Nail Crazies Unite - Fall Foliage

I am a bit disappointed with the end result of this mani.
In my mind it was going to be wonderful and to be honest in real life it did look nice but it absolutely would not photograph.
I started with my fan brush mani as a base as the colours white, gold and burgundy seemed a reasonable base for an autumnal mani, and I do like to try and be efficient and combine where I can.
I added an outline leaf pattern with Uber Chic Lovely Leaves and Esmaltes da Kelly Bee.
Then I added a different outline leaf with Hit the Bottle Absinthe Minded and finally I added a negative image with Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl.
I also added a matte top coat to see of that would help but really I should have used a darker polish for the final layer and typically I broke my own rule and didn't top coat between layers so I couldn't rethink the final layer. The macro looks OK though 😉
I didn't do a full step by step for this mani either - I took a part way photo with each nail at a different stage, so I'll include that here so you can see the layers.

Step by Step with Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

 

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

An InLinkz Link-up

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Earth Tones and Circles

Well, this is the final post in this series.
There is a new challenge starting but if blogging is not a requirement I will probably just use Instagram and Facebook for it.
The final colour prompt was earth tones and my pattern prompt was circles.
I started with a base of Itsy Nails Cosmic Dust, a gorgeous slate blue grey.
Then I sponged Nails Inc Fashion Fawn and Nails Inc Moonlight Shadow over the base for a nice sludgy earthy look :) no picture as it was quite sludgy!
Then I stamped with Itsy Green with Envy and Loja BBF 46. I liked it but wasn't sure it was earthy enough so I added  a second layer of stamping. I used the same image and Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl. I really loved the finished mani:- the different finishes of polish looked great I think, and quite autumnal.

Loja BBF 46 and Itsy Nails Green with Envy

Loja BBF 46 and Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl

 

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Autumn

Autumn!! well according to Google today is Autumn so what better than an Autumn mani, although it wouldn't be my first this year. Once I got my hands on Uber Chic Lovely Leaves from Nail Artisan I think I have already used it 5 or 6 times!! I love it and just like a snowflake plate it's pretty seasonal so you've got to use it while you can :)
I started with a very Autumnal base, my very first Painted Polish which I got as a store exclusive from Rainbow Connection.
Jumpin' Jack-O'-Lantern is a gorgeous cream crelly with beautiful autumnal glitters in orange, green and gold! I love it!!! I used one coat over a pale base as there was plenty of glitter in one coat.
I didn't take any macro shots as my macro lens does not seem to like my new phone but I have blown up a couple of pics to try and show this beauty!!!
Then I stamped with Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl and Uber Chic Lovely Leaves. I was really happy with the colour match of the HTB and the glitters but really struggled to capture it on camera. In the end I resorted to a matte top coat, I am still not happy with the pictures but it was the best I could get. Such a shame as this was a really pretty mani.

Painted Polish Jumpin' Jack-O'-Lantern

 

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves and
Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves and
Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl

Painted Polish Jumpin' Jack-O'-Lantern

Wiki'd Nails Challenge - Antiblemma

This week's Wiki'd Nails Challenge was Random - you hit the random article button and go with what comes up (or maybe you cheat a bit - there are  a lot of articles about little-known towns in countries all over the world - I have gone with what came up 5th on my search)
So, my random article, which was very brief, was Antiblemma - "Antiblemma is a genus of moths of the Noctuidae family". I googled Antiblemma and found a copper /brown/gold moth.
Time for some reverse stamping. I decided to stamp my moth over the leaves mani from yesterday.
I chose 2 plates, UberChic Beauty UC 3-01 and Messy Mansion MM42. I used one of the larger butterflies from the Messy Mansion plate and a smaller one from UberChic.
I stamped using Mentality Hope and then I coloured the images in using Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl and A England Virgin Queen.
I am quite pleased with the outcome.

UberChic Beauty UC 3-01, Messy Mansion MM42
Mentality Hope, Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl,
A England Virgin Queen 

 

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

May Challenges - Flakies and Gold/Dotticure

Here we go with the first May Challenge.
I have started with Flakies for #clairestelle8may. I used one coat of the gorgeous Girly Bits Take My Money Please over China Glaze Liquid Leather. This is a beautiful flakie with flakes going from gold through to green and even blue at extreme angles. The flakes are so vibrant, truly stunning.
Of course I had to try it matte although I am really not that impressed with my OPI matte top coat, it doesn't really seem quite matte enough but the flakies look fab anyway!!
The #30daysofcolourchallenge was Gold/Dotticure so I added gold roses using SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops, definitely my favourite gold polish! I used UberChic Beauty UC 1-02.
I really like the combination of the gold holo and the flakies although it was quite tricky to capture on camera.
I resisted the dotticure part for a day while I decided whether it would really work on this mani but in the end I decided it was worth a try. My hands ache too much if I try to do a proper dotticure but I am perfectly happy to stamp the dots so I used UberChic Beauty UC 1-03 and Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl. I wasn't sure about the end result but once I had topcoated I decided I liked it enough to take some pictures and now I really like it. It's probably a bit autumnal with the copper, gold and green but I don't mind :)

Girly Bits Take My Money Please

Girly Bits Take My Money Please - matte 

SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops 
and UberChic Beauty UC 1-02

Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl 
and UberChic Beauty UC 1-03

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Oldest and Houndstooth

Today I am combining two challenges, "oldest" for #30daysofcolourchallenge and "houndstooth" for #ukstampersapril.
I started with one of my oldest polishes, Avon Classic Fit. Even after all these years I still love this polish. It's such a gorgeous dark glossy blue, everything I would want in a polish and it still applies really nicely. I have also recently discovered that it stamps well too so it's an all round winner.
These pictures were taken without a top coat!
Then I stamped with one of my newest polishes. Rainbow Connection has recently started stocking Hit the Bottle, an Australian brand, so I bought one to give it a try. They have a huge range of colours to choose from and I really didn't know where to start so I went for Copper Haired Girls as it is least like any other polish I own, and WOW! It is amazing. I loved it from the moment I opened the package, it stamped beautifully and then when I top coated it, it sent shivers down my spine!
I used DRK-A to stamp the houndstooth pattern and I think the metallic copper shade works so well with the dark blue. It is manis like these that make me wish I wasn't doing so many challenges - I'd wear this for days!!

Avon Classic Fit
#30daysofcolourchallenge

Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl and DRK-A
#ukstampersapril

 

An InLinkz Link-up