Pantone Paint Nails 2018 - Ultra Violet

Hello everyone! Hope you're enjoying your weekend. Today I am showing you my Pantone 2018 themed nails for a Mo You London competition on Instagram. I'm not 100% happy with how they turned out but I may as well enter them anyway! The competition involves using MYL plates to create purple nail art based on the Pantone colour of the year 2018 - ultra violet. The prize is of course stamping plates.

I wanted to do a paint theme as I think it fits the Pantone theme quite well, and what with the painting of our living room (and seeing Pantone paint samples at the shops) it's very fitting for me at the moment! I started with a lilac base, and then used MYL's Artist 20 plate to place some paint themed images in white. For the little fingernails I branched out to a 'nail paint' theme and did a dotting tool over some dots. The dots are from the MYL Pro 01 plate.

Once dry I used a small nail art brush to add the 'paint' in varying bright shades of purple. I particularly like the paint tubes but frustratingly I put them too low on my left hand which doesn't look quite right. I did them better on my right hand somehow but that hand is harder to photograph! So overall I quite like these, but sadly I don't think they're a winner. Might just have to resort to buying the new cat themed stamping plates! TTFN!
Colours used: Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London, Concord - Cirque Colors, Wigmore Street - Nails Inc, So Jelly - Mark (Avon), P819 - Mark (Avon)

Femme Fatale Cosmetics - Clever Girl

Hey everyone! Not got a lot to talk about tonight but I just had to share my thoughts on Femme Fatale Cosmetic's Clever Girl. This polish was sat in my untried list for ages and I was clearly missing out! Unfortunately my pictures don't quite do it justice, it's honestly so lovely in person and so unusual.

Clever Girl is a thermal colour changing polish full of gold glitter. When cold the base is a pinky red, and when warm the base is clear so you can just see the gold glitter. I've yet to see another thermal polish that turns clear and I think it's an interesting effect. I expected it might look too bare but once the red is gone you can see that there are lots of smaller flecks of glitter that pad it out a bit.

I really struggled to get good pictures but it's honestly so beautiful and sparkly! I think the name Poison Apple would have suited it better but it looks like Femme Fatale already had a polish with that name. Thanks for reading :)

Barry M Under the Sea

Hello world! Happy Friday! Today I'm excited to bring to you my review of Barry M's new Under the Sea collection: four sheer pearlescent shades in adorable sea themed bottles.

From left to right we have Angelfish, Butterflyfish, Jellyfish and Pinktail. In my swatches I've applied three coats over naked nails, with no top coat. Tempted to do a follow up post with some over black or white as I think that could magical mermaid and unicorn-esque looks!

First up on my nails was Angelfish, a pale unicorny champagne shimmer. This looks a bit whiter than I expected it to, as it's more champagne coloured in the bottle.
Next up is Butterflyfish, a pearlescent pale blue. This one is slightly more sheer than Angelfish but otherwise has a similar finish. In certain lights and angles there's a bit of a bronzy-pink shade running through it as well.
Jellyfish is a pale purple with a hint of green polish in the bottle but does come it out a bit more pink on the nail. I think it would purple up a bit with more layers! This one is quite sheer as well.
And finally, Pinktail is very pink in the bottle, and comes out a coral-ish pink on the nails. All of the polishes are sheer but this one and Angelfish are a little less so. There's a hint of pale gold running through this one in certain lights/angles as well.
Overall  my verdict is these are lovely, and quite unusual! I think they will look particularly good over white or possibly black so may have to do a follow up post with those. I'm also thinking these would look great in a mermaid scale pattern. The bottle design makes these look very young I think, which isn't want I would always go for, but they also look very sea themed, which is definitely what I go for, so I guess they cancel each other out!

Let me know what you think!

Fish scale tail nails!

Bubble bubble (what noise does a fish make?) everyone! Tonights nail art is mermaid tail nails. I based this on a dragon scale design I saw on clairestelle80's Instagram. I don't think mine came out as well as hers but I still like it.

I started off with a white base (which was a nightmare as mine's gone rather gloopy!) and then 'smooshed' some colours over the top. I did this using a clear stamper, putting the a couple of blobs of each colour on the head, and pressing it down a few times on each nail. The colours I chose all have a bit of subtle shimmer.

Once this was dry I use the mermaid scales image from my Bundle Monster twi-star stamping plate and added the scales outline on each nail in purple. I then did the same in silver holo, lining up the scales so the holo was just underneath. Unfortunately the silver holo was not as obvious as I would have liked but it showed up quite well in bright light.

Overall was fairly happy with this design, hope you like it too!
Colours used: Alpine Snow - OPI, Succulent Garden - Cirque Colors, Ballet Slipper - ILNP, Dusk Dazzle - Femme Fatale, Wigmore Street - Nails Inc, Harp On It - Color Club

A Winter Pond Mani - Snowflakes

Hi everyone! Today I am sadly presenting to you an index finger nail that just doesn't look right next to the rest! There was an incident with a potato peeler... I filed them all down a bit but couldn't quite bring myself to make them as short as that one. Couldn't quite get the shape right either, but never mind, the show must go on!

Today's nail art is a very wintery pond mani. I had been meaning to do something like this in the run up to Christmas but I think it also works in January. I started off with three coats of Essie's Allure, a sheer white which was a little more sheer than I wanted it to be. Next I used white stamping polish to apply a snowflake pattern from the Uber Chic Christmas-01 plate.

Next to make this a pond mani, I applied more of the sheer white polish. To be a true pond mani I would have kept layering up the white base and snowflakes, but I thought that might just make it look like lace and less like snowflakes. So I applied some more snowflakes in pale blue. For these I didn't use the whole image, I just selected one of two flakes at a time and positioned them on each nail. I used a dotting tool to remove excess snowflake from the stamper. I followed the same process for the darker blue snowflakes.

I finished off with a shimmery topper which was really hard to see unless in really bright light! It was too subtle for the camera to pick up too, I think it'll work better over darker colours. Overall I liked this design with it's multi layers, and slightly see through look, it's as if it had been snowing on my nails!
Colours used: Allure - Essie, White Knight - Mo You London, Blueberry - Barry M, Cobalt - Barry M, My Private Rainbow - ILNP

Stamping Sunday: Swanning Around

My first nail art of 2018 is up! I have a list of nail ideas I keep on my phone, and this one was added around this time last year! I got some of the Mo You London animal plates that Christmas and thought a swan design with muted colours would look good, but I'd save it till spring. Somehow that never happened and here we are! I actually think these muted colours work well for winter too. I used a newer plate for the chevrons so it was a good opportunity to use an untried product too.

I started with a greige base colour on my thumb, index finger and little finger nails; pink on my middle finger and white on my ring finger. For the chevrons I used a clear stamper and the Tropical 34 plate, which I can't wait to use in the summer with all it's pretty fruit images. For the swans I created decals using my Uber Mat and the Animal 01 plate. You can see how here.

Once I'd stuck the decals down I added a little pink to the bottom of the white nails, and then a then line of gold (colours listed below the pictures) using a nail art brush. I finished off with a matte top coat. I like how this turned out though the decals were a tad thick in places, as my white polish is coming to an end (thinner is on the way)!
Colours used: Oyster - Barry M, Pink Lemonade - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc, Bright Lights - Barry M

Happy New Year 2018!

Happy New Year! Today's nail art is of course my new years eve nail art for 2017-18. I wanted to go for something glittery and new year themed, but also Harry Potter themed as we went to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child yesterday. They came out suitably new year themed and sparkly but not very Harry Potter. The deathly hallows symbol didn't quite turn out as planned. I think it all looks a bit Dr Who!

For the galaxy nails I used tiny pieces of sponge held by tweezers to sponge on some glitter and shimmer, and then a dotting tool for the white stars. For the middle finger I put a holo topper over black, and made a decal for the symbol. I painted clear polish onto my Uber Mat, painted the image over the top, added another clear layer, and then peeled of to stick on my nails once dry. I did the same for the 2018 nails. For the sparkly nails I used holo powder from Twinkled T. I tried glitter burnishing but wasn't entirely successful so dipped instead and was pleased with the result.

On the thumb I used an image from the Mo You London Festive 05 stamping plate, and then a small brush to fill the glasses. I would have gone for a champagne colour but I didn't think it would show up well against the silver glitter so I went for red wine instead.

2017 has been a great year for me, although maybe not so much for the world, so I hope 2018 is a much better one for the world, and the same for me! Last year I made a New Years blog resolution to improve my nail pictures, and I think I've finally done that towards the end of the year. Still some way to go though I think! This years will be to start doing a few videos, either to add to my blog or Instagram.
Colours used: Aruba Blue - Essie, Mega - ILNP, Holocopter (loose glitter) - Twinkled T, Lady In Black - OPI, White Knight - Mo You London, My Private Rainbow (S) - ILNP, Indigo Glow - Jessica Polish, Diamond Glitter - Barry M, Garnet - Cirque Colors