26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Halloween with negative space

This week's prompt was Halloween with negative space.
I messed up a bit with my planning here as I did a 3 step gel at the beginning of the week and have every intention of making it last 2 weeks! Luckily it was a nude colour so I am hoping I'll get away with it!
I chose the "Scream" image from Beauty Big Bang 03 as I thought it would work well with negative space. It is also doubling up for a #clairestelle8halloween prompt, my favourite Halloween movie.
(it isn't my favourite but I could only think of 2 that I have seen and other one wouldn't work with negative space)
I stamped with A England Camelot. I maybe should have used a proper stamping polish for a blacker background and a slightly cleaner stamped image but I quite like the soft black look.

 

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Nail Crazies Unite - Vampy Matte

The final prompt for the last series of Nail Crazies Unite was Vampy Matte.
I used one of my oldest polishes as the base, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. Although I think most dark polishes are vampy, I do think a dark red or a dark purple are super vampy.
I stamped with Dixie Plates DP09 and A England Shall be my Queen.
At the moment I have one hand matte and one hand glossy and I still can't quite decide which I like best!

Dixie Plates DP09

 

 

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26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Friday the 13th

And we're back... Well I know I said it was the last one, but after a few changes around, the admins decided to keep going and I'm not very good at saying no so I'll keep going too. I'll just try to get less stressed about the deadlines.
Anyway, we opened the new year of challenges with Friday the 13th, as they are not that common and therefore not to missed.
And for me, the opportunity to use one of my favourite polishes is also not to be missed, Above the Curve Friday the 13th (the original one!). This is a dark brown holo, just gorgeous!
Traditionally this is an unlucky day so I decided to offset the unluckiness with lucky black cats, but clearly I have had to cheat, They are very dark brown cats, but anyone who has seen a black cat in the sun will know they often have brown, or even orangey undertones in their fur and that is my justification for the cheat!!
I used Messy Mansion MM50 and A England Carnation Lily Lily Rose to add the cute kitties.

Above the Curve Friday the 13th

Messy Mansion MM50

 

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Nail Crazies Unite - Sugar Skulls

This week's prompt was Sugar Skulls. I have 2 sugar skull plates both with quite large images but unfortunately I cut my nails 2 days before doing this mani - complete failure to think ahead!!
I do have a stamper that shrinks images so then it was a debate between shrink the image or use the clear stamper to neatly place the image. I went for the clear stamper and hoped to get enough image on the nail.
I uses Pet'la Cavaleras with A England Camelot over a base of Polished by Leanne Purity. Purity is a lovely white with a hint of shimmer (a bit camera shy when I took these pictures but nicer than just a plain white)
Then I coloured the images in with Sharpies.
They do look a bit abstract, not sure you would think "sugar skulls" if it didn't say that in the title but I did think they looked pretty.

Pet'la Cavaleras

 

 

Pet'la Cavaleras

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26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Your Signature Style

Well, this is the 26th Great Nail Art Idea - so it is the final one. A bit sad maybe but actually I am quite relieved. It has not been the best year and struggling to fit in a weekly or biweekly blog that has to go out on a fixed day has been a bit of a challenge.
The other challenge that alternates with this one finishes in October and I think my blog may well grind to a halt for a while once that happens.
I will obviously still paint my nails and do challenges but many of the Instagram ones are a lot more flexible with posting dates so they are easier to fit in around life.
Anyway, back to this one - Signature Style - well, I always stamp, and I try to pair my manis with knitting (except in the summer when it's too hot or pics look silly with gloves) so of course I have done a stamped knitting mani.
I used a fanbrush base of Barry M Black Pistachio, Barry M Surfboard and OPI I'm Feeling Sashy.
Then I used Messy Mansion MM84XL with A England Saint George to stamp the knitting pattern. I went for the purl side pattern (knitting term)  rather than the stocking stitch pattern as I felt it would look better over the fanbrush and I really like the subtle way the dark green stamping fades into the fanbrush.

Messy Mansion MM84XL

 

 

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Nail Crazies Unite - Chevrons

This week's prompt was Chevrons and I have combined it with a #clairestelle8 prompt - Metallic.
I do feel a bit of a cheat as this ended up being a very quick simple mani, but life is so busy, it's nice to get a quick mani every now and then!
I did a 3 step gel mani last week and decided that where possible I would allow the gel base to be part of my mani, rather than just an extravagant base coat.
I am having a bit of a love hate relationship with gels. I love how they make my nails feel stronger and all the staining is gone, but  hate how long it takes to get them off, and they can be annoying if I have a dark gel on and then need to do a white base mani.
Anyway, there was no colour restriction for this mani so I used Moyou London Fashionista 04 with 2 True Pro Metallic Aglaia over Gellifique Cats Eye 005 (a dark purpley brown)

Moyou London Fashionista 04

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26 Great Nail Art Ideas - Autumn

This weeks prompt was Autumn. I do love Autumn - despite not liking yellow or orange I love a good autumn leaves mani!
I was already wearing a dark red base, with some subtle red stamping so I went straight on top of that. I wasn't entirely sure how many layers I was going to do but I just kept going until I was happy with what I had done.
I used UberChic Lovely Leaves and started with Esmaltes da Kelly Bee. It's not a yellow I particularly like but it always seems to work well in an autumn mani.
Then I used Colour Alike Scary Pumpkin with the same plate. I do love this polish despite its annoying shimmeriness which makes clean up impossible!
Finally I added Esmaltes da Kelly Frogger, with two different images from the same plate again.

Uber Chic Lovely Leaves

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