Friday 29 January 2021

Snowflakes upon snowflakes!

Hello world! Even more winter nail art to share today. I was given a snowflake stamping plate (Mo You London Festive 02) around Christmas time and have used it so much! I love that it has lots of individual snowflakes so you can easily mix and match them, I've been planning a look like this for ages as I loved my sheer Halloween nails and thought I could make a winter version with white instead of black.

I started with two coats of sheer white polish (colours listed below pictures) and then stamped a snowflake onto each nail in white. I then added another snowflake, followed by another layer of sheer white and repeated the steps a few more times. On my ring fingernail I added a couple of different silver glitters as an accent nail. Once dry I used a small nail art brush to add an outline ion the snowflake nails. I was tempted to do this in white but thought these metallic shades would give it a little something extra!

Overall I am quite happy with these, though I definitely don't love them as much as my sheer Halloween nail art, that was a triumph if I do say so myself! :D

Colours used: Allure - Essie, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, Diamond Dust - Barry M, Copper Mine - Barry M, Gold Digger - Barry M, Bronze Bae - Barry M, Silver Lining  - Barry M

Wednesday 27 January 2021

Pretty In Pinecone

Hey everyone! Today I have my last glam nails challenge nail art for a little white as I won't be doing the last one for January, and probably not February either. Going to focus more on some other random designs I'd like to try, but I do love the January themes so had to try a few! I do have to apologies for the state of the picture of my thumb nail - it's blurrier than I thought till I added it to my blog post!

I started with a base of pale pink on two of my nails (colours listed below pictures) and speckled burgundy on the rest. This is the third of these white flecked nail polishes from Emily de Molly I've tried and they're so lovely! I think I like the green/blue ones best though as they're more snow-like. For the pinecone nails I used the Noel 08 stamping plate from Mo You London. I started by stamping the images on the pink nails in gold, and then stamped over it again (but slightly lower) in brown.

Overall I really like these. I think they make a pretty and interesting winter nail look. The only downside is that I did smudge the middle nail a little with my top coat. I'd be tempted to try this again and mattify it too.

Colours used: 4th Chamber - Emily de Molly, Vintage Tee - Nails Inc, Foil Effects in Gold - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M

Sunday 24 January 2021

A snowy winter night

Hi everyone! Back with more Emily de Molly snowy effect nail polish today - I'm not sure if the intention was for it to be snowy effect but it certainly works well for it! This look is for the Glam Nails Challenge Jan prompt 'snowy forest'. I had some difficulty coming up with something for this even though I do love the theme!

I started with a base of Mantra from Emily de Molly, and then used my Mo You London Noel 06 stamping plate for the layered trees, wolves, star and moon. The grey trees came out a bit darker than expected because of the dark background but I still like them. I really love this nail polish as a snowy background for snow themed nail art. We actually had some snow here today, which is fairly rare here in the south of England - it's been great fun!

Colours used: Mantra - Emily de Molly, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Foil Effects in Silver - Barry M, Crystal Shimmer - Accessorize 

Wednesday 20 January 2021

Snowy McSnowmanFace

Wasn't sure what to call this one so Snowy McSnowmanFace it is! This is for another Glam Nails Challenge prompt and is something I was planning to do anyway with this gorgeous base colour. Emily de Molly released a collection last year of semi-sheer polishes with white flecks, and I picked up a few of them in blue, green/teal and burgundy. I thought they'd be perfect to create a snowy background for snowmen and was not disappointed.

So, I started with a base two generous coats of Already Done from Emily de Molly. I was expecting good things as all my Emily de Molly polishes are gorgeous, and this really didn't disappoint! I love the depth this polish creates and I only needed two coats to get it (some sheers I find take a lot more). For the snowmen I used images from Mo You London's Festive 45 stamping plate, and created decals on my Uber Mat to colour them in. There wasn't much else to it really, I was going to add some snowflakes on my other nails but thought I'd keep it as it is to enjoy the base colour!

Overall I'm pretty happy with these, I reckon these colours will keep coming out at Christmas and in the winter for snow themed looks. I love polishes with a bit of depth!

Colours used: Already Done - Emily de Molly, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cream Soda - Barry, Maldives - Picture Polish, Evergreen - Picture Polish, Misery - ILNP, Beach Hut - Models Own

Thursday 14 January 2021

Very Frosty Frosted Metals

Hey everyone! Back with some Holo Taco polishes to share with you today. I was lucky enough to be given the Holo Taco Frosted Metals collection for Christmas by my partner, and had great fun taking pictures of all their shinyness and of course trying them out on my nails! I decided to start with a skittle mani look so I could try them all at once and was impressed with just how sparkly they are. It's hard to photograph the effect properly but I don't have many metallics quite like them. I thought Fake Date (the pink one) in particular was super sparkly!

After I'd painted two coats of each polish on my nails, I used Mo You London's Festive 02 stamping plate and some white stamping polish to add a selection of snowflakes to my nails. They images come out lovely and clear and crisp, I'm really pleased with them. I finished with a glossy top coat and then had fun taking pictures! Unfortunately most of my pictures were quite blurry in the end, these ones were the best of the lot!

Colours used: Fake Date - Holo Taco, Cold Shoulder - Holo Taco, Mint Money - Holo Taco, Gift Receipt - Holo Taco, Cheap Champagne - Holo Taco, White Stamping Polish - Holo Taco

Sunday 10 January 2021

Happy Little Penguins

Hello all! I'm back with my first nail art of the year (excluding the new year looks which I actually painted on New Years Eve). I decided to do whatever nail looks I fancied this month but there were a few Glam Nails Challenge prompts I was really tempted by, one of which is penguins, so giving this one a go. I also tried out ILNP's Staying In for the first time, which is a lovely muted pastel linear holo polish.

Over Staying In I used snowflake images from the Mo You London Festive 02 stamping plate on my index, little finger and thumb nails. For my middle two nails I used their Noel 09 plate to create some penguin decals with these adorable images. You can see how here. I have used the multi penguin image once before but am glad to to a fully penguin focused nail art look with them as it was one of my intentions when I bought the stamping plate. I finished the look with a glossy top coat.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with these, they were quite easy to do and the overall look is cute - the penguins look very content! Unfortunately I smudged the end of my thumb nail a little bit, hence the angle of it in my picture below, I think I've just about managed to hide it!

Colours used: Staying In - ILNP, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, Cream Soda - Barry M

Saturday 2 January 2021

Snowy Snow-globe Nails

Hello again! I have some more wintery nail art to share today. This one is actually from between Christmas and New Year, but I got a bit behind and wanted to post my New Year nail art on the last couple of days, so just getting round to it now! I was inspired by a nail tech/artist on Instagram with the account name The Beauty Room by Sarah. She did some absolutely stunning snow globe nail art which I knew I couldn't recreate but thought I'd try and create the same theme with the tools I have available! I'd totally recommend checking hers out they are beautifully done! Mine bear no resemblance at all to be honest, but the theme is the same!

I started with a base of metallic blue (colours listed below the pictures) and then added snowflakes from Mo You London's Festive 02 plate with white stamping polish. For my ring fingernail I created a snow-globe decal using an image from the Uber Chic Happy Christmas (Christmas 04) plate. After applying all the nail art and a matte top coat to my nails I stuck on some gems while the top coat was still wet. I then added another layer of matte top coat to seal them in, and a little blob of glossy top coat on top of each gem to bring the shine back! I also added a couple of layers of glossy top coat over the snow globe to make it look more glass like. It didn't have as strong of an effect as I would have liked, but was a nice touch all the same.

Overall I have mixed feelings. I know they were never going to be like Sarah's ones, but I thought I'd like them a bit more than I did. I think I'd have really liked them if I'd managed to get them a bit neater, not smudged the snowflakes on the thumb with the top coat (my matte top coat is awful for that!) and if the polish had come out a bit better. I'm blaming my matte top coat, definitely need a new one, it's just not quite matte enough and very smudgy!

Colours used: Aruba Blue - Essie, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Gold Digger - Barry M, Say Love - ILNP, Cream Soda - Barry M

Friday 1 January 2021

Happy New Year 2021!

Happy New Year! I hope this year brings you positivity and good things, and I hope it was better than the last! It feels strange to me that 2020 is over but I know we're not out of the woods yet, at least we're a bit better prepared for it now (I hope!). I created this new year nail art with a few themes in mind, I wanted a bit of a 20's vibe given that we are in the 20's again, and a party vide, and also really wanted to make a decal for my thumb nail with this cute image from one of my Christmas stamping plates.

I started with a base of deep purple and pale grey (colours listed below the pictures) after seeing the purple one advertised again on Instagram - I love it so thought I'd get it out again for this. On my index and little finger nails I used images from Mo You London's Back To The 20's 04 stamping plate, and for my middle finger their Noel 09 plate. The fireworks were done with the Festive 05 plate, and though they don't show up as well as I would have like I kind of like the subtle look. I used MYL's Typography 04 plate to add the 2021 numbers over the top. I do wish I'd started a little further to the left but I'm please with how crisp they are - the Dance Legend stamping polish is great!

On my thumb nail I created a decal using the advanced stamping technique, you can see how here. I'm pleased with how the colours came out and how the skirt matches my other nails. The image is from MYL's Noel 01 stamping plate. Overall although there were a couple of tweaks I'd make (as above) I'm really pleased with these!
P.S. My nail new years resolution this year is just to keep trying to improve my nail pictures :)
Colours used: Madeline - ILNP, Paper Route - ILNP, Foil Effects in Gold - Barry M, Foil Effects in Lilac - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend