March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Gems

Well, I had to cheat for today's challenge - I hope Claire doesn't mind! It was either cheat or skip this one and I have managed to do all the others so it would have been shame.
The prompt is Charms/ Nails Gems but I don't have anything suitable so I have just gone with stamped gems!
To make up for cheating I have tackled a new technique, reverse stamping (I think), where you colour the stamped image before placing it on the nail.
I started with a base of Nails Inc New York Noir. Then I chose my 3 most gem-like polishes- China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Nails Inc Emerald Street, and Kleancolour Neon Sapphire.
I splodged a little of each of these gem polishes onto all my nails except the ring fingers and smushed them around with a bit of bubble wrap.
I used UberChic Beauty UC 2-02 for the ring fingers. I stamped the diamond image with Mentality White Opaque and then carefully coloured the diamonds in with the 3 chosen polishes. Once this was dry I top coated the ring finger and stamped the coloured image (5 times until I got it right!)
The Kleancolour didn't work too well merging with the white stamped image but the Nails Inc and China Glaze seemed OK so that once top coated again you can clearly see the shimmery colour shining through.
This was quite time consuming and I am glad I only tried to do one finger on each hand but at least I tried and now know what's involved if I decide to try again.

Gems - UberChic Beauty UC2-02

 

 

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Ilusion

Claire's challenge for us today was Illusion, and I chose the image on UberChic Beauty plate UC 2-01 straight away. I just had to see what those spiraling swirls would look like on my nails. It took me a while longer to decide what polishes to use. I was pretty certain I wanted to stamp a dark polish - but over white, a pale colour or a glitter? ... then I remembered China Glaze Optical Illusion - I had to use that!!
I did a sneaky base coat of Avon Metallic Effects Jade Reflection as it is a similar tone and would save me building up loads of layers of glitter, that was a good plan and I only ended up using one coat of Optical Illusion - it was plenty sparkly enough! This has a clear base and is made up of fine silvery green glitter with added hexes of pink, orange, blue, silver - all sorts of colours and the overall greenish tone seems to change through blue and purple depending on the angle of light - just stunning!
Then I stamped using UC 2-01 and A England Lancelot. What a wonderful contrast and combination - I absolutely love the finished mani. It is still very sparkly and I have to say the photos really don't do it justice. It is utterly mesmerising!!

Illusion - UberChic Beauty UC 2-01,
A England Lancelot and China Glaze Optical Illusion

 

 

China Glaze Optical Illusion

 

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

 

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Butterflies

Claire's challenge for us today is butterflies. I have a few plates with butterflies on and I'd been waiting for the right time to get them out, seems like today is the day!
I used my A2Z mani from yesterday as my base, I thought the lovely silver holo sparkle would make a great background for butterflies!
I used my blue alcohol ink, and a tiny bit of red to tint 2 fingers and the thumb of each hand. Then I used A England Camelot to stamp the beautiful butterflies from UberChic Beauty UC1-02. I probably should have paid more attention to remove partial bits of butterfly, I will do next time!
On the 2 un-tinted nails I used pink and purple sharpies to colour the butterflies' wings. The tiny bit of red I added to the blue tint base gives a hint of purple which in my mind would bring the whole thing together...that was the plan. I love the way that the Whisper still sparkles through the stamping and colour.
I am still playing with idea of 2 accent nails, partly because I am torn between wanting to play with different bases, wanting to do lead-lighting style techniques with polishes or sharpies but don't quite have the patience to do all 10 nails, but still not entirely comfortable with having nails that don't all match!
Anyway, I am really pleased with these, I think they are really pretty - I hope Claire likes them!
Lots of pictures, again! and couldn't resist a few with my favourite vase!

Butterflies - UberChic Beauty UC1-02

 

 

 

 

March Challenge #clairestelle8march St Patrick's Day mani

Today is St Patrick's Day so, of course, I had to do a St Patrick's Day mani. I had already decided to do one with Above the Curve polishes Polyjuice Potion and Husbands Just Don't Understand, to enter an ATC competition but I missed the deadline on that. As I'd already planned it out I decide I'd stick with the polishes I'd chosen.
Claire also has St Patrick's Day as a prompt for today on her March Challenge so this is my contribution.
Above the Curve PolyJuice Potion from the Harry Potter Collection is a lovely vibrant green jelly polish with gold shimmer and tiny green glitters. It is quite a sheer polish and I only have a mini bottle so I started with a base of Ciate Mojito which is virtually the same shade of green to avoid using too much precious Polyjuice! It is such a pretty polish, I really love it and I am glad I didn't use too many coats so I still have plenty left :)
Husbands Just Don't Understand is a stunning dark teal green holo, and I have been waiting for so long to use it. It is just gorgeous and definitely needs to be worn again, very soon! I did a quick test to check it would stamp and decided it would go perfectly with Polyjuice Potion for my St Patrick's Day mani.
I searched through all my plates and found this shamrock design on Pueen SE03A which I thought would be suitable. I wasn't too sure which way to angle the stamping and in the end went for random! My fingers won't sit nicely in neat lines anyway.
I am really pleased with the finished mani, I love green for nails and I like putting different types of green together - anything goes with green, but here I can see the holo shimmer as well as the glitters from the Polyjuice. I like the bright green of the Polyjuice which is still very visible but slightly toned down by the teal stamping.

St Patrick's Day mani 
Above the Curve Polyjuice Potion 
and Husbands Just Don't Understand, Pueen SE03A

 

 

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Neon

I am late blogging this but yesterday, Claire's challenge was Neons. I don't really have any neons as such but I do have the Virtuous Polish Women of Valor, which are described as neon pastel hybrids, so I thought I'd better use those.
There are seven colours so I started with a blob of the yellow shade in the centre of each nail and then used the other six around it. Then I stamped the wavy design from UberChic Beauty plate UC 2-02 in black over the top.
I actually wish I'd stamped in white, but it was too late to change it all. I think black would have worked better with brighter shades and when I used white over these polishes before the result was really pretty.
However, my IG feedback was amazing and I got more likes for that picture than any I have ever had before!
Funnily enough, my 2nd most liked picture is the white on neon-pastel I did about 2 weeks ago - clearly neons are the way to go!!!

Neons - Virtuous Polish Women of Valor and
UberChic 2-02

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Dotticure

Today on Claire's challenge the prompt was Dotticure. I have done a dotticure once with a dotting tool, it killed my hands!! I have also done one once before using a stamped image - no contest as to which way I chose this time!
I did have a mani planned but my UberChic Beauty plates arrived and as they have some dotty images on, I thought I'd better give them a try.
I chose this image because it gave me exactly what I'd been planning to do and I had been sat there thinking how likely would it be that I could paint my nails 2 colours and manage to stamp the colours in reverse, and not end up with black on black! There it was on this plate, UC 1-03, and a nice twist on a french mani too!!
I started with a base of A England Ascalon, a lovely silvery grey holo with a hint of lilac, which is apparent in lower levels of light when you can't see the holo.
I then stamped with A England Camelot. The plate stamped beautifully. On close inspection, the dot images are not completely perfect but I think that is because my Camelot is nearly empty and I don't think I had enough polish on the plate. On the ones where I scraped forward and then back again the image is better and to the naked eye they look fine anyway.
I really like the finished look and that at a glance it looks like a gradient, darker at the tips. I also like that thing where you looks and think - is that black on silver or silver on black?

Dotticure with UberChic 1-03
A England Ascalon and Camelot

 

 

A England Ascalon

 

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Holi (Festival of Colours)

Holi is a spring festival, also know as the Festival of Colours. I think I remember the children doing something about this when they were at primary school.
In terms of a mani it looks like anything goes as long as there is lots of colour - what better use for my Women of Valor Virtuous Polishes
So here we go - I started with a base of Nails Inc Haymarket, I then used Vivid Lacquer plate VL 010 which has a camouflage pattern on it, and stamped with Virtuous Polishes Deborah, Miriam and Queen Ester.
Regular blog readers will spot that I then added  a coat of Quirk Songbird for my Quirky nails.
Then, today, I used the same plate and added more Queen Esther, Ruth and Rahab.
It all looks a bit random, but it's colourful and actually I really like it!

Holi (Festival of Colours)
Vivid Lacquer VL010 and Virtuous Polishes Women of Valor

 

 

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Zig Zag - DRK XL Designer 2, A England Princess Tears

I decided to join in with another nail art challenge, can't be 100% certain why as I struggle to keep up with the A2Z but I thought maybe I'd keep the posts brief - I just liked the sound of the challenges on this one on Instagram hosted by lovely Claire @clairestelle8.
Today's prompt was Zig Zag.
Possibly an opportunity to use vinyls but they take me so long to do so I stamped using DRK XL Designer 2. I used A England Princess Tears over my Black Cat mani from yesterday
I decided to be a bit different and stamp the zig zags length-ways along the nail and I am really pleased with the finished look.

Zig Zag -
DRK XL Designer 2 and A England Princess Tears