Hello lovelies,

How is your weekend? I'm catching up on some blog work and preparing some new secret project ;) Today I'll show you a gradient manicure and then an updated version of it.

Lovely people from Models Own have sent me their latest colours added to the metallic Chrome collection and I've integrated them into some of my nail art manicures. I started with two coats of Models Own Chrome Grey and then I've sponged on I Love Nail Polish Metropolis and Cold Fusion flakies from the tip of the nail toward the centre.

For me, flakies are still amazing polishes and I really love them so I'll do my best to incorporate them little bit more in the future. I purposely used two different flakie polishes to achieve a nice range of colours and I quite liked the result. But it wasn't quite good enough so I added floral stamping on top!

I have used my Bundle Monster x Lucy's Stash collaboration plate and Hit The Bottle Snowed In stamping polish. All sealed with a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

I see myself coming back again and again to my collaboration stamping plate, probably until I do a manicure with every single image. What about you? Have you gotten yourself this plate yet?

I hope you enjoyed this post and had a nice weekend! Lucie x

*Some of the products were previously sent as PR samples

Hello lovelies,

How are you all? I'm slowly recovering from the New Year's celebrations and the shock of going back to work and pondering about whole last year lol. It feels like 2015 flew so fast and I didn't do much in terms of my blog. Today I'd just like to look back and recap last year, show you my favourite projects and products and also talk about some fails.

Favourite products

Anything Bliss Kiss! Bliss Kiss products have been in my favourites since I tried Bliss Kiss Simply Pure Nail Oil for the first time and since then Ana and Bliss Kiss team have developed and added new products and I loved those as much. Every time someone asks me for a recommendation on cuticle oil, this is my go-to brand!

It was also year of latex barriers for easing up the clean up and Bliss Kiss scored again with their Simply Peel which I love to use and love the mixed in glitter. They've also added a dropper bottle to their offer so you can choose to work with brush or dropper. Or you can use the dropper bottle to refill your regular Simply Peel with brush!

ILNP everything! ILNP (I Love Nail Polish) is one of my favourite indie brands ever and 2015 was a great year full of multichrome flakies, precious metals and vibrant multichromes. I'm currently waiting for my order from Winter and Holiday collections and can't wait!

This next favourite is not nail-related but I only feature products that I love and want to spread the word about. Well, Voloom is a revolutionary product for me. Voloom is a hair volumizing iron! I never thought I could get some volume in my hair but this year somebody finally created the perfect product for me. I'm still loving Voloom and I can recommend it :) You can read the full review here.

I also got two great nail art books this year. I've already reviewed the first one called Nail It! written by the one and only Sophie Harris-Greenslade aka The Illustrated Nail. I absolutely loved this book which is packed-full of amazing nail art tutorials, tips and tricks. I'm sure it will be an inspiration in 2016 too.

The second book I got is called Pretty Hands and Sweet Feet and it features great bloggers like The Nailasaurus, Wondrously Polished, Nailed It, Chalkboard Nails and Penelope Yee (@jovialweaver). I haven't reviewed it yet but it's a lovely nail art book with tutorials from popular bloggers and I'm glad I own it.

When picking some polishes and collections that stand out for me last year, I knew it had to be A England To Emily Bronte collection. I loved the colours and buttery formulas so much I gave each polish their own post! Can't wait what A England brings in 2016!

Last year has also seen a mini revolution in peel-off base coats. Most brands started with glue-based peel-off base coats (SpaRitual, OPI...) but there were also some clear and truly great peel-off base coats like the Unt. I've also included Magic Peel from S'N'B because it is very similar to Unt and so far it works great for me as well. Honestly, I can't imagine life without peel-off base coats and latex barriers now...

Pictured: OPI Glitter Off, UNT Ready For Takeoff, SpaRitual Unveil, S'N'B Magic Peel Off Base.

..yes, latex barriers are next on my list! I've been mostly using Bliss Kiss Simply Peel and Bundle Monster Poli-Peel latex barriers and so far they've worked a treat! I'm never going back to stamped fingers and lengthy acetone clean up.

Favourite nail art trend

The shattered glass nails trend has been undisputedly the biggest trend of the year and I completely fell in love with it! It is by far my favourite nail trend of 2015 and it probably will be a big part of 2016 too. You can check out my posts and tutorials of Pink shattered glass nails, Rainbow opal nails and Gel polish shattered glass nails. What do you think of this nail art? Do you like it as much as I do?

Personal highlights of the year

One of the most memorable collaborations of last year was the one with The Body Shop. First I was one of their manicurists at London Fashion Week treatment area (full report here) and then we filmed two nail art tutorials with their nail polish range. It was so much fun! The first tutorial was Pink Galaxy Nails and the second one was a fun half-moon dotticure.

However, the single biggest event of the year was my wedding! It completely took over 2015 and took quite a bit of my free time usually dedicated to blogging. I'm glad it was quite a success, especially my hand-made bridal bouquet I made and all the decorations, despite the 40 degree heatwave! You can find my full wedding post here.

Fails of the year

Yes, I'm not perfect lol! There are few things I failed at last year and this category is a reminder and a list of things I'd like to improve next year.

• I've never tried a mani-bomb! Mani-bombs were a big hit last year yet I failed to try one. Tell me - should I bother? Why do you love using mani-bombs?
• Lucy's Stash PRO - I count this as a fail because with the wedding and all I didn't have any time at all to update it and I'm considering pausing work on this site until I do nails professionally. Meanwhile I can show you anything with gel polishes on Lucy's Stash, right? What is your view on this?
• I failed to update my Tutorials page. I've done quite a few tutorials in the past year or two but I haven't had time to update and modernize the Tutorial page. I'd really like it to be really great page but I struggle to do it design-wise and don't have the time. Quite frankly, I need help with this! Boo :(
• Poor time management and disorganisation - when it comes to my blog, I totally sucked at being organised, keep email replies up to date, brands updated etc. I need to change that and I hope I'll manage!

So that's kind of my summary of last year - would you like to see my favourite nail art manicures of 2015?

Have a lovely day! Lucie x