Ode to Aperol Spritz

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing some nail art which is not for an Instagram challenge for once! I've had the idea of doing some Aperol Spritz nails since I got Cirque Colors Bubbly Collection. It's my favourite drink - it's so yummy, a great colour and reminds me of holidays (we first tried it in Venice). I have also had a bit of a thing for orange nail polish for a year or so, so I'm really loving this polish!

I started with two coats of cream on my middle and thumb nails and Aperol Spritz on the other two. I used a bar magnet to get the magnetic effect and did this on both layers. I love the way the layers of holo shine through when I move them in the light. I stamped the multiple cocktail image directly onto my nails in black and created decals for the two glasses and the wording. The cocktail and glass images are from Uber Chic's Bottoms Up plate and the wording is letters put together from Mo You London's Typography 04 plate. I added oranges from the UC plate using Aperol Spritz which worked surprisingly well as a fun background image colour.

I'm pleased with how these came out, They are fairly simple to look at but the process was a little different for me in terms of adding images together to make decals etc and I like the simple colour scheme. Love the orange polish too - both the style and the name! I suppose this look isn't really an ode to Aperol Spritz as I think that would be a song or poem... but it's certainly a tribute!

Colours used: Aperol Spritz - Cirque Colors, Cream Soda - Barry M, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Zyler & Menchie on a Halloween Night!

Hello or should I say miaow! Got some Holoween cat nails to share today for Holo Taco's 'Holoween' competition. I had to get Zyler's lovely orange nail polish out for this one of course, and I'd forgotten how gorgeous it is. I love the different sizes of glitter and that lovely holo sparkle! This nail art was a bit of a make it up as I go along look but I love it!

I started with a base of pale pink on my middle two nails, black on my index and little fingernails and just base coat on my thumbnail (all with a peel off base underneath). I then added a few coats of Zyler the Cat holo glitter over the black nails and thumbnail. For the middle two nails I added one thick layer of thermal top coat over the top and then let it all dry. Next I used a star image from Mo You London's Noel 06 stamping plate in white over the black nails, and created a cat on the moon detail from their Animal 15 plate (you can see how here). I added the cat decal and another little kitty face image to the black/star nails - I love how much the kitty face disappeared among the stars!

I enjoyed the finished look and as ever enjoyed it even more once the colour change started to take effect - such fun! I'd say it's not a massively Halloween look but it kind of is, and I love it! Pictures are below of it in different temperature states and I'm hoping to get a decent video of it in action to add on my Instagram (Claws For Thought)..

Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Zyler - Holo Taco, Black Thermal Topcoat - Fancy Gloss, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Flakie Holo Taco - Holo Taco

The Jack-O-Lantern's Are Back!

Hey nail people! More Halloween Glam Nails Challenge nails tonight - this time the theme is Jack-O-Lanterns. I decided to sort of recreate a look I really enjoyed from absolutely ages ago. I remember it was in the year I started working at my current workplace and I've been there for a long time! I did change it up a bit in terms of which nails have which patterns and used different polish plus I have longer nails - so they are a bit different.

I started with a base of black on two nails and linear holographic orange on the others. For the white spots I used a dotting tool, I tried to keep them fairly uniform but the little finger came out a lot better than the index finger. On the other nails I used a small nail art brush to add the spooky pumpkin faces. I think they're definitely neater than last time and the sizing worked quote well which I suppose is an advantage of freehand (I wasn't sure how well it would work on long nails). I Googled Jack-O-Lanterns and took inspiration from whichever ones looked easiest to do! I've included a picture of the original nail art at the bottom of this post.

Colours used: Lady In Black - OPI, French Tip White - Sally Hansen, If You've Got It Haunt It - UberChic Beauty

Zyler The Cat & Friends

Miaow! Kitty cat nail art to share today using Holo Taco's Zyler The Cat nail polish as a base. I recently ordered this and it's partner, Menchie The Cat when ordering the new unicorn skin polishes. I have really been enjoying orange glitters lately and I love the cat theme and the glitter too so it's an all round winner! 

I started with a peel off base and then added a layer of orange glitter. Once dry I sponged on more glitter, and added one final layer on top. It dried pretty textured so I added a couple of layers of 'glitter grabber' clear polish before adding the nail art. For the images I used Mo You London's Animal 15 and Crazy Cat Lady 02 stamping plates. I created decals for the three cats, you can see how here.

In conclusion, the orange glitter was a little more textured than I expected but did eventually smooth out well after all the nail art and top coats! I really like this look but I'm still not 100% sure if orange glitter suits me - it just looks so much fun in pictures! Definitely a good one for autumn and Halloween nails when the time comes.

Colours used: Zyler The Cat - Holo Taco, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Cappuccino - Barry M, Cream Soda - Barry M, Little Bo Peep - Rimmel

A leafy look!

Hi everyone and happy weekend! I've had a lovely day today relaxing and going for a leafy walk. We are in lockdown again here in the UK but still allowed to go out for a walk. We did some cleaning and things in the morning so felt good relaxing in the afternoon and feeling justified in doing so! I've also been enjoying some of my birthday chocolates :)

Anyway, onto the nail art! This look was created for the Nail Addicts collab which takes place once a month. The theme was autumnail and involved picking a favourite autumn colour and creating a look around it. I don't have one favourite autumn colour but I've been really drawn to oranges this year, so brought out this lovely bright orange jelly with gold glitter chunks - Sands of Time from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. The bottom two pictures were taken on a very leafy walk I did one morning before work. It was a pretty simple look to create, just used black stamping polish and some leafy images from my go to autumn stamping plate, Lovely Leaves 01 from Uber Chic. That's all for now!

Colours used: Sands of Time - Femme Fatale Cosmetics, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Freshly Squeezed Nail Art

Hey everyone! My nail art is making me feel thirsty today, but it could just be a consequence of eating a takeaway! I could really drink some orange juice right now! This nail art is for the next Glam Nails Challenge June prompt which is oranges. I started with a base of yellow (shades listed below pictures) which I have included a picture of at the bottom of this post. It came free with a Nails Inc order and it's not my usual sort of shade but I actually rather like it!

On my thumb and ring finger nails I used the orange image from the Mo You London Tropical 10 plate, unfortunately I got a bit of green polish on the thumb nail one as there was some on the scraper from what I was doing on my other hand! At the bottom of each other nail I did an orange half from MYL's Tropical 34 plate. For the wording in black, the juicers and the droplet on my middle fingernail I used the Bottoms Up plate from Uber Chic. I like the effect of the orange half's though they are a tad small, it works best on my little fingernail where it goes the whole way across. The orange nail polish I used is also orange scented which is rather appropriate! So all in all I do quite like these, they're quite different from anything I've done before!
Colours used: Living Your Best Life - Nails Inc, Not From Concentrate - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

A couple of  bonus pictures below of the base colour with a cardigan (I liked the vibrant yellow against the black and white background) and the nail art with it's inspiration - a real life orange!