June Challenges - A Smoosh and a Galaxy mani

The week before last the smoosh colours were pink, green and black - I used China Glaze Treble Maker, China Glaze Liquid Leather, and HJ Manicure Candy Pink.
I really liked this smoosh and that particlar week there was also a challenge within a facebook group to do a galaxy mani. It seemed to me that my smoosh would be a great base for a galaxy.
I sponged SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes over the smoosh and then stamped with Avon Iceberg White and Vivid Lacquer VL 040.
I think they ended up OK.

Smoosh!

Avon Iceberg White and Vivid Laqcuer VL 040

 

40 Great Nail Art Ideas

This week's colour prompt for #40greatnailartideas was hot pink, and my pattern prompt was water spotting or water marbling.
We had a bit of a debate on whether hot pink was a warm pink or cool. I then had some debates with myself whether I could get away with stamping since actual water marbling and water spotting always results in a disappointing mess for me. Then I debated if I should use black - something in my mind said water spotting should be black but then I googled hot pink water spotting and one of the first images that came up was Claire Kerr from Kerruticles with a hot pink over pale pink mani. So, I went for 2 really bright pinks, HJ Manicure Candy Pink as my base and stamped with Esmaltes da Kelly Chuoisco and Hehe 081.
It was bright! very bright!
I couldn't resist a second layer of stamping so I used China Glaze Liquid Leather with the same image and I have to say I found that a lot more wearable! I do like that I can see the 2 pinks underneath.

Hehe 081 and EDK Chuoisco

 

Hehe 081 and China Glazre Liquid Leather

An InLinkz Link-up

'Ard As Nails Dewy Morning and some Paisley stamping

Today I am wearing another polish from the My First Winter Collection by 'Ard As Nails. This is Dewy Morning, a gorgeous sage green with subtle holographic shimmer.
This applied beautifully, dried nicely and pictures are taken with top coat. I am afraid I failed to pick up the holographic shimmer but I saw it and it was pretty!
I used this as my base for #wnac2015 for this week - the prompt was Paisley.
I used Messy Mansion MM48 and did 3 layers of stamping using 3 different images on the plate. This is a pretty plate but it is quite a tricky one to clean.
For the first layer of stamping I stayed with green and used Barry M Black Pistachio, then I used China Glaze Liquid Leather and then finally Saffron London White.

'Ard As Nails Dewy Morning

 

 

Messy Mansion MM48 and Barry M Black Pistachio

Messy Mansion MM48 and China Glaze Liquid Leather

Messy Mansion MM48 and Saffron London White

November Challenges - to match a party dress

This wasn't a challenge as such - just me trying to match my nails to the dress I was wearing for a 50th birthday party.
I had this idea of stamping across two images from the gorgeous MJ XXX1 plate that I got from Nail Artisan. My dress was a sort of patchwork of black and white florals so the idea was to reflect that on my nails. It didn't go entirely to plan as the patterns side by side were quite similar but I did want to keep it quite subtle and I was happy enough with the outcome. If I do it again I'll be a bit braver, I think.
I used Saffron London White over China Glaze Liquid Leather as I like the off-white/grey stamping I get with the Saffron polish.
The next day I added a second layer of stamping with the same plate and Hit the Bottle Snowed Under. I loved that and kept it on for a second day!

MJ XXXI

MJ XXXI

July Challenges - Yellow / Blobbicure and Black and White

Every now and then you get a challenge not entirely in your comfort zone and this time I have had to use yellow!
The #30daysofcolourchallenge was Yellow / Blobbicure. I had done a small blobbicure trial in June so I felt slightly more comfortable about that, but yellow ?? Anyway, I decided to use A England Holy Grail and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops as I thought they'd go quite well together.
The result wasn't too bad - I have seen better blobbicures but I was reasonably happy with the mani and I do think the colours worked pretty well.
Of course I had to stamp on it and I thought it would make a nice background for one of the UberChic sketchy flowers so I stamped UberChic Beauty UC 1-03 with China Glaze Liquid Leather.
Finally I decided to use this as my Black and White mani for #30daysofcolourchallenge too so I added some white stamping, using UberChic Beauty UC 3-01 and Hit the Bottle Snowed Under.
I really like black and white stamping combined and I am pretty pleased with this.

As you can probably tell, I did this mani over a few days so I did add a final layer, some more black stamping with Kleancolor Madly Black and Apipila Super plate B - so, its still black and white but also means another entry for #hawaiianshirtmanifriday!

Blobbicure with A England Holy Grail and
SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops

UberChic Beauty UC 1-03

UberChic Beauty UC 3-01

 

Apipila Super Plate B and Kleancolor Madly Black

 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

July Challenges - Holo / Leadlighting

For those who read my blog regularly, sorry about the flurry of blog activity! It has been a busy week and now I am catching up!
The challenge yesterday was Holo / Leadlighting for #30daysofcolourchallenge.
I started with SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes, the most gorgeous pale blue lilac holo, which I have worn before but I think this picture is better :)
I stamped with Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04 and China Glaze Liquid Leather and that looked so good I took a couple of pictures. It almost seemed a shame to hide the holo!
Then I leadlighted (is that a verb?) with Kandy.Colors Hivis Wat, Retro, Carnival and Grape Much?
The Kandy Colors are great for lead lighting, just the right level of colour - they are perfect! and I am really happy with the way this turned out.

SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes

Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04
and China Glaze Liquid Leather

Leadlighting with Kandy Colors jellies

 

An InLinkz Link-up

June Challenges - Flakies - Girly Bits Thud!

Flakies was actually a challenge for the #macronails #junemacrochallenge and I wasn't going to blog those challenges, but since I needed to use flakies for this challnge I thought I'd wear an untried one and clearly that had to be blogged.
I decided to wear Girly Bits Thud! which is an amazingly beautiful flakie with colours from green through gold to orange. I have applied one coat over China Glaze Liquid Leather.
I love flakies and this one is no exception. Of course I had to try it matte and yet again I am disappointed with my OPI matte top coat which seems to give a silky finish but isn't really matte. Time to buy a replacement, I think!
Any way, time for some pictures...

Girly Bits Thud!

Girly Bits Thud! matte

 

 

June Challenges - Neon / Splatter

The challenge today for #30daysofcolourchallenge was Neon / Splatter.
I decided that despite the fact I know neon polishes work best over white, I'd go for black, I haven't had dark nails for a while and they were calling to me!
I started with a base of China Glaze Liquid Leather, and if you look closely there is a layer of flakie next (for another day!)
Then I took Virtuous Polish Green Pastures and Patience and stamped green and then pink or pink and then green on each nail with Lealac LLC-A which has a cool splatter image on it. Although these polishes are perfectly neon, and will stamp on black they really need a more detailed image, the colour was just too thin with this image. They look OK, but not very neon, so I added 3 more layers of stamping with Virtuous Polishes Glory, Miriam, Naomi. Building on the earlier layers the neon started to show  and I've ended with some very colourful nails - the coolest thing ever according to my daughter!
No apologies for all the macro shots - have a new lens and have to test it out!

Virtuous Polishes Green Pastures
and Patience and Lealac LLC-A

Virtuous Polishes Green Pastures,
Patience, Glory, Miriam, Naomi and Lealac LLC-A

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping! The Solar Eclipse - 20th March 2015

Well we don't get these very often so a few friends and I decided it would be nice to do a mani in honour of the Solar Eclipse.
The last one was August 1999 - I remember standing outside the bus station in Harrow trying to see it, it was only partial but it was still quite exciting!
I know there will be clever people who do fantastic manis for this but I decided to go for something quite simple.
I painted my nails black with China Glaze Liquid Leather, a lovely glossy black I have only just started using as my 2 go-to blacks have both run out!
Then I used one of the polishes I won in a Rainbow Connection give-away, SV by Sparkly Vernis - Gilded Lemon Drops. This is a very pretty lemony gold holo and I discovered whilst swatching it that it stamps really nicely over dark colours.
I used UberChic Beauty UC2-03 and stamped stars on all my nails except for the ring finger. I stamped a wonderful sun like image from the same plate on my ring finger. Then, I used a hole punch to make a hole in some paper, painted some black polish on to a stamping plate and used the punched paper as a mask to pick up the black circle which I carefully stamped over the sun.
I am quite pleased with these, I don't really do accent nail manis but this is a special occasion and I thought a sun on each finger might be a bit weird!

Solar Eclipse - March 2015