NOTD - Lisbon Tiles

Hey there lovely readers!

One of my trips last year took me to the beautiful city of Lisbon, which was not just the most magical place but filled with the nail-spiration around every corner! Famous for its beautifully patterned tiles I knew I had to try & re-create in some shape or form on my nails. 

I was still a bit stumped with which particular pattern to go for, so when one of my (many) favourite nail artists on Instagram, Katie Masters aka @nailthoughts whipped up a Portugal tile design of her own, I fell in love with her interpretation completely so this look is utterly inspired by her!

NOTD - Marble Stone Look Nails & Tutorial!

Hello there my lovely readers!

How have you all been? Attempting to restore some semblance of normality after spending 7 blissful days in Antalya. My friend & I stayed at the Litore resort & the holiday consisted of much sunbathing, eating, relaxing before repeating it all over every day. Much needed let me tell you & we had such an incredible time, it was definitely hard to leave! But one must get back to the normal scheme of things now & that of course includes blogging!

You may remember I went through a bit of a marbling phase recently when it comes to nail art. I love playing around with different colours not knowing what the finished result will be. However one effect that I adore is the pretty marble stone itself & one I wanted to attempt to recreate on my nails...& this was the result

What do you think? I tried to get my cracked stone lines to be as thin as possible but I think I still need to get a thinner brush! Overall though I was pretty happy with the finished look!

If you want to see how I created my marble stone effect nails then read on for a tutorial...

Start off with a white base, here I've used one coat of my trusty Models Own White Light. Normally I would apply two coats for a base however I wanted to give it a bit of an edge so I applied one coat of Ulta3 Crytallina one of my fav topcoats which adds a subtle golden luminescent glow to your polish

Now to start with the cracked lines to create that marble stone effect! I first grabbed a grey polish, Essence Rock My World. Putting a blob of polish on to some scrap paper, dip in your nail art brush & apply two or three thin wavy lines starting from the edges of the nail going in, with the line starting off slightly thicker before thinning out at the tips...

Then to define the lines a bit more, again using a thin nail art brush & now some black polish, apply some of the black along the edge of the grey lines...

Finally to give the look of jewelled marble stone, I grabbed some rose gold polish in the form of Models Own Chrome Rose & using our thin nail art brush again, applied a few delicate strokes of rose gold to my lines.

I decided to apply one last coat of Ulta3 Crystallina on top of it all to give that slightly faded finish & thats it!

I have a few ideas on techniques to try next time to help create this marble stone look even better, maybe dabbing acetone on top to help blur & blend the colours in to the white?

Also the cling film method seems to be another way to achieve a marbled look...I'm tempted to do some Jade stone effect nails next so when doing so will give some of these ways a try!

Hope you liked darlings! Thanks for reading!

Lotsa love to ya!

NOTD - Cream Tea by True Brit London

Hello there my lovely readers!

To say I'm excited about this post is putting it lightly. Nothing makes me more deliriously happy & gets the heart palpitations a-pounding than sighting a new & interesting offering in the nail polish world. The beauties that I have to share with you today are nothing short of glorious & are the babies of new kids on the nail polish block True Brit London*. Behold...

What did I tell you? Pretty darn special right? The moment my radar sighted these polishes I knew they would not disappoint. Everything about them appeals to my nail polish needs...STUNNING packaging & a gorgeous shade range with fabulous & fun names surrounding interesting & innovative collections.

I'm sure its pretty clear from the name, True Brit London* is a brand that embraces British culture proudly & have sought inspiration for their shades from legendary icons of British fashion & beauty.

First things first, lets talk about packaging. I was impressed with how the polishes arrived, seated in an elegant sleek black box with plenty of paper shredding to protect those pretty bottles. The bottles themselves are designed in a beautiful chunky glass ice cube shape embossed in silver with the True Brit London Logo. Definitely a bottle one would love to show off on their vanity table I'm sure you'll agree! The large silver cap is removable, with a thinner top underneath attached to the brush for easier application.

There are six different collections with their own interesting range of shades including Signature, The Classics, Luxury, London City, Contemporary, Country & English Rose as well as a base & top coat. I have four pretty polishes to play with, which I'll be sharing with you one by one as I don't want to overload you in one go! Plus I think each shade deserves to be fully appreciated ;) I thought I'd start things off with the delightfully delicate Cream Tea from the Classic collection...

Ain’t it a pretty one? Cream Tea is a beautiful baby pink crème, extremely pale in its pinkness but I assure you it is most definitely a delightfully light milky pink shade, very elegant. I could definitely see myself wearing this shade whilst indulging in a delicious afternoon tea ;)

I found the formula of Cream Tea to be quite thick, which worried me initially as with thick crème's comes the risk of gloopiness, the first coat was a tad streaky, however two coats applied left a nice smooth glossy & streak free finish. Hurrah!

I couldn't resist adding a little something extra so applied a few pearls around the cuticle area before finishing with a coat of the True Brit London Topcoat. 

Now you'll know from my last post that CND Air Dry is my HG topcoat & it'll take a lot to change that! True Brit London's is good as topcoats go, this is a thick one so will leave a glossy almost gel like finish, however I wouldn't use it to seal stones in future as I think it was a bit thick for this purpose & resulted in a little bubbling!

Overall I am in love with this delightful pink offering from True Brit London & can't wait to see how the other polishes fair! Do stay tuned to see what delightful shade will be given a turn next! Thanks for reading as always & speak soon!

Lotsa love to ya!

Disclaimer - * products featured were sent to me for my consideration. I am not affiliated with the brand nor paid for this post, this review has been as always my 100% honest opinion! :)

NOTD - Mint, Pearls & Polka Dots

Hello there lovely readers!

Anyone else wishing it was Friday already? ;) But I am thankful to have a wee reprieve from the office tomorrow with a trip into my fav city London for an appointment, whilst also squeezing in a visit to the FIAT garage in Marleybone & hopefully start the ball rolling in to getting a FIAT 500 into my life, something that's been on my wish list for a while! Fingers crossed! :)

Who doesn't love a hint of minty freshness? And there's definitely plenty of that going on with this super simply nail art I have to share with you beauts today with the addition of some pretty pearls and polka dots too!

I really liked the idea of mixing a cream pastel shade with some shimmery foil too for a nice contrast & I wasn't disappointed. I love this combination together!

For my pastel polish I opted for Models Own scented polish in Apple Pie, a divinely pretty pale pastel mint Green. I applied two coats on to my thumb, middle & little fingers

My foil of choice was LA Colors in Metallic Green, a gorgeous smooth pale green foil, which I applied two coats of on to the index & ring fingers. By the way did you know LA Colors polishes retail for 99p in Beauty Base?! Yes!

I then grabbed the Models Own Apple Pie again & used a double ended dotting tool to apply both small & large polka dots on to the nails with the green foil. Then using the LA Colors Metallic Green did the same but on the pastel mint nails.

Finally grabbing my nail art wheels I picked out a few pretty pearls to apply on random dots for an added 3D touch.

Finish with a slick of topcoat & that's it! Super fun & quirky design in minutes!

Like I said, I personally loved the colour combo, however my Uncle did so kindly mention that it kinda bought mould to mind when he saw these...NICE. Maybe next time Uncle dearest keep your comments to yourself...& perhaps I'll try a different colour combo...*coughs* O_o

Thanks for reading lovelies!

Lots love to ya!

NOTD - One Of A Kind by Polish Alcoholic

Hello lovely readers!

I have such a beautiful polish to share with you today my lovelies, not only is the polish itself oh so pretty, but the bottle is just utterly swoon worthy. Behold...One Of A Kind by Polish Alcoholic.

NOTD - Mint Pearl Vintage Nails ft HugoSophia Crystal Rings

Hello there lovely readers!

Today's nails feature a spot o' bling detail in the form of some pretty crystal stack rings, who doesn't love a bit of sparkle eh? But more on those later. For this mani I went down the vintage route leaving a half moon at the bottom of the nail bare. I love this style of manicure, so chic!

NOTD - Blueberry Pearl

Hello there lovely readers! 

Today I have one of the lovely Barry M Gelly's to share with you that have been quite a hit within the blogosphere. I've always been a huge fan of Mr M's polishes & have been loving all the new ranges that have been released of late, these ones especially.