40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Holidays / Seaside / Beach

Holidays / Seaside / Beach for #40greatnailartideas - I made decals!!!!!
Although they are look a bit wobbly I am relatively pleased with how these turned out!
I used For Your Nails Only Snow Queen and DRK Seasons over a gradient of Barry M Laguna and Barry M Golden Sands and coloured the beach huts with Barry M Bikini, Aloha and Surfboard.
I generally don't wear things like this on my nails for long but I did wear these for 2 days!

Barry M Laguna and Barry M Golden Sands

DRK Seasons

 

An InLinkz Link-up

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Summer

I toyed with the idea of posting a woolly jumper and an umbrella since the British summer can be a bit disappointing but decided I should be a bit more optimistic!
In the end I went with flowers from the summer section of the DRK Seasons plate, and used a brand new thermal polish for the base.
For Your Nails Only is a UK Indie brand and Sharon has just brought out a lovely thermal collection called Climate Control.
I do love thermals although they can be stubbornly frustrating, and often stay in the warm phase too long for my liking especially in the "summer" even if it isn't that warm! However I am delighted to say Strawberry Bellini is very responsive and I was able to catch it in every stage - hence I have a folder of about 50 photos with and with out stamping.
I did use a pale base, as my nails are still very stained at the tips and often thermals are quite sheer in their warm phase.
I stamped first with Avon Iceberg White and then used the same images again with A England Lancelot (very dark red but not quite black)
I am just going to post one shot for the Summer challenge and then share my collages with you, otherwise this could be the longest post ever!

DRK Seasons with A England Lancelot and
Avon Iceberg White over
For Your Nails Only Strawberry Bellini

For Your Nails Only Strawberry Bellini

DRK Seasons with Avon Iceberg White over
For Your Nails Only Strawberry Bellini

DRK Seasons with A England Lancelot and
Avon Iceberg White over
For Your Nails Only Strawberry Bellini

An InLinkz Link-up

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 - 'Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay and Nautical Nails

'Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay - I adore this delicate sparkly tealy blue holo. It applied beautifully as they always do, with excellent coverage. If this had been just pale blue it would probably not have been me at all, but it's teal and I love it!

Nautical for #ggfnachallenge - I thought I'd stay with the teal shades for this nautical mani - I used DRK Seasons and Esmaltes da Kelly Dolly over Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay and then added Apipila Super Plate A and A England Proserpine. I was quite pleased with how this turned out although for some reason I really struggled to capture it on camera.

'Ard As Nails White Cliff Bay

 

Apipila Super Plate A and A England Proserpine 

 

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Fashion

Another combined Friday posting - Fashion for #40greatnailartideas and Floral for #wnac2016.
I am not exactly a follower of fashion so I googled London Fashion Week for some inspiration that would not be too outlandish for my rather conservative tastes. To my delight the second image that came up was focusonstyle.com and an image of girls in pretty floral peasant style dresses, so I went with that, conveniently meeting the floral prompt too!
I started with a smooshy base of  Barry M Black Grape, Black Cherry and Black Pistachio
Then I stamped some tendrils and leaves with Moyra 13 Sweet Dreams and 2 True Pro Metallica Arete.
Then I added the flowers with DRK Seasons and Colour Alike Kind of White
I then coloured the flowers on half of each nail with Kandy Colors Grape Much? and Look at Me.
To change it a bit more I coloured a few more flowers and then finally added a matte top coat.

An InLinkz Link-up

January Challenges - Forest Creatures and Dance Legend Bow Polish Mutation

Ever since thermal polishes came out I've been fascinated with them - I've tried a few, some better than others and some that lose their thermalness after a while.
I just bought three new thermals last week and so far I am very impressed. They are from the new Bow by Dance Legend range - available in the UK from Rainbow Connection.
Today I have used Mutation which is a tealy green with glitter. It is quite sheer and I did need 3 coats for complete opacity in the warmest phase. They dry matte and I did find them tricky to work with as they dry so quickly. I think maybe I didn't have enough polish on the brush, it was easier by the 3rd coat.
I took a lot of pics and as the polish responds so quickly to temperature change I didn't really spend ages posing, just took the shots and hoped! I also had to take the warm one inside as we have snow here today!
Then for today's challenge - Forest Creatures for #clairestelle8jan - I spent for ever trying to decide what sort of animal to do but since it's snowy here today I thought I'd go wintery!
I used DRK Seasons and Colour Alike Fairy Forest for the trees and Colour Alike Kind of White for the deer. I chose green for the trees in the hope it would show up whatever colour the thermal was and I am quite pleased with the final mani.

Bow by Dance Legend Mutation

 

DRK Seasons

January Challenges - Snow and Ice

See - we can keep the snowflake manis alive for a good couple of months yet - the prompt for #clairestelle8jan is Snow and Ice.
I hadn't used DRK Seasons yet so I decided I would use the snowflakes on that plate for this mani, but first I have the most exciting plate - a fake water marbling plate!!!! Yay!!
So I decided I'd have a nice icy grey background. I started with a base of Nails Inc Instyle When Doves Cry and then stamped a pretty subtle watermarble with 'Ard As Nails Winter Nights and Bundle Monster + Sloteazzy BM-XL210. This is one of the blogger collaboration plates and it is fantastic, especially for people like me who don't like the mess and just can't water marble!
Then I added snowflakes with DRK Seasons and Hit the Bottle Snowed Under.

BundleMonster + Sloteazzy BM-XL210

 

DRK Seasons