April Challenges - Butterflies and Born Pretty BP-74

Last week's smoosh was light grey, berry pink/red and bright blue. I used Nails Inc When Doves Cry, Piccadilly Circus and Baker Street.
The #clairestelle8april prompt was Butterflies, which seemed like the ideal opportunity to use the plate Born Pretty sent me to review. I don't think you can ever have too many butterfly plates and this is a really pretty one, which comes with a nice cardboard sleeve. The plate is BP-74, item number 20791.
There is a nice mix of different butterfly images considering it is a small plate and includes a dragonfly image too. I went for the more solid image for my first layer as I was stamping white over some quite pale areas of my smoosh, and I wanted to create a more consistent pale base for the second layer of black stamping where I went for more of a detailed image.
I did have some difficulty with this plate. It is not very deeply etched and I found my white stamping polishes would not pick up at all - I think they just dried too quickly. In the end I found that I needed only a very light scrape and I managed to use Barry M Cotton reasonably successfully for my first layer of stamping.
I had the same problem with the second layer but eventually had success with Colour Alike Kind of Black.
I was pleased with the final mani but it took a long time and a lot of frustration! I have since tried again with the plate and still suffering the same issues.
I was also sent 2 other plates for review - both are absolutely fine and I think I was just unlucky with one as friends have used this plate with no problems.

Smoosh!

 

Born Pretty BP-74 and Barry M Cotton

Born Pretty BP-74 and Colour Alike Kind of Black

BP-74

April Challenges - Cities

Cities for #clairestelle8april - I decided to do the stained glass window from Coventry Catherdral as Coventry is where I was born and the Cathedrals (old and new) are the things I remember most about the city.
I used Pet'la Stained Glass and Petla Basics, with Colour Alike Kind of Black over a selection of Kandy Colors Jellies.
I think the idea was OK but it ended up a little on the dark side.

Pet'la Stained Glass

Pet'la Stained Glass and Petl'a Basics

 

March Challenges - Favourite Season - Summer

First - a new polish in my collection - I fell in love with this colour as soon as I saw it - I loved it, I wanted it and I was sure I would hate it once I got it... well, Annette at Rainbow Connection split up a few unsold Paint the Rainbow boxes and sold individual polishes for charity so I pounced on this elusive polish - Colors by Llarowe Welcome to Whoville.
And I was wrong, and so was Emily - we both thought we'd hate it but we don't! Beautiful consistency as always with CBL, this applied nicely, excellent coverage and I LOVED the colour!
I also thought that stunning salmony pink would make a perfect sunset colour for my Summer mani.

Serena @glitterglossfun invited me to join in with  Favourite Season for #nailswithigfriends and as I hate being cold so I chose Summer!
I resisted the urge to over complicate and do a gradient sky, I just sponged Colors by Llarowe Be Bold in Blue for the sea and then used DRK Seasons with Colour Alike Kind of Black and Kind of White for the palm trees and waves.
There didn't seem to be enough waves so I sponged a little more blue and restamped more white waves.

Colors by Llarowe Welcome to Whoville

 

DRK Seasons

 

the final collage

March Challenges - Inspired by @glitterglossfun

Inspired by @glitterglossfun for #ggfnachallenge -
As soon as I saw this mani on Serena's IG I knew which one I would do, a mani which she did last week inpired by @yagala.
I have used HJ Manicure Pink Bikini, Lavender and  Turquoise Sea, topped with Ciate Confetti and then stamped with Vivid Lacquer VL036 and Colour Alike A Kind of Black.

Vivid Lacquer VL036 and Colour Alike A Kind of Black

February Challenges - Nail Technique that I Love

The prompt - Nail Technique I Love for #clairestelle8feb - well of course it was going to be stamping and I was going to pair this with saran wrap, but recently I have the #smooshattack bug! My most fave manis are when I stamp over a relatively random base amd just let the colours and patterns work themselves out. I stamped Moyra 06 Florality 1 with Colour Alike A Kind of Black over my #smooshynailsunday mani. Then I used the same plate and stamped a different image with Colour Alike A Kind of White because if there is anything I like more than stamping, it is double stamping!
The smoosh was China Glaze Glow With the Flow, China Glaze Treble Maker and Kandy Colors un-named blue.

#smooshattack

Moyra 06 Florality 1 with Colour Alike A Kind of Black

Moyra 06 Florality 1 with Colour Alike A Kind of White

February Challenges - Mystical Nails

I know I have frequently mentioned a love of Art Deco and rarely miss an opportunity to do Art Deco nails but another style that I love is anything Celtic.
The prompt Mystical for #ggfnachallenge instantly made me think Celtic and more specifically the Messy Mansion Symetrika plates.
I started with a blue and green holo base using Esmaltes da Kelly Helix and Haltere, just painted each nail half and half. Coverage was great with only did one coat!
Then I stamped a spiral pattern using Apipila Super Plate B and Colour Alike Kind of Black.
Finally I added Messy Mansion Symetrika 06 with A England Virgin Queen.
I was really pleased with how this turned out.

Esmaltes da Kelly Helix and Haltere

Apipila Super Plate B and Colour Alike Kind of Black

 

Messy Mansion Symetrika 06 with A England Virgin Queen

 

 

February Challenges - Animal I Love - cats!!!

I recently did a mani with black over neon and I liked it so much I decided I'd do something similar for the #clairestelle8feb prompt Animal that I love.
I used a base of China Glaze Treble Maker, and then used Moyra 02 Fabric Texture and China Glaze DJ Blue My Mind (invisible stamping it would seem) and China Glaze Violet-Vibes with the same plate.
Then I used Vivid Lacquer VL027 and Colour Alike Kind of Black over the neon base.
Finally I added a matte top coat.

Moyra 02 Fabric Texture

Vivid Lacquer VL027

 

February Challenges - Book or Film that I Love

The #clairestelle8feb prompts are all about love!

The first one was Books or Films that I Love. I read quite a varied selection of books but I don't get to go to the cinema much. However, with young teenage children we have been to the cinema as a family to see each of the Hunger Games films, and I have read all the books so it seemed like the obvious choice. What better excuse to use the wonderful flames plate from Messy Mansion.

I started with China Glaze Riveting, a wonderful orange flecked with gold and how apt since I believe this was from the China Glaze Hunger Games Collection way back in 2012!

Then I used Bundle Monster + Sloteazzy BM-XL210 and Kleancolor Metallic Yellow really just to add some yellow to the base, and I am delighted with how well that stamped.

Finally I added the flames with Messy Mansion MM27 and Colour Alike Kind of Black.

I was really pleased with how this turned out (as you can probably tell by the number of pictures I took)

China Glaze Riveting

 

Bundle Monster BM-XL210 and Kleancolor Metallic Yellow

 

Messy Mansion MM27

 

 

 

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Things that fly

This week it is Things That Fly for #40greatnailartideas - After much thought, I went with my first instinct which was butterflies.
I did think about lead-lighting or reverse stamping, but in the end I went with something a whole lot quicker and easier, and I really liked the way it turned out.
I did some colourful stamping with Kleancolor Metallic Purple, Pink and Jungle. I started with a coat of Nails Inc Soho Silver which last time seemed to prevent the Kleancolors from staining, I hope it has worked this time too! Then I stamped the small butterflies from Loja BBF 19, once with each colour, although really I just used the plate to get the colours on my nail (and yes, I could have just painted it on but I like stamping!)
Then I used Loja BBF 46 and Colour Alike Kind of Black over the colourful base.

Colourful butterfly base

Loja BBF 46 and Colour Alike Kind of Black

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

January Challenges - recreation mani for a birthday collaboration

Iva @secretjewelgarden invited me to join a collaboration mani for Stefi @therapywithnailpolish's birthday.
I chose to recreate this mani of Stefi's because it is so pretty, and it helped that I have Fancy Gloss Frozen Berries and hehe 040 that Stefi used for the original!! I used Nails Inc Royal Mews with Frozen Berries for my gradient and stamped with Colour Alike Kind of Black and hehe 040.
I loved this so much I took way too many pics - sorry :) I also wore it for 2 days!

hehe 040

 

 

 

 

 

Stefi's original mani

The final collage

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Pale Blue Base and Skittle

I don't think I've ever made any secret of the fact I can't stand non matching nails on myself so skittle is a bit scary but as it had to have the same base I think I had a lucky escape!
For my pale blue base I used Bear Pawlish The Pigeon. I will need to use this pretty blue again to get some decent photos.
I decided I go with black and white stamping using a delicate image in black and then white on 2 fingers and a more solid image on the other 2 fingers. I used a 3rd quite solid image on the thumb.
It was the perfect chance to try out BundleMonster + Lucy's Stash BM-XL209! What a lovely plate!
I used Colour Alike Kind of White and Kind of Black for the stamping.
I have to say, despite my reservations I am reasonably happy with this, in fact I actually wore it for 24 hours before I added a bit more stamping!
I stayed with the same plate and added Colour Alike Rudolph and I thought the overall finished mani looked quite good and that shimmery red stamps beautifully!

Bear Pawlish The Pigeon

BundleMonster + Lucy's Stash BM-XL209

An InLinkz Link-up