Graceful Glamour UK

The postman knocked on my door VERY early over the weekend, 7:10am on a Saturday no less! But when I saw him holding two packages I didn't mind too much. What was in the packages? One of them had my order from Fragrance Direct in and the other had my 2012 Bundle Monster plates, wahoo! There have been allot of photographs circulating the blogger world before I received mine, so I already sort of knew what to expect. You get 25 circular metal stamping plates packaged in  with six images each, so that is a fantastic 150 images to play around and make some beautiful mani's with. So far I've only used the one plate (307) so this is really just a first impressions post to show you the designs. What I can tell you about that plate is, the design I used was very precise, having allot of detail and transfered very well from plate to stamp and then from stamp to nail. The one thing that was a little annoying was getting the blue protective film off. It was soooooo much more

With flash.  I'm not really a bright red nail polish wearer, but as you know I've been trying to broaden my horizons in the polish department so I thought I would try a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear one. I've been really loving this line and I've got Cherry Red to show you.  She is a really lovely bright, true pillar box, creamy red. I can't believe how much I adore this colour! There is no shimmer art all, but somehow she manages to almost glow. Without flash, artificial light. I couldn't fault the formula one little bit. She was pretty much opaque at one coat, but you know I always like to add a second. The formula is neither too runny or thick, and is very forgiving. Drying time is good and you get a beautiful shiny finish. These pictures are with Sally Hansen Continuous Treatment as a base coat and no top coat. That's all from me for now, I hope you are well. Take care, byeeeeeee x :-)

With flash  Well the mystery of me feeling fluffy and dreamlike is that I've come down with a terrible cold, booooohooooo! My brother and his family came down on Tuesday and a couple of them were ill, so I'm guessing that's who I caught it from. As you know from yesterdays post ( click here to see it ) I started this mani with Sally Hansen Double Duty , then two coats of Sally Hansen Deep Blue Sea .  With flash .  For the next step I picked out my Bundle Monster BM201 plate and used it with Sally  Hansen's Blue Away . This particular design was very easy to work with and I actually didn't have to start again with any nails which is a major improvement for me.  For some bling I decided to add pale blue heart shaped rhinestones with LA Girls Diamond Top Coat . I didn't realise as it was late at night, but some of the stones were slightly different colours, whoops! To finish I added an additional layer of the top coat over the whole mani

With flash  Hi all, I hope you well. It's been such a strange few days, almost as if I've been walking around in a dream. I can't put my finger on why, but I'm just not feeling right. Maybe it's because of my Nan's illness, or maybe it's because I'm living back with my parents, but there's definitely something that isn't sitting right with me.   Today I have another polish from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line, Deep Blue Sea . I hope you aren't getting bored with me keep posting about them, but they really are excellent polishes and it makes me want to wear them! No flash, artificial light .  I would call her a medium blue with allot of silver foilish shimmer. The silver shimmer is so dense that in some lights the polish actually looks like a pale blue. I've really been loving blues at the moment and she is one of the most beautiful ones i have in my collection. Again with this line, she is one of the most gorgeous polis

With flash  I've been absolutely loving bright colours at the moment, I'm sure you've realised by now. For this weeks Pink Wednesday I decided to go for Sally Hansen's Hot Magenta . She is an absolutely stunning shiny, shimmery hot magenta. I suppose that was probably a given considering the name, but she really is true to it. Formula wise she is a smooth two coat dream, glides perfectly on to the nail and drying time is very quick between coats. I'm absolutely adoring this Xtreme Wear line of polishes and I'm absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt going to be purchasing more of them. Without Flash  I wanted to add a little something extra so applied four of my Ciate Roses, and a large pearl to the ring finger. I'll keep it quick as it's very late and I've had a tough day. Are you rocking a pink mani this Wednesday? I'd love to know what you are wearing. Take care all, byeeeeeee x :-)

With flash. I didn't really know where I was going to go with this mani, I just sort of made it up as i went along. To start with I applied a layer of Orly Top 2 Bottom as my base coat. I've been really enjoying this and would highly recommend it. Next I added three coats of Borghese Castello Blue. If you haven't seen my review of this with swatches, you can see it here .  Now for a little stamping, so I used the crazy paving style design on my Bundle Monster BM215 with Sally Hansen Raspberry Race ( swatches here ).  Without flash, natural light.  Next was to add some french tips using the rounded Wet N Wild guides and Sally Hansen White On.  I've really been getting in to flowers recently, due to Maria from Maria's Nail Art and Polish Blog  so I decided to add some lovely purple flower fimo. I added them to each nail and then finished off with LA Girl's top coat.  That's all from me for now, I hope you are well. Take care all, by

With flash. I am in a very good mood today as I finally went to see the house I have been waiting for. Not only that, but because the house isn't finished yet, the landlord is going to decorate according to how I want it! How good is that? I get to decide on tiles in both the kitchen and bathroom and then the paint for the rest of the rooms. I am meeting with him in two weeks to finalise the decisions. Today I have another polish from Borghese, Castello Blue. This is a nice very pale dusty blue, with lots  of grey in. The colour is very creamy with zero shimmer.  Formula wise I hated her! She was streaky, terribly difficult to work with and took three very awkward coats to reach opacity.  To be honest though, she could have used a fourth, but as I decided to stamp I left it at three.There was terrible drag from the brush for the second and third coats which was also a pain. Drying time was good, but also made application more difficult when overlapping. Witho

I have to apologise as I've been meaning to do this post for a while now. Recently I have been nominated for several Blog Awards by some fantastic bloggers and I thought I'd share them with you now. Up first is The Versatile Blogger Award,  I was nominated by Make Up Movies & More and Hairspray and High Heels . What an honour to be nominated for this award, and I'm sending a massive thank you and virtual hug to you both! Rules 1 . Nominate 15 bloggers who are relatively new to blogging. 2. Let them know that you have nominated them. 3 . Share 7 random facts about yourself. 4. Thank the bloggers that have nominated you. 5 . Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your blog post. Random Facts About Me.   1 . My favourite food is Sushi. 2 . I have an irrational fear of clowns. 3 . I am allergic to cream but I can still drink skimmed milk, weird huh?  4 . I am the baby in my family, having a sister who is 11 years older, and a brot

No flash.  Hi all, I hope you are are having a fab weekend. I'm really enjoying spending some time with my daughter and not having to worry about unpacking boxes as it is all done! My little girl (15 months) and niece ( 3 years old) were playing in the paddling pool yesterday when my niece suddenly got up and got out of the pool. She was standing with a strange look on her face when I looked down and realised she was having a wee! A couple of minutes later I asked her 'Who did a wee on the floor Elizabeth?' and she said 'It wasn't me, it was Gracie!' I had to laugh... Let's get on to the nail art shall we? The base colour is Essie Smooth Sailing (click here for review), I added two coats of her and then a layer of Sally Hansen Super Shine Top Coat. With flash.  Next I took the gorgeous S ally Hansen Metallic Momentum and used her with my Bundle Monster BM225 stamping plate to get his beautiful flower mani. I have to say, as with the ot

With flash. Now, you may have realised, but I'm really getting in to my blue and purple nail polishes recently. It's really strange, as up until recently I only had a handful, can you believe it? It's funny, I feel like I'm growing as a 'polishista'. Hmmmm, is that even a word? But hopefully you'll get what I mean. You may have seen I got this little lady in a recent haul and I have to say, the bottle is teeny tiny! I am of course talking about Essie Smooth Sailing . As soon as I saw her I was really excited as the colour appeared in the bottle to be very similar to one of my favourite polishes, OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam.  Smooth Sailing is a gorgeous periwinkle blue with silver shimmer that sometimes flashes a little pink in the bottle, but on the nail I can only see silver.  Without flash, artificial light.  Compared to the OPI she is slightly deeper blue and less dusty. The shimmer is only silver, whereas the IDGAR's

2 Coats With Flash A couple of weeks ago I did a mani based on a film for the We Love Nails group and I chose Cinderella, if you didn't see it you can click here  . At the time I promised you a review of the base colour, Jessie's Girl in Stiletto  so here you go.  This is another of the polishes from 2011 JulieG Collection . I have been so happy with the polishes from the rest of this collection, and this little lady is no exception. She is a taupe, but not like any I've ever seen. I would call her a browny, beigey, grey taupe with a fabulous silver shimmer. I like to call her my nude with attitude! I don't have anything that is even remotely similar in my collection so she's a great addition.  As above but no flash and taken in artificial light. Similar to the other polishes in this collection, the formula was beautifully smooth and very forgiving. I did use two coats for my mani, but I reckon if you are careful you could do it in just one.