Stamping Sunday: Baby Aztec

Happy Sunday everyone! Today's stamping Sunday post was a quick first try of the Aztec patterns on my Mo You Explorer Plate Collection 14. I don't wear a lot of pink and had never thought to combine it with Aztec patterns, (I'd usually use black and white or brights). But I had this one on from swatching and thought I'd give it a go. I like the final look, but think it could have been a lot neater. I think in future I will be more careful to get the strips of Aztec pattern more equal sizes as well.

Not much more to say on this one really! I enjoyed wearing it, and look forward to trying more Aztec designs again as spring/summer approaches.

Colours used: Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Gold Foil Effect - Barry M

Dance Legend - Peel Off Glitter Base

Today I'm going to talk through my first experience with a peel of base coat. It's not the sort of thing I would normally I use (I'm quite happy with the foil technique for most glitters), but I thought it might come in handy for those super stubborn glitters with large glitter particles. The peel off base I chose is by Dance Legend and was purchased on Rainbow Connection. I'd seen it well reviewed and also like the bottle! It's available in a few shades, white, black, nude and pale pink. So you can choose one that best fits with the glitters you use. I went for nude to look as similar to my nail as possible.


For my first try I didn't want to use a particularly glitter, so I went for A England's Heathcliff. The glitter particles are quite small so I knew I could revert to the foil technique if needed! On the top right is the glitter base alone, it was a very thick consistency so only needed one coat. I think it looks like gels it's so shiny!

Below you can see the process in action. On the left is Heathcliff with no top coat. It's got teeny glitter particles in a variety of colours. To remove the polish I used a wooden orange stick, and found a corner that I could wedge it under. I then slowly worked it underneath the polish to pull it up. It's quite satisfying but freaked me out a little as it looked like I was peeling off my nail!

As you can see below I had some trouble when it came to getting it off the tips of my nails (which are looking frightfully yellow due to all the glitter abuse!). I think this is because I didn't seal the ends of my nails with the peel off base, but did seal the ends with the glitter (doh!). Another mistake I made was using a normal base coat under the peel off base. If you look closely you can see there is a slight peeling on my nails, this is because the peel off base will have also pulled up the base coat underneath. Using it straight onto the nail is less risky as it acts as a base coat already,


So after all that picking (I did get it all off with the orange stick in the end!) my nails looked a little sorry for themselves. I gently buffed them and then painted them with my Charlotte Street perfect nude polish from Nails Inc, as a sort of remedy/cover up. All in all I like the peel off base, it worked surprisingly well and I think it will be more of a time saver when I'm using chunkier glitters. I'll just remember not to use a base coat next time!

Stamping Sunday: Cathedral Nails

Today's stamping Sunday manicure I would call a kind of Gothic Easter manicure...ish! I still have a few dark colours I wanted to try before it gets into Spring colours, so quickly getting those in now! The main colour in this manicure is Jane Eyre by A England. It's a red/black with tiny flecks of red shimmer. It is so dark though that it looks black at a small distance, and a kind of chocolate minstrel brown up close. It was only really in the bottle that I could see the red.

For this design I decided to use my Uber Mat again for some advanced stamping with my Mo You Gothic Plate Collection 10. I love the stained glass patterns on this plate and was also curious to see how the face image would look (see below on my thumb - came out fairly well). I've still got a bit to learn with advanced stamping, particularly when the image covers the whole nail, but standard stamping comes easily to me now. Finally!

On my ring finger I used a white base (colours listed below pictures) and stamped an image onto my Uber Mat in gold. I used a dotting tool to colour some small areas of the design blue, and the rest in a teal/green. I did a few images to see which came out best, so when I placed them on to my nails and missed a corner, I was able to patch up the gap with part of another image/decal. I finished off with my favourite topcoat (Nails Inc's Kensington Caviar) to seal it all in.

Colours used: Jane Eyre - A England, Alpine Snow - OPI, Uptown Glamour - Nails Inc, Warwick Way - Nails Inc, Baker Street - Nails Inc

Are they apples?

Happy Friday! I really toyed with the idea of deleting these pictures. They've been sat in my nail blog folder for quite some time and I don't have any decent pictures, as it did not go to plan! But I have decided to document this anyway, perhaps then I can recreate the design and make it better in the future and can look back and it and lol! I just hope people don't come to my blog for the first time to be greeted with this!

When I finished this deign I was unsure if it looked like what it was supposed to, so I asked a few colleagues and my boyfriend what they thought they were meant to be. Sure enough, no one had any idea! Someone thought they were owls, another thought eyes, but most had no clue. They are indeed supposed to be apples! I was going for a Halloween candy apple look, with the gold glitter, and red apples, but the proportions just weren't quite right. I think to make this better and more recognisable I would have needed to make the beige inner apple areas bigger, and perhaps the stalks more prominent. I think if I do this again I will practise on paper first!

Needless to say these weren't on for long, but I suppose they still were an interesting pattern!

Colours used: Red Hot Rio - OPI, Lady In Black - OPI, Colville Mews - Nails Inc, Cocoa - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Chelsea Embankment - Nails Inc

Baby Dino Nails - Cedric or Lime?

Happy Easter everyone! Or happy Sunday to those who don't celebrate Easter! My Easter manicure for this year is a little different to previous ones. I've gone for the classic  baby animals in eggs, but have chosen dinosaurs rather than chicks! This design was inspired by the adorable cuddly dino baby I got for Christmas (Cedric - photo below the nail pics!). You may have seen all over Facebook the various animal or food montages people have been creating (e.g. sloth or pan au chocolat, dog or croissant). My boyfriend and I has discussed creasting a  'Cedirc or Lime' version, which is kind of what these nails are! I'll be honest though I think the one peeking out on the index finger looks more like a pea than Cedric or a lime!

 To create this manicure I used dotting tools, freehand, and some nail stencils. For the egg shells I used some wide zig zag stencils I purchased on Ebay. I then used a dotting tool to decorate the egg shells. I used a small nail art brush to create the little dino faces. On the thumb I have done the back of Cedrics body with his little stubby tail stuck in the air! I used silver glitter on my ring finger to add some sparkle and try out this new glitter I got from Danglefoot Polish. It's called Cosmic Glows and it so pretty plus paints on like a dream! I've included a picture to show the sparklyness next to Cedrics head shot.
Colours used: Blue Moon - Barry M, Coconut - Barry M, Cosmic Glows - Danglefoot Polish, Key Lime - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc


Below is the base layer of my design, to show Cosmic Glows in a slightly better light, and of course the inspiration for this mani... Cedric the dinosaur!

Mini Egg Nails - A Classic Easter Manicure

Today I'm showing a design  I did for last Easter, and am very much tempted to try again as I just loved the final effect, and it was so easy to do. This by no means an original design, I have seen it sooo many times online, whoever thought of it first is a nail art genius! Before trying it myself I looked at a number of different tutorials, and then  took the steps I liked best.

Mini Egg Nails - How To

1. Paint your nails in plain pastel colours, the sort you'd find in a pack of delicious chocolate eggs
2. On a piece of plastic or tin foil, paint a splodge of dark brown polish (or back if you don't have brown)
3. Use an old toothbrush (or a nail art fan brush if you think that's too icky!) to pick up some of the brown polish, and lightly dab it on to your nails.
4. Start lightly and then build up for your desired speckled effect.
5. Put some white or cream polish onto your plastic/foil
6. Using cling film/ saran wrap, gently pick up some of the polish and very lightly dab it onto your nails, this gives the effect of a light dusting of sugar.
7. Finish with a matte top coat. Ta da!

Colours used: Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Coconut - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, Mint Green - Barry M, Peach Melba - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M

Throwback Thursday: Easy Easter Pattern

Hello nail people! Tonight I'm showing another older nail design, hence the not so good pictures. This one is from not last Easter but the one before, so it's been waiting a while...

For this design I used nail; tape to get the three main colours neatly in place. Once dry I used a nail art pen to carefully draw on the pattern, going for a sort of painted Easter egg pattern. Finally, I used a dotting tool for the finishing touches on the pattern. All colours used are from Barry M, and I still have them!

I liked how this turned out considering how little effort was involved. I think the black perhaps takes away from the Easteryness a little, but it does make a striking pattern. \Not much else to say on this one, makes me a little nostalgic!

Colours used: Mint Green - Barry M, Berry Ice-cream - Barry M,Silver Foil Effect - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M, Matt White - Barry M