Little Animals Christmas

Merry Christmas again! It feels strange to be sharing two blog posts in one day but I'm playing catch up and I did have both looks on for Christmas day (and still do) - one on each hand. This was another stamping plate I bought just after Christmas last year in the sales and was glad to finally use it! Some of the images remind me of Wind in the Willows Mole's Christmas which we always watch at this time of year so I was keen to use them for a Christmas Day look.

I started with a peel off base coat and then a layer of nude followed by a layer of blue. Meanwhile I had decals drying on my Uber Mat. All images are from Mo You London's Noel 19 stamping plate. They took me absolutely ages to make as there are so many fiddly details - but I like to think it was worth it! After applying the decals and trimming them down/tidying the edges I applied a glossy top coat and  left to dry. I was tempted to try matte but there are some shiny baubles and I wanted them to show up.

I am again really pleased with these, my favourite nails being the snow and deer and the mouse and tree. I do think they can be a little dark but in good lighting all the details are visible. I like how they remind me and my sisters of Mole's Christmas!

Colours used: Soft Focus - Polished for Days, Can't Find My Czechbook - OPI, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Cappuccino - Barry M, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Watermelon - Barry M,  Cocoa - Barry M, My Car Hs Navy-gation - OPI, White Moonstone - Barry M, Little Bo Beep - Rimmel, Gold Digger - Barry M, Ruby - Barry M, Amethyst - Barry M, Charlotte Street -  Nails Inc

Gifts and Gold

Merry Christmas space turtles! Today I'm sharing some nail art I had on for Christmas Day which fits one of the December Glam Nails Challenge prompts which was Gifts. I wanted to do something quite snazzy and sparkly for Christmas so went for a reflective glitter and a stamping plate I was excited to use more of.

I started with a peel off base coat and then a few layers of reflective gold glitter followed by a layer of gold holographic glitter. While all of this was drying I was creating decals on my Uber Mat using Mo You London's Noel 15 stamping plate. I chose all gift themed images and was pleased to try these vintage looking images, particularly the dog and the lady with the big skirt. After I'd applied the decals I added a glossy topcoat and job done! Definitely wasn't as quick as I've just made it sound though :D

I really like these though the only downside is that the images are quite dark so if lighting isn't great the colours and intricate details of the design don't always show up. Pictures below with and without flash so you can see them in natural light and with reflective glitter activated.

Colours used: Flash Platinum Gold - Fun Lacquer, Million Dollar Dream - Fyn Lacquer, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Cream Soda - Barry M, Red Hot Rio - OPI, My Car Has Navy-gation - OPI, Watermelon - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Charlotte Street - Nails Inc

Little Pockets of Christmas

Hey Christmassy space turtles!  Today I'm sharing some nail art for the Glam Nails Challenge theme of 'decorations'. I have some lovely Christmas nail wraps from Charlie's nail art supplies and decided to use them for this prompt as the Christmas trees are very well decorated.

I started with a peel of base coat and then one layer of nude polish as a base/background in case the wraps were thin - turned out they were nice and thick so no visible nail lines in sight. After carefully applying each wrap and neatening the edges I used a nail art brush to add bronze outlines. I think this rounds of the look nicely and makes them look like little hung pictures of little pockets of Christmas! After I applied a glossy top coat a bubble did appear on one and I made the mistake of trying to push it down and it came off, so you may notice a little gap on one of them! Overall though I really like this detailed festive look.

Colours used: Soft Focus - Polished for Days, Nail Wraps - Charlie's Nail Art Supplies, Bronze Bae - Barry M

A Candy Cane Deer?

Hey space turtles! More Christmas nail art after a bit of a gap due to a wonderful pre-Christmas trip to Norway. I've wanted to use this little cartoon deer for a while and thought it would go well with festive red and a candy cane image. The candy cane stripes didn't really come out how I wanted but as a whole I like the look.

I started with a peel of base coat and then a couple of layers of cream polish on one nail and red on the others. I added a layer of red glitter over the red nails. For the deer and bells I created decals on my Uber Mat using Mo You London's Noel 15 stamping plate. For the candy cane nail I used their Holy Shapes 19 stamping plate and added the lines one by one. This was a bit fiddly and I didn't manage to get it very neat and even. I finished the look with a shiny top coat. I like this look though  I wish the candy cane part had come out better and I'd added more glitter!

Colours used: Dead Heat - Barry M, Kiss Me - Fun Lacquer, Cream Soda - Barry M, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Cocoa - Barry M

Gingerbread Time

Hey space turtles! Coming at you with more Christmas nail art today, this one is for the Gingerbread Glam Nails Challenge prompt. It feels very fitting that depending how these last I may be wearing them on a trip to a gingerbread town! This is an idea I've had in my mind for a while but haven't ended up going for as they're not typically something I associate with Christmas - but glad to finally be getting round to it!

I started with two layers of shimmery white nail polish while my gingerbread man decals dried, You can tell which ones are the decals by how much darker they are. The polish is the same as the house and the other gingerbread man but due to the thickness and the black outlines they look quite a bit darker. The gingerbread man decals are from Uber Chic's Holiday Spirit stamping plate, and the hot chocolate and other gingerbread images and from their Happy Christmas plate. I enjoyed the layering options for the images on my index and ring fingernails as it's such a simple way to get a good look.

I really like these though I would perhaps change the outlines of some of the gingerbread men to white if doing this again as they look a tad burnt! Otherwise pleased with the colour choices though and the final look :)

Colours used: White Moonstone - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cappuccino - Barry M, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Love & Liberty - Painted Polish

Falalallama

Hey space turtles! I have had a wonderful wintery day! After many busy weekends I've really enjoyed this one being a bit quieter. I've got things done (Christmas cards etc) and been for wintery walks (we're having a cold snap here in the UK at the moment) where everything was so frosty and beautiful. I also went for a very frosty lake swim which was an invigorating and sociable way to start the day. Yesterday I enjoyed taking the time to do some more Christmas nail art, the first of which I'm sharing today.

I have a cute Christmas puns stamping plate from Mo You London called Noel 10 which has lots of  cute animal images. One of the ones I haven't used yet is the llama one so I decided to base a look on that this year, accompanied with Christmas jumper prints which feels appropriate given llama's are a bit woolly. The jumper prints are from another MYL plate, Festive 04. I created a decal on my Uber Mat for the llama - it gives me Christmas party vibes! While this dried I painted by base layers of polish (ILNP's Christmas Cookie is the perfect Christmas nail art base in my opinion). I also added the wording, and the jumper prints which I stamped directly onto my nails. I then applied the llama decal and added a quick dry top coat - voila!

I love how these came out with the exception of the thumbnail which is a bit messy and the colours don't stand out very well. I'm enjoying the silliness of this look and the festive colours!

Colours used: Christmas Cookie - ILNP, Emerald Green - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Red Velvet - Mark (Avon), Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M

Winter Animals Feeling Festive

Hey space turtles! More Christmas nail art to share today, as will be the case for the next few weeks. I have too many ideas and not enough time! As I will be moving onto more classic Christmassy colours I wanted to do a lighter look before that. I love the cute little animals on Mo You London's Noel 09 plate so they are the focal point of this look.

I started with two coats of blue with gold shimmer, and then added some star, snowflake and plant images from the same stamping plate in silver. For the animal images I created decals on my Uber Mat which I then applied to my nails. I like how these turned out. They don't look massively Christmassy I don't think but they do feel festive and of course cute!

Colours used: Fool's Gold - Picture Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Little Bo Peep - Rimmel, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Cream Soda - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Ruby - Barry M, Amethyst - Barry M, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M

Ho Ho How About Some Nail Art

Hi Space turtles! My first proper Christmas nail art of the year is here! I decided I'd try and combine the first two Glam Nails Challenge (Instagram nail art challenge) prompts for this look. The prompts were Santa and Christmas Plaid. 

For the Santa nails I made decals on my Uber mat using images from Mo You London's Noel 01 stamping plate. For the other nails I used Mo You London's Holy Shapes 19 stamping plate which has a range of different lines and patterned lines you can put together to create tartan looks. I went for a classic green and red colour scheme to feel Christmassy! I'm pleased with the look and think it's a good start to my Christmas looks for the year.

Colours used: British Racing Green - Butter London, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Dazzle - Orly, Cream Soda - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M, Emerald - Barry M

Merry Christmas You Great Big Pudding!

Hello and Merry Christmas again! This nail art is what I intended to have on my nails for Christmas day (alongside my last post) but got some what distracted by preparing the house etc! Unlike my last post I do love these, they would have been perfect for Christmas day, but that said I liked the ones I ended up wearing for it anyway. I've done Christmas pudding nails for Christmas day once before years ago, and they came out well then too. These are way better though!

I started with a peel off base coat and a layer of sheer pink (colours listed below the pictures). I then added a couple of coats of snow effect nail polish and let it dry. Next I added a semi-circle of brown glitter (absolutely love this one!) on each nail using the brush from the bottle. I added two coats for full coverage. Next I used a small nail art brush to add the white icing dripping down the puddings, these got better as I went along I think! I decided not to attempt freehand for the holly and I think this was the right choice! I used part of an image from Mo You London's Festive 06 stamping plate to create decals using my Uber Mat. I used two more of the new Holo Taco Holoday glitters for the holly and they went perfectly! Finally I used a dotting tool to add the sparkly red berries.

So as I mentioned I love these, they were pretty simple to do but combines a little bit of basic freehand and some stamping and felt like a triumph!

Colours used: Birthday Suit - Barry M, Snow Wash - No.7, Choco Holo - Holo Taco, White Moonstone - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Everything Is Pine - Holo Taco, Naughty List - Holo Taco

Oh Christmas Tree!

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a great one if you celebrate it, and if not I hope you're not sick of all the Christmas nail art! This one was initially going to be part of my Christmas Day nail art look, but what with getting things ready it just didn't happen! To be honest it's maybe for the best as these didn't really come out how I wanted and I really liked the ones I had on before! They were also meant to be for Boxing Day's Christmas Tree Glam Nails Challenge prompt but I didn't do them till Monday evening and then I kept not getting round to blogging! 

I started with a peel off base coat and a layer of sheer pink. I then added a couple of layers of reflective red gel polish as it's so stunning and festive! The thumbnail went well but the two fingernails were a bit lumpy as I'm not great at gels! I then applied decals on my index and little fingernails which I bought some time ago from Charlies Nail Art supplies. They were surprisingly easy to use, I did only use one Christmas Tree though which perhaps wasn't enough for a Christmas tree look. I think this one was all a bit of an experiment to be honest. More Christmas nail art to follow!

Colours used: I'll Be Fireside - Uber Chic, Nail Wraps - Charlie's Nail Art

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do! A Christmas song I came across for the first time a few years ago when my sister fell in love with it after hearing it at work! I love the sillyness of it and it gets in my head so I decided I wanted to honour it with some nail art. It's meant to represent a hippo being found among the Christmas presents and toys. I was in a bit of a rush when I did these but they came out much better than expected!

I started with a few layers of ILNP's Fired Up for some warm sparkle, and then created some decals on my Uber Mat, you can see how here. The toy and present images I used are from Uber Chic's Happy Christmas stamping plate and I kept the colours consistent and Christmassy across all nails. I also used Mo You London's Noel 03 plate to make a little bird decal to sit on one of the hippo's. I've seen hippo nails before but I'd like to think that I'm the first to paint a hippo with a bird wearing deely boppers on it's head on my nails! While the decals were drying I painted some sort of semi-circle shapes on my thumb and ring fingernails in blue. I followed this up with a line of blue to define the hippo's nose, and then added ears using a small nail art brush, and eyes and nostrils using a dotting tool.

In conclusion I'm super happy with these. I'm planning to do my nails again tomorrow but I'm not sure I want to take these off! Will also depend if I have time.

Colours used: Fired Up - ILNP, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Blueberry - Barry M, Cobalt - Barry M, Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Jolly My Roger - Painted Polish, Red Velvet - Mark, Emerald Green - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M

A festive mouse!

Hey everyone! Back with some more Christmas nails (what else?!) for another Glam Nails Challenge prompt of Christmas Cookies. I'm not fitting in all the prompts for the December as I've been short on time and I have a few ideas that don't quite fit. Really looking forward to share my next ones! So for my Christmas cookie theme is a cosy mouse in a jumper, enjoying a hot cocoa with some giant cookies around for nibbling! I technically for me these are biscuits not cookies as I am in the UK, but as the theme is Christmas Cookie I shall call them that!

I started with a deep red base which to be honest I'd forgotten I had! It was a lovely and rich one coater and perfect colour for Christmas. I added the Merry Christmas writing in gold from my Mo You London Noel 03 stamping plate, and created decals for the other images using the same stamping plate, you can see how here. I should have filed my thumbnail down a little more as it looks weirdly long compared to the others and the cup is a bit small for it, but overall pretty happy with these. I'm really enjoying the strong red colour!

Colours used: Marquise Maroon - Models Own, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Jolly My Roger - Painted Polish, Grey - Barry M, Staying In - ILNP, Bright Lights - Barry M

Underneath the mistletoad!

Hello again! More Christmas nail art today of course! This look is one I didn't get round to trying last Christmas so am glad to do it this time! The Mo You London Noel 10 stamping plate features this strange and cute little Christmas toad image which is a definite winner for anyone who enjoys a pun! I used a few of the other images on this plate last year but ran out of time for this one.

I started with a base of dark green on three nails and ILNP's Christmas Cookie on the other two. Christmas Cookie is such a perfect base for Christmas nail art! I then used some metallic polishes and Mo You London's Holy Shapes 19 plate to create the plaid effect on the green nails. I went for a simplistic look but still managed to mess them up a bit with wonky lines! For the toad image I created a decal on my Uber Mat. It was a little fiddly but came out rather well I think! I'm enjoying this shimmering shade for the toad.

Overall I'm quite pleased with these. The tartan nails certainly could have been better and I think I should have used a slightly lighter green, but I really like the toad ones in the middle!

Colours used: Christmas Cookie - ILNP, Prince I've Been Gone - Cuccio, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Bright Lights - Barry M, Rain On Me - Barry M, Jolly My Roger - Painted Polish, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Emerald Green - Barry M, Cream Soda - Barry M