Nail Art Views From The Rooftops - London

Hey everyone and happy Sunday! Got something a little different to share today. I'm currently seconded to another company at work and they have this amazing roof garden! I'm trying to make the most of it while I'm there, it's so beautiful and very refreshing in the wind and cold weather. I decided to use my London nail polish from Picture Polish and create some London themed nail art I could photograph while there. It's not the same bit of skyline but still awesome! I can see Big Ben where I usually sit in the office which is really cool, but it's pretty distant so hard to photograph.

So onto the nail art. I started with three coats of silvery grey and then made decals using Mo You London's Scandi 03 and Scandi 01 stamping plates. While these were drying on my Uber Mat I added a bit of skyline nail art to my thumb with the clairestelle8 stamping plate from Maniology. I decided to place the images facing upwards from the cuticle like I used to, pretty much because of the skyline pictures I knew I wanted to take. It did feel strange going back to that as I'm used to having them the other way round now (except on my thumb).

In conclusion, I've enjoyed these. They are great fun and I love the base colour. It's not my favourite nail art I've done but it's fun and I love the pictures I ended up with! They will certainly bring back fond memories :)

Colours used: London - Picture Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Madder - Cirque Colors, Cream Soda - Barry M, Tickled Taupe - Painted Polish, Taupe Temptation - Painted Polish

Woodland Wonderland

Hey nail people! Going to keep this one short and sweet as I'm a little behind and also so ready for an early night! I did this for Glam Nails Challenge's 'Lanscape' prompt. I had quite a few ideas for this and could have done something rather more adventurous, but I didn't have loads of time. I was going to stamp the images over a gradient but then remembered I had some thermal polishes that should work just as well!

I started with three coats of thermal polish (colours listed below the pictures). I've had this thermal shade a few years so although it does have a colour change still it's not a strong one. It wasn't the most stark difference anyway, changing from a pearlescent green to blue. The pictures are closer to the warm shade which is pale green. Sometimes my nail tips have had a darker blue-ish tint to them. The images I added are from Maniology's Clairestelle8 stamping plate.

In conclusion, I'm enjoying the shape of my nails though they feel weirdly short after filing them down a bit (I know they're not really - just an adjustment!). I'm not 100% sure on this look though. The images are gorgeous but it feels a bit to simplistic, which may be purely because I knew it was less effort to create than other nail looks I do!

Colours used: Jasmine - Femme Fatale Cosmetics, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

A pear of manicures

Hey everyone! Back with this months final Glam Nails Challenge prompt, pears. I quite liked the idea of doing Each Peach Pear Plum (children's book) themed nails as the book has a lovely cover, but that was a little complicated for me so I decided to stick with my trusty Fruit Deco stamping plate from Maniology.

I started with a base of pale pink on my middle two nails, and Polished for Days Soft Focus on my other nails as a base for the glitter. For the glitter nails I used Champagne Diamonds from Cirque Colors which is super sparkly and lovely! While the layers dried I created decals on my Uber Mat using Mo You London's Fall In Love 08 stamping plate. I wanted to get a sort of blossom effect behind the pears but didn't quite have the right image so chose these instead. For once I created this look on both hands! I went to a wedding reception last night so wanted to have my hands co-ordinated and looking good with my dress. After applying the decals I added the layered up pear images and then a shiny topcoat.

I'm happy with how these came out. The floral images I chose were good blossom substitutes I think and the pears are cute. I really enjoyed the glorious glitter too - it's been great using a few from the Facets collection again - they always look good!

Colours used: Champagne Diamonds - Cirque Colors, Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Marylebone Road - Nails Inc, Spring Green - Barry M

Jammy Raspberry Nails

Hey everyone! Back again with some more fruit nails for todays Glam Nails Challenge prompt which is raspberry. As with the lime nail art from yesterday I decided the follow a similar pattern, use the same stamping plate (Maniology Fruit Deco) and use one of Cirque Colors Facets collection polishes (this time it's Tourmaline).

I started by applying Tourmaline on three of my nails and white polish on the other two, topped with a shimmery iridescent topper. There was no decal making today as I used layered stamping plate images, using dark pink, green and then black stamping polish for the outline. There is one raspberry image on the stamping plate and I'm not sure I really placed it very well. I think I'd have been better off having just one image per nail at the end as a sort of accent. Still, they're not bad - after all who doesn't like raspberries?!

Colours used: Tourmaline - Cirque Colors, Cream Soda - Barry M, Good Vibes - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Pomegranate - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M

Blueberry Flowers

Hey everyone! The second Glam Nails Challenge prompt this month was blueberries and I've seen some gorgeous designs people have done for it! I was a little unsure what to do at first so was pleased when I discovered my Maniology Fruit Deco plate had a berry image I could use. I decided to go for an abstract sort of look with some pale colours so the blueberries would stand out. 

I started with a base of white (a challenge as my white nail polish is getting quite thick!) and then added a swipe of pale purple and pink nail polish on each nail. After that I used the blueberry image from the Fruit Deco plate on each nail. It's a layered stamping plate so I didn't need to create decals and could just layer up the colours. To finish off the look I used a dotting tool and gold nail polish to add a little extra detail on each nail.

I think the final look is very summery and reminds me of jam jars or some sort of  cottage core fruit packaging! Also looks kind of floral to me, hence the name of this blog post. I used a shiny top coat but might add a bit one just to see how it looks.

Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Indigo - Barry M, Uptown Glamour - Nails Inc

Fruit Salad On My Nails

Hello all and Happy Sunday! It is very rainy today in the South of England, and has been all weekend, but I am OK with it as I'm finally getting those autumn vibes! Having said that it will seem a little strange that I'm now sharing some summery nail art, but this is one I've just taken off and wanted to squeeze in before I get onto the autumn looks. There will be Halloween nail art coming very soon!

So I have the Fruit Deco stamping plate from Maniology and I really love it, but have mostly used the whole nail images of lemons and watermelons so far so wanted to have a go with some more of the individual fruits. I was going to do this on a more neutral background but I had this lovely metallic peach on my untried list and wanted to get that in with the summer looks! It's called Peachy Feels and I bought it as my friend Charlotte brought it to my attention that I don't own a metallic peach nail polish, by mentioning that she would like a metallic peach nail polish!

So the technique for this one was pretty straightforward. All the images on the Fruit Deco plate are layerable, so I just stamped the colours on accordingly and then added the black outline. It is a little fiddly getting them lined up sometimes but for the most part it came out well! I've enjoyed wearing them, they remind me a bit of Ibiza!

Colours used: Peachy Feels - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Yellow - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Pomegranate - Barry M

Cherry & Blossom Nails

Happy Sunday everyone! Here we are with the last Glam Nails Challenge June prompt, I can't believe it's come around so fast! Today's prompt is cherries. I'm quite pleased with myself for managing to complete this challenge! I usually don't do the ones with many prompts in one month as I'll end up only doing one or two, but I have managed to complete all of these and have really enjoyed it! In July I will be focusing on my ever growing list of other random ideas but I am quite tempted to try another of these challenges in the future if it takes my fancy.

For this look I used the Fruit Deco plate from Maniology again (it's getting a lot of use at the moment!) for the cherry images, these were stamped directly onto my nails. For the cherry blossom on my index and little fingernails I made decals using my Uber Mat, and the Suki 09 plate from Mo You London. You can see how here. It was my first time using this plate and I'm really pleased with how the flowers came out, I think they'd work well across all nails too. I felt like there was something missing from the cherry nails so added some black dots around the edge with a dotting tool. Not entirely even but it's OK!

Overall I like these. They're very girly for me, but I do really like the flowers, and it was fun to use a fruit image I hadn't used yet too. Who knows, maybe these won't be my last fruit nails this year!
Colours used: Vintage Tee - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Lady In Black - OPI, Key Lime - Barry M, Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc

Stamping Sunday: Forecasting Strawberries!

Hi everyone! Today I am forecasting strawberries for the next Glam Nails Challenge prompt. I can't remember exactly how I came up with this idea but I wanted to make my strawberry nail art a bit more interesting and thought I'd theme them around hot weather, though it's certainly been a bit temperamental here in the UK for the last week or so!

I started with a cream base on three nails, and a yellow base on the other two. For the wording I used Uber Chic's Forecasting Glam stamping plate, and a dotting tool to colour in the sun. For the strawberries on my thumb and little fingernails I used the layering images on Maniology's Fruit Deco plate. The same colour was used for the different types of strawberries but it looks different due to the colours underneath. The image for the full coverage strawberry nails is from Mo You London's Tropical 10 plate, and it is a bit of a weird one! They've done it in a reverse stamping style, which kind of works but it's then a bit confusing as to what you're meant to do with the leaves. I ended up just colouring them in directly onto my nails with a nail art brush, which seemed to work well.

To be honest I wasn't so keen on these at first, apart from the thumb nail, but they have grown on me a bit! They are certainly summery anyway!
Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Key Lime - Barry M, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Lemony Fresh Nails

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the fruit nail blog! (that's how it feels this month!) Today's glam nails challenge prompt is lemons, and this is my attempt. The stamping plates I used for this look are the Fruit Deco plate from Maniology, and Tropical 34 from Mo You London.

I started with a base of white polish (colours listed below the pictures), and then created decals for the stripy nails, using my Uber Mat. It was surprisingly satisfying filling the stripes in with my little nail art brush. While the decals where drying I did the stamping on my other nails, all of which involved layered stamping, where I stamped the yellow on first, then the green, and finally the black outline. I struggled a bit with the Maniology images on this occasion, I couldn't get the green right so you can't really see it. May be something to do with going for a run half way through doing my nails and getting a bit tired!

So overall I quite like these, they're fun, but would definitely be better if I'd mastered the Maniology lemons. I did master them previously on another look which you can see here. I also did some freehand lemons aages ago which I'm still quite proud of! You can see them here. So this nail art is not my best lemon art but I still like it!
Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Key Lime - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Cyan - Barry M, Sloane Avenue - Nails Inc

Stamping Sunday: Juicy Watermelon Nails

Hi everyone! I'm back with more fruit nail art for the glam nails challenge. I also thought I'll bring back Stamping Sundays for a bit as I'm going to try and post some of the fruit designs for the challenge on Sundays. I expect a lot of the fruit nail art I do will be stamping related, and this one is certainly no exception.

I started with a base of white on three nails, and pale green and magenta on the other two. For the watermelon pattern on my thumb and little finger nails I used the Maniology Fruit Deco plate. This image is a layering image so nice and easy to do, although I had a bit of trouble with the black outline, as my black stamping polish is getting a bit thick, so the thumb nail is a bit messy. For the green nail I used the Tropical 07 plate from Mo You London. The image was only just tall enough for my nail. I do have a similar image on another plate but it's wider so I don't get so many stripes. For the remaining two nails I used the Tropical 34 plate (also MYL). The watermelon slice image is also a layered image so there was no advanced stamping in this look.

I really like these. They're fun and summery, and I do enjoy a good watermelon theme! I'd be tempted to do this look again and maybe even add some glitter in there somewhere. I was also impressed with how the dark green and magenta polishes stamped (colours listed below the pictures). See you soon!
Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc, Key Lime - Barry M, Watermelon - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Unicorns & Rainbows for Key Workers & Holo Taco Challenge!

Hello again - I'm back already! I need to get this blog post out in good time as I am entering it in the Holo Taco challenge this week, the first theme being Unicorns. I have a whole list of nail art ideas to do but I put it aside when this challenge prompt came up on my Instagram feed, and I'm so glad I did! I used the Bundle Monster X Nailedthepolish stamping plate for the unicorns, and the rainbows as you can probably tell are freehand. Here in the UK people have been putting rainbows in their windows as a sign of support for key workers during this challenging time. I think it's mostly a thing people have been getting their children to do but I fully intend to do one myself! Some of our neighbors have put a whole rainbow arch of balloons on the front of their caravan which is awesome! So I wanted to add my own little rainbow nails, though obviously no one is seeing them in person, so I need to get a move on with my window rainbow!

I started this look with a peel off base coat, due to the glitter, and then a thick layer of silver glitter, followed by a couple of coats of another glitter to add some depth (colours listed below the pictures). For the unicorns I used the advanced stamping technique (see how here) and my Uber Mat. I coloured them in with white polish, silver horns, and some of Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection. For the rainbows I used a small nail art brush to paint each of the Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection polishes over the glitter in a rainbow shape. It's a tad wobbly as freehand isn't my strength, but I think it came out reasonably well. Absolutely loving having the vice colours out again, they are so so bright!

So overall as you can probably tell I am really pleased with these! I'm also finally up to date with my blogging again, this look is actually still on my nails for once (did them on Sunday). I've generally been fine with not being able to show people my nail art in person, as I share it all online anyway, but I love these so much I would have quite enjoyed sharing them, they're pretty hard to miss too being so bright! Anyway, I hope you like them :) Stay well!
Colours used: Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, Diamond Glitter - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour - Bees Knees, Silver Lining - Barry M, Game Over - Cirque Colors, Vitamin D - Cirque Colors, Electric Daisy - Cirque Colors, High Roller - Cirque Colors, Miami-Dade - Cirque Colors, Rehab - Cirque Colors

Magnetic Galaxy

Happy leap year everybody! I hope you enjoy this mysterious extra day! I feel like the title of this blog post is perhaps a little too grand, but it kind of describes the look. Apologies if you were hoping for piles of glitter and fancy effects! The purple polish here is one I hadn't used before, Le 186 by Emily de Molly, and although it is a magnetic polish with streaks of gold you can't really see it in these pictures. To be honest you can't really see it that closely on my nails either, perhaps I didn't use it right but the effect wasn't that strong for me, but at this stage it might just be because I've had it on for a few days and I know the effect can fade a bit over time with magnetic polishes.

On the two nails on each hand I hadn't used the magnetic polish on, I started with a silver metallic polish, and then some linear holo over the top. I then used black stamping polish and images from the Negative Space: The Crack In Space plate from Maniology. I wanted to use one of the wider images with the big zig-zag through it, but my nails were just a tad too long.

Overall I quite like these but wasn't that inspired. My favourite is the ring finger in the top left picture. They did shine pretty nicely under bright light. The magnetic purple is pretty but I think I had super high expectations from Emily de Molly following some previous buys so I wasn't as wowed as I could have been!
Colours used: Le 186 - Emily de Molly, Silver Lining - Barry M,  Harp On It - Color Club, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection