Lilac Vibes // Pastel Lilac, Leaves and Gold Look

Today's nails were inspired by a moisturiser from Wander Beauty that I saw in the latest FabFitFun edit sale.

I'm a little shocked at how well these nails turned out; I can't stop staring at my hand. The lilac, white, gold and black combo is really stunning and I want to do more designs using these shades now.

This look was also extremely simple and took around 30 minutes to complete. I actually want to do my other hand; that's how much I love it. The base colour also helps; it's one of my favourite shades that I own. It complements my skin tone perfectly; plus it's a dream to apply.

Polish/Tools Used:-

Nails:

- Ciaté Gelology // Spinning Teacup (lilac)

Stamping:

- Twinkled T // Liquid Gold (gold), Vibin' (black), Glow Up (white)

- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Botanical 16

Spring Clean-Lines // Pastel Butterfly Nails

Today I present to you this glorious pastel offering. It took me a while to decide on what shades to use. I'm a pastel polish hoarder so trying to select the "right" shade of pastel pink is excruciatingly hard. I ended up choosing Spring In My Step by China Glaze; I adore this shade. It's a bit of an arse as it's streaky with a satin finish and needs about 4 coats but it's such a wonderful shade of pink. That's mainly the reason I did this on false nails as I can just let the false nails dry whilst I'm off doing something else and I don't have to worry about messing it up.

Originally I was going to leave it at just the lines but Lieve91 has been doing some wonderful butterfly nails lately so I decided to add some using her collab plate with MoYou London.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

Nails:

- L'Oreal Color Riche // Jaune Citron (yellow)

- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Sour Candy (blue), Pistachio (green)

- Ciaté Gelology // Spinning Teacup (lilac)

- Born Pretty Soak-Off Gel Polish // Previous Gum (white)

Butterflies:

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Lieve91 x MYL 03

- MoYou London Stamping Polish // Turquoise Min (blue), Orchid Chic (purple), Candy Floss (pink), Coral Crush (red)

- Twinkled T // Vibin' (black)

Coachella Sunset // Pink & Lilac Ombre with Palm Trees

Oh boy it's been a hot minute. Where does the time go, I've posted 3 times this month! I've been busy moving back to sunny blackpool and driving up and down the M6 as well as trying to wrap my head around a different programming language for work. I've been painting my nails but I just forgot to take photos or edit or function properly 🙈.

In other news I've been reunited with my full collection; just in time for autumn as I only had spring pastel shades with me. But, I will not let summer go that easy and I did this ombre and palm trees look. I actually wore this with a normal basecoat and for days I just kept staring at my hand (only my left hand...no one does nail art on the other hand).

And there's a video! I found a desk sized ring light that's big enough for my camera to film through so now I can film no matter what time it is!

There were so many looks I had planned this month but I'm almost settled so hopefully things will go back to normal next month. MoYou London just released a new tropical themed collection that of course I had to buy; it had layered monstera leaves. I'm living the dream right now painting my nails and drinking Aldi's £4.99 version of Bailey's Strawberries & Cream.

Polishes/Tools used:-

- OPI Infinite Shine // Brightening Primer

- Essie // Blanc (white)

- Deco Miami // Cake (pink)

- Ciaté Gelology // Spinning Teacup (lilac)

- Twinkled T // Vibin' (black)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Mix & Match 13

SWATCHES: Barry M // Lilac Orchid, Pit Stop, Raspberry Sherbet, Strawberry Laces, Coconut Cream

Swatch time! Swatch time everybody! Here are the last 5 Barry M shades from my May haul. they're mainly oldies but goldies.

Lilac Orchid // Dusty Mauve Creme
Collection: Green Origin
Release Date: Spring 2020
Coats: 2

Starting off with the most recent is a new one in their Green Origin range. The other colours were a bit dark for Spring so I just went for this one. If applied slowly and carefully this is a stunning, self-leveling one coat wonder. I applied the first layer a bit too thin so I went in for a second coat but it's really not necessary. Barry M have really been knocking it out of the park with their new releases; the formula is on another level.

Pit Stop // Light Grey Mauve Creme
Collection: Speedy Quick Dry
Release Date: Winter 2015
Coats: 2

I remember when this range was first released and I bought 4 of the brighter pastel shades. I went for this one because I don't have many grey polishes and I thought this would be good for smooshing and marble looks. It's quite streaky and I find thin coats are much better with this quick dry range as it prevents dragging. It also doesn't self-level as well as other Barry M polishes. I'm not wearing a top coat but one is needed to help level out some of the brush strokes left behind.

Raspberry Sherbet // Pastel Lilac/Pink Satin Creme
Collection: Candy Culture
Release Date: January 2018
Coats: 3

Apparently these are supposed to be scented? In the bottle, there is a slight artificial sweetness cutting through the standard polish but once it started drying it had a stronger scent. I haven't eaten sherbet in a long time but this smells faintly of the raspberry sauce I'd put on icecream....or maybe I'm just projecting. This range dries with a satin finish and I found this shade to be streaky; it definitely needs to be built up with thin coats. It's such a cute colour though; perfect for spring/summer.

Strawberry Laces // Light Pink Satin Creme
Collection: Candy Culture
Release Date: January 2018
Coats: 3

I love this shade! This one is my favourite out of the lot; its that perfect pastel pink with a slight hint of peach. It's quite similar to DND's Peach Buff but I'd say that this is an excellent dupe for Ciaté Tutu. Once it's dry though; the smell is really great. It reminds me of Chewitts.

Coconut Cream // Lilac Mauve Satin Creme
Collection: Candy Culture
Release Date: January 2018
Coats: 3

This one didn't really smell like coconuts until it had fully dried. The shade is great though as it's not quite grey but not quite lilac. I imagine this would look great with some negative space bits and detailed flowers stamped on. The formula on this one was a bit streaky and had a tendency to drag; as all the shades in this range did. I think I'm just spoilt by the Gelly formula at this point.

Winter Sunrise // Peach & Lilac Ombre with Forests Nail Art

Ahhhhh how cute is this look! I actually did it with a standard base coat but it still peeled off the next day anyway :( The one and only time I wanted to wear a look longer than 6 hours. I'm super happy with how this turned out though as it was one of those where I had no idea where it was going; I just wanted to paint my nails whilst watching Markiplier.

This look was inspired by a recent morning drive to work. I live in the country side now and my drive is just back roads through rolling fields and trees in the distance all around. I glimpsed in my rear view mirror and saw this fantastic gradient sky that went from lilac to pink and then peach at the top. Then in front of me was the biggest, brightest full moon I have ever seen. I've honestly never seen the moon like that when the sun is rising as well. It was truly beautiful and I wish it was safe to pull over and take a photo but the roads are tiny and people get super pissed off if you stop on one because it's hard to overtake.

This was also my first time using one of the new Noel plates from MoYou London's Christmas collection. I told myself in December I couldn't buy them (of course I wanted them all) and by some Christmas miracle I didn't buy them....But then their Boxing day sale happened and they were 50% off so I bought the remaining ones that hadn't sold out. This is the 06 plate and it features overlapping mountains, fir trees and tree trunks as well as deer and wolves. It's one of the best plates they've ever done and there's a mountain design I really want to do with them.

To make it a bit more winter-y I toyed with adding some snow but didn't want to ruin it. I also wanted to add a matte top coat but holo...I ended up applying a layer of the trusty ol' Diamond Glitter from Barry M and it's perfect.

How I did it:-

I started off with a layer of Well, Well, Well which I won't do again because I forgot how long those Sally Hansen Argan oil polishes take to dry. I then sponged on a few layers of Peach Melba, Strawberry Icecream and Berry Icecream. I used Ghosted with the large fir trees which are the light grey ones and Smokey with the smaller fir trees in the front. I topped it off with a glossy top coat and then added Fairy Dust for some 'snow'.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Sally Hansen Color Therapy // 110 Well, Well, Well (off white)
- Barry M Nail Paint // Berry Icecream (lilac), Strawberry Icecream (pink), Peach Melba (peach)
- Twinkled T // Smokey (dark grey), Ghosted (light grey)
- Revlon Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat
- Barry M // Diamond Glitter (scattered holo)
- MoYou London // Noel Collection 06

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