HPB Presents: Halloween 2016!

Hello everyone, happy almost Halloween! Today I'm taking poart in a blogger link up with the Hobby Polish Bloggers Facebook group. It's a freindly group for nail bloggers at any level to share/ask for tips and advice. Hallooween last year was the second time I took part in a HPB link up, I can't beleive the time has gone so fast!

I've gone for a fairly classic Halloween look, using two stanping plates I got for the occasion. One is Bundle Monster H08 and the other is Mo You London's Festive Plate 16. I adore the images on the MYL plate, and the BM one I bought specificially for the spooky eyes. I wanted a mish-mash of designs so I went with a bunch of different colours, and a different image on each nail. I think the orange and purple look a little odd together, but hey it's Halloween!

The bats, eyes and zombie hands all came from the BM plate. and the rest are from the MYL plate. I used white stamping polish for the eyes and then coloured them in with yellow polish. Unfortuntaely I had a bit of a mis-hap with the graveyard image on my thumbnail. It stamped perfectly and then I accidently splashed it with a little nail polish remover!
Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Baby Bellini - Rimmel, Grey - Barry M, W18 - Color Cosmetic, White Knight - Mo You London, Black Knight - Mo You London, Yellow - Barry M

As usual I have seen sooo many lovely Halloween manicures this year, that I now have loads more ideas, shame it's so nearly over! Next year I must start earlier... Don't forget to check out everyone else's designs below!

An InLinkz Link-up

HPB Presents: Glitter Toppers

Happy Friday everyone! I am so glad it's the weekend! I've not been very good on the blog this month due to some holidays but I'm managing to squeeze this one last blog post of the month in as part of this months Hobby Polish Bloggers link up. As you can see the theme this month is glitter toppers. Not a particularly challenging theme but the options are endless! I have many many glitters so enjoyed digging through them again.

I decided to use two I haven't used for over a year. They were a gift from my boyfriend who got them in TK Maxx (a great place for discount Nails Inc's!). I started of with a dance legend peel off base coat, it doesn't usually work all that well for me, I think as my nails are on the dry side it sticks a little too well! Worth another try though. Next I painted on one coat of Jermyn Street. In theory two thin coats would probably be best, but I cheated and used one thick coat and was pleasantly surprised, no pooling or bubbling.

For my glitter I used Lancelot Place, a chunky silver glitter topper with some black sequins mixed in. I created a rough moon shape at the bottom of each nail with the glitter as I think it's a flattering shape. I like this look as I think it looks grown up but still with a hint of fun! The sort of thing I could probably get away with at client meetings!

Who else is getting excited for all the autumn colours coming out? I'm having a bit of a phase for muted colours at the moment. Not sure if it's just because of the change of season or if I'm getting old! Perhaps a bit of both!
Colours used: Jermyn Street - Nails Inc, Lancelot Place - Nails Inc

Check the other lovely designs this month below.

An InLinkz Link-up

HPB Presents: Goldfish!

Good evening nail polishers! Today I'm taking part in another Hobby Polish Bloggers link up. HPB is a Facebook group for bloggers with a passion for nail art, and we do a monthly themed link up. I'm loving this months theme as it is SO random, and gave me a prompt to come up with something new, rather than a design that's already on my to do list.

I was very naughty on Saturday and purchased another nail polish while accompanying my boyfriend to the shops. I've never tried an Urban Outfitters polish, but I've admired the bottle designs for a while. My excuse for this one was it's a sheer I don't have. The polish is called Flipper and I used it to create my first ever pond mani (to represent bubbles), I'm very happy with how it turned out.

For the accent nail I mixed some green polish with polish remover for a watercolour effect, and painted on some underwater plant leaves over white with a nail art brush. On my thumb nail I also used a watercolour effect for the goldfish to give them some texture. I felt they were lacking something so added some gold round the ages and a little gold fin as a finishing touch.

I'm really happy with how this one turned out :) Particularly enjoying the bright blue pond mani! I've enjoyed the quirky theme too! Scroll to the bottom of this blog post to see what wonders the rest of the team have created!
Colours used: Alpine Snow - OPI, Flipper - Urban Outfitters, Key Lime - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Papaya - Barry M, Gold Digger - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI

An InLinkz Link-up

HPB Presents: Galaxy Nails

Hello internet! Today I'm taking part in another Hobby Polish Bloggers link up. I try to take part every month and really enjoy the team spirit of the group! This months theme is 'space'. I was going to try something unusual like aliens, but I couldn't resist the obvious opportunity for my first attempt at galaxy nails!

For this design I started with dark blue with a hint of glitter (colours listed below) to make sure my mani was cosmic throughout! I then used small pieces of sponge to sponge on the colours in a vague galaxy-ish pattern! I started with pale blue through the middle, with a bit of silver holo over the top. Then I splodged some glitter randomly across each nail. I am currently on holiday in Wales and forgot my nail art brush, so the stars were done with a tooth pick! I couldn't quite get my camera to pick up the sparkle properly.

Overall I like the sparkly cosmic look of this design, but think it could do with some tweaking to make it look more like a galaxy. I used one of nails inc's galaxy polishes just to complete the look! Just goes to show you can't go wrong with a bit of glitter! Check out the other designs at the bottom of this post.
Colours used: Mustang Eli's On A Roll - Colors By Llarowe, Blueberry - Barry M, Mega - ILNP, Catwalk Queen - Barry M, Westminster Bridge Road - Nails Inc

An InLinkz Link-up

HPB Presents: Glitter Jelly Strawberries

Today I am taking part in another Hobby Polish Bloggers link up, this month the theme is fruit. I think it's a great theme, seasonal and plenty of options, and am glad to be taking part again. I haven't had a proper look yet but I've had a brief glance and I have to say there are some gorgeous designs! Mine didn't go quite to plan, so I'm putting it up before I scare myself by looking at everyone elses!

I spent a lot of time deciding what to do for this theme, I was very tempted to do pineapples again, but then it occurred to me that I could use this to do glitter-jelly-sandwich nails for the first time, so I went with strawberries.

I started with a base of Cosmic Girl from Danglefoot polish, I've included a picture below though I found it hard to capture all the lovely sparkles, hence the weird lighting! Next I painted on a layer of Pen & Pink from OPI's color paints collection. It was very bright at this stage! I painted on the strawberry seeds with white, and then thought they looked too bright so out another layer of pink over the top. I do quite like the subtle effect this left. It's just about a pond mani! Finally I painted on the leaves in white, and then dabbed on some green for a mottled leafy effect.

As you can see from the pictures, the glitter didn't show through, which is a shame as I would have liked sparkly strawberries! I think the textured effect did give it something though. You can see my more successful attempts at fruit nails here: Lemons or Five a day, I've also done a few pineapple designs in the past. Please be sure to check out the other mani's for this theme (links below the pictures), there are some really stunning designs!
Colours used: Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, Pen & Pink - OPI, Alpine Snow - OPI, Turquoise Aesthetic - OPI

An InLinkz Link-up

HBP Presents: Dusty Dino's!

Hello nail world! Today I'm super excited to be sharing the nail design I did as part of this months Hobby Polish Bloggers Link Up. I love having a monthly theme as it gives me inspiration to try things a little differently. This months theme was dusty/muted colours, so I came up with the idea of dusty dinosaur's! I used advanced stamping for this manicure using my new Bundle Monster plate 611. I was looking all around to find dinosaur stamping plates and stumbled across my dream dino plate on Bundle Monster, so ordered it all the way from the US. It was worth the wait!

I used a grey polish to stamp the images onto my UberMat, as I thought black or white might be slightly too harsh against the muted colours. This old Grey polish from Barry M was perfect. I used a dotting tool to do eyes on some of the dino's, and then to colour them in in pale/dusty colours. Once I has placed them on my nails I used a matter top coat to finish the look. Really pleased with how these turned out, and was so sad when I had to take them off for a client meeting! I did have a few issues with a little bit of bubbling, which I have learnt from, as I'm rocking another advanced stamping mani now and it's much smoother :)
Below are close ups of a couple of the dino's and a picture of the stamping plate (excuse the reflectiveness, I struggle to get good pictures of stamping plates!). To see the colours I used, and the designs the lovely ladies of the HPB group have done please scroll past the pictures. It's a lovely and talented nail community so I would recommend you check them out!
Colours used: Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Grey - Barry M, Acai Smoothie - Barry M, Wisteria Haze - CND Vinylux, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, Swan Street - Nails Inc, Pro Matte Finish - Rimmel

An InLinkz Link-up

HPB Presents: Spring

I can't believe it's turning towards Spring time already! I'l be honest, it doesn't feel like it yet here in the UK, our office heating was broken today and it was freeezing! Today I'm taking part in another of the Hobby Polish Bloggers link ups, this months theme is spring. I've chosen a simple design for this one, partly due to time and partly because I love this pattern and couldn't wait to give it a try.

I used my Pro Plate Collection 06 stamping plate from Mo You, and gave it a contrasting accent nail to add interest. I finished off with a matte top coat to bring out the colours. I haven't used my matte top coat in a while so was missing it! Beleive it or not the same green is used for all of the design (Barry M's Key Lime), I was surprised how different it looked after stamping but I suppose it's because the accent nails are over white and the rest are not. Part of me things it clashes, and part of me rather likes it!

Colours used: Key Lime - Barry M, Alpine Snow, OPI, White Knight - Mo You

I hope you like my simple Spring design! Check out the lovely designs everyone else is doing below.

An InLinkz Link-up

HBP Presents: An Arctic 'Grey-dient'

So the time has come for another Hobby Polish Bloggers link up. The HBP Facebook group is a great place for sharing and learning tips and tricks on anything nail art/nail blog related. This months theme is gradients. I usually associate gradients more with spring/summer but have fancied trying a grey one for a while now so this was my chance. I used three grey shades (detailed at the bottom of this post) to create the gradient with some nail art sponges from Ebay, and then used a Mo You stamping plate (Enchanted Plate collection 05) for the design.

I had so many nail fails doing this! All went well to start with but I tried a peel of barrier for the first time, and on a couple of my nails where these touched the nail varnish, it peeled part of it off when I tried to remove it, you can see the effect of this on my thumbnail below. I also had a couple of Cellotape miss-haps (I was using it to clean my stamper) where it became stuck to and peeled off little bits of polish, so I had to try and patch them up. Mostly hidden by the stamping but it was obvious to me, so this mani didn't last long! I'm thinking these things happened because the polish wasn't quire dry enough so at least there is a lesson learnt.

Overall I like the gradient, the stamping images and the colours, but thing this may have worked slightly better with a wintery pattern (from the same plate) rather than the animals, as in some lights they weren't very clear. Also less nail fails would be good! I liked the super shinyness of the silver against the darker grey.


Colours Used: Little Bo Peep - Rimmel, Grey - Barry M, Dragster - Barry M, Dazzle - Orly

Check out all the other lovely designs below!

An InLinkz Link-up