Nail Crazies Unite - Watercolour

This week's prompt was watercolour (or watercolor)
I started with a white base, 'Ard As Nails White Van Girl, and then stamped various images from Moyra Florality 2 with Saffron London Black.
I used the Saffron polish as it's quite a washed out black, not the best for stamping but perfect for doing a soft outline.
I did try colouring directly onto the nail with sharpies and then using the isopropyl alcohol but that didn't seem to work very well for me so I scribbled on my Ubermat and then added the alcohol and painted it onto my nails. That seemed to work better. I just used blue, green and purple.
I think it worked quite well and  hope you like the bluebell shots.

Moyra Florality 2

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Food

Food for #40greatnailartideas - this was a bit of a challenge as there was very little to choose from on my stamping plates but how about some afternoon tea?
I started with  a base of pink vintagey dots using Barry M Acai Smoothie and Pet'la Basics over Barry M Pitstop.

Then I stamped Moyra 05 Vintage and Saffron London Black which stamps as a grey / washed out black which is what I was after, more subtle than full on crisp black.

The image was large and wouldn't even quite fit on my thumb so I just tried to use parts of it. I think they turned out OK and quite possibly better than I expected.

Moyra 05 Vintage and Saffron London Black

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Random and Grunge

The #30daysofcolourchallenge for today was Random and the #clairestelle8april challenge was Grunge. I can claim some responsibility for the grunge prompt. Claire always wears pretty girly colours and I suggested she wore something more grungey! What I meant was the more neutral shades, although when I googled "grunge" it seemed more grey than the greens and browns I was thinking of. Anyway I have used colours that in my mind are a bit grungey, but no less beautiful! I think the whole thing fits into random, so you are getting 4 stages of random.
I started with OPI Stranger Tides, a beautiful soft khaki shade. I love this colour, although I did need 3 coats for full coverage.
Then I stamped with Nails Inc Foubert's Place and a sort of water spotted design from Vivid Lacquer VL 010. I love Foubert's place too, a lovely warm khaki shade - I have seen some quite extensive arguments as to whether this is green or brown. I say green (a browny green)
Then I added grey, in the form of Saffron London Black, which stamps as a grey and I used the same plate and a leopard print image.
Finally, I added some delicate flowers from Vivid Lacquer VL 030 using Saffron London White which is a soft white. I really like the way it stamps and adds that prettiness to the whole mani.
I am really happy with the way this turned out!

OPI Stranger Tides
#30daysofcolourchallenge #clairestelle8april

Vivid Lacquer VL 010 and Nails Inc Foubert's Place
#30daysofcolourchallenge #clairestelle8april

Vivid Lacquer VL 010 and Saffron London Black
#30daysofcolourchallenge #clairestelle8april

Vivid Lacquer VL 030 and Saffron London White
#30daysofcolourchallenge #clairestelle8april

An InLinkz Link-up

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Fashion

As you know I have been following Clairestelle8's march challenge and today's prompt is fashion.
As a person who still wears what I wore at university 25 years ago, and lots of hand knits I am not really up on fashion so I resorted to Google - I googled Spring Fashion 2015 and then trawled through the images until I saw something I liked!
I found these lovely floaty ethnic style dresses designed by a luxury Italian brand Etro, and I thought the patterns would translate nicely onto the nail.
I started with base of the marie claire freebie, Nails Inc Fashion (appropriate name for this prompt). This looks mostly grey with a hint of lilac in the bottle but is more lilac than grey on the nail.
Then I stamped this lovely image from Cici&sisi 09. I'd describe this pattern as geometric, tribal or ethnic, and I think that it would vary so much depending on what colours you used.
I used 3 colours although I didn't catch much of the brown - I must remember my nails are not as wide as the images! I chose Mentality Hope (brown), Saffron London- black (which stamps as a grey) and Nails Inc Madison Avenue (a lovely dark bottle green)
Unfortunately I was too heavy handed with the top coat and smudged quite a few nails. After struggling to get any decent photos, I added a coat of OPI matte top coat and I think they look so much better, the smudged stamping isn't quite so visible either.
The base does look more grey again now but I think the stamping really complements the base and, smudging aside, I am pretty pleased with these.

Etro, my inspiration

Fashion - Cici&sisi 09 and matte top coat

Nails Inc Fashion

 

A2Z Series - P is for Pale

It's Thursday, so it's time for the next letter in the A2Z series, this week is P for Pale.
I am not really a pale polish wearer, except for nudes but I recently had the opportunity to buy a polish which is pale and yellow - not at all in my comfort zone but sometimes you just have to try!
Above the Curve Hufflepuff is a pale creamy yellow with tiny black glitters and a few larger black hexes. This is from the Harry Potter collection, Hufflepuff being one of the houses, apparently.
The polish is a crelly so I opted for undies rather than a huge number of coats. I used the amusingly named Attitude Masking Tape as my base - this is a warm cream, a buttermilk sort of shade which I have had in my stash for ages - it really only gets used as base but it's a nice quality and dries well.
I then added 2 coats of Hufflepuff. The larger hexes were a bit shy, but I don't particularly mind - not a huge fan of big glitters, and if they'd all stayed in the bottle I'd have been quite happy. However, despite my hatred of yellow I really like this polish, I think the fine black glitters that pepper the polish make all the difference, and the yellow is a really nice soft creamy colour. I wouldn't rank it as an all time fave in the ATC range but I like it a lot more than I expected to.
I completed the mani by stamping a sort of swirly tessellating triangle pattern from Pueen Buffet Leisure 79 in pale black - yes pale black! It might look grey, but it's just a rather wishy washy black. Perfect for the look I wanted! Saffron London polishes were recommended for stamping but the formula changed so they aren't really opaque enough. However, sometimes you want something a bit more subtle so I still think there is a place for them in my stamping box.
Overall I am really pleased with my Pale mani, not my best A2Z but certainly an improvement on last week's. I like the subtle look of the stamping combined with the glitters obscured by the crelly, and I like the grey and creamy yellow combination.

A2Z Series - P is for Pale
Above the Curve Hufflepuff, with Pueen Buffet Leisure 79

 

 

Above the Curve Hufflepuff

 

Look HERE to see what everyone else got up to

An InLinkz Link-up