HPB Presents: Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Bat Nails!

The time has come around so quickly for this months Hobby Polish Bloggers blog link up! I'm very excited to be taking part for the second time. Not 100% happy with how mine turned out this month, but it is too late to change them now, I have halloween getting ready to do!

I started out well with my beloved purple Ink by OPI. This colour shines so wonderfully and catches the light really well. Pretty much they shiniest polish I have! (excluding glitters and holo's of course!). On my ring finger I used Orly's Shine, it's the first of their polishes I've tried and I must say I really like it, it's just such a strong shiny silver. I've found it's great for nail art as it stands out against any colour.

For the bats I've used the inside parts of my new nail stencils from She Sells Sea Shells, meaning I seem to have ended up using stickers for the second month running, something trickier next time I promise! On the purple nails I've outlines the stickers with Shine to give the bats a sort of halo look. I have mixed feelings about the outcome, I really love the colours and the shapes, but i think it looks a little scruffy. If I had more time i think i'd try a purple gradient with silver bats instead. There's always next year!


Below is a close up to show off the shinyness of the polishes. So shiny! I can't wait to have a proper look through everyone else's designs this month. Please check them out via the links below. Happy Halloween!

Colours Used: Ink - OPI, Shine - Orly

An InLinkz Link-up

Throwback Thursday: It's Pumpkin Time

This time last year I sported a pumpkin face design for halloween. Was going through a bit of a shorter nails phase as you can see below. This was a very simply design to do, I used a dotting tool for the spots, and a nail art pen for the pumpkin faces. I know that there are some pretty good pumpkin face decals around at the moment but think they are one of the easier halloween designs to do. Would definitely consider trying this one again next year (I think I've just about run out of time this time round!).

Colours Used: W18 - Color Cosmetic, New York Noir - Kate Spade at Nails Inc, Matt White - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M

Deep Sea Demons

The nail art I'm currently wearing was designed for Mo You's recent Instagram competition. The idea is to create a halloween look using any of their stamping plates, not necessarily the halloween themed ones. I currently only have two Mo You plates, something I will rectify next week when my pre-birthday buying ban is over! :D So I went with an underwater theme, but made the little sea creatures rather demonic looking with their red eyes. Once I'd stamped on the design I noticed there were some gaps so used a fine brush to create some lines to look like waves/seaweed. I used a dark purple for this but it looks black in the pictures.

This polish is a really old one and had somehow got really watery, this took seven coats to look opaque!! To be honest it's still not 100% when held up in bright light! Got this one years ago and I'm not quite sure about the colour choice, but it's a perfect slime green for halloween!

One of the suggestions in the competition description was to include some halloween accessories. I don't have any of those but I do have my awesome lobster slippers, which I felt were very fitting with the design. Here they are below looking considerably less evil than my nails!

Colours Used: Neon Green - Accessorize, Black Knight - Mo You, Wigmore Street - Nails Inc

Creepy Kitties

Fittingly with my blog name I've created some spooky cat nails for halloween. These were surprisingly easy to do and were based on some designs I've seen around on the internet. There was one picture I followed in particular but I can't seem to find where to credit it too as its just on lots of sharing sites.

The cat heads and ears were done freehand with the polish bottle brush and a small nail art brush for the ears. I used a darker colour than the picture that inspired me as I wanted it to look darker and more halloweeny! I then used the small brush to paint the yellows of the eyes and the thin pupils that gives them that stare! To finish I used a matte top coat the make the design stand out better.

More halloween nails to come!

Colours Used: Slip Stream - Barry M, Lady In Black OPI, Canary Yellow - Barry M, Pro Matte Finish - Rimmel

Spooky Branches

It's about time I got some halloween nails up on the blog! These are only subtly halloween themed as they are from a week ago and I didn't want to look too keen. Starting to regret that approach now thought as I don't have long left to rock the halloween look! Will have to start earlier next year.

The look I went for below is based on a spooky/ mysterious forest. OooOOoooh! I started with Essie's Stylenomics which is a super dark green. I then lightly sponged on Tophsop's Hidden Treasure with some cling film/saran wrap (bottom left). Of all the shades of gold this one was perfect as it's quite dark and two tone with a hint of green. For the trees/ branches I used a thin brush and gently painted them on in black. I like the way it turned out. Subtle, but still a little spooky. They were super hard to photograph!

Colours Used: Stylenomics - Essie, Hidden Treasure - Topshop, Lady In Black - OPI

Freckles Polish - Monthly Indie Review

Today is my second monthly indie polish review, and I'm excited to share with you Freckles Polish! This is a UK based brand and I purchased the polishes on Etsy, link here if you're interested.I was really impressed with the variety of polishes available, and the shinyness! I went for Anne Teak and Descendants Of Salem to start with, but when my pre-birthday/Christmas buying ban is over I will certainly be tempted to get more!

First up is Anne Teak. I chose this one as it's a bit different to anything I've seen before, and was indeed complimented on it. I have a quite a few golds, but this one is darker/bronzer and shines an almost greeny grey in some lights. The pictures below are in a variety of different lighting to give you an idea. This is my favourite of the two. The consistency was great and I just love how indivdual and shiny it is. One of those polihses where you just have to keep looking at your hands!

Next we have Descendants Of Salem, a dark holo green. This is a chameleon of a polish and does different things in different lights, like several colours in one! The holo is more visisble in bright light, as in the bottom two pictures. In daylight it is a holo/sparkly green, and in darker areas/ the office, it is a dark metallic green. I like the versatility of this one, and that the holo isn't too intense. It is my favouirte holo so far, only out of two at the moment, but still, a happy customer! :)

Let me know what you think in the comments below! TTFN :)

Stamping Sundays: Tiny Turtle

Today I have my sister Imogen's nails again modelling some more of my stamping attempts! I've had another go at advanced stamping and went for a simple but cute design. This was ready for her trip to Germany.

I've used my Mo You London Doodles Plate 07 for the decal, and used my stamper rather than an uber mat (I just can't make my mind uop whether I need one!). I have a double ended stamper which was perfect for this. I picked up the design in black and cleared of any excess with sellotape. Getting rid of a narwhal was emotional! I then used dotting tools to fill in the little gaps in two shades of green, and left to dry for about fifteen minutes. After this I painted a thick layer of clear polish over the top, and left for about half an hour.

The decals are suprisingly easy to peel off without breaking, but a bit fiddly to place on the nail. As these are just little ones they were easier than full sized decals. After pressing the decals down gently I topped it all off with a top coat. If you look closely at the bottom left picture here you can see where the edge of the decal comes to. This one was taken before top coat. Also worth mentioning that the top layer of nail varnish is still sticky/tacky when I place the decal, this makes it cling to the nail better.

Colours Used: Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Black Night - Mo You, Key Lime - Barry M, Block Your Green - Rimmel