Queen's Day - We Stamp On Sunday

This weeks challenge over at Adventures In Stamping is a mani for Queen's Day. All I know about Queen's Day is what I've read on Wiki. So If you want to read more, click here. I didn't really know what to do for these, so I settled on the obvious idea of orange and a crown. I hope I've done the holiday proud :]

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Paris Memories - 216
Stamp Colours: Miss Sporty - Gold Backstage
                         BYS - Black Satin
Image Plates: Konad M70, Bundle Monster BM08
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

 As always in these Sunday posts, here's what I used =]

Acid Leopard

These are actually from a few months back, and I'm not sure why I haven't posted them, as It's really not like me. I like posting things in the order I do them :P

This was my first time using a real konad stamping polish (this was before I used Konad White), and I was not expecting there to be so much of a difference between special polishes and regular ones. I had to re-do a lot of nails because of the smearing that occurred. Usually when I stamp, the image that's transferred is already dry within a few seconds, but with the special polish I had to actually wait before top coating, and be more careful with the brush strokes. The nails that I had to re-do were a total, total streak fest. Every little bit was streaked and smeared! Urgh!

Oddly though I don't have this problem with Konad White, so maybe It's just because this colour was so pigmented.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: Clubworks - Neon Green
Stamp Colour: Konad Special Polish - Red Wine (I Think)
Image Plate: Konad M57
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

 

I personally love these. The base is such a weird acid 80's vomit green, and with the wine red combo, it's so wrong it's right in my books!

The Flash Nails Using KKcenterHk Water Decals

So on Tuesday I showed you some water decals that I was sent for review from KKcenterHk. Today I will be showing you the second idea I had when selecting the comic style water decals. Again I used WDDC061 for these :]

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Barry M - Bright Red
Sponged Colour: OPI - Wocka Wocka
White: Sally Hansen - White On
Water Decals: From KKCenterHk
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

I started with the base of Bright Red, and then sponged on Wocka Wocka to try and give it that costume feel. I used the center of a hole reinforcement sticker to paint on a white circle, and then with a small brush I did another layer of polish to try and make the circle slightly larger.

Really though, any time I hear "The Flash" all I think of is The Big Bang Theory, and Sheldon being hyped up on coffee :D Keeping in mind I sometimes run about the house when possibly hyper on coffee saying "Zoom zoom zoom"... Don't judge me, I like acting like a big kid behind closed doors! :P

If you're interested in anything in the store use coupon code: goldspecknails for 10% off, this code is valid until January 31st, 2013.

*This product was sent to me for review

Superman, Supergirl, Nails. KKcenterHk Water Decal Review

So a while back I was contacted by Maggie from KKcenterHk about reviewing some water decals, I immediately said I would love to, but it took me a little longer to figure out which style water decals I would like to try as they have so many! After narrowing it down to something like 10 designs, I finally decided on these, and these.

Here we have WDBLE974 and WDDC061

I was so, so intrigued to get my hands on these ones as I'd never seen metallic water decals before. And as soon as I seen the designs my mind started racing with ideas of what mani's I could do! These retail for USD$6.39, or just under £4.

So Shiny!

I cut off the designs I was going use, and them placed them in a shot glass of water. I used tweezers to peel off the design and place it on my nail, patting off excess water with my finger making sure there were no bubbles under the design. I them patted off the nail with a piece of tissue, and continued with the other nails before adding a top coat to seal the decal in. These are unlinke any water decals I've used before, they didn't feel like they were going to break after I peeled them off the backing paper, which has been my experience in the past. I loved these nails, and so did my boyfriend :]

 

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: LA Colors - Static Electricity
Tip Colour: OPI - Wocka Wocka
KKcenterHk water decals
Top Coat: Model Own - 3 In 1

If you're interested in anything in the store use coupon code: goldspecknails for 10% off, this code is valid until January 31st, 2013.

*This product was sent to me for review

Inspired By Music - We Stamp On Sundays

This weeks challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was a mani inspired by music. I was not thrilled about this challenge as it seemed harrrrrrd ;( I listened to all my favourite songs, Googled the album artwork of every band I like.. And just got bummed out by how my good ideas would only work if I bought new image plates, and that was just not happening :P So I didn't really push myself, but I loved the outcome, though I almost feel like I should have spaced the cherries out more, or only did one cherry.

The band I chose is Cherry Ghost. They've been a favourite of mine for something like five years. My personal email address comes from one of their songs, and they are incredible live. There's something I truly love about Simon Aldred's accent.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colours: Rimmel - Black Satin
                        Sally Hansen - White On
Stamping Colours: Gosh - Berry Me
                              George - Meteorite
                              Konad White
Glitter: Maybelline Colorama - Ice Princess
Image Plates Used: Bundle Monster BM223, Konad M48
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

This is gonna be a scheduled post as It's going to be Earth Day, I'm not gonna do the usual of spending a few hours after posting to read blogs, I'll just catch up on Monday! I also had a pretty horrific Friday, so I've spent all day today (Saturday) feeling sorry for myself, having lots of hot chocolate, watching goofy films to try and cheer myself up and indulging in craptastic food. Not paying attention to any calories means Sunday will mainly be spent on wii fit and dance games to try and make myself feel better for a crap diet week, and an even worse Friday.

I shall leave you with a funny pic of Cheese, using her favourite method of entrance - my bedroom window. Look at her little cheetah belly! & That's how dirty the window gets in a day when it's raining outside.

Spring Challenge - Day 12 - Earth Day Nails

So this is the last day of the challenge myself and Esme embarked upon. And I'm going to be sad to see it go. I feel like I get stuck in nail ruts some times, sticking to stamping for a while, then free hand, then back to stamping, but I feel like I need to work on mixing it up in the future. And the Spring Challenge has made me see that challenging myself is fun ^-^

These nails are for Earth Day, which is on Sunday. My idea was to make them sort of look like satellite images of the Earth. I started with my base colour, sponged on some greens, and took a small dry brush to add some detail, then sponged on the cloud colours.

Don't forget to check out Esme's post for today to see what she came up with :]

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: George - Cloudless Sky
Sponged Colours: W7 - Matte Green
                              NYC - Nail Glossies - 215
                              Cutex - Sweet Pea
                              George - Meteorite
                              Beauty UK - Soft Grey
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

 

Looking at these now, I almost wished I'd used a slightly deeper blue, But I'm not sure I have a creme between this sky blue, and navy (that isn't bright) any excuse to buy a new blue ;]

So what's been your favourite mani from mine and Esme's challenge?

My Recent Giveaway Winnings!

So since the start of this year I have been a very lucky girlie indeed I've won makeup goodies from Lucy's Stash which can be found at the end of this post. A polish ring & hair clip from The Lacquered Nail, an incredible Big SpD Plate of my choice from Shirley over at Dashica Beauty, which I first used in this post.

And the latest, an exciting giveaway from Ingie over at fyeahilovenails. Which was made even more exciting by the fact she shoved a load of extra goodies in as well! Ingie really is such a sweetie, and we both have the pet hate of other people watching TV too loud :P If you haven't visited her blog yet, ch-ch-check it out :]

Anyhooo I would like to take this time to say thanks to all of those lovely ladies! My good luck this year concerning giveaways is counteracting the effect that being unemployed for so long is having on me right now. So thanks again :]

On to the goodies from The Lacquered Nail:

Holographic & cracke hair clip, water marbled ring, & Barielle's Elle's Spell

 Look at how pretty! From swatches I've googled the blue/green flake doesn't really show up on the nail, but I'm dying to try this!

Now on to the crazy winnings from Ingie.

 How cute is that card ^_^

So many flakies.. So little time :D Look at those beauties!

So as if the original goodies weren't enough, she added in seven extra polishes, body wash, fruit nail decals, and a tinted moisturiser. My face was probably a lot like this O_O when I opened them all up hahaha. I was like a giddy school kid xD

So from what I've counted I get to try out eight brands I've never tried before and I'm so excited, I couldn't help but swatch them one on each nail when I got them all hahaha.

This was actually meant to be a short post but I've managed to blab on :P I hope everyone's having a nice Wednesday :]

Spring Challenge - Day 11 - Sky

So I was gonna do a night time sky gradient, but it went horrifically wrong, so I opted for sponging some "clouds" and dotting some "stars" It worked out better in my head :P

Don't forget to check out Esme's post for today to see what she came up with :]

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Miss Sporty - Pop Fiction
Sponged With: Rimmel - Black Satin, Barry M - Grey, Beauty UK - Soft Grey
Dotted With: Nubar - G188 2010, Rimmel - Disco Ball
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

The dots of glitter/flecks flattened out for this photo, which looks so much better.

I actually didn't mind these so much in person. But the photos just feel like a bit fat let down :/

Here's some swatches of Miss Sporty - Pop fiction, which is amazing. I found out about this colour via Nail stories here, and it looked so incredible. So I lusted after it for a while, and then recently bought it. It was so worth the wait, and the tiny price of £1.99. The formula on this bad boy is incredible. It has already graced my fingertips more than once in the two weeks I've had it.

So this is the second last challenge of the Spring Challenge - I can't believe it's almost over!

Next up, and the final challenge is Earth Day Nails! :]

Stamping Over A Gradient - We Stamp On Sundays

This week over at Adventures In Stamping the voting was a draw. This was between stamping over a gradient, and stamping using two images. So I actually voted for using two images, but I already had this mani done before the voting began... and I'm having a horrible lazy blah everything sucks day, so this is the mani you're getting!

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Essence - Speed Of Light Blue
Sponging Colours: Models Own - Pastel Pink & George - Mischeif
Glitter: Rimmel - Disco Ball
Stamp Colour: BYS - Black Satin
Image Plate: Bundle Monster 223
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

 

 And a pic of the gradient before the glitter & before the stamp.

I loooooved wearing this mani. The daylight was beyond crappy for photo taking though. And most of these photos turned out a little fuzzy =/

 Here's The plate I used & the polishes used also :]

I hope everyone's had an alright Sunday.

Blogger Appreciation Award

Traci from Drinkcitra and Aimeeus from Persistently Glittery tagged me with this award, which is lovely. If you haven't checked out their blogs yet; do it now! They are awesome :] 


Edit: I was also tagged by Theodora from Red Hair And Black Nails, which are other blogs that I loveee.

The rules of the Award:

1.  Thank the person who gave you the award with their blog link on your post.

2.  Answer the following 4 questions.

3.  Award the Blogger Appreciation Award to as many readers/commenters/supporters/followers as you’d like.

4.  Let the blogger know you've just awarded them (by leaving a comment, a tweet, an email, etc.)

The questions:

1.  How long have you been blogging?

2.  What are 1-2 reasons why you started blogging.

3.  What types of blogs do you like to follow/read?

4.  What is 1 thing you would like to improve on as a blogger/on your blog?

My answers:

1. I've been blogging just over one year. I started my blog in February 2011, but my first mani wasn't posted until March :]
2. The main reason I started blogging was to share my creations with whoever would like to see them, I would take a photo of every mani I'd do and they would just sit on my computer, so I thought why the heck not ^_^
3. The blogs I like to follow are generally nail blogs, but there's some beauty and fashion ones thrown in there too.
4. I think one thing that I'm looking to improve first would definitely be the layout/organisation of my blog. I think it's in need of a spruce up but I don't even know where to start!

I would like to award the Blogger Appreciation Award to the following supporters:

Gnarly Gnails
Hooked!
Nail Polish Wars
Square Polish
Polish Amor

I chose these blogs simply because I love them, I enjoy reading them, drooling over pics, and being inspired :]

Spring Challenge - Day 10 - Rain

Todays Spring Challenge is Rain. Since the start of this challenge I knew what I wanted to do for todays and was looking forward to it.

Don't forget to check out Esme's post for today to see what she came up with :]

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: Beauty UK - soft grey
Large Cloud: Barry M - Grey
Rain: Bourjois 10 Day Wear - Number 18
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

These were so so fun to wear. Nothing particularly hard to do, but really fun and bold in a way :]

Multicoloured Stamping Tutorial

So I spent hours trying to take these photos last week after these nails got a lot of love, but I'm kind of missing some in between shots. So this is a little less like a tutorial, and more like some pictures, that I'll try to make sense of :P

For examples of when I've used this method see here, here, here, here, here, here, or here :]

 Add your colours randomly, or however you want, and be generous.

 

 Scrape over that, and clean off the plate (you can see rings of polish from where I waited too long trying to take photos). Make sure not to wipe off or clean your scraper.

This is roughly what you should have on your scraper. This isn't from the colours above - I forgot to take a photo. This is the colour mix that you'll be using.

 Spread the rainbow goodness over the image you're going to use.

I like to spread the polish over in a different direction to the direction that I scrape; to further help mixing of the colours.

Scrape and stamp as normal, and repeat for the other nails :]

 Here are some comparisons between using polish directly applied to the plate, and using what was left on the scraper

And one last example :]

Index finger & Ring finger are stamped using the initial colour, middle & little fingers are stamped using the colour left over from those stamps.

Okay; as this is my first tutorial, please let me know if any parts aren't clear or don't make sense :]

Let me know what you think!