A Dark Sky in the Country Nails

Hey everyone! One more autumn nail look before I move onto the Halloween nail art - OooOOooh! This look was inspired by the Lake District in the UK and the countryside at night. I did make a bit of a blunder with this one, as I will explain, but they definitely grew on me!

I started with a base of vibrant blue (a pretty fun start in my humble opinion!) and then made decals using my Uber Mat (see how here). I used the Fall In Love 10 plate from Mo You London (same plate as my last design), which has so many wonderful autumn and generally nature themed images. On the website they have created this look with some blue polishes and I love it so thought I'd create something similar with slightly different shades of blue. I did slip up by leaving the black stars and moons in my decals. I meant to take them out and add them to my nails in yellow. I thought I'd correct it after but couldn't as the decals are placed on my nails with the images in reverse, so stamping over the top on my nails the positioning would be all wrong! I could have made more decals but didn't have time.

So to start off these felt like a bit of a flop but as time went on and the vibrant colours kept catching my eye I've grown to rather like them! I also do really love these images!

Colours used: King Tut's Gem - Jessica Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Skyline - ILNP, Silver Lining - Barry M, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Laguna - Barry M, Greenberry - Barry M, Indigo - Barry M

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! I have some new year nail art to show you and a round up of a few of my favourite nails from 2018. I was going to go for new year glitter but was keen to try out a couple of Jessica polishes my boyfriend got me for Christmas. I went for something a bit subtle as I wanted to keep the lovely blue and bronze shades visible. I used the Mo You London Festive 05 plate for the champagne glass images. I was going to colour some of it in with sharpies but left it as it is as I like the simplicity and the contrast.

So my new years resolution this year is to try and see more of my friends who don't live close to me. I also have a blog resolution each year. When looking through my blog from last year I noticed my nails look too long for me in a lot of posts! I just don't think they suit me that way. I think how I have them in the pictures below is about as long as looks good on me. So I need to remember to file!

Below are links to my top five nail art designs from 2018, in no particular order:

Untitled moon/rune nails!
Sparkling succulents 
Layered snowflakes
Mattified swans
Isambard Kingdom Brown Owl

Let me know your thoughts and and if you have any nail resolutions this year!
Colours used: Star Sapphire - Jessica, Gingersnap - Jessica, White Stamping Polish - Emily de Molly

Blue Floral Mothers Day Nails

Hello everyone! Some Spring nail art today to try and coax the Spring weather out from it's hiding place. Given that these are from Mothers Day weekend I don't think it's working! I took inspiration from Instagram for this design, though unfortunately I can't remember who from. I wore these on Mothers Day which I think was quite fitting as my Mums favourite colour is blue.

For the base colour I used King Tut's Gem from Jessica Polish, which was a Christmas present from my boyfriend. It was great to finally use it, I like the way the super subtle shimmer makes the blue even brighter. For the floral images I used Mo You London's Flower Power 03 stamping plate. I kept it simple and used black for the outline, filling in the images only with white. I used my Uber Mat to make the decals, you can see how here. I like how these turned out, and all though I'm not done with dark wintery colours yet it was good to change it up a bit!
Colours used: King Tut's Gem - Jessica, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, White Knight - Mo You London

Stamping Sunday: Shimmering Aquatics

Happy Sunday everyone! I am sooo sad that the weekend is almost over! On the plus side I have some shimmery aquatic themed nail art to show you. I rather liked this design, the colours and images are very typically the sort of thing I go for. I started with a purple metallic base on three of my fingers (colours listed below pictures), and a shimmery off white/very pale grey on my thumb and ringer fingers. I used Mo You London's Animal 01 stamping plate and Barry M silver foil polish to create the initial images. I used the advanced stamping technique and my Uber Mat. You can see a tutorial on how here.

I liked my right hand best as the fish was more detailed and the octopus looked like it was running towards something! The Jessica polishes are a gift from my boyfriend. Each year for Christmas he gets me a new one, it's become a bot of a tradition. This time I got two (one was the purple and the other some holo bar glitter) so I can't wait to try out the second!
Colours used: Prima Donna - Jessica Nail Polish, Lakodom - Picture Polish, Indigo Glow - Jessica Nail Polish, Silver Foil Effect - Barry M, Casablanca - Jessica Nail Polish

Just had to add a couple of detailed shots of the thumbs as I think these were my favourite par of the mani, they are so cute, especially the one on the right!
And finally... here is a bonus picture of my nails pre-stamping, and my work space. I had re-shaped them before this design so was enjoying seeing the new colour on my 'new' nails!

Constellation Nails

Good evening everyone, perhaps it's not the evening where you are, but you can pretend it is by looking at my constellation nails! I wanted to do some nail art with one of ,my dark shimmer polishes and this seemed like the perfect option. Casablanca from Jessica nail polish is a black jelly polish with purple/green shimmer throughout. The shimmer gives it a super shiny effect, it reminds me of a beetles wing.

For the constellations I looked on Google images for some inspiration, but did make some up a little to simplify it! I used a dotting tool to map out the stars with Dazzle from Orly, which is super shiny and bright. I then used a small nail art brush to join the dots. Voila!
Colours used: Casablanca - Jessica, Dazzle - Orly

Glitterati

Today I am wearing and sharing the beautiful Glitterati by Jessica Nail Polish, a Christmas gift from my lovely boyfriend. This polish is sooo lovely and glittery in the bottle, and even better on the nails! For my first wear I have decided to layer it over OPI's Lady In Black. As it's such a nice opaque black this was a quick and easy mani to do. Glitters always seem to dry faster than other polishes.

The consistency is fairly thick but smooth and easy to work with. it's got a serious amount of glitter in which is lovely. But as it's small glitter it doesn't thicken up the polish too much. the base it quite gel like so it dries a lot smoother than a lot of glitters.

Below is just one thick coat of Glitterati over black. As you can see there is some serious glitter going on there! I initially thought I'd do a gradient but so much glitter came out! Once it had though I was happy to stick with a full cover glitter look. The colour comes out a very shiny bronze with hints of green catching the light. I think it makes a perfect polish for New Year or Christmas parties. It's also, being a shiny gellish glitter, nice and strong for covering a little nail break I have on my left thumb nail (nooo!).


Colours Used: Lady In Black - OPI,  Glitterati - Jessica Nail Polish

Basic Peacock Nails

So this one is a bit of a work in progress, I was tempted not to post it, but decided it's worth putting up the ones that aren't as good as well, so I can compare as I get better! (Besides I do love the Jessica blue!)

The design was done with dotting tools and a Barry M nail art pen. Mine is going a little gloopy at the edges which probably didn't help. Will be trying this design again with striping brushes to see if I can get a better effect. All in all I think it's a good design to try if you want something fairly simple, but would suggest practising the design on paper first to get an idea of what it will look like.

Colours used: Indigo Glow - Jessica, Chelsea Embankment - Nails Inc, Indigo - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M