Porcelain plates on my nail plates

Hello nail people! Todays nail art is something I have been so pleased with that I've had it on for nearly two weeks and it's still going strong! (growing out a little though) I ordered one of the new procelain plates from Mo You London while I was away in Shropshire and then went round a country house full of porcelain bowls and plates so was even more inspired to use it! I had been considering buying some stamping plates with Asian style patterns so when this plate came along it was perfect.

So I wanted to go for that classic look with the blue patterns you see on plates and bowls (reminds me of my Grandma!). I started with a couple of layers of Essie's Waltz which is a sheer white polish, and then used the cracked procelain image in grey nail polish. It's a really good image to have to build up that procelain effect as it looks like all those fine lines that older bowsl and things end up with, maybe it's the glazing cracking or something? I can think of lots to do with this image.

Next I added a few more layers of Waltz, to soften the lines of the grey polish. Once dry I chose my five favourite images from the plate, and stamped them onto my nails. I was impressed with how well this blue polish stamped. I wavered a bit on what to do with the top coat but settled on shiny as I think this is the most porcelain like. Hope you like them as much as I do!
Colours used: Waltz - Essie, Grey - Barry M, Indigo - Barry M

Holiday Nails - Origami with Tattoos

Hey everyone! Got some holiday nails to show you today, just before I go off on holiday again! :D Just got to get through those last couple of days of work... These are from my week in Shropshire a few weeks ago with my boyfriend and his family. I took the opportunity to try my temporary hand tattoos from Mo You London, and as they are origami themes I used my Origami 05 stamping plate also from Mo You London.

So I was pretty impressed with how  easy the temporary tattoos were to apply, even those that went round my fingers I could easily hold in place with the cloth while applying. They didn't last very long once on (just a day before there was significant wear and tear) but I think that's to be expected. I liked them so much I ordered more of the same design so I can do this more often :)

For my nails I tried out some of my new polishes from Cirque Colors Desert Bloom collection. I had resisted these when they came out originally but temptation got me in the end! They really are beautiful. They're not quite colour shifting but each one had an essence of another colour that runs through it and shimmers.

For some of the images I stamped them directly onto my nails in black and white, but for an accent nail I made a couple of decals using my Uber Mat, you can see how here. I wanted to soften the bright white background on those nails a bit so once my decals were in place I used a dotting tool to add some spots around the origami dragon and centaur.

Overall I was very happy with these, hope you like them too!
Colours used: Earthen - Cirque Colors, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Taos - Cirque Colors, Fata Morgana - Cirque Colors, Dusky Skies - Cirque Colors, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, White Knight - Mo You London

Stamping Sunday: Recreating Past Nail Art

Hey everyone, happy Sunday! I'm feeling rather under the weather today so won't be doing much. Just a bit of preparation for going on holiday in a week, can't wait! Please excuse the fuzzyness of some of the pictures below! These are the only ones I took and as this nail art is now off I can't re-try. I also think my nails are a bit too long in these pictures. This length looks good on other people but as mine are quite narrow I'm not sure how well it works. I've filed them down a bit now.

This nail art is very similar to some I created for my friend Jess when she was going to a wedding. You can see them here. I think the colours worked well for a summer wedding and the beautiful rose gold Halycon from Cirque Colors finishes it off nicely. I think this worked better on Jess than me, mostly for the reasons mentioned above.

For this nail art I started with a pale pink base and then used images from the Mo You London Doodles 01 plate (love it!). For some nails I stamped the images directly onto my nails, and for others I used my Uber Mat to create decals and fill in the gaps with a bit of darker pink (colours listed below the pictures). I think I am going to try this design again some time with blues or purples instead of pink, and using Halcyon's twin polish Idyllic for the accent nail.
Colours used: Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Acai - Barry M, White Knight - Mo You London, Halcyon - Cirque Colors

Froggy Prince Nail Art

Hey everyone! It's freehand nail art today, so of courser I've gone for something simple... I had this idea in my head for a while as I had some little gold crowns sitting in my nail art box. Unfortunately I did lose one of the crowns while out for a summery walk but I guess that was inevitable. I like to try and re-use these things though, I'm a bit of a hoarder!

Not too much to explain technique wise for these! I used the nail brush in the bottle for the frogs heads, and then the largest of my dotting tool, followed by a slightly smaller one for the eyes. I used a small nail art brush for the nose and mouth. I stuck the crowns on with top coat only, as I usually find it so hard to get these sorts of things off my nails, and using nail glue makes it virtually impossible!

Apologies for the blurry image bottom left, but I couldn't be inconsistent and just have three! These nails may be better suited to kids but I like them, and I enjoyed wearing something bright while the weather was hot! They remind me of my day off in the sun eating ice cream and going for a walk with my Mum :)
Colours used: Flip Flop Fantasy - China Glaze, Key Lime - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI, Floral Street - Nails Inc

Bubble Smoosh! (Take One)

Hi again! Today we have something super bright and smooshy on my nail blog! I have been inspired by Hanninator on Instagram, she has been doing a lot of these bubbly colourful nails in a variety of colours and they look awesome! I ended up searching the internet and as soon as my nail polish buying ban was up I ordered the full set of four Spot It polishes by Dance Legend which she uses for these designs.

So this was my first attempt. Some nails have come out better than others which I guess is to be expected. I've tried to get the best ones in these pictures but please excuse the blurring! I used my Uber Mat and a clear stamper to make decals. For each nail I started with a base (varying the colour) then swiped some generous quantities of the other colours over the top. I then pressed the stamper lightly over the top to merge the colours together. I tried varying the pressure and speed of this but couldn't quite work out what worked best. It's easier to see once on the nails!

I've seen this effect described as fluid nail art, which makes sense but I think I will call mine a bubble smoosh! It's a little like the 'smoosh' nail art which people do directly on their nails, but with the addition of bubbles from the Spot It polishes.
Colours used: Spot It Blue - Dance Legend, Beach Hut (Orange) - Models Own, Yellow - Barry M, Claridge Gardens (Neon Pink) - Nails Inc, White - Emily de Molly

Farnborough Air Show Nails 2018

Hi everyone! Long time no see! I've been away and had hoped to catch up with some blogging but that didn't happen in the end. This nail art is from a month or so ago at the Farnborough Air Show 2018. This is the second time we've been and again the weather was hot (we remembered sun cream this time!) and there was lots to see. Highlights for me were the wing walkers and the helicopter. Can't say I'm ussually that fussed about helicopters... but this one was an aerobatic one and the stunts it did looked impossible! I also enjoyed the red bull air racing display.

At the 2016 Farnborough Air Show I did some plane and sky nails which you can see here. I prefer the 2016 ones to be honest but these are still fun! Previosuly they had done some displays with some older planes and smoke in red white and blue, so I used that as inspiration for this year. For the planes on my thumb I was inspired by a picture my boyfriend took at the previous show. I didn't manage them as neatly as last time though which I think is due to all the nail stamping I've been doing, and the lack of freehand!

I used a small nail art brush and black polish for the planes. For the smoke on the thumbnails I used a small brush and the dry brushing technique where only a small amount of polish is kept on the brush to give a rougher effect. I enjoyed this nail art as it's something a bit different and it was fun having a specific inspiration and to be appropriatetly decorated for the event!
Colours used: Dead Heat - Barry M, Baker Street - Nails Inc, Cream Soda - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI,  Dragster - Barry M, Lancelot Place - Nails Inc

 Here are my nails at the airshow enjoying the planes!