September Challenges - Green and Purple

My favourite combination of colours is green and purple so it made sense to combine these 2 challenges for #30daysofcolourchallenge.
Which green to use was an easy decision - I had ordered some of the new Esmaltes Da Kelly glitters from the Super Heroes and Villains Collection from Rainbow Connection and Green Lantern was the first one I saw swatches of and just had to have.
This is a perfect combination of emerald green glitter in a green base. I think you could use this as a topper over a dark shade but 2 coats is enough for full coverage. This is my first Esmaltes Da Kelly polish and I am pleased to say it applied nicely and dried well. The finish was rough and I did use 2 coats of top coat for a smooth glossy finish but I am really happy with it - looking forward to trying the others in this range.
The outdoor shots are reasonably colour accurate, the macro shots are a bit too blue but they do show how pretty the glitter is!
The next prompt was purple and as I didn't have any untried purples I decided to stamp Virtuous Polish Humility and Apipila P31 over my green glitter. Humility is a dark matte purple which stamps nicely but does dry quickly so not much time to think about placement.
Then I added more purple with SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice cubes and Apipila P31 again.
I am pretty pleased with these manis but the light this week has been rubbish, really hard to capture anything, it's so dull - I just want sunshine, or at least some decent daylight!

Esmaltes Da Kelly Green Lantern

Virtuous Polish Humility and Apipila P31

SV by Sparkly Vernis Blurple Ice Cubes and Apipila P31

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

June Challenges - New Technique

The challenge for #clairestelle8june was New Technique so I finally decided to try a waterfall mani - I started with my gorgeous thermal KPT Plumeria and then took a very small brush and added Avon Cherry Jubilee, Avon Luxe Lavender, Virtuous Polish Humility, Mua White Wash and finally Fancy Gloss Haunted Beauty for a little bit of sparkle - I am actually quite surprised how well these turned out despite my limited freehand skills!
I acquired Plumeria from a lovely friend and it has taken me a while to get round to using it, mainly because it is very sheer and my nails are very stained. In the end I used a single coat of Nails Inc Fashion as a base, a very soft delicate grey lilac which is a pretty perfect match for Plumeria in its warm state.
I don't usually like thermals in their warm state but this is so pretty, that soft grey lilac holo is just gorgeous, and then the cool state, a lovely dusky pinky purple. The other thing that I like about this one is that it is really sensitive, even on hot days like today you can get both the warm and cold states, and often the tips were darker.
I decided it would make a lovely base for the waterfall nails, and I think they looked great with the changing base.

Waterfall

 

 

Polished by KPT Plumeria - cool

Polished by KPT Plumeria - warm

Polished by KPT Plumeria - transition

May Collaboration - Florals and foliage

I took part in a collaboration with some fellow nail addicts given the prompt "florals and foliage"
I decided to do mine over the pink and lace mani I did last week. In theory the pink and lace would make a lovely base for the floral and foliage stamping. However, as I had left that matte, and still wanted to keep the whole mani matte, it make things a whole lot harder. Normally I top coat between every layer of stamping which gives me the option of taking off unsuccessful attempts - this time I ended up having to fully redo a couple of nails but I got there in the end.
I started with the foliage, stamping A England Saint George with an ivy leaf pattern from Fab Ur Nails FUN15.
Then I added the flowers using Virtuous Polish Humility, a stunning deep violet shade and a lovely flower image from FUN14.
And yes I do seem to have combined green and purple again, but I tried red and it looked too Christmassy!
You can see the other manis on instagram #whencolourscollide.

A England Saint George and FUN15

Virtuous Polish Humility and FUN14 

 

the Florals and Foliage collaboration