Winter Animals ft Christmas Party Cat!

Hi there! The New Year is nearly upon us, and I don't have my new year nails ready! I am still rocking these festive winter animals which I do rather like. New Year nails are being done in a bit of a last minute scramble this evening as I'm going to London tomorrow morning. This nail art turned out a little less Christmassy than anticipated, but maybe that's a good thing for some Christmas to New Year transition nails anyway.

I used a coupe of shimmery holographics from ILNP's Spring 2017 collection for the base (colours listed below the pictures). To me the blue always seemed more icy and wintery. For the outlining patterns, I used the Mo You London Festive 45 and Enchanted 05 plates and white stamping polish. I used a dortting tool to pick up the animal images before stamping as I would come back to that later.

Meanwhile (I feel like I'm writing a recipe!) on my Uber Mat, I created decals using the advanced stamping technique, and using only the animal images (I removed the surrounding patterns using a dotting tool). You can see how to do advanced stamping here.

I really like the background colours, especially the linear holo flare of Aria, and I think it adds a lovely wintery look behind the arctic animals. The green nails are a nod to the festive season I want to hold on to! The only downside is the reindeer eyes! I had some trouble stamping for some reason and the eyes didn't come out so I did them with a dotting tool, should have done them with a smaller one as it looks a bit odd.
Colours used: Aria - ILNP, Bermuda Breeze - ILNP, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Alpine Snow - OPI, Bronze Bae - Barry M

Cosy Metallic Christmas Jumper Nails

Hello nail people! Tonight I have some more Christmassy nail art to show you. Another design from a couple of weeks ago that I didn't have time to post. I ended up wearing them in Norway so I associate them with fond memories. You can see my Trondheim, Norway inspired nails here. The only thing I regret about these is that they aren't as typically Christmassy as they could be, they're perhaps better suited to the beginning of Christmas nail art season!

I used Soft Focus from ILNP's new collection as a base, and I really love it. It's subtle but also has a great holographic flare. I have some separate pictures I will share, just need to get round to swatching some of the other colours from the collection. Apart from the snowflakes on the little finger, I used some of Barry M's liquid chromes for the stamping.

I used the Festive 06 stamping plate from Mo You London. For some of the nails I created a gradient on the stamping plate, and on others I used a technique that's new to me after seeing it on Mo You's Instagram. For the index fingernail I picked up an image with the stamper in silver, and then used a dotting tool to pick up certain parts of the image. I then stamped again in purple, removing other parts of the images, and then again with gold. I love this technique and will definitely use it again! Not sure how good my description was so will make a picture tutorial too!
Colours used: Soft Focus - ILNP, Bright Lights - Barry M, Rain On Me - Barry M, Glow Crazy - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London

Trondheim Inspired Christmas Nails

Hello everyone, hope you've had a lovely Christmas break! Today I'm sharing with you my nail art from the week before Christmas, inspired by our weekend break in Trondheim, Norway. I would highly recommend a Christmas trip there, it was like a magical Christmas wonderland! We were lucky that it snowed a fair bit, making it even more picturesque. There were Christmas lights everywhere and there was a rustic cosy theme at many places. We spent a fair bit of time at the Christmas market in the town square. The market stalls were adorable and it was a good size of market to have enough to look at without it being so big you'd get lost! There are pictures up on my Instagram if you'd like to see (link in the top right corner).

So for the nail art I based it on things we'd seen, lights on my index finger, snowy mountains on my middle, snow on my ring finger, trees and hills on my little finger, and Christmas jumper patterns on my thumb. I used the Uber Chic Christmas-01 plate for the lights, snowflakes and jumper pattern. For the hilly scenes I used the appropriately named Scandi 01 plate from Mo You London. I used the advanced stamping technique with my Uber Mat for those images where the colours have been filled in. You can see how here.

I was pleased with how they turned out and they bring back fond memories :)
Colours used: Succulent Garden - Cirque Colors, Surfboard - Barry M, Glacier Blue - Cirque Colors, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, White Knight - Mo You London, Estate - Cirque Colors, Grey - Barry M, Alpine Snow - OPI, Spring Green - Barry M

Christmas Day Nails 2017 (ft Dinosaurs!)

It's Chriiistmaaasss! Hope everyone is having a lovely day :) Today has gone really fast for me but that's to be expected. I regret forgetting to bring my colouring book to my parents house as that would have been the perfect chilled end to the day. Christmas is one of those rare occasions when there's time to do it. So on to the nails, unfortunately I was in a rush to leave and didn't have time to get pictures of these in my lightbox, or with the fancy camera, so I took them with my new phone leaning over the bath! Therefore not so happy with the picture quality, but I do rather like the nails.

I like to have classicly Christmassy colours for my Christmas day mani, usually including red, and think these fitted that. The gem wreaths are a little wobbly, but kind of work! On my little finger I used my Mo You London Festive 45 stamping plate for the Merry Christmas wording. I used the same plate for the stocking on my index finger, for which I made decals on my Uber Mat, you can see how here.

On my ring finger I used Fired Up, one of the new colours from ILNP, I really like it so look forward to using it again and getting some proper pictures! I used a holly image from the Festive 06 plate, and placed gems over the berries. I really like how those ones turned out, a little more sophisticated than the rest of my nails! Last but not least the dino's! I layered up green metallic polish behind the glitter to make them stand out a bit more, and added my own little Christmas hats to the decals using a black nail art pen. I'm glad I managed to feature dinosaurs in my Christmas nails!

I have a little bit of a back log of Christmas nails, but wanted to share the Christmas nails on Christmas Day, so hopefully there will be more tomorrow. Merry Christmas!
Colours used: Madder - Cirque Colors, Fired Up - ILNP, Primadonna - Danglefoot Polish, Midnight Mishcheif - Painted Polish, Secret - Fun Lacquer, Emerald Green - Barry M, Alpine Snow - OPI, Bright Lights - Barry M, Rain On Me - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M

Gingerbread Mix Nail Art

Hey everyone, four sleeps to go! Of course I have more Christmas nails to show you today, and of course I have  a back log of Christmas nail art to show you! I should be able to catch up soon as it's my last day at work tomorrow before Christmas so hopefully can catch up on the weekend. Following my general Christmas nail art themes this year I have used advanced stamping agaaain! Was hoping to get some freehand in but at this stage it is looking unlikely.

I started with a shimmery pale grey base (colours listed below the pictures), and created decals on my Uber Mat. You can see how here. I was keen to try out these cute little gingerbread people from my Uberchic Christmas-01 stamping plate and selected a few other images to go with them. I used most of the Cirque Colors Facets Collection to fill the images and think they worked well, especially the gingerbread people. The collection is from last year and I absolutely love it, such perfect shimmer! The only thing I'd change about this nail art is that the presents came out a bit dark. Maybe next time I will use a different outlining colour.

Colours used: Paper Route - ILNP, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Morganite - Cirque Colors, Garnet - Cirque Colors, Paraiba - Cirque Colors, Tanzanite - Cirque Colors, Dioptase - Cirque Colors

Thanks for reading :)

Festive Trees - Inspired by Mo You London

Hello everyone, we're getting closer! I feel like this month is flying by, we'll blink and it will be Christmas! *fingers crossed* Today's nail art is a design I saw on the Mo You London website to advertise one of their stamping plates. I liked it so much I bought the plate and tried it for myself so it clearly worked! The design is simple but perfect for Christmas.

I started with a base of cream (colours listed below the pics) on all except my middle finger nails, on which I used a green base. I then used gold polish to stamp gold stars on all the cream nails, and the pattern on the green nails. I used the Festive 01 plate from MYL which is so pretty! I did have my eye on it last year so this design tipped me over the edge!

On my thumb nails and ring finger nails I used the advanced stamping technique to get the Christmas tree colours in. I used my Uber Mat to make decals, you can see how here. I finished off with a matte top coat to make the colours pop. I like this design a lot but at times I wanted something a bit more bright and sparkly for the season! It was good to give my nails a little break though!
Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Bright Lights - Barry M, Spring Green - Barry M, Westminster Bridge Matte Top Coat - Nails Inc

Christmas Wrapping Nails - Cheers To The Holidays

Hello everyone! Hope you are having a lovely weekend :) I'm feeling super Christmassy this weekend, we had my boyfriends parents over for lunch and then they helped us put a work surface up in the garage. Then we went for a wintery walk and shop, and put the tree and decorations up. I'm really enjoying the warm festive feels!

As usual I'm behind with my nail blogging, so I've already moved onto another design, but I'm enjoying revisiting this one already as I was quite pleased with it! I used Cheers To The Holidays from Fun Lacquer again for my main work Christmas party, as it's a lovely bright party colour without being sparkly, and my dress was already sparkly. After the party I didn't want to take it off so tried out my new Festive 06 stamping plate from Mo You London over the top.

On my index and little finger nails I used this lovely Christmas star pattern which reminds me of the decorative ribbons you put on presents. On my middle fingers I used gold and silver, though the gold isn't that visible at the edges, and for the ring finger and thumb nails I used the advance stamping technique (you can see how here). So I pretty much ended up practising a variety of stamping techniques. I struggled to take this nail art off as I do rather like it, but there are too many nail ideas and not enough time! I also like how my nail shape is looking at the moment - so all in all this was a winner!
Colours used: Cheers To The Holidays - Fun Lacquer, Bright Lights - Barry M, Rain On Me - Barry M, Emerald Green - Barry M, Sparkling Ruby - Barry M

Stamping Sunday: Sparkling and Snowflakes

Good evening all, hope you had a lovely weekend. Tonight I'm showing you my fist Christmas nails of 2017! I always start in late November with some not too overtly Christmassy Nails. This time I went for snowflakes for a wintery look.

For this design I wanted a bit of sparkle so dug out my blue holo 'How Deep Is Your Holo' from Fun Lacquer. You can't really see the glitter in the pictures (I tried to capture it in the fourth image). I am working on the picture quality, they should get better from here!

For the snowflake images/patterns I used the Uber Chic Christmas-01 plate, there is a snowflake stamping image and a reverse image, which I used on my ring fingernail. The sizes of the images on the Uber Chic plates cover my nails perfectly which made things easier! Not much else to say on these, I'm very much looking forward to more Christmas nails :)
Colours used: How Deep Is Your Holo - Fun Lacquer, White Knight - Mo You London

Barry M Liquid Chrome

Hello nail world! I'm back after almost a month of limited nail art and blogging (there are some swatches on my Claws For Thought Instagram) due to moving house, with some pretty poor quality pictures I'm afraid! It will probably be this way for the next few posts as I get used to my new set up. Today's is worst of all, as the pictures are taken against a variety of window sills and walls!

I wanted to try out Barry M's Liquid Chrome polishes and see how close they are to mirror chrome, and most importantly, whether they would be good back ups for my foil effect polishes I use for stamping. I picked up the gold and silver back ups but couldn't leave out the other two!

Clockwise from top left we have Razzle Dazzle, Glow Crazy, Bright Lights and Rain On Me. These could all be one coaters if applied the right way, but I used two coats for the swatches to help tidy up any visible brush strokes. As expected with this type of polish you need a smooth surface for them to look their best, as imperfections will show up quite clearly. If you look closely at the purple you'll see some little bumps on the middle finger nail (now buffed away).
I found these easy to apply and as always enjoyed the wider brush Barry M use now. Even though I nearly didn't get it Razzle Dazzle has ended up as my favourite! I don't normally go for pinks but this isn't a very pink pink! They are of course not as shiny as mirror chrome, to get that you'll need chrome powder for the best results. However these are a great set of super shiny metallics that are great for Christmas party season.
Above are my stamping attempts with the liquid chrome polishes. I paired them up and stamped them over each other. Glow crazy was the best but Razzle Dazzle was pretty good too. Bright lights and Rain On Me weren't great over each other, they kind of just looked a bit more like each other. It looks pretty close up but I couldn't get any good pictures to demonstrate that. I think these will show up better on other colours, but am not sure if they're quite as good as the foil effect polishes of Barry M's past! Almost, but not quite.

Halloween Moonlight Nail Art

OooooOOoo! Happy Halloween! This is my last minute Halloween nail art for this year and I love the way it came out! I took inspiration from clairestelle8 on Instagram, who did the same thing but with a different stamping plate/images. I loved her design so much I had to give it a go!

I started with a layer of off white as a base, and then prepared sponges with colours to sponge onto my nails. I used yellow, turquoise, cobalt blue and shimmery/sparkly blue (colours listed below the pictures). Once dry I used my Festive 16 stamping plate from Mo You London, and stamped some carefully chosen images onto my nails in gold. I then stamped the same images over the gold, but slightly lower, in black stamping polish. Thank goodness for clear stampers!

I'm super pleased with these and feel like I want to keep it on for ages! I love the effect of the moonlight peeking out between the haunted houses etc, and the shiny shadowy effect of the gold. I'm super grateful for the inspiration!
Colours used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Greenberry - Barry M, Cobalt - Barry M, Yellow - Barry M, Love & Liberty - Painted Polish, Foil Effect Gold - Barry M, Midnight Mischief -Painted Polish

Oompa Loompa Pumpkinny Nails!

Hi everyone! Happy almost Halloween! Suitably seasonal nails to show today. I've been super excited/busy lately as we finally got the keys to our new/first house on Thursday! It's been a busy weekend preparing stuff before we move the furniture next weekend. So I've had this nail art on for just over a week.

This is my third sharpie nail art in the last few months, it's such a good technique and gives quite a lot of colour options (I bought a multi-pack!). I used my Festive 16 plate from Mo You London for the pumpkin images which I stamped on in black. The design is a little small for my nails so I stamped it from the top and filled in the bottom with some autumnal copper glitter. I mixed some orange sharpie with nail polish remover on some foil, and used a small brush to paint the pumpkins. I put a top coat on before the sharpie part to protect the image.

For the semi-circles of glitter I used two polishes, Jolly My Roger and Crunk On Copper, both from Painted Polish by Lexi. This was so that I could get a good coverage as the glitter is in a clear base. I could have sponged on the glitter but this seemed easier as the colours are similar. I love both polishes (especially the glitter!) so it also made me feel like I was saving them!

To explain the title, for some reason the orange on these has made me get the oompa loompa song in my head regularly!

Colours used: Alpine Snow - OPI, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Orange Sharpie, Jolly My Roger - Painted Polish, Crunk On Copper - Painted Polish

Hoot Hoot Hoot - Owl Nails

Hi everyone! Hope you are Owl having a good weekend ;) Today's nail art is sparkly and full of owls/owl puns! Once again I'm still wearing this nail art while blogging it, which is very unusual for me, and a sign of how busy we are with the house move. Picking up the keys on Thursday, I can't wait!

So when I was doing a friends nails, she was looking through my stamping plates and found one I forgot I had bought, the UberChic owl plate. I seem to associate owls with autumn (is that just me?) so thought now is the perfect time to try it out. I also had three new holo's from Painted Polish by Lexi (colours listed below the pictures) so thought I'd give them a try too. I've included an image of just the colours below, and at the bottom of this post will do a little mini review.

I painted alternate colours onto my nails, and then used the advances stamping technique with my Uber Mat for the owls, and just regular stamping with white stamping polish on my middle fingers. I really liked how these images came out. The owls are so cute (there are loads more on the plate too) and the images came out nice and crisp. I think the colours worked well too. You can see how to advanced stamp in pictures here.
Colours used: Jolly My Roger - Painted Polish, Yo-Ho Holo - Painted Polish, Love & Liberty - Painted Polish, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Cream Soda - Barry M, Cappuccino - Barry M, Cocoa - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London

Painted Polish - Jolly My Roger (copper-ish), Yo-Ho Holo (green) and Love & Liberty (blue)
Just wanted to share my thoughts in the three untried holo's I bought from Rainbow Connection about a month or so. How I managed to go that long without trying them I don't know! All three shades have a lovely consistency, and as you can see from the pictures, are pretty holographic! Love & Liberty is quite opaque, you could probably get away with one coat but I used two here as I could still see a\ bit of nail line in the light. For Jolly My Roger and Yo-Ho Holo two-three coats would be needed.