26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Your Signature Style

Well, this is the 26th Great Nail Art Idea - so it is the final one. A bit sad maybe but actually I am quite relieved. It has not been the best year and struggling to fit in a weekly or biweekly blog that has to go out on a fixed day has been a bit of a challenge.
The other challenge that alternates with this one finishes in October and I think my blog may well grind to a halt for a while once that happens.
I will obviously still paint my nails and do challenges but many of the Instagram ones are a lot more flexible with posting dates so they are easier to fit in around life.
Anyway, back to this one - Signature Style - well, I always stamp, and I try to pair my manis with knitting (except in the summer when it's too hot or pics look silly with gloves) so of course I have done a stamped knitting mani.
I used a fanbrush base of Barry M Black Pistachio, Barry M Surfboard and OPI I'm Feeling Sashy.
Then I used Messy Mansion MM84XL with A England Saint George to stamp the knitting pattern. I went for the purl side pattern (knitting term)  rather than the stocking stitch pattern as I felt it would look better over the fanbrush and I really like the subtle way the dark green stamping fades into the fanbrush.

Messy Mansion MM84XL

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite - Chevrons

This week's prompt was Chevrons and I have combined it with a #clairestelle8 prompt - Metallic.
I do feel a bit of a cheat as this ended up being a very quick simple mani, but life is so busy, it's nice to get a quick mani every now and then!
I did a 3 step gel mani last week and decided that where possible I would allow the gel base to be part of my mani, rather than just an extravagant base coat.
I am having a bit of a love hate relationship with gels. I love how they make my nails feel stronger and all the staining is gone, but  hate how long it takes to get them off, and they can be annoying if I have a dark gel on and then need to do a white base mani.
Anyway, there was no colour restriction for this mani so I used Moyou London Fashionista 04 with 2 True Pro Metallic Aglaia over Gellifique Cats Eye 005 (a dark purpley brown)

Moyou London Fashionista 04

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Autumn

This weeks prompt was Autumn. I do love Autumn - despite not liking yellow or orange I love a good autumn leaves mani!
I was already wearing a dark red base, with some subtle red stamping so I went straight on top of that. I wasn't entirely sure how many layers I was going to do but I just kept going until I was happy with what I had done.
I used UberChic Lovely Leaves and started with Esmaltes da Kelly Bee. It's not a yellow I particularly like but it always seems to work well in an autumn mani.
Then I used Colour Alike Scary Pumpkin with the same plate. I do love this polish despite its annoying shimmeriness which makes clean up impossible!
Finally I added Esmaltes da Kelly Frogger, with two different images from the same plate again.

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Crazies Unite - Stripes

This week's prompt was Stripes. Normally I leap at the chance to do nice neat clean stripes but having just done a fanbrush mani I felt that a more natural stripe would look good.
So, I have recreated a green zebra on my  nails!
I started with my fanbrush base of Itsy Nails Green with Envy, Bohemian Gypsy and A England Holy Grail and then added stripes with Lina Get Wild 01 and Nails Inc Madison Avenue.
I was really pleased with how these looked - it is always a great feeling when a plan comes together!

Lina Get Wild 01

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Dotting tools but not just dots

"Oh dear" I thought! I don't like dotting tools at the best of times, and having to do something more creative than dots...The only think I use my dotting tools for is touching up manis where a bit of colour is missing, or for leadlighting or reverse stamping when a brush doesn't seem to do the trick.
Anyway, stop moaning and just do the mani!
I did a fanbrush mani with black, white and yellow (no, I won't moan anymore - you know I hate yellow!)
I used Oriflame Sundance as the base and then fanbrushed Nails Inc New York Noir and Avon Iceberg White on either side.
Then I used the dotting tools to add white dashes to the black side and black dashes to the white, and then finally added a few small dots too.
It wasn't a huge success, the polishes were nearly empty so a bit sticky but to be honest I quite liked the end result in a grungy, graffiti kind of way!

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up