When Colours Collide - Black and Gold

Black and Gold for #whencolourscollide.
I used SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops and UberChic UC 1-03 over Nails Inc Kate Spade New York Noir.
I had a problem that I don't usually have - the Gilded Lemon Drops were so holo and the sun was shining, I had to wait for the sun to go in to actually get a picture of it looking gold! it was SO holo it was like a rainbow!!

UberChic UC1-03 and
SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops

 

 

When Colours Collide - Red and Gold

It is almost time to post the next WCC challenge, Green and White, but first I have to catch up and post Red and Gold from earlier in the month.
I started with a base of HJ Manicure Red Wine
Then I added Avon Metallic Effects Gold Leaf and UberChic UC 4-02
Next I added Colour Alike Red Wine and the same UberChic plate.
And finally SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drop and the same UberChic plate again. This was the image I used for the collaboration.
The last pic in the series was with matte top coat.
We had so many entries we made 2 collages.

HJ Manicure Red Wine

Avon Gold Leaf and UberChic UC 4-02

Colour Alike Red Wine and UberChic UC 4-02

SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops
 and UberChic UC 4-02

 

 

October Challenges - HJ Manicure Coco and Acorns

The prompt for #30daysofcolourchallenge was Acorns. A very thorough search of my stamping plates resulted in one plate - Moyou London Mother Nature 03.
I had a lovely new brown polish I wanted to try which I thought would make a great base for the acorns.
HJ Manicure Coco is a gorgeous pinky brown creme. I have had pinky browns before and found them a bit too warm but this one is perfect for my skin tone. I really like it. I have lots of nude / neutral polishes but nothing like this one. As with Blue Lagoon, it was a colour I saw on the website and was not 100% certain but I am glad I bought it. It fills a gap in my range of colours, and as the other 3 I have tried, it is lovely quality.
Coverage was great, which is good news as Blue Lagoon might be gorgeous but it is a bit of a stainer! I do have a hint of blue hiding under my lovely Coco!
The Moyou plate had oak leaves and acorns so I stamped two sets of leaves first, with OPI Skyfall and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops, then I used Barry M Black Pistachio for the acorns.
I took pictures with glossy and matte finish but couldn't help thinking they looked a bit Christmassy.
Then I added a quick coat of Kandy Colors Hivis Wat? which I think brought them back to Autumn. I did not re top coat them so they now have quite a satin finish.
This was not a huge success s the acorn pattern is quite abstract and probably doesn't work so well for triple stamping, particularly with the polish I used. The new Barry M Blacks all stamp well but are not 100% opaque so what ever is beneath will still show through. That said, I like the combination of colours, before and after the yellow jelly so overall I am quite happy with the mani, even if it doesn't shout Acorns.

HJ Manicure Coco

 

 

 

Moyou London Mother Nature 03

 

 

Final version of Acorns

 

September Challenges - Vampy and Fave Song

Ooh I am catching up now, only a couple of days behind and one of these challenges was actually today!
The first challenge was Vampy for #30daysofcolourchallange, and although I know Vampy is normally dark red, I had a polish that I really wanted to use. This polish certainly should not have sat untried for so long, the very dark and beautiful A England Incense Burner. In the bottle it looks like a dark brownish shimmery polish, and perhaps not as wow as some other A England polishes but once on the nail it is gorgeous and out in the day light it really is WOW. It is a dark brown but with a gorgeous glowing shimmer to it and a deep plummy purple duochrome shift and I am pretty certain it counts as Vampy! It applied well, a bit streaky on the first coat but perfect on the second.
I think you can see a hint of the plummy tones on the photos but I have a new laptop and the colours are rubbish - it looked good on my phone so I think the pictures are pretty colour accurate.
I decided to add some red anyway, to be sure it was properly vampy and I wanted to use a new plate that I bought from Nail Artisan.  Alex has only recently started up but she is stocking a lovely range of stamping plates and polishes, so I think I am going to be a frequent customer. Anyway, last week she posted that she was now stocking Yours Cosmetics Sascha Gossen plates and of course I had to order them! They are really sweet little plates and for this mani I used  YS01, which is mostly a lace plate. I stamped the lacy image using A England Rose Bower. This stamped really nicely and the plate is perfect. Unfortunately no matter what I did I could not get the camera to see what I could see. Contrast with stamping is definitely something I need to practice more - with hindsight a more solid red rather than a holo would have been more sensible, but you'll have to take my word for it, it was pretty!
Finally, today's challenge for #clairestelle8sept was Fave Song. I don't really have a fave song but I certainly have a fave band, R.E.M. Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 has been in my car CD player since I bought it in 2011 and is rarely switched for anything else!
I have seen them play live twice and both times the lasting memory for me is when the crowd hold up their lighters in the darkness, such a powerful image and that is why I have flames on my nails today! I used Messy Mansion MM27 and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops over the vampy nails and am pretty pleased with the way they turned out.

A England Incense Burner

 

A England Rose Bower and Sasca Gossen YS01

 

 

SV By Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops
and Messy Mansion MM27

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

July Challenges - Yellow / Blobbicure and Black and White

Every now and then you get a challenge not entirely in your comfort zone and this time I have had to use yellow!
The #30daysofcolourchallenge was Yellow / Blobbicure. I had done a small blobbicure trial in June so I felt slightly more comfortable about that, but yellow ?? Anyway, I decided to use A England Holy Grail and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops as I thought they'd go quite well together.
The result wasn't too bad - I have seen better blobbicures but I was reasonably happy with the mani and I do think the colours worked pretty well.
Of course I had to stamp on it and I thought it would make a nice background for one of the UberChic sketchy flowers so I stamped UberChic Beauty UC 1-03 with China Glaze Liquid Leather.
Finally I decided to use this as my Black and White mani for #30daysofcolourchallenge too so I added some white stamping, using UberChic Beauty UC 3-01 and Hit the Bottle Snowed Under.
I really like black and white stamping combined and I am pretty pleased with this.

As you can probably tell, I did this mani over a few days so I did add a final layer, some more black stamping with Kleancolor Madly Black and Apipila Super plate B - so, its still black and white but also means another entry for #hawaiianshirtmanifriday!

Blobbicure with A England Holy Grail and
SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops

UberChic Beauty UC 1-03

UberChic Beauty UC 3-01

 

Apipila Super Plate B and Kleancolor Madly Black

 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

When Colours Collide - Inspired by Art from another Country

I joined in on a collaboration with some lovely ladies from When Colours Collide.
The theme was Inspired by Art from another Country, and I decided as my husband is Welsh and I love all those Celtic swirls, I'd go for a Celtic look.
I started with a gradient of A England Tristam and A England Dancing with Nuryev, then I stamped a spiral pattern from DRK A with A England Saint George and A England Fotheringhay Castle and finally I stamped a celtic pattern from DRK A with SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops.
I was so pleased with how this turned out until I tried to capture it on camera, you could have the holo or the stamping but not both, so I took hundreds of pictures!!!
If you have access to Instagram take a look at #whencolourscollide to see all the other fantastic contributions - the collaboration pic is at the bottom of this post, all pulled together by lovely Mary from Dreamymm.

DRK A and SV by Sparkly Vernis Gilded Lemon Drops

gradient of A England Tristam and
A England Dancing with Nuryev

DRK A with A England Saint George and
A England Fotheringhay Castle