Pombre // Peach Ombre Nail Art Design

A quick one today and yes, I have gone Peach mad. But I thought I'd give some of my other beautiful peach shades a chance to shine instead of just constantly using the Nails Inc Kiss My Peach duo.

I'm also back home in the north! Praise be to the north. I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me to work from home and whereas I'd rather be in the office, it's nice to be at home for the next few months. It also means I get my old photography set-up back! Oh sweet lighting how I've missed you.

Anyway, the past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic so I thought I'd ease myself back into nail art with a simple ombre mani. And I love it. Who said beautiful mani's had to be complicated?

The OPI shade is also from the new Mexico collection; it's easily my favourite out of the lot. I also bought one of the mini sets and I'm wondering if I should swatch it or not...some of the shades are a lot darker than what I though they would be.

The world needs more Peach shades...I need more Peach shades. I don't think quarantine will be good for my bank account.

Polishes/Tools used:-
- H&M // Milky Tea (nude peach)
- Morgan Taylor // Up in the Air-Heart (pink peach)
- OPI // Coral-ing Your Spirit Animal (peach)
- Zoya // Sawyer (orange peach)
- China Glaze // Flip Flop Fantasy V2 (neon peach)

Mani & Lola April 2019 // Nail Subscription Box

I'm back with a Mani & Lola post! I've sat out on the last three boxes (really wish I hadn't for last month though) as I had too many subscriptions and something had to give. However, now I'm nearing the end of my degree (5 weeks left...eek!) I decided to start it back up again because I miss receiving my monthly surprise polishes. 

All this month they've been teasing nude shades over their insta and I'm happy to say we've got two beautiful nude cremes, a stunning dark pink creme and some nice shimmers. It's a great box to come back to; especially because all the products are full size. Let's get into some swatches!

Cuccio Colour // Take Your Breath Away

Collection: Coquette

Release year: 2019

I'm very happy to see this in the box as I was going to buy the collection anyway, but now I only need 7 instead of 8. This shade is from Cuccio's new 2019 Coquette collection so it's amazing to see a brand new shade in the box.

Take Your Breath Away is a soft lilac hue that needs a minimum of two coats. This is a perfect spring shade.

Will it Stamp? Yes, technically, but it is a sheer creme so it won't produce outstanding results. I would use this for when I need a design to be somewhat transparent.

Morgan Taylor // Up in the Air-Heart

Collection: Sweetheart Squadron

Release year: 2016

I LOVE Morgan Taylor polishes and this shade is just beautiful. This shade is a few years older than the last as it's from MT's Fall 2016 'Sweetheart Squadron' collection. Up in the Air-Heart is pastel coral shade that needs a minimum of two coats. I don't know why they originally released this at Autumn because this is perfect for Easter looks.

Will it Stamp? Yes, and the detail is good but this another sheer creme that is quite transparent. It doesn't do well on darker shades but makes a nice contrast against white.

OPI // Samurai Breaks a Nail

Collection: Tokyo

Release year: 2019

Another brand new shade! Hailing from OPI's latest 2019 Tokyo collection is this deep purple shimmer. At first I thought this was Berry Fairy Fun from their Nutcracker range and whereas the colour is similar Berry Fairy Fun is chunkier in glitter pieces and a little lighter. I think this is the strangest polish to include in a spring box, it feels more like a Christmas party shade to me.

This one turned out to be very sheer and needs at least three coats and in true OPI fashion doesn't apply all that great. It has lots of sparkles in it though with the majority being lavender shade and then chunkier bits of red and blue scattered about. I think this is my second to last least favourite out of this months selection, however it's really annoying because it looks like space nails straight out of the bottle in photos..it literally does not look like this is real life.

Will it Stamp? Yes and better than I thought it would. It is a little sheer but looks great against lighter colours. You also get that nice iridescent sheen to it 

ORLY // Seize The Clay

Collection: The New Neutral

Release year: 2018

Oh man do I love this shade. I loved it when I saw the spoilers and I love it even more now I have it. This shade is quite recent as it was part of the Fall 2018 collection, 'The New Neutral'. This dark pink shade only needs one coat but you can add another for a little more 'depth'. This is my favourite colour from this months box, I can already see the flower art I'm going to do with it. Thank you Mani & Lola for bringing this shade into my life.

Will it Stamp? Yes and it's quite strong on light backgrounds. It does struggle with intricate details though.

NailsInc // Mermaid Playsuit

Collection: I Believe in Unicorns

Release year: 2017

I believe this collection came out back in June 2017 as that's the earliest I can find any info on it. It appears to have started as one of those deal sets on QVC that eventually makes its way into mainstream. I know that year the Nails Inc Christmas collections were all about Unicorns cause I bought one. NPD are sneakily calling this a 2019 collection??

Anyway, this is a simple sheer blue to pink shimmer. It needs at least three coats and it's my least favourite of the bunch. It's a bit too icy and I'd prefore more blue pigmentation.

Will it Stamp? It does but you wouldn't want to use it as there is barely any pigment in the design. It adds that pearlescent glow to the design but that's it.

//Verdict

A solid month! It is a little strange that they included two Fall shades in the spring box but I guess they can't include brand new collections in every box. It would've been nice to see something from the new Jessica Tea Party collection, I'm drooling over that right now. But other than that I can't really complain this month, roll on the summer collections!!

Mani & Lola

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

Romance // Look Fantastic Beauty Box February 2019 Nails

I'm finally doing some nails again! I've been stuck in bed for the past week thanks to a cold. Yey winter. Anyway, today is the first day I've been better and could get to my office (where I keep all my polish) and I've got so many nail designs to catch up on. I thought I'd combine the Clairestelle8 challenge with this one as well.

This isn't my favourite LF box however I'm always happy to see Erno Lazslo products in boxes as they are way out of my price range but I'm getting a little sick and tired of Phillip Kinglsey hair products. Also, eyelash curlers scare the bejeezus out of me so they're not going anywhere near my eyes lol. 

I was going to attempt my first watermarble design with this box however, I have so many other things to catch up on that I didn't have the time so instead I cheated and used a watermarble stamping plate.

How I did it:-

I started off with two coats of Vintage Tee and then stamped on various designs from the BP-L061 plate. All the designs were tripled stamped starting with Must Have Mauve, then Ella of a Girl and finally Golden Hour. Before Golden Hour though, I applied a matte top coat.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Nails Inc Fashion Fix // Vintage Tee (baby pink)

- Morgan Taylor // Must Have Mauve (...mauve)
- Morgan Taylor // Ella of a Girl (light pink)
- Ciaté // Golden Hour (rose gold)

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- Born Pretty Stamping Plate // BP-L061

Now That's What I Call A Haul #2 // NPD Boxing Day Sale

Lord have mercy on my bank account; for I have sinned....LOOK AT ALL THAT POLISH!

Yeah so I may have gone a little crazy in the Nail Polish Direct boxing day sale, but it was 50% off so can you blame me really? I spent £54.58 in total but received 17 polishes so that's roughly around £3.20 a shade which is amazing considering the full prices of Morgan Taylor and Zoya (the Color Club polishes were actually £1 each though...).

I mainly wanted to increase my Morgan Taylor collection as I love the bottle design and they have some beautiful shades. I tried to make myself buy shades that I didn't have but couldn't resist throwing in some mauve's and a pastel mint. It's the glitter shades that got me though, I can't wait to do ALL the mermaid looks with those teal masterpieces. 

I was also extremely intrigued by the Color Club shades though as they're not only a jelly formula but they glow in the dark! I haven't yet tried a true jelly polish so I'm not sure what to expect but they're super neon and contains lots of lovely glittery chunks. The non-jelly shades really surprised me though and I can't get enough of that amazing pastel yellow. I can already see the grey and yellow chevron nail art.

Unfortunately the lovely orange Artistic shade did arrive completely dried up as it had leaked entirely into the cap (it took me so long to unscrew it). I sent some photos to Nail Polish Direct and they sent me out a new one the next day, so customer service was on point. And I'm so glad because that orange shade is stunning. 

I was thinking of swatching everything however, I'm not so sure now. A lot of these shades are from old collections, however, there aren't that many swatches of Morgan Taylor on the interweb....who knows. If I manage to catch up on my assignments, I may. 

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

The Nutcracker And The Four Realms // Birchbox November 2018 Beauty Box Nails

Another month, another Birchbox nail post! This months Birchbox is in collaboration with the new Disney film; The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Personally I'm not interested in the film in the slightest (it's not really my thing) but I am super interested in the OPI collab...so much so that I asked mum to get me the Advent calendar for my birthday (which was last month). The Advent calendar is now patiently sitting there waiting to be opened and I've seen the colours...I can't wait.

But onto the box. It's a stunning box again and perhaps my most challenging nail design to date. This one took me a while and it actually turned out much better than I was expecting. The box contents are not as exciting but I've got some new cuticle cream to try out as well as a night cream and primer so it's not completely awful. 

With the nails though, I started out with a white base coat then sponged on an ombre of Boundless Berry, Raspberry and Sweet Escape. The colours weren't a complete match to the box but overall it doesn't look too off.

After a layer of quick dry top coat I added a chain link stamp design using One Heckla of a Colour and the BP-109 plate. This turned out perfect and I can't believe I had a stamping design similar to the one on the box. It's missing all the acorns and keys however I think it would of made the design too busy.

I then added the gold detail. The detail on my middle finger is from the Geek 05 plate, the stars are Scandi 10 and the bars at the bottom and the top are Harunouta L010. I was going to mattify everything before the gold detail but I'm glad I left it shiny.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Essie // Blanc (white) (base coat)
- NYC New York Color // Boundless Berry (deep plum)
- Barry M Nail Paint //Raspberry (raspberry....)
- Morgan Taylor // Sweet Escape (bright orange/red)
- OPI Infinite Shine // One Heckla of a Colour (lilac)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #1 (gold)
- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat
- Born Pretty // Stamping Plate BP-109
- Harunouta // Stamping Plate L010
- MoYou London // Geek Plate 05
- MoYou London // Scandi Plate 10

Halo Nights // Pink & Nude Wanderlust Design

When I first did this I really loved it and couldn't wait to take pictures and show it off. Life happened and I couldn't get posts up as fast as I wanted and now when I look at the pictures I just think meh. It was kind of rushed because I really wanted to use the shades in something but I didn't know what. Also, the edges are really messy and clean up just couldn't fix it.

I'm really into that sheer pink glossy look  that you can get from gel nails right now and these new halo shades from Avon really fit that bill. I ended up doing 5 layers of sponging to get this ombre look of  Halo Rose & Halo White where it was opaque enough to see the different shades but still transparent enough to see the nail tip slightly...if that made any sense.

I think on it's own this would have looked nice however, I applied the liquid latex too close to the nail and when I was removing it it tore up the sides of the nails and there was no saving it. I've just invested in some MoYou liquid latex which was put in their sale for £3.50 so I'm hoping that will be a little better than the £1 Born Pretty one I bought of Wish.

I ended up stamping some gold stars and a moon from the new Tropical 36 plate. I love the wanderlust design but depending on the polish, the thin writing doesn't pick up easily. I would use this again though as the moon reminds me Sailor Moon. Born Pretty actually do a Sailor Moon plate though and I just want to throw my money at them.

Look out for a full swatch post though on these Halo nude shades as I bought the entire range from Avon; I just don't have the time to fully swatch them right now.   

              

Polishes/Tools Used:
- Avon True Nail Wear Pro+ // Halo Rose (pearlescent rose pink)

- Avon True Nail Wear Pro+ // Halo White (pearlescent white pink)
- Morgan Taylor // Sweetest Thing (rose gold holo glitter)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #1 (gold)
- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- MoYou London // Tropical 36 Plate

EDIT 07/02/2019
I've finally got round to swatching the entire Halo collection now and you can check it out here:
->Avon Halo Collection