OPI How Great is your Dane and foil stamping

Hi all,

I can't believe it's been a full two months since I've last posted anything. I've only just checked my blog email account for the first time too.  Even my actual digits are feeling neglected, barely getting re-done every week.

I still have a monster back-log of manicures to post that need editing etc etc, and since moving in with my boyfriend I feel like majority of the photos have been taken on my iPhone so the quality isn't great.

Maybe some time this year when we've moved house, have gotten settled and have a little Frenchie pup I'll manage to catch up with everything and start fresh!

Until then, here's some wintery nails which I think are from September October time, when I had started growing my nails into a long almond shape, but after a bad break after much filing/growing/care I soon went back to the usual, and easy square shape.

Base Coat: CND Stickey

Base Colour: OPI - How Great is your Dane

Stamping Colours: Barry M - Gold Foil, Revlon - Copper Penny

Image Plate: Moyou Bridal number unknown

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard as Nails 

And here's a swatch of the lovely How Great is your Dane:

It usually takes a lot for me to love a brown, and this shade ticks every box.

Until next time!

Autumn Nails - We Stamp On Sundays

Happy Sunday everyone, I'm finally doing another Sunday challenge!

I'm in desperate need of some lazing and watching something chick-flicky so I'll just get on with showing the photos.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colours: Zoya - Carey & Essie Glamour Purse

Stamped Colour: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Bronze Ablaze
Image Plate: Dashica Big SpD-A

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

In the shade

Pretty shimmer coming through

And Here's what I used:

Well that's all from me, gonna get a blanket and stick on a film!

2true Mushroom Swatch

Hi all! Happy Thursday!

It's a happy Thursday for me, as my department has changed trusts, and I can now access blogger at work! This hopefully means I can start creating posts on my lunch break, and catch up with some reading!

Today we have a quick swatch post of a lovely polish by 2true called Mushroom that is a really great coverage creme. It's a medium taupey brown shade that has a really good dry time too.

Apologies if these look a little green, or red, my photos look so different at my work computer!

Steam Punk Nails

Hi all

Little bit of a late post today, but If I don't do it now i'm going to crawl into bed until morning!

These, in my head, were awesome, but something about the stamp didn't really work. I think the stamp may be engraved too deep, as only one nail out of ten came out with actually spikes on the cogs, instead of smooshy circles.

That being said, I really enjoyed wearing these, I like how the whole thing pulled together. If only the stamp had worked out!! Yikes, ignore the blurry photos!

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Jacava - Chocolate Melts

Sponged Colours: W7 - Suede & Black

Stamping Colour: Miss Sporty - Electric Beige

Image Plate: Cheeky CH33

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

Here's the base before the stamping:

Hope you guys have had a good Wednesday! I spent mine working, and snacking on Seaweed heh.

Jacava Chocolate Melts Review

Hi all!

Today I have a review/swatch of a polish I was sent by the company Jacava. To find out more about this company visit their site here all their polishes are DBP, Camphor, Formaldehyde and Toluene free, and they don't test on animals either.

I chose Chocolate Melts to try out. It was between that and Cappuccino Cream as I was really wanting to try one of their browns.

Dry time was really good, as was coverage. I have two thin coats on my index finger, and two thicker coats on the rest. Can you notice how squishy the thicker coats look? These are taken in various lighting, without base coat, and without top coat. Look at that shine!

This is how warm this polish looks most of the time, this picture was taken with the flash on my camera.

Horrible overcast daylight. I think you can see the slight colour difference between the thin and thick coats here.

Shade shot.

From this, and what I've seen of Jacava's other polishes I think most of their creme finishes are going to be more of a Creme-Jelly love child polish, a little bit squishy but with great coverage, and amazing shine.

Over all I'm impressed by polish formula, I really like the bottle and the handle, and the colour really is the perfect chocolate shade, and I know I'm gonna reach for this when I need this kind of warm milky brown.

These polishes retail for £14.50, but there's currently a 3 for 2 offer on.

Hope you're all having a good Saturday! :]

**This product was sent to me for consideration of review**

Finaflor - Madri, Glitter & Stamping with Bundle Monster BM 306

Hi all! Happy Thursday!

Quick post from me today, as I write this it's Wednesday night, and all I want to do is sleep as Cheese (one of my cats) decided to wake me up last night, something like, every two hours. I've not been a very productive bunny today!

Finaflor - Madri is another polish that came to me from the lovely Susana of Blog do Verniz Amarelo it's such a strange deep purple, that looks kind of like chocolate at times, it's hard to describe. It's got such an awesome formula too, one coat was full coverage, but two deepened the colour. I really want to try this for stamping, and see what kind of colour it shows as.

Base Coat: La Femme

Base Colour: Finaflor - Madri

Glitter: Etos Nail Effects - 03-04

Stamping Colour: NYC - Foil'er Up

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM 306

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

Best colour shot of this :]

Better shot of the glitter

That's all for today! Hope you liked these :]

Models Own - Slate Green, OPI - Warm & Fozzie & Black Dashica Stamping

Ahhhh today we have some nails I seriously loved wearing. I only wore them matte for one day, and I can't decide what I prefer, Scott prefers them glossy but I really like Warm & Fozzie matte!

First up the stamped nails, and then I'll show some swatch shots of the surprisingly squishy Models Own - Slate Green.

Base Coat: La Femme

Base Colour: Models Own - Slate Green

Sponged Colour: OPI - Warm & Fozzie

Stamp Colour: BYS - Black Satin

Image Plate: Dashica Big SpD-A

Top Coat: Rimmel 60 Seconds - Clear

With Rimmel - Matte Finish

Close up of OPI - Warm & Fozzie I love the warm rose toned specks of foil!

Here's some swatch shots of Models Own - Slate green. When I started applying this I was surprised by the formula. I was expecting the usual creme, but it turned out to be a bit more of a squishy almost jelly like creme. I think I actually prefer this formula though. I can't remember if this is two or three coats, but I believe it's two coats.

So which do you prefer, matte or gloss?

Hope everyone's having a good Tuesday!

Using Two Stamps - We Stamp On Sundays

So this is going to be a bit of a muddled up post. I don't really have the attention span or patience to be putting down any thoughts currently coming from my head, but there might be a rant at the end of this post explaining why.

This week's challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to use 2 stamps or more. I really didn't have any wild ideas or any ideas really, and was wearing Essie - Glamour Purse (my first Essie; yay) and wasn't too inspired. Then someone asked on my Facebook page about image plates with owls, and thought Glamour Purse would be a good base. So thanks Kerry!

Base Coat: La Femme
Base Colour: Essie - Glamour Purse
Stamp Colour: Konad Special White
Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM309
Top Coat: Rimmel - 60 Seconds Clear

 

 Here's what I used:

 And here's a better colour shot of Essie - Glamour Purse

So my first Essie was wonderful, two effortless coats above, no top coat. This dries darker on the nail than in the bottle, but is such a flattering brown.

I bought three Essie's at first, and I picked four that Scott's giving me as a birthday present. I found these at nail kiosk in Eldon Square for £1.99 each. They also have some Sally Hansen chrome nail pen things, I didn't find a green, but did pick out a gold one for my birthday.

So yeah, I'm not feeling so great today. Yesterday Cheese came in through my bedroom window as usual, and something just wasn't right. I'm not gonna go into how she was acting, or what's wrong with her or I will start crying again for, like, the 10th time today. She's stayed at the vets overnight, and has been kept in so far today too, as she's still not right, and they're still running tests, although organ tests have come back fine. I wish I went to the vets with her but I was trying to tackle a panic attack.

I was going to schedule posts for the rest of the week and for my birthday tomorrow so I could have some down time, and go out and see friends tomorrow. But I've cancelled plans so I can be here if Cheese comes home. That; and I'm not sure what kind of a mess I will be tomorrow either. I do have some photos edited so I'll probably try and muster some energy later to put a couple posts together so I don't totally abandon the blog.

That was a little longer than I thought - sorry. I hope everyone's having an alright Sunday.

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/

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?

Elf Desert Haze Gold And Brown Leopard Print

Hey all.. Simple Leopard print today. I'm still trying to catch up with all the mani's I've done but haven't posted, so these are from a few weeks ago. I've done this combo before on a nail set, but with Models Own - Nude Beige, and I think the warmth of that shade helps tone down the brassy look of the Citadel Paint, so I'm not fully a fan of these. But I like them matte =]

Base Coat: Nai RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: ELF - Desert Haze
Stamp Colour: W7 - Suede
Image Plate: Konad M57
Gold: Citadel - Shining Gold
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

Elf - Desert Haze, 2 coats

And here's the basee colour, the first Elf I've ever tried; and I loved it. The formula was so great, and dried so quickly! I think it's my favourite nude right now. Then I added a coat of Rimmel - Matte Finish.

Hope everyone's had an okay day.

Spring Challenge - Day 8 - Easter Nails

Today's nails for the Spring Challenge are Easter nails. For these I had a few ideas, and knew I wanted to do a Pick 'n' Mix / Skittles mani. I got the idea for the Mini Eggs from Emily's Nail Files with this great tutorial. At first I wasn't really feeling the colour combination I had going on, but changed some things around, and after the 3 days I had them on I'd grown to love them.

Don't forget to check out Esme's Blog to see what she came up with for today!

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colours: Models Own - Utopia & Pastel Pink
Free Hand Colours: Revlon - Minted
                                Mini M&S - Yellow
                                W7- Suede
                                Models Own - Pastel Pink
                                Sally Hansen - White On
Stamp Colour: Konad White
Image Plate: BM19
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

Then I added a matte top coat to make everything soft :]

April Fools Non Stamping - We Stamp On Sunday

Today's challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to do a mani without stamping as a sort of April Fools' Day mani.

I was thinking about doing these at the start of the week; but didn't really know when I'd post them as I don't like posting every day and what have you. So when I heard the challenge was a non stamping one I figured it would be a perfect time ^-^

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: W7 - Suede
Lines: Acrylic Paints
Tips: Sally Hansen - White On
George - Mischief & Manhattan - Lemonade mixed for the yolk

Nomnomn. I love Creme Eggs. However I love mini ones as the regular ones are way too sickly for me.

I hope everyone's having a good weekend :]

Spring Challenge - Day 4 - Worms

Happy Friday! Yayy!

Today the spring challenge myself and Esme of Nail Addict are doing calls for worms! This was my first idea, and I just rolled with it, so I hope everyone likes these :P

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: W7 - Suede
Sponged Base: Barry M - Grey, Beauty UK - Soft Grey

Worm, Grass & Mud: Acrylic Paints
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

I love Mr Worm... These were so fun to wear; especially with the matte top coat so there was no bothersome glare.

 

I thought of Mr Worm as happy; with a little black crooked smile; but when I shown these to Scott what he originally seen was a grumpy worm! 

I love that he has a smile and a gurning face :P What do you see? 

Check out what's to come:

 

Don't forget to check out what Esme came up with :]