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

Beach Please

Hello space turtles! More Glam Nail Challenge catch up today. This time the theme is beach. I was looking for a fairly simple design for this and came up with the idea of a couple of my nails looking like beach towels and the others like the ocean. I also tried out a thermal polish I've had for a few years and was pleased to see it still works! Colours are listed below the pictures.

I started with two coats of blue/green on my ring finger, little finger and thumb nails and white polish on my index and middle fingernails. Once dry I used white stamping polish to add the ripple image from Bundle Monsters Twi Star stamping plate onto the blue/green nails, I then used a variety of neon polishes to create a gradient with images from Mo You London's Tropical 34 stamping plate. The patterns reminded me of the sort of thing you might see on a beach towel. I'd buy one!

I struggled to get good pictures of these so most of the below are outside in natural light. Good job it;s summer!I am enjoying the fun summery vibes though and still quite like my beach towel idea.

Colours used: A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour - Bees Knees Lacquer, Blue Beard - Femme Fatale Cosmetics, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Beachy Beachy, My Mate Illuminate, Joyful L'il Jellybean & Bikini So Teeny - All Wikkid Polish

Neon Chevron's and Shapes

Hi everyone! Got something bright and fun to share today - which is brightening up my days while it rains and rains here in the south of England! I was inspired by Piontkowaa on Instagram to try some zig-zag gradient nails - it's been on my list for a little while so I'm glad to finally get round to it. I also thought it would go quite well as a base for by contribution to the latest Nail Addicts Collab. The theme was in celebration of them reaching 1,000 followers. I've included pictures below of the full look, and some right at the bottom of just the zig-zag look.

I started with a base of cream (colours listed below pictures) on all nails. Once dry I used Mo You London's Tropical 34 stamping plate for the zig-zag pattern. I used a selection of pastel neons to create a gradient for each nail. Unfortunately one of my neons has changed from purple to pink so the thumb doesn't really look like it has a gradient, but it kind of went purple when I did the blue/pink gradient on my index fingernail. Over the zig-zag pattern I used black stamping polish and the Mo You London Typography 04 stamping plate to add the number 1,000, and the Uber Chic Beauty Basic Shapes 01 plate to add some triangles on my other nails.

In conclusion - these are good fun! I think the ring finger one is a bit washed out but all in all I like them. Next time I'll remember to blend the blue and pink to get some of the purple colour on my thumb nail!

Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Bikini Bombshell, Down At The Deep End, Hello Sailor, Joyful L'il Jellybean, My Mate Illuminate, Peachy Beachy - All Wikkid Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Tropical Tuesday: Leafy and Bright

Hi everyone! Please help me think of a better name for this post... Today's nail art is simple but I am quite pleased with it. The only bit that didn't quite work out was the flower image on one of my thumbs not quite coming out right.

On my middle fingers I used a layer of gold metallic polish (colours listed below pictures) followed my sponging on some gold glitter. My thumb and little finger nails have floral images from Mo You London's Tropical 07 stamping plate. On my index and ring fingernails I started with a white base and then some leaf images from their Tropical 10 plate. I used a gradient technique for this with two Barry M polishes. I find this surprisingly easy to do as you can blend the colours a bit by swiping the card across the stamping plate a few times.

Definitely tempted to try more leafy designs. I think they make good accent nails and leaf patterns seem to be around a lot at the moment on clothes and things.
Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Flip Flop Fantasy - China Glaze, Key Lime - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Bright Lights - Barry M, Million Dollar Dream - Fun Lacquer