Back Bone's Connected to the Neck Bone

Hey space turtles! More belated Glam Nails Challenge nail art to share with you today. This time the theme is skulls. There were a good few options I had here but was really keen to use Mo You London's new apothecary themed stamping plate (Halloween 18) so thought up a simple look using that plate which I could do on holiday.

I started with a base of cream on three of my nails, black on my little fingernail and a gorgeous vampy glitter/shimmer on my ring fingernail. I then used black stamping polish to add the skull and skeleton images. I possibly should have swapped over the skull and top half of the skeleton so that I could pose my hand better to show the full skeleton image. Definitely not a big deal though, it still works. I finished the look with a glossy top coat. I think the black and white nails would have looked good matte too but I didn't have a matte top coat with me on holiday.

In conclusion I am really pleased with these. They were so simple to do and I really like how science-y and gothic they look. Also really enjoyed trying out the Barry M glitter again after a long time. It suits the look well I think.

Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Countess - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Gothic church window nails with Zeitgeist

HellO there and happy weekend! I've had a pampering sort of morning and am now blogging and watching nail videos before lunch. Hoping to be more productive in the afternoon! I recently purchased this unusual coppery multi-chrome nail polish by Cirque Colors and wasn't quite sure what to do with it nail art wise, till I saw someones swatch where the polish looked quite gothic, so I thought I'd try out an accent nail with my Gothic 10 stamping plate from Mo You London. I love an excuse to use sheer black as well!

So I started with a base of two coats of Zeitgeist from Cirque Colors on three of my nails, and one coat of sheer black on my thumb and ring fingernails. Once dry I stamped a couple of church window images over the sheer black using black stamping polish. I love how opaque my black stamping polish is - the images come out so nice and crisp! I then added a black outline on the two accent nails with black nail polish and a small nail art brush. The outline didn't show up particularly well but still made the look feel a bit more complete.

I'm pleased with the way this turned out and Zeitgeist is so beautiful and unusual. I think it would look really good on it's own with a dark wintery or autumnal outfit. I couldn't really capture the colour shift that well but I captured the shine at least!

Colours used: Zeitgeist - Cirque Colors, Coal - Fancy Gloss, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Lady In Black - OPI

Azteggs! Alternative Easter Nails

Happy nearly Easter everyone! I've gone for some slightly alternative Easter egg nail art this year, alternative in that it doesn't involve pastels, otherwise not that alternative! I fancied trying one of my new purple shades and thought this speckled one is kind of Easter appropriate. I love the colour combination of this type of purple shade against black and white.

For the black and white nails I didn't have any egg shaped images on stamping plates, but didn't think I could freehand a pattern very well so tried something a bit different when creating nail decals. I've included the process I followed below:

• I started by using a nail art pen to draw egg shapes directly onto my Uber Mat, and gave them some time to dry (tricky to get that timing right as it starts to crack as you can see!)
• Next I carefully painted a clear layer over the egg shapes, making sure to only just go over the black line, if anything went round the edges I cleared it up with a clean up brush and nail polish remover.
• Once the clear layer was dry I used images from the Mo You London Explorer 33 to stamp an Aztec pattern onto the eggs - the images stick to the clear polish but not very well to the mat so it was easy to clean up around the edges with the tape.
• I followed up with a layer of clear top coat over and around the eggs.
• Once dry I peeled the decals off the mat, trimmed them and applied them to my nails before top coat time.

Although the eggs could be neater I think they've come out reasonably well and am enjoying wearing this nail art. This is also my entry for the clairestelle8 challenge prompt for the 20th (Easter eggs), but blogging it slightly early as I'm busy tomorrow!

Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Lightning Maroon - Femme Fatale, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M

Stamping Sunday: Birds Of A Feather

Today's stamping Sunday design was actually done on Thursday evening, but I am still wearing it, so clearly a success! This was my first attempt at layered stamping and I'm pleased with the results. I started with Nails Inc's White Horse Street from the 'New White' collection. The two New White's I have are sooo beautiful and just lovely to paint with and wear. The type of polish where I just keep looking at my hands!

Next I used white stamping polish from Mo You to stamp feathers onto three nails on each hand, (the feathers are from Mo You Explorer Plate Collection 14) and black stamping polish for the feathers on the thumb, from the same stamping plate. I used one of Nails Inc's 'feathered' effect polishes to go around the thumb feathers and on my accent nail. I had a couple of feather polishes already but came across this sparkly gem in TK Maxx not too long ago.

 Finally I used my Mo You Gothic Plate Collection 10 plate for the birds (except on my little finger, those also came from the Explorer plate). I used my clear jelly stamper to carefully place the birds where I wanted them. This took quite a long time and it was getting late so unfortunately there is a little smudging where the top coat was applied.

Overall I really like this design and it's nice to have something a bit different to all the dark colours I've been wearing lately. Please excuse the quality of the fourth photo below, I wanted a nice picture of the feather polish as it's such a nice bottle but I think my photography requires some work!


Colours Used: White Horse Street - Nails Inc, White Knight - Mo You, Black Knight - Mo You, Henley - Nails Inc