Seahorses in a pastel sea

Hey everyone, I'm back with the final prompt for the Dimension Nails Challenge August, this time it's seahorses. I have a couple of stamping plates with seahorse images and decided to go for Mo You London's Doodles 07 plate which has a whole host of pretty sea themed patterns and creatures. You'll see a few other creatures managed to sneak into this look!

For this look I started with a fluid nail art background. I went for pale pastel shades in order to make the images stand out as much as possible. Three Barry M shades and Dance Legend's white Spot It polish were used for the fluid nail art which was created on my Uber Mat (colours listed below the pictures). One of the Barry M's was kind of pearlescent but that didn't really show up that well in the end. Once the base pattern was applied and dry I stamped the images over the top in gold. It didn't show up that well to be honest, even though the background was pale I think there was too much going on, so I stamped over it in black which was much better. I can still see some gold shining through which I like.

Overall I'm happy with these though they are less subtle than what I was originally going for. I do think the fluid nail art came out quite well and it's good to get some practise.
Colours used: Strawberry Ice Cream - Barry M, Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Butterflyfish - Barry M, Spot It White - Dance Legend, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Crabby Nails Ahoy!

Hey everyone - or should I say ahoy... Some cute crab nail art to share with you today which kind of matched my mood when I painted them (crabby rather than cute unfortunately). These are for the next Dimension Nails challenge prompt for August which is, you guessed it, crab. I have a couple of stamping plates with crab images on but chose the newest, Uber Chic's Just Beachy plate. They have these helpful layered images so I didn't have to create decals, and could stamp directly onto the white nails. I was pleased with how vibrantly the colours came out, as sometimes I find stamping colours over white kind of washes them out a little. I did smudge the orange crab a little when stamping the black outline over the colour but I think it's still cute!

Not much else to say on these really but I am pleased with them, and am enjoying the summery shades! It's not something I'd really thought to do before so I'm glad this Dimension Nails challenge prompt made me do them!
Colours used: Flip Flop Fantasy - China Glaze, Greenberry - Barry M, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Nails Inc Freshly Juiced Duo

Hello all! I am writing from the uncharacteristically warm south of England today, so this summery nail art seems quite fitting! I bought the Freshly Squeezed nail polish duo from Nails Inc when I was ordering some more face masks from them and I'm so glad I did, they're gorgeous! I absolutely love getting new Nails Inc polishes, the formulas are so good and the brush size is perfect so they're super satisfying to apply. The duo's are a good price too (£15 for the pair). This particular set is also scented, and after how much I loved their peach scented nail polishes that was another selling point for me.

For this look I alternated the orange and pink polishes across may nails, and used the advanced stamping technique to create decals for the flowers on my middle two finger nails and thumb nails. The image is from Mo You London's Flower Power 03 stamping plate. The look was finished off with a glossy top coat (also Nails Inc) which I must admit dampened the smell a little bit but it finished the look nicely. It's the first time I've worn matching nail art on both hands for a while, and I have enjoyed the simplicity of the design and the brightness. I love the packaging for this set to, it's a winner all round!
Colours used: Not From Concentrate - Nails Inc,  Looking Super Juicy - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Cream Soda - Barry M

Live Every Week Like It's Shark Week!

Hi all, and happy almost shark week! I haven't actually done shark week nail art before, and these images are the main reason I bought the new UberChic Just Beachy stamping plate, so when this came up as part of the Dimension Nails challenge on Instagram it seemed like the perfect time! I am having a month off from the Glam Nails Challenge prompts to focus on my growing nail art ideas list, but this Dimension Nails one only has four prompts so I think it's do-able, and I love the prompts! I am tempted to do two or three of the Glam Nails Challenge ones too but we shall see, clearly I am hooked!

I started this look with a peel off base due to the glitter, and then added aqua glitter (colours listed below pictures) on my thumb and little finger nails, and silver glitter on the rest. There was no advanced stamping on this occasion due to the handy layered images on the Just Beachy plate, so I stamped the images directly onto my nails, and on my middle finger I layered up some sheer blue over the sharks, before adding the image again at a different angle, and adding one more layer of blue. This was to give the illusion that there are more sharks swimming deeper in the water, and was something I have been super keen to do since I ordered this plate.

I was a bit all over the place with image directions for this one as you can probably see! Normally I stamp nail art images so that they're the right way up when I hold my hands upright, but this time I thought I'd give the other way a go. I started with my thumb nail and was actually meaning to do this one my normal way but forgot, I then completely forgot about which way up to do them for all my other nails except my index finger! For the middle two this was fine as the image can go either way, but I guess old habits die hard! You'll see the shark on my little finger is the opposite way up to the text! Anyway, Overall, I'm pretty pleased with these, and look forward to doing more shark nail art in the future :)
Colours used: Cosmic Girl - Danglefoot Polish, Catwalk Queen - Barry M, Flipper - Urban Outfitters, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Grey - Barry M, Acai Smoothie - Barry M

Where The Crawdad's Sing: A Nail Art Tribute

Hey everyone! Today I'm sharing something a little different (well not that different, it's still nail art!). This nail art was inspired by the cover of a book called Where The Crawdad's Sing, which I read earlier this year. It is a truly wonderful book. I found it incredibly moving and beautifully written, and it really stayed with me. I was really rooting for the main character! I'd highly recommend it. I won't try and describe it here as I'll end up either spoiling it or just re-writing the blurb, so go Google it if you're interested!

I started this look with a base of cream nail polish (colours listed below the pictures), and followed that with a matte top coat to make the painting easier. Once dry I mixed some of the blue, purple and pink/coral nail polish with nail polish remover on some foil, to water it down, and then dabbed it onto my nails with a wide (ish) nail art brush. I did these one at a time as it tends to dry quite quickly on the tin foil. I had been hoping to achieve a better gradient with this but I think it came out OK. I applied another matte top coat for the final nail art, and then used black nail polish and a small nail art brush to add the tree detail and the silhouette of the person in the boat. The trees came out a bit better than I expected actually, it was kind of accidental but I found a technique! For the branches I used a small nail art brush, and a dotting tool for the leaves, before topping it off with a final matte top coat.

Overall I do like these, I like the colours and I think they came out reasonably well. I'm sure there are nail artists out there who could do an incredible job re-creating this book cover, but this will do for me! Hope you like them and give the book a try!
Colour used: Cream Soda - Barry M, Cyan - Barry M, Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Sloane Avenue - Nails Inc, Cocoa - Barry M, Key Lime - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI