Crabtastic Nails

Snap-Snap-click-click (or whatever noise crabs make!). Another Glam Nails Challenge prompt to share which will be short and sweet as I still have a few posts to catch up on! As you may have guessed the theme for this nail art was crab. I have a few stamping plates with crab images on and settled for this origami image from Mo You London's Origami 05 stamping plate. I made decals on my Uber Mat for the two crabs and also added the image to my nails directly to show me where I'd need to draw between the two base colours (two lovely reflective polishes - colours listed below the pictures). I then added the white water image from the Bundle Monster Twi Star stamping plate over any areas of blue. I'm pleased with the overall look but it's a shame I may have left too much of a cuticle gap. I think perhaps these thick glitter polishes shrink a bit more after being applied. Overall pleased with the final sparkly look!

Colours used: Flash Platinum Gold - Fun Lacquer, Heartkids - Emily de Molly, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Shellfish in Purple

Hi there! Finding it hard to find time for blogging at the moment but finding some time now for a bit of as sea themed look I had on for our long weekend by the coast recently. I quite liked the idea of doing a simple style with two shades of the same colour and thought the Uber Chic Seashells Aplenty plate would be perfect. I started with two layers of lilac, and then stamped the images over the top in a metallic dark purple which didn't look as metallic when stamped. I'm pleased with how these came out. They were easy to do but look good and lilac is a flattering shade. Only improvement would be a better non-smudge top coat!

Colours used: Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Unnamed - Barry M

Fisherman Nails Inspired by Staithes

Ahoy there! Sharing some nautical nail art today which was inspired by our trip to the North York Moors a couple of weeks ago. We did some lovely coastal walks and had dinner in a lovely little town called Staithes one evening. This nail art was inspired by that trip, it was lovely eating dinner by the sea and watching the world go by.

I stared with bases of yellow, blue and pale blue before stamping images from Mo You London's Sailor 01 and 18 stamping plates onto my nails. I used one of their Tropical plates for the stripes. I created lighthouse and fisherman (or hipster - however you want to look at it :D) decals on my Uber Mat to go over the waves and fish on the light blue nails. I really love the fish shoal image! I finished with a shiny top coat (Nails Inc's Kensington Caviar). 

I'm really pleased with these and am enjoying the nautical theme and bright colours. They feel very fitting as I'm off to the seaside tomorrow!

Colours used: Borrowed & Blue - Essie, Cobalt - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Charlotte - Nails Inc, Cappuccino - Barry M

Crabby Nails Ahoy!

Hey everyone - or should I say ahoy... Some cute crab nail art to share with you today which kind of matched my mood when I painted them (crabby rather than cute unfortunately). These are for the next Dimension Nails challenge prompt for August which is, you guessed it, crab. I have a couple of stamping plates with crab images on but chose the newest, Uber Chic's Just Beachy plate. They have these helpful layered images so I didn't have to create decals, and could stamp directly onto the white nails. I was pleased with how vibrantly the colours came out, as sometimes I find stamping colours over white kind of washes them out a little. I did smudge the orange crab a little when stamping the black outline over the colour but I think it's still cute!

Not much else to say on these really but I am pleased with them, and am enjoying the summery shades! It's not something I'd really thought to do before so I'm glad this Dimension Nails challenge prompt made me do them!
Colours used: Flip Flop Fantasy - China Glaze, Greenberry - Barry M, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Glittering Wave Nail Art - Inspired by Rye and Hastings

Hey everyone! Getting a bit behind on my nail blogging again... no surprises there! These ones were inspired by a weekend away we had a few weeks ago for my birthday. To be honest they didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but there are elements of them I like. I still feel like I need SO much work on my nail photo taking skills too!

So the places we visited on the weekend away were Rye and Hastings. We also went to a steam museum on the way to Rye, which is making me think maybe I should try some steampunk nail art! We stayed in  a lovely little Airbnb cabin on a farm, it was delightful! The anchor and the images on my little fingernails were stamped directly, and for the waves and sailing boat I used the advanced stamping technique to colour them in, or add glitter in the case of the waves. On my index finger I sponged on some glitter, and then used a reverse stamping image from the UberChic Lovely Leaves 01 plate with the blue polish. It didn't show up as well as I'd hoped so I stamped it again, but that didn't work too well, particularly on my right hand.

So all in all I think these are OK. I like the colours and the theme, but it came out a bit messier than I'd anticipated, and didn't really wow me!
Colours used: Laguna - Barry M, Cream Soda - Barry M, Little Bo Peep - Rimmel, Grey - Barry M, Northern Lights (H) - Fun Lacquer, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish

Rippling Waves

Amidst all the new autumnal shades and Halloween designs across the nail bloggersphere at the moment, I'm bringing one last glimpse of summer! I wore this for a long weekend with family friends in Center Parcs at the end of September, and fancied squeezing in just one more summer design. I've seen a lot of these rippling wave beach designs around over the last few years and thought that my sheer polish, 'Flipper', from Urban Outfitters would be perfect to create it.

I started with a base of white polish, and then a couple of layers of Flipper. Next I used the rippling waves pattern from my Bundle Monster XL25 stamping plate and white stamping polish. It's a perfect pattern for ocean designs and I think it could possibly create a good marble effect too. I used another layer of Flipper over the pattern to soften the harsh white lines a little and give it a bit more dimension.

For the sand I used three different polishes, starting with one of Nails Inc's concrete effect polishes. I created an uneven line of sand at the bottom of each nail, I tried a straight line on one thumb but it just didn't look beachy enough! I then covered it over with a little bit of an ancient Barry M fine gold glitter, and then a little bit of Barry M's chunky yellow topaz glitter. Finally I used a small nail art brush to paint on a starfish on each ring finger and covered over with a super shiny topcoat.
Colours used: Alpine Snow - OPI, Flipper - Urban Outfitters, White Knight - Mo You London, London Wall - Nails Inc, Gold Glitter - Barry M, Yellow Topaz - Barry M, St James - Nails Inc

Stamping Sunday: Nautical Nails

Happy Sunday everyone! Today I'm showing you a design I was really please with, with one of my new stamping plates from Mo You London. I used the nautical plate Sailor Plate Collection 01. I usually go for full plates with full pictures/patterns on but really liked the individual images on this plate and think it will be a firm favourite. Besides I'm a big fan of anything nautical or sea themed. Below is the stamping plate super shiny and reflective before being used. As you can see I was excited to try it...

For this design I used a mixture of images over a plain background, and images over a stripy background. Used some of my trusty striping tape as you can see to the left. I couldn't find any of the colours of tape I'm not as keen on so ended up using this lovely bronze. I need to try using this as part of nail art some time.

You can see the final design below. I used black over the striped so that it would show up well, and brown and white for the others. I love all the images on this plate, I'm particularly fond of the boat ones. The ferry (or perhaps it's meant to be a cruise ship I'm not sure) reminds me of summer holidays to France as a child.

Colours used: Blueberry - Barry M, Alpine Snow - OPI, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Cocoa - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London, Black Knight - Mo You London

Mermazing Nails!

Hello nail world, I'm feeling mermazing today! I really enjoyed doing this nail design and wearing it. It was one of those that lasted me about a week. Eventually a few little areas starting losing little chunks of pattern so that was my excuse to try another design! I took my inspiration from Christine at Simply Nailogical on Youtube, who did this in a more pastel-y way, and a neater way!  I ended up quite liking the rustic way mine turned out too though.

I started with a white base coat, and once dry pressed on some fishtail patterned stencils. Next I watered down some acrylic paint and dabbed it onto the nails one colour at a time, with a small nail art brush. The trick is to keep it nice and liquid so that it pools around the edges a little, this didn't work perfectly on all my nails but I think in general it did the trick!

If the colour was too dark I just dabbed on some more water, and if it became to faint I added more paint. It's a good technique as you can be so rough/vague with it. I left it about a minute to dry a little, but didn't leave it too long as I didn't want to risk peeling off the design. It's important to peel up each corner and carefully work your way into the middle to reduce the risk of peeling. There were a few areas on mine that leaked out a little onto the white area. Some of this I scratched off with an orange stick, but the rest I left on for an edgier look (at least that's my excuse!).

(continued below pictures)
Above left is the design pre-glitter. Once the pattern was dry I used a light glitter (Crystal Shimmer form Accessorize) to give it a glowing finish. On my ring fingers I used some clear nail polish to stick on little silver shells I bought from She Sells Sea Shells. These lasted surprisingly well, and weren't even to tricky too prize of my nail when it was time to take off the design.

What I used: White nail polish, acrylic paint (blue, purple and green), fishtail mermaid nail stencils (from eBay), nail art brush and clean up brush, small pot of water, glitter topcoat. silver metal shells
Colours used: Alpine Snow - OPI, Blue acrylic paint, Purple acrylic paint, Green acrylic paint, Crystal Shimmer - Accessorize 

Stamping Sundays: Seafood Special

New stamping plates to show today, yaayy! I got three delightful new Mo You plates from my sister for my birthday and this was my first use. I have just received a bunch more I've ordered online so there will be much more of this to come. I used a matte grey from Topshop as a base and then used my three new birthday polishes for the design (Barry M's two holiday specials and British racing green from Butter London). You can't quite see the glitteryness of the Barry M's here but they do stamp well with a bit of shimmer. I'm hoping to have my swatches/reviews up of those during the week.

The plate I'm using here is number 12 from the cookbook collection.which has a seafood theme. I'm not a fan of actual seafood but I love sea creatures so this plate is perfect as it's entirely sea themed, I will probably just skip the shrimp on a fork pattern! I've tested different patterns on each hand and I love how they look. The shell patterns are my favourite, especially the one on my little finger. I think it looks like wrapping paper!

There has been a theme over my birthday and Christmas last year of lobster themed presents (bottle opener, slippers etc) so I believe this plate was the perfect way to continue this tradition!


Colours used: Easy Peasy - Topshop, British Racing Green - Butter London, Sparkling Ruby - Barry M, Sparkling Amethyst - Barry M

N'awww Narwhal

Todays blog post is a throwback to when I was a nailwhal! I must do this again. As with a lot of my older pictures, this was inspired by a design on Pinterest, but I cannot find where to credit the original one to so please let me know if you know.

I'm very fond of this design for it's sheer cuteness, and who could fail to notice the adorable little creature in my hand?! I started with a base of Barry M's Cobalt blue, and then sponged on some metallic teal/blue with scrunched up cling film/ saran wrap. I like the colour it made, especially because it is unique!  The narwhal was very easy to do, I used the brush in the polish bottle for her head, and nail tape for her horn. I then outlined this with a nail art pen, and used a dotting tool for her eye.

Under my ring finger there there is the base of her horn, but it looks a lot better with the nails together. I like the need to match it up though, it's like a nail jigsaw!

Colours Used: Cobalt - Barry M, Teal - Barry M, Matt White - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M, New York Noir - Nails Inc

Deep Sea Demons

The nail art I'm currently wearing was designed for Mo You's recent Instagram competition. The idea is to create a halloween look using any of their stamping plates, not necessarily the halloween themed ones. I currently only have two Mo You plates, something I will rectify next week when my pre-birthday buying ban is over! :D So I went with an underwater theme, but made the little sea creatures rather demonic looking with their red eyes. Once I'd stamped on the design I noticed there were some gaps so used a fine brush to create some lines to look like waves/seaweed. I used a dark purple for this but it looks black in the pictures.

This polish is a really old one and had somehow got really watery, this took seven coats to look opaque!! To be honest it's still not 100% when held up in bright light! Got this one years ago and I'm not quite sure about the colour choice, but it's a perfect slime green for halloween!

One of the suggestions in the competition description was to include some halloween accessories. I don't have any of those but I do have my awesome lobster slippers, which I felt were very fitting with the design. Here they are below looking considerably less evil than my nails!

Colours Used: Neon Green - Accessorize, Black Knight - Mo You, Wigmore Street - Nails Inc

Stamping Sundays: Tiny Turtle

Today I have my sister Imogen's nails again modelling some more of my stamping attempts! I've had another go at advanced stamping and went for a simple but cute design. This was ready for her trip to Germany.

I've used my Mo You London Doodles Plate 07 for the decal, and used my stamper rather than an uber mat (I just can't make my mind uop whether I need one!). I have a double ended stamper which was perfect for this. I picked up the design in black and cleared of any excess with sellotape. Getting rid of a narwhal was emotional! I then used dotting tools to fill in the little gaps in two shades of green, and left to dry for about fifteen minutes. After this I painted a thick layer of clear polish over the top, and left for about half an hour.

The decals are suprisingly easy to peel off without breaking, but a bit fiddly to place on the nail. As these are just little ones they were easier than full sized decals. After pressing the decals down gently I topped it all off with a top coat. If you look closely at the bottom left picture here you can see where the edge of the decal comes to. This one was taken before top coat. Also worth mentioning that the top layer of nail varnish is still sticky/tacky when I place the decal, this makes it cling to the nail better.

Colours Used: Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Black Night - Mo You, Key Lime - Barry M, Block Your Green - Rimmel

Rainbow Fish!

Todays blog post is based on a colourful friendly kids character from a book I enjoyed as a child, the rainbow fish (Google him, he's a beauty!). I saw a fish scale manicure on Instagram and decided to simplify it a bit as I was short on time. I've used dotting tools to add on one colour at a time, in  the Instagram video the colours are layered going down the nail to look more like scales.

I really like this one. Although it took a while for all the colours to dry it wasn't difficult and had a detailed final effect.

Colours Used: Blueberry - Barry M, Cyan - Barry M, Indigo - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Holland Park - Nails Inc, Never Been Kissed - Topshop, Soho Silver - Kate Spade at Nails Inc

I've included a picture of the base colour, Barry M's Blueberry, as I love the way it looks! I've used it a lot lately, it goes on smoothly and is lovely and shiny. Big fan!