Stamping! Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04, Mentality Hope and Nella Milano Evergreen

Well, today's mani started out as a quick swatching session. I received 2 new polishes at the beginning of the week and decided I would swatch them today before my next mani.
So I did my usual swatch of painting one finger with each of the new polishes. They looked good, so I wondered how well they'd stamp. I had my Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer plate out as I was going to have a try at leadlighting today, so I decided to use that plate to give the polishes a quick test. I stamped Mentality Hope over Nella Milano Evergreen and vice versa.
Both polishes on their own were pretty opaque and I think you might get away with one coat so I wasn't surprised that they did stamp well. I was a bit surprised about how good they looked together. Hope is a lovely warm, slightly golden brown and has a matte finish. Over the glossy finish of Evergreen it looked great. Evergreen is not as opaque so the stamped Evergreen on the ring finger was not as intense as the base on the little finger but I am not sure that matters! and it is a beautiful green!
They looked so good that I top coated them too, and then I just had to do all my nails because I was so taken with the look, and I have to say, although I like Hope with the matte finish, I love it topcoated!
I always have all 10 nails the same but I was intrigued by reversing the colours so I continued to do middle and ring fingers in Hope and stamp with Evergreen, and then stamp with Hope over Evergreen on thumb, index and little finger.
I am so pleased with this mani, partly because it did just happen by accident really! I think one of the reasons it works so well is that the leadlight plate does have quite a bit of open space and quite a bit of solid stamping, if that makes sense rather than the lines and closer detail that you get on the more traditional plates, so whichever way these colors are used the result is fairly balanced. I do like the Messy Mansion plates, all the ones I've tried stamp so beautifully, clear images pretty much every time and A04 is a stunning plate. I also love the combination of the shimmery brown, and the glossy green creme - rather like a sophisticated camouflage.
Oh look at that - too much chat again so here are the photos :) I added a couple if indoor shots to try and capture the shimmer in Hope, it really is very pretty!

Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04
, Mentaility Hope and Nella Milano Evergreen

 

 

 

 

Stamping! Blue roses and stripes

Yesterday was the A2Z challenge, and I did black and white stripes. Later in the day I was looking at my nails and I thought - blue roses - that's what I need on these, and then I thought I'd probably need some green too.
I didn't want the whole nail covered so I used one of my Moyou London Mother Nature full image plates and picked up a stamper head full of leaves with Mentality Green Opaque. Then I just pressed the tip of my nail onto the edge of the image, and actually got 3 or 4 nails out of each stamp as I wasn't too particular about the actual image or placement. I then did the same with Mentality Blue Opaque and a stamper head of roses, just picking up 2 or 3 roses for each nail. It was all a bit hit and miss but I think the overall effect is really pretty.
I struggled a bit with photos. The light wasn't great so the pictures are not the best.
I wasn't entirely sure where the idea for this came from but when my daughter came home she took one look and said, I had a dress like that! Of course she did, a lovely T-shirt style dress, black and white stripes with blue roses on!
I took a quick pic of this mani with a matte finish too - think this might be one where the glossy finish was better, but I love it anyway.

Blue roses and stripes

 

 

Blue roses and stripes - matte

A2Z Series - L is for Lines

This Thursday's letter is L - L is for Lines.
I thought about this one quite a lot - straight lines, wavy lines, curvy lines, but my mind kept taking me to Blondie - Parallel Lines. I couldn't get the album cover out of my head so in the end I have gone with black and white parallel lines, which you might really call stripes but there we go.
I did a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and then stamped using Moyou Pro XL 01 and Essence Stampy 002.
I really rather like these humbug nails. I am quite impressed and surprised that the lines are reasonably well aligned, although they certainly emphasize how crooked my fingers are!

L is for Lines - Moyou Pro XL 01

 

   

Look HERE to see what everyone else got up to.

An InLinkz Link-up

A England Lancelot

Today I have some classic dark nails for you. A England Lancelot is a black red, really really dark - so dark that it will probably look black in most lights. It's great for stamping when you want dark but not actual black because with one coat it is a very deep red. But today I just wanted to wear dark, so here we are. It painted on beautifully, I have used 2 coats and top coat.
I love the way these dark glossy shades pick up the reflections from the trees and buildings. My biggest problem with the dark shades is that although they look stunning, my camera is not keen on the contrast with my pale skin, so a lot of shots get deleted in frustration.
Anyway, here they are - my black red nails.

A England Lancelot

 

 

 

Stamping! Nailz Craze NC03 - the cutest Russian dolls

Today I have some very cute stamping to show you. When I saw Rainbow Connection selling this plate I had to have it. I just adore Russian dolls and I have been waiting for an opportunity to try this very sweet plate.
Although I think these images would work well with bright colours like red and green, I thought it would be nice to try them over my previous mani, the Pet'la snowflakes.
I have used Essence Stampy 002 as I wanted to be sure I would pick up the image clearly. It took me a few goes before I got my scraping angle right and placing them was tricky. On the whole I go for images that are a bit more random and free flowing so these were a challenge, especially as the smallest image only just fitted on my 2 smallest nails and the next size was actually a bit too long for the other 2 nails, so I had to lose the very bottom of the image. As you can see, despite them not being perfectly aligned, they have actually stamped really clearly so I am delighted with the plate!
I will make sure next time I use this plate that my nails are a tiny bit longer, but overall I am pretty pleased with these - they are very cute!

Nailz Craze NC03 - the cutest Russian dolls

 

Stamping! with Pet'la Plate - Flake No More

Today I have been stamping again. I painted my nails yesterday with a polish I bought about a year ago. The polish I used was Frosty Morning by Nails Inspire, a UK based indie polish maker. Sadly Kim is not making polishes anymore, and that is a real shame as Frosty Morning is a very special polish. It was one of the first thermal polishes I bought, and it is also textured. I put it on yesterday to make sure it was still working as thermals can have a limited life. I am delighted to say, it is still working but I still couldn't get a shot of the thermal gradient. When it changes it's very consistent across the nail but it is a very beautiful polish, a soft bluey white when warm and a deeper bluebell to violet shade when cold.
It seemed to me, since it is so cold at the moment, it would be a perfect base to try out the beautiful snowflake plate I bought from Pet'la Plate, so I have stamped with the excellent Essence Stampy 001 over my frosty base.
The plate is perfect, I struggled to chose which image as they are all so pretty. The plate looks unusual as they are made of brass, but the quality is great. The image transferred perfectly onto my textured base and the end result is just stunning. The clarity of the stamping is excellent whether the base is warm or cool as the white Essence polish is so pigmented.
I am really pleased with mani, it's just so pretty!! The pictures are all in the cool phase, if my hands ever warm up I'll add another pic later :)
Update: added a warm pic and a thermal gradient one

Pet'la Plate - Flake No More

 

 

 

 

Pet'la Plate - Flake No More
over thermal gradient

Pet'la Plate - Flake No More
over Frosty Morning in its warm phase

A2Z Series - K is for Kitschy

It is Thursday again and time for the next letter - this week it is K. We had a choice here - K is for Kitchen Sink (or skittle) or K is for Kitschy.
I am not entirely comfortable with a mani where each nail is different so I googled "kitsch" instead and looked at the images to see what I could do. A bizarre set of images came up but I found one that I thought I could work with - it seemed to fit with some of the definitions of kitsch that I found and I figured I could create some sort of stamping mani using a similar range of colours. I have included the picture at the end of the post.
So that's the story, now for the mani.
I chose Nails Inc Sugarloaf Sunset as my base, and then painted half of each nail diagonally in Nails Inc Atomic. One that was dry I was brave and painted french tips in Nails Inc Queen Victoria Street.
I then stamped using Pueen SE04B with Essence Stampy 001 (white) and then Essence Stampy 002 (black) using the same plate but a different part, that I had so far failed to use successfully. As a stamping novice there are so many variables to a successful stamping session and this plate does seem trickier then some of the others I have used. Anyway, it worked this time and I am rather pleased with the outcome. I love the crisp black and white stamping against the bright colours (apart from the one I smudged with the topcoat!) 
My daughter said they look like holiday nails and now when I look at them I think Hawaiian shirts! I am not sure they exactly meet the brief, but there's a flavour of kitschyness to them, I hope.

K is for Kitschy - PueenSE04B double stamping over
Nails Inc Sugarloaf Sunset, Atomic and Queen Victoria Street

 

 

 

Floral Kitsch by Sumit Mehndiratta

Look HERE to see what everyone else got up to.

An InLinkz Link-up

Nails Inc Sugarloaf Sunset

This is a really quick post today of what was on my nails today. This was a base for the A2Z nail challenge for tomorrow but I thought since it's quite pretty I'd blog it.
Nails Inc Sugarloaf Sunset was an Instyle freebie from last year and I almost didn't buy it as I don't really do pink but at £2 a go, I thought it was worth a try.
I am completely out of my comfort zone with this one but I liked it more than I thought I would. It helps that the quality is good and it applied well. It is quite a warm pink and not as bad against my skin tone as I thought.
I am glad I bought it, it is the perfect base to the mani I have planned next but this is not a colour I could wear for more than a few hours on its own, nothing wrong with it but there were these bright pink nails every time I looked down and I think they'd take a bit of getting used to :)

Nails Inc Sugarloaf Sunset

 

Stamping! Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04 over a blue, green and purple base

In early January I stamped over a fiery saran wrap base, and I mentioned in the post I'd like to try something similar in blue, green and purple, so here it is.
I started with a base of Nails Inc Baker Street, and then added Nails Inc Queen Victoria Street and Jacava Blueberry Muffin, using saran wrap to smush the colours around. I deliberately tried to choose the colours so that no one colour would be lighter or darker, and that way the stamping would stand out equally well all over. I kept the green to 2 opposite corners and the purple to the other corners of each nail as I wanted to avoid them blending.
I then stamped using A England Camelot and my new Leadlight Lacquer plate from Messy Mansion. The plate I used is A04 and the image I chose has swirly fern like shapes on it. It is a beautiful plate, excellent quality and I had no difficulty at all using it.
I love this combination of colours and the way they have worked together with the stamping. I think this has turned out even better than I expected and I am really chuffed with it!!

Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04