Ice Swimming Mermaids

Hey space turtles! Today's nail art is close to my heart as it's inspired by my cold water swimming which I've managed to keep up throughout this winter. I'm loving the swims and post fire chats so much that I almost feel like I don't want it to warm up! I usually swim in a lake near me and had the fortunate experience of trying an ice swim earlier in January (it's all organised with life guards etc). Last weekend I also swam in the sea with my sister who is into wild swimming too - great fun! So I wanted to do a tribute to that with some wintery mermaid nails.

I started with a peel of base coat and one coat of gorgeous reflective nail polish (colours listed below pictures). I created decals on my Uber Mat using white nail polish to stand out against the background.  While these were drying I added snowflake images to my outer nails using Mo You London's Noel 08 stamping plate. The mermaids are from their Atlantis 05 stamping plate. After placing the decals on my nails I added some smaller snowflakes around the mermaids and some little drops of snow using a dotting tool. I finished the look with a glossy top coat.

I'm undecided as to whether I should have done the outlines of the mermaids in black or white but I think white was probably the right decision. It's hard to know how well black would have shown up. Overall I'm pleased with these - the base colour is gorgeous and I love the theme! I particularly like how the mermaids are looking up at the snowflakes. I look forward to wearing these for my lake swim tomorrow!

Colours used: Tapped Out - KB Shimmer, Essential White - Uber Chic, Charlotte Street - Nails Inc, Cappuccino - Barry M, Purplicious - Mark

Seahorses in Seahouses

Hi again! Back with another Glam Nails Challenge theme of Seahorses. I wore these on a trip to the coast in a place called Seahouses hence the name of this blog post. I had a couple of stamping plate options for seahorses but decided to go with Mo You London's Atlantis 02 plate with it's lovely layered images. Usually I'd put the central feature on the middle two nails but decided to switch it up a bit this time and have the seahorses to one side.

I started with two coats of blue glitter (which was fortunately quite opaque as I didn't have any sponges with me for the sponging technique) over a peel off base coat. I then added the first layer of all the images I planned to use in white, adding the coloured layers second and black at the end where necessary. The seaweed images aren't layering ones but I used white underneath them anyway to help them stand out. I really like how that worked on my thumbnail.

I'm pleased with these. They are definitely my kind of colour and my kind of theme! I could have got the layering better for the seahorses but it's not that obvious. Enjoying wearing them :)

Colours used: Twinkled - Enchanted Polish, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Acai Smoothie - Barry M, Grey - Barry M, Cyan - Barry M, Bright Purple - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Birthday Fireworks and Aquatics!

Hey everyone! Hope you are doing well :) It's just been my Birthday and I've been enjoying a few days off. I wanted to create some Birthday nail art and try something super sparkly but also firework related. I find firework nails really hard to do well so didn't do just fireworks, but tried an abstract aquatic theme as I love ocean themed things! It was very much a make it up as I go along sort of look! Also tried the flakie version of Fun Lacquers reflective polish which was good fun!

I started with a peel off base coat, followed by three layers of silver reflective glitter and a couple of coats of glitter grabber top coat. I couldn't bring myself to file my nails down a bit and all these layers should help keep them strong! I then used black stamping polish and Mo You London's Aquatic 04 and Festive 05 stamping plates to add the images. I particularly love the way the thumb nails came out. Next I used a couple of sheer polishes in purple and blue and a small nail art brush to add some colour.

I quite often don't do that well with my Birthday nails but I'm really pleased with these! I'm really pleased with how the fireworks came out and they were so simple to do. I'm also loving the serious sparkle going on with the base polish! I've included loads of pictures below as I created this look over both hands. I'm looking forward to wearing them for the rest of my Birthday celebrations!

Keep scrolling for thumb nail pictures and polishes used underneath! Colours used: Flash Diamond Flake - Fun Lacquer, Royal Jelly, Lilac Jelly, Thistle Sheer, Cobalt Jelly, Indigo Jelly, French Blue Sheer - All Cirque Colors, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Deep In The Ocean

Hey everyone! I'm feeling a bit ill today - really hope it passes overnight as I have things to go to over the next couple of days! But I'm not so ill that I can do some blogging and play around with some nail polish :) As I've mentioned before I was super excited to receive some of the Mo You London Atlantis stamping plates. They are exactly my kind of thing! For today's nail art I'm using Atlantis 02 which is full of layering images. I have many ideas for this one but liked the idea of a dark sparkly ocean with the sea creatures standing out so decided to try that first.

I started with a base of black followed by shimmer (colours listed below the pictures). Once dry I started with the bottom layer of each image I'd chosen on the stamping plate, which I added in white on my nails so that the colours I then applied would stand out against the dark background. I then proceeded with the other colours, one nail at a time. These images were pretty easy to do, I was pleased with how easy they were to layer (although mine aren't perfectly layered, but not too bad I think!). My favourite is the clown fish, the colours worked so well. I'm really pleased with these overall and look forward to using this plate again!

Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Papaya - Barry M, Passionfruit - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc, Yellow - Barry M, Indigo - Barry M, Cream Soda - Barry M, Acai Smoothie - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M. Crystal Shimmer - Accessorise 

Mermaiding Around

Hey nail people! Aquatic nail art to share today - one of my favourite kinds to do! I recently purchased a few of Mo You London's Atlantis stamping plates and this is the first one I've used (Atlantis 05). It's got lots of lovely mermaid images along with some other ocean images. I love how happy and free the mermaids look, it is the perfect depiction of how I feel when wild swimming! I've been doing a lot of wild swimming this year (and am hoping to keep going over the winter) so am commemorating it with this nail art. I've made the mermaid look like me with long brown hair and pale skin.

To create this look I started with a base of pale blue on all of my nails. I created decals on my Uber Mat for the mermaid scales and the mermaid images. You can see how here. I love this stamping plate, the mermaid images are so fabulous - it was hard to choose which ones to use! This mermaid tail pattern is lovely too, something a little different from the standard. So in conclusion, as you can tell, I love these! Looking forward to using this plate some more!

Colours used: Mermaid Parade - Nails Inc, Ocean Ever After - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Bronze Bae - Barry M, Cobalt - Barry M, Bright Purple - Barry M, Angelfish - Barry M, Pinktail - Barry M