Rainbow Nails for Porto

Hi Space Turtles! I'm back after a week away in the beautiful city of Porto in Portugal. These where my holiday nails (along with the Aperol Spritz ones I shared before). I took inspiration from me.time.manis on Instagram who created a gorgeous rainbow look with the Bubbly Collection from Cirque Colors. I decided to attempt a recreation as a fun holiday look and I love it! It's a great collection and the colours are so fun together.

I started by unscrewing the gaps on the ones I wanted to use on the nail I was working on, then applied a line of colour of each polish gently, trying to blend or overlap them slightly without the brushes getting contaminated with other colours. I then held a magnet over the top for 30 seconds. Once all nails were dry I repeated the process with a second coat. I probably didn't need to magnetise the first coat in the end but thought it might help.

I wish I'd managed to blend the colours a little better and perhaps managed to get a better magnetic effect but I did know that would be tricky with the multiple colours as they dry so fast. Despite this I do love these. They are such a fun and bright colour combination and perfect for holiday nails!

Colours used: Aperol Spritz, Sparkling Yuzu, Soda Shoppe, La Dolce Vita, Helter Seltzer, Fizzing Lifting Drink - All Cirque Colors

Glittering Wave Nail Art - Inspired by Rye and Hastings

Hey everyone! Getting a bit behind on my nail blogging again... no surprises there! These ones were inspired by a weekend away we had a few weeks ago for my birthday. To be honest they didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but there are elements of them I like. I still feel like I need SO much work on my nail photo taking skills too!

So the places we visited on the weekend away were Rye and Hastings. We also went to a steam museum on the way to Rye, which is making me think maybe I should try some steampunk nail art! We stayed in  a lovely little Airbnb cabin on a farm, it was delightful! The anchor and the images on my little fingernails were stamped directly, and for the waves and sailing boat I used the advanced stamping technique to colour them in, or add glitter in the case of the waves. On my index finger I sponged on some glitter, and then used a reverse stamping image from the UberChic Lovely Leaves 01 plate with the blue polish. It didn't show up as well as I'd hoped so I stamped it again, but that didn't work too well, particularly on my right hand.

So all in all I think these are OK. I like the colours and the theme, but it came out a bit messier than I'd anticipated, and didn't really wow me!
Colours used: Laguna - Barry M, Cream Soda - Barry M, Little Bo Peep - Rimmel, Grey - Barry M, Northern Lights (H) - Fun Lacquer, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish

Holiday Nails: Tribute to Tenerife

Hi everyone! So these might not technically be holiday nails, as I didn't have them on while on holiday, but they were done when I got back based on various aspects of the holiday. I did a similar thing after our trip to Norway before Christmas last year, you can see them here.

I started with a base of Zircon from Cirque Color's new additions to the Facets collection, and it is rather lovely. On my ring fingernail I used a white base and then created a neon gradient with pink and orange. If I did this nail art again I'd probably use normal bright colours rather than neon as I think they'd fit a little better with Zircon.

On my thumbnails I used layered stamping for the mountain landscape and added stars.  On my index fingers I used a couple of whale images based on my new quirky Orca swimsuit (it's the cutest!) I got from Batako, they are a little patchy as I painted the white on once I'd already stamped on the black images. I used layered stamping on my middle fingernails as well, these ones are to remind me of the dolphins we saw at sea! On my little finger nails I used layered stamping again for some crabs, we saw some large ones on the rocks, and lizards too but I don't think I have any lizard images!

I think I like these more than the ones I wore on holiday and enjoyed having something bright on my nails while I am still a little tanned (emphasis on a little!).
Colours used: Zircon - Cirque Colors, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Beach Hut - Models Own, Claridge Gardens, White - Emily de Molly, Grey - Barry M, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Cocoa - Barry M, Foil Effects Gold - Barry M

Holiday Nails: Dolphins & Cocktails In Tenerife

Hey everyone! On this somewhat cloudy day I'm bringing to you my holiday nails for our trip to Tenerife. I got back a week yesterday and am still adjusting to the colder weather and being back at work. I used a few new or long untouched things for this nail art. A thermal blue polish I bought on Facebook, the Uberchic Bottoms Up stamping plate, and Rainbow Reef, one of the 'dolphin glitter' polishes I bought from Ellagee when I was first discovering indie polishes.

On my index and ring fingers I am wearing Crepuscular Awakening, the thermal blue, topped with Rainbow Reef. On my middle finger I used the Tropical 07 plate from Mo You London for a citrussy gradient, and on my thumb nails I used a cocktail image from the bottoms up plate to create a summery gradient there too. On my little finger I used a few of the smaller cocktail images in a variety of colours. I think I probably should have filled them in with a bit more colour but got carried away and stamped the outer images of the layering ones first for some of them!

So all in all these aren't my favourite holiday nails, but I do rather like them, they capture the essence of the holiday I think - plus we saw dolphins! They also give me fond memories. I hadn't been to Tenerife before but would definitely recommend it for a relaxing holiday.
Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Crepuscular Awakening - Femme Fatale Cosmetics, Yellow - Barry M, Greenberry - Barry M, Papaya - Barry M, Rainbow Reef - Ellagee

Trondheim Inspired Christmas Nails

Hello everyone, hope you've had a lovely Christmas break! Today I'm sharing with you my nail art from the week before Christmas, inspired by our weekend break in Trondheim, Norway. I would highly recommend a Christmas trip there, it was like a magical Christmas wonderland! We were lucky that it snowed a fair bit, making it even more picturesque. There were Christmas lights everywhere and there was a rustic cosy theme at many places. We spent a fair bit of time at the Christmas market in the town square. The market stalls were adorable and it was a good size of market to have enough to look at without it being so big you'd get lost! There are pictures up on my Instagram if you'd like to see (link in the top right corner).

So for the nail art I based it on things we'd seen, lights on my index finger, snowy mountains on my middle, snow on my ring finger, trees and hills on my little finger, and Christmas jumper patterns on my thumb. I used the Uber Chic Christmas-01 plate for the lights, snowflakes and jumper pattern. For the hilly scenes I used the appropriately named Scandi 01 plate from Mo You London. I used the advanced stamping technique with my Uber Mat for those images where the colours have been filled in. You can see how here.

I was pleased with how they turned out and they bring back fond memories :)
Colours used: Succulent Garden - Cirque Colors, Surfboard - Barry M, Glacier Blue - Cirque Colors, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, White Knight - Mo You London, Estate - Cirque Colors, Grey - Barry M, Alpine Snow - OPI, Spring Green - Barry M

Easter Nail Art 2017

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you've had a lovely long weekend, I'm trying not to think about it coming to an end! I ended up doing this years Easter nails a little late (the morning of Easter Sunday) so I'm posting them here a little late too. I spent ages deliberating over what to do, and getting the will power to remove my mermaid nail art (further blog post to come). For nail art Easter probably isn't my favourite holiday as I'm not so much a pastel sort of person, so I had a few obscure idea in mind (snakes etc!). I did get very tempted to do mini egg nails again, as that is my favourite Easter design of all time (see my first try here) but I went for something as explicitly Easter as possible instead!

Here's how I did it:

• Paint each nail a different pastel colour (I mixed the order up on each hand).
• Prepare some decals on a nail mat or stamper using clear polish (paint a patch of clear polish)
• Use an opaque white polish and a small nail art brush for the egg shells and rabbit ears.
• Use brown polish and a small nail art brush to paint the rabbit outlines on the thumb nails, and then some pastel colours for the lines on the little finger).
• Draw some egg outlines on the clear polish decals using a nail art pen or small brush, and foll them in with white polish.
• Use a dotting tool for the rest of the pattern on the little fingers.
• Use a small nail art brush and dotting tool for the eyes and beak of the chick,
• Paint the pink inner ears on the bunny ears using a small nail art brush.
• Use a dotting tool to decorate the Easter eggs on the dotting tools and go over the outline with black polish or a nail art pen.
• Add white nails to the thumb nail bunnies using a dotting tool.
• Paint a layer of clear polish over the Easter egg decals.
• Once the polish it dry peel up the egg designs, place on the desired nails and trip where needed.
• Use a clear top coat to finish.

So it's a little long winded but also pretty simple. I was glad to do some freehand again as I need some practise! I enjoyed this design and it's classic Easter look, and now have some less classic Easter designs in mind too!

Colours used: Blueberry - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, White Knight - Mo You London, Mint Green - Barry M, Berry - Barry M, Surfboard - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Papaya - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M

Tropical Tuesday: Guest Hands!

Today I am showing a design I did on my friend Jessica's nails before she went on holiday last year. She was an excellent hand model! Here I am again showcasing the delights of a nail art pen! The gradients were done lightly with some sponges, a top coat added to smooth it out, and the design drawn over the top. As I've said previously, you definitely need a top coat over the nail art pens, or they rub away pretty quickly.

The design was based on something I saw on Pinterest. Unfortunately as it was a while back I can't remember who, but if anyone knows please let me know. So all in all this is a pretty simple one, if you have the patience to sit and do the little drawings!

Colours used: White - Barry M, Cyan Blue - Barry M, Berry  - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M