October Challenges - Halloween

I combined the final 2 challenges of October for #clairestelle8oct and #30daysofcolourchallenge as they were both Halloween.

I started with a base of Smitten Fire Burn which is quite possibly the most sparkly orange in the world ever, and such a gorgeous colour.

Then I added its partner from last Halloween's duo, Cauldron Bubble for a quick simple gradient - still super sparkly!

Then I stamped using the Nailways Darker Period and Monsters Halloween plates and a combination of Colour Alike Kind of Black, Colour Alike Scary Pumpkin and Avon Metallic Effects Platinum Petal.

I was really short of time to get this done in the daylight so I quite pleased with how well it turned out.

Smitten Fire Burn

 

 

Smitten Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

 

 

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Halloween

Since I had given in and bought some Halloween plates I thought I'd better use them. I decided to do a gradient for this week's challange, and then add a glitter topper that I have had for 2 years and never actually used, and then stamp using the new plates.
I started with a base of Leighton Denny Attention -a  lovely soft neutral khaki green and one of my favourite LD polishes.
Then I used Nella Milano Evergreen, Leighton Denny Attention and Jacava Blueberry Muffin to create a gradient.
Then I added a coat of a Tara's Talons glitter which I bought in 2013. When I ordered this and one other Tara contacted me to say that as they were from the "Name your Monster" range I needed to name them. Since the other one was sort of pinky purple and and this green sludgy shades I thought it would be cool to call them Emily and James, after my very own monsters, so it is James that I have used for this mani. The polish is mostly green, blue, black and white glitter in a very sheer khaki green base.
Finally I used Colour Alike Kind of Black and stamped witches, spooky trees, and bats from the Nailways Halloween plates (Darker Period and Monsters).
As with many of my recent manis, I ended up with a matte top coat to get decent photos.
I thought I'd try and keep the photos to a minimum so I have done a collage of the stages and a few macros.

Halloween Stages 1-4

Halloween - the final stage

 

An InLinkz Link-up

October Challenges - Holoween

The #wnac2015 prompt for this week was Holoween.
I started with a base of Fancy Gloss Pumpkin Patch, which I have blogged before. I love this polish so much - the colour is so much nicer on the nail than it looks in the bottle. It is such a rich reddy orange with holographic sparkle and it applies beautifully.

I stamped the pumpkins with A England Camelot and Nailways Halloween plates (Darker Period and Monsters) and then I added the cobwebs with  SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes and Nailways Halloween (Darker Period).

Apart from the fact that when I finished this mani the sun  was long gone, I was pretty pleased with this. The final shot was taken outside with the flash to capture the holo cobweb.

Fancy Gloss Pumpkin Patch

 

Nailways Pumpkins and Cobwebs

 

October Challenges - Pink Pastels

Today's prompt was Pink Pastels for #30daysofcolourchallenge. This was a bit of a challenge for me since I own so few pinks especially pastel ones!!!
I decided that Violet Rose Aldeburgh Pink would make a great base for this as it is a lovely soft pale pink, perhaps not quite pastel but very pretty.
I recently bought all 5 Aldeburgh polishes from Violet Rose Polish as Emma was having a clearance sale and they have square glitter in them - I love square glitter!!!
The polish was quite sheer and as my nails are still stained a bit blue I did start with a coat of Leighton Denny Whatever which is the closet match I could find and I did  swatch that on the Uber Mat to check I wasn't distorting the colour.
Aldeburgh Pink is a soft dusky pink with a subtle blue shimmer, black hexes and white square glitter. It applied nicely, I used 2 coats over Whatever, mainly to get the glitter distribution I wanted, one coat was almost enough. If you weren't wearing a base colour you may need 3 coats if you want to hide the nail line. I am so pleased I got this polish - I really love it and now really looking forward to trying the others in the range.
I had no suitable pink to stamp over that colour so I used Uber Chic Beauty UC 4-01 with Hit the Bottle Snowed Under to start with and then stamped Virtuous Polish Miriam. I think Miriam would have looked awful straight over Aldeburgh Pink.
I took pics with matte and glossy top coat, I think in this case I prefer the glossy- the matte just looks a bit flat but I did find it hard to warm to this stamped mani - wrong time of year I think :)

Violet Rose Aldeburgh Pink

 

 

 

Uber Chic UC 4-01 with Hit the Bottle Snowed Under
 and Virtuous Polish Miriam

 

 

October Challenges - HJ Manicure Coco and Acorns

The prompt for #30daysofcolourchallenge was Acorns. A very thorough search of my stamping plates resulted in one plate - Moyou London Mother Nature 03.
I had a lovely new brown polish I wanted to try which I thought would make a great base for the acorns.
HJ Manicure Coco is a gorgeous pinky brown creme. I have had pinky browns before and found them a bit too warm but this one is perfect for my skin tone. I really like it. I have lots of nude / neutral polishes but nothing like this one. As with Blue Lagoon, it was a colour I saw on the website and was not 100% certain but I am glad I bought it. It fills a gap in my range of colours, and as the other 3 I have tried, it is lovely quality.
Coverage was great, which is good news as Blue Lagoon might be gorgeous but it is a bit of a stainer! I do have a hint of blue hiding under my lovely Coco!
The Moyou plate had oak leaves and acorns so I stamped two sets of leaves first, with OPI Skyfall and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops, then I used Barry M Black Pistachio for the acorns.
I took pictures with glossy and matte finish but couldn't help thinking they looked a bit Christmassy.
Then I added a quick coat of Kandy Colors Hivis Wat? which I think brought them back to Autumn. I did not re top coat them so they now have quite a satin finish.
This was not a huge success s the acorn pattern is quite abstract and probably doesn't work so well for triple stamping, particularly with the polish I used. The new Barry M Blacks all stamp well but are not 100% opaque so what ever is beneath will still show through. That said, I like the combination of colours, before and after the yellow jelly so overall I am quite happy with the mani, even if it doesn't shout Acorns.

HJ Manicure Coco

 

 

 

Moyou London Mother Nature 03

 

 

Final version of Acorns

 

October Challenges - Ghosts

The challenge for #clairestelle8oct was Ghosts. Well I have no ghostie stamping plates due to my stubborn refusal to buy seasonal plates so I had to think outside the box. Whilst trawling through my plates in case a ghostie was hiding, it struck me maybe a ghost looked a bit like a paisley? so I invested Sunday afternoon in creating paisley decals using Messy Mansion MM 48 and Loja BBF 18.
I stamped using Hit the Bottle Snowed Under and then coloured the image in using Nails Inc When Doves Cry so that when applied to the nail the paisley image would be solid.
I peeled them off the Uber Mat, cut them out as carefully as possible and hid them safely on my messy desk ready for this morning.
I wore the previous mani yesterday for my trip to London and then set about the ghost mani this morning. Firstly I stamped a paisley pattern from Messy MM 48 with Nails Inc When Doves Cry over the blue base to create a subtle ghostly background.
Then I top coated each nails and added a decal. I think it worked reasonably well and no tucking the edges under as I had already cut them small enough. Once they were top coated and dry I used a dotting tool to add the face, top coated again and they were done. Finally I added matte top coat which made them a lot easier to photograph.

Messy Mansion MM48 and Nails Inc When Doves Cry

Ghosts

 

October Challenges - HJ Manicure Blue Lagoon and Favourite Sweater

Sunday's prompt for #30daysofcolourchallenge was Favourite Sweater - obviously I have too many sweaters to chose a favourite but this mani is based on the blue aran I wore that day and sort of chosen because I had a new blue polish I wanted to try.
I bought HJ Manicure Blue Lagoon last week -  I wasn't too sure when I ordered it if it would be right for me but I am so glad I did. It is a lovely blue creme, very slightly leaning towards teal and I love it! I was a bit concerned it would be too bright for me, some brighter blues just don't suit my skin tone no matter how much I love them but I think this one is fine.
It applied beautifully with two coats giving great coverage. Pictures are taken with top coat.
So, from my vast selection of woollies I chose a blue aran that I made a couple of years ago and of course I used my Messy Mansion MM 40 plate to stamp.
I have recently seen swatches of the 4 new Barry M Gellies, and since I love dark colours so much I had to get them. I have stamped with other Barry M Gellies so of course I was going to try these for stamping! I chose Black Grape, the blue black, and I think it stamped well. It is quite subtle over Blue Lagoon but I was happy with that look.

HJ Manicure Blue Lagoon

 

 

Messy Mansion MM40 and Barry M Black Grape

 

 

October Challenges - HJ Manicure SubZero and Thunderstorm and Bones

Today's challenge for #clairestelle8oct was Bones.
I started with a base of HJ Manicure SubZero, a lovely dark creamy grey which I bought very recently. This is a really nice polish, it applied well, dried quickly and gave great coverage with two coats. I might even have got away with one.
Delivery was very quick for these polishes and they arrived beautifully packaged. You can take a look at the full range here.
Seeing how thick and creamy it was I decided it was worth trying another HJ Manicure polish to see if it would stamp. The pale grey lilac Thunderstorm seemed the obvious one to try.
I chose one of my new MJ plates which I bought from Nail Artisan and stamped a sort of angular/ art deco / aztec type pattern over the grey. I think it worked well, it is subtle but I like it a lot.
Finally to the bones...I have no stamping plates with bones on apart from my dinosaur plate which I was about to use when I remembered the vinyls that came in the September Paint the Rainbow box.

HJ Manicure SubZero

 

 

HJ Manicure Thunderstorm and MJ XXXIV

 

 

Bones!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Orange, Purple & Green with Pattern on Pattern

Well this weeks challenge sounded like an opportunity for some triple stamping - we all have the same colours but then we are on a rotating schedule for the pattern, how lucky was I with this combo!!
I have used Colour Alike Scary Pumpkin, Lilac Sweater and Fairy Forest with Yours Cosmetics Sascha Gossen YS07. The base is OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow.
I chose the patterns quite carefully so that you'd still be able to see all three colours once I'd finished. I am quite pleased with how these turned out. I love building up the colours like this - sometimes it's hard to stop!

YS07 and Colour Alike Scary Pumpkin

YS07 and Colour Alike Lilac Sweater

YS07 and Colour Alike Fairy Forest

An InLinkz Link-up