Twinkled T // Marble Stamping Plate

Another item from my Twinkled T Black Friday haul. I ordered this with the Desert Sunset Stamping Bundle (swatches here) mainly because I got it with 30% off and it's marble; what can I say? I'm totes basic.

This is a nice plate but I'd say the designs are more watermarble than marble. For the latter I'd expect thin lines kind of like lightning. I tried to do an ombre stamp using two of the stamping polishes from the Desert Sunset bundle that I bought with it.

Not my favourite marble look. I've achieved much better using smooshing which produces more natural "random" design and blends hard edges seamlessly.  For $7 though it is a high quality plate and I'll be able to create some interesting watermarble designs with it.

Polishes/Tools used:
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Twinkled T // Smokey (dark grey), Ghosted (light grey)
- Cuccio // Matte Top Coat
- Twinkled T // Marble TT01 Plate

Twinkled T // Marble Plate $6

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)

Stone Goals // White, Grey & Gold Marble Design

Finally, I think I have perfected the marble look and it's all thanks to smooshing! I'm definitely going to film this look soon and maybe use a brighter gold shade but it works! It's no lie, I'm totally basic and obsessed with marble and rose gold. I blame it on Pinterest. There's just something about marble nails as well; it's so elegant and expensive looking.

So smooshing is pretty easy. You just blob on white on a silicone mat, drop some of your chosen colours onto the white and then lightly drag the design a little using the tip of an orange stick or really fine dotting tool, then pick up the design using a stamper. I like to let it dry on the stamper a little bit so it doesn't smoosh more as you stamp. Make sure to use liquid latex as well for easy clean up.

I still can't believe I found this Ciaté shade in TK Maxx for £2.99. I bought two it's that pretty. They've had some really great Ciaté shades in there lately.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Nicole Diary // Born Perfect (white)
- Nailberry // Stone (dark grey)
- Ciaté Gelology // Goal Digger (muted copper)

- Barry M Hi-Shine // Plumpy Top Coat

SWATCHES: A-England // Mustardseed A Fairy, Crown of Thistles & Waltz of the Flowers

Urgh, my poor bank account this month. With the new releases from MoYou London and my inability to stop buying things from Born Pretty, I thought I would've sated my nail art desires this month. But no, A-England had to make their Gem of Month two STUNNING shades that I don't have. And who can resist A-England? Especially at £4 each? They also still have some polishes left in their outlet...so I bought 4 more sneaky polishes at £3.75 each......This post will contain April's gem of the month shades plus another one I bought and then I'll do a second post on the other A-England shades I have...I need to start doing more swatch posts.

Mustardseed A Fairy // holo coral pink shimmer

Oh jeez, oh man. This shade is just *italian hand gesture*. I knew this would be something special from the moment I saw it and now I have it on I never want it to come off. It's like holographic strawberry jam. And boy the holo is strong with this one. It's quite a chunky polish compared to some other A-England but that just makes it better. It also have a little bit of a iridescent shine to it so it's not boring when you can't see the holo. This one is a little bit sheerer than most AE shades and I'd say 2 coats and your good to go. It does take an age to dry though so it's good that 1 coat looks great by itself. I am mesmorised by this shade; I can't stop staring at it.

If there was a ever a holo polish to buy; it's this one.

Crown of Thistles // holo amethyst shimmer

This is an electric purple that makes me want to put on some epic rock music and go to the club lol. The holo isn't as strong in this one and it has a slight satin finish but it's still a great, fun shade. It feels like this is the type of holo finish the China Glaze OMG collection were going for as this shade and Mustardseed a Fairy are eerily similar to BFF and TTYL, however they did originally come out in 2008, so who's copying who? Either way, these are far superior.

This is a one coater (like most AE shades) but beware again of that drying time.

Waltz of the Flowers // holo light blue to purple multichrome with hints of lilac

You know, I have a few of these grey-ish bullet coloured chrome shades that shift between grey and pink but this is on another planet. The holo keeps this alive at all angles from a dark deep grey to a light lilac. The difference between the two though really gives an added depth to the shade.

I can tell this is an older shade as it has one of the older thinner brushes and it's quite a sheer formula. Not streaky but does require two coats for maximum effect. This was the last shade I added from the outlet as I had already chosen a grey shade and this one looked to be a little different. It's not another silver holo polish and definitely stands out on it's own.

A-England

Gem of the Month

The Outlet

Fancy Grey Wallpaper // Grey and White Baroque Nail Art

Can this post be considered a throwback? I did them about two months and just never got round to posting them. I decided to put them up though so I can start scheduling again as I really fell behind on nail art. 

These were super quick and basically I only did them because I wanted to try out the new plate that had arrived in the post because I loved the designs on them.

I feel like they're missing something though. Like the background needed to be holo in some way or they should have been double stamped. Who knows. I also hate how my ring finger is looking in these photos. It's really weird but when my nails get to long they start to curve inwards like crazy when they have polish on them. It's one of the reasons I don't grow them out to long now because it just looks weird.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Cuccio Colour // I Wonder Where (light grey)

- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #4 (white)

- Nicole Diary Stamping Plate // ND-033

Hearts // #Clairestelle8 Valentines Challenge

So I'm trying my best to catch up thanks to this amazing cold that decided to grace me with it's presence and this is my design for the 12th which was hearts. On the first entry I did the exact same white marble design on one finger (albeit with a hollow heart) and I liked it so much I just really wanted to do it again. I also didn't have any other heart stamps so this had to do. It also doesn't get much more basic than this; white marble and rose gold? Pinterest is gonna be all over this shit.

I wanted to do something a little more adventurous but I had time constraints and so I had to do a design that was relatively quick. The next prompt is Anti-Valentines which is way more up my street because eff all the happy people in love....can you tell I'm alone....bloody happy people.

How I did it:-

I started out with two coats of the French Tip polish (which is ridiculous for a French tip polish...annoyed I spent £2.50 on it now) followed by the marble print in I Wonder Where using the Explorer 33 plate. I applied a matte top coat and then used stamps from the Explorer plate and BP L002 in Golden Hour.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Avon True Colour Nail Experts // French Manicure Tip (....white)

- Cuccio Colour // I Wonder Where (light grey)
- Ciaté // Golden Hour (rose gold)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Explorer 33
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // Valentines Day BP-L002

Serene Forest // Pink & Green Woodland Scene

I just received some new Born Pretty & Harunouta plates off eBay and one of the ones I chose was this woodland scene plate which has an assortment of forest trees and little creatures on it. Originally, I only started off with the pink to green gradient and was fully intent on using some rose gold geometric prints on top but something stirred in my imagination and persuaded me to go ahead and create a misty woodland scene.

I'm super happy with how this looks, the forest looks calm and peaceful with the light green (Lake) almost giving off this mist quality as the shade between the pink and bright green. 

How I did it:-

I started off with one coat of Cheeky and then sponged on a couple layers of Cheeky, Lake & Ness. After a layer of top coat, I then used Stone and the BP-L011 plate to create the trees and deer. Stone isn't the best stamping polish as it breaks up with intricate details, but I like how it wasn't completely opaque for this design. I then added a layer of top coat and then a layer of matte top coat (as the matte one always smears the design).

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Jessica // Cheeky (pale pink)

- Zoya // Lake (pale mint)

- Zoya // Ness (pastel apple green)
- Nailberry // Stone (grey)

- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat
- Revlon // Colorstay Gel Envy Diamond Top Coat
- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // BP-L011

Saved by The Grey // Cuccio & MoYou London

Inspiration comes in the strangest of places and the other day I saw this mug for sale in New Look and whereas I managed to restrain myself and not purchase it; I did think it would look great on my nails and here we are.

I've been wanting to use my new Cuccio polishes so badly as well. These two beautiful grey hues are from their 2018 Wanderlust collection (of which I bought in the NPD black friday sale along with the Tapestry collection...) I also want to practice my striping tape skills and I did much better this time; only messing up slightly on the thumb. But with a nice thick layer of top coat you can barely see. 

How I did it:-

I started off with two coats of I Wonder Where and then placed some striping tape across my nails. I applied one thick coat of Explorateur. Using a small dotting tool I placed some random dots on each side. On the Explorateur side I used Night Sail and I Wonder Where and Explorateur and White on the other side. I then topped it off with the squiggly 90s pattern from the Holy Shapes 20 plate. 

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Cuccio Colour // I Wonder Where (pale grey)
- Cuccio Colour // Explorateur (speckled grey shimmer)

- MoYou London // Teenage Blush (coral pink)
- MoYou London // Night Sail (dark grey)
- Born Pretty // #4 (white)

- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Holy Shapes 20

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