Butterfly's All Over

Hi there! I'm pretty late posting this, bit pretty tired lately and busy with work etc. I did this freehand butterfly nail art for the Glam Nails Challenge butterfly prompt and followed a tutorial on Instagram. I decided to go for a bit of a skittle effect with different Barry M Under The Sea toppers.

I started with a couple of coats of neon pink, and then a couple of coats of shimmery topper on each nail (colours listed below the pictures). Once dry I used a striping brush and black nail polish to add the lines. I then used the brush from the polish bottle to fill in the area at the top of each nail. I then used a dotting tool (two different sizes) to add the white spots over the black. I finished the look with a glossy top coat.

I'm honestly so pleased with how these came out! If I'd known how nice they'd be I'd have done them for my sisters wedding at the weekend! I had a cobalt blue dress so they would have gone nicely. I have quite quickly ended up with some tip wear on the black but it can easily be patched up. Would definitely try this look again :)

Colours used: Bikini Bombshell - Wikkid Polish, Lady In Black - OPI, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Butterflyfish - Barry M, Angelfish - Barry M, Seashorse - Barry M, Moonfish - Barry M

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Nails

Hello nail people! I hope it's good weather where you are - it's raining on my nails! This nail art is for another Glam Nail Challenge prompt with an autumnal theme of rain. I went straight to by UberChic Forecasting Glam stamping plate for this look and decided to use a variety of iridescent shades for the raindrops. I kept most nails the same in the end as I liked the multi coloured raindrops idea so much.

I started with a base colour of dark blue on all my nails (colours listed below the pictures) and then made some decals on my Uber mat, you can see how here. I used a variety of different iridescent shimmers for the raindrops, I thought the sheer consistency of some of them would work well for magical rain. I did want to add a bit more though so decided to do an umbrella accent nail. Simplest one but I think it adds something! Overall pleased with these :) I think they're fun and I could never get bored of this gorgeous shade of blue!

Colours used: My Car Has Navy-gation - OPI, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Pinktail - Barry M, Butterflyfish - Barry M, Jellyfish - Barry M, Angelfish - Barry M, Seahorse - Barry M, Electric Eel - Barry M

Mermaiding Around

Hey nail people! Aquatic nail art to share today - one of my favourite kinds to do! I recently purchased a few of Mo You London's Atlantis stamping plates and this is the first one I've used (Atlantis 05). It's got lots of lovely mermaid images along with some other ocean images. I love how happy and free the mermaids look, it is the perfect depiction of how I feel when wild swimming! I've been doing a lot of wild swimming this year (and am hoping to keep going over the winter) so am commemorating it with this nail art. I've made the mermaid look like me with long brown hair and pale skin.

To create this look I started with a base of pale blue on all of my nails. I created decals on my Uber Mat for the mermaid scales and the mermaid images. You can see how here. I love this stamping plate, the mermaid images are so fabulous - it was hard to choose which ones to use! This mermaid tail pattern is lovely too, something a little different from the standard. So in conclusion, as you can tell, I love these! Looking forward to using this plate some more!

Colours used: Mermaid Parade - Nails Inc, Ocean Ever After - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Bronze Bae - Barry M, Cobalt - Barry M, Bright Purple - Barry M, Angelfish - Barry M, Pinktail - Barry M

Seahorses in a pastel sea

Hey everyone, I'm back with the final prompt for the Dimension Nails Challenge August, this time it's seahorses. I have a couple of stamping plates with seahorse images and decided to go for Mo You London's Doodles 07 plate which has a whole host of pretty sea themed patterns and creatures. You'll see a few other creatures managed to sneak into this look!

For this look I started with a fluid nail art background. I went for pale pastel shades in order to make the images stand out as much as possible. Three Barry M shades and Dance Legend's white Spot It polish were used for the fluid nail art which was created on my Uber Mat (colours listed below the pictures). One of the Barry M's was kind of pearlescent but that didn't really show up that well in the end. Once the base pattern was applied and dry I stamped the images over the top in gold. It didn't show up that well to be honest, even though the background was pale I think there was too much going on, so I stamped over it in black which was much better. I can still see some gold shining through which I like.

Overall I'm happy with these though they are less subtle than what I was originally going for. I do think the fluid nail art came out quite well and it's good to get some practise.
Colours used: Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Butterflyfish - Barry M, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Pearlescent Seashells

Hello all and happy Sunday! Todays Glam Nails Challenge July prompt is seashells, which was very well timed as I have recently purchased the Seashells Aplenty stamping plate from UberChic Beauty. There are so many possibilities with shell nail art, and I went with something quite subtle and a bit pearlescent.

I started with three coats of Barry M's Mani Mask in 'Bashful' to give a natural look, but built it up again so it was nice and pink too. For the shells I used a different image from the Seashells Aplenty plate on each nail. I made decals on my Uber Mat using white stamping polish, and filled in each one with a different shimmery nail polish from Barry M's Under the Sea collection, colours listed below the pictures. I finished the look off with a shiny top coat, though they did look nice a bit matte too before I put the top coat on.

Overall I like these but wonder if I should have gone for more of a nude background rather than pink. I think the shimmery polishes work well for the shells though. There are a lot of shells on the new stamping plate so I will have to come up with some more shell nail art soon!
Colours used: Bashful - Barry M, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Angelfish - Barry M, Butterflyfish - Barry M, Moonfish - Barry M, Jellyfish - Barry M, Pinktail - Barry M

Seahorses Among Coral Nails

Hi everyone, happy Sunday! So last month I took part in the Glam Nails Challenge, which involves painting your nails to match a number of prompts over the month, posting these on Wednesdays and Sundays. I don't usually do them as there are so many prompts to squeeze in, but as social activities are still limited and I am doing different nail art on each hand I've been managing to squeeze them in! So when July's prompts came out I really liked them and having enjoyed June's I decided I will do it again this month. I have already missed the first prompt for Wednesday which was corals, so have combined it with the second prompt, seahorses, for this look. Next month I might try a smaller challenge like the Dimension Nails one which has four prompts in a month but will see!

So for this look I started with a peel off base coat, and then three layers of a new polish for me, which is Woodnote from Polished for days. I don't usually go for pinks but this one is a purple-y pink and I love the gold flakies in it. For the corals I used a negative space image from my new Just Beachy stamping plate from Uber Chic which I am so excited about! There is a matching image of multiple corals that isn't negative space, and an individual coral which I put on my thumb, layering it in green then black. I also used a layering image from the same plate in green and black for the seahorses.

So I'm cheating a bit with this one as I'm doing two prompts in one, but wanted to take part and I don't want to miss any out so this is my compromise! I like this look overall though it's not one of my favourites. I do really enjoy the beautiful flakie polish!
Colours used: Woodnote - Polished for days, Watermelon - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Bonus pictures here of my nails on a walk we went on yesterday morning. I enjoyed them in this light though I must admit they do look more pink here than they usually do, the first four pictures are more true to colour.

New Barry M Under the Sea

Just a quick one today to show a couple of new Barry M polishes I picked up a few weeks ago, before all the working from home and the subsequent lockdown! I think this was actually my last trip to any kind of shop besides a supermarket before all of that. I saw Barry M advertise these two new polishes on Instagram, so popped into Boots on my lunch break to pick them up. Annoyingly I missed that they were on 3 for 2, and the cashier didn't tell me either, so don't make the same mistake I did! I believe they are still on 3 for 2 now though of course you'd need to order them online.

SO, onto the polishes themselves, first up is Mermaid Tail, which is a gorgeous deep teal-ish metallic green. I have painted both of these colours over a pale pink, so it's pretty close to how they'd be over my natural nails. This one definitely builds up quicker and is less sheer than most of the other Under the Sea polishes, with only two to three coats needed.

The second polish is Underworld, a shimmery blue metallic. This one is more sheer like the other polishes in the collection, and I used four to five coats for the below look. You can of course use less coats and make it a shimmery topper over another colour. I like the formula for both of these and they have the now classic Barry M wide flat brush which in my opinion is perfect! Mermaid Tail is my favourite as it's such a strong colour, but I think they are a good pair, and would recommend :) Great names too!
Colours used: Mermaid Tail - Barry M, Underworld - Barry M

Ocean At Night Nails ft. Starwhal

Heyy everyone! Last catch up before I'm onto the nail art I'm currently wearing. I was hoping to get my old laptop up and running so I could get my old watermark back but no such luck this evening so we've still got the yellow logo on my nail pictures! This nail art was one I'd been meaning to do for a while, using the Sailor 18 plate from Mo You London which I absolutely adore! I was also keen to try out this lovely blue metallic, Seventh Seal, having enjoyed another Emily de Molly magnetic polish I bought recently.

I started with a base of white on my index and little fingernails, and Seventh Seal on all other nails. Seventh Seal is a magnetic polish, so I used the circle end of my nail magnet to create a special effect. You can just about see in the pictures that there are darker circles in the middle of those nails. On the middle two nails of each hand I stamped shoals of fish. On the other nails I used my Uber Mat to create some decals. For all decals I have used a holographic silver to fill in the gaps so the little stars would shine through.

You can't see very well as the images wouldn't quite fit but the creatures at the top of my index fingernails are narwhals with stars (hence 'Starwhal'), underneath are humpback whales. I was really pleased with these :) worth the wait! I kept them on for quite a while. Hope you like them too!
Colours used: Seventh Seal - Emily de Molly, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M,  Harp On It - Color Club

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