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

Wiki'd Nails Challenge - The Water Babies

I'm a bit late on this one - it should have been posted last week but inspiration was on half term holiday I think! Anyway the prompt for the Wiki'd Nails Challenge was The Water Babies.
This is a story I am aware of but don't really know in much detail. The art work all looks a bit grim and sinister in quite muted shades.
I certainly wasn't going to try and paint any babies but there were a few images showing the caddisfly who seems to be part of the story, according to the Wikipedia entry. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of plates with caddisflies on so in the end I have used one of the butterflies from Messy Mansion MM42 and stamped with Mentality Hope over my pond mani from yesterday.
I quite like the dull brown insect against the watery green background so in the end I am quite pleased with this.

Messy Mansion MM42 and Mentality Hope

 

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

March Challenge #clairestelle8march - Fashion

As you know I have been following Clairestelle8's march challenge and today's prompt is fashion.
As a person who still wears what I wore at university 25 years ago, and lots of hand knits I am not really up on fashion so I resorted to Google - I googled Spring Fashion 2015 and then trawled through the images until I saw something I liked!
I found these lovely floaty ethnic style dresses designed by a luxury Italian brand Etro, and I thought the patterns would translate nicely onto the nail.
I started with base of the marie claire freebie, Nails Inc Fashion (appropriate name for this prompt). This looks mostly grey with a hint of lilac in the bottle but is more lilac than grey on the nail.
Then I stamped this lovely image from Cici&sisi 09. I'd describe this pattern as geometric, tribal or ethnic, and I think that it would vary so much depending on what colours you used.
I used 3 colours although I didn't catch much of the brown - I must remember my nails are not as wide as the images! I chose Mentality Hope (brown), Saffron London- black (which stamps as a grey) and Nails Inc Madison Avenue (a lovely dark bottle green)
Unfortunately I was too heavy handed with the top coat and smudged quite a few nails. After struggling to get any decent photos, I added a coat of OPI matte top coat and I think they look so much better, the smudged stamping isn't quite so visible either.
The base does look more grey again now but I think the stamping really complements the base and, smudging aside, I am pretty pleased with these.

Etro, my inspiration

Fashion - Cici&sisi 09 and matte top coat

Nails Inc Fashion

 

Stamping! Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04, Mentality Hope and Nella Milano Evergreen

Well, today's mani started out as a quick swatching session. I received 2 new polishes at the beginning of the week and decided I would swatch them today before my next mani.
So I did my usual swatch of painting one finger with each of the new polishes. They looked good, so I wondered how well they'd stamp. I had my Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer plate out as I was going to have a try at leadlighting today, so I decided to use that plate to give the polishes a quick test. I stamped Mentality Hope over Nella Milano Evergreen and vice versa.
Both polishes on their own were pretty opaque and I think you might get away with one coat so I wasn't surprised that they did stamp well. I was a bit surprised about how good they looked together. Hope is a lovely warm, slightly golden brown and has a matte finish. Over the glossy finish of Evergreen it looked great. Evergreen is not as opaque so the stamped Evergreen on the ring finger was not as intense as the base on the little finger but I am not sure that matters! and it is a beautiful green!
They looked so good that I top coated them too, and then I just had to do all my nails because I was so taken with the look, and I have to say, although I like Hope with the matte finish, I love it topcoated!
I always have all 10 nails the same but I was intrigued by reversing the colours so I continued to do middle and ring fingers in Hope and stamp with Evergreen, and then stamp with Hope over Evergreen on thumb, index and little finger.
I am so pleased with this mani, partly because it did just happen by accident really! I think one of the reasons it works so well is that the leadlight plate does have quite a bit of open space and quite a bit of solid stamping, if that makes sense rather than the lines and closer detail that you get on the more traditional plates, so whichever way these colors are used the result is fairly balanced. I do like the Messy Mansion plates, all the ones I've tried stamp so beautifully, clear images pretty much every time and A04 is a stunning plate. I also love the combination of the shimmery brown, and the glossy green creme - rather like a sophisticated camouflage.
Oh look at that - too much chat again so here are the photos :) I added a couple if indoor shots to try and capture the shimmer in Hope, it really is very pretty!

Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer A04
, Mentaility Hope and Nella Milano Evergreen