A Nail Art Tribute to Scotland in the Autumn

Hi there space turtles! Today I'm sharing some nail art which actually isn't for an Instagram nail art challenge for once! This is just something I felt like doing after a recent family holiday in Scotland where we stayed in the country and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and autumn leaves. We saw many trees, leaves and fungi in different shades so I've tried to capture that here with a bit of sparkle,

I added three layers of sheer white and then added some white patterns to three of my nails followed my another layer of sheer white. On the other two I added another layer too and then stamped a grey pattern and a mountain scene over the top using Mo You London's Noel 16 (putting it sideways was a very last minute decision as I applied it!). In the meantime I had some decals drying on my Uber Mat which I created in advance using Uber Chic's Woodland Chic stamping plate. I applied the decals over the white patterns and then added a glossy top coat.

I'm pretty pleased with how these came out. They felt a bit ad-hoc while I did them but created a look that wasn't quite how I was expecting but was exactly as cosy and fun as I'd hoped! I really love the way the landscape on my thumbnail came out. It's to remind me of a lovely viewing spot near our holiday house of some hills with trees either side and birds of prey. It was hills rather than mountains but this image was close enough!

Colours used: Sheet Off-White - Undisclosed, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Grey - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Bronze Bae - Barry M, Copper Mine - Barry M, Gold Digger - Barry M

A Birthday Cactus

Hello there! Going to keep this one short and sweet much like the chubby little cactus on my middle fingernail. I was invited to join a collaboration on Instagram for StephyClaws Birthday so chose this design to recreate. It meant getting some classic polishes out to use and I like the fun summery colours and theme. I used two coats of each colour and three of the metallic polish and create a decal for the blue nail. The image is from Mo You London's Hipster 16 stamping plate and I'm really pleased with the colours I used for it. They give it quite a cartoony vibe I think.

Colours used: Bronze Bae - Barry M, Sloane Gardens - Nails Inc, Baker Street - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Greenberry - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M

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

A Molten Metal Autumn

Hey everyone! Something autumnal today as we're fully into that leafy season. I'm disappointed I couldn't get better pictures of these as they came out so well. I struggled a bit with lighting as the weather turned pretty grey after these were finished. The top left was quite nice but you can see this was taken about a week after they were finished as they've worn away a bit! Bottom left shows the sparkle under the kitchen lights which is pretty much how these looked most of the time. They were fabulous in the sunlight!

I started with a gradient using Barry M's four newest Molten Metal shades. At the time of doing this I was in full sunlight and was totally dazzled by the gradient! Once two layers of gradient were complete I used an image from Uber Chic's Lovely Leaves 01 plate on all nails. I loved the way the colours peeked through and think they worked really well as autumn nail art for someone who isn't generally that into autumn colours. Hope you like them too!
Colours used: Pink Luxe - Barry M, Crystal Blue - Barry M, Antique Gold - Barry M, Celestial Silver - Barry M, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish

Stamping Sunday: Ornate Doodle Nail Art

Today's nail art stamping masterpiece is one that was just an experiment/trying out a new stamping plate but I really love the way it turned out, and ended up keeping it on for a week. My one regret is not getting some better pictures. I tried using just daylight instead of my light box but as you can see it was a dull day outside. Fortunately I have some pictures of the base colour in better light at the bottom of this post. It's Who Needs Love, a CBL valentines 2017 polish and it's rather lovely!

I used my Mo You London Doodles 01 stamping plate and black stamping polish for the images, and used my Uber Mat to create decals. Instructions on how to do it can be found here. I love the round images on this stamping plate as they're so pretty and versatile, you can put them in random places across the nail like I did, or if you have small nails they could even cover the whole nail. I think they'd look good as patterns at the bottom of each nail too.

For the detail I coloured in the images using some of Barry M's molten metal polishes. I used bronze, silver and gold but left out copper as I thought it would clash with the base colour. It worked better than expected and the gentle shimmer of the polishes sat nicely with the deep purple holo!
Colours used: Who Needs Love - Colors By Llarowe, Black Knight - Mo You London, Gold Digger, Barry M, Bronze Bae - Barry M, Silver Lining - Barry M

I've put a couple of pictures below of the other side of the decals, while they were drying after being coloured in. I just thought they looked rather pretty so it had to be documented! Under that is the base colour in daylight (on a brighter day!), and then in bright light so you can see some of that holographic flare!