Try a Jelly Sandwich!

So I've been thinking of doing a manicure like this for a long time. In fact, I got this jelly polish months ago for this manicure but never tried it. I think its commonly called a "pond manicure" or a "jelly sandwich" with stamping or even a "stampwich".

This kind of a manicure is not hard to do, it just takes a bit of time because you have to wait for the layers to dry. I began with a base coat and then one coat of jelly polish. After this was dry, I stamped with the full nail image with the tiny hearts. Then a second layer of polish, a second layer of stamping and a third layer of jelly polish on top. Finally, I stamped the accent nail and used top coat on all the nails.
If you would like to try out this manicure, you don't even need to stamp between the layers, you can just dot on some polka dots with white polish. Just be sure to get a nice translucent jelly polish and wait for each layer to dry before adding on the next one.

Trees, Birds, Blue Skies ...

I have seen many manicures recently with birds or birdcage images and I have really liked some of them. I wanted to try one out with some images on the MoYou London plates. Here's what I came up with ...

For this manicure, I used a base of Boots No 17 Bolt from the Blue. I did a gradient with Barry M Cyan Blue and Gelly Blackberry. I stamped with Konad Black, images from the MoYou London plates 03 from the Mother Nature Collection and 04 from the Pro Collection.

I really liked this manicure. I loved the gradient to begin with - it does look a bit like blue skies, don't you think? And I just adore that bird image on the barbed wire!

Japanese Landscape

MoYou London has some beautiful Japanese images on their plates in the Suki Collection. The manicure today uses one such plate to create a Japanese Landscape.

I used a base of Color Club Silver Lake from the Girl About Town Collection. I stamped with the polishes, Konad Black, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick and Rimmel 60 Seconds 830 Camoflouge. The images are from the MoYou London Plate 02 from the Suki Collection.

I liked how the colours go together to create a restful scene. It made me think of a pleasant, quiet morning with a Samurai practicing his moves under a tree!

Top Ten Polishes!

My favourite polishes change all the time and its really quite hard to pick just ten individuals bottles. So I am going to share with you, with some new manicures and some old, my top ten favourite categories of polish, whether based on brand or colour, in no particular order.

1. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Polishes: Not only are the insta dri polishes good to wear on their own, they are also great stamping polishes. They come in a variety of shades and finishes. They are mostly one-coaters, they are quick dry and they stamp very well.

Stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Jumpin Jade

2. Essie Metallics: I love the Essie Metallics for stamping and use them very frequently. The ones I use are Essie No Place Like Chrome (Silver), Essie Penny Talk (Copper) and Essie Good as Gold (Gold).

OPI Get Your Number stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome

Stamped with Essie Good as Gold

3. Nude/Near Nude: A nude or near natural nail colour is a must have in every girl's polish drawer. Not only are they good to wear on their own, they make an excellent base for nail art.

OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?

4. Pastels: I really like pastels for a pop of colour. These shades really make me happy and are a great pick me up.

Starting from the thumb, Sinful Colors Mint Apple, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Revlon Cupid, Barry M Gelly Guava and Essence Off to Miami.

5. Barry M Gellys: Not only are the Barry M Gellys great to wear on their own - they are one-coaters, quick dry and glossy! They also stamp really well.

Starting from the thumb, Barry M Gelly Blackberry, Pomegranate, Watermelon, Blood Orange and Plum.

6. Black!: You always need a good creme black - like a nude, its great to wear on its own and great as a base for nail art.

Boots No 7 Just Black

7. Textured: Textured nail polishes are a new favourite. I didn't think I would like them since I do like a glossy finish but I was surprised at how much I loved these. I love how they have a matte finish but there is still a lovely sparkle to them.

OPI Get Your Number

8. OPIs: As I have started using a wide variety of nail polishes, I have come to love my OPIs. The formulas are good and they have a huge range of colours and finishes.

OPI The Spy Who Loved Me

9. Color Club Holo Hues: Everyone likes a Holographic nail polish! I only have a couple of the Holo Hues. And although I do like wearing them on their own, I love stamping with them.

Color Club Cosmic Fate

Stamping with Color Club Harp on It.

10. Top Coats, Base Coat/Nail Strengthener: When you think of favourite polishes, base and top coats may not immediately come to mind, but they are very important parts of a good manicure.
I am a loyal user of the OPI Nail Envy. It has really helped my nails to strengthen and get into better shape and I use it all the time as a base coat.
I have recently started using the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat and I think its a great top coat to use, specially as an intermediate layer when doing nail art.
And I guess I don't have to say much for Seche Vite - the quick dry, super glossy top coat which has such a huge fan following!

What are some of your favourites? I'd love to know!

Guest Post at "Penguins Left Green Polish"

If you missed me yesterday, I am over at the lovely Nada's blog with a guest post. She's got a great blog with the cutest name! Thank you Nada, for the opportunity to share the post with your readers!
Here's a preview ...

Goodbye Sachin, you'll be missed!

Sachin Tendulkar is one of the greatest players to have ever played Cricket! He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first player to score a double century in a One Day International, and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket. He is also a humble person, a devoted family man and sponsors 200 underprivileged children and supports other charities. He retired from Cricket on the 16th of November 2013 after playing his 200th and final Test match for India.

My manicure today is just a little tribute to him!

The Indian Flag on the thumb and ring finger has been painted free hand with Barry M Matt White, Essie Fear & Desire, Revlon Emerald and Barry M Black. The middle finger represents his blue jersey with the number 10, painted with Barry M Cyan Blue and Black. The pointer and little finger represent the green cricket field with the wickets and the cricket bat and ball are painted on Revlon Emerald.

Peacock Feather Nails - Holo on glitter!

I loved my last peacock feather manicure and I wanted to recreate that look but with a MoYou London image plate. And this is how it looks ...

This picture above is in natural light.

I used the same polishes as the last time. I used Barry M Navy as the base and then added the glitter polish, Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Mermaid's Tale on top. I stamped the peacock feathers with the holographic polish, Color Club Harp on It. The image plate is MoYou London Plate 03 from the Pro Collection. The images on their non-XL plates just about fit my nails and I had to double stamp it on my thumb.

This photo is with indoor lighting...

The way the holographic polish shimmered in the light is simple stunning. The last time I stamped with a silver polish and although I love that polish I stamped with, plain silver just does not have the shimmer of multiple colours like real peacock feathers. But the holo really brings this stamped image to life!

I even managed to get these last couple of pics in the sun. But this was on the second day, so you may see slight tip wear.

For "Children in Need" - Pudsey Nails

Children in Need is a BBC UK charity which has the Pudsey Bear as its mascot. Since 1980 it has raised over £600 million to change the lives of disabled children and young people in the UK. You can support the charity by donating here.

One of the ways, I am showing support is with my cute Pudsey manicure!

For these nails, I used the polishes, Barry M Matt White and NYC Lexington Yellow to paint my nails. The dots are done with a dotting tool and NYC Lexington Yellow, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red, Barry M Cyan Blue and Revlon Top Speed Emerald. Pudsey's face and paw-prints are done free hand with a nail art brush with Barry M Black.

See what the British Nail Bloggers have been up to this week!

Inspired by water!

This manicure was for the Sunday stamping challenge in my Stamping group. It didn't quite turn out as I had imagined it. I started off with a base of Sally Hansen Insat Dri Blue Streak and used the saran wrap technique to dab on some OPI Sea You in Hollywood. I was going for a subtle blue on blue look but by the time I finished stamping and the top coats, you couldn't tell at all that its a mix of two colours! I then stamped images from the plates, MoYou London XL 05 from the Sailor collection, Messy Mansion MM02 and Konad M90. I finished with some China Glaze Fairy Dust for some sparkle.

Poppy Nails for Remembrance Day

"Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty.
Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918.
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem "In Flanders Fields". These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war."

For my manicure today, the red polish that I have used is Essie Russian Roulette. The white is Barry M Matt White. I painted the poppies free hand with a small nail art brush, with the polishes: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red, Barry M Matt White and Black.

This manicure is a small way to pay tribute to the soldiers who have laid down their lives to protect us.
"Lest we forget ... "
R.I.P.

Silver stamping on blue and MoYou Sailor XL 05 review

The manicure today is to showcase some of the images from and to do a quick review of the MoYou London XL Plate 05 from the Sailor Collection. I used a base of the Collection nail polish No 23 Show Off. I then stamped with Essie No place like Chrome and the MoYou image plate.
The images stamp beautifully and the detail is quite amazing. I have to add though that the images are quite large on this XL plate - so with some of them, like the ones on the thumb, I just stamped the tips of the waves. I guess different parts of the image could be used to create a different look to take advantage of the large images. I do like almost all the images on the plate and see myself using it quite often.

See what the British Nail Bloggers have been up to this week!

Sparkly nails for Guy Fawkes Night

We enjoyed a great bonfire and barbecue at a neighbour's and a gorgeous firework display at our local park on Saturday for Bonfire night. But since Bonfire or Guy Fawkes Night is officially on the 5th of Nov, I have some sparkly nails to mark the occasion!

For this manicure, I painted the pointer and little fingers with Revlon Gold Coin topped with two coats of Butter London West End Wonderland. The other nails are painted with Essence prom-berry. The stamping is with Essie Good as Gold and the MoYou London XL Plate 13 from the Princess Collection. I think these images from the plate are so pretty - they are rather unusual fireworks images and so beautiful!

You can really see the sparkle in the sunlight ...

Diwali NOTD: Peacock Nails!

I have a lovely, shimmery peacock adorning my nails, this Diwali Day!
For my peacock stamping nail art, I started with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Blue Streak. I sponged on some green and purple polish - Rimmel 60 Seconds Camouflage and Essence prom-berry. This is how the base looked before stamping ...

The green I used is quite dark but it appears as quite a subtle tint on the nails. I could have worn these nails on their own because the gradient looked very pretty - I really like these colours.
I then used Color Club Holo Hues Harp on it and the MoYou London Suki 01 to stamp the peacock on my finger nails and some peacock feathers on the thumb. The stamping is more subtle than striking but very pretty with the shimmer of the Color Club holo!

Celebrating the Festival of Lights with Nail Art

Wearing nice new clothes is an important part of the Diwali celebrations - so of course, you need pretty nails to match! The Diwali inspired nail art today uses a traditional Indian colour combination - dark red and gold. Also, Diwali is the Festival of lights and traditionally tens of small earthen lamps (diya) are lit by every household on Diwali. And the day is not complete without some fireworks! I have tried to include all these aspects of the festival into my manicure.

For my Diwali nails, I used China Glaze Fast Track on the middle and ring fingers and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick on the other three. I then used a nail art brush and the polishes, SH Quick Brick and Essence My Fortune Cookie to paint the diyas and the sparkly fire fountain from those fireworks flower pots. I added gold and red hex glitter for extra sparkle.

To everyone who celebrates this festival, wish you a very Happy Diwali!