NOTW 16: Lacey Bahama Mama

One of my best friends bought me Essie's Bahama Mama for Christmas which is a beautiful berry, wine-like colour. I think this is a colour that works all throughout the year and one idea I was really excited to try was a base of Bahama Mama and a white design on top. I had a look through the stamps I have and thought that this flower design would be a great choice as it looks pretty, interesting and elegant! I also thought it would work quite well with the white and I wasn't disappointed!





The polish itself (Bahama Mama) applies so evenly and has great pigment. It only took 2 thin coats to become opaque but more coats would also change the colour slightly, so it's a really versatile polish! It dried pretty quickly too which is a benefit! The stamps I used (Cheeky Stamps) applied evenly too but I do think I need to invest in a proper white stamping polish or use an alternative white as the Barry M one I used just didn't turn out as white as I'd hoped. The overall design was still visible and looked good though so I'm not too disappointed! I also used my Essence topcoat again and I still wasn't disappointed! I loved this design and think it would be a great design for many different occasions and the colour will work all throughout the year!

NOTW 14: Valentines Nails

I haven't done any Valentines Day nails before and I really want to start using calendar events as inspiration for my nails. So I did a generic heart design but I'm actually quite pleased with the result.









I used Nails Inc.'s St. James for my base and used my Cheeky stamps and Konad's black stamping polish for the design. The stamp is a really cool kind of doodle heart design and I thought it'd look great using a black polish. Looking on it, the design is pretty subtle as both of the colours are quite dark but it looks really nice when you can see the actual design. St. James is such a brilliant colour and a joy to apply! You actually only need one coat for it to become opaque but I still applied 2 to make sure. It's a lovely creamy, vibrant red colour and has such good lasting power!
For this design I actually struggled a bit with the stamps, I'm not sure if it was because the engraving wasn't deep enough or if I was doing something wrong. Either way I managed to fight my way through the dodgy application and create this design! I used my Essence top coat which dries amazingly quickly and does a great job of keeping the colour in place! It does tend to smudge the design a bit more than my Seche Vite one but I think I'll be able to find a way around that if I carry on using it! Overall I'm really happy with the design and think it's a great, simple design for Valentines Day.