A2Z Series - Z is for Zig Zags

The final A2Z challenge is here - this week Z is for Zig Zags and I thought I'd combine it with the #30daysofcolourchallenge which was green / gradient.
I love textured polish and had some success last time I did a textured gradient so I thought I'd try again. This time I have used Avon Magic Effects Mineral Crush Topaz and Kiko Cupcake 655 Mint. I think these 2 greens work well together and it's quite interesting to see the sparkly Topaz against the matte mint cupcake.
Then I stamped my zig zags using Hit the Bottle Purple Reign and Magenta at your own Risk and Moyou London Fashionista 04. I love the pink and purple against the two greens - these Hit the Bottle polishes stamp beautifully.
Pictures are all taken without top coat. I have top coated it now to protect it but it did look better before.

Green Gradient - Avon Magic Effects Mineral Crush Topaz
 and Kiko Cupcake 655 

 

Z is for Zig Zags
Hit the Bottle Purple Reign and Magenta at your own Risk
with Moyou London Fashionista 04

 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

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

 

 

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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

 

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A2Z Series - W is for Wild

This weeks letter is W for Wild, and I decided ages back what I wanted to do for this challenge. I am very relieved it turned out OK.
I started with a sunset gradient and then stamped a wild animal scene from the Apipila Super Placa A in black over the top. There are larger images on the plate but I think I'd have lost too much image in the dark bit at the top. I'll have to try those on a daylight scene.
Imagine my delight when I showed these to my husband and with no prompting at all he said "Serengeti"
The gradient was made up of Nails Inc Atomic, Fiesta and Princes Street, and I stamped with Essence Stampy 002.
I absolutely adored these although I was rather disappointed that I couldn't really capture their beauty despite taking loads of photos.

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A2Z Series - V is for Valuable

This weeks letter is V for Valuable and this one really did have me stumped, I could not think of what to do. In the end I went along the lines of antique things, and desperate for another chance to use my Messy Mansion MM43 plate I have stamped clockworky cogs and things over the brown Dark Metal Lacquer base that I'd used for today's colour challenge.
I stamped with SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops - this polish stamps so well even on an intricate pattern like those on MM43. In the sunshine these 2 holo's work so well together and I am really pleased with the way they look.
Less pleased with the photos, not as crisp as I'd like and I've noticed the watermark software shrinks the file size dramatically so I think I am losing clarity there.
Anyway, whingeing aside, these look pretty valuable to me.

A2Z Series - V is for Valuable
Messy Mansion MM43

 

 

 

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A2Z Series - U is for Unusual

Well it is Thursday again so it's time for this week's A2Z - today we have U for Unusual. I struggled for ages on what on earth to do but then I decided my best option was just to go for an unusual combination. So we have camouflage nails with lace... unusual enough?
I started with a base of Leighton Denny Attention, a lovely khaki green. Then I added a quick coat of Dollish Polish Urban Camo, a really pretty mix of green, yellow and black glitters in a clear base. (I ignored the white glitters, partly because I don't like them and also I was stamping with white later)
Then I stamped using Vivid Lacquer VL 010 and Leighton Denny Undercurrent, a deep dark olive green. VL 010 has a wonderful camouflage image on it and it was this plate that really inspired the whole mani. I love both these greens by LD and I think they go perfectly together to make a great camo look, especially with the added hint of glitter.
Finally I used Born Pretty plate BP-02 and Saffron London white to stamp the lace. I like ths Saffron polish for stamping. Because it isn't completely opaque, the camo pattern and glitter still show through.
Now they are finished, I am not convinced you'd look at these and think they are particularly unusual but I have to say, I think they are really pretty and I love them!

A2Z Series - U is for Unusual
Camouflage and lace

 

 

 

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A2Z Series - T is for Texture

I was delighted when I saw that the T in the A2Z challenge was for texture! I love textured polish so it was a great excuse to get a couple out for this week's mani.
I've seen other ladies do textured gradients, so that's what I decided to do.
I bought all the Avon Stardust textured polishes when they were on offer just before Christmas and so far I have only used one, the stunning Silver Crystals.
I have a complete love of purple and teal together so for my gradient I chose Polished Plum, a deep dark purple, and Teal Glitter which is a a beautiful dark teal. These two seem to be a finer grain than the Silver Crystals but still very sparkly and I love them- what could be better than dark, textured and sparkly!
I am not 100% sure my gradient looks as perfect as it should but I love the 2 colours so much that I don't really mind.
I was really pleased with this but I did think maybe it needed something more, so of course I had to stamp over it. I used Essence Stampy 001 and UberChic Beauty UC1-03.
I love the contrast of the smooth crisp white over the dark textured sparkly polish and this Uberchic image is so pretty. In fact I should mention I really love my UberChic plates, I have used them so many times since I got them and they are fantastic!!
I did take some pictures without a top coat but the Essence really does need a top coat to seal it so I have top coated them. I think I'd need a couple more coats to make a completely smooth finish but I like that I can still see and feel the texture.
I am so happy with this mani, you can probably guess that as there are loads of pics!!

A2Z Series - T is for texture
Avon Stardust Polished Plum and Teal Glitter 

 

 

 

T is for Texture -
gradient stamped with UberChic UC1-03 no topcoat

 

 

T is for Texture -
gradient stamped with UberChic UC1-03 and top coated

 

 

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A2Z Series - S is for Silver

Well Thursday came around again, so quickly!! Time for this week's A2Z mani and this week it is S for Silver.
Silver is not really a colour that I would choose to wear on my nails, my skin tone is not quite right but who can argue with A2Z.
I decided to use Whisper by Dark Metal Lacquer. This is a stunning holographic silver glitter - so when I say I don't wear silver - that excludes glitter :) Normally I would wear a glitter like this over another colour but the prompt says Silver so I am going for full-on silver.
Whisper will go to full coverage but I don't want to use too much of it - it's precious!! and I don't want any bare nails peeping through so I started with a base of Nails Inc Kate Spade Soho Silver. Again this is a polish I bought for nail art or stamping but it's useful as a base so the glitter has something to grab onto and might make taking the glitter off a little bit easier.
I used 3 coats of Whisper and I hope you can see it is so sparkly, the glitter picks up a rainbow of colours, I think it has covered all of the base coat too. Amazingly, it still seems to twinkle even in very low levels of light - it really is a very special polish! I have seen lots of pictures of this and because it's so sparkly I was expecting quite a coarse, top coat hungry, glitter but it is really smooth - just perfect!!
I am still not certain on the colour on it's own with my skin tone but with some frosty lilac woolly gloves I think I might just get away with it!!
I took loads of pictures - some sunshine, and some just daylight - they all looked too pretty not to include!!

A2Z Series - S is for Silver
Dark Metal Lacquer Whisper

 

 

 

 

 

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A2Z Series - R is for Redo/Reboot/Recycle

So it is Thursday again and time for letter R in the A2Z challenge. I wasn't sure about what to do for this week until I was chatting with some friends about  mani I had done that I wasn't very happy with - of course this was the perfect opportunity to redo it.
The original mani was the negative space lacy nails, where the contrast was all wrong, the negative spaces too stained and the old stamper was not picking the images up clearly - plenty of reasons to redo.
I decided I ought to do justice to the Messy Mansion plate so I am using the same plate, MM44 and the same image.
This time around, no bare nails! I started with a base of Nails Inc Basil Street, a lovely warm nude, so the effect is the same but no stains! I chose to use a creme polish rather than a holo so that I had a really crisp image and having had some success with Avon Classic Fit a couple of weeks ago I decided I'd use that again.
And of course I now have my Creative Shop stamper, which picks up perfectly almost every time.
I have never worn a french mani, apart from the last time I did this, so the dark tips look very alien to me, but I wandered around just with the tips done for a while before stamping and the look was growing on me. Once completed I do think the tips still look very dark as the colour is obviously more intense than where it is stamped - maybe I should have tried to apply the polish more thinly, or even find a slightly lighter shade but on the whole I think this is a lot better than the time before.
I think the Avon Classic Fit denim shade goes really nicely with the nude base, so all in all I am pleased with this.

A2Z Series - R is for Redo 

Messy Mansion MM44, Avon Classic Fit 

and Nails Inc Basil Street

  

 

  

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A2Z Series - Q is for Quirky

Well, it is Thursday again, and time for this week's A2Z challenge - the prompt is Q for Quirky.
I guess if I'd thought about it for long enough I'd have come up with something quirky but my first thought was that it would be the perfect opportunity to use a Quirk polish. Sadly, Kerry at Quirk does not make polishes any more, and I think Songbird was from one of her last collections.
I have actually worn it but never blogged it as I wanted to try it over a different base.
It is such a pretty polish made up of white opaque glitters and lots of pretty pastel iridescent glitters. I first wore this over a dark brown base but really wanted to try it over a nude or pastel base. At the time I couldn't decide which colour pastel to try, but now that I have the stamping bug I feel I have to use it over a multi-coloured stamped base.
I started with a base of Nails Inc Haymarket, a lovely pastel minty green.
I then used 3 Virtuous polishes, Deborah (ooh that's me!!!!), Miriam and Queen Ester and the camouflage pattern on Vivid Lacquer plate VL 010 to stamp a multi-coloured image onto my nails.
I then added a coat of Songbird and top coated it all.
I think this is pretty Quirky ? I am quite pleased with it, although the pastel glitters have got a little lost, I still need to re-use Songbird over a nude base I think.

A2Z Series - Q is for Quirky

 

  

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