Christmas Wrapping Paper Nails #2 // Mint Festive Design

This is mint version of a design I saw in Sainsbury's last year. I did a dark version of it here: https://ifndefnailsh.blogspot.com/2022/12/christmas-wrapping-nails-1-sainsburys.html

I think I prefer this one thanks to the over-stamping!

Method:

I started off with 2 layers of Neely. Then I applied Liquid Gold to Noel 07 and then stamped on top with Vibin using the same stamps but slightly offset. The Holly jolly text comes from Noel 12.

I then topped it off with some smudge proof top coat.

Polishes/Tools Used:

Base:

- Zoya // Neely (mint)

Stamping:

- Twinkled T // Liquid Gold (metallic gold), 'Vibin (black)

Plates:

- MoYou London // Noel 07, Noel 12

Top:

- MoYou London // Smudge Proof Top Coat

SWATCHES: Maybelline Color Show // Canal Street Coral, Black Edge & Bronze Babe

Canal Street Coral // Light Coral Creme

Collection: Color Show 60 Seconds

Release: ??

Coats: 3

If you search "peach nail polish" on eBay, you will see this polish pop up and it's always out of stock; boo hoo. However, I found it in-stock at my local TK Maxx (where else?) and I immediately bought it because this year is the year of peach/coral/pink shades for me. This one is slightly darker on the nails and has streaks but overall I'm happy with the application.

Black Edge // Black Creme

Collection: Color Show Precise Skinny

Release: ??

Coats: n/a

I was interested in this when I saw it because I thought it would be an excellent black stamping polish as it seems to be specifically for details. For that you will need quite a thick, pigmented polish; alas, this is neither thick nor pigmented. I will admit, it does kinda do well at drawing straight black lines which I guess is the point but I wanted a stamping polish.

Also, this polish will dry up very quickly as you leave the lid off whilst trying to perfect those straight black lines. This is why I prefer using acrylic as I don't have to worry about wasting an entire tube of product in the pursuit of detail.

Bronze babe // Gold Flakie

Collection: Color Show The 24 Carat Nudes

Release: ??

Coats: 3

I actually bought this a while back, a good 4 years I think. I'm currently making my way through my entire collection so I have swatch photos for my app so I thought I'd add this to the post as well. I actually really like this shade; it's one of my favourite gold flaky top coats as you actually get flakes and other shimmery bits. In the swatch I'm wearing 3 coats sponged on my index and middle finger and then 3 normal coats on the others.

Slime Noir // Black And Green Dripping Halloween Nail Art Design

Time for another spooky look! Like I said, I'm obsessed with Zoya Pixie Dust and dripping designs so that's where this came from. Also, no stamping! I'm trying my best to use different techniques and I simply blobbed on the green polish using the brush and then drew on the cobwebs with a fine brush and some acrylic gouache. 

I'm also in love with the black. It's a one coat wonder and dries pretty quick as well. My local TK Maxx just got this massive shipment of L'Oreal Colour Riche Nail Polish and I pretty much bought them all as they are super pigmented. I use them as stamping polishes that's how good they are. 

I did however spill a brown one all over my grey carpet when I was swatching them...I've tried everything. YouTube has failed me. Oh well, I'm going to say it's a style statement.

 

Polishes/Tools Used:

- L'Oreal Colour Riche // 674 Noir Noir (black)

- Zoya PixieDust // Cece (green)

- Holbein Acrylic Gouache // D925 Titanium White

- Windsor & Newton Cotman Brush //  0000 Round

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: Barry M Gelly Hi Shine // Candy Floss, Cotton & Black Forest

After purchasing the some of the new 2020 Gelly shades I noticed there was a 3 for 2 on and decided to get some more just because I forgot how great the formula is. So here are some more swatches from the mini haul!

Candy Floss // Cool Pastel Pink Crème

Release: January 2020

This wasn't what I thought it was going to be based off the photos online (but when does that pan out?) but I still like it. I thought it was going to be a soft but bright pink and in very bright light it actually looks off-white. But in normal daylight it's quite soft and delicate. perfect for those who don't like "in your face" pink shades. Due to this it does need 3 coats just to cover the streaks. I'm wearing two and it looks ok in the photos, but there is a couple of streaks up close. It's nice and glossy though and the formula is easy to work with.

Cotton // White Crème
Release: January 2015

This wonderful white shade is ever so slightly off-white and has more of a cool/blue tone when compared directly against other pure white shades. The best thing about this shade though is that it's almost a one coat wonder. I'm a little shocked at how opaque it is. The formula is probably the thickest I've encountered for a Gelly polish and is a little tricky to apply but if you float one big blob you can get away with one coat. I think this has become my favourite for ombre's though as you only need that initial coat and it dries within about 2 minutes. I'm wearing 2 coats in the swatch though.

Black Forest // Black Crème
Release: Winter 2016

Behold, for I have found, a one coat black that costs under a fiver. Seriously, this stuff is ready in just one coat. I never wear black by itself but use it for backgrounds and space nails and this polish is just fantastic. It isn't as shiny as the others but I can deal with that.

MATCH THAT MANI // Twinkled T Pineapple Nail Wraps

Raise your hand if you love Twinkled T stuff but you're also really bad at applying nail wraps....all the hands up?? I saw these amazing pineapple nail wraps whilst window shopping on Twinkled T and I just knew that these are my kind of nails so I took a screenshot and saved it in my 'inspo' folder. Well, the time has finally come for the Clairestelle8 April challenge. The prompt for the 9th was 'black and white' and yeah, I'm a little late (thanks dissertation....) but I knew I had to do these nails.....and there is a slight amount of gold on them but still.

I just love how these turned out, who knew something so simple could look so effective? I was going to put a matte top coat on top but these look really good shiny. It's also a perfect look for short nails which is great because I just did my monthly chop; they were getting on my nerves so much. It's so hard to type fast when they get too long and as a programmer that's a bit of a problem lol.

So here are the nail wraps:

At £5 for just one set of nail wraps, that's an expensive mani to keep recreating every now and then. So, I tried to recreate it using products I already owned and lucky for me the very first plate I ever purchased had the perfect pineapple print on it. Surprisingly, (I have over 100 plates) I don't have a plate with the square lines...although thinking of it now I could've just used a square lined one and rotated it 45 degrees when stamping......FFS. I got a line design and then stamped in on twice...oh well it worked lol.

I didn't want to use a black polish for this either as I thought it would be too harsh so I used Night Sail by MoYou London which is a nice dark grey and then used a dotting tool to apply some gold dots. I would've like to use a mustard yellow colour but I don't have that shade...yet.

This was also a super fast mani, just two coats of Blanc, then the stamping took a minute, followed by 30 seconds for the gold dots, some quick dry top coat and bobs your uncle; done in 20 minutes. Which is exactly what I need when my dissertation is due in 10 days...

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Essie // Blanc (white)

- MoYou London // Night Sail (dark grey)
- Born Pretty Polish // #1 (gold)

- Essie // Platinum Grade Finish Top Coat
- Born Pretty Plate // BP-L076, Valentines Day BP-L002

Fortune Teller Nails // Halloween 2018 #1

It's time for my very first attempt at Halloween themed nails! I was going to take part of @clairestelle8 Halloween challenge however I just don't feel I'm good enough yet to be taking part in challenges. Also, at the moment thanks to work and my degree I only have around 2 hours a week to spend doing my nails so I have to choose wisely what nails I do. I wanted to try and push myself though to use the polishes I received in the Mani & Lola box in some way, sort of my own challenge so I came up with this grey and black glitter look using the new MoYou Circus plate I received for my birthday.

This was one of those designs where I honestly had no clue where it was going, I just knew I wanted to incorporate some elements of the plate onto my nails with the cuccio polish. I also wanted to use one of the new Nails Inc polishes I picked up during a trip to TK Maxx. They are the best for Nails Inc, I always get them for £3 or less. This one is a "leather effect" one though and I honestly had no idea how that would turn out but I thought the colour was beautiful.

This applies in one coat but dries to a matte concrete-esque effect. I wouldn't call it leather; I was expecting a satin finish. Either way, I went to stamp the design on and nothing would stick to the surface so I ended up adding a glossy topcoat which just turned it into a normal grey polish.

I added in some silver stamping polish in places as well just to tie in the black and grey theme and ended up stamping some words in black over the designs on the index and little fingers as I just didn't like how they turned out.

In the end though I was pretty happy with the finished result; they turned out as more understated spooky nails but still spooky enough for Halloween. I also just can't get over how stunning the Cuccio shade is; I didn't even sponge it on; it just applies with 1000 glitter pieces in one go. It is a bugger to get off though so make sure you apply a peel off base coat.

For the next design I really want to use the Orly & Morgan Taylor shades but I'm just not sure how to incorporate them together.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Nails Inc Leather // Old Compton Street (grey with matte concrete texture)

- Cuccio Color // Vegas Vixen (black with different sized silver glitter pieces)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #3 (black)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #2 (silver)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #4 (white)
- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat

- MoYou London // Circus 07 Plate