Valentines Cat Nails!

Finally got round to doing a blog post about my Valentines Day nails for this year!  I've been having a busy time at work with travel to various meetings and just collapsing on the sofa when I get home! Also have had a lot of issues transferring photos recently but I seem to be sorted now.

So this year for Valentines Day I decided I would celebrate cats on my nails, and use one of Fun Lacquers new Valentines shades as well. It was the perfect excuse to try out one of my untried stamping plates from Mo You London's crazy cat lady collection. I would not recommend ordering from them at the moment (see Facebook reviews) and have unfollowed all their social media to avoid temptation! However fortunately I have a few zillion plates from them already, including some untrieds, so that will keep me going!

I started by sponging on a couple of layers of Love Potion, a fine holographic glitter, densely packed in a clear base. For the images I created decals on by Uber Mat, you can see how here. All decals went over the pink polish so the glitter could show through, except on my ring finger where it went straight on over a base coat. I kept the cat colours quite neutral as my nails were already looking quite loud with all the pink glitter! I particularly liked the images on my index and little fingers.

For actual Valentines Day we made home made pizza's after work and watched the movie Valentines Day. We swapped cards and small sweets/chocolate based gifts and I was given a tiny crocheted lobster! <3
Colours used: Love Potion - Fun Lacquer, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, Cream Soda - Barry M, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, Grey - Barry M

Burgundy Sky Nails

Hey everyone! Got some surprisingly successful nail art to show you tonight! Really loved how it turned out :) I'm feeling ridiculously tired today for no good reason (I did go out to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show last night but feel more tired than I should be!) so I'm enjoying relaxing and looking at these pictures again.

I started with a base of Kensington High Street from Nails Inc. I have this as a gel polish and regular and they are both gloriously shiny! I hadn't used this sort of a shade for a while so it was good to get it out again. I also have a pair of socks in this sort of colour with a star & moon pattern so thought I'd sort or recreate that on my nails!

For the stamping I used Mo You London's Scandi 10 plate for the first time, I particularly like the large star image which I used on my ring finger and thumb nails. Often if I stamp images directly onto my nails it seems almost not interesting enough, as normally I fill them in (could be something to do with testing out miss-matching images from new plates when I stamp directly!) but I really really like these. I also love how shiny they are! I admit I did have a bit of a nail fail initially where I did advanced stamping on my ring fingers and it came out a bit blobby so I did have to re-do those ones, I included some pictures at the bottom.
Colours used: Kensington High Street - Nails Inc, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M

Winter Brights with Cirque Facets Polishes

Hey everyone! Something bright today for the winter months, well, apart from the black, but it was January when I did these so it seemed appropriate! Besides, I like the contrast. I haven't worn black nail polish for a while and  I enjoyed the shininess!  I originally intended for these to feature all the new Facets shades, but once I got started I wasn't sure how well that would work, Also meant to do the thumb nails in the pattern as well but had time pressure and it's quite a fiddly one to colour in!

For the pattern I used Mo You London's Crystal 01 plate (can't wait to try out the actual crystal images!), and decided to add a bit more of the orangey-pink polish on my middle finger. Not 100% sure if that was the right decision or should have left it black. Padparadscha was the first polish I thought I'd use from the newer Cirque Color's Facets shades but it's turned out to be the last! I'm not 100% on it to be honest, it is more orange than I expected.

For the image I used the advanced stamping technique (see how here). It was a bit of a fiddly one to colour in but worth it I think! I'll definitely use this image again.
Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Padparadscha - Cirque Colors, Emerald - Cirque Colors, Sapphire - Cirque Colors, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish

Rose Quartz Granite Nails

Hi everyone, aren't you glad January is over? I certainly am! We've had some snow here which has been good, but not so much that we couldn't get around. Having been to Norway it never seems as much now but I love how pretty it makes everything look!

So this nail art was a pretty simple one, strangely inspired by some walls I saw at a National Trust house. They were a kind of rose pink and white and reminded me of rose quartz. I'd been meaning to use my Mo You London Explorer 33 for some time so this was the perfect opportunity. I used two images from the plate and layered them up for the granite look. I'm pleased with the finished look and it was a fairly quick and easy one to do. I think it would be good for most times of year and is work friendly.
Colours used: Rose Quartz - Cirque Colors, White Stamping Polish - Emily de Molly, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M