featured blue dripping glitter & a step by step tutorial so go have a peek at those HERE. I loved them so much & didn't think I could top them...maybe it was a mistake to go in with that attitude as I really wasn't happy with how these ones for this year came out but meh you win some, you lose some & I'm gonna roll with this FAIL of immense proportions!

NOTD - Wicked Inspired Nails Tutorial!

Hey there my lovely readers!

If you caught my last post where I reviewed the Mitty Burns Peel Off Tape Barriers for easy nail art clean up, you'll remember how we left things...with a neon gradient nail base of yellow & green that was begging for some nail art action...

Well I had me some plans for this base & in particular with this colour combo especially. I recently went on a little London adventure with my dearest chum which saw us popping by the Apollo Theatre to finally watch the award winning show Wicked which (no pun intended) we absolutely loved. Honestly we must've been the last humans on earth NOT to have seen it & I'm glad to finally tick it off my list. 

Mitty Flawless Finish Peel Off Mani Tape Review

Hi there lovely readers!

When it comes to doing nail art, no one likes a lot of mess. And yup there are a number of techniques that can cause just that, thus putting many people off doing them. Sad times. However nail art has come a long way & now there are lots of ways to make the whole process so much easier with minimal stress & easy cleanup! Happy times!

I'm sure you've heard of the method of using liquid latex as a skin barrier when doing messy nail art such as sponging, stamping, water marbling etc. If not then go have a peek at my post touching on that HERE.

Using liquid latex really has been a game changer for sure, waving goodbye to the days of having to wrap cellotape around your cuticles, praise the gods! 

One little product that caught my eye were these peel off mani tape barriers from Mitty Burns that basically work in the same way except, not only are they latex free which is fab news for those who have skin allergies but also no fiddly bottle or brushes required, or waiting around for the barrier to dry, you simply peel the tape from the sheet, wrap it around the skin, then peel off in one go after you've done you nail art! Nifty! 

KISS Gel Fantasy Press On Nails

Hello there lovely readers!

Being the bonafide polish lover, I'm not usually one for falsies. However I can't deny that having some stick on nails on stand by is actually quite handy, a fact proved quite recently when I had a last minute family do to attend & no time to paint the nails!

I was sent the Kiss Gel Fantasy Press On Nails* a while back & as mentioned, as I don't really like to use false nails I honestly did not think I would use them! But thankfully there they were ready to save the day & by doing so, also proved to me that they are actually pretty darn awesome as falsies go! Forgive me for neglecting you so.