[Look] Teal Christmas Woodland Scene

I did these a while ago now (the picture metadata says 13th November 2023....) but seeing as it's christmas once again, I guess I can finally post them.

I painted these onto some false nails I picked up from Primark a while ago. I kind of like the shape but I chose sizes that were way to big for me. Either way, it's always nice to be able to paint on your own time and not worry about catching your nails on something.

Method:

I started off with two layers of I'm on a Sushi Roll. Then stamped on some flower designs from Noel 07 using Café au Lait, followed by Rusty Red and Ghosted on top. For the deer, I used a design from Fall in Love 01 and picked that up with Ghosted, then filled it in on the stamper with Cappuccino. The flower is from Noel 07 and I picked that up with Ghosted as well but filled it in with Café au Lait. The "snow" I did by hand just using a dotting tool with Ice Cold Milk (a sheer off white shade). I topped all that off with a smudge proof top coat and then a matte top coat.

Polishes/Tools Used:

Base:

- OPI Infinite Shine // I'm on a Sushi Roll (teal)

Stamping:

- H&M // Ice Cold Milk (off white)

- MoYou London // Café au Lait (light oat), Rusty Red (burgandy)

- Kure Bazaar // Cappuccino (beige)

- Twinkled T // Ghosted (dark grey)

Plates:

- MoYou London // Noel 07, Fall in Love 01

Top:

- MoYou London // Smudge Proof Top Coat

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

Feeling Summery // FabFitFun Summer 2022 Nails

Oh my god a new post! So, it's been a while. Was feeling a bit burnt out, then tried to buy a house so packed everything away. It's now been 4 months and no house in sight so I've unpacked all my nail stuff. 

I had to though, look how adorable the FabFitFun box was this season. I knew the moment I saw it, I had to match my nails to it. Can you believe though I only had 2 shades of purple that somewhat matched the FFF box? Looks like I'll have to buy some more polish.

I started off with 1 layer of Feeling Free. Then picked up the ice lolly stamps off Tumblr Girl 06 with Nether Noir. I then painstakingly painted in each lolly with Violet Haze, Living Your Best Life and Dance Party Teal Dawn. The lollypop stick are Cappuccino and the bite marks Coconut. I then topped it off with a smudge free top coat, then a matte top coat.

It took about an hour in total but it was worth it. I'm going to have to recreate this look though with pastel colours and a light background as it would look super cute!

Polishes/Tools Used:-

Base:

- Orly Breathable // Feeling Free (purple)

- MoYou London // Smudge Free Top Coat

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

Stamping

- What's Up // Nether Noir (black)

- Ciate Plant Pots // Violet Haze (aubergine)

- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Coconut (off-white cream)

- Kure Bazaar // Cappuccino (cream)

- OPI // Dance Party Teal Dawn (teal)

- Nails Inc // Living Your Best Life (yellow)

- MoYou London // Tumblr Girl 06 Stamping Plate

NailNerdChallenge July 2021 // Tropical Nails

So this was the first prompt but I forgot to post it, so here it is! Usually when I do tropical I go for a pink or peach background with green leaves so I decided to mix it up with some darker colours and bright pops! 

For this one I started out with a layer of Night Sky, then applied Deep Ocean, Dream Holiday and Turquoise Mint to a design on the Paradise 02 plate. Scraping the polish blends them all together and then I stamped that on top. Afterwards I used the flower designs from Paradise 05 first in white so the colours would pop more then used No Tan Lines, My Showcase Pink and Raspberry fro the flower details. The little yellow pollen stems had a white base stamp and then Maui Gold stamped on top.

Polishes/Tools Used:

Nails:

- Barry M Green Origin // Night Sky (dark blue)

Stamping:

- MoYou London // Dream Holiday (blue), Deep Ocean (deep blue), Turquoise Mint (mint)

- Maniology // Maui Gold (yellow)

- OPI Infinite Shine // No Tan Lines (orange)

- Barry M Nail Paint // 273 Raspberry

- Kure Bazaar // My Showcase Pink (fuschia)

- What's Up Nails // Blanc My Mind (white)

- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Paradise 02, Paradise 05

NailNerdChallenge July 2021 // Fruit Nails

It's time for another set of challenge nails! This weeks prompt is "Fruit" and I've had this design on a false nail for ages but I just never got round to actually creating it in full on my nails but this was the perfect prompt!

It's summery, fresh and definitely fruity! Plus not one stamping polish in sight; I'm starting to get good at reverse stamping now. For this look I did two coats of Sweet As Pinkie Pie, then picked up the pineapple stamps using My Showcase Pink and then filled them in on the stamper with Honolulu Blues and Yellow (great name Barry M lol). I topped it off with a glossy topcoat. 

This one took a while to do due to the reverse stamping. You need to make sure it's dry before you stamp or will smudge but then your base has also dried so you either need to apply a sticky basecoat or a layer of topcoat and stamp just before it loses it's stickiness but won't smudge the polish underneath. I need to get at least 5 stampers so I can just do one after the other and fill them all in at the same time.

Polishes/Tools Used:

Nails:
- China Glaze // Sweet As Pinkie Pie (pink)

- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat

Stamping:

- Kure Bazaar // My Showcase Pink (fuschia)

- Barry M Nail Paint // 134 Yellow

- Beau Nail Polish // Honolulu Blues (blue)

- Maniology Stamping Plate // M051

Sparkleccino // Birthday Coffee Nails

I originally did this look on a false nail first and loved it so much I decided to make it my birthday look this year! I'm now 29 and slightly freaking out that I'm almost 30 and still struggling to adult. I'll just buy some more nail polish, that will fix all my problems.

Expect a lot of drip nail looks this month...I'm becoming ever so slightly obsessed with the dripping look. It just works so well for adding detail but not too much detail. I also love using the pixie dust polishes thanks to their unique matte texture. In the words of Elle Woods "it just adds a little something extra don't ya think?"

I wanted the ombre to look like when you've just poured foaming milk into an espresso and you get that beautiful moment where the two start to mix. Oh man, this is really making me want a caramel macchiato. All the ombre shades have coffee names as well; it just turned out perfectly.

Polishes/Tools used:

- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Iced Latte (cream)

- Kure Bazaar // Cappuccino (coffee)

- Nails Inc Caffeine Hit // Espresso Martini (dark brown)

- Avon Mark. // Gel Shine Top Coat

- Zoya Pixiedust // Tomoko (champagne)

Botanical Foils // Flowers with Primark gold foil and green watercolour design

This turned out so much better than how I saw it in my head. I think it's because for the first time I actually practiced the design first on some swatch sticks and ironed out the kinks. I need to do that more often instead of just ploughing on ahead.

When Primark recently re-opened I went in and spent a lot more than I should've but I just couldn't help myself. They also had a shiny load of new makeup that obviously I had to buy. Especially these cute jars of foil flakes. I think they're supposed to be used as eyeshadows and on your face but I immediately knew that these pressed flakes would be perfect for nail art looks.

They have them in bronze and gold and they're so much easier to use than foil sheets and £3. These pots are gonna last me years. I used an eyeshadow applicator to pick some up and then dabbed it on my nail. If you apply it on top of a dried glossy top coat it sticks but it also moves so you can re-position it how you like then seal it in with another layer of top coat.

For this look I also mixed some of Hope with acetone to create the watercolour effect. I did trial some of the blooming polishes I have from Nicole Diary but I didn't have a green so had to mix blue and yellow and it just looked muddy.

Polishes/Tools used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat
- Kure Bazaar // Hope
- Twinkled T // Vibin'
- Primark PS // Golden Foil Flakes
- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Botanical 07
- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat

Meebox // Donuts Edition

And it's finally time for the unboxing of my final Meebox that I bought in October when they were having a sale. I was super excited for this one due to the creamy pastel shades and indie brands. I'm loving the discovery of Deco Miami! Let's have a closer look at the products shall we?

Kure Bazaar // Cappucino
RRP £15

Collection: ??

Release Date: ??

This uses the same thin brush that old Essie shades used to have and I don't like it. It's just so hard to get a good swipe and prevent flooding. I am happy to have received this shade though as when I was researching the "Hope" shade I got in this years Sunday Times LIB box, this was the shade I wanted the most when I saw the shade range. The shade itself is a little darker than whats in the bottle and under bright light it goes even darker which is strange. But it is the perfect shade to create some donuts with. I'm wearing two coats in the swatch with no top coat.

Little Ondine // Ripple
RRP (no longer sold, was £11)

Collection: ??

Release Date: ??

My first time using this did not go well as I used it on top of my peel off base coat (as usual) and it started instantly cracking and splitting (see the second photo). After some research it turns out this brand uses a water-based, peel off formula made from resin and many other nail artist use them as a peel off basecoat. Little Ondine says all their polishes are odourless and surprisingly, there isn't really much of a scent. This one smells a little minty but I'm not sure if that's just my brain making it up because of the mint colour.

I'm actually really interested in this brand, however it doesn't seem to be available in the UK anymore and their twitter account stop posting a year ago. In the US though it still seems to be thriving which is a shame.

As for the polish, I don't think the formula holds up well over time. Normal polishes don't really go off, but the "peel off" part of this polish has caused it to become lumpy and dry with those PVA glue-like chunks. It's also streaky and needs several coats but the lumps never go away. It does peel really easily in the exact same way as my PVA-based peel off which just makes wonder if this is the exact same product but with colouring.

I'm wearing three coats with no top coat.

Deco Miami // Cake
RRP (not sold in the UK, $6 in US)

Collection: ??

Release Date: ??

I think this is my favourite polish in the box; it's just so cute! I love interesting and unique bottle designs and now I want more of them but they're kind of hard to get hold of in the UK. The shade itself is perfect though and makes me look beautifully tan. I almost can't believe how well it matches my skin tone. Instead of being a bright hot pink this is a neon peach/pink pastel that dries quite quickly to a satin finish. You do need at least three coats though as it is very streaky.

After perusing their website, they do ship to the UK, but shipping varies on the weight and then there's tax and import fees so it will end up being an expensive order. But they do have some seriously amazing shades.

NCLA // Sivan Ayla Donut Wraps
No longer sold (was £11.95)

After some research I discovered this was part of a range in a collab with someone called Sivan Ayla. I think she's a vlogger/lifestyle influencer but anyway it was released in 2017 and full of neutral skin tones and donuts. I feel these wraps look a little "kid-like" for such an elegant collection. I probably won't use them as me and wraps don't mix well.

Miss Cat Nails // Nail Art Pearls
No longer sold (was £1.99)

Another item that probably will never be used mainly because things stuck to my nails annoy me. They just catch on everything. Also, these are tiny and I don't have the patience to glue lots of little pink beads to my nails. Some other reviews said they got champagne coloured ones and I think I would've preferred them.

Art Club (by Color Club) // Nail Art Pen in White
RRP £4.99

I was really excited when I saw this (even if the metal tube bit scratched me when taking the lid off). Then I used it. If you're doing stripes and nothing else this is fantastic but I found it ridiculously hard to draw shapes with. The polish itself is lovely and opaque however I would use an actual brush to do more detailed looks with it. I found that huge blobs would run straight down the brush at random intervals and flood the nail. It's also hard to clean up and leaves white streaks on you skin making it look dry and flaky. When researching this product, this appears to be quite an old bottle as well and whereas nail polish doesn't really go off, this doesn't feel like proper nail polish and I think it may have gone off. Good idea, shame about the execution.

// Verdict

This was one of the boxes I wanted the most when I first discovered Meebox and I think if I had received it back in March 2018 I would be estactic however, I feel some of the products have lost their shine and the only one I'm really happy about is the Deco Miami polish; I have got to get me some more of those. For £15 though, I'm not going to flip any tables.

When Meebox stopped doing monthly boxes last December they said they were going to reduce their boxes to quarterly to give them more time to collaborate with indie brands. However, it's now December and the last box they released was the Atlantis edition back in March so I have a feeling that sadly, they may have stopped doing boxes. It's a shame because there really was no other sub like this one. 

Bathroom Tiles 2 // Green Mermaid Scale Nails

Remember way back in the early days of the blog when I did a post called Bathroom Tiles? No me neither, I had to remind myself lol. Well it can be found here, and it was some basic stamping on a white polish. This is some basic stamping on a green polish. I switched things up.

I did this look a month ago and I've been umming and ahhing other whether or not to post it because it's not great but it's not awful. It is it not however what I set out to do. 

I saw these fantastic tiles on Pinterest (where else?) and I love the wash of color and various shades of green and set about to recreate it. This was the result.

I really tried but my nail art skills are severely lacking. I tried smooshing with several different greens and a white but the Kure Bazaar just overpowered everything and it doesn't have that variation/watercolour feel to it. It still pretty though just a bit bland.

So I tried to add the darker greens via handpainting...it did not go well.

What even is this? It looks like I splashed some sewage water on top of my nails. I probably should've used acrylic paint instead of nail polish. Then I became more unsatisfied because there was still no depth and my clean white lines had been ruined. So I thought "frick it" and stuck a holo top coat on top.

I don't feel it salvaged it but I now know where I went wrong so hopefully when I attempt this again I'll get that beautiful wash of colour...the greens need to be darker as well. From afar though it kinda looks like the image, I'll just make sure to have people view my nails from three feet away when I do this type of mani again.

Polishes/Tools Used:
- Kure Bazaar // Hope (emerald green)

- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #4 (white)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #333 (Mint)
- Barry M Nail Paint // Diamond Glitter (scattered holo)

- Born Pretty // BP-109 Plate