China Plate Skittle

Hey space turtles! Keeping this one short and sweet today as I have a bit of a back log. I fancied trying out my china plate stamping plate again and after some thought as to what would work best I decided to go for bright and colourful as Spring approaches. I started with a base coat and two layers of white polish (best nail polish name ever - colours listed below the pictures) and then added the images in a variety of colours using my Porcelain 02 stamping plate from Mo You London. I finished the look with a glossy top coat. I'm thinking I should have tried them out in matte too but too late now as I moved onto my next nail art today! Pleased with how these came out :)

Colours used: A mantis shrimps favourite colour - Bees Knees Lacquer, Watermelon - Barry M, Plum - Barry M, Indigo - Barry M, Pomegranate - Barry M

Arctic Portraits

Hey space turtles! Today's nail art was inspired by some notecards I saw in Paperchase. I can no longer find a picture of them and they don't look that similar but they sparked an idea. I started with a couple of layers of white nail polish with one of the best named nail polishes ever - A Mantis Shrimp's Favourite Colour. I then added images from Mo You London's Enchanted 05 stamping plate in black stamping polish. I used a large dotting tool to add spots around the edges in bold colours. I started with the blue and tweaked the technique a bit as I went along. I finished the look with a matte top coat.

I really love how this came out and am enjoying the matte look, it really makes the colours pop. Unfortunately I did have a nail disaster the morning after I did these! I'm so glad I took some pictures beforehand! When trying to wrestle a particularly tight bin bag off our bin I sadly broke a nail! It was above the nail line luckily but only just - so I lost part of the narwhal. It's been years since I broke a nail so a bit of a shock to the system! I've filed my nails down a bit but can see a crack in my thumb nail on the same hand so hoping I don't have a disaster there too!

Colours used: A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour - Bees Knees, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Indigo - Barry M, Dead Heat - Barry M, Watermelon - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M

Barry M Rainbow Fish Disco

Hey everyone, long time no see! It's out busiest time of year at work so I'm struggling somewhat to fit nail polish and blogging in, This design is one from last week which I did keep on for just over a week, it lasted well but I persuaded myself to take it off in order to start swatching some new A England polishes.

For this design I started with a metallic silver base (colours listed below the pictures) followed by a silver holographic polish. The holo was stronger and more pigmented than I expected so I possibly didn't need the metallic layer. On my index finger I topped up the holo, and on the others I prepared fish/mermaid scale decals.

I used the Bundle Monster twi_star collaboration plate for the scale image. It's a really handy one which I have used for a few designs. You can do a lot with it, and it's quite long so works for my nails at any length! I created decals on my Uber Mat using Barry M's newest additions to their underwater collection. I like the newer ones better than the first lot as they're brighter colours. I left a few scales blank for the holographic polish to shine through. You can see how I created the decals here.

So overall I really liked these, can't go wrong with fish/mermaid scales! The colours make me think of birthday parties.

Colours used: Silver Lining - Barry M, Harp On It - Color Club, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Moonfish - Barry M, Seahorse - Barry M, Pacific Flame - Barry M, Electric Eel - Barry M

Bubble Smoosh! (Take One)

Hi again! Today we have something super bright and smooshy on my nail blog! I have been inspired by Hanninator on Instagram, she has been doing a lot of these bubbly colourful nails in a variety of colours and they look awesome! I ended up searching the internet and as soon as my nail polish buying ban was up I ordered the full set of four Spot It polishes by Dance Legend which she uses for these designs.

So this was my first attempt. Some nails have come out better than others which I guess is to be expected. I've tried to get the best ones in these pictures but please excuse the blurring! I used my Uber Mat and a clear stamper to make decals. For each nail I started with a base (varying the colour) then swiped some generous quantities of the other colours over the top. I then pressed the stamper lightly over the top to merge the colours together. I tried varying the pressure and speed of this but couldn't quite work out what worked best. It's easier to see once on the nails!

I've seen this effect described as fluid nail art, which makes sense but I think I will call mine a bubble smoosh! It's a little like the 'smoosh' nail art which people do directly on their nails, but with the addition of bubbles from the Spot It polishes.
Colours used: Spot It Blue - Dance Legend, Beach Hut (Orange) - Models Own, Yellow - Barry M, Claridge Gardens (Neon Pink) - Nails Inc, White - Emily de Molly

Gingerbread Mix Nail Art

Hey everyone, four sleeps to go! Of course I have more Christmas nails to show you today, and of course I have  a back log of Christmas nail art to show you! I should be able to catch up soon as it's my last day at work tomorrow before Christmas so hopefully can catch up on the weekend. Following my general Christmas nail art themes this year I have used advanced stamping agaaain! Was hoping to get some freehand in but at this stage it is looking unlikely.

I started with a shimmery pale grey base (colours listed below the pictures), and created decals on my Uber Mat. You can see how here. I was keen to try out these cute little gingerbread people from my Uberchic Christmas-01 stamping plate and selected a few other images to go with them. I used most of the Cirque Colors Facets Collection to fill the images and think they worked well, especially the gingerbread people. The collection is from last year and I absolutely love it, such perfect shimmer! The only thing I'd change about this nail art is that the presents came out a bit dark. Maybe next time I will use a different outlining colour.

Colours used: Paper Route - ILNP, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Morganite - Cirque Colors, Garnet - Cirque Colors, Paraiba - Cirque Colors, Tanzanite - Cirque Colors, Dioptase - Cirque Colors

Thanks for reading :)

Christmas Wrapping Nails - Cheers To The Holidays

Hello everyone! Hope you are having a lovely weekend :) I'm feeling super Christmassy this weekend, we had my boyfriends parents over for lunch and then they helped us put a work surface up in the garage. Then we went for a wintery walk and shop, and put the tree and decorations up. I'm really enjoying the warm festive feels!

As usual I'm behind with my nail blogging, so I've already moved onto another design, but I'm enjoying revisiting this one already as I was quite pleased with it! I used Cheers To The Holidays from Fun Lacquer again for my main work Christmas party, as it's a lovely bright party colour without being sparkly, and my dress was already sparkly. After the party I didn't want to take it off so tried out my new Festive 06 stamping plate from Mo You London over the top.

On my index and little finger nails I used this lovely Christmas star pattern which reminds me of the decorative ribbons you put on presents. On my middle fingers I used gold and silver, though the gold isn't that visible at the edges, and for the ring finger and thumb nails I used the advance stamping technique (you can see how here). So I pretty much ended up practising a variety of stamping techniques. I struggled to take this nail art off as I do rather like it, but there are too many nail ideas and not enough time! I also like how my nail shape is looking at the moment - so all in all this was a winner!
Colours used: Cheers To The Holidays - Fun Lacquer, Bright Lights - Barry M, Rain On Me - Barry M, Emerald Green - Barry M, Sparkling Ruby - Barry M

Hoot Hoot Hoot - Owl Nails

Hi everyone! Hope you are Owl having a good weekend ;) Today's nail art is sparkly and full of owls/owl puns! Once again I'm still wearing this nail art while blogging it, which is very unusual for me, and a sign of how busy we are with the house move. Picking up the keys on Thursday, I can't wait!

So when I was doing a friends nails, she was looking through my stamping plates and found one I forgot I had bought, the UberChic owl plate. I seem to associate owls with autumn (is that just me?) so thought now is the perfect time to try it out. I also had three new holo's from Painted Polish by Lexi (colours listed below the pictures) so thought I'd give them a try too. I've included an image of just the colours below, and at the bottom of this post will do a little mini review.

I painted alternate colours onto my nails, and then used the advances stamping technique with my Uber Mat for the owls, and just regular stamping with white stamping polish on my middle fingers. I really liked how these images came out. The owls are so cute (there are loads more on the plate too) and the images came out nice and crisp. I think the colours worked well too. You can see how to advanced stamp in pictures here.
Colours used: Jolly My Roger - Painted Polish, Yo-Ho Holo - Painted Polish, Love & Liberty - Painted Polish, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Cream Soda - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London

Painted Polish - Jolly My Roger (copper-ish), Yo-Ho Holo (green) and Love & Liberty (blue)
Just wanted to share my thoughts in the three untried holo's I bought from Rainbow Connection about a month or so. How I managed to go that long without trying them I don't know! All three shades have a lovely consistency, and as you can see from the pictures, are pretty holographic! Love & Liberty is quite opaque, you could probably get away with one coat but I used two here as I could still see a\ bit of nail line in the light. For Jolly My Roger and Yo-Ho Holo two-three coats would be needed.

Disco Rainbow! (Inspired by So Hot Right Nail)

Hello nail world! Today I'm showing you my attempt at disco rainbow nails, as seen on the Instagram and Youtube accounts of So Hot Right Nail. Annoyingly I've noticed a bit of clean up I missed in the first couple of pictures, so please don't notice it! I couldn't take another picture later on as there was some damage, which I will go on to explain a little later.

So I started with a peal off base coat, and then a layer of silver holographic glitter polish (the ones I used are listed below the pictures). I then added a thin layer of a different holo polish to add some dimension, and because it is an even sparklier one! Next I cut some shiny holographic nail foil (bought cheap on eBay) into thin triangular pieces. I added some clear polish to my nails and used tweezers to place three triangles on each nail.

Those of you who have tried a similar technique in the past will have noticed that I missed something! I was meant to remove the clear layer from the nail foils before placing them. I completely forgot this which meant a few of them flaked off over the next few days taking the colour with them. I will definitely being doing similar designs again so at least there is a lesson there!

Finally I used some OPI Color Paints and painted them over the top in just one layer so the holo goodness shined through. I loved the final effect so it's a shame it didn't last longer!
Colours used: Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, 24 Karat Diamond - Fun Lacquer, Primarily Yellow - OPI, Chromatic Orange - OPI, Pen & Pink - OPI, Purple Perspective - OPI, Turquoise Aesthetic - OPI

And finally, a picture of just the silver, as it was soo shiny, and  a picture which didn't  quite come out right, but I just had to share how it looked with my bright pink Comforter shower gel from Lush!

Stamping Sunday - Holiday Nails

Hi everyone! Today I'm bringing you my holiday nails from my week in Scotland. I have to admit I am not happy to be home, it was a great week! I used Mo You Londons Scandi 01 plate to create some holiday themed nails before I went. I liked the idea of trying to spot all the things on my nails on the holiday, but didn't quite manage to get them all! I saw sun, clouds, rain, hills (but not snow capped mountains) and castles. Sadly I saw no ferris wheels, light houses, hot air balloons or volkswagen camper vans.

I used my Uber Mat and the advanced stamping technique to create this with a variety of colours (listed below the images). You can see a picture tutorial how I did it here. I love the Scandi plates and all the options with them, I'm looking forward to using them for some similar London themed designs at some point, but I have a long long list of things to try so it might be a while!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend :)
Colours used: Blueberry - Barry M, Black Knight - Mo You London, Spring Green - Barry M, Alpine Snow - OPI, Key Lime - Barry M, Dead Heat - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc

Rainbow Oil Slick

Hello nail people! Today I'm recreating a look I've seen around on Instagram a fair bit and couldn't resist trying. The first version I saw was a 'unicorn oil slick' and had more pastely colours. I used my OPI Color Paints for a brighter look. The finished product was less unicorn like so it is a rainbow oil slick!

This design was good fun and easy to do. I started with a silver base, and the added some glitter. I used two different silver glitters. Cosmic Girl from Danglefoot Polish gave a lovely twinkly and somewhat holographic look, and then I added some Diamond Glitter from Barry M for some larger glitter pieces and extra sparkle.

I googled Unicorn Oil Slick and came across a handy video from Nails by Jema. I enjoyed watching the video for tips. I knew how I was going to do the nails but wanted to check out my options! I decided to change my original plan of smooshing the colours onto my nails with a stamper, and followed Jema's advice of using my Uber Mat to create decals instead. This meant I could create more than I needed, and select only the best ones to use. I'm glad I did that as some of the ones on my mat weren't as good as I'd have liked. The ones on my nails were the most multi coloured, still ended up with one very pink little finger though!
Colours used: Silver Canvas Undercoat - OPI, Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, Diamond Glitter - Barry M, Primarily Yellow - OPI, Pen & Pink - OPI, Purple Perspective - OPI, Turquoise Asthetic

Party Sprinkles

I've found this design floating around in my nail art folder and am delighted to share it! The design itself is not one of mine. I took inspiration from Pinterest, if anyone knows who did the original please let me know so I can credit them. So it's a replica, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

There's not an awful lot to say about how it was done. I used a beige base on the accent nails, and then used a dotting tool to apply the different colours. I particularly like the unusual range of colours, I would place this as a spring or summer design but think it can work for any time of year. Besides I couldn't wait till next spring to share! Over the top I've used Nails Inc's plumping gel effect top coat for some extra shine. It's a lovely shiny topcoat but I've since acquired their Kensington Caviar one which is even better as it's just as shiny and dried so fast!

Colours Used: Basil Street - Nails Inc, Tate - Nails Inc, Cyan - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Peach Melba - Barry M, Coconut - Barry M, Blue Moon - Barry M, Plum - Barry M