40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Violet Swirls

The colour prompt was Violet this week and my pattern prompt was Swirls so I chose to use Pet'la Plate Curls over a gorgeous violet purple holo, Havens by Dark Metal Lacquer.
Havens is a lovely polish- it applied well and I was lucky enough to get some sunshine shots.
The slight problems with the stamping was that the base colour was a middlish sort of shade and so were my few purpley stamping polishes, not really enough contrast. I needed a good dark purple or something paler.
Anyway, there are people who say I have more than enough (Mr Knitty Nails) so I made do!
I started with Esmaltes da Kelly Tuco, it stamped nicely, if you like secret stamping!
I could see it in certain lights, really!!
I added a second, more successful layer with 2True Pro Metallica Artemis and a different image from the same plate. These were better and actually so pretty I am still wearing them, more than 24 hours later! They are subtle but sometimes that is nice :)

Dark Metal Lacquer Havens

 

Pet'la Curls and Esmaltes da Kelly Tuco

 

Pet'la Curls and 2 True Artemis

 

An InLinkz Link-up

December Challenges - Winter Wonderland

Today's challenge for #clairestelle8dec was Winter Wonderland.
I started with the gorgeous dark purple of Freckles Polish I'm The Fairest. This was from the November Paint the Rainbow box and is a wonderful deep dark purple jelly packed with sparkly glitter.
This polish applied nicely but as it is a jelly, I probably needed a third coat or a layer of undies. I would probably go for undies as I tend to get uneven patchiness as I layer up jellies no matter how hard I try. Anyway, it is gorgeous, I love a deep blue indigo type purple.

Then I stamped with one of the very new and exciting Messy Mansion plates which I got from Nail Artisan. Messy Mansion have just brought out 3 new ranges of plates and this is one of the Tristaenia range. All the plates in this range are split so one half is the negative of the other - I couldn't resist although I did only get 2!! Obviously I used the Merry Christmas one for this mani.
For my winter wonderland I chose the street scene, houses and trees, and stamped using 2True Pro Metallica Artemis.
Then I added a few snowflakes with QA86 and then OPI Pirouette My Whistle, just to make sure it looked properly wintery!

Freckles I'm the Fairest

 

Messy Mansion Tristaenia Merry Christmas

Messy Mansion Tristaenia Merry Christmas and QA86

Messy Mansion Tristaenia Merry Christmas
and QA86 and OPI Pirouette My Whistle

November Challenges - Owls

The prompt today was Owls for #clairestelle8nov. I stamped Messy Mansion MM19 with 2true Pro Metallica Aglaia and Artemis over Leighton Denny Undercurrent.
Undercurrent is the darkest glossiest green and I love it! I think it makes a great back drop for the 2true polishes.
I did the owls first and then added some foliage for them :)

Leighton Denny Undercurrent

Messy Mansion MM19

 

November Challenges - Hearts / Love

One of the November challenges I am participating in is being hosted on Instagram by @ladyandthe_stamp and @starryeyed83 for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness - there are 5 prompts and they all have to be purple.
The first one is Hearts / Love so I chose to use one of my new Uber Chic plates, UC 4-03.
I started with a base of Barry M Black Currant - these new Barry M black polishes are lovely, really dark and glossy - I am afraid I had to buy all 4 and I expect I will try to use them all this month. I have already stamped with each one and I am really pleased with them.
This applied nicely, I did 2 coats but coverage was pretty good with the first coat.
Pictures are taken with top coat but it was beauitifully glossy anyway.
Then I added a coat of the gorgeous flakie from Violet Rose, I Have a Dream.
Finally I stamped using Uber Chic UC4-03 and 2True Pro Metallica Artemis. I chose the image because I liked the look of the hearts but didn't really properly think it through - my nails aren't really big enough to show the full image but I was quite happy with the end result.
Finally I added matte top coat - you have to matte anything with flakies, don't you!

Barry M Black Currant

 

 

Violet Rose I Have a Dream

 

Uber Chic UC 4-03 and 2True Artemis

 

 

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

Stamping! UberChic Beauty UC1-02 - Roses

This was not a April challenge. I didn't have time to do a full mani today but I couldn't resist stamping over the matte nails I had done.
I chose the reverse image of roses on UberChic Beauty UC 1-02, I think that is the correct term, where you are effectively stamping the background, and the polish underneath remains visible as the rose. I chose 2true Pro Metallica Artemis, a lovely purple metallic polish which stamps beautifully, leaving the deep purple & metallic flakie base showing through for the rose petals.
I think this worked really well. I like the contrast between the soft metallic sheen of Artemis and the dark but sparkly roses, and it is nice to see what the flakie looks like with a glossy top coat as it was left matte for the previous mani.

UberChic Beauty UC 1-02

 

  

Stamping! Moyou London Holy Shapes 08 and 2true Pro Metallica Artemis

Today I have been stamping again - surprise!! I bought some of the 2true Pro Metallica range as they are apparently great for stamping, and I wanted to try Moyou London Holy Shapes 08 that I bought recently. I was still wearing ILNP Cynus Loop, and I thought it would be cool to do purple on purple using the shifted stripes pattern on the Holy Shapes plate.
As always with Moyou, the image stamped perfectly, the polish was a delight to use and this was a very quick mani, I even managed to line most of them up pretty accurately so I am really chuffed with this.
2true Pro Metallica Artemis is a lovely purple metallic and I think it goes beautifully with the main colour of Cygnus Loop (although I think the stamping has interrupted whatever magic makes the multi-chrome work).
As I mentioned when I stamped with the Avon Metallics, I tend to avoid metallic polishes as I don't like the brush strokey finish you sometimes get but of course that is avoided when you stamp and I love the soft satiny sheen against the glossy base polish.

Moyou London Holy Shapes 08
and 2true Pro Metallica Artemis