Gingerbread Time

Hey space turtles! Coming at you with more Christmas nail art today, this one is for the Gingerbread Glam Nails Challenge prompt. It feels very fitting that depending how these last I may be wearing them on a trip to a gingerbread town! This is an idea I've had in my mind for a while but haven't ended up going for as they're not typically something I associate with Christmas - but glad to finally be getting round to it!

I started with two layers of shimmery white nail polish while my gingerbread man decals dried, You can tell which ones are the decals by how much darker they are. The polish is the same as the house and the other gingerbread man but due to the thickness and the black outlines they look quite a bit darker. The gingerbread man decals are from Uber Chic's Holiday Spirit stamping plate, and the hot chocolate and other gingerbread images and from their Happy Christmas plate. I enjoyed the layering options for the images on my index and ring fingernails as it's such a simple way to get a good look.

I really like these though I would perhaps change the outlines of some of the gingerbread men to white if doing this again as they look a tad burnt! Otherwise pleased with the colour choices though and the final look :)

Colours used: White Moonstone - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Cappuccino - Barry M, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Love & Liberty - Painted Polish

Falalallama

Hey space turtles! I have had a wonderful wintery day! After many busy weekends I've really enjoyed this one being a bit quieter. I've got things done (Christmas cards etc) and been for wintery walks (we're having a cold snap here in the UK at the moment) where everything was so frosty and beautiful. I also went for a very frosty lake swim which was an invigorating and sociable way to start the day. Yesterday I enjoyed taking the time to do some more Christmas nail art, the first of which I'm sharing today.

I have a cute Christmas puns stamping plate from Mo You London called Noel 10 which has lots of  cute animal images. One of the ones I haven't used yet is the llama one so I decided to base a look on that this year, accompanied with Christmas jumper prints which feels appropriate given llama's are a bit woolly. The jumper prints are from another MYL plate, Festive 04. I created a decal on my Uber Mat for the llama - it gives me Christmas party vibes! While this dried I painted by base layers of polish (ILNP's Christmas Cookie is the perfect Christmas nail art base in my opinion). I also added the wording, and the jumper prints which I stamped directly onto my nails. I then applied the llama decal and added a quick dry top coat - voila!

I love how these came out with the exception of the thumbnail which is a bit messy and the colours don't stand out very well. I'm enjoying the silliness of this look and the festive colours!

Colours used: Christmas Cookie - ILNP, Emerald Green - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Red Velvet - Mark (Avon), Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M

Winter Animals Feeling Festive

Hey space turtles! More Christmas nail art to share today, as will be the case for the next few weeks. I have too many ideas and not enough time! As I will be moving onto more classic Christmassy colours I wanted to do a lighter look before that. I love the cute little animals on Mo You London's Noel 09 plate so they are the focal point of this look.

I started with two coats of blue with gold shimmer, and then added some star, snowflake and plant images from the same stamping plate in silver. For the animal images I created decals on my Uber Mat which I then applied to my nails. I like how these turned out. They don't look massively Christmassy I don't think but they do feel festive and of course cute!

Colours used: Fool's Gold - Picture Polish, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Little Bo Peep - Rimmel, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Cream Soda - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Ruby - Barry M, Amethyst - Barry M, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M

Ho Ho How About Some Nail Art

Hi Space turtles! My first proper Christmas nail art of the year is here! I decided I'd try and combine the first two Glam Nails Challenge (Instagram nail art challenge) prompts for this look. The prompts were Santa and Christmas Plaid. 

For the Santa nails I made decals on my Uber mat using images from Mo You London's Noel 01 stamping plate. For the other nails I used Mo You London's Holy Shapes 19 stamping plate which has a range of different lines and patterned lines you can put together to create tartan looks. I went for a classic green and red colour scheme to feel Christmassy! I'm pleased with the look and think it's a good start to my Christmas looks for the year.

Colours used: British Racing Green - Butter London, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish, Red Hot Rio - OPI, Dazzle - Orly, Cream Soda - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M, Emerald - Barry M

A Snowflake Nail Fail!

Hey space turtles! I'm feeling a bit ill today and I have a nail fail to share - so not my brightest day! After my success with the chrome powder stamping I decided I wanted to try the same with glitter. I started with two coats of black polish and then a matte top coat. Once fully dry I used sticking stamping polish to add some snowflakes from Mo You London's Noel 08 stamping plate, and then dipped each nail in glitter before brushing off the excess and rubbing in those particles that stuck to the polish.

As you can see there are some sort of snowflake-ish shapes but some stuck a lot better than others (it stuck a little too well on my little fingernail!). Unfortunately I couldn't get any more to stick. I wonder if I should have done them one at a time rather than stamping all of them and then adding the glitter, but I expected it to stick to the sticky polish. I also wonder if the glitter particles were too big and I need thinner glitter. Will just have to try again sometime I guess!

Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Matte Taco - Holo Taco, Black Sticky Stamping - Dance Legend, Silver Glitter (Holocopter) - Twinkled T

Cosy at Home

Hey space turtles! So my last post was cosy in chrome and this one is cosy at home... I wanted to do something that captured my enjoyment of home in the colder weather and use the lovely Cosy At Home plate from Uber Chic Beauty.

I started with two layers of frosty blue polish which is actually a thermal although the thermal colour change effect isn't very strong now. I made decals for four of my nails on my Uber Mat and while these tried I added the welcome winter wording and a couple of hearts. I then added the decals to my nails and finished with a glossy top coat. I'm pleased with how they came out and am looking forward to getting into my Christmas nail art looks :)

Colours used: Glacier Blue - Cirque Colors, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Red Hot Rio - OPI, White Moonstone - Barry M, Taupe Temptation - Painted Polish, Yellow - Barry M

Cosy Chrome Powder Nail Art

Hey space turtles! I was inspired by some nail art by two.peas.and.polish who used a matte background and added some leafy images in bronze. I don't have a bronze nail polish that stamps well so I decided to try out chrome powder nail art again. Previously I've tried it but the powder has stuck to the whole nail to some extent and not just the image.

I started with two layers of grey polish and then used black sticky stamping polish to add images from Mo You London's Fall In Love 08 stamping plate which I absolutely love for this time of year, and any time to be fair - it has some great images. I then used an eye shadow applicator to rub some gold chrome powder into my nails, and brushed of the excess with a soft brush. I was so pleased with how well it stuck to the images! I love the super shiny effect it gives and how being on a dark background made it a rich dark gold. It didn't last longer than a couple of days as I added no top coat but a great look for a night our or something like that where it doesn't need to last long.

Colours used: Grey - Barry M, Sticky Stamping Black - Dance Legend, Gold Chrome Powder