Yesterday I did a pretty purple gradient using three Barry M polishes - Fondant, Sugar Plum and Blackberry.
I really liked this, and wore it alone for the day.
Today I wanted to do something else to it, and decided to do a freehand floral design over it. I used some thin brushes and Konad White to make some grassy leafy stems, which I thought looked quite pretty.
However, because I never know when to leave well enough alone, I started adding Barry M Lilac Foil - which wasn't too bad when it was just the stems, but then I added stupid flowery blobs on top of the stems too, which was a mistake. I don't like how this all looks, so I've taken these off now. Boo.
I know I do freehand roses quite often, but I really do love doing these!
This is a base of Barry M Sugar Plum. I then freehanded the flowers using Barry M Cotton, Blood Orange and Pink Lemonade, and the leaves using MoYou London Key Lime and Spring Green.
I was really annoyed with myself for topcoating these slightly too early, which made the design bleed a bit. But when I actually looked properly, it doesn't really show, so it's not as frustrating as I thought.
And just to prove that I do always do my right hand as well - here you go, with my awkward right hand pose and my less neat cuticles!
Today I wanted something vaguely spring-like. I ended up going with these blue and yellow floral stamped nails.
The base is two coats of Jacava Justice Walk, a pretty slatey grey-blue with a great formula.
I then stamped using MoYou London Bahamas Punch, and a Bundle Monster plate, the Lucy's Stash blogger plate BM-XL209.
I added topcoat for extra shine. I really like how these turned out!
Today I've been wearing the second of my Bow Thermo Topcoats.
This is two coats of Bow Thermo Topcoat Violet. I then stamped on top of it using MoYou London Flower Power XL06 and Barry M Blackberry.
The Violet Thermo changes from a translucent polish with a hint of lilac when warm to a dark purple when cold. Like yesterday's Red Thermo Topcoat, there is a really pretty shimmery glitter running through it.
When my nails are cold, they are almost completely plain purple. For most of today though it's been really hot, so my nails have been the paler lilac base with the purple flowery pattern showing in full.
I really like these thermals! They're so pretty!
For the last couple of days I've been wearing this beautiful dark red Jacava polish, Black Forest Gateau. Today, I painted roses over it for a different look.
I used three Barry M Gellys for the roses - Pink Lemonade, Rose Hip and Acai Smoothie, and two MoYou London stamping polishes for the leaves - Spring Green and Key Lime.
I've topcoated over everything for smoothness and shine.
I don't think I'll ever get bored of doing floral nails!
I've done freehand rose nails before more than once, but it's something I end up doing fairly regularly, because I like them so much.
The base for these nails is Barry M Rose Hip and Huckleberry. I then used Models Own Coconut Cream, Island Hop and Barrier Reef to paint the roses, and MoYou London Spring Green and Key Lime for the leaves. I then topcoated over everything for a smooth finish.
I'm pretty pleased with the right hand too - although don't look at my messy cleanup and dry cuticles! Somehow I can paint my nails on the right hand, but not do the cleanup!
I'd love to know your thoughts! Comments are lovely (even if you have criticism!)
I was so excited to be asked to review the June Nailbox! I've seen so many of these subscription boxes around for everything from dog toys to makeup to sweets, and only fairly recently heard about Nailbox. I'd heard good things, so I jumped at the chance.
Nailbox is a subscription service where for £13.50 a month, you get a box with
three or four different nail polishes, and one or two nail care or nail art items. These include lots of big brands like OPI, China Glaze, MoYou London, Nails Inc and many others. I was skeptical at first - I have so much nail varnish already, surely I would get a duplicate or colours that are similar to what I already have?
The June 2016 box is themed around Festival Fever, and contains 4 polishes and some nail art tape.
OPI Is Mai Tai Crooked - usually costs at least £9
Bourjois Turquoise Block - usually costs around £5.99
Rimmel Cheeky Chap - usually costs around £2.99
Essie Jazzy Jubilant - usually costs around £7.99
Elegant Touch Metalllic Nail Art Tape - usually costs around £4
So I calculate the value of the box at around £30, which is obviously lots more than the £13.50 the box costs! In fact in some shops, you couldn't buy one bottle of OPI for that amount.
It was also a big plus in that there were no duplicates in my collection, and the OPI and the Essie weren't even similar to any polishes I own. The nail art tape is gorgeous! There are five long strips each of 6 different colours. I use striping tape from time to time, and not as often as I'd like, because I generally find the rolls really fiddly to use. I love the idea of having nice short strips all ready for you to peel off the card! Plus, look at that third one down! It's copper, but it's full of rainbows in the light!
So, what did I do with the contents? I decided to try two different looks. First up is a floral design. I started with a base of the Rimmel, which is a one coater that applies nicely and dries to a matte finish. Then I freehanded some leaves with the Bourjois, and flowers with the OPI. I found that the green didn't really contrast with the blue enough to show clearly in the photos, but it was more obvious in real life. I sponged a bit of the glitter from the Essie into the flower centres and topcoated everything. I wore these nails for two days.
My thoughts about the polishes after making this first design was that the Rimmel was really nice, and I really really like the peachy orange of the OPI. I didn't feel I used enough of the Essie or the Bourjois to really comment.
Next up I wanted to swatch all the colours individually. I made a skittle across all my nails, and then used the tape to make a rays design on two of my nails.
The green swatched beautifully - it applies really well and is another one coater. The OPI is a gorgeous colour, but is a bit thinner and streakier than the other two, and needed two coats. I preferred to topcoat the Rimmel one, as I wasn't crazy about the matte finish.
I did the ray design freehand and then added the tape to cover any wobbles on the joins. I topcoated over everything just in case the tape wasn't sticky enough (I think it was though) and because I want to wear these for a couple of days.
Overall, I'm massively impressed! I'm trying really hard to spend less at the moment, but I am so tempted to sign up. The August box is called "Into the Sunset", which sounds gorgeous. It's my birthday in early September, so maybe I need to treat myself!
You can check out Nailbox on their website here.
This box was provided by Nailbox for my honest review. See my Disclaimer for more details.
My friend Wendy and I have both been lacking inspiration a bit recently, and on Friday we challenged each other to do 80s nails. Here are mine!
My nails are inspired by an awesome top I had around 1985ish. It was a batwing, slash neck, off the shoulder, cropped delight, with a graffiti style turquoise grid pattern, and some big orange roses. I have managed to recreate the pattern, if not the batwing amazingness.
The base is Barry M Cotton. I then stamped using Barry M Guava and Born Pretty stamping plate BP-40. I then freehanded the roses using lots of different oranges, and a yellow, and two greens.
I'm really pleased with how these turned out. They're a bit garish, but they're certainly how I remember the 80s. After I'd been wearing these for a few hours, it struck me what the background reminded me of - J cloths!
I wore these Out last night (yes, I did both hands) and just as I got home, one nail on my left hand broke right off! Luckily it didn't break down past the nail line, but I've had to file all my nails down pretty short to match.
Here are Wendy's! Aren't they ace? They're SO 80s.
Check her out on Instagram!
These are the nails I've been wearing for the last couple of days.
I used some more Barry M Gelly colours that I hadn't tried before, Chai (the grey one) and Pink Lemonade (the pale pink one) as the base. Both of these are really really nice - Chai is definitely a one coater, and Pink Lemonade could be if you're careful, although I did two thin ones.
I then freehanded the flowers using Barry M Aloha (one of the new Coconut Infusion range) and Pink Lemonade, and MoYou London Bahamas Punch for the flower centres.
I love pink and grey together. It was my favourite part of the 80s, and I do miss how common it was as a combo! I had a gorgeous ankle length pink and grey flannel skirt with big pockets trimmed with pink rickrack.... Oh dear. Maybe these things are best left back in the 80s!
I've been stamping a lot recently, and I felt the urge to do some freehanding for a change. The weather has been grey and damp, and I wanted something bright and cheerful, so I went for my favourite flowers, sunflowers.
I started with a base of China Glaze For Audrey (my bottle has gone a bit thick and gloopy - it's now a PERFECT one coater!) and freehanded the flowers using some MoYou stamping polishes and a fine brush. The yellow is Bahamas Punch and I used two greens for the leaves, Key Lime and Spring Green. I really like how pigmented and rich the MoYou London stamping polishes are - they're not too gloopy to do nail art with, but they're still opaque over strong colours.
The brown flower centres are Barry M Cocoa.
And just to show you that I do always do both hands (apparently some people don't! Who knew?) here's my other hand as well. The cleanup's not quite as good, but I'm pretty pleased with these.
Weirdly, I posted a pic of these on Twitter, and my friend Wendy from MASPOOASE pointed me at the sunflower nails she did almost 3 years ago today, and they're almost identical!
I've been feeling pretty disillusioned with blogging recently, but I have still been doing my nails (and apparently buying FAR too many Mo You London stamping plates!) So today, just a quick look at a couple of the designs I've been wearing.
These nails were more reverse stamping decals. I started with a base of Barry M Pearl, and used MoYou London Flower Power 04 to stamp using Konad Black, Barry M Dragon and Colors by Llarowe This Heart Bleeds.
I really like how these came out! There are a couple of smudgy bits in places, but I'm choosing to ignore them.
These blue nails are the ones I am wearing now - I've had these on for three days now.
I started by sponging on a splodgy, random base using lots of Barry M Gelly blues.
I then stamped using MoYou London Flower Power 08 and Konad White. I managed to get the design pointing in different directions on each nail, but oh well.
The MoYou London Flower Power plates are gorgeous! I had to buy six.
After my first reverse stamped decals the other day, I was itching to make more!
These ones use MoYou London Tropical 14 plate. I started with a base of Barry M Meadow, and stamped using MoYou London Spring Green. I filled in the flowers using several different China Glaze neons.
I was a bit disappointed with the blue flowers, because some of them overflowed a bit. I don't think it's massively obvious, but I wish they were neater.
I really like the design on the middle and ring fingers best - I think I wish I'd done that on all the nails now. Still, I do like the result!
I'm so excited about these nails! I recently bought a silicone nail art mat (I have the Bundle Monster Lotus mats in the small sizes) and was excited to have a go at making reverse stamped decals. My first attempt was really bad, and my second attempt was pretty bad, but I think that third time round, I've managed to crack it.
I used this tutorial by MoYou London, but there are loads of similar tutorials out there. By the way - it's so much nicer stamping using the mat instead of bits of kitchen roll!
I started with a base of one coat of Pantone 14-1220, a nude colour with a very thin consistency. One of my early mistakes was using Barry M Gellys, which are quite thick, and made me end up with a super thick and claggy decal. I then stamped using Konad White and MoYou London Pro XL 26, stamping onto the mat over dried topcoat.
I then used a variety of colours, including Barry M Sugar Apple, Sugar Plum, Blood Orange and MoYou London Bahamas Punch and Spring Green, and a tiny brush to fill in the details in the pattern. I used 5 different designs from the stamper so that each finger was different. Instead of sticking the design down with topcoat (another early mistake, adding another extra layer) I added the second layer of my base colour, and then applied the decal while that was still tacky.
I love the thumb design best! And I match my shower curtain! (Ikea, Cath Kidston design)
I really like the silicone mat - I didn't need it to keep my desk clean, as I already have a glass placemat - but it's great for stamping, nice for swatching and testing designs, works really really well for decals, and just cleans up with acetone and folds up to put away if you want to. I'm surprised at how few of my stamping plates are suitable for making decals though, as very few have a pattern that can be filled in. I'll have to buy some more! What a pity...
