Red and Black flower stamping

I bought the 2012 Bundle Monster stamping plates when they first came out a few months ago, but I haven't used them very much so far. This is a pretty flower design, which I think is a tulip, from plate BM-306.

I started with 2 coats of W7's "Black" for all of the nails except the ring finger, then 2 coats of A-England's "Perceval" for the ring finger. Then, I stamped all of the black nails with Perceval and the red nail with the black. I like how this turned out, it kind of reminds me of Alice in Wonderland but I'm not sure why... I don't even like Alice in Wonderland. Sorry for the short post today, I still have lots of coursework to be doing. It'll all be done soon, hopefully!

Summer Challenge Catchup, Day 3: Favourite Summer Song

 When I saw this theme, I wasn't sure at all what I wanted to do my nails as. I don't really have a favourite summer song, I just listen to whatever is playing on the radio most of the time. So, I asked one of my best friends who is a huge music fan. A particular favourite is a woman who she describes as being one of the most perfect people alive. That is, Cheryl Cole. So, she suggested I take the design from the trousers Cheryl wears in her Call My Name music video and put it onto my nails. She's a genius. Here are said trousers:

 

And here are my nails.

 Yes, the Cheryl logo on my ring finger is upside down... I was too lazy to redo it and put it the right way round.

The logo was supposed to be like on the album cover, I think it turned out pretty good. Even if it did take about 5 attempts to get it all to fit on my nail! The colours I used for this design were, Barry M's "Bright Red", "Lemon Ice Cream", "Mint Green", "Black" and "White", Nails Inc's "Atomic", Max Factor's "Candy Blue" and Rimmel's "Ultra Violet". I also used some pink acrylic paint to write Cheryl before going over it with white polish. Using acrylic paint meant that I could erase it with water as many times as I liked. For the animal print, I used image plate BM221 and Barry M's "Black".

I'm happy with how these nails turned out overall, I think they're pretty cool. What do you think? :)

Summer Challenge, Day 1: Bees

Hello everyone! July 1st marks the first day of the Summer Challenge created by Kaki and Theodora. 

This is the first nail art challenge that I have taken part in, so posting every other day is going to be a huge challenge for me. I'll be honest, I was shocked that it was July 1st already. I thought I had at least a few more days! Thankfully, my set of Bundle Monster's new image plates arrived the other day so they helped me to get a design ready in time.

Onto today's design, with the theme: Bees.

The plates I used were BM-301 for the bees, and BM-305 for the zigzag pattern in the background. I already had the black and gold background on my nails, so when I realised I had a challenge to do I thought it would make a good base because it kind-of looks like a bee. So, I stamped little bees all over it. :P

The nail polishes that I used were Barry M's "Black", Barry M's "Gold Foil" and Barry M's "Silver Foil".

Here are the other girls doing the challenge:

Pink and Green circle stamping

Before I start today's post, I want to apologise for  the terrible stamping on my nails. Hayfever has been killing me all weekend, and it doesn't help that I live right across the road from a field of rapeseed. Lining up the stamp with the nail isn't easy when you have streaming eyes and a running nose, y'know!

Anyway, I'll stop with the whining. The base colour I used was Barabra Daly Make Up's "Kiwi" and the stamping colour was Nails Inc's "OMP!". The stamping plate was BM206.

The pink didn't come out quite as bright as I'd have hoped, but I think the manicure still looks good. Lining up the stamp is definitely something I need to improve on... Does anyone have any tips?

Pink Spice and Indigo zebra print

I find it boring to just have a nail polish colour on my nails. Yes, it's pretty, but other than that there isn't much to look at. But that's just my opinion. SO, I've stamped some zebra print onto the same Pink Spice colour as yesterday. I call it zebra print, but I'm not really too sure what it is. It could be a tiger print I suppose, but I wouldn't know what the difference between them. I think my nails today look more like a tiger because of the orange tones to Pink Spice.

The base coat is Accessorize's "Pink Spice" (obviously) and the stamping colour is Barry M's "Indigo". The stamping plate I used was BM223.

 

I think Indigo has worked quite well as a stamping polish, although I'm not too sure how well it would do over colours other than reds/pinks/purples. I think overall my nails look so cute and sparkly! I love them.

Green-on-green stamping

Today, I have more stamping on my nails. To me, it looks as though it could be dragon skin if it were a bit darker.

The colours used were a base coat of Barry M's "Mint Green" and a stamping colour of a dark green from La Femme Beauty which doesn't have a name (picture further down). The image plate used was BM223.

The stamping colour I used didn't come out as dark as I'd hoped, it kinda blends in with the base colour. However, I think it still works and looks just as pretty. Just goes to show, even if a mani doesn't turn out how you'd wanted it to, it can still be gorgeous.

Green and silver flower stamping

I haven't posted anything in a few days! I can't say I have an excuse, other than being amazing at procrastinating, so sorry about that... Anyway, on with the design.

Today, I have a green and silver flower pattern. This was done using the Bundle Monster image plate BM221, a base coat (3 coats) of Miss Beauty UK's "Ocean" and a stamping colour of Barry M's "Silver Foil".

I'm really loving these stamping plates, it makes putting cute designs on my nails so much easier and less time-consuming. Definitely a buy I'd recommend to anyone wanting to start stamping without buying overly expensive plates and polishes.

Max Factor "Fantasy Fire" swatches

There’s one colour that EVERYONE is talking about right now. Max Factor’s “Fantasy Fire”. I first heard about it on Nailasaurus’s blog, here, and fell in love with the colour. I’ve ever seen anything like this before, but aparently it’s a lot like Clarins 230 “Unicorn Pee”. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard about Clarins until I heard about Fantasy Fire, but they’re both gorgeous colours.
When I brought the colour yesterday, I layered 2 coats of it onto 2 coats of Barry M’s “Vivid Purple” because on it’s own, Fantasy Fire is a very sheer polish. I’ve heard it needs about 7 coats to be opaque on it’s own, but I haven’t tested it.


I’m not a huge fan of darker colours, so I tried it on a lighter colour today. Miss Beauty Nail Polish’s “Amythest” was the colour I chose and used 3 coats of that with 2 coats of Fantasy Fire. I think it worked beautifully.


These photos don’t do the colour justice at all. In real life, the polish is filled with glitter particles, that reflect orange and green as your fingers move, with a sort-of holographic look to it.
Overall, Fantasy Fire is a beautiful polish and it’s completely understandable why it’s becoming harder to find. Where I am, Boots was sold out and Superdrug had 3 left. I think I should get stocked up.

Barbie Heels Stamping

Post originally from April 13th 2012, moved from Tumblr:

I think it’s fair to say I really am going to become obsessed with image plates and stamping. Instead of the usual once-a-week nail painting, it’s beginning to be every few days. Maybe it’s the boredom of Easter holidays, but at this rate I won’t be doing any revision for exams this summer… Oh well.

I used image plate BM-213 with the high heels pattern for this design. It reminds me so much of Barbie dolls, and screams “PINK!” so I just had to do it. The base colour is three coats of Barry M “Strawberry Ice Cream” and the shoes are Nails Inc “OMP!”.