Just The Way You Are // Birchbox January 2020 Nails

Yes, it is mid-February and I'm finally posting January's Birchbox nails. This was my second attempt and to be honest it just seemed hopeless but I finally ended up with something that I like. I also seemed to have found a way to do perfect quartz nails without sharpies or gel or layering a ridiculous amount of polishes. 

I attempted to free-hand this look the first time round and it was an awful, lumpy mess with bad colour matching. The smoosh peach and white just kind of ruined it due to the peach being too strong. 

This time around I decided to use a sheer peach polish for the marble and I ended up discovering the way to do quartz with one easy stamp. When you smoosh a sheer polish into a thicker one, the polish kind of disperses and becomes proper see-through creating that layered look that quartz does so well.

February's box may be just as late as well now seeing as how Hermes decided to deliver it to my old address instead of work. I've sent some postage money off to my dad and he's redelivering it for me. I'm seriously thinking of cutting this subscription, especially since I really don't need anymore products. 

Polishes/Tools used:-

- Cuccio // Verona Lace (off-white)

- H&M // Peach and Quiet (sheer peach)

- MoYou London // One and Only (light pink/peach)

- Twinkled T // Liquid Gold (metallic gold)

- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat

- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Crystal 07

Ready, Set, Glam // Birchbox December 2019 Nails

Ahhh this is so late. But, if you've read my New Year post you'll know that December was a weird one for me and I took a bit of a break so I've just got round to doing Birchbox nails! I also missed November as well but that was a Frozen 2 box and I'm not sure if I even want to do something on that design as it wasn't very inspiring to me.

Anyway, I actually really loved the December Birchbox; it came in a beautiful navy velvet-like bag with rose gold detail. There are actually two looks that I could do for this box and I'm still torn over whether or not to do both...maybe I will later on. This one was super easy and quick and would've been perfect for my Christmas party if I hadn't have procrastinated so much last month.

I'd say my favourite item from the box was the Rituals shower oil as it came in my favourite scent; ritual of Ayurveda. I don't actually use it in the shower; I use as just a body oil on pulse points because it smells so good.

Polishes/Tools used:
- Essie // Surrounded by Studs (deep navy)
- Barry M Liquid Chrome // Razzle Dazzle (pink chrome)
- Mavala // Glam Show (rose gold glitter)
- Essie // Platinum Finish Top Coat

Reach For The Stars // Birchbox October 2019 Nails

Well, it took me three attempts but I finally managed to do some nails for this months Birchbox that I'm happy with. The first two were just too busy and so I scaled it back, reduced the mustard and violá! It's cute, not as cute as the box but still cute. The items this month though... I want to do nails based on pretty much every item. The brands went all out with their packaging...apart from the shower gel.

I was super happy to get the Lumene cocktail oil as it looks amazing, smells amazing and feels amazing. I haven't started using it yet properly but my skin really loves Lumene products. Also, when you shake the oil to mix it together, it creates this amazing ombre of yellow to red bubbles as it separates again and I just have to get this look on my nails somehow.

Then there's the goggle eye mask which features a cute shooting star and moon design similar to the box and the moon pad; whose packaging is more exciting than the product. I have quite a few rolls of space foil so I'll have to finally give foils a go instead of cowering in fear.

Back to the nails though. Here are the fails:

Eurgh. That first one looks like I cut out some stars from a hi-vis jacket and stuck it on my nails. Not to mention the awful colour matching and splattered paint that was supposed to be clouds. As you can see I left the clouds out in my final design as I just couldn't get them to look right. The second one was a creative design because I used a sharpie to create the background and acrylic paint for the moon and clouds but...yikes...I need to seriously get some good acrylic paint and get some good painting skills. But it led us to the good nails:

Simple designs look so much better than trying to cram everything on the box on my nails. I also reduced the mustard and increased the gold. Also, I have a new background! I liked the purple space glittery background I've had for a few months but every background I've ever had has always been light. I noticed that the dark green and gold jungle vibe has been in for a while now and spotted this amazing jungle wallpaper in Wilko's and then some items were on sale in Dunelm so I decided to switch things up for the winter.

Anyway, that's probably it for normal nails now, I need to go off and finally do some Halloween nails before I just forget completely. I just keep getting distracted by Minecraft. I've started binge watching Mumbo Jumbo on YouTube and his adventures on the HermitCraft server and all I want to do now is build redstone contraptions in Minecraft.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Ciaté // Total Eclipse (dark grey/blue)
- H&M // Cantaloupe (mustard)
- Barry M Liquid Chrome // Bright Lights (gold)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- Nicole Diary // 052 Plate (Moon), 039 (Hollow Star)
- Harunouta // L081 Plate (constellations)
- Born Pretty // L087 Plate (constellations + stars)

Look Fantastic September 2019 Nails // Green & Gold Chevron Design

Oh it took me a hot minute to do these, but there is also a video *gasp*. This look was insanely easy and took me about 20 minutes, I've just been seriously procrastinating everything this month. But I'm hoping to get back on track for October and finally start doing stuff for my YouTube which has just been sitting there since I created it.

Anyway, this months LF box was amazing but it wasn't awful either. It was saved by the decent sized Caudalie eye cream and an eyebrow pencil that is actually good. But the two bath products are a miss because I never use the bath (#teamShower) and another cleanser. I have too many cleansers, it's insane. 

The box art is nowhere near as nice as the pastel watercolour design from last year ( I can't believe the blog is a year old already!) but the design is nice and easy to stick on your nails. I was tempted to watermarble this design, however I would have spectacularly messed it up so I used a stamping plate.

Here is the video and it's under 40 seconds! Watch in me in like a years time doing 1 hour live steams lol.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Barry M Liquid Chrome // Bright Lights (gold)

- Maniology // Plantation Tea (green teal)
- Avon Gel Shine // Top Coat
- MoYou London Plates // Princess 05 & 12

Heatwave // Look Fantastic August 2019 Nails

Not the greatest box art I've ever done but still way better than last months Look Fantastic offering. I was completely inspired by the red sand/orange sunset combo and set about to recreate that. The sea foam on my middle and ring fingers are actually from the Nicole Diary marble plate and I placed it strategically to look like waves as I don't actually have a stamp like that...over 100 plates and only a few with waves on them. Looks like I need to buy more.

I was also very happy to finally do the ombre of H&M colours that I wanted to do when I first got them and mentioned here when I swatched them. They blend so beautifully together and the dark burnt orange stamps really well on light colours. I'll have to use that in a future design.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Cuccio // Flirt (white)
- H&M // Cantaloupe (mustard), The Heat is on (orange), Sun on Clay (burnt orange), 
- A-England // Camelot (black)
- Avon Gel Shine // Top Coat

- Harunouta //L080 Plate
- Nicole Diary // 076 Plate

Born Unicorn // Birchbox July 2019 Nails

Whew man, this month is just flying by. It doesn't help that my new 9 to 5 day job is well a 9-5 day job. I don't know what it is but I just have zero time to do anything. My alarm goes off at 7, I get home at 6 and then I'm in bed by 10. At my old job I used to work 10pm-6am and I had so much time. I would go to bed at 7am, get up at 2 and then have the entire day. This is only the second time I've managed to do my nails all month :( I was really hoping to complete the Clairestelle8 challenge this month as well but hopefully I'll get into a rhythm soon.

Anyway, onto this months Birchbox nails with photos using my shiny new graduation lens:

ooooo ahhhhhhh, look at the shiny holo detail! I'm so happy that I can finally take beautiful close-up shots of my nails. The lighting may be a little yellow for these and I tried my best to correct it but holo is best under small LED lighting and my lamp is not daylight toned like my light boxes are.

I really want to do this again but with a multi-pastel ombre underneath instead like on the leaflet that comes with the box. I also really love how the accent nail turned out with the negative space/holo ombre and stars. I want to do that again on all my nails.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- A-England // King's Road (soft lilac/grey holo)
- OPI // Tinker?Thinker?Winker? (silver holo)
- OPI // Alpine Snow (white)

- MoYou London // Olive Tree
- MoYou London Plates // Scandi 10, Princess 11

This Is The Life // Birchbox June 2019 Nails

Ah this box! It's so cute and it's given me so many ideas for mani's. I had such a hard time trying to decide on just a couple of things to do. I eventually decided on making the sunsets the feature but I may do another look attempting to recreate all the little notes (it may require some freehand painting, but practice makes perfect...)

Anyway, you can check out the full unboxing here (there's also a video) but this post is just for the nails!

The sunset scenes were an ombre of four different shades; Bohemian Rhapsody, Cool Cucumber, Raindrop and then the aptly names Catch The Sunset for the pop of pink. I've been wanting to use the mountain stamps from this Haranouta plate for so long as well. It almost looks photo realistic...from a distance with no glasses on. The palm tree were then from Summer Vibes 3. I then used Tropical 36 for the other two nails with the shades First Kiss and Dream Holiday (the plane is from BP 124 though).

I just love sunset mani's though. The hint of green I added almost helps it look space like as well. I toyed with doing some freehand painting to include little post-it notes and other details seen on the box but I'm going to have to practice my painting more. Plus I just ordered some proper nail art brushes off Nail Art UK from Mitty so perhaps it'll be a little easier.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Sally Hansen Colour Therapy // Well, Well, Well (slight off white)
- Jessica // Bohemian Rhapsody (dark denim blue)
- Sally Hansen Colour Therapy // Cool Cucumber (dark forest green)
- NYC In a New York Minute // Raindrop (pastel blue)
- Cutex Care + Colour // Catch The Sunset (coral pink)
- MoYou London // First Kiss (pale pink), Dream Holiday (cerulean), 

- Born Pretty // 3 (black)

- Barry M Hi-Shine // Plumpy Top Coat
- MoYou London Plate // Tropical 36, Summervibes 03
- Harunouta Plate // 17
- Born Pretty Plate // BP-124

Spread Your Wings // Birchbox May 2019 Nails

I think this was one of the first Birchboxes in a while that I wasn't desperate to recreate. There's just something about butterflies...I don't think I'm a butterfly person. The contents weren't the greatest as well. I've received the Philip Kingsley Elasticizer 5 times now and I've not even used up the first tube I got. It's just such a pain to use. The best item by far is the Mimitika sunscreen. It's SPF50 with no grease, not even a hint; it actually mattifies my makeup. It also doesn't have that sunscreen smell or leave any white cast/flashback. It was the item I wanted to receive the least and ended up being the best. I'll be buying this full size for sure.

But onto the nails; again not my favourite.

The grass was hand-painted and not the best but I am really enjoying using acrylic paint, who knows, maybe I'll become the next Bob Ross but for nails.....I won't hold my breath.

How I did it:

I started off with a white base coat and then painted on the leaves. I used the overprint stamps from the Harunouta plate for the butterflies and then used a dotting tool to add some extra detail.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Essie // Blanc (white)
- MoYou London // One and Only (pastel peach), Orchid Chic (magenta)

- Born Pretty Polish // #379 (pale yellow)
- Sally Hansen Hard as Nails // Jam Sesh (lavender)

- Barry M Liquid Chrome // Bright Lights (gold)

- Crafts 4 All Acrylic Paint // 105 Titanium White, 605 Green Pale, 615 Emerald Green, 753 Black

- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat
- Harunouta Plate // L071

Urban Beauty // Look Fantastic Beauty Box May 2019 Nails

I finally managed to get up this months Look Fantastic nails! I was wondering what to do for this month but then in the box magazine they had this skyscraper ombre thing going on and I thought city sunset mani! It didn't turn out perfectly because I don't have any skyscraper stamping plates so I freehanded it...that's right I'm entering the world of freehand. Acrylic paint just makes it so much easier.

I also really enjoyed the curation this month. The conditioner only lasted twice because I have butt length hair but it left it smelling fruity and fresh and the lip liner makes a beautiful nude lip shade. I mix it with lip balm for a nude lip. The other items I haven't used yet but I love the Polar night cream so I was super excited to receive another item from them. I was going to do a full review this month but I think I'll start next month with that stuff again. I'll just leave it at; this was a good month.

How I did it:

I started off with one coat of white polish; any will do, it's just so the ombre needs less coats. I used two and then topped it off with top coat. I used black acrylic paint to create the skyscrapers and Golden Hour for the highlights as the highlights on the box was rose gold this month.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Cutex Care + Color // Catch The Sunset (bright coral pink)
- Essence The Gel // Orange To Go (bright orange)

- Essenge The Gel // Pumpkin Spice (dark orange clay)
- Ciaté // Golden Hour (rose gold)
- Crafts 4 All Acrylic Paint // 753 Black (black)

- Barry M // Plumpy Hi Shine Top Coat