May Challenges - Creme / Colour Blocking

For the most part I enjoy the challenges - I wouldn't do them if I didn't but every now and then there's an "oh dear I am not sure that's me" sort of challenge. Today's #30daysofcolourchallenge is Creme and Colour Blocking. I did wonder if I might get away with stamping the colours but in the end I decided to try and do it properly.
I started with a base of Nails Inc Holland Park Gardens, a lovely pale soft sage green creme. Then I used some of the striping vinyls from She Sells Seashells to get a neat line near the base of my nail. I painted from that line to about the top quarter, half with Nella Milano Evergreen and half with Avon Peppermint, two quite strong but very different mid green cremes. Finally I painted the tips with Nails Inc Madison Avenue, a really lovely dark green creme.
I am surprised to say I really like the finished look although the imperfections will annoy me. I am glad I went with green, I think you are pretty safe combining greens and my plan had always been to stamp over these to hide any wobbly bits!
I chose Essence Stampy 001 (white) to stamp with as I thought I'd get the best overall contrast across the full range of colours and of course because they are my newest plates I've chosen an image from UberChic Beauty UC 3-03.
Finally, I added some pink stamping too with the same plate and Virtuous Polish Miriam.

Creme / Colour Blocking

UberChic Beauty UC 3-03

2 layers of UberChic Beauty UC 3-03

An InLinkz Link-up

Watercolour mani with Nails Inc pastel shades

As I mentioned on my last post, my previous mani was intended as a base for nail art. This is what I did with it...
I think I mentioned I had joined a group run by Debbie from The Crumpet, to learn some basic nail art. There are week by week tutorials to follow, but I joined late so I am catching up, mainly with the ones that interest me most. Last week I decided to try the watercolour mani.
I chose greens and blues, and at the back of my mind was something very pretty like Monet's Waterlilies. A quick check of Google showed that the colours were nothing like Monet's but never mind!!
I had the soft green base of Nails Inc Holland Park Gardens, and the other 3 colours I chose were also Nails Inc, mainly because I have polishes in the colours I wanted to use, rather than any specific desire not to mix brands. I chose Bluebell, a slightly lilacy blue, Royal Botanical Gardens and St James Square, 2 very pretty tealy pastel shades, St James Square being bluer and a touch darker.
I followed Debbie's tutorial and this is what happened.
I couldn't quite decide when I'd finished whether its looked really good or a complete mess, but comments I received were mostly positive, and actually it really grew on me. Initially I had intended to do some stamping on top straight way but I decided to wear it on its own for a coupe of days and then I was too worried about spoiling it. The stamping bit will now get a separate post.

Watercolour mani with Nails Inc pastel shades

 

 

 

Nails Inc Holland Park Gardens

You get an extra post today, as the polish I am wearing was intended as a base for some nail art, but due to a sudden influx of work I decided to defer the nail art until tomorrow. That and the fact that this is actually such a lovely polish it deserves its own day on my nails and its own blog post!
Back in early 2013, I fell in love with the Nails Inc Garden Party Collection, on QVC. This was made up of Pembridge Crescent (dusky lilac), Bloomsbury Way (pale pink) and Holland Park Gardens, along with a chunky glitter, Grosvenor Gardens.
Holland Park Gardens is a lovely pale dusky sage green. I don't really wear pastel shades but when they are soft and muted like this, rather than bright ice-cream colours then I do like them and find them very wearable.
This painted on well, gave perfect coverage with 2 coats and once it was on I decided I couldn't bear  to cover it up with nail art. It's obviously not an autumnal shade, but the sun was shining today and who cares anyway!!

Nails Inc Holland Park Gardens

 

 

Nails Inc Garden Party Collection

Almost an impulse buy for me last week, I had seen a couple of preview pics and decided if the show looked good I would go for this.
This is a stunning summer collection, made up of 3 pale, pastel and quite neutral shades and  a stunning chunky glitter.
Pembridge Crescent is a pale, grey lilac cream, Holland Park Gardens a pale sage and Bloomsbury Way a pretty pale pink, pink but not too sugary pink.
I don't own many pinks so no comparisons there but I have swatched the 3 creams with 2 other colours that came to mind as I was looking at this collection, Leighton Denny Leading Lilac and OPI Thanks a Windmillion. These are two of my favourite colours for those odd occasions when I do move away from darks and nudes, but when I get new colours I like to know where they fit in with existing varnishes.
As you can see, Pembridge Crescent is a little paler and much greyer than Leading Lilac, Holland Park Gardens is in my opinion a very silimar shade to Thanks a Windmillion but much paler.

 

The 3 cream shades are beautiful. They all applied well in two coats, with good coverage.

And now for the stunning glitter Grosvenor Gardens, a mix of pink, purple and silver large hexes, smaller pink and purple hexes, then smaller green & silver ones and and fine glitter. I blew my pic up really big to try and identify the colours and sizes and have probably missed some.

Pretty stunning eh!! Here are some more shots, I did a bit of a gradient first and then went for a full coat. Well, these are on wait-list at QVC at the moment, and I can say for certain, they won't be getting mine back! All we need now is the summer!!