Hello lovelies,

How have you all been? I can't believe another month had passed and it's time for the Paint All The Nails nail art challenge again! In two, months it will almost be New Year's! Crazy!

This month's theme is GILDED so I obviously had to reach for some pretty gold foil and I paired it up with some gorgeous blue and a hint of white lace inspired by various russian nail techs (for the love of me I can't find them because I don't remember their names :(

For this look, I've been using a new to me brand of gel polish, Semilac. It is a very popular Polish brand and it is now available in the UK too.

"Semilac is a hybrid nail polish which combines gel, UV and nail polish properties to create a high performance, long lasting product."

I've used a shimmery blue colour called Shooting Star (#114). Two thin coats were perfectly opaque and applied very nicely. I've cured it with the 6W UV LED lamp that I got in the Semilac Starte Kit*. Once cured, I've used the inhibition (sticky) layer as an adhesive for the gold foil and just pressed a piece against the nail in random places. It created the gold distressed look I was after. I wasn't happy with the look because it was a bit boring and plain so I added a freehand white lace. I've painted it using a white acrylic paint. I think it would have gotten a better result if I'd use a white nail art gel because the acrylic paint was a bit patchy and uneven even with second coat. Well, live and learn!

Lastly, I've sealed the whole design with a coat of Semilac Top Coat from the same Starter Kit.

So what do you think?

I'm pretty pleased with the whole look, and enjoyed wearing it. If you'll recreate it then tag me @lucysstash and #lucysstash so I can see your recreation :) You can also see other nail artists' interpretation of this theme by searching the #paintallthenailsgilded or check out the link-up widget below.

Have a lovely day! Lucie x

*PR sample

Hello lovelies,

August has passed very fast for me and it's time for the monthly nail art challenge from Paint All The Nails. I completely forgot (thanks to my 2-week holiday) and I didn't have time to do any special colour block design. Luckily I've had an older manicure that I've done and that I can use. I still have my square shaped nails there but I'm sure you won't mind ;)

Today's manicure is very colourful and summery and I can show you a step by step tutorial of the design too! I've done it using Leighton Denny polishes and a Color Club French Tip white polish as a base. Yes guys, this is so far my favourite white nail polish. Here's the final look and list of all the polishes I've used:

These nails might look difficult to do but I've broken the design into small steps for you and in the end it's just painting lines. A great design to practice your line work ;)

How to:

Step 1 - Apply a base coat to clean and dry nails. Then paint them with one or two coats of white nail polish. I've used Colour Club French Tip which is very opaque so I got away with just one coat.

Step 2 - Paint the top of each nail with a different colour. I chose colours that will be somewhat dominant on the nail.

Step 3 - Add thin and thick stripes of the same colour to the nails

Step 4 - Start adding more stripes of different colours. Try to stick to similar colour families with the odd stripe in colour of the next nail to tie the nails visually together

Step 5 - Continue with adding more stripes and colours to the rest of the nails. Different widths of stripes make a really interesting effect

Step 6 - Finish up with a coat of Leighton Denny One For All (as a top coat) and admire your new beautiful nails ;)

My line work is far from perfect but all in all I quite liked this look. And practice makes perfect so imperfection isn't a fail at all, just another lesson on the path to perfection!

What do you think of this look? Would you wear it?

I'm so glad I was able to participate in this month's Paint All The Nails Challenge again and if you'd like to see what my fellow nail bloggers came up with, check out #paintallthenailscolorblock and the link up below!

Have a lovely day! Lucie x