Magnetic Galaxy

Happy leap year everybody! I hope you enjoy this mysterious extra day! I feel like the title of this blog post is perhaps a little too grand, but it kind of describes the look. Apologies if you were hoping for piles of glitter and fancy effects! The purple polish here is one I hadn't used before, Le 186 by Emily de Molly, and although it is a magnetic polish with streaks of gold you can't really see it in these pictures. To be honest you can't really see it that closely on my nails either, perhaps I didn't use it right but the effect wasn't that strong for me, but at this stage it might just be because I've had it on for a few days and I know the effect can fade a bit over time with magnetic polishes.

On the two nails on each hand I hadn't used the magnetic polish on, I started with a silver metallic polish, and then some linear holo over the top. I then used black stamping polish and images from the Negative Space: The Crack In Space plate from Maniology. I wanted to use one of the wider images with the big zig-zag through it, but my nails were just a tad too long.

Overall I quite like these but wasn't that inspired. My favourite is the ring finger in the top left picture. They did shine pretty nicely under bright light. The magnetic purple is pretty but I think I had super high expectations from Emily de Molly following some previous buys so I wasn't as wowed as I could have been!
Colours used: Le 186 - Emily de Molly, Silver Lining - Barry M,  Harp On It - Color Club, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Atmospheric Night Nails

Hey everyone, hope your week has started well! Today I'm sharing some nail art which I really rather liked! I actually had it on before the love bugs of my last post (which I'm still wearing), but wanted to share the bugs on the appropriate day! For this look I used the Noel 06 stamping plate from Mo You London. It was part of their Christmas collection this year but it's really wintery rather than Christmassy and it has so many lovely images for wintery outdoor scenes.

I started with a base of blue on some nails and pale purple on others, topping off my ring finger nails with some super sparkly silver bar glitter (colours listed below the pictures). I then used black, gold and silver stamping polish and images from the Noel 06 plate, and some shades of blue for the layered mountain images. I used the same shades for a gradient on my index fingernails too. I really like these but I wasn't too sure about the purple nail with the blue mountain, so added a wolf the next day. I also mattified them. I kind of regretted it at the time but I do quite like the pictures!
Below is the nail art with a matte top coat and additional wolf. Which ones do you like best - matte or shiny? I really like the way the layered mountains one came out!
Colours used: Laguna-  Barry M, Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Cobalt Blue - Barry M, Indigo - Barry M, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Summer Sparkler - Painted Polish by Lexi

Happy Valentines Day Love Bugs!

Happy Friday everyone, and Happy Valentines Day if you're celebrating it. I dithered a bit about what to do with my nails for it this year, I was tempted by those heart tip nails I've seen all over Instagram, with a bit of glitter, but then the idea of doing 'love bugs' popped into my head and and stuck! If I remember correctly ladybirds where the first nail art I ever painted on my nails, when I was a student. I'm not sure if I have any pictures but I reckon these ones are neater!

I started with a base of shimmering pinky red. Party In Rio from Colors by Llarowe was a colour I bought around Christmas time a few years ago but was pinker than I expected. It wasn't quite right for Christmas but works perfectly for Valentines Day! I then applied black nail polish across the tops of my nails, a bit like a large french tip. They weren't quite as neat as I intended but not too bad! I used a striping brush for the lines down the middle, and then dotting tools for the eyes and the spots. I'm enjoying wearing red nail polish again and the cuteness of these, I don't think they need to be perfectly even. This is about as far as my freehand skills go!
Colours used: Party In Rio - Colors by Llarowe, Lady In Black - OPI, Floral Street - Nails Inc

An Alpine View On My Nails

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Something fairly simple to share with you today, and something that is for once still on my nails! Not too long ago I saw themermaidpolish on Instagram use this alpine image in dark blue over light blue and it looked sooo good! I had always thought of using it filled in with colour, and hadn't tried it out yet, but after seeing that I thought I'd give it a go with just the outline as well. The image is from the Bundle Monster clairestelle8 plate which I love.

I started with a base of Chateau by ILNP which was an untried polish for me, and I think the french name kind of fits with the alpine scenes too. It was a little darker than I expected but pretty. I then used white stamping polish to apply the image across my four finger nails on each hand, the image is well sized to fit four nails I think. For my thumbnail I used the snowflake image from Mo You London's Noel 06 plate which I've used a few times, it's a good one for combining with things.

I was pleased with the way it turned out though I don't think it's as expertly done as the ones by themermaidpolish. You do have to have a proper look to see that it's an alpine scene (and I have to keep my hands still!) but it's not necessarily a bad thing. It seems very fitting for all the ski holidays I'm seeing on Instagram at the moment! I love the look of the snow and the mountains and snuggness but I don't fancy taking to the slopes myself!
Colours used: Chateau - ILNP, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Winter Stars

Heyyyy everyone! More star themed nail art to share with you this evening. One of my Christmas stamping plates (Noel 03 from Mo You London) had this cute candle in a jar image I was keen to try, and I think it works in non-Christmassy looks. One of my colleagues did say they look Christmassy though so maybe not! I tried a couple of recent-ish untried ILNP shades with this look and enjoyed trying them out, I think they are good wintery colours (colour names listed below the pictures).

I started with a cream coloured base on my middle fingernails, and the new ILNP's on my other nails, I alternated the colours on each hand as I quite like each hand being a little different. For the images I used the advanced stamping technique (as per), with images from Mo You London's Sci-Fi 10 and Noel 03 plates. I coloured the images in with the same two ILNP shades to keep it consistent, and of course shimmery! I finished the look with a glossy top coat (bit a a challenge as I'm nearing the end of the bottle!).

I like how this look turned out. They're not my usual sort of colours so it was fun wearing something a bit different, and it's quite seasonal too.
Colours used: Legacy - ILNP, Candlelight - ILNP, Cream Soda - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Stars and Stars!

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good weekend :) Today I am sharing with you my first try of Nails Inc's Seeing Stars duo. I have had this one sitting around for a little while and finally wore it for an evening out at a law society dinner with my friend who works in law. I wanted something a special but fairly simple that would work with my dress (it was fitted, long and dark green with a bit of sparkle and sleeveless on one side).

The first polish in this duo is Get Discovered, a sheer pale pink which works well for the negative space trend that's big at the moment. I do like to have a bit of colour like this when doing a negative space type look as my nails are a bit yellow as they never get a break from all the nail polish! I used three layers of this to give it a bit more opacity but still keep it clear enough that you can see my nails underneath. I filed them down beforehand as I'm not sure that sort of look suits me much with more white space.

The second polish is Lost In Luna, which is a clear polish filled with little shiny gold stars. The stars are so cute but as expected they can catch a little on clothes, especially if you have quite curved nails like me, I struggled to get them to lie flat. In my case my previous nail art was sharp and a tad dangerous so this wasn't bad in comparison! It can be a little fiddly getting the stars out of the bottle, and then where you want them on your nails, but I really like the final look, and would definitely enjoy recreating this look in the future.
Colours used: