40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Red, Yellow and Green Chevrons

This weeks colour prompt for 40 Great Nail Art Ideas was red, yellow and green and my pattern prompt was chevrons.
I decided to go for a red and green gradient and stamp yellow chevrons. I used Pet'la Plate Basics with Colour Alike Yellow Glow over A England Perceval and Bear Pawlish Scar.
They were seriously bright but I was really pleased with them - except that my middle 2 nails were very slightly too long for the stamped image - don't look too closely!

Pet'la Plate basics with Colour Alike Yellow Glow

 

 

September Challenges - Fall Colour, Marble and some stamping

Today's prompt was Fall Colour for #30daysofcolourchallenge.
I chose Glisten & Glow Rum & Coke as it was one of my newest polishes and it looks pretty Autumnal to me. This stunning golden brown polish is probably one of the most holo polishes I own so of course it has rained all day. However, if you google you can see lots of awesome holo shots of this wonderful creation! You still need to see just how gorgeous it is even if it is raining, after all - it is Autumn and I am in England.
This polish applied beautifully. I thought it looked a bit sheer on the first coat but the second coat gave perfect coverage and the holo in this is stunning (under the LED light, and in other swatches I have seen!)
After half a day, I gave up trying to get a sunshine shot and went for an couple of indoor shots instead.
I am really impressed with this polish from the Glisten & Glow Cocktail Collection, Round 2. This is my first G&G polish although of course I have my wonderful HK Girl topcoat which I love!
I bought this, and my topcoat from Rainbow Connection - lovely Annette has most of my hard earned wages, I think!!
The next prompt was Marble for #clairestelle8sept. I had debated with myself for quite some time whether I would try dry marbling again, or whether to try and recreate the look of marble on my nails. Watermarbling was not an option! I went for the marble look, and added Barry M Coconut and A England Camelot to the holo nails. I just added small blobs and swished them around with a small brush and some nail varnish remover.
It seemed sacrilege to cover up the holo but I will wear this again very soon! When the sun shines!
Then I went on stamping spree - no challenges, just for fun. It wasn't a huge success, but all the time I am practicing with colours and stamping images, working out where the contrast works, which images work over what types of base.
Firstly I stamped with Esmaltes da Kelly Frogger and Apipila Super Plate A. Plate and polish both stamped nicely but not really a good enough contrast over the marble base.
Then I added A England Perceval with Uber Chic UC 1-03. This looked good but because both stamped images were quite dense the holo was virtually hidden. The light was bad by now so the photos are not good and I had been striving for Autumnal - I think I got Christmassy!
Finally, and most successfully I think, I added some autumn leaves with Esmaltes da Kelly Bee and Moyou London Mother Nature 07.

Glisten & Glow Rum & Coke

 

 

 

Stone marble

Esmaltes da Kelly Frogger and  Apipila Super Plate A

A England Perceval and Uber Chic UC1-03

Esmaltes da Kelly Bee and Moyou London Mother Nature 07

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

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

May Challenges - Nautical

The challenge for #clairestelle8may was Nautical, so I went with the first thing that came into my mind - blue sailor stripes and red anchors and ships wheels!
I love stripes, despite the fact that my mum always told me horizontal stripes will make you look fat! So, I started a white base of Barry M Cotton and added some nice fat blue stripes, with Avon Classic Fit and Lealac LLC-A.
They might be rather bright but I liked these and they reminded me of old fashioned milk jugs!
Then came the tricky part. I love stamping but placing individual images is hard! (the other hand is worse). I used A England Perceval and Apipila Super Plate A to add the anchors and wheels.
Not my best ever stamping but they do look quite cute.
Finally I had to add a bit of a matchy pic with my fishermans sweater.

Stripey nails

Nautical

Jacava Crimson Crush

Well this is another beauty! Since I was brave enough last week to wear a very bright pink (Jacava Candy Floss), this week I have gone one step further, and I am wearing red!
Less than 5% of my collection is red, and that includes a number of dark reds like Nails Inc Victoria and Leighton Denny Saturn Seduction - proper red reds would be Nails Inc St James and A England Perceval and that is literally it!

Welcome to my collection Jacava Crimson Crush! Crimson Crush is a beautiful red cream, which just hints towards blue and I am really loving it. I love the quality of these polishes, they glide on so easily, level out and dry quickly. I can just see my nail line, but it's not as apparent as the pictures in the sunshine show and  it was too hot really to paint a 3rd coat. This is a beautiful vibrant and sophisticated shade, and I am now really looking forward to the release of the Autumn Winter Collection to see what new colours Jacava bring out.

Jacava Crimson Crush

 

 

 

 

Red Gloves

Well, this is my latest piece of knitting. I had some red wool left over from something I made for my daughter about 8 years ago. Not enough to make anything much and it has sat in my "small balls of wool" box for all that time.
Then along came A England Perceval, a stunning deep red and there I was with painted nails and no gloves to match, so off I went of Ravelry to find something suitable that I could make with my red wool.
I am extremely pleased with the results, I haven't made any gloves with such fine wool 3mm gauge needles, so it made a nice change. They took a while compared to my usual chunky knits but the cables have come up beautifully, and I think they go rather well with my nails. I knitted these on double pointed needles, which used to terrify me but now I love this way of knitting, not least because there is no sewing up at the end!

A England Perceval with Nails Inc Elystan Street

Well, I always said I wouldn't wear red and here we are, 2 weeks into January and I am blogging my 2nd red. When A England had a sale just before Christmas and I wanted Jane Eyre, something made me buy the duo of JE and this one, Perceval. It's a beautiful deep red with a shimmer. It painted on beautifully, one coat was almost enough but I did 2 as you always should, no brush strokes, the finish is perfect and I am so pleased that I went for this one!

Just after Christmas, a fellow nail fan put up a photo using Elystan Street graduated tips. I'd seen swatches before and thought how pretty it was but now I had to have it! So I searched all the facebook groups looking for one since its a QVC exclusive so it can't readily be bought. Luckily for me a chance comment on one of the swap pages resulted in a lovely lady selling me this one and Bedford Square, which I had also fallen in love with. In my mind I knew that I wanted to put Elystan Street with Perceval, I was sure that they would work together and when I came to do this manicure I was so nervous that it would be a disaster.

Well I have to say I was delighted, not only that Elystan Street was every bit as gorgeous as I thought it would be (they are not always!), but also that I managed to paint freehand tips on all 10 nails without making too many mistakes and I think the colours go brilliantly together. Elystan Street is a very fine red & sliver glitter, and the red is just right with Perceval.

As I was knitting the jumper in the previous blog, one of the things that spurred me on was the thought that the colours would work well with this planned manicure and I think they do.

And finally a lovely shot of the beautiful bottle that has sat looking at me for almost a week waiting to be used. I love it!