Mermaid Nail Art Born Pretty Store Review - Monthly Challenge

Today I have another nail art design to show you from #clairestelle8sept monthly challenge!

This month I'm taking part in a nail art challenge where every couple of days there is a different theme. To make it even crazier, I decided to do bestie twin nails for every theme!

The theme for the 12th of September was Mermaid and I collaborated with Bethany from @bnailedtoperfection. We decided on doing the mermaid design on the middle and ring fingers and using shell studs on the pinky and index finger. And our general theme was blue.

I loved how both of ours turned out!

I didn't create a tutorial on these, however I have something very similar on my channel already here!

Check out all my other designs for this challenge here!

I started off by painting my outer 2 fingers black and my middle 2 fingers white.

I applied a fast drying topcoat to my middle and ring finger and waited for a good 10 min before doing anything else.

I applied some liquid latex around my nails (Charming Tale Practical Magic) and once that was dry I placed the mermaid scale stencil onto my nails.

I first sponged black polish over the stencil. The black base will really make the shimmery polishes pop.

I used a cheap Primark cosmetics sponge and applied Charming Tale The Huntsman and Frightfully Spectacular Orinoco Flow in random positions on the sponge.

I then dabbed it onto my nail, like any other gradient.

I applied 2 "coats".

When the nail polish was still wet, I gently pulled the stencil off, the liquid latex barrier will peel off at the same time.

For the studs I used this set up studs from Born Pretty Store (#20312). This comes in a case and has all sorts of different studs including stars, hearts, seashells, pointed studs, square studs and much more! Most things come in both silver and gold!

I love that it comes in a little box instead of little plastic bags. It's incredibly easy to keep organised this way!

I used the silver seashell studs. They're super cute and worked perfectly with the mermaid scale design.

I applied a dot of topcoat onto the base of my index finger and pinky. I can carefully picked up a seashell stud with a pair of tweezers and applied it onto my nail.

That's it! I really like how this design turned out! I love the subtle mixed gradient of the mermaid nails and the studs really help bring the look together.

xx Elaine

Charming Tale Haul Swatch & Review

Today I have a haul to show you!  Leanne, @LeasNails on Instagram, recently launched her own indie brand called Charming Tale polish and I'm obsessed. She sent me one nail polish to review before her launch, check it out here!, and I purchased 6 minis. Leanne has created 2 collections, The Fairy Godmother collection and Fairest Of Them All collection, as well as some nail care items.

As always, I have live swatches of all of these polishes on my YouTube channel!

I'll start off with the Fairy Godmother collection!

This is Flora a slightly pink toned red.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm obsessed with reds.

Flora has the most amazing formula. It is a little bit on the thick side, which I love, but because of that it only required ONE coat.

I just used 1 coat for the swatch and no topcoat. It's perfection in a bottle.

The second polish from the collection, which is unfortunately not available anymore, is Fauna.

This is a Shrek green. It's a weird colour to describe, it's quite a yellowy chartreuse but definitely still olive green. You know?

Anyway, it's a gorgeous polish. Definitely not something I'd usually go for, but still very pretty.

I used 2 coats for the swatch and no topcoat.

The first coat was slightly streaky and not fully opaque, but the second coat covered everything up.

The third creme in this collection is Merryweather.

This is a bright medium blue.

This was another ONE coater!

The formula was the same as Flora, it was a little thicker, but super easy to work with, and was opaque in just 1 coat.

Again, I didn't use a topcoat.

The last polish in this collection is called Fairy Dust and it's a silver holographic glitter polish with some very fine silver shimmer.

I used 3 coats for the swatch.

It's a very dense glitter and it was very easy to apply. It has a very full coverage on the first coat so I wouldn't recommend using this as a topper.

The silver shimmer really helps build up the opacity and makes it different from other silver holographic glitters.

The next few polishes are from the Fairest Of Them All collection.

This first polish is Mistress Of All Evil.

This is the polish I previously reviewed on my blog so I won't go into much detail.

I used 2 coats for the swatch and no topcoat.

It's beautiful!

The newest polish to Charming Tales is The Huntsman, and this has been added in the second restock.

This is a dark blue base filled with silver shimmer.

I used 2 coats for the swatch.

It was a little sheer on the first coat and there was a definite visible nail line. The second coat really deepened up the colour and covered up any VNL.

The last polish I have to show you today is Magic Mirror and this is a gold holographic glitter.

I used 2 coats for the swatch. I had a bit of a weird brush so it was picking up too much nail polish. I would recommend doing 3 thinner coats rather than 2 thick ones.

This is a gorgeous glitter and it looked very bling on the nails. Again it was very dense so I wouldn't recommend using it as a topper.







Those are all my Charming Tale polishes, I think they're all great quality and it's an amazing start for such a new indie brand.

Check out Charming Tale on Instagram for more info and swatches!

Charming Tale Indie Nail Polish Swatch & Review

Hi everyone! I have something super exciting to share with you today! A brand new UK based indie brand!!

Leanne (@leasnails on IG) has created her own line of handmade polishes called Charming Tale. Anyone reading my blog must know that I LOVE UK indie brands so I'm probably just as excited as Leanne is!!

Charming Tale is launching tomorrow, the 22nd of August, and it's a 5 free lacquer. From having a little stalk of the Facebook page it looks like Leanne has created 2 collections: The Fairest Of Them All and the Fairy Godmother collection.

I have the very exclusive Mistress Of All Evil polish to show you from the Fairest Of Them All collection. Leanne has only created 2 bottles of this polish! If it's popular she might make more... so be quick! This collection consist of 3 polishes, this one alongside Poison Apple, a shimmery red, and Magic Mirror, a beautiful glittery gold. I also received a Liquid Latex called Practical Magic which I'll be using in an upcoming nail art tutorial.

Mistress Of All Evil is a deep dark vampy purple with a gorgeous silver shimmer.

In the close up above you can see it has a hint of blue as well, on the nail, without a super macro, it reflects silver.

It's definitely a very dark purple but it's not so dark that it looks black. I think this is going to be a must have for Autumn around Halloween when the days are getting shorter, darker and colder. That being said, I think it would also be great for a night out. The shimmer really pops and makes the polish look luxurious.

I used 2 coats for the swatch.

It was almost fully opaque in just 1 coat, and if you're in a rush you could easily get away with just 1 coat.

I could very very slightly see the pink of my nail through the first coat. Adding a second coat really deepened the colour.

For the polish being so opaque, the shimmer doesn't get lost. It's very apparent on the nails no matter what lighting your in.

It dried to a glossy finish and I didn't use topcoat for the swatch. If you're in a rush I'd recommend using a fast dry topcoat. It was touch dry very quickly but still dentable.

Check out Leasnails on Instagram because she does absolutely fantastic swatches. Also make sure to check out Charming Tale on Instagram for more sneak peaks and details about the launch TOMORROW!!

http://www.charmingtale.co.uk