Leaf Me In Paradise // Matte Green Glitter & Palm Leaf Tropical Look

Now this is the type of nail design that I could wear all day every day; it combines all my favourite things. Tropical, matte glitter and leaves. I think this is one of my favourite designs I've done in a while.

I'm glad I did them on false nails so I can keep them forever like the weirdo I am.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

Nails:

- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Cotton (white)

- Zoya Pixiedust // Chita (green glitter)

- H&M // Witching Hour (dark green)

Stamping:

- Twinkled T // Liquid Gold (gold)

- OPI Infinite Shine // Teal Me More (dark green), I'm On A Sushi Roll (green)

- MoYou London Stamping Polish // Scandi Sun (light green)

- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Paradise 05 (leaves & text), Tropical 37 (line pattern) 

The gold nail decorations were from a random wheel I bought off eBay.

NAIL ACCESSORIES // Gold Holo Tropical Nail Stickers Review

 
I've been wanting to try these for ages but I kept putting off buying them...even though they're only 99p on eBay and at the end of March I finally decided to buy them. I bought them in both silver and gold and they're stickers instead of water decals (i'm useless with them). They arrived a week ago and it took me a while to figure out a simple yet effective look with them as they colour is quite brash.

As these are stickers I thought they would be easier to use than water decals but they are deceptively hard to pick up and I ruined the edges slightly trying to pry them off the backing paper. You can also see the clear outline of the sticker on the nail and a top coat doesn't help.

I was eager to buy these mainly for the holo effect but once they arrived I realised that only certain patches of the stickers have the holo effect and you can clearly see in places where the holo cuts off.

I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do with them now. I think the silver may look better as the colour isn't as brassy. I think these either have to be a white or super dark background for them to work as it's kind of hard to see any detail on a nude base. When I look down at my hands it just looks like I've applied some gold foil as the light reflections from the clear part of the sticker ruin the effect.

I know I can't really complain because it cost £2 in total but I'd definitely stick to stamping for the moment.

MATCH THAT MANI: Morrisons Exotic Palm Scented Diffuser // Peach & Green Tropical Leaf Design

More peach! More Monstera! This doesn't exactly match...it's more "inspired that mani".... I had to peel myself away from the home aisle in Morrisons as a reed diffuser isn't exactly a necessity in these times. So instead I took a photo and then created these nails.

I will probably try again using more exact colours but I was having a bit too much fun swirling all the acrylic paint around on my mat and ended up with more vibrant greens than blue/greens.

I did think about doing every nail but I thought it might be too overpowering so I settled on some lighter peach nails. Once the whole mani was done the bare nails felt like they were missing something and I rummaged round the tiny stash I brought with me and found a pack of broken holo nail stickers from essence and they added just the right amount of detail. (They also only cost 99p, bargain!)

I can't stop staring at my hand; I wish I could say I hand drew this but I would be telling giant lies. I stamped on the design in a light green and then painted the detail on top. It's fun and oddly therapeutic. I used a white stamping polish on my little finger but the white sticks out in some places and it did blend as nicely as the green.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Daisy DND // Peach Buff (light peach), Havin' Cabbler (dark peach)
- MoYou London // Hello Absinthe (olive green)
- Pebeo Studio Gouache // 11 Blanc, 48 Primary Yellow, 42 Emerald Green, 49 Cyan
- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy // Diamond Top Coat
- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- MoYou London Stamping Plates // #Summervibes 02 & 04
- Essence // Broken Holo Nail Stickers

*psssttt happy easter every one! I'm gorging my way through a 12 pack of cream eggs...no regrats.

Cantaleaves // Mustard Yellow Palm Leaf Design

Time for a cute mani! I love this look so much. It's directly inspired by this post I saw on pinterest and I managed to track the author down to @mkmk1209 on instragram. She is an amazing nail artist so please check out her work. Here's the original:

I am no where near this level of artistry yet but I'm trying!

I would wear this everyday throughout summer. I just love that mustard yellow colour but boy does it stain your nails. Once it came off it looks like I have a 90-a-day smoking habit. Oh well, I guess that just means I have to paint my nails more often to cover it up...

How I did it:

I did two layers of Cantaloupe and one layer of White Heat. Then I mixed some of the green and white acrylic paint together to add detail and used a little black at the end to darken the edges. I then just topped everything off with a glossy topcoat. I also have a video this time! Please be aware though that this one was filmed after these photos were taken and in the video I decided to place the leaf at the top of the nail.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- H&M // Cantaloupe (mustard yellow)

- Crafts 4 All Acrylic Paint // 105 Titanium White, 615 Emerald Green, 753 Black

- Avon Mark. // Gel Shine Top Coat
- MoYou London Plate // Tropical 12

Nude Palm Leaves // Pink Nude Tropical Design

Something a bit different? Perhaps my favourite mani I've done so far and hand painted! Well....half hand painted. I bought some acrylic paint a couple months ago but with assignments piling up I've been doing the most basic of mani's. However I handed in my last assignment on the 24th and now I have time again. It's so strange to be able to do whatever I want and not feel guilty about not doing uni work. 3 years has gone by so quickly and now I have 6 weeks till I move to Birmingham to start the next chapter of my life.

But, these nails. I've been wanting to get into using acrylics for a while now thanks to talented nail artists like @narmei (piggyluvs). These are kind of cheating though because I used a stamping plate to get the shape of the leaves and then I painted over them to give them more detail but boy does it make a big difference!

I also found a use for one of the sheer polishes from this months Mani & Lola! Now I just need to use the other sheer pink in something. I think a more pigmented background would've ruined this as the pop of green and the pink leaves are the focus. It's a little streaky but with a nice glossy top coat it's only noticeable up close. I was also surprised at how easy it is to work with acrylic on nails, it dries quite fast but water activates it again (unlike when it's on paper). I definitely need some proper brushes though as my cheap ones are a bit to soft to do really fine detail with.

How I did it:

I applied one coat of Pink Nude and followed it with the pink leaves using Rosewood Forest. All the stamping designs are from Tropical 36. I then stamped on the green palm leaves using #12 and then mixed the acrylic paints together to create a light, dark and mid green tones and randomly painted them on to create the detail. Once it was dry I topped it off with a glossy top coat.

I have so many designs I want to do and I want to film as well! I'm also thinking of adding skincare reviews to the blog as I really miss the skincare blogging, it's just the makeup stuff I can't really stand doing. I think I'll be adding beauty box unboxings as well considering I have 6...So much to do! I'm actually excited for everything and I'm going to start my nail polish app soon once I've finished designing it.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- ORLY // Pink Nude (sheer pink creme)
- Essence // Rosewood Forest (dusty pink)

- Born Pretty Polish // #12 (green)
- Crafts 4 All Acrylic Paint // 105 Titanium White, 605 Green Pale, 753 Black

- Barry M // Plumpy Hi Shine Top Coat
- MoYou London Plates // Tropical 36

Geometric Heat // Tropical Geometric Print and Palm Leaves

What's this?? Nail art on THE OTHER HAND???!? Yes my other hand has come out from the shadows for one week only, or well I might start doing my other hand more often because it was nice to have a matching manicure for once...they're not completely the same but they match and that's all that matters.

This manicure has actually been one of the longest I've worn in a long time as I usually always wear a peel off base coat on my main hand. However, my dissertation was due today (praise be to Jesus it's over) and I made sure to do my nails last week with a regular base coat so it wouldn't come off. That way I wouldn't be tempted to do my nails all week. It's been really hard as well because the new H&M polishes arrived and they've been sat in my swatch pile staring at me...begging me to use them.

This manicure has been nice and bright and summery to keep me motivated all week. It's chipped quite a bit on my other hand but my main hand held up nicely against all the constant typing.

I don't love the geometric print as much as the palm leaves, it looks a little too messy which is surprising given that I'm better at painting with my other hand. But I love how the colours go together. I'd wear that palm leaf print all year round.

How I did it:-

I started off with two coats of White Heat then applied all the green shades onto the stamping plate and mixed them together a little when scraping off the excess. It gives that nice blended look once you stamp and is a quick and easy way to add more detail. I then did the same with the other main hand but used the geometric print from Tropical 35. The palm trees were from SummerVibes 03 and the palm leaves from Tropical 10.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)

- Born Pretty Polish // #12 (green), #284 (light blue), #333 (pastel teal)

- Barry M // Plumpy Hi Shine Top Coat
- MoYou London Plates // Tropical 10, Tropical 35, #SummerVibes 03

Things To Do // Green Leaf Print

The last few posts were a bit pink heavy (but pink is a great colour) so I decided to finally dive into a recreation of this sticky pad note book I've had on my desk for the last few weeks. I got it from The Works for £1.99 and I knew the second I saw it that I wanted to do a nail look based on it. Unfortunately though, I don't have that many green stamping polishes but I think I did quite well considering!

This was actually quite simple to do and if I had the time, I would've done my other hand (I know right? Nail Art? On the other hand???) It's basically, a white base coat and then multiple layers of leafs in different colours. I had to use a few different stamping plates to get similar leaf patterns but the result is that my nails almost blend into the design.

To spice things up, I used one of my colour shifting stamping polishes. That darker olive green looking print at the bottom is a deep blue which shifts into a beautiful olive/gold shade, It's part of the Born Pretty Universe Series. I have three of them so far but they're £3/4 a pop and I can't find them cheaper on eBay so they'll have to wait for the moment. Not that that's expensive compared to MoYou but still, I'm used to buying Born Pretty polishes in sets of 6/7 for £6.

Also, to even out the green shades I used an Avon polish which I think I got in 2011/2012. It had completely separated but a good shake and it stamped quite well; I was most surprised.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Essie // Blanc (white)

- Born Pretty // Leo BPU01 (blue with olive/gold shift)

- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #12 (Primary Green)

- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #18 (Teal)
- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #379 (Light Yellow/Green)

- Avon Arabian Glow // Electric Green (Mottled Green) (discontinued now)

- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat

- Harunouta // Stamping Plate 17
- MoYou London // Tropical Stamping Plates 25 & 36