Remembrance Day Nail Art

Tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday and to mark the occasion I have been wearing little poppies on my nails.

I used two coats of Leighton Denny's 'Hint of Mint' as my base coat and applied a generous helping of SV to help speed up drying time and allowed to dry. I then used a Fraulien stripping brush in dark green to add four-five stems to all my nail starting at the cuticle.

I then used a small dotting tool dipped in Nail's Inc 'Rosary Gardens' to create the poppies. To create the poppy shape I carefully dabbed on four blobs of polish in a square shape to resemble the paper poppies you can wear to the tip of the stems.

I then took an even smaller dotting tool and applied a single dot of Nail's Inc's 'Black Taxi' to the centre of the square. To finish off my poppies I added tiny leaves using the same green polish I used for the stems.

I have also been wearing a very sparkly poppy on my winter coat, which was bought for me by my Mum (Thanks Madre.) I have received lots of compliments on it, and the money spent on is has gone to a very worthy cause.

To all those who have given their lives, this post is dedicated to you.

What do you think? How will you be remembering our fallen solders?

Until next time...

Laura-Jane

Zebra print nail art

Today's manicure post comes in the form of animal print. I am not too sure where this idea came from, but I am glad it did, as I really like it.

 

 

 

It may have popped into my head subconsciously after my birthday meal with the boyfriend a couple of a weeks ago. He took me to a nice little Chinese restaurant situated on a floating boat on the river called Feng Shang Princes. The restaurant is situated within close proximity to London Zoo, where they are currently holding adult only night time access. This is basically an excuse to walk around the Zoo guzzling alcohol, and then you get to spend all your hard earned cash on animal print onesies, head bands and face paint. When leaving to go home all we could see were animals! It was like Noah's Arc had reincarnated into the London Underground whereby they loaded onto the tube (subway for my American followers) two by two. It looked like a lot of fun and very surreal!

 

 

 

For my base coat I used 'hint of mint' by Leigton Denny, which is an off white colour. I think I actually prefer it to a bright white. It makes the manicure more subtle.

 

 

 

To create the zebra stripes I used a black stripper nail art polish by Frauline.

 

 

 

Just like a zebra, where every animal has their own print, a bit like humans and our fingerprints.  I tried to emulate this on my own nails, to make each fingernail unique and not so uniform. It also helped me, as I didn't have to worry about every nail being perfect, and I could just have some fun with it.

 

 

 

To finish the manicure I used my trusted top coat by seche vite.

 

Has anyone else tried animal print?

 

What do you all think?

 

Until next time...

 

Laura-Jane

Rainbow Nail Art

I've been feeling a little fed-up recently, and the weather in the UK hasn't helped much either  considering it is nearing the end of May. Today I even had to wear my winter coat to work, and I was still cold. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will have some sunshine, but I fear the couple of weeks of warmer weather we had in April may just about have been our summer. To cheer myself up I went for a very colourful manicure this week. I knew I wanted bright colours, but I just couldn't decide on which hue to go for, so this is what happened:

 

 

 

A multi-coloured dotty rainbow effect, which I am rather pleased with. They are really bright, have cheered me up and have attracted a lot of attention this week. Some compliments came from random strangers!

 

 

 

I used the following polishes;

 

 

 

From left to right;

 

Matte White by Barry M

The Heiress by Leighton Denny

Belgrave Place by Nails Inc

Green by Nails Supreme

Yellow by Fraulein

Orange by Fraulein

Viva la Diva by Leighton Denny

Seche Vite top coat

 

The tools used:

 

 

 

To create the look;

 

I use two coats of Matte White by Barry M for my base coat and applied a coat of SV to speed up drying tip. Once dry I grabbed my dotting tools, and small square of tin foil and the first colour I wanted to use in my rainbow. I started at the bottom of my nail near the cuticle. Splodge a small amount of polish on the tin foil, which is where you will gather from to create the rainbow.

 

 

 

 Using varied sized dotting tools create a wavy line made up of dots. I like to do all ten nails at once using the same colour as I find that once the nail polish has been exposed to air, it starts to dry, thicken and becomes tacky. Which makes it hard to use and application is harder.

 

 

 

Once you are happy with the first line, repeat using the same steps as above until you have the full rainbow effect. You can fill in any small gaps using a tooth pick if you do not have a smaller dotting tool. To finish off apply a coat of SV (or a top coat of your choice) and allow to dry.

 

What do you think?

 

Until next time...

 

Laura-Jane

Gold flower blossom

I decided to delve into my newly acquired QVC nail polish set to create the manicure I have been wearing this week. The polish I subjected to my nail art was 'Coconutty' by Leighton Denny, which I used for the base colour. It is a lovely nude-like brown with gold iridescent flecks that shimmer through. I used two thin coats to get the depth of the colour you can see in the photos.

 

 

To create the flowers I used gold acrylic paint and a dotting tool. I placed one dot where I wanted the flower to be positioned, which becomes the centre. I then used the same size dotting tool to place approx. 5 dots around the perimeter of the original dot to create petals.

 

 

To add an extra bit of sparkle I used a gold glitter from China Glace called 'Lions Mane'. The glitter particles are very fine, but the bottle is jammed packed with them, so it really adds glitz to the centre of the flower. I applied it the same way I did the petals and used the same sized dotting tool.

 

 

To finish the manicure and to add the finishing touch, I applied one or two leaves to each individual flower using a pearl green stripper polish from Fraulien, then capped it all off with a coat of SV.

 

 

 

What do you think?

 

Does anyone else like to use acrylic paint for their nail art?

 

Until next time...

 

Laura-Jane

A little bit of stripe

Oops, I've done it again! The boyfriend switched the TV on to QVC and before I know it I have the laptop in my hands and I'm logging in to purchase yet another set of nail polishes. This time it was a set by Leighton Denny. Even though it was an impulse purchase, I am definitely not disappointed. It has some lovely colours in it and I've been able to create some very nice manicures with them. I hadn't heard of Leighton Denny before, but the polishes are lovely; just the right consistency, a lovely finish, and perfect with just two coats.

The first polish I used was probably my favourite in the collection; Summer Fizz. It has a sand-like look to it when applied, but not by texture. I guess this is where the 'fizz' part of its moniker comes into play. It's really pretty, I don't think the photos capture its real fizziness. It reminds me of the Refresher tablet sweets I use to get in lucky bags when I was a child.

 

 

Even though it is a very pretty colour on its own, I decided to use a red polish by 'Fraulein' to add some stripes. The application brushes on the Fraulein polishes are super thin, which makes nail art and in particular lines really easy to do.

 

 

 

I decided on diagonal strips, using different directions for the two outer fingernails, so they mirrored either side of the hand. I created a crisscross design for the middle finger to complete the look. I decided to mattify this manicure using nails inc 'Westminster Bridge' rather than using SV.

 

I have had lots of compliments on this design. I think the colours really work well with each other, are ideal for summer, and even got the thumbs up from the boyfriend. I have also had comments at work likening the design to sweets and lollipops, but I think it looks very similar to a perfume bottle I have in the bathroom cabinet called 'Pink Sugar' by Aquolina. I even had my Mum ask me to recreate this design using the pale purple colour by Leighton Denny, which looked fabulous too.

 

 

Here are the other polishes in the Leighton Denny collection, complete with holding case. I shall definitely be featuring some other designs using his polishes in the very near future. So stay tuned.

 

 

 

What do you think?

Anyone else used Leighton Denny before?

Until next time...

Laura-Jane