Mushy McMushroom!

Hey everyone! Got some fun colourful nail art to share with you on this rainy day. The Nail Addicts Collab theme this month was 'when I grow up' (que Pussycat Dolls music). Those taking part created manicures based on something we wanted be be when growing up. Mine is a bit obscure! I had the usual actress phase I think many teenage girls have, but I also spent some time wanting to be a mycologist - a scientist who studies mushrooms - yes, really. Random as that may seem it was a great theme for my nails and I decided to do a neon skittle mushroom mani!

I started with a sheer pink base to give a bit of a negative space look, and then used a small nail art brush to add little semi circles on each nail using shades from Cirque Colors Vice 2019 collection. Once mostly dry I added little white stems with the same brush, and then used a dotting tool to add spots to each mushroom. Once dry I finished the look with a matte top coat.

I'm pretty pleased with how these came out. They're not perfect but I kind of like them that way! As you can see from the extra pictures at the bottom of this blog post I enjoyed having a little mushroom photo shoot with them when making a risotto!

Colours used: Bashful - Barry M, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Game Over, Vitamin D, Electric Daisy, High Roller, Miami-Dade, Rehab - All Cirque Colors

Negative Space Spots

Hello world! Something simple and a bit different on my nail blog today. I've been seeing loads of negative space nails on Instagram lately, particularly ones with a pattern over bare nails, rather than just gaps in a design. There are a couple of accounts I follow which use this style a lot (and very well) so not 100% sure if this is a big trend at the moment or if it's just what I'm seeing in my Instagram feed!

As my nails are a tad yellow I used a base colour but a very sheer one to still give the natural look. I used two coats of Barry M's Mani Mask in Birthday suit. It's a very sheer pale pink which dries matte. I use it on my toenails sometimes, it's really good for hiding imperfections but looking natural too. Once dry (and it dries pretty fast) I used a medium sized dotting tool to apply spots in four of Barry M's Molten Metal shades. I have 8 but I think these four which were released at the same time work particularly well together (colours listed below the pictures).

It took some time to get used to seeing my nail line so clearly, but I do like these. It was a good way to test the negative space look without doing anything too complicated. I expect I will do it again. I think any longer and it would look a bit weird with too much white space, but my nails grow pretty fast so I'll just file them down a bit when I want to do this.
Colours used: Mani Mask Birthday Suit - Barry M, Celestial Silver - Barry M, Crystal Blue - Barry M, Antique Gold - Barry M, Pink Luxe - Barry M

Stamping Sunday: Flowers and glittery space

Hi everyone! Happy Sunday! I'm coming to the end of a week off so feeling pretty chilled, but unfortunately I think I'm getting a poorly timed cold... Today I have my holiday nails from Cornwall to show you. They weren't meant to be my holiday nails, but due to lack of time I have now had this on for just over 2 weeks, and still do! Not like me at all, but it will be the same story for the next month or so, so I'm just hoping I will have enough to stop my blog looking to sparse! 

For this nail art I took inspiration from Instagram. Unfortunately I can no longer find who it was, despite trawling through loads of my liked photos! So if anyone knows please comment so I can credit them. They had done some silver glitter over bare nails and then added pale purple flowers. I decided to to the same with some advanced stamping using my Uber Mat, and Mo You London Flower Power 03 Plate. You can see how to advanced stamp here.

For the glitter I used two different silvers, to end up with a little bit thicker coverage than the Instagram design, as I just couldn't resist the glitter! I started with an old Barry M limited edition of holo glitter particles in a clear base, and some mixed size glitter in a clear base, polishes are listed below the pictures. In conclusion I like this nail art - which is good considering how long I've been wearing it!

Colours used: Boots Limited Addition 343 - Barry M, Diamond Glitter - Barry M, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Key Lime - Barry M, Wardour Street - Nails Inc

Elegant Smoosh

Hi everyone! Something a bit different from my usual today, a smoosh nail art design with a teeny bit of freehand too! I saw a gorgeous white purple and gold smoosh on Sveta Sanders Instagram which I'd been meaning to try for a while, and then a design where someone had used negative space and smoosh (I can't remember who it was!) so I thought I'd combine the two. Smoosh is such a weird word but it does describe this technique well!

I used a clear stamper so I could see where I was placing the colours and tweak it if necessary. I started with a couple of layers of a Sally Hansen french manicure polish (colours listed at the bottom of this post). It had a very ethereal blueish glow which seemed odd for a french manicure but really worked with this design. I had a bit of a nightmare with it though, it took so long to try, and then peeled up in some places and had to be patched up when I peeled the stencils off.

Once the polish was dry (or so I thought!) I used some straight nail stencils to get a straight line and painted the upper two thirds of each nail white. Once dry I lightly applied the stencils again and began the 'smoosh' effect. I dotted white, purple and rose gold onto the stamper and pressed into randomly onto my nails. I love this colour combination, Sveta Sanders had a very good idea!
I used a nail art brush to paint a rose gold line under the smoosh, but felt like it looked a bit incomplete so added an outline around the bottom third of my nail as well. The rose gold (Cirque's Halcyon) is just so gloriously shiny so it stood out really well.

So all in all I was very pleased with this nail experiment! I think it looks elegant but interesting, and have kept it on for nearly a week so far as I can't quite bring myself to get rid of it! As always some nails I prefer to others, I think the thumbs where the best ones on this occasion.
Colours used: Sheerly Opal - Sally Hansen, Alpine Snow - OPI, Wigmore Street - Nails Inc, Halcyon - Cirque Colors