Lilac to Blue Gradient

I love gradient nails.  They're quick to do and dry quickly as a plus and they're always my go to nail art when I'm stuck for other ideas.  You can use whatever colours you fancy and some of the best gradients I've seen about are with some of the most obscure colours, that you'd never think of putting together.

I like to play it safe though, so for tonight's gradient I used Ciate's Ferris Wheel and Sugar Plum.  These are beautiful pastel colours and look stunning together.

I applied two coats of Ferris Wheel then used a make-up sponge to apply the gradient.  It only took a couple of goes to get this nice coverage.

I then topped it off with Nail Lacquer UK's Brony Me (which is actually Saz's).  I have to give it back next weekend, so wanted to get another go of it before I relinquished it.

Sadly, AJ at Nail Lacquer UK has decided to close up shop (which is very very sad news - as you all know, I'm a massive fan of her polishes).  If you'd like a chance to get your paws on some of her polishes don't forget to enter my giveaway - there's only a few more days left!

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New Blog Layout Giveaway

Hooray!  After looking forward to it for ages, my new blog layout is finally alive and working really well.  I've already had some fantastic feedback so thank you for that.  It was designed and uploaded by the lovely Laura at sophieandrory designs.

I decided to launch a giveaway with my new look blog.  I wanted to support UK Indie brands through this giveaway and after a long, hard think - I decided to go for Nail Lacquer UK.  As you all already know, I'm a massive fan of AJ's nail polishes and I'm always posting about them on here.

So I bought 3 of AJ's polishes which had been on my wish list for a while.  These are (from left to right):

• Impassible
• Starfluff
• Lilac Lover

I got in touch with AJ to let her know what I was using the polishes for and she very kindly made me a special nail polish which was made especially to go with the new look blog.  I had one bottle for myself and decided that the second bottle should be given away as a BONUS PRIZE.

Here is a picture of the bottle, Naileymabob.

The giveaway will run for 2 weeks.  It is only open to UK entrants unfortunately, due to Royal Mail posting limits.  The winner will be notified by email and will have 24 hours to claim their prize before it goes to the next person.

So here's the rafflecopter and good luck to everyone entering.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Nail Lacquer UK: Adventureland

I'm slowly working my way through all the lovely polishes I've got that I haven't had chance to try yet.
Adventureland is a Nail Lacquer UK polish and was given to me by Saz as a birthday present.  It's a pretty milky base with small blue glitter and big pink pieces.  Its from the Alice in Wonderland set and is really lovely.

It would be okay applied straight over my Nail Envy but I decided to layer it over Models Own Grape Juice (also a birthday present from the lovely Debs), just to see what it would look like.    The light purple base suited the base well and made a lovely mix.

I'm gonna try and mix up my swatches more often, make them more interesting.

I was hoping that today's blog post would be announcing my 1 year giveaway (only a few days late) but I'm waiting for the arrival of my new look blog.  Keep your eyes peeled, it's only a matter of days!

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Nail Lacquer UK: Galaxy

So AJ managed to sneak some pretty new polishes into the store before the start of my spending ban.  So I had to snap them up v. quickly.  Galaxy is a stunning purple to bronze duochrome.  I couldn't stop flashing my nails in the light to catch the different colours.

The polish applies well, I was a little worried it would look streaky but 3 coats gives a fantastic coverage and definitely no streaks!

I was trying all different types of lighting to get the full range of the colour in these nails, but whatever I tried wouldn't get the full potential.  It is so beautiful though.

I was a little bored during the evening and I had my Barry M Nail art pens to hand so did a little drawing on my nails and ended up creating a fab tribal design over the top of my nails.  The polish looks really well with the tribal pattern, I was so impressed.

You can buy Galaxy and AJ's other polishes over at her Etsy shop.

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Nail Lacquer UK: Brony Me

As you may already know, I love Nail Lacquer UK.  So does my friend Saz (My Mint Nails).  Since there's so many fabulous polishes we'd love but can't afford, we've agreed to swap every time we meet.  Back in November I gave her Happy Monster for a borrow of Brony Me.  Here is a link to Saz's review of that polish.

I've dug out which polishes I still need to swatch and review and this one was next on my list.  It's a fab mix of different bright coloured glitters with black hearts so it was really difficult to pick a base colour.  So I decided to go for a really subtle gradient with colours that weren't used in the polish.  For this I used Barry M Blue Moon (which has now run out.  RIP) and Model's Own Apple Pie.

You can't really tell it's a gradient but I promise I used both these colours over a white base to create it.

Then I applied only one coat of Brony Me over the top.  That's all it needed really.  The polish was really easy to apply and I didn't have to fuss it to much to get a great coverage.

I really love this and I would be so tempted to try and buy it if it ever reappeared in the shop.

This is my last post of 2013.  I hope however you're celebrating the New Year that you have fun and 2014 is even better than this year.  Tomorrow I'll be back with tonight's nails and a look back at my first year in blogger and what I look forward to in 2014.

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British Nail Bloggers: Top 10 Nail Polishes

Over at British Nail Bloggers, we've decided to all post about our top 10 nail polishes on the same day.  Here are mine.  They're my top 10, but in no particular order because I just can't chose that!

Nail Lacquer UK - She Got My Soul.  My favourite indie brand and the first I bought from Nail Lacquer UK.  The polish is a milky base with blue, pink and violet glitters of various sizes.  Looks lovely over a white base.

Nail Lacquer UK - Happy Monster.  This is a milky greeny/cream base with neon pink, blues, greens and yellows.

Barry M Lychee - This should be a staple polish in every girl's nail polish box.  The nude is really shiny, perfect for when your nails need to be a bit more, boring.

Models Own - Absynthe.  This is a matte glitter polish.  You get amazing coverage after just two coats and looks great with a matte or normal top coat over it.

Lac Attack - Weasley Wizard Wheezes.  I love Harry Potter.  Lac Attack was the first indie polish I invested in.  This glitter topper is a fab vivid orange mixed shape glitters and I love clashing it over bright colours.

Barry M - Boots Limited Edition Silver Glitter.  I found this in Boots the other day and it was fab.  It's a silver glitter, but it's holographic a bit and looks fab over a silver base colour.

Lac Attack - Beauxbatons Academy.  Another Lac Attack from my first ever indie splurge.  This is a milky base with gold and blue glitters.

Nail Lacquer UK - A Dolphin's Dream.  This is a fantastic turquoise glitter that goes well over bright colours or builds up fantastically by itself.

Lac Attack - The Horcrux of It.  I always turn to this colour when I need a black that's not just boring plain black.  It has a green shimmer to it with gold glitter, making my black just a little extra special.

Barry M - Greenberry.  This is my favourite summer colour.  I try to mix it with gold for a lovely summery manicure.

From L-R Greenberry, She Got My Soul, Happy Monster, Lychee and Absynthe

From L-R The Horcrux of It, A Dolphin's Dream, Beauxbaton's Academy, Limited Edition Silver Glitter, Weasley Wizard Wheezes.

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Naileymabob Catch Up

Yet again my life has gone crazy.  Although I've been finding dribs and drabs of time to do my nails, taking photos and having time to blog have been a different issue all together.

So firstly, here are my halloween nails.  I spent Halloween watching Nightmare on Elm Street in Cineworld so went for bloody nails to celebrate.  I used Barry M Matte White and Burgundy Crush from the new Barry M Matte range for the blood, using the splatter method.

Shame I fell asleep a couple of times during the film!

Next up was a trip to London with my mum.  We went to see Rupert Grint in Mojo (seriously guys, if you find yourself in London - go see it.)  Our Rupes uses words that'll make Dumbledore blush (to use my friend Nina's saying) and there is a massive use of the C-word but me and my mum loved it.  We also went to the Harry Potter studio tour. 

I'd love to say that I did Weasley inspired nails but I didn't.  I had an engagement party the night before the coach so I did my nails in a bit of an assortment.

The spikes were from Born Pretty.  I used Barry M Matte Espresso then Nail Lacquer UK's Starfluff Monster from her Cute Monsters Collection on my accent finger (I'll do proper swatches of this soon I promise!)

Expect a neon-y type manicure ready for a statistics conference I have to attend tomorrow, then I have a weekend in Butlins reliving the 90's so I'm sure there'll be loads more fun nails to come!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Nail Lacquer UK: Happy Monster

So, the other day I blogged about Nail Lacquer UK's new range.  Here are swatches of the other polish I bought from her from the Cute Monsters collection called Happy Monsters.  Its a fantastic yellow-y cream base with neon glitters of all shapes and sizes.

The polish got a lot of attention and everybody was asking how I did it.  I love this because I love people commenting on my nails! ;-)

Here are some pictures, they're a bit rubbish because they're on my phone.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Nail Lacquer UK: Shining Amor

Oh yes - the wait is over and Nail Lacquer UK has unleashed a mountain of new polishes onto Etsy.  My first purchase was Shining Amor - a nail polish inspired by My Little Pony! <3 nbsp="" p="">

It's a light blue, almost white base with blue round glitter and love heart sequins.  It's so pretty.  My swatches are one coat over Barry M's Blue Moon and one layer of top coat.  Like all her other polishes, it applies beautifully, dries well and looks stunning.

There are still loads of fabulous polishes on the Etsy page, so I recommend you get over there and order loads!  I will be buying more as soon as I get paid!

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