Cherry & Blossom Nails

Happy Sunday everyone! Here we are with the last Glam Nails Challenge June prompt, I can't believe it's come around so fast! Today's prompt is cherries. I'm quite pleased with myself for managing to complete this challenge! I usually don't do the ones with many prompts in one month as I'll end up only doing one or two, but I have managed to complete all of these and have really enjoyed it! In July I will be focusing on my ever growing list of other random ideas but I am quite tempted to try another of these challenges in the future if it takes my fancy.

For this look I used the Fruit Deco plate from Maniology again (it's getting a lot of use at the moment!) for the cherry images, these were stamped directly onto my nails. For the cherry blossom on my index and little fingernails I made decals using my Uber Mat, and the Suki 09 plate from Mo You London. You can see how here. It was my first time using this plate and I'm really pleased with how the flowers came out, I think they'd work well across all nails too. I felt like there was something missing from the cherry nails so added some black dots around the edge with a dotting tool. Not entirely even but it's OK!

Overall I like these. They're very girly for me, but I do really like the flowers, and it was fun to use a fruit image I hadn't used yet too. Who knows, maybe these won't be my last fruit nails this year!
Colours used: Vintage Tee - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Lady In Black - OPI, Key Lime - Barry M, Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc

The Apples & The Worm

Hey everyone, happy Worm Day! OK so it's not worm day, it seems that's coming up though (gummy worm day is the 15th July according to Google) but here is some worm nail art! Apples is today's prompt for the Glam Nails Challenge June, and I decided to do worm approaching an apple nail art. I did look on Google images for inspiration and was slightly surprised to learn that I'm not the first to do worm nails!

I started with a pale pink base (colours listed below images) and then used red nail polish to create the apple shapes using the brush from the bottle. I particularly like the way the one on my index finger came out, it wasn't entirely intentional as I was aiming for more symmetry but I think it looks more apple-y this way! I was going to do a little white reflection on it but it was shiny enough to look reflective anyway. For the worm I drew the outline with a nail art pen, then coloured it in using nail polish and a nail art brush. Outlining it with the same brush and black nail polish was the hardest bit so it is a bit wobbly!

Overall I quite like these as they're cute, though I wish I could have done the outline of the worm a bit neater! I also made a mistake with the two leaves on the apple on my thumb, it would have been better with one I think. Still, worm nails are certainly a first for me! I did apple nails once years ago which were very unsuccessful so I'm pleased that these came out better!
Colours used: Vintage Tee - Nails Inc, Dead Heat - Barry M, Tickled Taupe - Painted Polish, Cocoa - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI

Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Banana Nails!

Hey everyone, hope you're having/ have had a good weekend! Today I'm sharing the next installment in the Glam Nails June challenge, just two more to go after this! Today's prompt is bananas. Actual bananas.... not the prompt is totally bananas :D I included a little throw back in this nail art to the banana phone song! I don't actually know how popular that was and if people will have heard of it but I remember discovering it in the early days of YouTube and singing it with my friends and cousins. Go have a listen on YouTube if you like but it will get stuck in your head!

I started with a base of cream on three nails, and yellow on the other two (colours listed below the pictures). Over the yellow nails I used green stamping polish to add this banana leaf sort of image from the Mo You London Tropical 10 plate to my nails. For the other three nails I used banana images from the Fruit Deco plate from Maniology, starting with stamping on the yellow and then the black outline. On my thumb I wanted to add some wording to reference the banana phone song, so created a decal on my Uber Mat, carefully painting the letters with a small brush, covering them with clear polish, and once dry peeling them off to stick on my nails (peeling, how appropriate!). I finished the look off with a matte top coat.

I have mixed feelings about this one. Overall I like the design, I think it's fun! However the bananas didn't come out that well, I didn't quite align the colours right, and am still having trouble with my black stamping polish (I have another on the way!). Also majorly smudged the bananas on my middle finger! The ring ring lettering is quite big as well, but considering they were freehand I am actually quite pleased with how they came out! I did forget that is my wonky thumbnail though which isn't ideal for capturing the look in pictures!
Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Lady In Black - OPI, Forest Green - Mo You London

Freshly Squeezed Nail Art

Hey everyone! My nail art is making me feel thirsty today, but it could just be a consequence of eating a takeaway! I could really drink some orange juice right now! This nail art is for the next Glam Nails Challenge June prompt which is oranges. I started with a base of yellow (shades listed below pictures) which I have included a picture of at the bottom of this post. It came free with a Nails Inc order and it's not my usual sort of shade but I actually rather like it!

On my thumb and ring finger nails I used the orange image from the Mo You London Tropical 10 plate, unfortunately I got a bit of green polish on the thumb nail one as there was some on the scraper from what I was doing on my other hand! At the bottom of each other nail I did an orange half from MYL's Tropical 34 plate. For the wording in black, the juicers and the droplet on my middle fingernail I used the Bottoms Up plate from Uber Chic. I like the effect of the orange half's though they are a tad small, it works best on my little fingernail where it goes the whole way across. The orange nail polish I used is also orange scented which is rather appropriate! So all in all I do quite like these, they're quite different from anything I've done before!
Colours used: Living Your Best Life - Nails Inc, Not From Concentrate - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

A couple of  bonus pictures below of the base colour with a cardigan (I liked the vibrant yellow against the black and white background) and the nail art with it's inspiration - a real life orange!

Stamping Sunday: Forecasting Strawberries!

Hi everyone! Today I am forecasting strawberries for the next Glam Nails Challenge prompt. I can't remember exactly how I came up with this idea but I wanted to make my strawberry nail art a bit more interesting and thought I'd theme them around hot weather, though it's certainly been a bit temperamental here in the UK for the last week or so!

I started with a cream base on three nails, and a yellow base on the other two. For the wording I used Uber Chic's Forecasting Glam stamping plate, and a dotting tool to colour in the sun. For the strawberries on my thumb and little fingernails I used the layering images on Maniology's Fruit Deco plate. The same colour was used for the different types of strawberries but it looks different due to the colours underneath. The image for the full coverage strawberry nails is from Mo You London's Tropical 10 plate, and it is a bit of a weird one! They've done it in a reverse stamping style, which kind of works but it's then a bit confusing as to what you're meant to do with the leaves. I ended up just colouring them in directly onto my nails with a nail art brush, which seemed to work well.

To be honest I wasn't so keen on these at first, apart from the thumb nail, but they have grown on me a bit! They are certainly summery anyway!
Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Key Lime - Barry M, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

A Selection of Nail Art Techniques for Nail Addicts Collab

Hi everyone, hope you've had or are having a lovely day! I have some very bright nail art to share with you today. A few years ago I was part of the Nail Addicts Collab on Instagram, whose first challenge was 'nail art' themed. I did some pastel nails with images of nail art brushes and stamping tools, I believe I bought the plate especially. This year the collab is back, and starting with the same theme, so I thought I'd try something a bit different rather than going back to the same plate, tempted as I was!

On each nail I tried out a different nail art technique, all using the Bring On Spring collection from Wikkid Polish. I enjoyed getting these super bright neons out again! I finished off with a matte top coat to enhance the colour of the neon polishes. I've listed the effects I used below:

Index Finger - Watercolour (nail polish mixed with polish remover on foil & applied with a brush)
Middle Finger - Three colour gradient.
Ring Finger - Stamping (I'd forgotten white doesn't show up well over neon yellow!)
Little Finger - Dry brushing
Thumb - Smoosh (polish blobbed onto a stamper and then roughly pressed on the nail)

The smoosh nail is definitely my favourite and I'm glad to be back doing this challenge again!
Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Bikini Bombshell - Wikkid Polish, Hello Sailor - Wkkid Polish, Joyful L'il Jellybean - Wikkid Polish, Peachy Beachy - Wikkid Polish, My Mate Illuminate - Wikkid Polish, Down At The Deep End - Wikkid Polish, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Lemony Fresh Nails

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the fruit nail blog! (that's how it feels this month!) Today's glam nails challenge prompt is lemons, and this is my attempt. The stamping plates I used for this look are the Fruit Deco plate from Maniology, and Tropical 34 from Mo You London.

I started with a base of white polish (colours listed below the pictures), and then created decals for the stripy nails, using my Uber Mat. It was surprisingly satisfying filling the stripes in with my little nail art brush. While the decals where drying I did the stamping on my other nails, all of which involved layered stamping, where I stamped the yellow on first, then the green, and finally the black outline. I struggled a bit with the Maniology images on this occasion, I couldn't get the green right so you can't really see it. May be something to do with going for a run half way through doing my nails and getting a bit tired!

So overall I quite like these, they're fun, but would definitely be better if I'd mastered the Maniology lemons. I did master them previously on another look which you can see here. I also did some freehand lemons aages ago which I'm still quite proud of! You can see them here. So this nail art is not my best lemon art but I still like it!
Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Key Lime - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Cyan - Barry M, Sloane Avenue - Nails Inc