Tropical Terracotta // Tropical Leaves with Nude Background

This look was inspired by a painted plant pot I saw on pinterest! I was swatching some new Barry M shades I got and I thought Honeysuckle would make the perfect background for the dark blue and white and I was right! It's just neutral and soft enough to provide the perfect contrast.

I started off with Honeysuckle as the base then stamped on the designs from one my favourite paradise plates. Followed by some gold dots and topped off with a matte top coat.

Polishes/Tools Used:

Base:

- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Honeysuckle (terracotta)

Stamping:

- MoYou London // Midnight Madness (dark blue)

- Twinkled T // Glow Up (white)

- L'Oreal Color Riche // L'Or (gold)

- MoYou London // Paradise 01 Stamping Plate

Top:

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

 

Pastel Paradise // Tropical Summer Nail Look

So I did these nails whilst swatching my latest Essence haul (swatches here) and I knew they'd all go beautifully together to create some wonder tropical looks; including this one!

This was pretty easy but the large brush on Essence polishes make it hard to free-hand circles and shapes cleanly (especially as the formula is a bit gloopy). But it turned out fine in the end.

I started off with 2 layers of Sugar Blush, then placed random splotches of Bubble Trouble followed by Isn't She Minty. The stamps are from Paradise 01 using Ghosted and then I used a dotting tool to place random dots of Don't Leaf Me and Swirl Pool. I topped it off with a layer of Smudge Proof top coat, and then a matte top coat.

I think using a dark grey instead of black made this much better.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Essence // 05 Sugar Blush (sheer pink), 40 Isn't She Minty (light green), 04 Bubble Trouble (pastel pink)

- Essence // 42 Swirl Pool (blue), 19 Don't Leaf Me (teal green)

- Twinkled T // Smokey (dark grey)

- MoYou London // Paradise 01 Stamping Plate

- MoYou London // Smudge Proof Top Coat

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

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

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.

Off The Grid // Tropical Black & White Marble Nail Art Design

More looks using the collab plate from MoYou London! I really wanted to do something similar to the cover sleeve and originally had this:

But I felt it was missing something. I also wanted to cover up some of the patchy black lines...one day I will be able to paint straight black lines and I'll never have to stamp again. I looked through my stash and found some tropical water decals and decided to stick them on top:

I think it turned out well! These water decals are much better than others I've used. I found that they didn't have that annoying white cut out around them that some do and it didn't immediately try to fold onto itself when sliding it off the paper. I think they were £2 for a pack of 50 assorted designs? I'll have to try and find the listing on eBay again to get some more as there were only 2 small sheets of the tropical designs.

I wore this with a peel off base coat but it managed to last a day an half before one of the nails slid off. I could't stop staring at my hand; I really loved this design. I think the pop of green really made it. The marble background was done by smooshing the dark grey shade with white and then stamping it on top of a white background.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Twinkled T // Ghosted (dark grey), Vibin' (black)
- STZ Water Decals // STZ-828 Tropical Decals
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Collab 03
- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

Over The Top-ical // Tropical Leaves, Line Art & Glitter Nail Design

Wow I used so many polishes in this one. It's definitely over-the-top...hence the name. I've also developed a love for matte green glitters; they're just perfect. I need Zoya to do more. Speaking of Zoya, have you seen the new autumn collection. It was love at first sight for me; I'm actually thinking of spending over £100 to get the full set. It's available for pre-order on NailPolishDirect but £110 is a lot of money for just 12 shades.

Anyway, I'm trying my best to cling onto summer nails with this look inspired by Lieve91's black & white geometric design that she did last year which you can now recreate thanks to her collab with MoYou London.

I'm not sure what would be easier; practice stamping to get straight black lines or practice painting. This doesn't look completely awful though so I'm happy.

The glitter nails are a green shimmer with two layers of the Zoya matte glitter on top and then some holo glitter because I couldn't resist. I had to take them off almost immediately though because these shades stain within about an hour. I'll have to paint some falsies with this combo so I can wear it for longer. 

Here's my prototypes for this look:

The entire look came together over a few days as I kept practicing designs. The one on the right is completely hand=painted with acrylic paint. I bought some flow-improver and it's radically changed how my acrylics behave and they apply a lot smoother now than the photo above.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Nails Inc // Girls Got Coals (dark green)
- Sinful Colours // Amazonian (dark green shimmer)
- Zoya // Shawn (dark green), Ness (pale green), Cece (matte green glitter)
- Daisy DND // 469 Vast Galaxy (holo glitter topper)
- MoYou London // Bora Bora (light teal), Mint Condition (light mint), Olive Tree (pale olive)
- Born Pretty // 12 (primary green)
- Twinkled T // Tickled (pink), Glow Up (white), Vibin' (black)
- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Collab 03, Paradise 05, Tropical 36

STAMPING PLATES: MoYou London // Lieve91 Collab

Another day, another stamping plate release from MoYou London but this one is a collab with my favourite nail artist; Lieve91 aka Anya. If you don't know who lieve91 is, please go take a quick look at her instagram, marvel, gasp and then come back. She is the reason I'm now trying to step up my game and learn how to paint properly. Even though we're the same age, I hope one day I can grow up to be as good her. So of course, I had to buy this plate and support her.

This plate features a few designs from other popular sold out MoYou plates, like the palm trees and checker board but what made it special for me was the overlapping leaf designs, fire and drip stamp. Anya does countless beautiful hand-painted leaf mani's that I can only dream of achieving. So whilst I'm still practicing my acrylic skills I can use this plate (and the recent paradise collection).

I decided to re-create one of Anya's look that she re-created with this plate. Here's the original handpainted version:

And the one she did with the plate:

And mine:

Yikes. I'm still not the best stamper in this world; I just don't understand why I can't get a clean stamp. I have a theory that MoYou just use Photoshop's powerful spot healing tool to remove the gaps in the stamp. I don't as I feel it's not really representative of what can be done. I only use it if I spot rogue bits of polish on my skin. The flame one I attempted several times but it always missed polish in the exact same spots. But who knows?

Anyway, congrats to Anya for her collab! This plate has now sold out as of posting this (it's been 2 days since it released) and whereas MoYou say they don't restock anymore, I would keep an eye out and they actually do.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Zoya // Sawyer (coral), Neely (sage)
- Twinkled T // Tickled (pink), Glow Up (white - stamped), Vibin' (black)
- Ciaté // White Heat (white background)
- H&M // Ice Cold Milk (sheer white used for light detail)
- MoYou London // Bora Bora (green on eye)
- Maniology // Maui Gold (yellow)

STAMPING PLATES: Paradise Collection // MoYou London

Another month, another amazing stamping plate collection from MoYou London. This is by far my favourite though; look at them:

BEAUTIFUL.

Tropical summer plates are without a doubt my favourite and the second I received the email I bought plates 1 - 5. Plate 6 for me is just too similar to other plates I own. It's hard to pick a favourite of them; each plate has such a unique theme. I love the super detailed images on plate 1 and I am going to create all the sunset mountain looks with plate 4. I just wished they had released them in June as we basically have 1 month of summer left now...let's face it though, that won't stop me from doing monstera nails!

I knew when I saw the sleeves though that I had to copy the design.

Before you say anything, yes that is my hand lol but no those are not my nails.

For the first time in my life I'm wearing false nails! I have to admit it was nice to have all the extra room for the design but these were an absolute nightmare 😂 honestly felt just like Peter from Family Guy

I bought a pack of 500 false tips off eBay for £4. They came in 9 different sizes and they weren't the best match but I did enjoy painting them. I was going to do the leaves on all the nails but since I have my full collection back I wanted to use some glitter and this is my favourite glitter shade that I own. I'm glad it was on false nails though because it stains in about 10 minutes.

There are so many more designs I want to do. Expect a lot using these plates over the next couple of months!

Polishes/Tools used:-

- Nails Inc // Old Park Lane (pink)
- Zoya Pixiedust // Chita (green glitter)
- Twinkled T // Glow Up (white)
- MoYou London Polishes // Olive Tree (light sage green), Bora Bora (light teal), Dream Holiday (blue)
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Paradise 04
- Born Pretty // Gold Nail Decorations Wheel

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.

Hello Monstera // Pink & White Monstera Leaf Nail Art

Yes, more pink nails! More monstera! I just wanted to do something simple after work and I wanted it to be pink with green leaves...as usual. This will also tide me over until my Barry M/China Glaze haul arrives. I promised myself I wouldn't buy any nail polish in quarantine but then Barry M had a 20% off code (and a lot of items on sale) and I then discovered the 2015 Summer China Glaze collection....I've literally just bought 15 pink/peach shades and I'm not even mad.

Anyway, in other news I've decided to finally turning my hobby into a weekend job once we're all allowed back out again. I started looking into how to get a licence and discovered that unlike the US, the UK does not require a nail technician to have any formal training or qualifications which is kind of disturbing. To think that anyone can just go round offering services like a professional with no training, is not only demeaning to hardworking nail technicians who have trained for years but just downright dangerous. 

Due to this, I wanted to get some training in but I really can't afford right now to do some of the courses I really want because they're £1k+ so I paid for an online course a couple days ago and I'm going to ask for my money back from them because it is shocking how much information is inaccurate. For example, they incorrectly teach that the the nail fold is the cuticle and that it's necessary to cut it. I'm a hobbyist nail artist and even I know that's wrong. They also had a entire module on "best customer practices" in which they teach you to talk to the client and ask them if they want a drink??? Like that's just common courtesy, why did I pay £25 for this? And that was on sale! It's normally £100. What did I expect for £25 though? At least the course gives me access to a Salon Services trade card so I can buy at wholesale prices. That was worth £25. I guess I will just continue to save so I can do a proper course but for the moment I feel I'm more than ready to just do standard manicures and gel nails.

Alright, rant over, back to the nails. This look comprises of my favourite pink polish and two monstera leafs that were stamped on but then I used acrylic gouache to add some extra detail. I'm so happy with how they turned out, they almost look like water decals!

Polishes/Tools used:-
- Ciaté // TuTu (pale pink)
- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Cotton (white)
- MoYou London // Hello Absinthe (green)
- Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy  // Diamond Top Coat
- Pebeo Studio Gouache // 11 Blanc, 48 Primary Yellow, 42 Emerald Green
- MoYou London Stamping Plates // Tropical 23