GuestPost - FairyTalesNails

Today is a big day, it's my partners birthday, and it is also my due date (!)
If it has already happened at this stage there will be a post over on my Instagram with the good news. If I am still waiting for my little munchkin, then I will be spending the day celebrating my partners birthday.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy hearing from Kirsty, who is the lovely lady behind Fairytalesnails!



Hi everyone

when Dina said she was looking for someone to do a guest post whilst she is on maternity leave, I jumped at the chance. I have always loved her blog and her mani's, my name is Kirsty and I write a blog called Fairytalesnails. I am a full-time mummy to an amazing two-year-old little girl and I am a nail polish addict. I do swatch and reviews of collections and individual polishes as well as nail art, blogging and anything nail related is my passion. So for my guest post I decided to do a simple stamped mani using one of the polishes from my Alphabet Swatchathon. 

A England - Briar Rose

For my base polish I used A England Briar Rose, this is a beautiful pink toned red linear holographic. This beauty is fully opaque in 2 thin coats, or you could even get away with 1 thick coat. If you would like any more information there is a full blog post about this polish up on my blog now. 

A England - Briar Rose stamped with BornPretty Stamping Polish using Fab Ur Nails - Fun13

The stamping image I chose is from Fab Ur Nails Fun 13, It is a really pretty criss cross pattern with hearts in the middle of each diamond.

A England - Briar Rose stamped with BornPretty Stamping Polish #22320 using Fab Ur Nails - Fun13
Close-up

Born Pretty stamping polish is my go to for any coloured stamping, this polish is a yellow toned gold. I stamped using my Clear Jelly Big Bling stamper, this stamper has a large clear head and make it so easy to line up the images on your nail. 

I hope you like this mani and a big thank you again to Dina for letting me be a guest blogger on her blog. I hope you are having an amazing time being a new mummy, and your little one is happy and healthy. 

Ceramic Elaine

Fall is all over us and people everywhere is getting ready for Halloween. Having done all sorts of elaborate stamping designs lately I felt like toning it down a little.

As I am writing this I have been struck with a sudden loss of hearing and everything is rolled in cotton balls. First sign of the weather getting colder I suppose and a cold getting ready to strike me. Hopefully it will pass as soon as possible.

For this manicure I used A England - Elaine. Fully opaque in two coats, and used one coat of Layla - CE52 over. I really like how this looks, and I am sure it makes the perfect base for some elaborate stamping, but today I am going to enjoy it as is.

A England - Elaine with Layla - CE52

If you love flakies, this is truly a gorgeous polish and I just love how Layla - CE52 looks over Elaine. This is a very obvious pairing, since CE52 looks very purple in the bottle, and I am sure it will look just as gorgeous over other polishes. Which polish would you use? Leave me a comment down below and I will try it out for you.

A England - Elaine with Layla - CE52

For those of you thinking that this could possible be a dupe for Cult Nails - Seduction, I am sorry to disappoint while they both are in a purple base, and have gold shimmer in the flakies, he flakies in Layla - CE52 is leaning red and green, while the flakies in Cult Nails - Seduction is leaning blue. Layla - CE52 is also denser.

A England - Dragon

One of my favorite brands of polish in the indie world is A England. So as we are getting closer to the end of September here, I wanted to make sure that atleast one of them was featured during this month of indie-polish-focus. 

This is one of my newer A England purchases, and I have seen a couple more that I want from the brand, that will be my Christmas present to myself.

The polish I wanted to show you today is A England - Dragon.
At the time of writing this post, A England - Dragon is currently out of stock. 

This mossy green nail polish is absolutely amazing.  So rich in colour, it could be applied in just one coat. I choose to use two just to be on the safe side.  

They also work for stamping. So you know.

A England - Dragon

A England  does not ship outside of UK, but you can still get your hands on these polishes, as there are several distributors that can help you out.

I have been wearing this polish for a week now, and it's a bit sad to take it off and use something else. I am sure you will love the next polish I got to show you. Maybe even just as much as this one.
That is, if you are a green-lover like myself.

Morgan Le Fay's Flowers

Contains affiliate link. Contains product previously sent for reviewing purposes.

It's been eons since last time I used A England - Morgan Le Fay. I feel kind of sad for it. I just can't seem to figure out just exactly what to use it for. I have today made another attempt to use it for a manicure. I think the end result is interesting, but it just doesn't sit right with me. Better luck next time I suppose.

I still wanted to post this manicure on my blog, as I often find that I am my own worse critic. 

First I started out with Barry M - Speedy - Pit Stop. I think this is a gorgeous shade. Light colour, but still not white.

Barry M - Speedy - Pit Stop

Barry M - Speedy - Pit Stop

I then proceeded to stamp using Bornpretty Qgirl - 022 with Barry M - Vintage Violet.
I filled the flowers in with A England - Morgan Le Fay.

On the rest of the nails I used one stroke of A England - Morgan Le Fay.

A England - Morgan Le Fay layered over Barry M - Speedy - Pit Stop

A England - Morgan Le Fay layered over Barry M - Speedy - Pit Stop

I like the look of A England - Morgan Le Fay layered over Barry M - Speedy - Pit Stop, but i don't think it works well for filling in the flowers. I should have used another polish, me thinks.

If you want to get your hands on the Chic Flower Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate Pattern #Qgirl-022 it is found at BornPrettyStore and it's sold for $ 2.99.

BornPrettyStore also offers free shipping worldwide, and if you use my code (RAMG10) you get 10% off your order.

#boyfriendpicksmypolish

Contains affiliate link. Contains product previously sent for reviewing purposes.

 The last attempt on #boyfriendpicksmypolish was somewhat successful, I decided to ask him again to pick out some polishes from my stash. Last time he picked a pink polish and a stamping plate, and this time we went with all polishes.

Since last #boyfriendpicksmypolish -entry I have organized my stash, and swatched them out on swatching sticks. I asked him to have a look at them, and select three polishes. Not being keep on looking through so many swatching sticks, he decided to solve it with a formula in Excel.
Since all my polishes are in a spreadsheet it was easy to add a randomizer, and have the formula select three polishes to use.

It picked A England - Tristam, Zoya - Savita and Miss Sporty - 452.
I don't think it is possible to choose more random than that.
A creme, a velvet matte, and a holo.

I took the polishes out of their drawers in my Helmer, and placed them on my desk, in hope that by looking at them together I would get inspired.
A week went by.
Nothing.

Then I decided to just "eff it" and give it a go.

I painted index finger with Zoya - Savita, and A England - Tristam on middle finger and little finger. On my ringfinger I used a thin striping brush and made lines using Zoya - Savita, and A England - Tristam.
I decided to use Qgirl - 022 that I had recently received from Born Pretty Store, and use Miss Sporty - 452, to stamp with on index, middle and little finger.

A England - Tristam, with Zoya - Savita, and Miss Sporty - 452 stamped over.

I actually like how this design ended up looking, if I were get a do-over I would have done something else for my accent. I don't think those stripes worked well with the rest of the design.

If you want to get your hands on the Chic Flower Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate Pattern #Qgirl-022 it is found at BornPrettyStore and it's sold for $ 2.99.

BornPrettyStore also offers free shipping worldwide, and if you use my code (RAMG10) you get 10% off your order.

Over Due - New Years Nails

This manicure is completely over due, but I am going to show it non the less.
I was sporting cute little nubbins this New Years. I was also at work the entire day, and fell asleep really early, so no fireworks for me. Not even a little, not even at all.

The banner, and I hope you like my little artistic expression here today, was made by me, on a very slow work day, using an ink splatter by FlorianHesse from DeviantArt as inspiration. I thought it looked pretty cool with the black and red splatter in the back ground and the pink over it.
Gotta give credit :) Sharing is caring.

I recently bought a handful of A England polishes, and I wanted to do something with them. So for New Year I decorated my talons in A England - Dragon.

I stamped using Cheeky Jumbo Plate 6 - Happy Holidays, using HEMA - 53.

I loved the subtle stamping over A England Dragon. It says Happy New Year if you can't read it.

I know I can't. HeHe.

Until next time; stay safe, stay warm, in this wintery weather I know some of you are having at the moment.

L is for Lamppost

I have been wondering for a while what to do with the letters L and N in Llama Nails ABC Challenge I am doing. And then it just hit me.
I would do a Narnia lamppost. I felt so proud of myself for coming up with the idea. A took a swatching wheel and tried to nail a lamppost on them first, tried different background, and I decided to use A England - Tristam, in the end.

I love the fact that A England is a one-coater. It covers so well, it's amazing.

A England - Lady Of The Lake

Hello girls. Today I have another A England swatch for you.
Its Lady Of The Lake.

I love the story of The Lady in the lake, and just had to have this polish, since it is also a purple. And I felt the need of adding more purple to my collection.

Until next time, what do you think?

Time for Reflection over Tristam

Good morning everyone.
Its time to do some nail art.

Last night I swatched A England - Tristam.

Its sooooo Pretty. 

If you don't want to see me totally transform this polish, into something else, don't read any further. There might be tears.

I grabbed my Time for Reflection -  Essence, and did one coat over Tristam.

Wow! No trace of Tristam left. Totally transformed. Do you like it?

I did some nail art over it, I`m not a fan of how it turned out, but here it is anyway. Who knows, you might like it.

I sponged using Mystic Mauve - Models Own. Then I stamped with BM plate 316, in WnW Black Creme.

It might have looked better without the coat of Time for Reflection - Essence.

A England - Tristam

Today I have a swatch for you, of A England - Tristam.

I just love this shade. Its a blue holo. and as we all know I have a Huge crush on Blues.

Without further ado:

A England - Two for French

Today I was to show you a manicure I tested out.
I am sure you have heard of Saran Wrap Nail Art. I wanted to give it a go, and decided to use Tristam, and Morgan Le Fay from A England.

I started out with one coat of Morgan Le Fay, its a milky white holo, comes on very sheer. I left it dry for a while and added another coat. I don't have picture of this step, sadly.

I grabbed some plastic wrapping, and added some Tristam. And french tips in Tristam.
This is my first attempt on this, but I think the finishing result was very good, even thou its very sheer.

Chim Chim Cher-ee

This mani just makes me really happy. And its not nail art (!). Its something far easier, and straight, than that. Its just two polished over one another.

So I started out with FNUG - Bandana. This is how it looks like.

I just adore this blue shade, its very pretty, and it wears well on my fair complection. 

Then I decided to pair it with A England - Morgan Le Fay.

And don't ask me why, but this made me hum on "Chim Chim Cher-ee", thus the name of the post. 

(*feels very clever*)

It must be the British-feel I get when reaching for A England polishes, and the fact that I live on the top floor, and all I can see are chimney-tops from my window. And I do love the view.

So here is the song, if you have forgotten it. Dick van Dyke is so good in Mary Poppins.

Nail Mail x2

Greetings ladies.

Today I have another haul for you, and I am sure you must be thinking, good gracious, how much money does that girl spend on polish.. HeHe. Or you might not wonder at all..

Todays Nail Mail, is from Models Own, and A England.

Such a smart packaging, don`t you think?  You just push the box out.

It even says Models Own on the wrapping paper.

Models Own:
Purple Blue Beetle Juice
Gold Rush
Indian Ocean
Mystic Mauve
Aqua Violet

A England:
Elaine
Morgan Le Fay
Tristam
Lady Of The Lake

Now the question is, which one to use first..?