Clairestelle8: Inspired by Fashion ft. MoYou London Mexico

Hello Readers!


Today's post is for the 3rd #clairestelle8june prompt, "inspired by fashion". In case you weren't aware, this month the #clairestelle8challenge on instagram is being sponsored by picture polish, who will pick a winner and award them a $150 shopping spree on their website. Pretty cool!

Side note: I broke a nail while rock hunting (boohoo!) so I'm rocking a shorter mani now.

So for today's mani, I did a search on pinterest until I found a fashion look that inspired me. Here is my inspiration piece:

From Anthropologie

It's been a little while since I've done a mani inspired by fashion, but doing this I was reminded how much fun it is to do. There are so many great ideas in the fashion world that translate easily to nails!

For this mani, I first painted my pointer/middle fingers with a nude polish. My ring and pinky got a bright orange to match the skirt.

To get the look of the stripe down the middle of her shirt, I decided to piece together a couple of images on my silicone mat. I started by stamping the diagonal parallel lines on this MoYou London "Holy Shapes 05" plate, then painting the outside of the lines with my Sinful Colors "Navy I Do" polish.

Next, I stamped one of the thinner lines from the MoYou London "Holy Shapes 19" plate right in the middle of the two lines.

The pattern on my pinky and ring fingers comes from this MoYou London plate from the Mexico collection. It seemed like the best match to the skirt that I had in my collection.

Summer Shenanigans- Rock Hunting Team Mani

Hello Readers!



Today's post is something kind of silly and fun, and definitely different. Every year in my city, and local gym puts on a rock hunting extravaganza when school lets out for the summer. They hide 3 engraved rocks over the course of a month or so, and give out clues and then send the whole city out to find them. Whoever finds the rock wins $5000, or $10,000 if they are wearing an official "rock-hunting" shirt.

The rock hunt is winding down now, with only one rock left to be found, and people are swarming all over the nature trails of the city in red shirts hunting for it. My rock hunting buddy and I decided it would be fun to do rock hunting manis for good luck when we go on our search this week.

So, this mani might not make a lot of sense to people not from my city, but I will explain. We have a lot of red rocks in my area, so the pinky/pointer fingers represent all the rocks we are going to be shuffling through and turning over in search of the lucky one. The middle nail represents the quest to decipher the tricky clues given out by the hosts. The ring finger is a representation of the rock itself, which is roughly triangular shaped and has the logo of the gym engraved on one side (the face-down side, of course) to let you know when you have found it.


The orange color on this mani is Essie's "Taj-ma-haul", which my bottle is sadly becoming super thick and gunky from use. I think it's time to invest in some nail polish thinner to fix that little issue. Still, I managed to get it on my nails. The black is Sinful Colors "Konstellation", to add a little shimmer and fun.

I freehanded a decal for the rock shape. I didn't want it to be a perfect triangle since the actual rock is rough-sided and not perfectly shaped, so that it looks like a regualar rock when you see it in the wild. They don't want the game to be over too quickly! But I stamped a triangle onto it from this MoYou London "Holy Shapes 19" plate to represent the engraving.

The equations/chalkboard images come from this school-themed Born Pretty plate. It reminded of that meme of the confused/thinking lady, which feels a lot like us trying to figure out the clues:

Totally everyone in this city right now.

I wish I could take credit for the decision to use this plate, but my friend, Emily, had this awesome idea to use the rocks from the Bundle Monster/Twi_Star mermaid plate for this mani. I love this idea!


Wish us luck today! Hopefully this tribute to the rock hunt will be our "lucky charm" (wink wink... lucky charm is one of the mysterious rock clues this week, ha ha).

Crumpets Nail Tarts: Under the Sea

Hello Readers!


It's Friday again, which means it's time for another 26 Great Nail Art ideas post, and this time around the prompt is "water". An appropriate prompt for the beginning of summer, am I right?

I decided to take this opportunity to use the cute octopus images on the MoYou London "Animal" plates, because I've been wanting to use them forever!

So I started this mani with two fingers painted with "Cinderella" (3-4 coats) and two "Let's Playa" (two coats).

As previously mentioned, the octopus images come from the MoYou London "Animal 01" plate. I've previously used the flamingos and the colorful fish on this plate, but have never tried out these adorable octopi so I was excited to get to do that!

Of course, I had to use the Bundle Monster + Twi_star plate for the water pattern on my middle two nails. I've been using this plate a lot lately, especially for that specific pattern. It's so darn useful- not only can it make water ripples, but it's also great for making an easy marble look.

So then, let's talk about the middle finger. I decided to do a composite here of some different stamping images, and this time I figured it would be easiest to do this off of the nail. This is because the images with long, skinny lines are really easy to warp when stamping them onto your curved nail, and I really didn't want to have to deal with wiping them off and re-stamping, especially since I had the water patteren stamped onto my nail.

So, here's how I created this look. First, I stamped the "Under the Sea" phrase from the twi_star plate onto my silicone mat. Normally I wouldn't stamp images with words onto my mat, because if you are reverse stamping the image will end up backwards, but since I wasn't filling the images in at all it didn't matter.

Next, I took one half of the double line image and stamped it above the phrase, the below the phrase. The middle space in the double line image (second image on the top row) wasn't quite wide enough to fit the phrase, which is why I stamped the top and bottom halves separately.

Finally, I simply added topcoat to all of that, and when it was dry I applied it over my nail in one piece. Much easier to do that stamping on the mat than on the nail- because when you stamp onto the mat you can just stamp straight down without worrying about warping the lines or having them fold on you.

So, I really wanted to try using the chameleon flakies from Born Pretty that I recently reviewed with a masking technique. So after my nails were completely dry, I put liquid latex over the middle part of my middle nail and sponged some flakies onto the top and bottom portions. It's kind of hard to tell, because the flakies have a subtle effect over light polishes. I want to try this again another time over a dark polish though, as it seems to have worked even though it's hard to see.


I hope you enjoyed this oceanic look for today's Crumpet's Nail Tart's post! Be sure to check out the link-up below for more water themed looks!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crumpets Nail Tarts: Pink, Gold, and Lilac

Hello Readers!


Sometimes, I do a mani I'm excited about and when it's done, I take a step back and think... "meh". Other times, I am surprised when it turns out better than I'd hoped for. This is one of the latter!

Actually, the latter often happens when I take my inspiration from the talented ladies who create nail art for MoYou London's promotional page/instagram, which is what happened here. I had the rough idea for this mani in my mind, though I wasn't actually looking at the picture when I was planning this mani, just what I kind of remembered about it:

...which was the use of the new Hipster plates, the tiny triangle images, and the dip-dyed look plus gold. I kind of did my own thing with those elements, and ended up with a more feminine and soft version.

So the prompt for this mani was "lilac, pink, and gold." I had to add a little bit of green for the cactus, so hopefully nobody minds. ;)

After painting my nails, the next step was to create the dip-dyed effect, which I did with the aid of this MoYou London plate, "Holy Shapes 05". I used the right triangle image to create the line on my nails, then went over it with my nail polish straight out of the bottle to make it fully opaque.

The next step was to stamp the little triangles.
My tiny triangles came from this MoYou London "Hipster 16" plate, with all the cute cactus images.

Finally, I placed the decal I made from this MoYou London plate, "Hipster 18." So many choices on this plate, but I decided to go with a small potted variety. I used my lint roller to isolate the image so I would have just the one cactus for my decal.

I hope you enjoyed this mani today! Be sure to check out some more pink/lilac/gold manis in the link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Challenge Collaborative: Green Cacti ft. MoYou London Hipster

Hello Readers!



Today's post is my second entry for the monthly Nail Challenge Collaborative challenge. The prompt this month is "green", and though I seriously considered doing a watermelon-themed mani for this week, in the end cacti won out because I still hadn't tried out one of the MoYou London "Hipster" plates that I got for Mother's Day.

I loosely based this mani off of an art print I saw online when I was looking for inspiration:

Print by Anna Deegan. You can see it for sale here.

I really liked the idea of colorful cacti on a neutral background. I didn't exactly use the same colors as the print, but that was the dawn of my inspiration.

For my base color, I used the JLB "Taupe" color, which is a two-to-three coater. I find the JLB polishes at Ross in sets of six for about six dollars a set, making them a $1 polish, so it really isn't bad for that price.

The decal on my ring finger was from this MoYou London "Hipster 16" plate, which was a recent addition to the Hipster collection that I had to have because.... cacti! The texture image stamped in the lilac color on my pointer/pinky fingers is also from this plate. In retrospect, I kind of wish I had also stamped it before placing the decals on my middle/ring fingers.

My large potted cactus comes from the other new MoYou London Hipster plate. Lots of potted options for all your cactus needs on this plate; yet I can't help feeling like I almost don't really need it since I have all the potted cacti images on the other new Hipster plate. Oh well.

To get the green zizags on my pointer/pinky, I used the stair step image from MoYou London's "Holy Shapes 05" plate. I use this plate for color blocking all the time!


Be sure to check out more "green" themed manis from the Nail Challenge Collaborative group in the link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Simple Sunday 5/7/2017, ft. MoYou London Trend Hunter

Hello Readers!


It's that time of week again, where I show you what I wore on my nails to church this week. I like to try to do something simpler, and more classic, for my Sunday mani, though sometimes it ends up being a little more complicated than my original plan!

I was in the mood to play with the Trend Hunter collection this week, and to try out some mini Essie bottles that my Mom gave to me when she visited last month. The were from a Christmas collection, but I liked the lovely purples and decided to give them a go.

Free Comic Book Day mani.... with glitter!

Hello Readers!


I think this week in May must be the highest concentration of nearly insignificant holidays in the whole year- we had Star Wars day on Thursday, Cinco De Mayo yesterday, and today is National Free Comic Book Day, where you can march down to your local comic book store for a free sample. I don't think I've ever actually done this. However, it does also happen to be a #clairestelle8challenge day on instagram, and the prompt is "glitter". I had a new Born Pretty plate that I have really been wanting to play with, so I had this wild hair to combine comics with glitter.

Also with a new technique... glitter blocking! I'm not sure if I made this up or not, I just haven't seen it before.

Nail Crazies Unite: Watercolor floral

Hello Readers!


This is my second attempt at the "watercolor" prompt for the Nail Crazies Unite group on Facebook. At first, I tried to use the acetone-and-nail polish trick to do some watercolor painting on my nails. It ended in failure, but I had an idea that I wanted to try out combining stamping and water decals.

I also had some really cute watercolor style decals that I wanted to try out.

This post kind of is an echo of a post I did a while ago, where I combined stamping with some hand-made decal sheets for a geometric galaxy look. I wanted to try it again, but with an improved method and with water decals.

I started off with a white base for my middle nails, and painted my pointer/pinky with the lovely Sinful Colors "Tealing Power" from the Stoned Crystal Shimmer collection that was released this spring.

BB-8 Standing By for Star Wars Day!

Hello Readers, and Happy Star Wars Day!


I've always been into the Star Wars franchise, ever since I was a little girl. My Dad introduced my siblings and I to the original trilogy, and I remember watching it with my brothers and being awed by the exciting adventures and bizarre characters. When I was in High School, the prequels came out and even though  they were terrible, everyone was excited about it and me and my geek friends ;) had viewing parties and everything.

So I couldn't let Star Wars Day pass (as I'm sure everyone has heard a million times, "May the 4th... be with you) without giving it a nod.

I decided to base my mani off one of the newer characters to the franchise, BB-8, mostly because he is cute and I like his color scheme. Also, I've already done R2-D2 nail art.

So, I started off with base of my favorite white, and used this sparkly black on my pinky/pointer, partly because it's called "faraway galaxy" and partly because, just like its name suggests, it reminds me of stars.

Fast food mani ft. MoYou London Cookbook

Hello Readers!


Here's a random, quirky mani for you inspired by the MoYou London "fast food" plate in the Cookbook collection.

I paired some of the images with a Born Pretty plate that features lots of different adorable drinks.

I started off with a white base, then stamped over that with BMC "Rose Garden" to create a striped background for my food items.

My cute little burgers and fries come from this MoYou London plate, along with the larger hamburger image.

I thought this Born Pretty plate would pair perfectly with it, since obviously you need a drink to go with your meal. ;) I really love this plate and have been wanting to break it out lately and haven't seen an opportunity, so I jumped at this one.

Finally, here's a shot of the plate I used for my stripes- it's MoYou London's Holy shapes 17. This is definitely a go-to plate for me to find basic dots, stripes, and grids and I find myself reaching for it often.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed this somewhat silly mani. :)

Simple Sunday 3/26/17, ft. MoYou London Minimal and Trend Hunter

Hello Readers!

Today's Simple Sunday is inspired by those little tutorial videos the official MoYou London instagram account is always posting. I really loved how they used the corner of an image to make a triangle shape and then added another triangle shape on top, and wanted to try the technique for myself.

I really love the versatility of this technique- you could use almost any retangular or square design to do it and add more mileage to your images.

I started off this mani with 3 coats of the Sinful colors "Peaches and Cream" shade, which is part of the collaboration with Youtuber Kandee Johnson. This polish has a matte finish, which unfortunately means it's kind of a pain in the butt. Matte finish polishes have an extra long drying time as a general rule.  I put on a speed-drying topcoat to speed up the process, but I think I was feeling extra clumsy last night because I smudged my nails so many times and had to re-do several fingers. Sigh.

My lacy images come from the MoYou London "Trend Hunter" plate with all the lovely lace. One of my favorite images on this plate is the one I used on my middle finger. I picked an image that had a good consistent pattern on the corner for my ring finger so that it would look like a single pattern instead of two different ones- I wanted it more simple and straightforward. Then I simply stamped one of the corners onto my nail instead of placing the whole image over it.

Next, I pulled out my trusty Holy Shapes-05 plate, also by MoYou London. I used the equilateral triangle in the lower left-hand corner to stamp over my little lacy triangle with Essie's Leggy Legend. This particular metallic polish doesn't have the best opacity when stamped, so I had to stamp it a couple of times, just lining the images up using my clear stamper. You can still kind of see the white lace through the image, so maybe I should have gone over it with polish free-hand, but it just didn't bother me that much.

Finally, I stamped some of the arrows from this MoYou London "Minimal Collection" plate.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed this look and that you are having a wonderful Sunday.

Pop Art Zombies ft. Bundle Monster House of Horrors, MoYou London Holy Shapes

Hello Readers!


Today's post is an unusual one for March, because the prompt today for the #clairestelle8challenge on instagram is "unseasonal". I had a couple of Halloween plates on my "unused" plates list and I figured this was the perfect opportunity to play with them.

As I was contemplating what exactly I wanted to do, I remembered this pop art ghost mani I did around Halloween time last year, and decided to follow that sort of theme, but with a Zombie twist.

I stated off with a base of Sinful Colors "Snow Me White", and then had some fun with Bundle Monster stamping polishes. I did use an actual stamping polish for my black here. That means I also used a different topcoat than my normal to try to help prevent it from smudging. Black stamping polish is always the worst smudger! I find the Revlon Gel Envy topcoat works well over black stamping. You can see in the pic that it did still smudge in one small spot on the zombie's neck, but it's better than if I had used my normal quick-drying topcoat.

While we are on the subject, I also like to use the "gel" formula topcoats when making decals. Not actual lamp cured gel topcoats, just the kind with a gel-like formula. They tend to work better and crack less when moving the decals around to apply them to my nails.

I started off by stamping the large right triangle image from this MoYou London Holy Shapes plate.

Next, I stamped some polka dots from this other plate from the Holy Shapes collection. I just turned the stamp diagonally and purposely overlapped them onto the purple triangles just a little bit.

Once I had by base down, I stamped on some zombie themed images. My zombie face and the word "zombie" on my middle nail came from this Bundle Monster plate, from the House of Horrors collection. It was a really awesome Halloween collection that came out last year, and I used all the the plates except for this one, because it was a bit more gorey than the others and it's not my usual style. Hence the bright colors on this mani, ha ha.

My eye splat images come from this other Bundle Monster plate, from the original holiday collection.

For my middle nail, I actually lifted an "I <3" image off this plate from MoYou London's Rebel collection, and then stamped the word "zombie" under it. That's one great thing about these types of images- it's pretty easy to switch it up to say whatever you need it to say.

So I think this mani just about wins a "use-a-million-plates" award, ha ha. It was really fun to do though, and I'm happy to return to a pop-art nail art look; I always seem to enjoy them.