June Challenges - A Smoosh and Unicorns

Right, I think I will give blogging a rest, except for those that have to be blogged. I have thought long and hard about it, but there just never seems to be enough time to do it well and I don't want it to be a scrappy effort (although a few recent ones have been brief to say the least)
This week's smoosh was pink, blue and gold - I used Nails Inc Sugarloaf Sunset, St James Square and A England Holy Grail.
Unicorns for #clairestelle8june - well I started with UberChicUC 6-01 and Esmaltes da Kelly Fox Fur over my smoosh - and I think that unicorn poops might look a bit like this!!
UC 6-01 is my newest UberChic plate - I know I am a bit behind!! I couldn't quite make up my mind if I needed this set but there are so many images other people have used that I liked I decided to go for it and I love how Esmaltes da Kelly Fox Fur stamps!!
There don't seem to be many unicorn plates, perhaps as rare and shy as unicorns themselves - I found an image on Apipila Super Plate C but to be honest I preferred the previous stage. I am not that keen on single images on my nails, much prefer a pattern and my nails are a bit too small for this unicorn anyway,

Smoosh!

UberChicUC 6-01 and Esmaltes da Kelly Fox Fur

Apipila Super Plate C

September Challenges - Shimmer and Mix N Match

I combined two challenges, Shimmer for #30daysofcolourchallenge and Mix N Match - Jewel Tones for #wnac2015.
I chose 5 shimmery polishes in jewel tones and did one nail in each colour. I used Leighton Denny Rebel, Jacava Midnight's Secret, Nails Inc Emerald Street, A England Holy Grail and A England Perceval. Then in order to bring it all together, as I can't stand non-matching nails, I stamped a really nice paisley type pattern from Loja BBF 18 over each one with Essence Stampy 001. I did try black stamping but I couldn't get enough contrast.
Although I am very uncomfortable with non-matching nails, I was quite pleased with the finished mani.

Shimmer!

Loja BBF 18 with Essence Stampy 001 

An InLinkz Link-up

July Challenges - Yellow / Blobbicure and Black and White

Every now and then you get a challenge not entirely in your comfort zone and this time I have had to use yellow!
The #30daysofcolourchallenge was Yellow / Blobbicure. I had done a small blobbicure trial in June so I felt slightly more comfortable about that, but yellow ?? Anyway, I decided to use A England Holy Grail and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops as I thought they'd go quite well together.
The result wasn't too bad - I have seen better blobbicures but I was reasonably happy with the mani and I do think the colours worked pretty well.
Of course I had to stamp on it and I thought it would make a nice background for one of the UberChic sketchy flowers so I stamped UberChic Beauty UC 1-03 with China Glaze Liquid Leather.
Finally I decided to use this as my Black and White mani for #30daysofcolourchallenge too so I added some white stamping, using UberChic Beauty UC 3-01 and Hit the Bottle Snowed Under.
I really like black and white stamping combined and I am pretty pleased with this.

As you can probably tell, I did this mani over a few days so I did add a final layer, some more black stamping with Kleancolor Madly Black and Apipila Super plate B - so, its still black and white but also means another entry for #hawaiianshirtmanifriday!

Blobbicure with A England Holy Grail and
SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops

UberChic Beauty UC 1-03

UberChic Beauty UC 3-01

 

Apipila Super Plate B and Kleancolor Madly Black

 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Wiki'd Nails Challenge - Midas

This week's Wiki'd Nails Challenge was Midas so what else to do but gold nails!
I don't like gold nails but I've given it my best shot and even tried out one of my latest nail art fears, the blobbicure!
I decided I'd go with A England Holy Grail, the old one and the new one, to see how different they really are so I did gradients on 2 fingers and the thumb and blobbicures on the other 2 fingers. Despite not really liking these colours I was pretty pleased with what I did, not least that the blobbicure fear has been conquered.
Then to make sure they really were gold I added a coat of Nicole by OPI Twist of Fate, a pretty dense gold glitter - again, not a glitter I use a lot but I think it did the trick. I had however forgotten what a pain glitter can be to photograph, especially in the sun, so the pictures are not great.
I think the pre-glitter version is better, but there was no going back!

A England Holy Grail - old and new

A England Holy Grails and Nicole by OPI Twist of Fate

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - J is for Jewel

It is Thursday again and time for the next letter - this week it is J is for Jewel.
I had decided what I was going to do for this week and then lying awake one night I suddenly wanted to do green amber instead. I think amber in general is fascinating, but I am not a lover of yellow or orange, so when I discovered green amber it was love at first sight. I couldn't wait to double check that it is actually a jewel so I could use it for this week's challenge. A quick google search told me "amber is a jewel quality fossilized resin"
Other than stamping, the other nail art technique that I discovered and really enjoyed most in 2014 was the saran wrap mani and I was pretty certain I could do something green and pretty using that technique.
I decided to start with a dark base, so I painted my nails with A England Lady of Shalott (I know its blue but it's mostly covered up and I wanted to wear it yesterday on its own).
This morning I blobbed A England Dragon onto my nails and moved it around with the saran wrap. I then added a few more much tinier blobs of A England Holy Grail, just to add a bit of golden warmth and saran wrapped that too. Top coat and done - 5 minute mani.
This turned out pretty much as I planned and I love them! I know they are a bit darker than green amber, but I like the dark base showing through and I just love that marbled finish. The fact that the 2 A Englands are holographic and sparkle delicately just adds to the prettiness of this, I think so anyway :)

 J is for Jewel - green amber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look HERE to see what everyone else got up to.

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - G is for Gold

It is Thursday again and time for the next instalment of the A2Z series - G is for Gold.
In a way this was an easy prompt: I don't like gold nails so I only have one gold polish. It is A England Holy Grail, which I will confess I only bought because it was on offer some time last year and I thought it might be useful for nail art. It is a very yellow gold, absolutely not in my comfort zone but as soon as I'd decided I would use it for this mani, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.
When I first started stamping, I went to Moyou London's site, and went through all the plates. This one plate leapt out at me, I think basically because I recognized it instantly as Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. I had no idea at the time what I would do with it but I liked the combination of patterns on the plate, and I remember thinking at the time I didn't have to use it with yellow! That said, I think Holy Grail is the perfect colour for Klimt's The Kiss.
I have quite a few gold glitters but I have chosen Hare Own Your Opulence as I thought it would soften the yellow of Holy Grail, and realised that it would be great to add that extra something rather than just black stamping on yellow. Own Your Opulence is a delicious mix of gold, pastel and black glitter, with fine gold micro glitter in a clear base, it is so pretty!
The plate is from Moyou London's Artist Collection 04 and I have chosen to use just one section of the plate, the overlapping squares.
I am really pleased with how these turned out, I love the combination of stamping and glitter. I can almost forgive the base for being gold, it's not the polish's fault my skin tone just looks wrong!

A2Z Series - G is for Gold

 

 

Look HERE to see what everyone else got up to.

An InLinkz Link-up

A England Holy Grail, Dragon and She Walks in Beauty

It's the last day of Indie week on All Things Nails, and I have 2 untried A Englands so I thought I'd try something I've seen done by Lucy and Anna

I did a base coat using A England Holy Grail ( this is the older Holy Grail, which is more gold, there is now a new version which is more bronze). This painted on beautifully but is absolutely not my colour on its own, so it will be used under glitters and for my occasional forays into nail art!!

A England Holy Grail

 

What I wanted to try is called a "ruffian", which is bit like a half moon mani but the base part of the second coat is curved in the same way as the base of the nail itself, you just start painting from higher up. I probably haven't described it very well. I painted the whole nail in Holy Grail, and then I added  a coat of A England Dragon, in exactly the same way as I would normally paint my nails but starting about 2mm further up the nail.

I think this would probably have worked better with 2 more similar shades, maybe Princess Sabra with Dragon but you don't know if you don't try! Dragon is a beautiful olive green with  a lovely subtle holographic shimmer, which of course my camera can't see! I will certainly be using this green again soon, it's just gorgeous!

A England Holy Grail and Dragon

 

I then had to have a little play, so sticking with A England I have added a glitter gradient using She Walks in Beauty. This is a combination of pink hexagons of glitter in a gold shimmery base, which I thought would help soften the contrast between Holy Grail and Dragon. I think it was worth trying and it is much prettier in real life, the camera has either ignored the shimmer or made it look too solid: it is much softer to the naked eye. The last couple of shots capture it quite well.

A England She Walks in Beauty gradient