April Challenges - A Smoosh and Dreamcatchers

Catching up with #smooshynailsunday from 2 weeks ago using Nails Inc Atomic, Leighton Denny Brick Road and HJ Manicure Lavender.
I then used this as a base for Dream Catchers for #firedazedchallenge - I used Bundle Monster Festival BM-S301 and Moyou London Black Knight.

#smooshattack

 

Bundle Monster Festival BM-S301 and
 Moyou London Black

March Challenges - Fruit

Fruit for #ggfnachallenge - I was about to skip this one but suddenly I spotted a fruit image on my Moyra 06 Florality 1 plate so here we are - I stamped with A England Lancelot over a very bright fruity smoosh of Nella Milano Evergreen, Nails Inc Atomic and Leighton Denny Brick Road.
For a spur of the moment mani I think it turned out OK and this image stamped really nicely.

fruity smoosh!

Moyra 06 Florality 1

a matchy shot!

October Challenges - Pumpkins (again)

The #daysofcolourchallenge was Pumpkins. Now I already did pumpkins earlier in the week and I was moaning that I only had one pumpkin plate. A kindly soul suggested I did them freehand - what!?!? but she very helpfully pointed me to the work of Kelli Dobrin, and her video on You Tube.
Kelli did this super cute, super simple mani with pumpkins and I have failed miserably to copy it!!!
I'll stick to stamping and just vary the colours in future I think!! or buy another plate.
I started with a base of Leighton Denny Morning Dew, a lovely minty green,
Then, having decided freehanding onto my nails was bound to be a disaster, I made decals using Nails Inc Instyle Peach Sorbet, Nails Inc Atomic and Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens.
It all went as well as could be expected but instead of looking super cute they just look un-inspiring.
I wouldn't have posted them at all but since I said I was doing them I thought I'd better. I am certainly not posting the unedited version! It took some effort with sharpies and Kandy Colors jellies to get them looking remotely like pumpkins!!
Well, you know when you do a mani and you can't bear to take it off - this is NOT one of those moments :(

 

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - W is for Wild

This weeks letter is W for Wild, and I decided ages back what I wanted to do for this challenge. I am very relieved it turned out OK.
I started with a sunset gradient and then stamped a wild animal scene from the Apipila Super Placa A in black over the top. There are larger images on the plate but I think I'd have lost too much image in the dark bit at the top. I'll have to try those on a daylight scene.
Imagine my delight when I showed these to my husband and with no prompting at all he said "Serengeti"
The gradient was made up of Nails Inc Atomic, Fiesta and Princes Street, and I stamped with Essence Stampy 002.
I absolutely adored these although I was rather disappointed that I couldn't really capture their beauty despite taking loads of photos.

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Series - M is for Multi-coloured

This Thursday's letter is M, for Multi-coloured.
I thought about using pastel rainbow colours for this, but then I decided I'd move out of my comfort zone and go brighter and use the 7 colours of the spectrum, or some approximation to them.
I chose Nails Inc St James, Nails Inc Atomic, Leighton Denny Brick Road, Nella Milano Evergreen, Nails Inc Baker Street, Nails Inc Wigmore Streeet and Jacava Blueberry Muffin.
I painted freehand stripes on each nail, red through to violet. This was scary, the challenge of trying to be quite neat and space 7 colours equally on nails that are all different lengths. The stripes are a bit wobbly but as I planned to stamp on top, I thought I'd get away with that!
I was going to stamp in black and then I changed my mind to white, and in the end I decided why not try both! So that's what I did - I stamped using Born Pretty BP-L 003 and the 2 Essence polishes Stampy 001 and 002.
The end result is not something I would wear for long, a bit too colourful for me but what a great way to try a new plate and test 2 colours over 7 others!! I really like this plate, it has some great images on, I think I'll be using it a lot!
I have to say, these turned out exactly as they were in my mind, in fact maybe the stripes were a bit more successful than I had expected - certainly I think I fulfilled the "multi-coloured" brief.

M is for Multi-coloured - 7 colours
and black and whire stamping BP-L 003

 

 

 

 

Look HERE to see what everyone else got up to.

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue

I don't blog Emily's nails very often but she has kept them really nice this summer, and she loves this mani - her most favourite nails ever apparently.
She has Nails Inc Atomic on, probably for the 7th or 8th time. I was asked last week what was my most used varnish, I answered probably LD Little Thief or NI Porchester Square, but actually my most used by someone in the house other than me, 100% certain its Atomic!
She caught sight of Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue sat on the shelf waiting to be used and insisted that was what she wanted and it looks absolutely wonderful over Atomic. It's a great contrast and really shows this gorgeous glitter off. It has black and white sticks, black and white hexes, black squares, blue squares, small black, white and blue hexes, lovely little lilac/silver hexes and some lilac squares too, I think that’s everything!!
I will almost certainly be blogging this again, on my own nails and equally certain it won't be against orange! but I will be thinking of a good contrast for it, because I would want to lose any of it's lovely colours and shapes.

Nail Lacquer UK Sticks and Stones Blue

 

 

Nails Inc Atomic

This is the most outside my comfort zone my nails have ever been, I think. I did this yesterday, and 24 hours later they are are still orange!
As I said, this week was Orange week and this is my contribution, delayed a little since this would not have been the right mani for an interview.
I received this last year as an extra in a swap and immediately consigned it to the Young Daughter box. She has worn it a couple of times and it always looks good on her.
It painted on well, 2 coats, lovely and shiny but very orange!

So I wore it for about an hour on its own, but really wanted to try Brick Lane on top, so here it is.

For me, I do find the Graffiti (Brick Lane) tones down the orange, making it more wearable for me. I love the mix of black and silver dots and dashes, although it is a bit rough and took 2 coats of topcoat to make it almost smooth. When I first saw the Graffiti range I was certain I'd never wear it and then I fell in love with almost all of them.
I wonder what the limit is to what I will try, as my collection of nudes and darks expands in many other directions.