ManiMonday: Wimbledon Nail Art, featuring e.l.f.

*** This post contains some sample products which were sent for review. ***

Hey y'all!

In the midst of all the World Cup frenzy, another big sporting event has been taking place right here in England.  Wimbledon's final matches are this Friday, so I thought y'all might wanna see some nail art inspired by the Wimbledon Championships.

Red White & Blue and Fireworks too!

Hey y'all!

Continuing on my slightly homesick nail art journey, I wanted to sneak in a patriotic Independence Day mani for y'all, with full knowledge that these Brits may kick me out for doing so.  In fairness, I drink more tea than I throw in the harbor, and while I still haven't started using all those extraneous "U"s in my writing, I have begun naturally referring to my phone as my mobile instead of my cell, and I now complain about how many adverts interrupt my television, rather than fast-forwarding through the commercials.  Expat life really does change a person, yo.  Anyway... the upcoming holiday gave me a chance to showcase a beautiful UK indie that I picked up from a shop which closed earlier this year, and I was able to snatch up several bottles before they were gone for good.  Additionally, I got to play with a new stamping plate from Vivid Lacquer, so all's good on the home front, and I bring you this installment of Sunday Stamping.

Hey Swatch It! BeautyUK Coral Burst

Hey y'all!

Today I wanted to share with you the gorgeous polish I won from Nail Newbie's BeautyUK giveaway.  I was able to correctly identify the brand and won this lovely bright warm red polish, Coral Burst.

Texas Sunset nail art

Hey y'all!

I was looking through my very small "vault" and came across these nails that I was so proud of when I did them, and managed to not have time that week to post them, so I wanted to share them with you.  This look is a bit of an homage to my homesickness, because I know my friends back home are soaking up a lot of heat and some beautiful burnt orange sunsets this time of year.

Blue Rock Splatter Nail Art - LTNC

Hey y'all!

Today draws us to the conclusion of another Llama Nails Challenge - this being my second completed challenge with the group.  The final prompt for the Techniques Challenge was another new technique for me, the splatter technique.  I thought briefly about cheating because I own a couple of splatter stamps, but felt it would be wrong to cheat on the final prompt of the challenge when I've been faithful to the original techniques throughout.  Besides, if I can make the newsprint technique work, I can do anything!  Feeling strong, I created this look, which reminds Mr. Faff and I both of some kind of vein-y mineral rock.

Polka dot skittles - TPTC

Hey y'all!

Something that I haven't been posting about here is that I recently joined a Facebook group created by Debbie (of the Crumpet-y fame) dedicated to learning nail art from the cuticle forward, as it were, called SIMPLES.  I wasn't sure when going into it exactly how much interesting blog content I'd be able to derive from this process, but it was important to me to be able to join a group of ladies with ALL LEVELS of experience and sort of go "back to school" with techniques.  If the Techniques Challenge has taught me anything, it's that my skills definitely need practice and honing, and so I thought this might be a good way to go about it.  We spent the first 4 weeks going over some real basics, like glitter accent nails and simple skittles.  This week we've moved on to dotting tools, and Debbie set us with the first lesson I'd never attempted before:  the polka dot pattern.  Since this was a first for me, and also because I needed to save myself a little bit of time this weekend with painting, I decided to combine today's TPT with this week's SIMPLES and so I give you my tri-polish polka dot skittles!

Mani Monday: Silver Nail Charm stickers from BPS

*** This post contains items which were sent for review and affiliate links. ***

Hey y'all!

Along with my water decals from yesterday's post, Born Pretty Store sent along a sheet of nail stickers to review as well.  I used these in conjunction with some water decals I had lurking in my stash and a bit of colorful playing to create this look.

Big Cats water decals from BPS

*** This post contains items which were sent for review and affiliate links. ***

Hey y'all!

I was recently sent a couple of sheets of water decals from Born Pretty Store for review, and since they are both prints for big cats, I thought I would use them together in a single mani!  This was my first experience using water decals and I am so incredibly pleased with the results!

Hey Swatch It! Mentality Hard Candy

Hey y'all!


I decided it was high time that I bought out some more pretty holos to play, and today I've got a stunner.  This purple scattered beauty is Mentality Hard Candy.

Freehand Jacquard and Corset nail art - LNTC

Hey y'all!

Yesterday marked the Faff's one year wedding anniversary, and in good fashion, of course I spent a good part of the evening getting this post ready to publish while he took care of planting the evergreen sapling that was my gift to him (he gave me complete box sets of Heroes and Sherlock).  We're pretty low-key in this household, so festivities involved a "special" homecooked meal of slow-cooker steak in mushroom gravy and jacket sweet potato, a bit of wine, and some televisual feasting.  It's really, really, really hard to believe we've been married for a year now and that I haven't murdered him in his sleep.

Yet.  ;)

I digress.  Today's penultimate prompt for the Llama Nails Technique Challenge is Freehand design, and I was a bit flummoxed for ideas on this until I browsed my Pinterest inspiration board and remembered that I'd always wanted to give a corset nail another try.  Once that was set, the jacquard print fell into place and I had some nail art!

Floral stamping with bead accents - TPTC

Hey y'all!

First off, I have a bit of exciting news.  On Saturday I did my registration and enrollment to start nail tech certification courses in September.  I'm really excited to start "officially" learning how to create beautiful nails, and can't wait to share that experience here on the blog.  Until then, I will continue with business as usual, nail art and faffing about with things as they strike my fancy.  Today's Tri-Polish Tuesday brings me to a kind of look that I've seen in a few places but wanted to give it my own.  I've created a stamped floral mani that uses microbeads to accent the centers of the flowers.

Hey Swatch It! Accessorize Indigo

Hey y'all!

Today I have a quick swatchie post for you on another pretty polish I picked up in a Crumpet destash.  This is a gorgeous dusty teal blue from Accessorize which unfortunately has no name on the label and my Google-Fu has led me to believe that it is, in fact, Indigo.

Friday the 13th giveaway winnings and radio silence

Hey y'all!

I had intended to be able to post a Feature Friday video for you today, but unfortunately I was a bit ambitious yesterday in filming and I'm paying the price for it today.  My camera films videos in mp4 format which has to be converted to avi before I can edit it and publish to YouTube.  Well, yesterday I went on a spree and filmed 4 videos back to back, so since last night my poor little computer has been trying to convert SO MANY GIGS of footage into the proper format that I pretty much can't get anything else done until that's finished.  Ergo, no video today, but there will be several coming up soon-ish.

In better news, today I received a gorgeous hot pink metallic bubble mailer which contained my winnings from the Nail Newbie's latest giveaway!  It's a hot coral polish from Beauty UK's new range of polishes.  Can't wait to swatch it and test its formula!

Seriously though, how cute is her stationery?

Sorry there isn't more to post today, but this is life and sometimes you have to wait for the good stuff.  In the meantime, have you entered my giveaway yet?

I hope you guys are having a great Friday and I'll see ya back tomorrow!

FIFA World Cup Nail Art featuring e.l.f.

*** Some products in this post were sent in exchange for review.  It does not contain affiliate links. ***

Hey y'all!

Today is the official start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.  To commemorate the start of the games, I created this colorful, fun tribute to the 2014 games using all e.l.f. products.

One-stroke Calla Lily Nail Art - LNTC

Hey y'all!

I had been dreading this technique for several weeks now, and in fact put the actual painting off until just yesterday, which only made it even more stressful.  It's not that I'm afraid of one-stroke painting, necessarily, but my painting skills are not large and I'm just a beginner with using acrylic paints on nails anyway.  This one seemed... more daunting.  With that said, let me present to you my one-stroke tulips nail art.

Give it away, give it away now! (CLOSED)

Hey y'all!

Are you ready for a little giveaway?

A few of us from the #2014BloggerChallenge have put together this little one - enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win £20 in PayPal cash - open internationally!

Good luck and thanks for visiting!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Funky Leopard - TPTC

Hey y'all!

Today I have a bright and funky stamped leopard print nail art for you.  Unfortunately I'm not very happy with the quality of the stamping plate, but I am pleased with the overall finished look for today's Tri Polish Tuesday.

#ManiMonday Upcycled eyeshadow nail polish: Video

Hey y'all!

Today is the first of what I hope to turn into a short series where I'll show you new ways to use makeup which has otherwise past its prime.  I created this beautiful nail polish using an expired eyeshadow pigment pot which would have otherwise just been thrown out.

Hey Swatch It! LilypadLacquer Orange

Hey y'all!

I've had a polish sitting in my "need to do" basket for a long long time, and I finally had a chance to pull it out and show off its beauty.  This is a brilliant neon orange (I know, I've been doing a LOT of orange lately) from an Australian indie that I purchased from Sally Magpies a while back.  Meet LilypadLacquer Orange.

e.l.f. Clearance Haul

Hey y'all!

I took advantage of a special offer for a free gift on £20 purchase from the clearance section on elf's website, and decided to film my unboxing. 

Hope you're all having a great week!

Watercolor Skittlette Nails - LNTC

Hey y'all!

Yesterday I took a day off - didn't turn on the computer all day long. Didn't mess with my nails, didn't even enter the "office" except to pull a cardigan out of my wardrobe before I went into town.  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I'd had a minor disaster while coloring my hair; my glove busted and I got a really bad stain on my index fingernail.  The backside of that is because I was so fussed with the staining on my nail that I was totally distracted and ended up kind of botching the rest of my hair coloring, so I decided that rather than mess with it, I would let a pro handle it, so that's where I was for a good 2.5 hours yesterday afternoon.  When I got home I just couldn't be bothered to edit pics and write today's post in advance so I did it this morning.  I've told you this long story just to get to the point of why my post is a couple hours later than normal.  And also to prepare you for the copper penny hair that will be appearing in a video soon, because I feel it's important to be prepared for such things.  Also, today I have watercolor nail art.

Spotted watercolor nail art - TPTC

Hey y'all!

It's JUNE!  It's like it's almost officially summertime!  Happily for me June also meant a changing of the guards in the Tri-Polish Tuesdays Challenge, and our new colors this month are turquoise, coral, and nude.  That leaves a LOT of wiggle room because nude can incorporate a pretty big array of shades, and turquoise is a bit ambiguous as well.  I decided to have a play with some polishes and ended up with this look, which I think is fairly watercolor-y, then added some dots for interest.

#ManiMonday e.l.f. Festival Nail Art

*** This post contains samples which were sent for review. ***

Hey y'all!

We are right in the midst of festival season here in the UK, and I wanted to give you a pretty concept for some simple floral nail art in bright colors using e.l.f. products from the 14-pc nail polish set.

#2014BloggerChallenge Collection

Hey y'all!

Thought I would take advantage of this prompt in the #2014BloggerChallenge to give you a peak inside my work space and show you my nail polish collection, so I made a video.  Enjoy!