Wednesday 29 February 2012

Viva Italia!

Here's a goofy one. I'm going to Rome on Thursday so decided to do an Italian flag on my nails. Unsure whether to actually wear this to Rome....it absolutely will not go with any of my outfits dahling. :P


Base is Illamasqua - Smash, white is Barry M - Matt White and red is Models Own - Red Alert


My a-england polishes arrived today! Weeeeeee!

In other news, I have realised today that I am absolutely terrible at organising myself for trips. 

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Monday 27 February 2012

Illamasqua Baptiste Swatches

My love for Illamasqua is no secret, so when they had a 20% off event for reaching 50k Facebook fans, I picked up a couple of polishes.

This is Baptiste. I'm bored of not posting my nails now, so you can all put up with my nubs! ;) and strange camera angles due to it being my *gasp* right hand. 



Look at that ring finger. Nail tore right off.

Anyway, Baptiste is stunning. Deep vampy purple packed with shimmering red and blue particles, it has a real depth to it. 


The formula is like butter and rich in pigment. I'd say it's a one-coater, or two coats for fools like me. I believe this originally came in a set with Boo! as part of the Pantomime nail duos, but Boo! is no longer available. Sad face.

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Saturday 25 February 2012

New blog name! And first nail wheel!

I finally got around to changing my blog name. I had a nightmare with it at first, and ended up preventing everyone seeing my updates. Seems just changing the blog URL does not work well. I spoke with Alexandra @ SparklyVernis, she was a big help and I decided to just buy the domain. So everything should hopefully be re-directed. Also thank you to Mel @ Glassflecked for listening to me rant in horror that I'd broken my blog, and finally thanks to everyone who commented on my help post yesterday :)

Anyway, this blog is now called Brit Nails. Not crazily exciting but I just wanted simple and to the point! Lush Lacquer is no more, but any links to it should be redirected. I also have a new, clean and simple layout. 

SO! Here is my first completed nail wheel. There are a couple of designs on it that I'm not fond of, but I had lots of fun doing it. Already working on more! It's such good practice.


If anybody wants to know specific colours, drop a comment or an email. 

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Tuesday 21 February 2012

Nail Mail!

Happy pancake day to those in the UK! No pancakes for me, I'm lazy and don't enjoy them that much.

Still no nails to post, sorry! :( soon though! Just thought I'd post the exciting nail mail I received from my lovely friend Melissa @ Glassflecked.


China Glaze - Glittering Garland, Custom Kicks, First Mate, White Cap and the cutest little bottle of Ruby Pumps.


ORLY - Sec 'n Dry and Emberstone, Essie-  as gold as it gets, Finger Paints - Twisted and Sinful Colors - Winterberry.

So excited by all of these! She's the best!


Also, I finally have access to my lushlacquer gmail account, so if you've emailed me in the last month or so I'm catching up on replying. 

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Saturday 18 February 2012

GOSH Berry Me Swatches

Ladies, what do you do when one of your perfectly manicured nails snaps clean off, so far down that it looks like a gerbil gnawed on it? Do you nub the rest, or just wait for it to grow back? Stick a false one on? My hands look a total mess, so I don't want to post for a while really :( I do have this to show you though, pictures taken before my nails went AWOL. 

This is GOSH special edition - Berry Me

Skimlinks Test


These pics are a few months old, excuse the poor clean up, my clean up and photography skills were not at the heady heights they are now (can't even say that with a straight face).

This is a vampy berry-red creme, with undertones of pink and I think I see purple? Or is that me being insane? 


The formula is quite thick but applies pretty nicely. I have two coats on in the pictures, with top coat. I absolutely love this colour...don't forget the base coat with this one though, staining little bugger!

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Tuesday 14 February 2012

Valentine's Nails #2

Happy Valentine's Day! Or happy Tuesday if you prefer. I've been slacking lately, between horribly broken nails (I am still sporting pieces of tea bag) and lots to do at home I haven't been in the mood. It was lovely to come back and see some new followers though! :) I think I'll start planning my next giveaway, I just need to clear up a few things with shipping first...apparently the USA does not appreciate me trying to post things to them! 

Here is Valentine's mani number two.


I used Barry M - Shocking Pink for the base, then sponged on some Calvin Klein - Hint Of Pink, followed by some Models Own - Pastel Pink, to create a gradient. 

I then stamped on a design from Bundle Monster plate 205, using Konad Special Polish in white. I added a coat of Barry M - Iridescence, then finished by slicing up some Fimo roses to make it that extra bit sickly :P


Sometimes I just can't resist a bit of Hello Kitty...



I hope everyone had a nice day either consuming lots of chocolate, or burning your ex's clothes in a bin. :)

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Tuesday 7 February 2012

Valentine's Hearts

I did this quite quickly earlier today, so that is my excuse for the hearts being less than neat and looking slightly like tiny bums. My cuticles are looking better though right? 


Base is Models Own - Lili's Pink, a super cute pink shimmery foil. 
I then did the messy hearts with Models Own - Utopia and a nail art brush. I brushed on a layer of Models Own - Juicy Jules and finished by outlining the hearts with a nail art brush. 


My ring finger is the one with the piece of teabag on it. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius! Though I imagine it will snap off completely before long. Being such a tea lover though I don't mind carrying a piece of tea around with me all day long :P

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How I store my nail stuff

I thought I would do one of these posts today because I have no mani to show, due to me seething over yet another broken nail...on my good hand, of course. I have wrangled it using ye olde teabag, just hoping it holds for longer than 30 seconds. I have also had to nub two nails on my right hand so far down due to splits and peels that I made them bleed. Oops! Someone just cut off my fingers or something!

Anyway, he we have my helmer. It isn't very full but if you ask my bank account it'll tell you I am working overly hard on changing that.

I stuck things on some of the drawers to correlate with the contents, 'cos I'm crafty y'see. Or not. The boxes on top hold my nail art toys.


Drawer 1, Barry M, Models Own and Max Factor. I put little labels on the Models Own since you can't tell what is what. Then I thought maybe I should have just turned them upside down. Oh well.


Drawer 2, OPI, China Glaze and Illamasqua. 


Drawer 3, Calvin Klein, H&M, Accessorize, Nails Inc., GOSH, Rimmel, Collection 2000, 17, NYC and Revlon. AKA a hot mess.


Drawer 4, Poor lonely one off polishes. I must buy them some friends of their own kind. :(


Drawer 5. The bore drawer. Sponges and cotton pads and general crap that will be booted out when I need the space.


Drawer 6, Top coats, base coats, treatments, stripers and nail art pens. 


Inside the mysterious boxes...nail art brushes, files, dotting tools, some useless items


Fimo, stamping plates, nail wheels, gems, decals, stuff stuff stuff.

And that's that. How did I live before the faithful helmer came into my life eh?
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Friday 3 February 2012

Max Factor Fantasy Fire Swatches

I eventually found this, after the first few places I looked were sold out. Superdrug had three bottles left so I grabbed all 3 so I could give some to friends in the US...and they did have a 3 for 2 offer on. I hear this is a dupe of the coveted Clarins 230, which of course I don't own! 

The Max Factor Mini Effects collection polishes are gorgeous, it's just a shame the bottles are so tiny, especially if your nail beds are 57 miles long like mine are. 

Fantasy Fire is a sheer purple jelly base, packed with colour shifting, shimmery glittery particles. Best way I can describe it! My pictures are three generous coats, without top coat, taken in natural sunlight.


With camera flash:

Still some VNL, as you can see, which is why this polish probably works better over something.  Here it is layered over Barry M - Indigo (top) and NYC - Prince Street. It looks lovely on both but stunning over the Barry M, it really brings out the gold.


So happy with this! I may have to buy another bottle if I can, the tiny one won't last long with my nails. 

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Wednesday 1 February 2012

Pop Heart

I sound like a broken record but lord is it COLD! It's -1 here. I'm sitting here under a big fleecy blanket with just my hands poking out like ET. I feel like climbing into the oven.

Anyway, I wanted to do something bright, so here we have what I have labelled "pop heart". The heart design is something I did on a nail wheel (which will eventually be posted here) and decided to use in an actual mani, though granted it does look better on the nail wheel.


The base is Rimmel Lasting Finish in Sunshine. The formula was a bit sheer and streaky but it does have a nice subtle shimmer to it. The accent nail was done using Barry M - Matt White and a dotting tool, then I freehanded (can't you tell!) a heart using Models Own - Bubblegum, and outlined it using a tiny brush with black acrylic paint. I'll be damned if I can outline things using actual black polish. Damned I tell you.


I finished with a couple of fimo flowers. I'm on the fence about the flowers. One of the pesky things decided to fall off when I was taking pictures (and what better time to fall off!?) which is why there's an odd blur on my index finger...I didn't have time to stick it back on so I blurred out the big chip.


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