The Mini Eggs Are Back!

Playing blogger catch up as I have got a bit behind! This is some nail art I am currently still wearing and the only nail art I've recreated numerous times. You just can't go wrong with mini egg nails! I started with a different pastel colour on each nail and then used a fan brush too lightly splodge some brown nail polish over the top. I followed that with a dusting of white polish using cling film and then a matte top coat. I love this look and I imagine it won't be the last time I do it! The bottom right picture is my most popular on Instagram this year. Back soon for more catch up!

Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Surfboard - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, Bermondsey Street - Nails Inc, Cocoa - Barry M, Matte Taco - Holo Taco

Easter Yellow

Happy Easter everyone! I started the day with an Easter lake swim wearing bunny ears (impractical but fun)! I've got different Easter designs on each hand and I'm loving them both. I particularly like the novelty of this look since I don't usually wear so much yellow. It feels very seasonal and fun and I'm enjoying wearing them matte too. 

I started with a base of yellow on some nails and cream on others (colours listed below the pictures). I made decals for the little chick's using Mo You London's Festive 58 stamping plate and while these dried I added patterns from the same plate to the yellow nails in white. I enjoyed how simple the chick's were to do with just a couple of colours on each decal. Once dry I trimmed and applied the decals to my nails and added a top coat and a matte top coat. Spring ready :)

Colours used: Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Cream Soda - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Atlantic Road - Barry M, Ridley Road - Barry M, Essential White - Uber Chic Beauty, Matte Taco - Holo Taco

Springtime Bunnies

Hey space turtles! I've finally accepted Spring pastels and I'm loving it! I'm going to do the Glam Nails Challenge again this month though I'm already slightly behind. The first prompt is bunnies and I knew I had to use this adorable bunny image from my Mo You London Festive 58 stamping plate again. I stuck to a fairly simple look but enjoyed getting back to the advanced stamping too. My short index fingernail is starting to grow out a bit and I think these pastel Easter looks do suit short nails.

I started with a shimmery base coat and then added a couple of coats of a few pastel shades (colours listed below the pictures). For the blue and green I used some old textured polishes initially which needed a 'glitter grabber' layer to smooth them out as the texture has gone a bit funny. I had to re-do the blue one as it's gone quite gloopy so took ages to dry and ended up smudging. Ended up using a beautiful coconut infusion shade which was a pretty good colour match. I added wording directly onto the blue nail and created decals for the two pink nails, finishing the look with a matte top coat. I'm glad I chose to do two different shades of bunnies. Really pleased with these :)
Colours used: Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Laguna - Barry M, Ridley Road - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Cappuccino - Barry M, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, Essential White - Uber Chic Beauty, Matte Taco - Holo Taco

Peeping Easter Chicks

-This was meant to be shared on Saturday! - Happy Easter everyone! Sharing Easter nails today as I won't have time tomorrow. These were for another Glam Nails Challenge prompt of Easter Chicks. I thought this would be a good opportunity to try some more of my new reflective polishes too since they are in bright/pastel colours.

I started with a base of yellow on my middle two nails, and reflective glitter on my index and little finger nails. While these were drying I got a decal going on my Uber Mat using Mo You London's Festive 58 plate. I think the zig-zag image has good Easter egg vibes! I did this nail art on the sofa as I didn't want to miss what I was watching so it was a little trickier than usual! I used a nail art brush to add the outlines of the egg shells in white then filled them in with the brush from the bottle. I then added a little beak with the same brush and eyes with a dotting tool. I didn't leave enough space on one nail so the little chick had to peek out the side of the egg instead!

All in all I like how Eastery these are but they could have been better. I think they are a little scruffy in places. Cute chicks though and I'm enjoying the reflective glitter so not all bad!

Colours used: Seven Dials - Nails Inc, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Widow - OPI, Beach Hut - Models Own, Flavour of the Week - Emily de Molly, I Knead You Now - KB Shimmer, Charity Polish: Heartkids - Emily de Molly

Springy Easter Bunnies

Heyy everybody! Some classic Easter nail art to share today and a new nail polish from Emily de Molly. I have a few of their shades but I ought to have more, almost every single one I've tried has blown my mind! This one is such a fun vibrant shade and the reflective sparkle is lovely. It's called Le 310 and I bought it from Rainbow Connection recently with a few other reflective glitters which I think will be perfect for Easter nail art.

I started with a peel off base coat followed by two layers of Le 310 and a 'glitter grabber' coat. I then used my Festive 58 Easter themed stamping plate from Mo You London to add the daisies and white part of the bunny images, followed by the black outlines. I then added some yellow pollen in the daisies with a dotting tool and decided on a whim to add some yellow spots too. While I did all of this I had a decal drying on my Uber Mat for my thumbnail. I adore the image with all the tiny round bunnies - they're so cute!

So as I said before, I LOVE this polish! It's a real treat and I love the way it makes my nails look. I think it suits me and I'm pleased with how neatly I painted it so it must have a good formula too! I'm not sure if I should have added the yellow dots, I think it would have been fine without, but overall really pleased with this look!

Colours used: LE 310 - Emily de Molly, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, Acai Smoothie - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, Surfboard - Barry M

One More Easter Egg, One More Nail Polish!

Hi nail people! As Easter is on the horizon I'm sharing my first Easter related nail art for the year which is also my second Glam Nails Challenge prompt for this month, Easter eggs. I used a new reflective polish from KB Shimmer called Love You Brunches and it's gorgeous! I've included pictures with and without flash below, I love it in all lighting!

I started with a base of Love You Brunches on two of my nails and A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Color on the others. While they were drying I used my Uber Mat to create decals for my thumb and ring fingernails. For the Easter egg I used Mo You London's Festive 58 stamping plate, and for the hand Uber Chic's Nail Polish Is Life plate. I added some wording from the nail themed plate on my middle fingernail too. I thought it was very fitting for both nail polish and Easter eggs! I was really keen to use a reflective nail polish on the nail image as I knew the fiddly details would really stand out and match my own sparkly nails.

Love how these came out! It's a random combination with the nails and the Easter eggs but I think they tie in well with the 'just one more' wording. I really adore that image and am pleased with the colours I chose throughout the look (bit of  Cadburys vibe with the purple polish!). Only issue is the slight smudging of the wording but I'll probably try and keep these for a little while.

Colours used: Love You Brunches - KB Shimmer, A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour - Bees Knees Lacquer, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Little Bo Peep - Rimmel, Charlotte Street - Nails Inc

Spring Skittle Nails... Had to be Mini Eggs!

Hello and happy Sunday! I hope you're having a good weekend, it's nearly coming to an end for me but I know I have leftover lasagne for tea and I'm pretty excited about it! Today's nail art was created for today's Glam Nails Challenge prompt on Instagram, which is pastel skittle. In case you don't know a skittle mani is where the nails are all different colours. Given the time of year I thought mini egg nails would be perfect for this, I've also done this look once before and love it so much! It's so easy to do and perfect for Easter - I know Easter weekend has passed but I am still eating mini eggs so it feels appropriate. I've also found that eating mini eggs leaves my hands smelling of mini eggs which totally fits the theme so I must keep eating them!

I started with a base of five different pastel colours which mini eggs come in, I've listed the shades I used below the pictures. Once dry I used a fan brush and lightly applied some dark brown nail polish (black works too but if you have brown it has a more 'natural' look!) from the brush. I then used the fan brush to lightly apply specs of brown polish. That's pretty much it! I added a matte top coat to complete the look and unfortunately did smudge the yellow one a little. There is a step you can do to add a light dusting of white, which I did last time I tried this, but to be honest I don't think it makes all that much difference and I was sleepy! 

As expected I really like these! It's such a fun look and so easy to do! I've done it before for myself and for a friend, and will most likely do it again! 

Colours used: Marylebone Road - Nails Inc, Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Cream Soda - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I'm sharing this a little later in the day than planned but only because I spent so long making a nut roast for lunch and after that we went for a walk with some of my family. It was lovely to see them and a lovely sunny day too! I was excited to use this base colour (colours listed below images) as it's a gift from my boyfriend and it's such a perfect shade for Easter! It's also my first ever Starrily nail polish. I now have four and I've been enjoying trying them out.

I used a mixture of advanced stamping and layered stamping for this look. On my index and little fingernails I added the images from Mo You London's Festive 58 stamping plate in white, and then added brighter colours over the top. I did struggle to line the spots up but I think it looks OK. For my other three nails I used the advanced stamping technique (see how here) to create decals using my Uber Mat. I finished the look with my favourite glossy top coat, Nails Inc's Kensington Caviar.

I like the way these came out, they are very much Easter and Spring nails and I'm pleased with how crisp and bright the images are. The only not so good part is I did end up smudging the top of the thumb nail a little when lifting a heavy pan - so annoyed about that as it's my favourite nail! Still, it's only the top of it and you can still see all the little micro bunnies looking cute! Happy Easter!

Colours used: Mint To Be - Starrily, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cyan - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, Indigo Child - Starrily, Cappuccino - Barry M, Papaya - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, White Horse Street - Nails Inc

Easter Reptile Nail Art

Hi everyone! I'm super excited to bring you this blog post today as it is something quite different for me, and took me on a bit of a nail adventure! Last weekend I did some Easter nail art which I entered into the Holo Taco nail art competition, and I had another Easter design I wanted to do this year which I thought I may as well enter as well. However I didn't want to take off my current nail art so had a bit of a dilemma. Some time ago I was painting false nails and selling them on eBay, and I still had some spare ones lying around, so I thought I'd give it a go so I could do the new nail art but still keep mine.

For this look I decided to try the Bring On Spring pastel neon collection from Wikkid Polish, a brand I haven't tried before. The formula is great and they are perfect for stamping too as the colours are so strong. I look forward to trying them on my natural nails! I used the Festive 58 and Animal 10 plates from Mo You London for the stamping. For the crocodiles and snakes I used the advanced stamping technique with my Uber Mat, you can see how here. Below the initial pictures you can see the full set of falsies I painted. The third picture also shows the nails balanced on my hand in the order I'd intended this look to be in. A big plus of the false nails was that I could play around with which ones to wear, as I felt some had come out better than others, and really love the crocodile and snake ones!

I think it's worth explaining my inspiration for this look too, as it is a little random! One Easter when I was maybe about 8, instead of traditional Easter eggs, my parents got us each a beanie baby (90's yeah!) sat on a bowl of mini eggs. Mine was a snake called Hissy who I still have to this day, but I believe she is at my parents house so unfortunately I can't share a picture of her. I'm sure you'll believe me she's cute though!

So, before this blog post gets way too wordy, I'll move on to the pro's and cons. I did find stamping on the false nails quite tricky. The main reason for that is that they were still on the plastic stick in the middle, but  taking them off would have made other parts of the nail painting trickier, I need some sort of false hand for them! I also wasn't so keen on the big pink thumbnail, just not very me but it fits the design I suppose. On the plus side however I loved that I could play around with them and look at different design combinations. I also enjoyed them being wider than my natural nails, as mine are quite narrow which leaves less room for nail art! Surprisingly I also enjoyed the novelty of the square shape. I didn't think it would suit me but it does. Doing it this way was great fun as it was a bit different, but after all that effort to keep my current nail art I kind of wish I could do both - maybe next time I'll have one look on each hand!
Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Joyful Lil' Jellybean - Wikkid Polish, Bikini Bombshell - Wikkid Polish, Down At The Deep End - Wikkid Polish, Hello Sailor - Wikkid Polish, Peachy Beachy - Wikkid Polish

Easter Time Bugs and Bunnies (& a little chick)

Hi everyone, I hope you're having a lovely Easter break! My break is coming to an end but it has been really lovely. I have been productive with some things but have also taken plenty of time to relax. First Easter in a long time not seeing family or friends, but it has been really lovely to just take a break and have a chunk of time to appreciate the things we can do at home. So today's nails are my Easter nails for this year, though I'm hoping to squeeze in one more Easter look in the next week. I only did these yesterday as I loved my unicorn nails so much I kept them on for two weeks!

I started with a base of Robin on most nails, and Hatch on my ring finger nails, both shades are from Cirque Colors. They are my only two speckled polishes and felt very appropriate for the theme. I'm not ussually into speckled polishes but I think Cirque do them best, and these two are my favourites. For the chick, daffodil, bug and multiple bunny images I used the advanced stamping technique (you can see how here). For the little rabbits on my index finger nails I used layered stamping images from the Mo You London Festive 58 plate (used for all images in this design). My boyfriend said it looks like the rabbits are greeting each other when I put my hands next to each other! <3

Overall I am pleased with these, I think they definitely scream Easter and I like the colours. I particularly like the image with multiple bunnies as they are just so cute! There are a couple of things I'd do differently next time though. Firstly while the matte look makes the colours pop, it kind of hides the speckled effect of the polishes. I have to look quite closely to see them. The other thing is the bunnies on my index fingers look a bit washed out compared to my other nails, I think I'd have been better off using the advanced stamping technique for all nails.

I hope you like them and I hope you had a relaxing Easter. Happy Easter everyone!
Colours used: Robin - Cirque Colors, Hatch - Cirque Colors, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Key Lime - Barry M, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Yellow - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc