Nail Crazies Unite - Holiday Movie

This week's prompt was Holiday Movie and to be honest absolutely nothing sprang into my mind until I was looking at my new Christmas plate from Dixie Plates and it hit me, of course! The Snowman - we watched that year after year and I love it as much now as I did back when I was about 14. I know it isn't technically a movie but it is such a part of Christmas.
So, I started with a base of Colors by Llarowe Chasing a Unicorn, which I can finally wear because I have a pale gel base on underneath, and then I stamped the snowmen from Dixie Plates DP 06 with A England Camelot.
I top coated and then coloured in the hats, scarves and noses with Sharpies. I did not top coat again as that usually results in smudges and I find the Sharpies last pretty well anyway.
I did also add a matte top coat (ignoring or forgetting that it will smudge! - looks like I almost got away with it so I took a couple of matte shots too)

Dixie Plate DP06

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26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Winter Warmth

I really don't like the winter, I hate being cold and could happily have summer all year long except for one thing... my knitting. I am not much fussed by summer knitting, I like thick warm chunky knits and I guess without cold winters there'd be no chunky knitting!
So, of course I was going to do a knitty thing for the Winter Warmth prompt.
I hadn't quite decided on colours but the #fanbrushfriday colours for this Friday were cream, brown and red and I thought they'd be great for knitty nails.
I went for quite a patchy hit and miss fan brush pattern (not least because my fan brush loses bristle every time I use it and it's getting quite bald) but I think it made a great base for the knitting stamp.
I used Avon Tender, Avon Desire and M.Y.N.X Vixen for the base and then stamped with Moyra 02 Fabric Texture and Esmaltes da Kelly Fox Fur.
Such a simple mani, but I really liked how it turned out and for once I was up to date with manis so it got 2 whole days of wear!

fan brush base

Moyra 02 Fabric Texture and Esmaltes da Kelly Fox Fur

 

with Emily's Christmas Jumper!

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Nail Crazies Unite - Fall Foliage

I am a bit disappointed with the end result of this mani.
In my mind it was going to be wonderful and to be honest in real life it did look nice but it absolutely would not photograph.
I started with my fan brush mani as a base as the colours white, gold and burgundy seemed a reasonable base for an autumnal mani, and I do like to try and be efficient and combine where I can.
I added an outline leaf pattern with Uber Chic Lovely Leaves and Esmaltes da Kelly Bee.
Then I added a different outline leaf with Hit the Bottle Absinthe Minded and finally I added a negative image with Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl.
I also added a matte top coat to see of that would help but really I should have used a darker polish for the final layer and typically I broke my own rule and didn't top coat between layers so I couldn't rethink the final layer. The macro looks OK though 😉
I didn't do a full step by step for this mani either - I took a part way photo with each nail at a different stage, so I'll include that here so you can see the layers.

Step by Step with Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

 

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

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26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Black Base and some Gothic Stamping

This weeks's challenge was Black Base which rather conveniently coincided with #clairestelle8nov prompt of Gothic.
So, I started with a black base... of A England Camelot.
Then I stamped a lacy pattern with Colour Alike Venus and Dixie Plate DP 01.
Then I added a rather Gothic image from DP 04 using Colour Alike Supernova.
These two Colour Alike polishes are gorgeous duo chromes: I don't think Venus had much of a chance to do its magic with the pattern I stamped but I loved how Supernova looked and was delighted to see the camera catch the browny gold and the pinky red.
Finally I added a matte top coat.

A England Camelot

Dixie DP01 and Colour Alike Venus

Dixie DP04 and Colour Alike Supernova

Dixie DP04 and Colour Alike Supernova - matte

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Nail Crazies Unite - Coffee

Well, in a crazy moment I joined a new group with another fortnightly challenge which will fit neatly between the Crumpet Challenge, so not so crazy after all.
This was the first week and the prompt was coffee. Luckily for me I had just done a brown, chocolate and cream fanbrush mani so it was a pretty perfect base for some coffee stamping.
I stamped coffee beans using Hit the Bottle Espresso Martini and Uber Chic UC 2-01 on my index and little finger. Then I used the same cream from the base to stamp the coffee cups image from the same plate on the other fingers, and then stamped over that with the same image and Espresso Martini.
I was a bit worried whether the stamping would show up but I think it looked OK and I was really pleased with how they turned out.
I also added  matte top coat and now I am not sure which I preferred :)

Uber Chic UC2-01

 

 

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26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Halloween in the Wrong Colours

This week's prompt was Halloween in the wrong colours. I went for the least Halloweeny ones I could think of, neon blue and pink over a pale nude base.
It wasn't a huge success, the contrast wasn't great enough for some of the stamping so some intervention with a Sharpie was required.
I started with a base of Virago Exposed, a really pretty mauvy nude. This is such a lovely colour and a wonderful polish, virtually opaque in one coat. As I was adding to it and stamping I left it at one coat and no photo I am afraid as the light was appalling when I did these.
I then added Virago Unclad which is a lovely warm brown. I sponged this over Exposed, again no photo which is a shame as it looked so pretty.
Then I stamped blue cobwebs from Ejiubas Halloween with Colour Alike Cobalt Kick and then added pink witches, ghosts, pumpkins, spooky castle and spider with Colour Alike Fuchsia Flash.
This was where I had contrast problems, the eyes and windows were not that clear so I added them in with a Sharpie but I am not sure it made it any better.
If I had gone with idea no.1 I would have used neon pink over dark blue or vice versa but mani advisor (daughter Emily) said dark blue was too halloweeny - thanks Em - blaming the #nailfail on you :)
Anyway, three pictures - one just with stamping, one with Sharpie addition and one with a coat of Barry M Mani Mask Bashful Pink, just to see what it would look like.

Ejiubas Halloween

 

 

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26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Blue and Silver

So, this is the start of a new challenge and I decided I would try to blog it- we'll see how I get on.
It is once a fortnight so I ought to be able to keep up.
I was recently quite extravagant and bought the whole Virago Varnish 77 Collection - 7 gorgeous autumnal shades, two of which were blue so they had to go in this mani, since early every other challenge is orange at the moment!
I did 2 nails on each hand with Virago Disco King, such a gorgeous glitter and I left them with no top coat. The other 3 nails were Virago Blue Vinyl which did dry to a vinyl like finish but I top coated them to get them super shiny!
I then added stamping with Avon Platinum Petal and a new plate, Ejiubas Celtic - in collaboration with Opal Hazlett. Love this plate!! I think I will be using it a lot!
Originally this was how I was going to leave the mani but it didn't look right so I stamped the same image again with Hit the Bottle I Blue it all on polish. The tone of the blue stamping was a better match for the blue glitter and I was happier with that look.
(and please ignore the white/grey toned flesh - at least the blues are the right colour even if my hands look dead)

Virago Blue Vinyl and Virago Disco King

Avon Platinum Petal and Ejiubas Celtic

Hit the Bottle I Blue it all on polish and Ejiubas Celtic

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