MoYou London Explorer Plate 26 feat. Zoya - Dree & Essie - Penny Talk

MoYou London had a free shipping offer a few days ago and I decided to take the opportunity to get one of the plates that I've been wanting to buy for a while now. It's number 26 from the Explorer collection with XL images. I combined it with two of my favorite colors at the moment: Zoya - Dree as my base with two coats and Essie - Penny Talk as my stamping color. I used some top coat after Dree but none after Penny Talk to keep the chrome effect, but obviously after a few days of wearing these without top coat, they don't look perfect anymore. 

Vor ein paar Tagen hat MoYou London gratis versendet und ich habe gleich mal die Gelegenheit ergriffen, um mir eine der Schablonen zu kaufen, auf die ich schon länger ein Auge geworfen habe: Nummer 26 aus der Explorer Kollektion mit XL-Motiven. Ausprobiert habe ich sie jetzt mit zwei meiner momentanen Lieblingsfarben: Zoya - Dree als Grundfarbe mit zwei Schichten, dann eine Schicht Top Coat drüber und für das Stamping Essie - Penny Talk. Penny Talk sieht halt generell besser aus ohne Top Coat, aber so nach ein paar Tagen sehen die Nägel leider nicht mehr ganz so perfekt aus. 

Two-tone Studded Nails

So I finally took the time to do some nail art again! This was very simple and didn't take up too much time since I didn't bother using striping tape. All I did was painting a base with Zoya - Dree and then adding Essie - Lady Godiva on half of my nail using the brush from the bottle. To make it a bit more exact I used a striping brush and black nail polish for the centerline. On top of that I added some studs, which I received from bornprettystore some time ago. I then added one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss and I think something's wrong with this bottle. I used it once or twice, so I'm not sure what it is... it might be because I used it over Essie - Penny Talk? Anyway, please ignore the dust on top of the design. ;) 

MoYou London: Pro Plate Collection 03 (XL)

I had some time for nail art, yay! Even if it is just for stamping, but I was so excited about my new MoYou London plates that I just had to try one of them right away. In case you didn't hear about it already, MoYou London is THE new stamping plate seller, they have the most amazing images, including full image plates and they have great prices compared to other sellers. I bought four plates, two of them from their festive collection which I intend to save for December (haha, as if...). Then I got two from their Pro Plate collection and sadly I didn't realize that one of them doesn't have XL images. So the images on this one are too small, especially for my thumb nails. Keep this in mind when you're ordering from them: it is always written which size the images are, you just have to read it ;) Alright, so the plate that I used first is 03 XL Images from their Pro Plate Collection and I think this one is a lovely pattern! I used two coats of Zoya - Dree as my base color and then stamped the images with Sally Hansen - Night Watch. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss Top Coat, which I'm testing at the moment. The plate has a great quality from what I can tell, the smudged parts on some of my nails are due to my scraper which needs to be replaced. Did you order something from MoYou London yet? 

Splatter & Sponge

Today's design was inspired by this pillow on Society6 from the artist Melissa Smith. I love the color and the technique used, but it was not until five minutes ago, that I realised it's called Iron Man and that it actually shows Iron Man. Well, my nails don't show Iron Man! I used a combination of sponging and splattering polish on the nails with a straw which I think looks really cool together! I used two coats of Essie - Blanc as my base and then sponged on Essie - Angora Cardi, Zoya - Dree mixed together with Essie - The More The Merrier and Essie - Licorice. Then I splattered it with the red, green and white using a straw and finished with one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Military Ikat Nails

A few days ago I stumbled upon this tutorial on my tumblr dashboard and since I really liked the look of those so called Ikat Nails, I searched Google for some images. And wow, I have missed a trend! I didn't know that these are so popular, but I wanted to recreate them anyway and let me tell you, that was not the last time! I love how they are so easy to do and look great from further away (and at close range). I decided to use my very first Zoya nail polish for this design and added two colors that I thought would match the military green. I started with two coats of Essence - Iced Latte and then added the first part of the Ikat design with Zoya - Dree and Essie - Eternal Optimist. Then I finished the design with Essie - Licorice and one coat of Essie - Good To Go.

Have you done Ikat Nails? How do you like this technique?