THROWBACK THURSDAY: Pastel Feathers // Look Fantastic September 2018 Box Nails

Alright, time for a throwback...from last month...LOL. So anyway, I've mentioned before I used to have a beauty blog but since I got into nails (and I entered the last year of my degree) I took it down as I was spending to much time on it and not spending enough time on my degree; so offline it went. I still have all the photos though and I really love some of the nail looks I did for boxes so I'm bringing them back in Throwback Thursdays. 

I adored last months LF box though and this months boring green thing pales in comparison. I think my version turned out a but to bright but I still love the result.

I started out with a white base coat and then brushed on each colour by mixing them with a bit of acetone. At some points it was almost like dry brushing as my brush ran out of colour however it kind of looks like pastel marble....perhaps I should try this technique with grey. I love me some basic marble.

I also love the white feathers. I originally wanted to do a birthday cake but I didn't have a cake stamps (yet) so I chose these feathers and now I want to use them in every pastel manicure I do.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Avon Nailwear Pro // Orange Creamsicle
- Avon True Colour Nailwear Pro+ // Lemon Sugar
- NYColour In A New York Minute // Lincoln Square Lavender
- NYColour In A New York Minute // Raindrop
- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Blueberry
- Barry M Speedy Quick Dry // Pole Position
- Ciate Paint Pots // Iced Frappe
- Essie // Blanc

Not Pictured:
- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat
- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #4
- Born Pretty // Stamping Plate BP-75

Days Like These... // Birchbox October 2018 Beauty Box Nails

Time for another Beauty Box nail design! Birchbox is quite possibly one of my favourite beauty boxes on the market (I'm subbed to 4 currently...) due to it's beautiful design each month and interesting products. I've been subbed for a year now and never had a repeat product in my boxes and it's the subscription that I've bought the most full sizes from after trialling.

This months design embraced autumn with a beautiful light blue/grey lined box decorated with orange, red and blue leaves. Ever since I saw the design I couldn't wait to try and recreate it however, I came up short with the leaves. I have about a bazillion flower decals but only a few were the orange shade. I currently have a set of autumnal decals in my cart on eBay but I've spent my beauty budget for this month so they'll have to wait for next month. 

Instead I had to make do with some oranges and tropical/esque leaves.

Compared to the box, it doesn't look like too much of a change and the lines turned out perfectly. Rain Washed was such a good match and because it wasn't a stamping polish it's softer and more pastel; just like the box design.

Those decals were an absolute bugger though and so fiddly. This look took me way longer than I expected due to the decals sticking to each other or just refusing to stick to anything. Sometimes they would break up as I was trying to slide them off, however they did cost around 75p per sheet so it wasn't exactly breaking the bank.

This is definitely one of those looks though where I wish I could've been bothered to do it on the other hand.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Essie // Blanc (white)
- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat
- Avon Mark. Gel Shine // Rain Washed (light blue pastel)

- Barry M Molten Metal // Bronze Bae (metallic gold)

- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat

Hidden Gems // Look Fantastic October 2018 Beauty Box Nails

So I started doing nail designs based off beauty boxes in my last blog (which I've now deleted because I just got sick of reviewing skincare/makeup, I just want to do nails lol) and I'm continuing that trend in this blog because some beauty boxes (like Birchbox) just scream NAILS. Look Fantastic used to, however in January they stopped doing different designs every month in favour of these boring block colour looks. 

I hate them. This nail look isn't one of my favourites however, this box did highlight just how few greens I have so that did stump my creativity a little. I ended up having to use a stamping polish as the base and whereas they're super opaque (that's just one coat) they have a habit of staining the cuticle and just being quite messy when used as a base coat.

That Nails Inc polish I ended up sponging on as it it tends to look a little streaky when applied normally. I applied it on top of the green base but I'm thinking I should've done black now to give it a little more contrast.

So, not my favourite (perhaps I'll post last months LF box nails in a throwback thursday or something, that was much better) but hey ho, what can you do? On another note, I'm enjoying the box contents (for once). The blusher is a beautiful mauve shade and it's nice to see Dr. Lipp release a new product for the first time in ever.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #12 (Primary Green)
- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat
- Nails Inc Easy Chromes // It's all Elementary (metallic moss green)

- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #1 (Gold)

- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat

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

Sweet Dreams // Pink Glitter & Mandalas

So I couldn't leave it alone. This is what I added to last look I did here. I really wanted to put some white mandala designs on the pink nails but I didn't want it to cover the entire nail, so I ended up sticking it at the bottom. But then the tips felt bare and I just can't stop staring at that glitter polish, so I dab dab dabbed it on.

This turned out way better than what I saw in my head. In fact, I was slightly annoyed I had applied a peel off base coat first as my favourite one is more for swatching and only lasts around 12 hours before peeling off. I think I've also gotten the hand of applying glitter on the tips now with that soft ombre. I use the small rectangle side of sponges and concentrate it at the tip, dabbing it further down when there's only a small amount let on the sponge.

Polishes used:

- OPI // Sweet Memories (light pink sheer cremé)

- Morgan Taylor // Sweetest Thing (rose gold holographic glitter)

- Revlon // Quick Dry Top Coat

- Revlon // Colorstay Diamond Top Coat

- Born Pretty // Stamping Polish #4 (white)

- Born Pretty // Liquid Latex

- Born Pretty // Stamping Plate BP L051