ILNP Spring 2018 Ultra Metallic Brights

Hey everyone! Today I'm excited to share with you my swatches of ILNP's Ultra Metallic Brights collection for Spring 2018. I already have some Easter ideas lined up for these so am looking forward to using them properly. The collection consists of 7 super shiny and bright metallic Polishes. ILNP also released two more collections at the same time, one of shimmery toppers and another with their spring col,ours, featuring some beautiful holographic glittery polishes as always. Toppers aren't as much my sort of thing, and I managed to resist their spring shades (we'll see how long that lasts!),  as I think 7 is probably enough to go on for now, and I was excited about the finish of these.

See below the pictures for my thoughts on each individual polish...
First up is Short Circuit, a shade I liked even more than I thought I would. This is a super shiny yellowy gold metallic, opaque in two coats. The colour reminds me of stars on Christmas cards. I was surprised at how well it suited my skin tone as I wasn't quite sure if it would.
Next is the gorgeous Sugar Coated, another one done in two coats (I did two coats for most of these, and I would say you may need three depending on how opaque you like it - two was fine for me). This one was pinker than I expected, I thought it might be a little more rose gold, but it is a really lovely shade.
Next up is Checkmate, a shimmering bronze metallic. I used two coats for this one as well. The shimmer comes out particularly  nicely in this polish. It reminds me of a slightly shinier version of Barry M's Bronze Bae from their original molten metals collection.
Next is Blueprint, one of the ones I was most excited to try. This one is a little more sheer, I used three coats in the pictures. The colour is super bright and eye catching, I always like blues and I think this one is quite spectacular!
Here we have another I was super excited to try, Hi-Fi. It's come out a little bright in the pictures, but it really reminds me of chocolate wrappers - a definite win for Easter nail art! I've been looking for this shade in creme for a long time (I think I've just about found it), but now I have it in metallic I think it's what I wanted all along!
Next is Love Me Not, a bright red metallic. I feel that this one is a little less shiny than the others (though still metallic) so you may need a top coat if you want super shiny nails. I used two coats for the pictures, and as you can see there is a little nail line on the one on the left, so would potentially use three coats in the future.
And finally, Funhouse, another of my initial favourites. This shade did not disappoint! It's so vibrant and bright. I think it will go well with Hi Fi and Blueprint for some very metallic nail art.

So there we have it! This is one of my longest review posts, so thank you for sticking around till the end! It's hard to choose favourites as their all so gorgeous, but I think Blueprint, Hi Fi and Funhouse are all stunning, they were my favourites in the bottle as well. That said, Sugar Coated is rather lovely too!

Blue Floral Mothers Day Nails

Hello everyone! Some Spring nail art today to try and coax the Spring weather out from it's hiding place. Given that these are from Mothers Day weekend I don't think it's working! I took inspiration from Instagram for this design, though unfortunately I can't remember who from. I wore these on Mothers Day which I think was quite fitting as my Mums favourite colour is blue.

For the base colour I used King Tut's Gem from Jessica Polish, which was a Christmas present from my boyfriend. It was great to finally use it, I like the way the super subtle shimmer makes the blue even brighter. For the floral images I used Mo You London's Flower Power 03 stamping plate. I kept it simple and used black for the outline, filling in the images only with white. I used my Uber Mat to make the decals, you can see how here. I like how these turned out, and all though I'm not done with dark wintery colours yet it was good to change it up a bit!
Colours used: King Tut's Gem - Jessica, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, White Knight - Mo You London

Magnetic Galaxy

Good evening all! I'm going to make this a quick one as I'm sleepy from a hard weekend of eating! Tonight's nail art is the simplest way to get a galaxy themed manicure. This was my second attempt at using Fun Lacquers magnetic nail polish, after watching some videos about how to use it. I started of with one plain layer of the polish, and then another where I held the magnet diagonally in the middle for 25-30 seconds on each nail. I finished it off with another final coat with the magnet.

Holding the magnet over the nail polish for longer (last time I think I just did about ten seconds!) definitely gave a crisper more pronounced pattern which I really like. The pattern did spread a bit over time, even once the polish was dry, but it was still a good distribution of the colours. I finished off with as layer of holographic silver glitter. I made sure not to paint it on too thickly as I wanted the pattern underneath to remain visible.

This took minimal effort and I love the end result. I kept finding myself moving my nails around to look at the gorgeous colour shift, especially in bright light where the glitter would shift too!
Colours used: Incredible - Fun Lacquer, 24 Karat Diamond - Fun Lacquer

Magical Mystical Symbolic Rune Thingy Nails!

Hello nail people! I've been away the last week with work, and then busy over the weekend so I have a bit of a backlog of nail stuff to try and get to this week. This one is from a few weeks back, using a new stamping plate I got just before Christmas. I had been planning this nail art  for ages so it was good to finally give it a go.

I started with a pale grey base, and then used clingfilm (saran wrap) to splodge some medium grey over the top for a mottled effect. Meanwhile, I created decals on my Uber Mat and coloured them in with a dotting tool. You can see how I did that here. I covered the design using a matte top coat, and then went over the pattern part again with a clear top coat to bring back the intense shine on the coloured sections. Not sure how well that shows in the pictures, but it was good in person! 

I'm pleased with how these turned out, and looking forward to using the Mo You London Minimal 07 plate again, although it might be a while as I have a few untried plates!

Colours used: White Horse Street - Nails Inc, Grey - Barry M, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Estate - Cirque Colors, Who Needs Love - Colors by Llarowe,  My Car Has Navy-gation

A Nail Art Ode To Snow!

Hello world! I'm in a super chirpy mood today as I have just ordered some more nail polish! My third order this month and it's only the 5th! Oops!! (I see a buying ban coming on) So I have a bit of a nail art back log, but want to show you my current nail art as it's themed around the recent weather. If you're reading this outside of the UK, you are probably aware that here in the UK we are not good at coming with extremes of whether, or even some snow! However we also get pretty excited about it :) So I just had to do one last winter mani, or 'ode to snow'!

I started with the lovely shimmery bluish grey London from Picture Polish (I adore the bottle for this!). It was my first time wearing this polish so I've included some pictures at the bottom of it in all it's glory. This nail art was a simple stamping design using Uber Chic's Lovely Leaves 01 plate. I chose the tree image and layered the falling leaves over the top. I love this image as it's so versatile, you can do designs for all seasons as it looks like snow if done in white!

I am off to Krakow with work for the rest of the week from tomorrow so I except this may be weather appropriate there too!
Colours used: London - Picture Polish, Cocoa - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London

Into Space - Metallic Space Wonderland Nails

Hello nail world! Got some lovely and easy galaxy nails to show you today, with one of Fun Lacquers magnetic polishes. They have been out for a while but I was finally tempted to try a couple and they are really lovely. I bought the Fun Lacquer magnet to go with them and it is surprisingly powerful! For this nail art I used one layer of black and two layers of magnetic polish (Fun Lacquers Believe).

After applying my second layer of magnetic polish I held the magnet over it for a few seconds to move the colours around (one nail at a time!). This was a bit of a mistake as when I was later watching videos about these it turns out you're meant to hold the magnets over for 15-30 seconds, which makes a lot of sense as I wasn't getting the same effect as I was seeing in pictures (doh!). However I was getting some of that colour shifting magic (just with softer lines) so I do still like the result!

Once dry I used my Bundle Monster space themed Kelli Marissa collaboration plate. It's such a good plate for galaxy mani's, I love the scattered star images which I chose for this nail art. I stamped the images in metallic silver, and on my ring finger and thumb nails put some holographic silver over the top. The holo wasn't very obvious but was perhaps a little more shiny under bright lights. Overall I'm pleased with how this turned out and looking forward to playing with the magnetic polishes some more!
Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Believe - Fun Lacquer, Rain On Me - Barry M, Harp On It - Color Club

Nails Inc Self Made Mermaid Duo

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a good weekend. I'm having a quiet evening in so far but will see what happens. Today I've been trying out Nails Inc's new nail polish duo, the 'Self Made Mermaid' duo. This is the fourth duo they have done, following the very successful unicorn duo they released last year. I've managed to resist their space themed and champagne themed duo's (which both look lovely), but this one was too me to ignore!

First up is Ocean Ever After, and I am so pleased I managed to get decent pictures with my left hand! This is a metallic blue with a tiny bit of gold running through for the extra metallic shimmer. There's also a hint of green in the bottle but that didn't really transfer to my nails. The formula is good and I love Nails Inc's brushes. It does look a slightly deeper/brighter blue in the Instagram pictures, so I might try it over some dark grey or something to see if I can get that effect. That said it is also lovely as it is. This one is perfect in 2-3 coats (I've used three here).
Next is Mermaid Parade, a pearlescent pastel blue. This has a hint of purple-ish shimmer running through it as well but it's only visible in certain lights. The formula is also good in this one, though is is not as opaque as Ocean Ever After. I used 3 coats in my swatches but I'd say you'd need 4-5 for full opacity, that or try it out over some other base colours. It is a stronger more opaque colour than the recent Barry M sea themed shades (review a few blog posts back).

So my favourite is Ocean Ever After, as I expected, as it's just more my sort of thing. I love a good blue, especially when it's shiny! They are both lovely polishes though and I love the packaging. I can't resist keeping them in it as it makes them look special and more expensive, even though these are cheaper than normal Nails Inc polishes (it's £15 for the two). Looking forward to seeing which duo they bring out next, and if I can resist it!