A2Z Series - Y is for You

This week the A2Z letter is Y for You, and in my mind that means "me" :)
So this one is a bit tongue in cheek as I've chosen China Glaze DJ Blue My Mind (my initials are DJ) and Virtuous Polish Deborah (my name, although I prefer Debbie), and combined the two Debbie polishes with a knitting stamp, so that's me then :)
The #30daysofcolourchallenge was Swatcher's Choice and I am the swatcher so I guess I can get away with combining the challenges.

I didn't think the 2 polishes were contrasting enough to stamp clearly - in my mind it was all perfect but then when I got them out I wasn't so sure, so I added some stripes with Lealac LLC-A and Essence Stampy 001 so that Deborah would stand out more, and I do like stripes :)
Then I stamped the knitting image from Messy Mansion MM40 with Virtuous Polish Deborah.
A bit on the bright side for me, but not bad - I am rather pleased with them :)

A2Z Series - Y is for You
China Glaze DJ Blue My Mind, Essence Stampy 001
 and Virtuous Polish Deborah, Lealac LLC-A and
Messy Mansion MM40

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Friend's Choice

Today's challenge for #30daysofcolourchallenge was to swatch a Friend's Choice. I was wondering who I would ask to choose but then at the weekend I met up with some fellow naily people and one of the girls who I had recently sent a polish to insisted I chose something from her box of polishes that needed rehoming. I think you'll like this one she says, handing me this super expensive looking dark blue shiny box! This is probably the poshest polish I own!! Estee Lauder Smashed, and it is just gorgeous. I am a bit hard pushed to decided if it is red or purple, I'll say a reddish purple with lots of tiny pinky purple shimmery glitter.
It applied nicely, and gave good coverage with two coats.
I have to say, I think it does look expensive and it didn't worry me too much that I didn't have time to do any stamping over it, what would have been worthy of this beauty ? I'd have found something if I'd had the time I am sure but as it is, I am content to enjoy it in all its beauty.
The pictures are a bit disappointing, you can't really see the true warmth of the polish but you can see the intense colour and shimmer.

Estee Lauder Smashed
#30daysofcolourchallenge

 

 

 

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

April Challenges - Untried and Neon Geometrics

Today’s challenge for #30daysofcolourchallenge was to swatch an untried. So, about as far away from Halloween as we could get, I have tried Smitten Polish Cauldron Bubble. I bought this a while back along with Fire Burn which is stunning. This one is too! It is a charcoal grey holo, packed full of sparkle. It looks amazing in the sunlight, the glitter is very fine and just so sparkly! The formula to be honest was not a great as Smittens usually are, it was a bit gloopy so application was slightly challenging but once the two coats were on it looked great. Pictures are taken with topcoat.

The #ukstampingapril challenge was neon geometrics, so I have stamped neon over the Smitten. I used UberChic Beauty UC 1-01 and Virtuous Polishes Green Pastures, Glory, Diligence and Patience (green, yellow, orange and pink). When will I learn that although I can use 4 colours on the stamping plate and pick them all up, my nails are not that wide – doh! Anyway, all the nails have 3 colours on, one thumb managed to get all 4. The neon is not quite as vibrant as if I had used a pale base or a finer design but I am happy with these. I have test stamped a couple of these polishes and the neon is a lot more vibrant on thin lines rather than these small geometric blocks but I think the colours work well together, and I can see the Smitten sparkling through.

Smitten Polish Cauldron Bubble
#30daysofcolourchallenge

 

UberChic Beauty UC 1-01 and Virtuous Polishes
 Green Pastures, Glory, Diligence and Patience
#ukstampersapril

 

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Re-swatch - Cadillacquer Saviour and then some more spring flowers

Today's #30daysofcolourchallenge was to re-swatch, and although this is not something I regularly do, I knew which polish needed a second chance!
When I first wore Cadillacquer Saviour the weather was awful and the pictures I took were dreadful so I went on and stamped my Easter nails over the top of it, and promised it I would come back soon.
This is such a pretty polish, It is a teal holo with a pinky purple shimmer and flashes of tiny pink glitters. It applied well although I did use 3 thin coats for full coverage.
I had to cheat and use the flash to catch the holo as it still isn't sunny but I think I got better pictures than last time. My camera still seems reluctant to capture the real beauty of this polish but it is stunning!
I couldn't resist adding some stamping and although I had already done tulips for #clairestelle8april, I did some more. This time with Vivid Lacquer VL 030 which has little stumpy tulip like flowers, with one image being the negative of the other. I love that! I used 2true Pro Metallica Artemis and I really like the combination of the metallic finish against the holo, it has this amazing depth that's quite hard to describe. The camera couldn't pick this up in daylight but I think I might have got it on the indoor shot in between the reflections

Cadillacquer Saviour
#30daysofcolourchallenge

 

Vivid Lacquer VL030 and 2true Pro Metallica Artemis
#clairestelle8april

 

picture taken with LED light

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Spring Flowers

I am a bit late with this challenge, but I think I am all up to date now.
The #clairestelle8april challenge for last Friday was spring flowers and I very nearly stamped the flowers over Friday's Houndstooth mani but couldn't quite bring myself to do it, so the flowers are stamped over yesterday's stamped watermarbly nails instead.
I have done tulips before but what I really wanted to try was stamping with one colour for the heads and another colour for the leaves - that wouldn't work with my other stamping plate as the heads and leaves are all mixed up but then I saw my lovely friend Tracey from Bite No More using a different plate which was much more suitable for what I wanted to do, so I ordered the plate she used, a cheapy from Ebay.
So, I have used Essence Stampy 001 for the heads, and Virtuous Polish Green Pastures for the leaves. The contrast isn't great for the leaves, I perhaps should have gone with a paler green but they do look pretty.
I still see my stamping as a trial and error thing- some ideas and combinations work better than others but hopefully because I have recorded them on my blog I shouldn't repeat the same mistakes too many times :)

Spring Flowers
#clairestelle8april

 

 

April Challenges - Favourite and some stamping

Today's challenge for #30daysofcolourchallenge was "favourite", so I have chosen my favourite colour, blue, by one of my favourite US indie brands, Above the Curve.
Above the Curve Family is a stunning intense deep blue holo. It is gorgeous, and I think may be one of my favourite ATCs - it is really sparkly in the light, and I love the colour. I don't have a lot of blue holos, there don't seem to be so many of them around but I love this one!
This is one of my only US polishes that I actually bought from America, risking customs charges, destruction of polishes and really high postage charges but probably worth it to get my hands on this beauty! I bought it from the Black Friday sale along with 3 others and I was SO relieved when they arrived safely.
What a shame it wasn't sunny this morning! Pictures are taken inside with my LED light.
As I was going out for the day I couldn't resist some stamping so I added some fake water marbling with SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes and Hehe 040 (what an amazing plate!!)

I was really pleased with the combination. This looked amazing in the sunshine but I wasn't able to take any pictures until I got home and of course the sun had gone by then, so again I have had to resort to indoor pics although I took a couple outside too.

Above the Curve Family
#30daysofcolourchallenge 

Above the Curve Family,
SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes and Hehe 040

 

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Oldest and Houndstooth

Today I am combining two challenges, "oldest" for #30daysofcolourchallenge and "houndstooth" for #ukstampersapril.
I started with one of my oldest polishes, Avon Classic Fit. Even after all these years I still love this polish. It's such a gorgeous dark glossy blue, everything I would want in a polish and it still applies really nicely. I have also recently discovered that it stamps well too so it's an all round winner.
These pictures were taken without a top coat!
Then I stamped with one of my newest polishes. Rainbow Connection has recently started stocking Hit the Bottle, an Australian brand, so I bought one to give it a try. They have a huge range of colours to choose from and I really didn't know where to start so I went for Copper Haired Girls as it is least like any other polish I own, and WOW! It is amazing. I loved it from the moment I opened the package, it stamped beautifully and then when I top coated it, it sent shivers down my spine!
I used DRK-A to stamp the houndstooth pattern and I think the metallic copper shade works so well with the dark blue. It is manis like these that make me wish I wasn't doing so many challenges - I'd wear this for days!!

Avon Classic Fit
#30daysofcolourchallenge

Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl and DRK-A
#ukstampersapril

 

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Virtuous Polish Paradise Cllection

I don't think I have ever blogged swatches before but #30daysofcolourchallenge is actually a swatch challenge, today's prompt is "newest" and I had 7 new polishes that needed swatching so it made sense.
I ordered the brand new Virtuous Polish Paradise Collection from Rainbow Connection and they arrived today. My first question to Annette before I ordered was "do they stamp?" so of course that's what I wanted to try.
I used Messy Mansion MM46 to test all of these.
4 of the polishes are matte, and were pretty certain to stamp but I decided to try all 7. I have plenty of polishes and really don't need more for actual nail painting, but I still think I have scope to acquire more stamping polishes. I also don't generally chose to wear bright colours but stamping is a whole different thing.
Firstly I tried the 4 that I knew should stamp, Glory, Green Pastures, Holy City and Mercy Seat, and yes they all stamped really well. I tested them over my earlier mani (lazy I know but no use wasting a nice dark base). The 3rd one, Holy City is not that clear over the green base but the polish itself stamped nicely. I already love all 4!!
I don't like matte polish so I haven't swatched these as polish.
The other 3 are different. Crystal Seas is a teal polish with blue shimmer, very pretty - it did stamp but was quite subtle. I painted my little finger with this, it applied well and gave good coverage with 2 coats. Then I stamped Mercy Seat over it to see that over a paler colour.
I painted my ring finger with Streets of Gold. I don't usually like gold polish but this is pretty, almost coppery with a lovely shimmer. I stamped over it with Holy City and the stamping was much clearer than over the green holo.
Finally I painted the other 2 nails black and tried Pearly Gates and Streets of Gold. I didn't have huge expectations that these would stamp but I was very impressed with Streets of Gold.
Pearly Gates was interesting. It was too sheer for me to wear on its own but I thought it gave a nice effect stamped. It has tiny iridescent glitters in it and catches the light nicely. It's probably my least favourite, and I probably will wear it as a topper, or use it for subtle stamping.
All in all, I am delighted with these. Can't wait to start using them.

Glory, Green Pastures, Holy City
and Mercy Seat over a dark base

Streets of Gold and Pearly Gates over black,
Holy City over Streets of Gold and
Mercy Seat over Crystal Seas 

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - X is for eXtra Special

Well it is Thursday again, another letter down in the A2Z challenge and we are nearly at the end. Today's letter is X for eXtra special. I had a mani planned but it ended up being quite similar to the one I did yesterday in concept and once I had twigged it was St George's Day I decided I'd be all patriotic and do something for that instead.When I was younger, I was a Brownie and then a Girl Guide and the dates of the 4 patron saints for England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales were drummed into us.
I am English so St Georges's Day is kind of special, it's part of our heritage and who knows what our world would have been like if St George hadn't slayed the dragon ! Also, dragons are magical, mythical creatures and therefore eXtra special!
Now I know it's been done before but it seemed obvious to me which two polishes I would use, A England Saint George and A England Dragon.
So I started with Saint George which I think is my favourite ever A England, so that makes it special anyway. The dark teal shade is so gorgeous I almost don't care that there is no sun to see the holo.
Then I used Dragon to stamp parts of the dragon image from DRK XL Designer 2. The dragon was too large to stamp in full but I have used his tail on the index and little finger and his head and tail on the other two fingers and thumb.
I love these two greens together although the stamping is quite subtle, and photos have been a challenge. I am really pleased with these, the dragon looks so cute! but I do wish I'd been able to get better pictures.

A England Saint George

A2Z Series - X is for eXtra special
St George's Day mani with A England
Saint George, A England Dragon and
DRK XL Designer2

 

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Neon and Pastel

I have combined two #30daysofcolourchallenges today - neon for yesterday and pastel for today.
I have had this idea in my head for ages that I wanted to do a gradient and then stamp another gradient over it. Initially in my mind it would have been using the same colours but I have adapted it here so the base gradient is neon and the stamped gradient is pastel. It didn't quite work out how I'd hoped but they look pretty.
I started with a white base, and then I sponged the gradient of 2 China Glaze Electric Nights polishes, Treble Maker and Violet Vibes (there's me with  my green purple thing again) For 2 such different colours I think they went well together.
Then I did the pastel stamping choosing an image from Apipila Super Plate A. I used Virtuous Polishes Naomi and Queen Ester (ooh! green and purple again) and stamped them so that the teal green went over the purple, and the lilac went over the green. It is obviously not a pure gradient as I didn't really mix them that much but there is an element of blending when I look closely at the stamping. The polishes stamp beautifully but they dry really quickly so there's not much time for messing about.
I think this worked well, but from a distance it's like an optical illusion, the stamping looks blue! The clarity of the pictures is not great, the light was really odd today, but I'll certainly have another try at this with some different colours.

neon gradient with China Glaze
Treble Maker and Violet Vibes
#30daysofcolourchallenge

 

Virtuous Polishes Queen Ester and Naomi and
Apipila Super Plate A over neon gradient
#30daysofcolourchallenge

 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Negative Space

Today I have skipped the #30daysofcolourchallenge today and done negative spaces for #clairestelle8april. I couldn't think of a way to combine them so I am doing two #30days tomorrow instead.
Claire's challenge - the negative space - eek I thought - maybe I should skip this too but I decided I'd just use a neutral base, and it would be a nice opportunity to try the nude polish in the Vintage Trio I got from Danglefoot Nail Polish.
Golden Oldie is a lovely warm nude with a subtle shimmer. It applied nicely and gave good coverage with 2 coats. Possibly a touch warmer tone than I would personally choose for nude nails, but very wearable and the perfect base for the negative space mani.
I used Apipila Super Plate A and A England Camelot to stamp this pretty swirly pattern. I was quite pleased with the finished look but I felt it needed something extra.

So, I used Leighton Denny Tiffany's to add a subtle touch of pink shimmer, just to tone it down a bit. I think for my skin tone the slightly pinker finish looked better and it softened the stamping a little, although I liked both.

Danglefoot Nail Polish Golden Oldie

negative space mani with Apipila Super Plate A

negative space mani with Apipila Super Plate A
with Leighton Denny Tiffany's

April Challenges - Vampy and Reverse Stamping

I am late with yesterday's #30daysofcolourchallenge, mainly because I thought it would be a good idea to combine it with the #ukstampersapril challenge and I didn't have time to do both yesterday.
The #30daysofcolourchallenge was Vampy - I have a lot of polishes which would be fine for this challenge but I really wanted to use an untried so I have gone for another new one by UK Indie Danglefoot Nail Polish. We are in Dream Country Now is a red/purple jelly with lots of pretty red, gold, and orange glitter which is really sparkly.
When I finally decided I would try to wear red, it is these dark red, burgundy type shades that I started with and I love them! The glitter is an added bonus in this one.
I did need 3 coats for full opacity, I might well use a dark red base next time but the formula was good, polish dried reasonably quickly, despite my very cold hands.
The polish was very sparkly in the sunshine, but to be honest I think of these as more wintery shades and I liked it best in the shade. You can really see the depth of the glitters floating in the layers of polish.
The #ukstampersapril challenge was reverse stamping and with hindsight I think I made this very difficult trying it over a dark red base. It was a challenge to find a suitable colour to stamp with and to colour with. I don't think black would have shown up, white would be too much of a contrast so in the end I went for Mentality Beige Opaque which stamps as a gold. I think this went well with the glitter in the vampy base.
I chose the butterfly plate from Messy Mansion, MM42 and I coloured most of my butterflies with Above the Curve Tardis, a teal holo and China Glaze Riveting. I also had a few false starts with other colours that didn't show up at all well but in the end I think these are not too bad.
Note to self, make life easier - use a pale base!!!

Danglefoot Nail Polish
 We are in Dream Country Now
#30daysofcolourchallenge

  

Reverse stamped butterflies with Messy Mansion MM42
#ukstampersapril

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up