Cosy Chrome Powder Nail Art

Hey space turtles! I was inspired by some nail art by two.peas.and.polish who used a matte background and added some leafy images in bronze. I don't have a bronze nail polish that stamps well so I decided to try out chrome powder nail art again. Previously I've tried it but the powder has stuck to the whole nail to some extent and not just the image.

I started with two layers of grey polish and then used black sticky stamping polish to add images from Mo You London's Fall In Love 08 stamping plate which I absolutely love for this time of year, and any time to be fair - it has some great images. I then used an eye shadow applicator to rub some gold chrome powder into my nails, and brushed of the excess with a soft brush. I was so pleased with how well it stuck to the images! I love the super shiny effect it gives and how being on a dark background made it a rich dark gold. It didn't last longer than a couple of days as I added no top coat but a great look for a night our or something like that where it doesn't need to last long.

Colours used: Grey - Barry M, Sticky Stamping Black - Dance Legend, Gold Chrome Powder

A birthday nail fail!

So I'm behind with blogging again! Not too far behind to be fair but I haven't been behind for a while and I'm doing a lot of nail art at the moment! Todays nail art is a bit of a nail fail but I wanted to share it anyway as it was still kind of fun, and I enjoyed trying out something I hadn't tried before. It was my 30th birthday on Tuesday and I had the day off and wanted to spend the entire morning doing some nail art, using techniques I hadn't used or had rarely used. On my left hand I wanted to create a firework look as they're something I associate with my birthday for obvious reasons!

I started with a base of Black Rainbow, which is a gorgeous flakie thermal polish which is black in cooler temperatures and cream when warmer. On all but my ring fingernail I stamped firework images from the Mo You London Festive 05 stamping plate, using my 'sticky stamping' nail polish, which is designed to stay sticky so you can apply things like chrome powder for longer before it dries. On my ring finger I added the number 30 with the Mo You London Typography 04 plate in black, so that it would be hidden when cold and appear when warm.

On the firework nails I used a few different chrome powders which I rubbed over the designs, and dusted away the excess as much as possible. Some of these worked better than others, but I found it kind of stuck to the whole nail in some cases. I did use a quick dry top coat underneath with plenty of time to dry, so hoped it wouldn't be too sticky but I guess it was! The thumb came out best I think.

As it didn't come out that well you'll see I haven't even cleaned up in one of my pictures below, but I don't mind too much as I enjoyed doing them, and some recent Halloween nail art Id been planning for ages went well - you can't win them all!

Colours used: Black Rainbow - Fancy Gloss, Sticky Stamping - Dance Legend, Chrome Powders, various - eBay

Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh Christmas tree oh Christmas tree, how sparkly are your branches! These were my work Christmas party nails and to be honest I wasn't a fan, good job I loved my outfit! :D

I started with a peel of base coat (UNT ready for take off) followed by gel polish. I felt like the base wasn't thick and it would be tricky to get off but it was actually quite easy and satisfying to remove the next day! I used two layers of black gel polish, and then a gold chrome powder over the top. It was a cheap one I got on eBay so I suppose it's always a risk, but I just didn't think it looked that special. I thought it was going to be a mirror chrome! I have other cheap eBay ones where I can see my face in them, but I guess you can't always win!

To add something to the rather bland gold I made a decal using my Uber Chic Christmas-01 plate and some glittery green (Fun Lacquer Secret), and stuck a star on top using some top coat. I used regular top coat over the trees as I wasn't sure how well more gel would work over the regular polish I used for the trees. Anyone got any tips for getting a chrome powder to be shinier?

How not to do gels/chrome!

Hello all! Hope you've had a good weekend. Mine has been good but went too fast as usual! I'm dreading work tomorrow as it's crazy busy at the moment. Today's post is about something I tried quite some time ago! The pictures have been sat in my nail blogging folder for ages. I guess as they didn't turn out how I expected I wasn't particularly excited about sharing them.

So, there are two parts to this, gel polish and chrome powder, both of which I am fairly inexperienced in. I have successfully applied chrome powder over normal nail polish, but have heard it works better over gel so thought I would give that a try. I also wanted to have a go at getting some different colours, as I've been people apply silver chrome powder of a variety of colours to get different effects.

I started off with a couple of layers of gel polish, blue on one hand, turquoise on the other. I haven't quite mastered gel. It probably doesn't help that I'm using a cheap brand from Amazon, but I always seem to end up with it quite think and slightly rounded round the edges. I started by applying silver chrome powder, and soon realised that although it applied well, it completely blocked out the base colour! I therefore made a last minute plan to do the middle two fingers silver, and on the others use my new unicorn chrome powder for a more see through look! This worked better and I think it looks good with these colours. I do wish I could find a chrome powder which would pretty much chrome-ify any colour. That's all for now. I'm sure I'll be back on the chrome again soon!
Usually here I list the colours I used for the above images, however in this case I'm not actually sure of the names, so I can say is that they're from a brand called FairyGlo and I got them on Amazon!

Marble/ Stone Effect Nails

Hi nail people! I'm on holiday this week so feeling super relaxed and finally finding a bit of time to catch up on some blogging! This was one of my more 'grown-up' looks and took a little time to grow on me, but I was mostly pleased with the end result. I've seen a number of techniques on creating  marble like nails and the free hand options appealed the most (for once!).

I started with a white base and then a layer of top coat to protect the base. I then used a small nail at brush to paint some small lines in random places across each nail. I then dipped the brush in  nail polish remover and used it to blur the lines across the nail. Once done I used the same dark grey I used for the initial lines to do a few more over the top, using some images online as a guide.

My intention was to use stencils or tape for the next bit but that would have taken a long time to allow everything to dry. I painted on some gold at the bottom of each nail and then applied another top coat, as I wanted to get a smooth and slightly sticky finish for the next step. When the top coat was nearly dry I used gold chrome powder over the gold polish. I then used a water based to coat to finish the gold, and a matte top coat for the rest.

Strangely the gold looked mirror chrome to start with, but didn't last even long enough for my pictures (taken the next morning for better light).It did stay super shiny though. I wonder if it would have worked better over black. Overall I am quite pleased with this design but think it could get better with practise. I'd like to try it with some other colours, particularly turquoise.
Colours used: Alpine Snow - OPI, Dragster - Barry M, Gold Digger - Barry M, Gold Chrome Powder - eBay

Magical Mirror Nails - Mirror Chrome Powder First Attempt

Finally it's mirror chrome time!! So it's the 4th of December and I've not put up any Christmas nails yet... I have some Christmas nail art on now, so it's on it's way! I just couldn't wait till after the festive season to share how I got on with the mirror chrome powder that's been getting everyone excited this year. As ussual witbh a new nail trend that I want to experiment with, I decided to start cheap and get some mirror chrome powders on eBay. I went for a classic silver, a blue/purple (below) and a blue/green.

I had a lot of fun trying this our on my Uber Mat, I had to try a few different ways to get anywhere and had more luck with the silver than the multi-chrome shades. I tried a few techniques and once I found one I was happy with I gave it a go on my nails. I've included some top tips below the pictures. I was astounded how well it worked on my nails, definitely easier than using it on the Uber Mat! Needless to say it was so satisfying to see it come together on my nails.

I've heard a few things about how this doesn't work on normal nail polish, or works better on gel polish. Mine was done using standard nail polish and I have to say I am very pleased with the results! I think I could have got it slightly more mirror'd with practise (and there will be practise!) but already it is noticeably shinier than any chrome/metallic polish I've tried. It's hard to make out in the pictures but at some angles I could see a wobbly version of my reflection in them!

Tips for mirror chrome powder on regular nail polish:

• Make sure the polish you apply the powder over is smooth and free of imperfections. Any little lumps and bumps are visible through the mirror effect.
• Apply a top coat over your base colour, and apply the powder when it's still very slightly tacky. A good way to check if it's just right is to touch it lightly with a finger to see if it feels dry, when it does try lightly touching your nails together, if there is a slight tackiness then the powder should stick well to the polish.
• Don't apply too much pressure when applying the powder. It's surprising how little pressure is needed to achieve the mirror effect. The tip above helps ensure it sticks. As the polish is still very slightly sticky if you press to hard it can move some of it around and create lumps which will certainly upset the mirror effect!
• Use a water based top coat. This is to stop creases forming in the powder. I used Revolution from Picture Polish which worked well as a top coat. Pretty hard to remove when used as a base coat though!

Thank you for reading! It's been a bit excessive writing wise, I've just got more to say than usual as I'm  so excited about this stuff! A truly gorgeous finish, and much easier to do than I expected.