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

 

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 - Vampy and Reverse Stamping

I am late with yesterday's #30daysofcolourchallenge, mainly because I thought it would be a good idea to combine it with the #ukstampersapril challenge and I didn't have time to do both yesterday.
The #30daysofcolourchallenge was Vampy - I have a lot of polishes which would be fine for this challenge but I really wanted to use an untried so I have gone for another new one by UK Indie Danglefoot Nail Polish. We are in Dream Country Now is a red/purple jelly with lots of pretty red, gold, and orange glitter which is really sparkly.
When I finally decided I would try to wear red, it is these dark red, burgundy type shades that I started with and I love them! The glitter is an added bonus in this one.
I did need 3 coats for full opacity, I might well use a dark red base next time but the formula was good, polish dried reasonably quickly, despite my very cold hands.
The polish was very sparkly in the sunshine, but to be honest I think of these as more wintery shades and I liked it best in the shade. You can really see the depth of the glitters floating in the layers of polish.
The #ukstampersapril challenge was reverse stamping and with hindsight I think I made this very difficult trying it over a dark red base. It was a challenge to find a suitable colour to stamp with and to colour with. I don't think black would have shown up, white would be too much of a contrast so in the end I went for Mentality Beige Opaque which stamps as a gold. I think this went well with the glitter in the vampy base.
I chose the butterfly plate from Messy Mansion, MM42 and I coloured most of my butterflies with Above the Curve Tardis, a teal holo and China Glaze Riveting. I also had a few false starts with other colours that didn't show up at all well but in the end I think these are not too bad.
Note to self, make life easier - use a pale base!!!

Danglefoot Nail Polish
 We are in Dream Country Now
#30daysofcolourchallenge

  

Reverse stamped butterflies with Messy Mansion MM42
#ukstampersapril

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

April Challenges - Textured and Inspired by Fabric

Today's two challenges are Textured for #30daysofcolourchallnge and Inspired by Fabric for #clairestelle8april. I think they go quite well together.
I started with another of my lovely Avon Stardust polishes. This is Radiant Rose, a stunning raspberry pink/red. This is utterly gorgeous, and I think a little smoother than Teal Glitter and Polished Plum.
It looks so pretty in the sunshine but is beautiful in daylight too.
It applied well, lovely coverage in two coats and dried quickly.
For the 2nd challenge I added  a freehand stripe of Avon Stardust Teal Glitter down the centre of each nail and then using Moyou London Hipster 05 and Mentality Beige Opaque I stamped a tartan pattern over the two textures.
I think the alignment was pretty good and I love the way these look. I did not topcoat them, so although there is a risk the stamping won't last, it has kept that matte/textured finish. In fact I did this mani about 6 hours ago and it still looks fine. (24 hours later - still fine)
Photos taken with my favourite skirt which is very old, but I do love tartan!

Avon Stardust Radiant Rose
#30daysofcolourchallenge

 

 

   

Moyou London Hipster 05 and Mentality Beige Opaque
over Avon texture
#clairestelle8april

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping! Mentality Beige Opaque over Smitten Seasonal Lattes

I have some more stamping to show you today. I think I had already bought the plate I have used today when Smitten Seasonal Lattes arrived, and I knew that whenever I got round to trying the Smitten this is the plate I'd be using to stamp over it. I first saw this plate on a posting by Anne from Betty's Beauty Bombs, and I just had to have it! Plate no 10 from CICI&SISI includes an image of coffee beans and it was that that caught my eye so of course it was the right stamp to use with Seasonal Lattes.
I was thinking of using a cream or white but I want to use white for snowflakes later in the week so I have used Mentality Beige Opaque. This has actually ended up looking gold, but I think that's OK - it goes nicely with the warmth of the brown holo.
The stamping is not perfect, I am finding different plates seem to need different levels of scraping, some harder than others, some in different directions or at a varied angle and I obviously need plenty more practice but I think the small imperfections in the stamped image add some depth to the mani.
The Mentality polish stamped well, and it was reasonably easy to clean up afterwards. I did smudge one nail when I top coated, I have to remember to float the brush very lightly across the nail, and certainly not to go back and do a 2nd sweep which is what I did on the little finger.
On the whole though I think these are OK, I like the contrast of the satiny finish of the Mentality with the depth of the shimmery holo, the glimmers of rainbow still peeping through.
No sunshine today, so I have some outdoor pics, some indoors using the desk lamp, and 1 with the flash.

Mentality Beige Opaque over Smitten Seasonal Lattes 
with CICI&SISI 10