Skittle Stars

Hey space turtles! Today's nail art is a fairly straightforward one but as I am learning those can often be the ones that work out best. I really love this particular star image on Mo You London's Scandi 10 stamping plate and wanted to appreciate it fully by having it across all nails and trying it with some different colours in a 'skittle' effect with a different colour on each nail. I ended up sticking to all Barry M shades and quite enjoyed the simplicity of that. I was tempted to use a matte top coat but really like the final look as it is so have left it. I really like the shape of my thumbnail and ring fingernail but of course still willing my index fingernail to grow! This look is also for the Stars theme for this months Glam Nails Challenge. I've actually just found this post in my drafts and thought I'd already shared it so there will be a couple of posts in quick succession!

Colours used: Indigo, Watermelon, Sprint Finish, Dragster, Slip Stream, Bright Lights - All Barry M

Dino Mountain Nights

Hey space turtles! I've had Mo You London's Jurassic Park 04 stamping plate sitting around for a while now and somehow haven't used it yet. Now is finally the time and I'm pleased to finally be creating dinosaur landscape nail art!

I started with a base of blue and then added the silver stars from Mo You London's Sci Fi 10 stamping plate. I then chose the base layer mountain image for each nail and added them in white to create a background for the purple polishes and stop them blending into the blue. I then added a later of light purple over the top, and a final mountain image on each nail in dark purple. I finally added a dinosaur in black to each nail and finished with a glossy topcoat. I'm enjoying the colour scheme of these, the landscape effect and the fact that there's a dino on each nail - so a winner all round!

Colours used: Aruba Blue - Essie, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M, White Stamping Polish - Purple - Mark, Dark Purple - Mark, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Wish Upon A Starfish

Hey space turtles! More sea themed Glam Nails Challenge art today, this time it's Starfish. I went for a fairly simple look for this one and used Mo You London's Atlantis 02 stamping plate to repeat the same starfish image in a variety of pastel neon colours. 

I started with a base of A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour (best.name.ever) from Bees Knees Lacquer (two coats). Once dry I added the base layer of the starfish images across my nails in a variety of colours. It was a bit time consuming as I had to keep cleaning the stamping plate but pretty straightforward to do. I then added the starfish detailing to each star in black.

I love how these came out! They're so bright and I like my nails this length. I've included a picture below from before the black detail. I have now added a matte top coat which doesn't feature below, will have to remember to share a pic of that on Insta.

Colours used: A Mantis Shrimps Favourite Colour - Bees Knees Lacquer, Peachy Beachy - Wikkid Polish, Bikini Bombshell - Wikkid Polish, Joyful L'il Jellybean - Wikkid Polish, May Mate Illuminate - Wikkid Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

A Liquid Crystal Galaxy!

 Hey everyone! Got some more first time nail experiences to share with you today! This was another of  the options on my birthday poll and I've been keen to try it out for some time! I'm not used to using gel polish either so it's a bit of an experimental one for me!

I started with a peel off base coat as I don't fancy soaking off the gel - so we'll see how long these last! I then applied 2-3 coats of gel polish to my nails. It is a little lumpy but I'm definitely getting better at it! I rarely work with gel and have often found I've ended up doing it too thick. After my final layer of black gel I used silver foil effect polish from Barry M and an image from my Kelli Marissa and Bundle Monster  (now Maniology) collaboration stamping plate to apply the star image. I was really pleased with how well it came out, I liked it even before the liquid crystal!

The next step was to apply the liquid crystal. Mine is a little bottle from Dance Legend, and I used the brush to gently swipe some of the liquid over my nails in wavy lines. It was quite runny and took a while to dry so took some getting used to, but once it dried I got the lovely multi-coloured effect you can see below. It;s quite hard to capture and doesn't always show up but when it does I love the way the colours change just like the mood rings I used to have as a child! I finished the look with a gel top coat to seal it in and am still enjoying wearing them!

Winter Stars

Heyyyy everyone! More star themed nail art to share with you this evening. One of my Christmas stamping plates (Noel 03 from Mo You London) had this cute candle in a jar image I was keen to try, and I think it works in non-Christmassy looks. One of my colleagues did say they look Christmassy though so maybe not! I tried a couple of recent-ish untried ILNP shades with this look and enjoyed trying them out, I think they are good wintery colours (colour names listed below the pictures).

I started with a cream coloured base on my middle fingernails, and the new ILNP's on my other nails, I alternated the colours on each hand as I quite like each hand being a little different. For the images I used the advanced stamping technique (as per), with images from Mo You London's Sci-Fi 10 and Noel 03 plates. I coloured the images in with the same two ILNP shades to keep it consistent, and of course shimmery! I finished the look with a glossy top coat (bit a a challenge as I'm nearing the end of the bottle!).

I like how this look turned out. They're not my usual sort of colours so it was fun wearing something a bit different, and it's quite seasonal too.
Colours used: Legacy - ILNP, Candlelight - ILNP, Cream Soda - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Stars and Stars!

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good weekend :) Today I am sharing with you my first try of Nails Inc's Seeing Stars duo. I have had this one sitting around for a little while and finally wore it for an evening out at a law society dinner with my friend who works in law. I wanted something a special but fairly simple that would work with my dress (it was fitted, long and dark green with a bit of sparkle and sleeveless on one side).

The first polish in this duo is Get Discovered, a sheer pale pink which works well for the negative space trend that's big at the moment. I do like to have a bit of colour like this when doing a negative space type look as my nails are a bit yellow as they never get a break from all the nail polish! I used three layers of this to give it a bit more opacity but still keep it clear enough that you can see my nails underneath. I filed them down beforehand as I'm not sure that sort of look suits me much with more white space.

The second polish is Lost In Luna, which is a clear polish filled with little shiny gold stars. The stars are so cute but as expected they can catch a little on clothes, especially if you have quite curved nails like me, I struggled to get them to lie flat. In my case my previous nail art was sharp and a tad dangerous so this wasn't bad in comparison! It can be a little fiddly getting the stars out of the bottle, and then where you want them on your nails, but I really like the final look, and would definitely enjoy recreating this look in the future.
Colours used:

Silent Night Nails

Happy Christmas Eve Eve! I guess these are my second to last Christmas nails for the year. Might squeeze some in between Christmas and New Year and at least I have New Year nails to do! (I have plans) I wanted to do a silent night theme nail art, and also to use Sapphire from the newer Cirque Colors Facets collection polishes, it seems like the perfect blue for a starry night!

I used a clear jelly stamper to place the images on my nails in white stamping polish. Originally I had planned to do shimmering silver over the top, but I liked how it looked in white so left it as it was. On my left hand I have a manger scene and three wise men on camels, and stars on my thumb. On my right hand I have Santa's sleigh and reindeer, and various star patterns including a shooting star. Though simple to create I have enjoyed having these on and will be sad to take them off for my final Christmas nails tomorrow!
Colours used: Sapphire - Cirque Colors, White Stamping Polish - Emily de Molly
Stamping plates used: Christmas-01 - Uber chic, Festive 01 - Mo You London, BM - XL213 - Bundle Monster