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

September Challenges - Pink and Coral

I have combined 2 challenges today, Pink for #30daysofcolourchallenge and Coral for #clairestelle8sept.
I don't have a huge amount of pinks and only one untried which was Above the Curve Desk Clear #11. This is a lovely pale pink with a subtle shimmer. It applied really well, with great coverage in 2 coats and no streakiness - perfect!
For coral I decided to try something new but I wasn't confident about doing it on both hands, so the right hand got stamping, the left hand got the experimenting!
For the right hand I stamped with hehe 040 (the wonderful fake watermarbling plate) and OPI My Chihuahua Bites. I was pretty impressed with the way the OPI stamped and I think it looked really pretty with the pale pink.
For the left hand I decided to have a try at dry marbling, so I used the same two polishes - in theory it would all be very co-ordinated! I painted a thick coat of the ATC and then added a couple of small blobs of OPI and swirled them around with a cocktail stick. I think I was a bit heavy handed as I moved too much base so you can see the nail peeping through in a few places but overall I think it was a reasonable first stab.
Finally, in another attempt to unify it all I stamped with hehe 040 and the OPI over the dry marbling. That looked quite pretty but the pictures did not really do it justice.

Above the Curve Desk Clear #11

OPI My Chihuahua Bites and hehe 040

Dry Marbling with OPI My Chihuahua Bites

OPI My Chihuahua Bites and hehe 040

An InLinkz Link-up

Wiki'd Nails - Horror Icon

This is the last week of the Wiki'd Nails Challenge - I feel quite relieved because it has felt a real struggle to do these. However, looking at the album of Wiki'd pics on my facebook page I am actually quite impressed with what I have achieved, especially considering I almost gave up on this before I even started.
Sometimes we do need to be pushed a bit, but maybe not during financial year end!
Anyway, this week's Wiki'd Nails Challenge was Horror Icon so I have stamped the ghoulish looking face from Hehe 040 using A England Rose Bower over Nails Inc Lily.
They were a bit camera shy, so I added a coat of Barry M Matte top coat - much easier to photograph and wow! what a top coat, it is actually properly matte. I am really pleased with it!
I am quite happy with these ghoulish little chaps - when I got Hehe 040 I couldn't see me using this particular image although I love all the fake water marbling images, such a brilliant little plate!

Hehe 040 and A England Rose Bower

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

May Challenges - Holo /Water marble

Yesterday's challenge for #30daysofcolourchallenge was holo / watermarble. I have tried watermarbling a couple of times - the first time was messy but relatively successful (beginners luck), the second time was messy and a complete failure. I don't like giving up on stuff but I don't like mess so I decided maybe it's not for me, and instead I purchased stamping plate hehe 040 - I love it, it looks like watermarbling without the mess. Obviously you are limited in colours but it is a great plate.
I started with one of my newest polishes, A England Captive Goddess - a stunning silvery blue holo. This is a fascinating polish, slightly teal but it also has a bit of a colour shift so that from some angles you get lilac/grey. The holo is amazing, really strong and utterly WOW in sunlight.
Then after half a day of adoring this polish I added another of the new A Englands, Prosperpine. This one really threatens Saint George at the top of my A England favourites list.
Prosperpine is a dark tealy blue holo and I'd say it could well be a one coater, it certainly stamps beautifully.
So I did my cheaty fake watermarbling with hehe 040 and these two stunning A England polishes. I think the silvery teal and the dark blue teal go perfectly together.
At this point I figured I had a bit of a watery theme going on, water marbling with colours that looked like the sea, so today I added another layer of stamping, using Mentality Beige Opaque and Pueen 96 and now I have a second contribution to the nautical nails challenge for #clairestelle8may.
I love the little lighthouse! It is so cute!!

A England Captive Goddess

 

A England Captive Goddess
with A England Proserpine and hehe 040

Nautical nails with Pueen 96

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Favourite and some stamping

Today's challenge for #30daysofcolourchallenge was "favourite", so I have chosen my favourite colour, blue, by one of my favourite US indie brands, Above the Curve.
Above the Curve Family is a stunning intense deep blue holo. It is gorgeous, and I think may be one of my favourite ATCs - it is really sparkly in the light, and I love the colour. I don't have a lot of blue holos, there don't seem to be so many of them around but I love this one!
This is one of my only US polishes that I actually bought from America, risking customs charges, destruction of polishes and really high postage charges but probably worth it to get my hands on this beauty! I bought it from the Black Friday sale along with 3 others and I was SO relieved when they arrived safely.
What a shame it wasn't sunny this morning! Pictures are taken inside with my LED light.
As I was going out for the day I couldn't resist some stamping so I added some fake water marbling with SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes and Hehe 040 (what an amazing plate!!)

I was really pleased with the combination. This looked amazing in the sunshine but I wasn't able to take any pictures until I got home and of course the sun had gone by then, so again I have had to resort to indoor pics although I took a couple outside too.

Above the Curve Family
#30daysofcolourchallenge 

Above the Curve Family,
SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes and Hehe 040

 

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Blue and Blue for Autism Awareness

I decided to try and do more challenges which might be a bit mad because it is now year end at work so I'll probably be really busy. The logic is that if I follow the challenges I won't spend ages trying to decide what to do on my nails. We'll see - I think the blog posts will get shorter (hurray! I hear you shout)
Anyway, the first challenge is #30daysofcolourchallenge hosted by @procrastinailart. This is a daily challenge and the first prompt is blue.
The other challenge I decided to try is #ukstampersapril and the prompt for 1st April is Autism Awareness, so the 2 challenges should be OK to combine since the main colour behind this campaign is blue.
I started with a base of Nails Inc Instyle Bluebell, and then I stamped a water marble design from Hehe 040 - a wonderful plate if your water marbelling skills are anything like mine!
I still wanted to stamp on top of that so I went for a subtle effect, stamping Fancy Gloss Mermaid Tales. This is a very pretty blue tealy holo, not really opaque enough for bold stamping but perfect for what I wanted. I was really pleased with how that looked.
Finally, from Lealac LLC-A I have used the jigsaw image and Kleancolour Neon Sapphire.

Nails Inc Instyle Bluebell
#30daysofcolourchallenge

Hehe 040 and Fancy Gloss Mermaid Tales

 

Lealac LLC-A and Kleancolor Neon Sapphire
 #uknailstampersapril

 

Lealac LLC-A and Kleancolor Neon Sapphire
matte

An InLinkz Link-up