26 Great Nail Art Ideas - French with a Twist

I really don't like a conventional French mani - they just don't look right on me and I think possibly even worse when my nails are a bit pointy. Anyway, I was quite pleased with how these turned out.
I had done a St Patrick's Day mani for a collaboration, and it occurred to me it might be quite cool to add the French mani to that.
For the St Patrick's Day mani I used Messy Mansion MM04XL with A England Saint George over Smitten Claddagh.
Then, I sponged A England Saint George over my tips. (Sponged because I didn't trust myself to paint neatly and consistently over all nails!)
Then I used used the same plate to stamp clovers with Messy Mansion Misty Jade over the dark tips. I did think this could end up being a real disaster but actually I think it worked out OK.

Messy Mansion MM04XL

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Your Signature Style

Well, this is the 26th Great Nail Art Idea - so it is the final one. A bit sad maybe but actually I am quite relieved. It has not been the best year and struggling to fit in a weekly or biweekly blog that has to go out on a fixed day has been a bit of a challenge.
The other challenge that alternates with this one finishes in October and I think my blog may well grind to a halt for a while once that happens.
I will obviously still paint my nails and do challenges but many of the Instagram ones are a lot more flexible with posting dates so they are easier to fit in around life.
Anyway, back to this one - Signature Style - well, I always stamp, and I try to pair my manis with knitting (except in the summer when it's too hot or pics look silly with gloves) so of course I have done a stamped knitting mani.
I used a fanbrush base of Barry M Black Pistachio, Barry M Surfboard and OPI I'm Feeling Sashy.
Then I used Messy Mansion MM84XL with A England Saint George to stamp the knitting pattern. I went for the purl side pattern (knitting term)  rather than the stocking stitch pattern as I felt it would look better over the fanbrush and I really like the subtle way the dark green stamping fades into the fanbrush.

Messy Mansion MM84XL

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

26 Great Nail Art Idea - Green Freestyle

This week's prompt is Green Freestyle, which I take to mean green and whatever I fancy.
I love green nails. I think blue is my favourite colour but I love so many greens that it's a close run thing and actually I think there is a wider range of green polishes.
Anyway, I started with a gel base of Gellifique One Step 6022, a bright lime green.
Then I stamped blossoms from Dixie plate DP10 with Hit the Bottle Absinthe Minded and then I added larger bolder flowers with A England Saint George. They are quite bright and in some lights the base looks almost yellow but I was really pleased with how these turned out. Although there are no other colours I think they just look so Spring like!

Green with Dixie Plate DP10

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Nail Crazies Unite - Candy Cane

This week's prompt was Candy Cane.
I have some lovely plates with striped images that would be perfect for this and because I love stripes I was tempted to use them but I also have Messy Mansion Merry Christmas which has actual candy canes on, and they can really only be used in the Christmas period so I thought I'd better use them.
I am wearing a white gel base this week so I though I'd keep it simple, but I couldn't resist having red and green ones, and yes I know most candy canes are red and white.
I decided to be brave with some reverse stamping so I stamped with A England Saint George and Rose Bower and coloured the stripes with the same alternating colours.
They looked a bit bare either side of the main image so I added some Christmassy glitter with Magic Goose Reindeer Dance.

Messy Mansion Merry Christmas

 

An InLinkz Link-up

St George's Day Mani

St George's Day - this seemed like a good idea in my mind!!
I started with a base of A England Cathy, sponged a cross with A England Let Me In and then stamped using A England Saint George and  Camelot with Vivid Lacquer  VL020.
I did glossy and then matte - I think the matte was my favourite and it was easiest to photograph.

St George's Day

 

March Challenges - St Patrick's Day and the Luck of the Irish

A combination post:

St Patrick's inspired for #firedazedchallenge - I went Celtic again although I gather St Patrick banished Celts from Ireland - Messy Mansion Symetrika 03 and A England Saint George over Smitten Claddagh.

The Luck of the Irish for #wnac2016 - I used 4 leaf clovers from Pueen SE03A, stamped with a rainbow selection of Esmaltes da Kelly polishes (Wendy, Tuco, Bee, Chuoisco and Bruce) over the Messy Mansion stamping.

Smitten Claddagh

 

Messy Mansion Symetrika 03 and A England Saint George

Pueen SE03A and EDK polishes

 

November Challenges - Purple Glitter and some stamping

Today I have used two beautiful polishes bought from Rainbow Connection. I started with Glam Polish Which Witch? from the recent Halloween Trio. This is the most stunning lilac and holo glitter along with a lot of other colours too!
It applied nicely giving excellent coverage. I used two coats but I think if you don't have stained nails or uneven VNL's you might get away with one. My pictures are a bit disappointing - how can there be NO daylight??? but luckily the macro does show how incredibly pretty this polish is!
Glitter was the last prompt of #pcanovember15 and since it had to be purple, what better than a gradient of Glam Polish Which Witch? and another Glam, Hounds of Love.
Hounds of Love is from the Kate Bush Trio - it is purple, glittery and very beautiful. I sponged this over the tips to make the gradient and I think the two went really well together. The pictures were a bit better and I am pleased with the macro.
Finally, as it's nearly St Andrew's Day I think a bit of Argyle stamping is appropriate. I used Moyou London Pro XL 01 and A England Saint George over my thistley purple gradient. I am really happy with the way this turned out - if I hadn't already planned a St Andrew's day mani I'd have certainly used this one.

Glam Polish Which Witch?

 

Glam Polish Which Witch? and Hounds of Love

 

 

Moyou London Pro XL01 and A England Saint George

 

 

When Colours Collide - Inspired by Art from another Country

I joined in on a collaboration with some lovely ladies from When Colours Collide.
The theme was Inspired by Art from another Country, and I decided as my husband is Welsh and I love all those Celtic swirls, I'd go for a Celtic look.
I started with a gradient of A England Tristam and A England Dancing with Nuryev, then I stamped a spiral pattern from DRK A with A England Saint George and A England Fotheringhay Castle and finally I stamped a celtic pattern from DRK A with SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops.
I was so pleased with how this turned out until I tried to capture it on camera, you could have the holo or the stamping but not both, so I took hundreds of pictures!!!
If you have access to Instagram take a look at #whencolourscollide to see all the other fantastic contributions - the collaboration pic is at the bottom of this post, all pulled together by lovely Mary from Dreamymm.

DRK A and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops

gradient of A England Tristam and
A England Dancing with Nuryev

DRK A with A England Saint George and
A England Fotheringhay Castle

June Stamping - Hawaiian Shirt Mani with Pet'la Plate Golden Russian

There was a bit of Hawaiian shirt madness going on last week started by Debbie @ladyandthe_stamp so I had to join in!
I also wanted to do a slighty cheating negative space mani so I started with a base of Nails Inc Fulham Palace Road (nails too yellow for real nude nails) and I stamped with A England Saint George and Pet'la Plate Golden Russian.
I was quite pleased with this, quite pretty and a nice dark base for my #hawaiianshirtmani.
I stamped some foliage with Hit the Bottle Absinthe Minded and the same Pet'la plate and then I added a layer of flowers using Hit the Bottle Purple Reign and Hit the Bottle Magenta at your Own Risk, again using the same plate.
I was really pleased with these, not too outlandish and perhaps not as bright as some hawaiian shirts but it was my son's birthday and I am not sure he'd want to go out with me with really loud nails!!

Hit the Bottle Magenta at Your Own Risk, Purple Reign,
and Absinthe Minded, A England Saint George,
and Pet'la Plate Golden Russian

 

 

A England Saint George and
Pet'la Plate Golden Russian

 

May Challenges - Favourite Brand / Favourite Technique

Today the prompt for #30daysofcolourchallenge was Favourite Brand/Favourite Technique.
Brand is a tricky one - I have 4 or 5 favourite International Indie brands but the brand I have most of is Above the Curve so I have chosen Ravenclaw for this mani. This is from the Harry Potter Collection and it is the most beautiful blue holo. It is slightly teal and has pink, tealy blue and purple glitter as well as the gorgeous holo. The camera couldn't pick up the glitter but at least I caught the holo. This is a lovely polish, even in the shade the dusky blue is beautiful.
Favourite technique was easy - stamping - yay!!!
I stamped over Ravenclaw with Mentality Beige Opaque and Emily de Molly EDM04. I think the gold peacock feathers look great over the blue background. This is quite striking when you look in detail as the glitters show through the gold stamping but from a distance the impression is of a soft delicate mani.
Finally I added another favourite brand, A England. I used Saint George to stamp a single peacock feather on each nail. I love the green over the gold, the blue is only just visible. Frustratingly, the image is not as clear in the photos as it is to the naked eye but the overall combination of colours is lovely.

Above the Curve Ravenclaw

 

Mentality Beige Opaque and
Emily de Molly EDM04

 

 

A England Saint George and Emily de Molly EDM04
over Mentality Beige Opaque

 

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Wiki'd Nails Challenge - Tattoo

The gang behind the A2Z challenges decided we needed something even more challenging and came up with Wiki'd Nails.
They spent some time hitting the random button on Wikipedia and came up with a set of 10 new challenges, the first of which is Tattoo.
Now I know the intention was for us to be seriously challenged and produce something staggeringly creative but I have been hankering after doing a henna tattoo style mani since I first got Moyou London Explorer 22, so when I saw the word tattoo, I decided that's what I was going to do.
As it turned out, I got the polishes ready and then my Uberchic Beauty plates arrived. UC 3-01 and UC 3-03 both have what I think of as henna tattoo style images so I had to use one of them. I went for UC 3-03.
I started with a base of Leighton Denny Healthy Glow, a lovely slightly pinky nude and then I stamped using Avon Deluxe Chocolate. This has a slight shimmer to it and may not have been the best polish to use but colour-wise I think it was perfect.
I was pretty pleased with these although my camera doesn't seem to think they are so good!
I did go on to use UC 3-01 and A England Rose Bower for a second layer of stamping and back to UC 3-03 and A England Saint George for a third layer - it all ended up being a bit Christmassy but pretty :)

UberChic Beauty UC3-03 and Avon deluxe Chocolate
over Leighton Denny Healthy Glow

 

A England Rose Bower and UberChic Beauty UC 3-01

A England Saint George and UberChic Beauty UC 3-03

An InLinkz Link-up