Christmas Paper Nails

Hello all - not long till Christmas now! :D Behind with my nail blog again of course, as work has been manic, and I've also just got back from a wonderful long weekend in Norway. The next nail art I blog about will be my holiday nail art for that trip.

This nail art was experimental and I wasn't sure about it initially but liked it very much in the end! I wanted to make it look as if each of my nails had been wrapped in different Christmas wrapping paper. I also wanted to use some Christmas images on my Uber Chic Christmas plates which I wasn't sure I would otherwise use. The plates I used for this were the Happy Christmas and Christmas-01 plates.

For most nails I stamped the images directly on using a clear stamper (colours listed below the pictures), and for the ring fingers I created decals using my Uber Mat. My favourite is the on in the bottom left picture, I can picture it around my presents! The only one that didn't quite work as I'd intended was the gingerbread men. The white polish didn't show up so I had to re-do it in black.

Hope you like them!
Colours used: King Tut's Gem (Blue) - Jessica Polish, Wite Knight - Mo You London, Metallic Red (no name) - Mark by Avon, Foil Effect in Silver - Bassy M, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Emerald Green - Barry M, Gold Digger - Barry M, Silver Lining - Barry M, Midnight Mischief - Barry M, Coca - Barry M

Stamping Sunday: Lines and Shadows

Happy Sunday everyone! I am definitely not ready for the weekend to be over! I'm about to drift off to sleep, but think I can muster up the energy to talk about nail varnish for a bit! I'm struggling to keep up as many blog posts as I'd like to at the moment, just don't know where the time is going!

So for this nail art I started out with a couple of coats of Poison Rose from Tonic Polish. It was my first time using that particular shade and I wasn't that enthused at first. It just looked a bit less existing than I expected, the glitter isn't very prominent (it wouldn't really show up in the pictures!). So I decided to use it as a base for trying some layered stamping.

I used my Holy Shapes 03 stamping plate from Mo You London to stamp some shapes onto my nails in gold. I then used black stamping polish to stamp the same images again, but slightly higher so they overlapped but didn't cover the gold. Using a clear stamper was essential for this so I could see exactly where I was placing the images. I really like the way it came out. I think it looks sophisticated and perfect for work. It completely changed my opinion of the nail polish as well!
Colours used: Poison Rose - Tonic Polish, Uptown Glamour - Nails Inc, Midnight Mischief

Decal making - butterflies

Hi everyone! Got some advanced stamping/decals to show you today. This technique has become one of my post used, as I'm not so good at freehand! This particular design is not one of my favourites, the pink isn't really my usual sort of shade. Also the butterflies are too small for my nails, and I can't quite decide whether that looks good or not! I will need to learn/practise stretching images.
I took the above pictures for a competition on Instagram by Mo You London, but due to a holiday didn't manage to get it in on time! Although I wasn't too sure about the design itself I do love the pictures of the decals looking through clear stampers.

For a base colour I used a pale pink (colours listed below images), and put a layer of shimmering holographic pink from ILNP's spring 2017 collection. For the butterflies I used a few more shades from ILNP's spring collection to get some lovely sparkle. Being from the same collection  the colours work well together. You can see how I made the decals here.
Colours used: Surfboard - Barry M, Ballet Slipper - ILNP, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Bermuda Breeze - ILNP, High Tide - ILNP, Versailles - ILNP, Yours Truly - ILNP

Stamping Sunday: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... baubles

It's finally here! My first Christmas nail art of the year. I've been delayed posting pictures by a week as work has been manic, so I already have more to share, will try and be a bit better next week! I'd been saving this Fun Lacquer multi-chrome for the big work Christmas party and fortunately the dress I bought went with it perfectly, so it made it's debut appearance at the beautiful Elvetham hotel, amidst many gorgeous gowns and Christmas lights. No multi-chrome polish can beat the shine of chrome powder, but this is definitely the best nail polish multi-chrome I have used, or even seen! It's super shiny and the colour shift is great. Shimmery purple to red is perfect for the party season. I wore the polish alone to the party as my dress was patterned (black and gold), but once it was over I decided to add some Christmas baubles using my new Uber Chic Christmas-01 stamping plate. I stamped the baubles individually in metallic gold onto my Uber Mat and coloured them in with some metallic and sparkly polishes (colours listed below the pictures). I covered them with clear polish and then once dry peeled them off and applied them to my nails, finishing with a top coat.

The ones on my thumb nails didn't turn out quite as I had hoped, as the silver overpowered the gold, meaning the detailing on some of the larger baubles wasn't very visible. Overall I think this was a nice subtle start to Christmas nails, and I absolutely adore this multi-chrome polish!
Colours used: Cheers To The Holidays - Fun Lacquer, Gold Foil Effect - Barry M, Emerald Green - Barry M, Gold Glitter - Barry M, Teal - Barry M, Silver Foil Effect - Barry M 

Stamping Sunday: Nautical Nails

Happy Sunday everyone! Today I'm showing you a design I was really please with, with one of my new stamping plates from Mo You London. I used the nautical plate Sailor Plate Collection 01. I usually go for full plates with full pictures/patterns on but really liked the individual images on this plate and think it will be a firm favourite. Besides I'm a big fan of anything nautical or sea themed. Below is the stamping plate super shiny and reflective before being used. As you can see I was excited to try it...

For this design I used a mixture of images over a plain background, and images over a stripy background. Used some of my trusty striping tape as you can see to the left. I couldn't find any of the colours of tape I'm not as keen on so ended up using this lovely bronze. I need to try using this as part of nail art some time.

You can see the final design below. I used black over the striped so that it would show up well, and brown and white for the others. I love all the images on this plate, I'm particularly fond of the boat ones. The ferry (or perhaps it's meant to be a cruise ship I'm not sure) reminds me of summer holidays to France as a child.

Colours used: Blueberry - Barry M, Alpine Snow - OPI, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Cocoa - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London, Black Knight - Mo You London

He's Her Lobster

It's valentines mani time! I wanted to do this design for actual valentines day, but am going to a wedding the day before so wanted something that would work with the dress I'm wearing. At least this gives me a chance to enter the So Nailicious edgy valentines nail art competition!

Like many I am absolutely obsessed with the TV programme Friends and find the idea of lobsters growing old together adorable! So this was an obvious design for me, particularly since getting a stamping plate with a little lobster image.

Nothing too complicated going on here, used dotting tools and a fine brush for the hearts (1st time I'd tried this as I don't usually do hearts, so they're a bit wobbly!), and stamping plates for the lobsters. The plate I used was from Mo You, Cookbook Collection 12, I'd rather not think of anyone cooking these adorable little creatures though!! I'm particularly fond of the thumb nails with the little lobsters holding claws, just too cute!

For the stamping and hearts I used Barry M's Sparkling Ruby, it stamps really well with a subtle shimmer. Looks a bit like two different polishes though as the hearts are so much thicker. Looking forward to seeing the other entries!


Colours Used: Coconut - Barry M, Sparkling Ruby - Barry M

Stamping Sunday: Birds Of A Feather

Today's stamping Sunday design was actually done on Thursday evening, but I am still wearing it, so clearly a success! This was my first attempt at layered stamping and I'm pleased with the results. I started with Nails Inc's White Horse Street from the 'New White' collection. The two New White's I have are sooo beautiful and just lovely to paint with and wear. The type of polish where I just keep looking at my hands!

Next I used white stamping polish from Mo You to stamp feathers onto three nails on each hand, (the feathers are from Mo You Explorer Plate Collection 14) and black stamping polish for the feathers on the thumb, from the same stamping plate. I used one of Nails Inc's 'feathered' effect polishes to go around the thumb feathers and on my accent nail. I had a couple of feather polishes already but came across this sparkly gem in TK Maxx not too long ago.

 Finally I used my Mo You Gothic Plate Collection 10 plate for the birds (except on my little finger, those also came from the Explorer plate). I used my clear jelly stamper to carefully place the birds where I wanted them. This took quite a long time and it was getting late so unfortunately there is a little smudging where the top coat was applied.

Overall I really like this design and it's nice to have something a bit different to all the dark colours I've been wearing lately. Please excuse the quality of the fourth photo below, I wanted a nice picture of the feather polish as it's such a nice bottle but I think my photography requires some work!


Colours Used: White Horse Street - Nails Inc, White Knight - Mo You, Black Knight - Mo You, Henley - Nails Inc

Stamping Sunday: A Parrot Nail Experiment

Today's blog post is not my most glamourous (the stamping is not so good!), but I wanted to share with you my first experience with a clear jelly stamper. I will admit straight away this is not one of the originals. I got it for a couple of pounds on eBay, but I wanted to try out the concept before paying for one to be shipped all the way from America! I'm very keen to try the layering stamping plates available, but so far the only ones that are my sort of style are the Christmas ones, so think I will have to wait a little!

So, first impressions, the stamper head is quite firm (I usually use a non-sticky marshmallow stamper) but still has a little squish to it (some firm ones don't have much give, so I'm glad this is still quite squishy). I've read you don't have to buff these, and sure enough the stamping worked straight away, no buffing/ prep required.

The stamping plate I used was Tropical plate Collection 06 from Mo You. The designs on here are gorgeous and I can't wait to use more of them in the summer with some really bright colours. My colour inspiration here was taken from a beautiful red parrot design by Nailicious, you can see her original design here. It's a beautiful freehand design so mine is not in the same league, but the colours and patterns inspired me so thought I'd try it out with my new stamper. Below is the stamping plate and a view through the clear stamper. I was so impressed with how well it picked up the images without any buffing at all.


Though the image picked up well I actually found placement a little harder with this stamper. I think it's just a case of practise, but because I'd got used to lining up the images with my nails using normal stampers, trying to place the design looking through the end of the stamper was tricky! I kept automatically going to look at the stamper head instead. Below is the final look, as you can see the placement is a little off!


All in all despite my difficulties I'm really glad I've bought this. With practise it will allow me to do some fab layered stamping designs, and hopefully make precision easier once I get used to it. The thing I'm most impressed with though is it's quality as a general stamper, it picked up the images perfectly almost every time and didn't require any prep. It also didn't feel delicate as I've heard the clear ones can be. This is definitely the texture of stamper head I want to work with going forwards. If only there was somewhere to test them!

Colours Used: Dead Heat - Barry M, Black Knight - Mo You