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: 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

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

HBP Presents: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I didn't think I'd be blogging on Christmas day but I couldn't stay away! I hope you have all had/ are having a magical day. Today I'm showing you my Christmas Day 2015 nails. Finished these off quite late last night, just in time before Santa arrived :D This post is doubly special as it's not only Christmas day but it's also part of the Hobby Polish Bloggers Facebook groups monthly link up (this is my fourth). I've learnt a lot from this group and love being a part of it.

As you can see from the pictures below this years design is based on a Christmas card. This is one of the ones I got from Paperchase this year. I usually have all kinds of animals on my cards but I liked the semi-traditional feel of this one. I kept it simple and didn't attempt do do the Santa. My freehand skills only go so far!

I started with a blue base and then used sponges to create a slight gradient for the night sky. I then very lightly sponged over the top with cream polish on cling film/saran wrap to give light snow effect. Next step were the gold stars, done with a small nail art brush. For the trees I used a thin detail brush, and the same for the outlines of the houses (then filling them in with another). I did try putting snow on one of the trees but it didn't really work so I changed it back. Finished off with my favourite top coat, Nails Inc's Kensington Caviar (quick dry).

Overall really pleased with how this turned out. It wasn't as complicated as I thought, and the thin brushes were really nice to use. Today I was given a pot to put my brushes in, so hopefully now that they will be more easily accessible (previously kept under my bed!) there should be more freehand to come!


Colours Used: Blueberry - Barry M, Cobalt Blue - Barry M, Coconut - Barry M, Gold - Limited Collection at M&S, British Racing Green - Butter London, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Seven Dials - Nails Inc

Check out the other lovely holiday/winter designs below!

An InLinkz Link-up