I've moved my Personal Blog!

Hey everyone!

I know the majority of my followers follow this because it is a NAIL BLOG, however I thought I would mention that I have decided to move my personal blog from Wordpress to Blogger. Mainly because I prefer the features of Blogger, and it means that all my blogs are in one easy to manage platform!

I write reviews of films and games, put up recipes that I have tried out, and rant about my personal life on my blog. To check out some of my old posts you can look at my old personal blog. Or if you want to keep up with me in the present/future then check out my new blog!

Thanks for reading :)

Try a Tutorial Tuesday! Cute Bow Nails!

Hello my little rose petals! Today I bring you YET ANOTHER new feature!

Today I received this wonderful book in the post:

This little beauty is created by Catherine Rodgers a.k.a TotallyCoolNails on Youtube! I had a quick flick through the book and I came up with the idea to try out a tutorial on Tuesdays! This is mainly to make me try new things, but also to give me ideas when I can't think of how to paint my nails! It won't be every Tuesday but I will try and do it as often as I can. 

Today's tutorial comes from page 58 of this book, and is entitled Cute Bow Nails! In the tutorial Catherine used Black and White polishes but I decided that I wanted something a little more subtle, so I chose blue. Here is how they turned out:

I really love these nails, they are cute and girly and definitely make me feel more feminine. I used my Saffron #11 and Collection 2000 BMX Bandit to create this look. I would have posted a picture of the page from the book, but I'm not sure how that would affect copyright law etc. This is also the first time I rounded my false nails instead of squaring them off, which made me feel even more feminine! Being a complete nail art novice there were some problems, my polish started to congeal making it harder to paint with, but I managed  to get around that.

This tutorial was really easy to follow and there are a tonne of tutorials in this book. I will definitely be using it again for this feature, but also I'll be looking at other tutorials such as videos from Youtube and picture tutorials from other bloggers. If there are any tutorials you want me to try out then please tweet me the link (@Alyssia_Rose), and I'll give them a go and let you know how easy they are!

Guest Mani Monday: Naily Perfect

Hey there my little rose petals! 

Today I have a guest post from the lovely Emma of Naily Perfect! I was so pleased when Emma said that she'd do a guest post for me, but I was even more pleased when I saw the pictures of the beautiful manicure she sent me! So without further ado here is her post:

Hey guys, I'm very excited about doing my first ever guest post - especially as it's for the lovely Alyssia, a super talented lady with gorgeous nails and flipping brilliant ideas:) 

So here's my mani - a pink and silver mash up with some leopard print thrown in for a good measure! All of these polishes are from my untried drawer, very chuffed I've managed to get 4 untrieds into 1 mani:) My accent nail is the gorgeous Silver Multi Glitter by the ever trustworthy Barry M, I love the pinky red specks running through it.

All my other nails were painted with an unnamed mini polish by Accessorize, my forefinger and thumb were then topped with a coat of Bling by Nail Pop, and the leopard spots were blobs of Silver Multi Glitter lined with my Models Own nail art pen.

I love mixed up nails, what do you guys think?

~ Emma

This mani is SO BEAUTIFUL! Like I am so in love with it... I HAVE to recreate this look! It's so beautiful, I literally can't find the words for it! Thank you so much Emma for doing a guest post for me! You guys can thank her by going and checking out her blog here. Until next time my lovelies!

Lucky Dip Mani #1

Good evening my little rose petals! I am pleased to report that my broken nail has grown back enough for me to be able to wear false nails! Unfortunately my natural nails are a long way off of being ok, but this means I can get back into blogging!

Today I bring you yet another new feature for this blog! Lucky dip mani's! I got the idea from Lauren Luke a makeup guru on Youtube. She does a lucky dip makeup look so I thought why not do it with my nails! So here are the rules of my lucky dip:

1. Pick a card showing a number (between 1-3), this is the minimum number of polishes that you must use in your look.
2. Looking away from the polish box, blindly pick out the number of polishes shown on your card. 
3. Once you have your first polishes you may dip to find extra polishes (you can only dip double the amount shown on the card originally) e.g. if the card shows 2, you can dip 4 times.
4. When you are done lucky dipping you may choose out of all the polishes you have dipped. You must use the minimum number shown on your card for the look!
5. You may use any technique to create the look.

Those rules actually make it sound a lot more complicated than it is... but anyway, here's what happened on my first go. My card showed a 2, so I decided to blindly pull 4 polishes, here is what I ended up with and they are also in the order I pulled them:

From left to right: Barry M Ruby Glitter, GOSH Gypsy Blue, Saffron White, Unknown Purple Shimmer

You can imagine my shock when the I saw the first two I pulled out. I thought there was no way that they were going to go together, which is why I decided to pull the extra two out and I was glad when I got the purple shimmer. This being my first attempt at a lucky dip I was pretty bummed that it didn't look like any of the polishes I'd picked would go together. But I swatched the Gypsy blue and the purple shimmer together and it looked like I might be rescued. I chose to attempt striping tape again, even though the last time I tried it the results were no less than disastrous! Here is what I came up with:

I am so happy with how these turned out. They took me a long time (almost 2 hours) but I am so happy with the results! I used the Gypsy blue as a base, and then put on the striping tape. Next I used two thin coats of the purple shimmer polish, and whilst the second coat was still wet I carefully removed the striping tape with tweezers. As you can see I even snuck a little bit of the Barry M Ruby Glitter onto the accent nail!  I'm not really sure it goes but I wanted to try and use as many of the polishes as I possibly could! Finally I sealed it all in with a top coat! Today's mani definitely took me out of my comfort zone, and I'm glad to be introducing it as a feature!

In fact I'd love to see some of my readers giving the lucky dip a go! Please email your name, pictures, blog name and a small description of how you created your mani to: armslade@live.co.uk! I would love to feature a couple everytime I do a lucky dip!

Let me know what you think!!

Glimmer by Erica: Treasure Chest

Good afternoon my little rose petals! As you may or may not recall my nails are currently out of action due to a completely idiotic shaving accident, so my posts are going to be a little sparce over the next few weeks. However I have managed to come up with a sort of solution for now!

My housemate Jess asked me if I could paint her nails before we went out last Friday and I agreed on the condition that I could take photos for my blog. I let her loose on my polish collection and 'Treasure Chest' by Glimmer by Erica caught her eye and so We went with that. Here is how it looks:

I used two coats of Saffron #21 as a base for the glitter polish and then carefully applied 3 coats of the glitter. This polish has gold, blue and read glitters and it really does remind me of a treasure chest. I found myself becoming jealous that I could wear this polish myself. The Glimmer by Erica polishes certainly don't disappoint, I currently own 2 and I have swatch the other already, you can find that post here. One of the things I do find is that these polished are fairly hard to apply, but that's just because of the chunks of glitter. Perseverance with them however, can lead to amazing results such as those seen above! I'm also really jealous that my housemate has such lovely nails, I wish mine would behave themselves! 

I hope you've enjoyed this short swatch today! I'm gutted that I can't paint my nails more. I will be attempting to apply false ones later and if it works then I'll be able to post, but I don't have high hopes for them on top of my broken nail.

Make sure you check out the Glimmer by Erica Shop there are tonnes of sparkly polishes to choose from!

Until next time!

Guest Mani Monday: Penguins Left Green Polish

Hello there my little rose petals! If you read my blog then you will know my nails are currently out of action, so today I bring you the second of my guest posts from the lovely Nada of Penguins Left Green Polish. This is one of the first blogs I came across when I first started getting into nail polish, and I love all of Nada's designs. I think it's really great that someone who inspired me to blog is doing a guest post for me, I am so honoured! Anyway here is her post:


Hey!

Sooooo I'm doing a guest post..its about bloody time I got active in the nail blogging community!

I like and follow Alyssia's blog for many reasons! She has a cool idea of Sister Saturday which her and her sister have like a little nail art battle! So cooool! I really like the ideas she has and I like seeing her posts pop up!

I decided to do some more flocking powder magic manicures! I cant get enough of the texture of this great product! It's kept me busy touching my nails! I actually got quite a few compliments while wearing the furry nails! You can find pictures of it here!

Today I decided to do something a little different and paint my nails pink and do some blue furry dots! It actually looks like cute little monster fur! I like how only the dots are furry so when I touch it, it feels smooth then furry! I am just so easily amused its great :D

Here are the pictures!

How cool does that look?? :D

Thanks for reading my little guest post! and thank you to Alyssia for letting me post on her blog!
You can check out more of my posts over at PenguinsLeftGreenPolish!! :)

Bye for now!

Wow I love, love, LOVE these nails so much. Me and my sister have both tried and tested the MUA flocking powder and you can check out that post here. I definitely regret not buying the blue one though, it's too cute, these nails definitely look like monster fur. It almost reminds me of Sully from Monsters Inc. Thank you so much Nada for writing a guest post for me, you are the best!

Out of Action

Hey there my little rose petals!

I was going to have a lovely lilac striping tape mani done for you today but when I was shaving this morning I managed to cut a chunk out of one of my nails, so unfortunately I'm going to be out of action for a few weeks. I'm asking some of my fellow bloggers to do guest posts for me and I already have one lined up for Monday. I'm also going to borrow my friends nails and I might get my sister to do a cheeky mani, we'll see.

Basically this blog won't be completely silent I can assure you of that!

If you are a blogger and you'd like to do a guest post for me then please email me at: armslade@live.co.uk!

Thanks for being understanding guys, I'll be back before you know it ;)

Guest Mani Monday! Pish Posh and Polish!

Hello there my little rose petals! Today I am bringing you the first of hopefully many guest posts that I will be posting on my blog from now on! Today's post comes from the lovely Kerrie from Pish Posh and Polish! Kerrie is another British nail blogger and in fact we both come from the same town and just happened to meet on the internet! It's funny how things like that turn out, anyway without further ado here is her post:

Hello lovely readers, when my one of my polish besties, Alyssia asked If I would do a guest post for a new series she was starting I jumped at the chance. I am honoured to have the chance to post on this amazing blog I love Alyssia's blog and not only that but I found out that we grew up in the same town and are planning to meet up in the summer!

Anyway today I am going to show you a manicure using some of my new Brazilain polishes that I was lucky enough to receive in a swap a few weeks ago. Both the polishes I have used here are by the brand Risque.

The base colour (I cannot find a name on the bottle) is a red-toned coral polish. It is a crelly-type polish, half way between a crème and a jelly polish. Because of this it is a little bit sheer, but was easily build-able in two thicker coats. This polish was also slightly watery in application so you need to be a bit careful but It levels out nicely as it dries on the nail.

I then layered a coat of 'Enchanted' which is a coral based flakie-bomb. This polish is stunning, the flakies  almost glow! They shift between orange/ gold and green depending on the light. This really is a special polish and I love this combination! I love the fact that the flakies look submerged within the polish! 

As normal I topped this manicure with a coat of Seche Vite to keep that trade-mark glossy finish!

This is the perfect manicure to brighten up those long grey winter days (I hear they say we should be getting snow!). I am longing for summer now and my neon polishes again!

Anyway I really hope you enjoyed my post and if you would like to see more from me (feel free to pop over to my blog or on Facebook! Finally to Alyssia, thank you so much for allowing me to guest post on your blog!

Love Kerrie 

So there you have it guys, my first ever guest post! I must say I love flakie polish that Kerrie has used here. I hope you've enjoyed, and make sure you go and check out Kerrie's blog!

Glimmer by Erica: Beneath the Blue

Hello my little rose petals! Today I bring you a swatch of an indie polish!

As soon as I saw this polish I fell in love, it's my favourite colour and it's just irresistibly beautiful!

These pictures really don't do this polish justice, it's so glittery and beautiful like having magical sparkly water on my nails! This is 3 coats of Beneath the Blue over 1 coat of Collection Hot Looks: Show Off. Sorry my nails are so horribly stubby, they just don't seem to want to grow at the moment and I couldn't be bothered with the kerfuffle of falsies today! 

You can check out this polish and more over at the Glimmer by Erica Etsy store!

Hope you enjoy!

Best of British: 13/01/13

Lyndsay at Pie's Eyes has created a Houndstooth Manicure this week, head over and check it out.

Over at Emma's Little Corner the 31day challenge is still going strong, saran wrap, geometric and this splatter mani have been in amongst this weeks challenges.

Kerrie from PishPosh and Polish is still juggling the 31 Day Challenge with her Digit-al Does does Art week. She has done Pop Art, Street Art, Banksy inspired but her favourite is Tribal Nails!

Alyssia from Rose Tint My Nails brings you the second Sister Saturdaythis week the girls take on flocking powder. Also Alyssia finally sorts out her collection and finds some decent nail polish storage!So check it out!

Futurama's Bender Nails were attempted by Enigmatic Rambles this week.

Fancy 10% Off at Born Pretty? Then head over to Wendy's Delights for the code!

Anna of Anna's Polish Addiction has entered The Crumpet's Amateur Nail Art Contest, to see her entry and details about voting see here. She's also posted OPI Liquid Sand polish Stay the Night.

Lou has her one of the Christmas Polishes to show you over on Painted Nails and Baking Scales. What polishes did Father Christmas put in your stocking?

Sister Saturday! Flocking Powder!

Hello there again my little rose petals!

Today I have for you the next installment in the Sister Saturday series in my blog, and this week we are bringing you flocking powder (or Furry Nails). Firstly I need to announce the winner of the first Sister Saturday. The winner had twice the amount of votes and without further ado here is the winning Galaxy Nails Design:

I'm flattered to reveal that the winning design was in fact mine! If you want to see the other design or even find out how we made them then you should check out the original post here. So as it currently stands it's 1-0 to me!

Seeing as me and my sister are apart again now it's going to be much harder to take similar photos, and you'll easily be able to guess which manicure belongs to who, therefore we will tell you who made which mani, and then you can decide which you like more!

We decided upon the theme of flocking powder simply because we both bought some the other week when I was at home. I was surprised when I went into Superdrug to find that there was flocking powder in the MUA section, and not only that but it was on offer for only £2! So I called my sister in and we both decided on different colours.

Manicure #1: Alyssia's Manicure

Here's the flocking powder that I used:

When I saw the colour of my flocking powder, I realised that it reminded me of velvet, and for some reason velvet makes me automatically think of lace. So here is what I have come up with:

I used two coats of Saffron #35 as the base. Then I used a white stamping polish and Cheeky Plate CH23 to place this lace type pattern in the center of all my nails except my ring finger. Then I used a clear topcoat on my ring finger and then whilst it was still wet dipped it firmly into the flocking powder. I finished the look with a coat of Sally Hansen No Chip top coat on all of the lace nails.

I'm really proud of this manicure and these are also the first pictures that I have ever taken with my new DSLR! admittedly the quality could be better, I was struggling to hold the camera and shoot my hand, however when I get my tripod this will not be a problem!

Manicure #2: Letitia's Manicure

Here is the powder that Letitia bought:

And here is her manicure:

To create this look she started with two coats of Barry M Strawberry on all of the nails except the middle and ring fingers. Then using the same colour she painted one coat onto her ring finger, and then whilst wet dipped it into the flocking powder, pressing firmly to ensure that the nail was covered. Next she applied the Barry M Strawberry to her middle finger and whilst still wet she placed five white gems down the side of the nail.  She then finished the look with a coat of Barry M Topcoat on all of the nails, including the ring finger.

I love the simplicity of the design here and the fact that there isn't just one, but there are two embellishments! Good job Sis!

So those are the two manicures, as before please comment below voting for your favourite of the two manicures! Hope you like them!

Nail Polish Storage

Hey there my little rose petals! Hope you are all enjoying the new year!

Today I am here to talk to you about how I store my polish. Ever since my obsession started in November I've been putting all the polish I bought in a box, all piled on top of each other. Every time I wanted to paint my nails I had to tip it all out to find the polish I wanted to use and put all the other ones back.

I asked my fellow bloggers how they store polish and most answered Ikea Helmer's. I'll admit I loved the idea, but not having an Ikea near me meant I had to have a rethink. As well as that I only have 116 polishes so I wouldn't even begin to fill my own Helmer just yet. So I've been looking everywhere for a pretty box to put my polishes in and TK Maxx had exactly what I was looking for!

Here is my beautiful box! I'm not sure of the exact dimensions but it's pretty big, but at £9.99 it was a steal! Admittedly it is only reinforced cardboard, but it's plenty strong enough as long as you don't just pick it up by the sides! So I spent the majority of this evening sorting out my polish and here is how it looks:

I'm using the piece of card through the middle to separate my tried's and untried's. Unfortunately my untried's are the larger side! You may also be able to see that on my tried's side I have placed a little dot of polish on a piece of paper and then sellotaped it onto the cap's so I can find the colour I need quickly. Admittedly it does look a bit messy, but it does the job I want it to do!

As you can see there are no tools in this box, this is simply Nail polish! This is where my other pieces are stored:

The Makeup bag on the left houses my hand creams, cuticle treatments, false nails, polish remover, cotton pads, and finally my base and top coats! The bag on the right is housing my nail art pens! The Bag with my nail art pens fits easily inside my box, whilst the other one just sits on top of it.

Finally I have this tin for all my extra nail art pieces. My stamping plates, dotting tools brushes, Nail files, Striping tape etc. This also sits on top of my Nail polish box.

If I'm honest this isn't the ideal solution for me, but seeing as my room at uni is fit to the bursting already it will have to do, and for someone with a relatively small collection it will do for now. I'm not excited about when I move home in May though, I will definitely have to get myself a Helmer then!

So if you are looking for a storage solution for a small collection then I hope that this helps you out!

Sidenote: I have a new blog signature with the perfect font for my blog! I am so gutted that I can't add custom fonts to blogger! Credit for the font is here.

Best Of British: 06/01/12

Hello there my little rose petals! Let's see what the girls have been up to this week!

Emma shows leather and holo finishes together for a rocking new year's eve mani and is currently taking on the 31 day challenge and particularly proud of day 5 over at Emma's Little Corner.

Nada tried her hands at the magnetic gradient effect. What do you think!?

Over at Pie's Eyes, Lyndsay has some new stamping plates to show off the Princess collection and the Fairy collection , both from GALS.

Q themed manicure? Q is for Quackers! Hardest ABC Challenge yet!

Beccy's been making the most of the christmas holidays and has nails in Blue and Pink at Two Days Slow.

Kerry at JustTalkNails is really loving this new Garden Green from Avon, a lovely forest type green.

Lou was busy this week, playing with a new glitter polishe that will have stars in your eyes as well as on your nails.

Anna of Anna's Polish Addiction has been enjoying Debbie Crumpet's 31 Day Challenge, her favourite mani so far being her first attempt at using microbeads on the purple day. She's also posted Revlon Facets of Fuschia.

Just a heads up , Jo at Northern Nails hasn't gone AWOL. her nails are super nibbins and not good for swatching , so shes hasn't been much with the posts this week , But Happy New Year and Welcome 2013 and here's hoping has a fantastic year!

Wendy at Wendy's Delights is showing us her fave nail polish effect Pink Magnetic with Circular Magnet go check it out!

The Crumpet began another 31 Day Challenge this month. Click here to see her amazing pink splatterfest for Day 4.

Hope you enjoy!

Liebster Award Take Two!

I was already nominated for a Liebster award at the beginning of December, you can check that out here.

I've been nominated again by the girls over at Just Talk Nails and Naily Perfect! Although I won't be nominating any more people as I've already done so, I thought it was only fair that I at least answer the questions that the girls have posted as a thank you for nominating me again, I am totally flattered! PLUS I LOVE ANSWERING QUESTIONS! So here goes:

Questions from Just Talk Nails:

1. How many Nail Polishes do you buy a month?

It depends. Recently about 20 a month, but I really want to cut down until I've used all the ones I've currently got!

2. How big is your collection?

uhhhhhh quite big. Not as big as many of the Nail Bloggers I know but still fairly big. Check out my collection page here. It needs to be updated but it's got the majority of my collection on it!

3. Do you collect anything? 

I've never been a collector. Until Nail Polish...

4. What Movie are you looking forward to in 2013?

oooooo there are too many! I am a film student so I love watching films. To name a few: Beautiful Creatures, Wreck It Ralph and Iron Man 3. Got to love a bit of Fantasy, Disney, and Robert Downey Jr!

5. Any New Years Resolutions?

Several, some personal and some blog ones. Check out my personal resolutions here, and my blog ones here.

6. Favourite Meal?

Steak and Chips with onion rings... although I'm not allowed to eat that for a month, if you read my personal resolutions you'll know why!

7. What Nail Polish is next on your buy list?

There are so many! I really REALLY want the Rainbow Honey Equestria Collection! I've managed to buy Pinky Promise second hand from a fellow blogger but I'm desperate for the rest!

8. What is your favourite finish?

GLITTER GLITTER GLITTER!

9. Favourite Polish Colour? 

Blue, same as my favourite colour!

10. What's your favourite TV Programme?

uhhh there are loads... Doctor Who, Eastenders, Glee, The Vampire Diaries, Trueblood, Pretty Little Liars! These are just a few!

11. What are you reading currently?

At the risk of sounding boring, nothing. I'm looking for a good book to read!

Questions from Naily Perfect:

1. Where in the world would you most like to visit?

Venice. I want to ride a gondola!

2. Marmite Love or Hate?

Hate

3. How Many Polishes do you own?

According to my collection page 101 but there are some that haven't been logged yet! YIKES!

4. Do you have any pets?

Two Dogs (Annie and Maizey), and Three Cats (Tigger, Midnight, Lucy)

5. What's your favourite book?

I don't really have a favourite book, but I love crime books!

6. What house would you want to be in if you were a student at Hogwarts?

Either Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw!

7. Whats your favourite fruit?

Pink Lady Apples!

8. Who was your first celebrity crush?

Charlie from Busted. I really really wanted a piece of him!

9. What am I most afraid of?

Losing my close family. I really don't know how I'd function without some of them!

10. Are you a cat person or a dog person?

Mostly both, but I'd say if I had to pick I'd go for Dogs!

11. What was my most hated subject at school?

Maths.

Thanks again girlies! Hope you are satisfied with my answers!

Hello 2013!

Good evening my little rose petals! I hope you all had an enjoyable New Years Eve!

Today I bring you a swatch of a polish I got for Christmas, and my resolutions! I'll start with the swatch:

This little beauty is one of the Miss Sport Metal Flip Polishes! I'm not sure which this is, I get this and the yellow one confused, I think it's Fiery Blaze or Beetle Wings. I'm wearing three coats and I topped it with Sally Hansen no chip acrylic top coat. My sister bought me all three of the Metal Flip Polishes for Christmas and I did attempt to swatch the other two yesterday but having looked at the appalling pictures I decided I would try again another day. This polish comes out kind of purple with tiny red and orange flecks. The picture above was taken under a lamp but I'm sure that in natural light I would be able to pick up many more colours. I'll let you know when I see it in natural light tomorrow! Addition: Under Natural light there are green flecks in the polish too! I absolutely love this polish, you can see all the different colours in the bottle and it changes as you move your hands, for £1.99 you can't go wrong. You can find these in any Superdrug store that stocks Miss Sporty!

Now onto my resolutions! I did write a post about these on my personal blog, but I thought I'd make some nail blog related ones for this blog! If you want to check out my personal resolutions then click here. Now onto my Nail Resolutions:

• Finish the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge by March! I don't paint my nails every day and therefore I can't commit to do the 31 day challenge for 31 straight days! So I hope to have completed them by March the 1st!
• Reach 100 followers by the end of the year! I'm not sure how I'll go about this yet, but it would mean a lot to me to have 100 followers by the end of 2013.
• Do a Giveaway! One of the things I want to do this year is have more things for my readers, starting with Giveaways! I'm planning to do a small one when I reach 50 followers then maybe a contest/ larger giveaway when I reach my target of 100!

So those are my main goals for 2013! If there is anything you think I should be doing on this blog, or things that you want to see more of then please let me know in the comments! Also tell me your resolutions!