MoYou Nails product review

This is a bit of a first-ever for me... stamping designs that don't cover the whole nail! I was asked if I'd like to review a few products from the MoYou Nails collection, including one of their stamping polishes of my choice, and I jumped at the opportunity, since my default white stamping polish (Sally Hansen InstaDri in Whirlwind White) is almost used up and I'm not sure where I'd find another bottle!

I received MoYou Special Stamping polish in White, MoYou Stamper and plastic scraper and image plates 105 and 106 to try out. 106 is a set of french tips. I've been intrigued by these for years, but a little scared, and I've had a few unsuccessful attempts with tip images that came with other sets of plates. So a little nervous to try this out, I selected this floral image.... 

This was rather easy to place - maybe because of my current nail shape and I loved the effect! The base mani is Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm, an old shade that is my favourite navy blue ever. 

I found the white stamping polish dense and opaque, without being thick at all - so it spread perfectly over the plate and was easily removed by the plastic scraper. The stamper I was sent was a *bit* squishy; I've not had great success with full-on-squishy stampers I've tried, and always end up going back to my old Konad stamper, which is really too small for my nails. But this one works great and I'm really happy with it. I roughed up the surface a bit with an emery board before I started, but I found the stamper picked up the image perfectly from the plate and transferred it very easily to my nails. My nails are not the easiest to stamp on, because I have quite a high c-curve, but this stamper handles that very well. 

Great so far - I'm very impressed by the polish, the stamper and the quality of the plate. I was a bit too hasty putting topcoat over my design and ended up with micro-streaks that show up in the pictures (but didn't in real life). 

The second plate was 105, a selection of individual heart images. I decided to test these out over a textured polish (Binky London Crystal Pink) and create a skittle design. My favourite image on the plate is the grafitti style heart in the middle; I used this on my index finger for a full image, off centre on my ring finger and multiple times on my middle finger to create a random whole nail graffiti pattern. Then I chose a different heart for my little finger. I love how this turned out and the application of the stamped images to the textured polish was a breeze.  

So I'm giving a big thumbs up for the stamper, the plastic scraper is fine (although I always find an old plastic card perfectly adequate for this job) and comes as a bundle with the stamper anyway, the plates are good quality and stamp very well (and gave me the chance to try designs I'd probably not have chosen otherwise, as I tend to always go for full nail images) and the white stamping polish seems great.... before I decide if I want to make it my default white stamping and nail art polish I wanted to try a couple of other things though... 

Full nail stamped design with a plate from my collection - the polish handled perfectly! I wanted a soft effect for this mani, so it has a layer of white jelly (Sally Hansen Polar Bare) over the stamping. The grey is Barry M Gelly in Almond.

And lastly - is it opaque enough for dots?  I think so - these dots over a dark chocolate brown (Megan Miller Ganache) certainly pass muster by my standards. So I'd definitely recommend MoYou's white polish for stamping and other nail art!

 The MoYou products (Stamper and Scraper, White Special Stamping Polish and image plates 105 and 106) in this post were provided for honest review.These are all available to purchase at the MoYou website. The Binky London textured polish was a review sample (see this post for my review of this polish). Everything else I used in these designs is from my own collection and was purchased by me.

Chocolate Sprinkles Nails....... L'Oreal Peach Splash and Lola Camel Brown

 L'Oreal Peach Splash and Lola Camel Brown

Here's a simple tasty mani I put together with a couple of polishes from the high street.  The base is Lola Camel Brown; this is a new range at M&S - here's their facebook page. This shade caught my eye;  it's darker than a nude and warmer than most of the taupes I have so I think it might be unique in my collection!

Lola Camel Brown

Lola Camel Brown

Application of this is good - I used two coats here with Seche Vite. The bottle and brush are good to handle, it has one of those pop-off square caps like Chanel, BL, Illamasqua etc and the actual handle inside is a nice shape to hold.  I wore Lola Camel Brown plain just like this for a day when I needed sober nails (for a meeting that didn't end up happening, lol). The colour reminds me of  chocolate ice-cream :)

Lola Camel Brown

Then I added a layer of L'Oreal Peach Splash, a pretty glitter comprising lemon and peach coloured matte hexagonal glitters in a clear base. Much as I love our UK indies, it is nice just to be able to buy a glitter topper in Boots on impulse sometimes without having to wait for it to arrive (not to mention postage costs). This is one coat of L'Oreal Peach Splash - the glitters are quite generous - topped with more Seche Vite.

 L'Oreal Peach Splash and Lola Camel Brown

I purchased Lola Camel Brown from M&S and L'Oreal Peach Splash from Boots.

Race Day Nails.... Highland Fling 26 April 2014

Rescue Beauty Lounge A Lonely House / SpaRitual Running With Wolves

This post is a bit of sentimental self indulgence, sorry. Last Saturday I ran the Highland Fling, an ultramarathon starting in Milngave, Glasgow and following the first 53 miles of the West Highland Way out to Tyndrum in the Highlands (coincidentally the best chippy in Scotland is in Tyndrum, imo). I had a fantastic day and this is what I wore on my nails. I left this on most of the week to remind me of a wonderful day.....

... and I'll look back at this post when I want to think about the day.

The polishes are RBL A Lonely House (which is new, lovely and the name is kind of fitting for running in the wilderness) and SpaRitual Running With Wolves, a polish I've worn for *luck* on long races before! 

More hipster nailart (MoYou Hipster collection plates 1 and 2)

MoYou Hipster Collection - images from plates 1 and 2

Hmm, so those brown nails from yesterday were just the perfect base for another hipster-themed mani! Here they are before the stamping just as a reminder...

Flash Nails Princess over OPI & Apple Pie

 It was Flash Nails Princess over OPI & Apple Pie, here's a link to the post if you want to see more pictures or read more about the glitter (Flash Nails is one of the newer UK Indie Brands).

Then I stamped over it using a selection of the images on the MoYou Hipster collection plates 1 and 2. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White and American Apparel in Hassid for the stamping - these are my HG white and black stamping polishes. I have a different selection of images from these plates on my right hand, but I totally fail at taking photos with my left hand, so no pictures of those, sorry!

MoYou Hipster Collection - images from plates 1 and 2

An InLinkz Link-up

Flash Nails Princess

Flash Nails Princess with OPI & Apple Pie

Today I have another polish from UK Indie Flash Nails to show off. This one is Princess - it's a lovely mixture of matte pink hexes and shards (some of the shards are big and stunning), purple rhombuses (more correctly rhombi - if you're not a mathematician you can call them diamonds, lol) and a nice take on balck and white - black dots and white rectangles. Oh, and some shiny gunmetal hexes too. Super mix, in my opinion.

I've paired this with a classic OPI that most people either love or hate - OPI & Apple Pie. I love it of course, but I would since I love all the poopy colours.

Flash Nails Princess with OPI & Apple Pie

Flash Nails Princess is easy to apply, a bit of fishing required for the purple and black glitters but nothing to cause much concern. This is just one coat of Princess; I like how this looked without packing my nails too full of glitter. The base of Flash Nails polishes is quite heavy and thick, which I appreciate as it reduces the amount of topcoat needed to make the mani nice and smooth. I just used one thick coat of Seche Vite to finish this off. When glitters are rough and lumpy I use Gelous as a smoother, but there is something in the formula of Gelous that doesn't play quite nicely with my nails... somehow it makes them contract a bit and the corners curl under, which I hate. I only notice this when my nails are square of course, but it's still nice to have a glitter that doesn't need Gelous!

Flash Nails Princess with OPI & Apple Pie

I bought Flash Nails Princess from Flash Nails Etsy Shop. OPI & Apple Pie is an old favourite from my collection, long discontinued I'm afraid.

I'm planning to add some Hipster-themed stamping to this mani with my new MoYou Hipster plates, so watch this space for how it turns out :)

Nelly Polish *holo* in Burnt Copper and Night Sky

Nelly Polish Burnt Copper and Night Sky

OK, I combined these two polishes in a gradient and I like it so much that's where I'm starting my post! I reviewed Nelly Polish Forest Holo the other day, and I mentioned I had a couple of others to try.......... well here they are! The are the same smooth, shimmery formula as Forest and two equally delicious colours. First up is Burnt Copper:

Nelly Polish Burnt Copper

This is a rich copper shimmer with a touch of holo - just what it says on the tin really. Application is very easy, the polish is a nice texture (I got the ready mixed versions of all these; I'm too much of a coward to risk mixing my own polishes from dried ingredients, but you can buy Nelly Polishes in a dried format if you do fancy having a go at mixing) goes on smoothly. I used three coats and a coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat to give it a good shine - Nelly Polish Burnt Copper dried semi-matte.

Nelly Polish Burnt Copper

There's no sign of any brush strokes, as you can see in my macro shots (second one in brighter sunlight):

Nelly Polish Burnt Copper

And here is Night Sky. This might be my favourite of the three, but I love blue nails.

Nelly Polish Night Sky

On the nail, this one has a bit of a duochrome shift to purple in the sun, which I really like. As before, this is three coats with Seche Vite quick dry top coat to make it shiny......

Nelly Polish Night Sky

And a couple of macro shots to show the shimmer in its full glory!

Nelly Polish Night Sky

Then I decided to play around with a gradient. Blue and brown is one of my favourite colour combinations, but since these polishes are quite sheer, I wasn't sure it would work so well, but I was very pleasantly surprised!  I applied the gradient with the two colours painted on a damp makeup sponge over a base of Nelly Polish Burnt Copper. I needed to go over each nail twice with the gradient, but the results were well worth the effort.

Look how the blue and brown pigments blend into each other  - this shows up best in the macro pics...........

Nelly Polish Burnt Copper and Night Sky

Over the copper, the blue tends to reflect a bit more towards purple, but I like that contrast a lot. I love these polishes, they are great on their own but especially fab in combination for a gradient!

These products were provided for my review; you can purchase Nelly Polishes direct from the maker Hilary at her Etsy Shop