My Favourite Layering Ever: W7 - Envy & Barielle - Elle's Spell

When I started painting my nails with W7 - Envy, my intentions were to get some swatch shots. But then after I got some photos of Envy, I saw Barielle - Elle's Spell from the corner of my eye; and decided to do some layering. This combination is amazingly pretty. Where the jelly of Elle's Spell is thicker you see a slight purple tinge to what is a blue/teal outcome. I also really love the colour of the flakies against the base.

For some swatches of Elle's Spell, go here.

Base coat: La Femme
Base Colours: W7 - Envy (2 Coats)
Barielle - Elle's Spell (1 Coat)

Here's the swatches of Envy. Two coats, no top coat. It has such a strange luminous glass finish to it. I love it.

I hope everyone is having a good Tuesday!

Black And Red - We Stamp On Sundays

This week's challenge was for black and red stamping. For this; I knew what polish I wanted to use, and knew I wanted to use one of my new Bundle Monster plates, now my faulty plates are being replaced and are currently on their way to me.

The Red I used came from my swap with Susana, as did the shimmer. I used Essence Colour3 - Kiss On Top Of The Rock, and Dancing In The Street. So I chose to use two images from BM316 to stamp in black, and while I didn't hate the outcome, I wasn't buzzed about it. The image seemed to transfer a bit thin too - you can kind of see the shimmer through it.

Base Coat: La Femme
Base Colour: Essence Colour3 - Kiss On Top Of The Rock
Shimmer: Essence Colour3 - Dancing In The Street
Stamp Colour: BYS - Black Satin
Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM316
Top Coat: Sally Hansen - Hard As Nails

Here's Kiss On Top Of The Rock; it was so lovely to apply, If I'd been careful one coat would have been fine.

Here is Dancing In The Street; I didn't get any swatch shots though.

I hope everyone's having a good Sunday!

Black And Gold Lightning Bolt, Konad Q1 Fauxnad: MLS301

Happy Saturday!

I completely forgot about this plate! Scott bought me MLS301 a month or so back as he thought the plate was so awesome. This is how unorganised I've been lately. I also only have a two day weekend this weekend, when I thought It was going to be a 4 day one; so I need to get some organisation and schedule posts, and edit photos, and catch up on my reading list yet again, and generally do all the things i've been too lazy to do all week. It doesn't help that I need a new battery for my laptop, and I won't get my first pay until the end of August *le cry*!

Base Coat: La Femme
Base Colour: Rimmel - Black Satin
Stamping Colour: Barry M - Gold Foil
Image Plate: MLS301
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

So the MLS301 plate is a fauxnad plate for Konad Q1. The only difference I've seen looking at comparisons is that the lines in MLS301 are thicker. I don't mind this so much, but when I was trying to test out all the images on paper, I sometimes had issues with what seemed like the images being too deeply engraved.

Here's the plate:

And here's the testy test on paper :]

Oh and if you fancy reading a bit more about me, The Crumpet is kindly having me as part of her Friday Friends, so check it out here.

I hope everyone's having a good start to the weekend!

Green On Green Lizard Skin

Quick post today (Wednesday night as I write this, and I am 5 days behind in my blog list! ack!)

Another mani from a few weeks ago, and something I had wanted to try for a while now. I even tested out this combination when I first got my Beetle Juice polishes after Christmas. MUA - Shade 23 is such a beautiful pale creamy khaki green I really loved the formula on this too. Actually all the MUA polishes that I have tried I've liked, they're great coverage; not too thick, and dry quick. Over that I stamped on Models Own - Golden Green, with a scale effect image.

Such a subtle effect, but I loved these. Enjoy the two pics I managed to snap on a murky day! :]

Base Coat: La Femme
Base Colour: MUA - Shade 23
Stamping Colour Models Own - Golden Green
Image Plate: BM215
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In1

Happy Thursday!

Silver, Max Factor - Fantasy Fire & Silver Studs

I decided to dig out another polish I hadn't used in years. I got this as part of a pack for a Christmas, maybe last year, or year before. And I felt it had been a while since I wore studs, so I decided to pull out some silver ones.

This is a very pretty silver, metallic fleck polish by Scarlett & Crimson which is the teen line of products by Ruby & Millie. For this mani I used two coats of silver, one coat of Max Factor - Fantasy Fire, and then added some studs.

Here's a better shot of Max Factor - Fantasy Fire over the silver.

It was after taking these photos I remembered I have a close up/crop type action on my camera, so next time I need to capture some sparkle, I'm going to try that out and see how it works :] Here is the silver on its own:

And here's a close up to see the pretty flecks:

 

I hope everyone's having a good Tuesday. I'm seeing The Dark Night Rises today :] so I'm excited!

Favourite New Image Plate - We Stamp On Sundays

So for this week's challenge I really wanted to use my new Bundle Monster plates, but I kind of felt weird using a plate that works if I may have to send them all back and what have you. So I settled for one of me new Konad plates, M11, and what I call the Ziggy-Zaggy Afro Guy.

I started with Rimmel - Tip Whitener for my base, and after two coats had dried I added a coat of Essence Colour3 - Stop For An Ice Cream, and a coat of Essence Twins - Clyde. Because the glitter was so smooth I decided to stamp before adding a top coat. I stamped in Konad Special Polish White,and then filled in the image. I originally filled in the image with the Rimmel polish, but I knocked it on the second layer, and it was nowhere near dry, so I sort of scraped it off with my nail, and went back in with Konad white. When that was dry I stamped with BYS - Black Satin, and I should've added a top coat before stamping, as I had soem problems with the whole image transferring. Then I added two little dots of pink to the cheeks, and used acetone to pat them, to make them less opaque. I finally added a top coat, but that smeared the design a little bit.

Base Coat: La Femme
Base Colours: Rimmel - Tip Whitener
                      Essence Colour3 - Stop For An Ice Cream
Glitter: Essence Twins - Clyde
Others: Essence Colour3 - Shopping Trip In Soho
Stamping Colours: Konad Special Polish White
BYS - Black Satin
Image Plate: Konad M11
Top Coat: Rimmel 60 Seconds - Clear

As much as I love how quickly my new top coat dries, it is a bit pap with stamping, and my right hand was a massacre with streaking :(

Here's a shot of Stop For An Ice Cream before I added the glitter. It's an out of focus pic, but it does do the fleck shimmer the best justice.

Here's what I used:

I have some shots where the glitter looks amazing on my nails, but I'm just too lazy to edit them together. I've done nothing much productive this weekened, and it's taken me hours to write this post, and even as I write this I'm having issues with photos messing up the whole format. And right now I should be getting ready for my mate coming over. It's like someone has set me on the speed of super-slow-procrastinator. Which now I've said it; just sounds like some sort of comic hero name :P

I hope everyone's had a good weekend, more productive than mine!

Swap Goodies From Portugal & Three New Plates

Quick post today as I'm going to try and beast through things I have to do, while fitting in dying my hair, and having a nap as I was rudely woken at 8:55am this morning by an argument about being disrespectful. The irony was by no means lost on me, but sleep from that point on was. And considering I've had 4-6 hours each night for the last two weeks (due to not sleeping well, Scott getting in from work, getting up for work, and myself getting up for work) I was pissed when I saw the time, and realised other factors of not being able to get back to sleep. /rant.

On to good things! I recently did a swap with Susana from Blog do Verniz Amarelo, and just wow at the things I got! I had no idea where to start when I got these, apart from of course trying out my first linear holo! Sadly, I'm crap at taking photos of linear holo's apparently :P but it was total awesome sauce on my fingers so I'm gonna keep trying to get better pics. If you want to check out what I sent to her, check out her post here.

Onto all the polishes and plates she sent:

 

 

 

That's all from the swap. Thank you again Susana! I've only tried two polishes so far, and I don't know where to start next :D I'm quite excited to try out the tattoo transfers on my nails :] 

These plates I bought from eBay, for quite cheap :]

I was going to throw in the pics of my Bundle Monster plates, but i'm having issues with a lot of them so I might do a post on them if I get it all sorted with the customer service team *fingers crossed*

And for good measure here's Cheese just after getting her belly rubbed. I love her spotty belly xD

I hope everyone's having a good Saturday, so far I have done nothing I was suppose to.. Oops.

George - Lavender & Catrice - Genius In The Bottle

When I first got Catrice - Genius In The Bottle I was quite intrigued to try it out stamped over black, and I did a quick test on one nail and loved it, but I went rummaging for a polish I hadn't used in ages, or hadn't shown here yet, and I came across George - Lavender, and just thought 'why not?' So, it’s an odd combo that popped more in real life, but I liked wearing this anyways.

Base coat: La Femme
Base Colour: George - Lavender
Stamping Colour: Catrice - Genius In The Bottle
Image Plate: Born Pretty Store M71
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

This purple was one of those colours I bought before I got totally obsessed with the nail world. Where my mani's consisted of pressed on glitter, marker pen doodling’s, and tape mani's. It went unused for around three years because with first use it was sheer, and I thought it would take loads of coats to become opaque. Turns out it was my polish skills. When I tried it last week for this mani it was a perfect 2 coats, with a squishy shiny finish. :]

I wonder how many other polishes are getting neglected because of my previous experience with them. I hope everyone's having a good Thursday :] I'll be at work again when this is posted, probably hoping for it to be Friday evening =P

Collection 2000 - Bongo Beat, Flakies, Black Stamping In Matte

Quick post today of something I did a couple weeks back. Such a lovely combo! And I love loved these matte :D

I started with one coat of Collection 2000 - Bongo Beat, and added one coat of Golden Rose - Scale Effects 13, and stamped with two images from the second Bundle Monster set in BYS - Black Satin before adding a top coat, and then a matte top coat.

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Collection 2000 - Bongo Beat
Flakies: Golden Rose - Scale Effects 13
Stamping Colour: BYS - Black Satin
Image Plates: Bundle Monster BM201, BM211
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1
Matte: Rimmel - Matte Finish

Artificial light.

 

And a picture of the base colour & flakie combo for good measure :]

 

What do you guys think of these? Hope everyone's having a good Tueday :]

Precious Stone - We Stamp On Sundays

I honestly had no idea what to do for this challenge, I debated using Revlon - Emerald Green, but then I had no idea what do stamp, so in the end I settled on my other only remotely good idea I had; Tiger's Eye. Although It's only a semi precious gemstone It's all I had to work with :P

Base Coat: La Femme
Base Colour: Catrice - Genius In A Bottle
Other Colours: Rimmel - Hard Edged
                        W7 - Gold Mirror
                        W7- Suede
                        Barry M - Gold Foil
Stamping Colour: BYS - Black Satin
Image Plate: Konad M57
Top Coat: Rimmel - 60 Second Clear

I started with a base of Catrice - Genious In A Bottle, and added lines of the other darker polishes, dry brushed on some golds, and striped on some more gold, and some more dark colours, wasn't really a method to this one, I did a top coat and stamped, then added a top coat again.

Here's what I used:

And for those of you that don't know about Tiger's Eye here's a picture :]

Source: http://www.free-images.org.uk/

Natural Collection - Antique Coral, Flakies & China Glace - Evening Seduction, Dashica Hello Kitty Stamp

So this is going to be a scheduled post, because I’ll be at work! Yay! It’ll be my first day, and I’m going to be back where I used to work with people I love!  So I hope everything with this post goes well as I’ll not be able to fix things until the night time.

So yeah, less of the excitement, more of the nails! This is a colour I never did swatch, I’ve had it in my collection for about a year now, and it’s my only true coral (I think, haha.) Gorgeous coral, with tiny blue glass flecks running through it. It had thickened a little bit in the year it’d gone neglected, but the formula was still pretty good, though I had a little problem with streaking 3 coats was perfect.

If I didn't want to take a swatch shot, I could've got away with 2 coats easily, especially with the flakie top coat too. So after this I added Golden Rose - Scale Effects 03, and then used two images from my Dashica Big SpD-A using China Glaze - Evening Seduction. I really love using Evening Seduction as a stamping polish as the base colour changed the outcome slightly. I've used it over lilac and got a true dark berry purple, and here it looks more like red.

Base Coat:  La Femme
Base Colour: Natural Collection - Antique Coral
Flakies: Golden Rose - Scale Effects 03
Stamping Colour: China Glaze - Evening Seduction
Image Plate: Dashica Big SpD-A
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

These were so adorable to wear! I had stripes/waves on my thumb too.

I also got my Bundle Monster plates in the mail today (Wed) so I'll be testing them out this weekend, and will do a post about them. I'm curious if you'd want to see swatches of the plates too? If you do I'll test them out a little neater :P

Models Own - Pinky Brown & OPI Designer... De Better & Konad M85

This is a slight fail on my part, don't get me wrong, I like the colour combo, but the stamping combo is just a fail in my eyes. I hate stamping over dark fleck duo chromes like this as I think it generally kills off the beauty of the polish somewhat. But after painting on Pinky brown (which I love) I really had the urge to try and stamp, so I just went for it. I think it was a bad move to stamp in another foil. I chose to stamp with OPI - Designer...De Better, which is another polish I love, as I have nothing else like it, and probably never will. The copper flecks in this polish bring me joy!

That being said I still liked the outcome, not a bold or crazy design, but it made Pinky Brown extra sparkly, and I still got the full shift effect of it.

Base Coat: La Femme - Base Coat
Base Colour: Models Own - Pinky Brown
Stamp Colour: OPI - Designer...De Better
Image Plate: Konad M85
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

Apologies for how grainy these look in the photos, I think all the sparkly goodness made my camera a little loopy =P

So, how do you stamp over a duo chrome foil fleck polish like this?

Tu blog me inspira - Your blog inspires me - Blog Award

Your blog inspires me award! I was nominated for this by the lovely Jane from KONAD KÓLATRA thank you Jane! If you haven't had a peek at her blog yet, check it out :]

The rules for this award are:
1. Post who gave you the award and link to it.
2. Tell 5 strange things about you (a little tag).
3. Give the award to 5 other blogs.
Of course, you have to post the image, which is the award itself.

Okay, so for my 5 things I know I’m going to struggle, as I've mentioned quite a few things in other blog awards, and, not much has changed since then :P

1) Okay, so I thought I'd start off with something I've never mentioned on this blog before - my weight loss. I'm doing okay, however I am lacking in motivation recently and I'm trying to get back into my good routine. I have lost just over 2 stone (32ish lbs) in the last year, and I'm starting to see it myself which is nice.
2) I once found a rabbit in my back garden... It stuck around for a while so we took it in with our other rabbit, they basically had the whole garden to play in.
3)I love to be near the sea, even if I don't venture to the beach haha. This is why one of my favourite places is in Ramsgate, Kent.
4) My favourite energy drink is Rockstar XDurance, which is  Blueberry, Pomegranate & Acai, I just call it Purple though, as it tastes like the colour purple, it's so freaking tasty!

That's honestly all I can think of!

I Tag:
Marias Nail Art and Polish Blog
NAILPOCALYPSE
Sekhmet's Purple Castle
Spellbinding Nails
Nail Stories

Because they inspire me, pretty much all in different ways too :]