Dream Within A Galaxy

Hi everyone! Today's blog post will be a short one as it's a simple look I created for a Glam Nails Challenge prompt (galaxy). I was going to try classic galaxy nails but didn't really have time so decided to use magnetic polish and stamping for a galaxy effect instead. I started with one layer of magnetic polish and then another which I magnetised with a bar magnet. Once dry I added images from the Bundle Monster Kelli Marissa stamping plate in metallic silver. I finished the look with a glossy top coat. I like it - simple yet effective I think! The magnetic effect has spread out a bit over time but I like both the original and current versions.

Colours used: Dream Within A Dream - Cirque Colors, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M

Crabtastic Nails

Snap-Snap-click-click (or whatever noise crabs make!). Another Glam Nails Challenge prompt to share which will be short and sweet as I still have a few posts to catch up on! As you may have guessed the theme for this nail art was crab. I have a few stamping plates with crab images on and settled for this origami image from Mo You London's Origami 05 stamping plate. I made decals on my Uber Mat for the two crabs and also added the image to my nails directly to show me where I'd need to draw between the two base colours (two lovely reflective polishes - colours listed below the pictures). I then added the white water image from the Bundle Monster Twi Star stamping plate over any areas of blue. I'm pleased with the overall look but it's a shame I may have left too much of a cuticle gap. I think perhaps these thick glitter polishes shrink a bit more after being applied. Overall pleased with the final sparkly look!

Colours used: Flash Platinum Gold - Fun Lacquer, Heartkids - Emily de Molly, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Dolphin Summer

Hey everyone! This will be a short blog post as I am sleepy and have a lot of catching up to do! I have been away for a hen weekend and these are from Wednesday's Glam Nails Challenge prompt. I have decided to give this month a try as it's all sea creature themes and I couldn't resist! Also lacking a bit of nail inspo at the moment so good to have some prompts!

I kind of made these up as I went along and went for a brightly coloured theme. The dolphin images are from the Bundle Monster Twi Star and Mo You London Doodles 01 stamping plates. I created decals for all images and decided to use something shimmery on the nail art nails to give it something extra. Not one of my favourite looks but is' nice enough!

Colours used: Hello Sailor - Wikkid Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Joyful L'il Jellybean - Wikkid Polish, Bikini Bombshell - Wikkid Polish, Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Peachy Beachy - Wikkid Polish

A Liquid Crystal Galaxy!

 Hey everyone! Got some more first time nail experiences to share with you today! This was another of  the options on my birthday poll and I've been keen to try it out for some time! I'm not used to using gel polish either so it's a bit of an experimental one for me!

I started with a peel off base coat as I don't fancy soaking off the gel - so we'll see how long these last! I then applied 2-3 coats of gel polish to my nails. It is a little lumpy but I'm definitely getting better at it! I rarely work with gel and have often found I've ended up doing it too thick. After my final layer of black gel I used silver foil effect polish from Barry M and an image from my Kelli Marissa and Bundle Monster  (now Maniology) collaboration stamping plate to apply the star image. I was really pleased with how well it came out, I liked it even before the liquid crystal!

The next step was to apply the liquid crystal. Mine is a little bottle from Dance Legend, and I used the brush to gently swipe some of the liquid over my nails in wavy lines. It was quite runny and took a while to dry so took some getting used to, but once it dried I got the lovely multi-coloured effect you can see below. It;s quite hard to capture and doesn't always show up but when it does I love the way the colours change just like the mood rings I used to have as a child! I finished the look with a gel top coat to seal it in and am still enjoying wearing them!

Mermaid Scale Nails

 Hi everyone, just a quick one today as this look didn't involve too much effort! I recently discovered that I had this beautiful blue flakie polish sat in my untried collection, so I had to try it while the weather is still warm! It's super pretty and a very mermaidy nail polish! The flakes are mostly blue with some green, and a few other colours of flakies sprinkled throughout.

I wasn't sure quite what to put over the top but I knew it had to be something mermaid related. I used the Bundle Monster and Twi-Star collaboration stamping plate do do mermaid scales on my index and little finger nails, and the big mermaid images across my middle two nails, with a castle on my thumb. It was all a bit random and I decided each image as I did it. I like it but the gold didn't show up as well as I'd hoped. Lovely colours though!

Colours used: Past the Breakers - Emily de Molly, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M

Unicorns & Rainbows for Key Workers & Holo Taco Challenge!

Hello again - I'm back already! I need to get this blog post out in good time as I am entering it in the Holo Taco challenge this week, the first theme being Unicorns. I have a whole list of nail art ideas to do but I put it aside when this challenge prompt came up on my Instagram feed, and I'm so glad I did! I used the Bundle Monster X Nailedthepolish stamping plate for the unicorns, and the rainbows as you can probably tell are freehand. Here in the UK people have been putting rainbows in their windows as a sign of support for key workers during this challenging time. I think it's mostly a thing people have been getting their children to do but I fully intend to do one myself! Some of our neighbors have put a whole rainbow arch of balloons on the front of their caravan which is awesome! So I wanted to add my own little rainbow nails, though obviously no one is seeing them in person, so I need to get a move on with my window rainbow!

I started this look with a peel off base coat, due to the glitter, and then a thick layer of silver glitter, followed by a couple of coats of another glitter to add some depth (colours listed below the pictures). For the unicorns I used the advanced stamping technique (see how here) and my Uber Mat. I coloured them in with white polish, silver horns, and some of Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection. For the rainbows I used a small nail art brush to paint each of the Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection polishes over the glitter in a rainbow shape. It's a tad wobbly as freehand isn't my strength, but I think it came out reasonably well. Absolutely loving having the vice colours out again, they are so so bright!

So overall as you can probably tell I am really pleased with these! I'm also finally up to date with my blogging again, this look is actually still on my nails for once (did them on Sunday). I've generally been fine with not being able to show people my nail art in person, as I share it all online anyway, but I love these so much I would have quite enjoyed sharing them, they're pretty hard to miss too being so bright! Anyway, I hope you like them :) Stay well!
Colours used: Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, Diamond Glitter - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour - Bees Knees, Silver Lining - Barry M, Game Over - Cirque Colors, Vitamin D - Cirque Colors, Electric Daisy - Cirque Colors, High Roller - Cirque Colors, Miami-Dade - Cirque Colors, Rehab - Cirque Colors

An Alpine View On My Nails

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Something fairly simple to share with you today, and something that is for once still on my nails! Not too long ago I saw themermaidpolish on Instagram use this alpine image in dark blue over light blue and it looked sooo good! I had always thought of using it filled in with colour, and hadn't tried it out yet, but after seeing that I thought I'd give it a go with just the outline as well. The image is from the Bundle Monster clairestelle8 plate which I love.

I started with a base of Chateau by ILNP which was an untried polish for me, and I think the french name kind of fits with the alpine scenes too. It was a little darker than I expected but pretty. I then used white stamping polish to apply the image across my four finger nails on each hand, the image is well sized to fit four nails I think. For my thumbnail I used the snowflake image from Mo You London's Noel 06 plate which I've used a few times, it's a good one for combining with things.

I was pleased with the way it turned out though I don't think it's as expertly done as the ones by themermaidpolish. You do have to have a proper look to see that it's an alpine scene (and I have to keep my hands still!) but it's not necessarily a bad thing. It seems very fitting for all the ski holidays I'm seeing on Instagram at the moment! I love the look of the snow and the mountains and snuggness but I don't fancy taking to the slopes myself!
Colours used: Chateau - ILNP, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Blue blue mermaid tail nails

Hi everyone! Just a short post today. This is another one I did for the nail addicts collaboration on Instagram. This month the theme was monochrome, using different shades of your favourite colour to create nail art. Small amounts of black or white were also allowed for outlines but I managed to use dark blue for mine.

I used the advanced stamping technique with my Uber Mat to create the pattern (see how here). The image is from the twi-star Bundle Monster mermaid plate. It took a pretty long time to fill in the scales! I also used a white base coat underneath to make the colours stand out.

Head over to @nailaddictscollab to see all the other. designs :)
Colours used: Alpine Snow - OPI, Blue Moon - Barry M, Blueberry - Barry M, Cobalt - Barry M, Cyan - Barry M

Puurrmaids!

Hi everyone! Today I bring you... purrmaid nail art!! Some time just over a year ago when we'd not long moved into our flat, we stumbled across some 'purrmaid' bedding in Asda when doing our food shop. Not where I'd ussually buy bedding but they were so awesome and weird, we just had to! So it
was only right that I created some nail art to honour them!

I started out trying to freehand entire purrmaids, but it was a bit fiddly so I decided to do a more abstract design. I used a small nail art brush to freehand the cat faces on my pointer finger, and my Bundle Monster Twi Star stamping plate for the tails, shells and mermaid scales pattern. I was really pleasantly surprised with how well Fun Lacquers Northern Lights works as a mermaid tail shade! It was lovedly and colour shifty.

I enjoyed this design for it's quirkiness, though I think the cat faces could have been a little neater, and the tails where quite thick, as I had to use quite a few layers of Northern  Lights to get even coverage. You can see the bedding that inspired this nail art here.
Colours used: Blue Moon - Barry M, Central Station - ILNP, Blueberry - Barry M, Cobalt - Barry M, Northern Lights - Fun Lacquer, Foil Effects In Gold - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI, Surfboard - Barry M

Mermaiding Around

Hi everyone, happy Friday! I certainly have that Friday feeling! Today I have some long awaited mermaid nail art to show you, from my new bundle monster & twi star collaboration stamping plate. To be honest it didn't really work as I'd expected, so I had to change the accent nails (see bottom two pictures). You can see my other bundle monster collaboration plate experiments here and here.

So I started with a couple of layers of Bermuda Breeze from ILNP on three of my nails on each hand, and a few layers of Flipper from Urban Outfitters on my thumb and accent nail. I completely forgot to start with a white base under flipper which set me off to a bad start! I used my Uber Mat to create decals for the mermaid scales. You can see my picture tutorial of how to do it here.

On the blue nails I used a water effect pattern and the put more sheer blue over the top. I made decals using gold polish and filled them in with some shimmer. This was a mistake however as the images just didn't show up well at all. It didn't help that I'd forgotten the white base. So I took the blue polish off and opted for a gold base smothered in gold holo glitter! I do really like the final look, and look forward to experimenting more with the stamping plate.
Colours used: Bermuda Breeze - ILNP, Foil Effect Gold - Barry M, Yours Truly - ILNP, High Tide - ILNP, Million Dollar Dream - Fun Lacquer. Gold Digger - Barry M, Flipper - Urban Outfitters

Kelli Marissa Bundle Monster Space Plate

Hi everyone! I have the next of my recent Bundle Monster blogger collaboration plate purchase on the blog today. You can see my first (unicorns) here. The next plate I used was Kelli Marissa's space themed stamping plate. I used this over Fun Lacquers Starry Night Of The Summer, which is a gorgeous deep metallic blue. In bright light it has some holographic flare too!

So I had some grand plans on advanced stamping and colouring planets, but once I started a few of the simpler images I liked them so much I thought I'd just stick with silver over blue. Rarely have I done an experimental 'use as many designs from the plate as I can' that I've liked this much! I really enjoyed using a mixture of smaller images on some nails, and found that I kept looking at my nails while wearing the design, which is generally a good sign! Picture below include some in brighter light, but I still couldn't quite capture the holo flare!
Colours used: Starry Night Of The Summer - Fun Lacquer, Silver Foil Effect - Barry M

Stamping Sunday: Feeling Koi

Hi everyone, happy Sunday! Today I am showing you my first attempt a creating a Koi pond manicure with my BM-725 stamping plate from Bundle Monster. I've included a picture of the stamping plate wayy down at the bottom of this post, it's a pretty one!

For my first attempt I wanted to try a classic Koi pond pattern over black, with orange and white fish, and green plant life. For this design I used the advanced stamping technique, stamping the images onto my Uber Mat and filling them in using a dotting tool. Once dry, I filled each image with white stamping polish, this gave a background to the images that would make the colours pop even over a black background.

For the fish I used a neon orange, which I actually got for about 2 euros in a supermarket in Ibiza a few years ago. No idea what's in it but it's actually not bad! I like how vivid it makes the koi, but it was possibly a tad too bright in some lights. On another occasion I might try a less neon shade, but then that might not be bright enough, trial and error I suppose!

Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Midnight Green - Mo You London, Key Lime - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London, W18 - Color Cosmetic

< So here is the stamping plate I was raving about. Most of my plates are from Mo You London so this is a little different. I really like that the images make up one big image, I love plates like that but often end up getting separated designs as they can be easier to use.

Thanks for reading! I have a few other idea for manicures I can do with this plate, and look forward to trying them out. Next attempt at the Koi pond mani to follow.... sometime!