NailNerdChallenge July 2021 // Nautical Nails

Mermaids are considered to fall under the "nautical" category right?? Well they do now because I love this look I did. 

It came about whilst I swatching some China Glaze shades and I couldn't help but stick a load of glittery toppers on Too Yacht to Handle. Negative stamps are also the best because I can only imagine a stamping polish like that would cost a fortune.

For these nails I started out with 2 coats of Too Yacht To Handle followed by a layer of Diamond Glitter, then Will-'O-The-Wisp and dry brushed on alternate strokes of Crystal Blue and Pink Luxe. I then used born pretty stamping plate on my middle finger and Moyou on the rest. 

Polishes/Tools Used:

Nails:

- China Glaze // Too Yacht To Handle (teal)

- Barry M Nail Paint // Diamond Glitter (scattered holo)

- H&M // Will-'O-The-Wisp (green duochrome shimmer topper)

- Barry M Molten Metal // Crystal Blue, Pink Luxe

Stamping:

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

- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // BP-109 (middle finger)

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Sailor 04 (rest of fingers)

Rock Mermaid // Iridescent Mermaid Scales Nail Art

This look came about whilst I was messing around when swatching the new Green Origin range and I noticed that the H&M Will-O-The-Wisp topper looks absolutely amazing on top of dark green/teal shades. Please excuse the chips in the next photos as I needed some daylight to capture the shift and I did the manicure at night.

I even did a video! And I'm talking in it! But I won't be posting it lol, I'm not ready yet, I did enjoy filming though as it took my mind of work and stopped me from spending every moment of my time programming. Even though I only have a small little area to film in I'm going to try and film something every Saturday as it forces me to try out new nail art techniques as well.

Back to the look though, I really loved wearing this and the shift kind of reminds me the oil slick Avon polishes that I reviewed a while ago. The white stamping could be a lot brighter as well however I'm struggling to find an opaque white stamping polish that I can easily buy within the UK. Maniology's Bam White seems to be pretty good however their shipping is $10 and I have to stay under $15 otherwise I get hit with an £9 import fee plus 20% tax. It's the same for Twinkled T as well. I think I may turn to Etsy as I've seen some interesting polishes on there from little indie brands operating in Europe.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Barry M Green Origin // Rock Pool (teal),  Diamond Glitter (scattered holo)
- H&M // Will-o-The-Wisp (purple/blue shimmer)

- Nicole Diary  // Born Perfect (white)
- Orly Wont Chip  // Chip Resistant Top Coat (.....I have no words)
- Born Pretty Plate // 109

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

Makin' Waves // Glitter Mermaid Nail Art

What's this? Some nail art? I know it's been a while. I had a quite a big deadline for my dissertation the other day and I've been working on it non-stop. It's not the final hand in, but there's only two months left and I can't afford to fall behind. I've worked so hard these past three years, I can't fail now. However, since I've caught up on my work, I've scheduled in some 'me' time as I've not had much fun. Doing my nails last night for the first time weeks was so nice!

Clairestelle8 over on Instagram has a March challenge and whereas I won't be actively trying to complete it this month (I have to much work to do), I'll be dipping in and out fo the challenges. The prompt for the 9th was 'Mermaid'. I wanted more than anything to just to mermaid scales but I forced myself to something a little different. Plus I've been wanting to use this glitter since I bought it in January.

Look at it! It's so beautiful. Money well spent.

How I did it:-
I started off with 1 layer of Mint Chocolate Chip. The middle finger uses a design on Sailor 06 and a mixture of Dream Holiday and #284 ( I know it doesn't look like it, but there is a gradient there). The index finger uses Sailor 18 which has 3 different waves patterns on it. I used these with Deep Ocean, Surf's Up and #17 to create the waves. I did the top colour first, then the black tail fin, then the next two colours. To top it off I used some of the stars at the top of Sailor 18 with Stop, Shop & Roll. The glitter is then two sponged layers with two layers of top coat to get a nice smooth look.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Morgan Taylor // Wrapped In Riches (teal glitter)

- Morgan Taylor // Mint Chocolate Chip (pastel mint)
- Morgan Taylor // Stop, Shop & Roll (metallic teal)

- MoYou London Stamping Polish // Dream Holiday (sky blue)
- MoYou London Stamping Polish // Surf's Up (cerulean)
- MoYou London Stamping Polish // Deep Ocean (ocean blue)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #17 (blue)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #284 (pastel blue)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #3 (black)

- Avon Mark Gel Shine // Top Coat
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Sailor 06 & Sailor 18

Under The Basic Sea // Mint & Pink Mermaid Nails

I told you I couldn't resist putting a load of stamping designs on it! I tried to do some reverse stamping as well and ruined my pinkie and the middle finger *le sigh*. I just received one of the new Born Pretty Sea World plates that I ordered early last month and I had to do something with it. I think mermaid nails are some of my favourite designs to do but I may invest in one of the new MoYou London plates which have them coloured in already for you because clearly I need more practice.

How I did it:-

The ombre was done in this post, but basically it was a 1 layer Crush in Lake Como followed by 4 sponged layers of Crush & Lake. I then used the BP-109 plate for the scale pattern and coloured some scales in using Golden Hour and Stop, Shop & Roll. The other designs came from the Sea World S001 plate with the same two shades. When reverse stamping, you might need to apply a layer of top coat on your nail before you stamp as you could end up ruining it (like I did on the pinkie...urgh).

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Cuccio Colour // Crush In Lake Como (sheer pink creme)

- Zoya // Lake (sheer mint creme)
- Ciaté Gelology // Golden Hour (metallic rose gold)
- Morgan Taylor // Shop, Stop & Roll (teal multi-shift shimmer)

- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- Barry M // Plumpy Top Coat
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // BP-109
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // Sea World S001

Holo Seas // Galaxy Swirls & Mermaid Scales

Oh man, these are the types of nails where I took about a thousand photos and it was so hard to choose under 10. Like most of my nail designs I had no idea where this was going, just that I wanted to do some mermaid scale nails. I ended up with galaxy mermaid nails! Score!

I started off with a white base coat and then applied some blobs of Crystal Blue and Pink Luxe to a silicone mat (these ones are from my born pretty post here). Then when they were still wet I gently pressed my stamper into them and then applied them to my nails.

This was pretty random but I loved how in some places it's super opaque and others translucent. I also love how this stamping technique brought out the duochrome properties of the polishes. Crystal Blue shines sea green in some lights and this application really brought it out.

Then using the BP-109 plate I stamped on the mermaid scales. I added a layer of the diamond top coat before adding Diamond Glitter as it caused the scales to drag. The following photos were all taken in natural daylight whereas the ones above are all indoors under two light boxes.

I want to wear this design every. Single. Day. And the best part is that after you've done one hand the next is easy! Just carefully peel the blobs off the silicone mat and stick them to your other with a layer of top coat. Or I've found another great use for them. Because they haven't been applied on top of a top coat they can break easily into shards; however custom galaxy mermaid flakies....I may have to do a post on this because it's genius.

Polishes/Tools Used:
- Essie // Blanc (pink)
- Barry M Molten Metal // Crystal Blue (ocean blue shimmer with green shift)

- Barry M Molten Metal // Pink Luxe (dark pink shimmer with gold shift)
- Barry M  // Diamond Glitter (scattered holo with silver glitter)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish //#4 (white)
- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat
- Born Pretty // BP-109 Plate