Off The Grid // Tropical Black & White Marble Nail Art Design

More looks using the collab plate from MoYou London! I really wanted to do something similar to the cover sleeve and originally had this:

But I felt it was missing something. I also wanted to cover up some of the patchy black lines...one day I will be able to paint straight black lines and I'll never have to stamp again. I looked through my stash and found some tropical water decals and decided to stick them on top:

I think it turned out well! These water decals are much better than others I've used. I found that they didn't have that annoying white cut out around them that some do and it didn't immediately try to fold onto itself when sliding it off the paper. I think they were £2 for a pack of 50 assorted designs? I'll have to try and find the listing on eBay again to get some more as there were only 2 small sheets of the tropical designs.

I wore this with a peel off base coat but it managed to last a day an half before one of the nails slid off. I could't stop staring at my hand; I really loved this design. I think the pop of green really made it. The marble background was done by smooshing the dark grey shade with white and then stamping it on top of a white background.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Twinkled T // Ghosted (dark grey), Vibin' (black)
- STZ Water Decals // STZ-828 Tropical Decals
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Collab 03
- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

SWATCHES: OPI Infinite Shine // Barking up the Wrong Sequoia, Excuse Me, Big Sir! & Malibu Pier Pressure

I keep buying pink nail polish and somehow it doesn't match anything else I have. It must be some kind of miracle...

I found these in TK Maxx the other day and I threw them in my basket like g2g fast. These shades are who I want to be. I had seen Malibu Pier Pressure on Nail Polish Direct but I didn't want to fork out £9 for it and then it appeared in TK for £3.99. And it's the infinite shine versions which are always more expensive; I am one very happy nail polish hoarder right now.

All Infinite Shine shades take a little longer to dry but the formula is much better than the originals. A few other blog posts I read for this collection noted that the originals were very thick and gloopy and required thinning out. I found all of these shades fine straight out of the bottle. As always, I'm not wearing any top coat in the swatches.

Barking up the Wrong Sequoia // Peach Creme

Collection: California Dreaming

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

My heart sang when I saw this shade; it's exactly what I wanted Coral-ing Your Spirit Animal to be. This is a beautiful, pure peach shade with a self-leveling formula. The first coat is a little streaky but two coats and you're good to go. 

Excuse Me, Big Sir! // Neutral Rose Creme

Collection: California Dreaming

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

This is such a nice pink. I can't get over how perfect this pink is. It's very similar to Barry M's Tropical Pink if you're looking for a dupe. If you apply a thick coat slowly you can get away with one coat but I've found that two thin coats dries faster.

Malibu Pier Pressure // Hot Pink Creme

Collection: California Dreaming

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

This one was the trickiest to apply with coats being streaky and fast drying but two coats even everything out. I wish summer wasn't almost over and I wish I could go on holiday because this shade deserves more than a dreary rainy afternoon in England.

// Verdict

I had seen this collection before and it's right up my street. I don't want all of them but there's a few others I've got my eye on like Sweet Carmel Sunday which is a metallic rose gold. I managed to get the main shades I wanted though for less than half the price. Thank you TK Maxx!

Over The Top-ical // Tropical Leaves, Line Art & Glitter Nail Design

Wow I used so many polishes in this one. It's definitely over-the-top...hence the name. I've also developed a love for matte green glitters; they're just perfect. I need Zoya to do more. Speaking of Zoya, have you seen the new autumn collection. It was love at first sight for me; I'm actually thinking of spending over £100 to get the full set. It's available for pre-order on NailPolishDirect but £110 is a lot of money for just 12 shades.

Anyway, I'm trying my best to cling onto summer nails with this look inspired by Lieve91's black & white geometric design that she did last year which you can now recreate thanks to her collab with MoYou London.

I'm not sure what would be easier; practice stamping to get straight black lines or practice painting. This doesn't look completely awful though so I'm happy.

The glitter nails are a green shimmer with two layers of the Zoya matte glitter on top and then some holo glitter because I couldn't resist. I had to take them off almost immediately though because these shades stain within about an hour. I'll have to paint some falsies with this combo so I can wear it for longer. 

Here's my prototypes for this look:

The entire look came together over a few days as I kept practicing designs. The one on the right is completely hand=painted with acrylic paint. I bought some flow-improver and it's radically changed how my acrylics behave and they apply a lot smoother now than the photo above.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Nails Inc // Girls Got Coals (dark green)
- Sinful Colours // Amazonian (dark green shimmer)
- Zoya // Shawn (dark green), Ness (pale green), Cece (matte green glitter)
- Daisy DND // 469 Vast Galaxy (holo glitter topper)
- MoYou London // Bora Bora (light teal), Mint Condition (light mint), Olive Tree (pale olive)
- Born Pretty // 12 (primary green)
- Twinkled T // Tickled (pink), Glow Up (white), Vibin' (black)
- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Collab 03, Paradise 05, Tropical 36

QUICK SWATCH: Essie Gel Couture // Jade To Measure

Another TK Maxx buy. I'm not the biggest Essie fan; I find the formula sub-par for how much it costs and I don't really like the bottles either but this shade caught my eye.

Jade To Measure // Metallic Emerald Duochrome (sapphire undertones)

Collection: Gel Couture Holiday

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

This is a really special polish; it's beautiful and the formula is just on point. It leaves slight brush strokes however for once, you can't actually tell because the strokes aren't darker than the polish. It's incredibly shiny and all the shimmery bits give it so much depth. When the light hits it, it feels like when the sunlight hits the sea.

This would be perfect for St Patrick's day.

STAMPING PLATES: MoYou London // Lieve91 Collab

Another day, another stamping plate release from MoYou London but this one is a collab with my favourite nail artist; Lieve91 aka Anya. If you don't know who lieve91 is, please go take a quick look at her instagram, marvel, gasp and then come back. She is the reason I'm now trying to step up my game and learn how to paint properly. Even though we're the same age, I hope one day I can grow up to be as good her. So of course, I had to buy this plate and support her.

This plate features a few designs from other popular sold out MoYou plates, like the palm trees and checker board but what made it special for me was the overlapping leaf designs, fire and drip stamp. Anya does countless beautiful hand-painted leaf mani's that I can only dream of achieving. So whilst I'm still practicing my acrylic skills I can use this plate (and the recent paradise collection).

I decided to re-create one of Anya's look that she re-created with this plate. Here's the original handpainted version:

And the one she did with the plate:

And mine:

Yikes. I'm still not the best stamper in this world; I just don't understand why I can't get a clean stamp. I have a theory that MoYou just use Photoshop's powerful spot healing tool to remove the gaps in the stamp. I don't as I feel it's not really representative of what can be done. I only use it if I spot rogue bits of polish on my skin. The flame one I attempted several times but it always missed polish in the exact same spots. But who knows?

Anyway, congrats to Anya for her collab! This plate has now sold out as of posting this (it's been 2 days since it released) and whereas MoYou say they don't restock anymore, I would keep an eye out and they actually do.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Zoya // Sawyer (coral), Neely (sage)
- Twinkled T // Tickled (pink), Glow Up (white - stamped), Vibin' (black)
- Ciaté // White Heat (white background)
- H&M // Ice Cold Milk (sheer white used for light detail)
- MoYou London // Bora Bora (green on eye)
- Maniology // Maui Gold (yellow)

Cuccio Pro Cotton Candy Sorbet Gel Kit // Mini USB Lamp & Treatment Kit Review

In May, I picked this kit up from Nail Polish Direct as the entire set was £34.95 (not including the regular polish) and I thought that was a pretty good deal for an entire gel kit with a lamp. Most kits don't include a gel top coat which is super annoying but this one has a base and top and then two others called fuse and prep.

I also love candyfloss and thought this was the cutest shade. I was going to get the entire collection, however all the shades are so similar to the new Barry M Gelly shades (that I bought the previous month) so I decided to leave it and just get the one shade I wanted the most.

Mini USB Gel Lamp
RRP £19.99

This is cute but I'm thinking I could've bought it cheaper on eBay. It is literally just a Chinese made LED lamp with 6 lights with a Cuccio sticker stuck on the top; it looks and feels really cheap. The Cuccio sticker is slightly touching the start button as well. Also the legs are super flimsy. Every time you move it one falls in. This has clearly just been bought in bulk from China and then Cuccio hiked the price up and stuck their own labels on them. I'm not impressed given that it's £20. Here are some identical lamps I found on eBay:

It doesn't even work that well and takes a good 4 minutes to even slightly cure gel polish. I feel cheated.

Cotton Candy Sorbet // Lilac Pink Creme
Collection: Rainbow Sorbet
Release Date: May 2020

Regular - £3.95
Coats: 2

For some reason, my bottle seems to have little black specks in it? This is not advertised as having bits in it and other swatches I've seen seem to be a regular creme so I think I got a bad one. It also wasn't the best application; the formula is thick and gloopy. I think I'm just spoilt by Barry M's self-leveling ability at this point. It's a nice enough shade but I was underwhelmed.

Gel - £7.95
Coats: 2

The matching gel shade is ever so slightly darker and less pink but it doesn't have black flecks in it. The scent is also surprisingly tame for gel. I put one thin layer on a plastic swatch stick and it was still wiping off after 2 minutes under the lamp. I eventually stopped at 4 minutes and then wiped off the top with a lint free wipe and some gel cleanser and there was some polish on wipe. It didn't feel hard or lasting. I used the recommended prep, fuse and base on the swatch stick (I don't wear gel on my normal nails...that's far too much commitment for me 😂) and I wasn't impressed. It was not as good as the DND gel polishes I have. I use these gel shades on my friends who like to have gel manicures but I would not buy anymore Cuccio gel polishes for this purpose.

// Verdict

Underwhelmed. At £35 I should've just bought some more Daisy DND duo's. My £3 eBay lamp is far superior (it can fit your entire hand and has automatic sensors). Save your money.

Icecream for Days // Pastel Icecream Nail Art on False Nails

It's official; I think I'm becoming a addicted to painting false nails. Buying a pack off 500 off eBay was the best thing I ever did. I only need four of the nine sizes so I use the others to practice a design first. I hate having long nails but I love the extra space. Being able to pop these on and off whenever I want is an amazing feeling!

Also, it's warm. Super warm. The coast is usually a good 5 degrees colder than the rest of the country but we've been having a glorious 20 degrees for the past few days and I've eaten my body weight in icecream; cue these nails.

I started off with two coats of Cashew, then stamped on the square pattern with Mushroom. I used some acrylic paints (just red, blue, yellow and white mixed until I liked the colour) to add the extra detail to the waffle bits. Using a dotting tool, I placed down the ends of the drips first using White Heat then connected them to each other. I then just painted the rest of the nail tip white (this took two coats). I used a small paint brush to add the sprinkles and then topped it all off with a glossy top coat.

Polishes/Tools used:-
- Primark Ps Color Care // Mushroom (brown), Cashew (cream)
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Primark Ps Gel Effect // Candy (pink)
- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Berry Sorbet (blue)
- Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache // White, Primary Blue, Primary Red, Primary Yellow
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Mix & Match 13

SWATCHES: Primark Ps // Mushroom, Cashew, Baby & Candy

Apart from some chrome polishes I bought a while ago I haven't really dived into Primark polishes which is weird because they're mainly £2 or less. I told myself I didn't need any more polish but I saw all these pretty pink/nude shades and I couldn't resist.

Mushroom // Nude Mauve/Brown Creme

Collection: Colour Care

Coats: 2

I'm starting off with the deepest shade. I don't normally go for brown shades but there is something about this shade that I really like. I think it would be perfect as the detail on ice cream cone designs. The formula though is actual witchcraft. It's sheer and runny yet applies with no streaks and you could wear 1 coat by itself. It's also incredibly shiny. I think the slight mauve/cool undertone sets this brown apart from others. It's the first one I've tried that truly suits my skintone. Off to a good start.

Cashew // Nude Cream Creme

Collection: Colour Care

Coats: 2

This one is defintely streaky if applied lightly. You can almost get away with 1 thick coat but I'd do 2 just to ensure full coverage and a smooth mani. This is a fantastic cream colour that isn't too yellow. It honestly looks just like cashews; they clearly chose the name wisely. 

Baby // Soft Pastel Pink Creme

Collection: Colour Care

Coats: 2

I'm not a big fan of the name but I am a big fan of the shade. This has a slightly thicker formula but it makes it easier to apply. The shade itself is not an "in your face" pink; it's subtle and more powdery.

Candy// Soft Pastel Pink Creme

Collection: Gel Effect

Coats: 2

This was definitely the easiest to apply. I liked how the shade looked with 1 coat, but it went a bit too bubblegum with 2. It's still a nice pretty pink colour; it reminds me of Ciaté Tutu. It's still a little streaky with 2 coats and could possibly do with 3 but it's not noticeable unless you're about 10cm away from your nails.

// Verdict

Unfortunately my local Primark is severely understocked in their nail polish range. The stand was almost empty save for these shades. The stand with the false nails was full though. I'll keep my eye out though as I've been convinced. For the price these polishes are excellent quality as well as being cruelty free and at least 3-Free.

STAMPING PLATES: Paradise Collection // MoYou London

Another month, another amazing stamping plate collection from MoYou London. This is by far my favourite though; look at them:

BEAUTIFUL.

Tropical summer plates are without a doubt my favourite and the second I received the email I bought plates 1 - 5. Plate 6 for me is just too similar to other plates I own. It's hard to pick a favourite of them; each plate has such a unique theme. I love the super detailed images on plate 1 and I am going to create all the sunset mountain looks with plate 4. I just wished they had released them in June as we basically have 1 month of summer left now...let's face it though, that won't stop me from doing monstera nails!

I knew when I saw the sleeves though that I had to copy the design.

Before you say anything, yes that is my hand lol but no those are not my nails.

For the first time in my life I'm wearing false nails! I have to admit it was nice to have all the extra room for the design but these were an absolute nightmare 😂 honestly felt just like Peter from Family Guy

I bought a pack of 500 false tips off eBay for £4. They came in 9 different sizes and they weren't the best match but I did enjoy painting them. I was going to do the leaves on all the nails but since I have my full collection back I wanted to use some glitter and this is my favourite glitter shade that I own. I'm glad it was on false nails though because it stains in about 10 minutes.

There are so many more designs I want to do. Expect a lot using these plates over the next couple of months!

Polishes/Tools used:-

- Nails Inc // Old Park Lane (pink)
- Zoya Pixiedust // Chita (green glitter)
- Twinkled T // Glow Up (white)
- MoYou London Polishes // Olive Tree (light sage green), Bora Bora (light teal), Dream Holiday (blue)
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Paradise 04
- Born Pretty // Gold Nail Decorations Wheel