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

SWATCHES: OPI Infinite Shine // Barking up the Wrong Sequoia, Excuse Me, Big Sir! & Malibu Pier Pressure

I keep buying pink nail polish and somehow it doesn't match anything else I have. It must be some kind of miracle...

I found these in TK Maxx the other day and I threw them in my basket like g2g fast. These shades are who I want to be. I had seen Malibu Pier Pressure on Nail Polish Direct but I didn't want to fork out £9 for it and then it appeared in TK for £3.99. And it's the infinite shine versions which are always more expensive; I am one very happy nail polish hoarder right now.

All Infinite Shine shades take a little longer to dry but the formula is much better than the originals. A few other blog posts I read for this collection noted that the originals were very thick and gloopy and required thinning out. I found all of these shades fine straight out of the bottle. As always, I'm not wearing any top coat in the swatches.

Barking up the Wrong Sequoia // Peach Creme

Collection: California Dreaming

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

My heart sang when I saw this shade; it's exactly what I wanted Coral-ing Your Spirit Animal to be. This is a beautiful, pure peach shade with a self-leveling formula. The first coat is a little streaky but two coats and you're good to go. 

Excuse Me, Big Sir! // Neutral Rose Creme

Collection: California Dreaming

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

This is such a nice pink. I can't get over how perfect this pink is. It's very similar to Barry M's Tropical Pink if you're looking for a dupe. If you apply a thick coat slowly you can get away with one coat but I've found that two thin coats dries faster.

Malibu Pier Pressure // Hot Pink Creme

Collection: California Dreaming

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

This one was the trickiest to apply with coats being streaky and fast drying but two coats even everything out. I wish summer wasn't almost over and I wish I could go on holiday because this shade deserves more than a dreary rainy afternoon in England.

// Verdict

I had seen this collection before and it's right up my street. I don't want all of them but there's a few others I've got my eye on like Sweet Carmel Sunday which is a metallic rose gold. I managed to get the main shades I wanted though for less than half the price. Thank you TK Maxx!

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

QUICK SWATCH: Essie Gel Couture // Jade To Measure

Another TK Maxx buy. I'm not the biggest Essie fan; I find the formula sub-par for how much it costs and I don't really like the bottles either but this shade caught my eye.

Jade To Measure // Metallic Emerald Duochrome (sapphire undertones)

Collection: Gel Couture Holiday

Release Date: 2017

Coats: 2

This is a really special polish; it's beautiful and the formula is just on point. It leaves slight brush strokes however for once, you can't actually tell because the strokes aren't darker than the polish. It's incredibly shiny and all the shimmery bits give it so much depth. When the light hits it, it feels like when the sunlight hits the sea.

This would be perfect for St Patrick's day.

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)