HBP Presents: An Arctic 'Grey-dient'

So the time has come for another Hobby Polish Bloggers link up. The HBP Facebook group is a great place for sharing and learning tips and tricks on anything nail art/nail blog related. This months theme is gradients. I usually associate gradients more with spring/summer but have fancied trying a grey one for a while now so this was my chance. I used three grey shades (detailed at the bottom of this post) to create the gradient with some nail art sponges from Ebay, and then used a Mo You stamping plate (Enchanted Plate collection 05) for the design.

I had so many nail fails doing this! All went well to start with but I tried a peel of barrier for the first time, and on a couple of my nails where these touched the nail varnish, it peeled part of it off when I tried to remove it, you can see the effect of this on my thumbnail below. I also had a couple of Cellotape miss-haps (I was using it to clean my stamper) where it became stuck to and peeled off little bits of polish, so I had to try and patch them up. Mostly hidden by the stamping but it was obvious to me, so this mani didn't last long! I'm thinking these things happened because the polish wasn't quire dry enough so at least there is a lesson learnt.

Overall I like the gradient, the stamping images and the colours, but thing this may have worked slightly better with a wintery pattern (from the same plate) rather than the animals, as in some lights they weren't very clear. Also less nail fails would be good! I liked the super shinyness of the silver against the darker grey.


Colours Used: Little Bo Peep - Rimmel, Grey - Barry M, Dragster - Barry M, Dazzle - Orly

Check out all the other lovely designs below!

An InLinkz Link-up

HPB Presents: Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Bat Nails!

The time has come around so quickly for this months Hobby Polish Bloggers blog link up! I'm very excited to be taking part for the second time. Not 100% happy with how mine turned out this month, but it is too late to change them now, I have halloween getting ready to do!

I started out well with my beloved purple Ink by OPI. This colour shines so wonderfully and catches the light really well. Pretty much they shiniest polish I have! (excluding glitters and holo's of course!). On my ring finger I used Orly's Shine, it's the first of their polishes I've tried and I must say I really like it, it's just such a strong shiny silver. I've found it's great for nail art as it stands out against any colour.

For the bats I've used the inside parts of my new nail stencils from She Sells Sea Shells, meaning I seem to have ended up using stickers for the second month running, something trickier next time I promise! On the purple nails I've outlines the stickers with Shine to give the bats a sort of halo look. I have mixed feelings about the outcome, I really love the colours and the shapes, but i think it looks a little scruffy. If I had more time i think i'd try a purple gradient with silver bats instead. There's always next year!


Below is a close up to show off the shinyness of the polishes. So shiny! I can't wait to have a proper look through everyone else's designs this month. Please check them out via the links below. Happy Halloween!

Colours Used: Ink - OPI, Shine - Orly

An InLinkz Link-up