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Day of the Doctor Nail Art

23rd November 2013

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Back in the day, I used to be a big Doctor Who fan although I cannot claim to be a true Whovian. After Rose’s time on the show came to an end, I started watching it less often and still haven’t really come around to the idea of Matt Smith as The Doctor. Nevertheless, I’ll still be watching the 50th anniversary episode this evening! After all the best Doctor (don’t argue with me, you know it’s true), David Tennant is returning and I’m sure there will be more than a few familiar faces and other surprises along the way!

For the base colour I chose a polish that fits the theme perfectly… Cult Nails Time Traveler – a polish named after the Doctor’s big blue box

On my ring and pinky fingers, I stuck some 1 mm flat backed pearls and painted them copper to look a bit like Daleks!

My index finger is painted with Essie As Gold as it Gets and stamped with W7 Black and a design from MoYou London Plate Pro Collection 10. This is meant to look a bit like The Master’s fob since this is a piece of imagery that really stood out to me back in the days when I used to watch the show. Wasn’t The Master a brilliant character?!

The galaxy nails were created using a couple of polishes including the holographic polishes A-England Rose Bower and Princess Sabra.

Finally, it’s all topped off with Cult Nails Get It On.

Review, Stamping, Uncategorised

MoYou London Stamping Plates Review

17th November 2013

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Press Sample

It seems the whole nail world has gone MoYou London crazy recently and I’m no exception! I’ve had my eye on MoYou London for a very long time, always admiring their designs from a safe distance because I knew that if I ever bought one, I would just have to buy ALL the MoYous!

Well now I have a few of them I realise I was right, there’s an air of collectibility about them, much like you get with rare nail polishes or beanie babies! They’re split up in to collections which makes collecting that much easier and they release new products every week. My favourite collections at the moment are Time Traveller, Pro and Sailor. After using these plates for a few weeks I can confirm that they are truly amazing and a very good investment for any stamping enthusiasts out there.

The plates themselves look incredible. They’re rectangular (which is new to me) and each comes in a cardboard sleeve which is great for storage. The range of designs is very impressive – they have everything from pop culture icons’ faces, to comic strips, to pretty patterns. Some plates even feature a design that stretches from corner to corner and these truly are works of art.

I think the identity and aesthetic that MoYou London have created for themselves as a brand really makes them stand out from the competition. Their website and packaging are very easy on the eyes and it’s obvious that each collection is very carefully thought out. Each collection is based around a character and the designs on the plates reflect that. You’ll probably find yourself identifying with one girl more than the others. I wish I could say I was a Roxy but I’m really a Nova at heart!

I know that when buying new plates, most of us want to know how big the ‘all-over’ designs are to figure out whether they will cover our whole nail so I’ve taken the liberty of measuring the designs. MoYou London offers plates that have XL images as well as the regular size which is ideal for people with particularly long or wide nails.

Regular MoYou London Images

12 x 15mm

XL MoYou London Images

15 x 22mm

For comparison: Bundle Monster Images

13 x 17mm

Each plate is secured on to a thick sheet of plastic but this is not like the backing we’re used to with Bundle Monster and Konad. It’s a completely separate piece of material slightly bigger than the plate, so you have a white border of plastic around the metal area. At first glance I thought this would be an ugly annoyance but I’ve come to love this feature as I noticed that it minimises damage to any surfaces I lay the plate on whereas some other plates I’ve used are scratchy at the edges.

So far I haven’t come across a single design which hasn’t transferred perfectly on to the stamper and then on to my nail. I’ve been using a credit card to scrape of excess polish and MoYou London’s pink stamper for transferring the designs. They also offer a double ended stamper with a huge surface at one end and a smaller stamp at the other. The stampers are very squishy – at least compared to the Konad stamper I’ve been using for the past 3 years – but they work without a hiccup.

You can buy MoYou London plates from moyou.co.uk for £4.99 each. Standard shipping within the UK is completely free and they ship worldwide for very reasonable rates.

You can get 20% off your first order when you use the code, SAMMY20, at the checkout. Just make sure you’re signed in to your account on the website first or the code won’t work.

Here are a few of my manicures that feature MoYou London stamping. Click on any picture to go to the original post.

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Pearly Whites

16th November 2013

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This textured white polish from Barry M is one that I featured in my top 3 holiday nail shades this week on Divine Caroline. I wasn’t a huge fan of it at first but now that the winter and festive season are closing in, I have a new appreciation for the effect it creates. It looks just like freshly fallen snow, with a bit of extra glitter!

I used a coat of China Glaze Dandy Lyin’ Around followed by two coats of Barry M White Pearl for the white accents.

The pink is China Glaze Pink-ie Promise. I added a few 1mm pearls and some stamping from MoYou Sailor Collection 05 plate with BK Matte White polish.

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Honeycomb Hands

10th November 2013

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I’ve been so bad at blogging this week and for that I apologise. I’ve had a strange couple of weeks where nothing much has happened but I’ve just been busy all the time! I’m actually starting a new job tomorrow which is very exciting but means that blog posts may still be scarce for a while. Although it’s not always obvious, my regular posting schedule is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and often with extra posts scattered in when I have the time so that’s what I’m trying to get back to!

I created the nimbus nails with a selection of pinks including piCture pOlish Mad Magenta and W7 Baby Pink. Click here for a nimbus tutorial.

I’m also wearing Sally Hansen Green Tea and Barry M Prickly Pear.

The honeycomb pattern is a stamp from Bundle Monster Plate BM422 and I used BK Matt White.

It’s all topped off with two coats of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

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Dreamy

8th November 2013

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Today I’m debuting the Bundle Monster fan plates here. I bought these a while ago, along with a second plate holder to house them all. The Bundle Monsters got overlooked because I’ve been so taken with the MoYou plates recently but I saw Nail Newbie using this stamp and just had to dig it out of the drawer!

I’m trying some new things with my photos so this a heads up that they may be a bit hit and miss for a while until I figure out how I like them! I haven’t changed too much, just the background and a few things in post-production but I think they’re already looking better. Constructive feedback is very much appreciated, I’d like to know how they look on your screens as I know they can vary!

The bluey lavender shade is Maybelline Ceramic Blue and I used H+M Jo Is In The House over the top for the glittery accent. The pink shade is Revlon Sweet Tart and I stamped over the top with Bundle Monster plate BM410 using BK Matt White.

I topped it all off with two coats of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

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Remember, Remember

6th November 2013

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The highlight of my week was going to a firework display yesterday for Guy Fawkes Night. In firework terms, it’s the closest we get to Independence Day in the UK and I was like a little kid at Christmas stood there gawking up at the sky! What does that have to do the nail art, you may be wondering? Well I always think of V for Vendetta on November 5th and today’s nails feature red roses, as does the movie. Can I have that? Oh go on!

For this mani I used Sinful Colors Island Coral as my base. I used more colours for the Nimbus accents than I can list here! I just kept picking out colours and adding them on top to get the effect I wanted. The main ones you see in the mix are Barry M Papaya and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed.

For the rose patterns, I used Barry M Passion Fruit to stamp from MoYou Plate Pro 04 which isn’t on the site any more but you can get the same images on Pro 07 in the XL size.

It’s all topped with two coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.