Green Jelly and Hot Pink Chrome Stamping...

Hi guys, every time I post these days I feel like somewhere in the text is an apology!

I don't want to be one of those people who's full of false promises, or always saying I'm planning to do certain things by a certain time.  I'm doing my best. The truth is, my love for blogging and nail art just isn't the same.  Don't get me wrong, I still love sharing what I've done with my nails, and I've even bought some new stamping plates recently.  However, as life is a mushy haze of work, driving lessons, gym (no matter how short my visit :P) and people I love, the effort I put into my nails comes after that.

At the moment I'm actually letting my nails grow slightly, and they're oval/round rather than the mostly natural square they grow in.  I'm debating going for slightly more of an almond shape in a week or so too.

Anyhoo... onto the nails rather than the tiny rants.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Barry M - Watermelon#

Stamping Colour: NYC - Foil'er Up

Image Plate: Cheeky Jumbo Viva Mexico

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

So this was a little bit of an odd combination, and I'm not 100% how it came about as this was about two months back now.  I think it may have came from not owning many stamping polishes other than chromes that can stamp over dark colours.   Now, Barry M - Watermelon is not the darkest, but it is a very strong bold colour.  I think NYC - Foil'er Up sort of works.  Sort of.

Here's a swatch shot of Watermelon in case I haven't shown one before.  Lovely Deep Green that's almost muted.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. Mine was another lazy one, snugged up in bed or the sofa watching TV. Bliss.

2true - Soft Grey & NYC - Techno Foil Stamping

Hi all, Hope you're having a good Friday! Thank goodness the weekend is here!

Today I have another polish that I was sent to review from 2true for more on the company, and the other polishes I have reviewed click here. This post isn't really a review but a quick stamp/swatch.

For more colour accurate photos of Soft Grey, visit Lucy's Stash Here as I could not for the life of me get it to photograph without the green tone before stamping!

Soft grey is a medium grey creme that sometimes looks green to me, just not as green as my photo. Below is two coats that offered really great coverage, and I had no problems at all maneuvering the brush/formula, which lead me to basically no clean up whatsoever.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour:: 2true Fast Dry - Shade 13 Soft Grey

Stamping Colour: NYC - Techno Foil

Image Plate: Konad - M73

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

This is how the polish looks most of the time, and below is when my camera caught it looking very green.

I really love polishes that give you this kind of look in only two coats, so smooth, and as the name implies it dries really quick too.

*Product was sent for consideration of review*

Using Matte - We Stamp On Sundays

Hi all! Happy Sunday!

This weeks challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to use some aspect of matte in our manis. I was originally going to do a new mani for this challenge stamping over a matte coat, but when I finished stamping the nails I was doing at the time, I knew they'd look great matte.

For this I used both ends of an Essence Colour3 stick. Midnight Blue is the base colour, and City That Never Sleeps is the lovely jelly flakie, that reminds me of Magnetic - Freakin' Violet. I then stamped with more blue - NYC - Niagara Foils using Bundle Monster BM 321, and added Rimmel - Matte Finish.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey

Base Colour: Essence Nail Colour3 - Midnight Date

Flakies: Essence Nail Colour3 - City That Never Sleeps

Stamp Colour: NYC - Niagara Foils

Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM321

Gloss Top Coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails

Matte Top Coat: Rimmel - Matte Finish

The dimension the flakies give it almost make it look like crushed velvet ^-^

Glossy

One very thin coat of City That Never Sleeps

Midnight Date - 2 Coats Sunlight

Midnight Date - 2 Coats Shade

What do you guys think? I loved wearing these matte, but the picture of the finished product with a gloss top coat really makes the green flakies pop out!

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

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 :]

Hot Hot Hot - We Stamp On Sundays

This weeks challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to use hot colours, or a hot theme? I'm not sure, but I was just bored; and was thinking about this mani, and how I loved the combo, and that led me to using a hot pink chrome for my stamping today.

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Deborah - Turquoise Fever
Stamping Colour: NYC - Foil'er Up
Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM201
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

And here's the gorgeous base colour

Honestly the stamping and base colour look great in the photos, but it was mesmerising in real life, like, so shiny and so bold :D love them xD

Beth's Birthday Nails - We Stamp On Sundays

This week over at Adventures In Stamping the challenge was to create something inspired by/ for Crumpets daughter Beth's 9th birthday. So I decided to do purple glitter and stamp with a plate ending in 9. I automatically knew which purple I was going to wear, but I had no idea what to stamp over it. It's such an amazing polish but I can never capture how pretty it is. And because It's a glitter I never know how to stamp, so I settled on fishnet, in a purple chrome :]

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: BYS - Voodoo Violet
Stamp Colour: NYC - Techno Foil
Image Plate: Bundle Monster BM209
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

You can kinda see the glitter more here, while majority of the micro glitter in this is silver, all the large pieces are holographic, and it's annoying that they choose not to shine on camera :P as this polish Is still one of my favourites, despite the gloopy formula.

And here's what I used:

So a Happy Birthday shout out to Beth! :] Hope you've had a good Birthday! & I hope everyone in the UK is having a super chilled looooong weekend ^-^

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?

Spring Challenge - Day 9 - Kites

Today's Spring Challenge is Kites. I'm a little bit disappointed by how these turned out, but since the sun has been playing hide and seek for the last week or so I can't be bothered to re-do them :P

Dont' forget to check out Esme's Blog to see what she came up with today :]

Base Coat: CND - Stcikey
Base Colour: George - Cloudless Sky
Stamping Colour: NYC - Nail Glossies - 215
Image Plate: Konad M79
Kite: Barry M - Bright Red, Lemon Ice Cream, Red Glitter
Tree: Manhattan - Green Piece
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

 

Then I decided to add more NYC - 215 to the clouds with a dotting tool, as the stamp didn't show up too well.

 I figure I should've made the kite smaller too.

Next up is rain! :]

Spring Challenge - Day 3 - Picnic Tablecloth

Third day of the spring challenge myself and Esme of Nail Addict are going to do; and I was excited to do these before I started :P

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: NYC - Nail Glossies - 215
Stripes: Barry M - Bright Red
Acrylic Paints
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

First I taped off vertical lines and painted with a sheer red polish, and then taped off horizontal lines, and painted again. I honestly thought this would do the trick making the overlapping squares dark enough to stand out; but I had to go in with a dark red acrylic paint to darken up the squares a bit.

And then I couldn't help but do some sandwiches. I was going to do sandwiches originally but then talked myself out of it; until Scott talked me back into it :P The 'ants' aren't how I thought they would turn out. but I like them all the same :]

I hope everyone is having a good Tuesday :] Don't forget to check out Nail Addict to see what Esme came up with :]


Edit: Forgot to include this :]

 

More Interview Nails

Another boring set of interview nails. These looked much better in real life, as the shimmer in Peach Smoothie popped against the Chrome. But in pictures you can hardly see the shimmer.

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: Revlon - Peach Smoothie
Stamping Colour: NYC - Foiled Rotten
Image Plate: Konad M85
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

Like I said, in person these looked much better. And I still love the scent of Peach smoothie. Nomnom.

Happy Mondayyyyy :]

Using A Plate Ending In 4 - We Stamp On Sundays

This weeks challenge over at Adventures In Stamping was to use a plate ending in 4, I wasn't really feeling up to doing my nails when I did these; so they're a bit boring.

The base colour is a serious stunner though, OPI - Nevermore, which was sent to me as part of a swap from Iris over at Polish Amor. But more on that some time in the coming week ^_^

For this I used three different chrome polishes, a bright and pale pink, and lilac.

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: OPI - Nevermore
Stamping Colours: NYC - Foil For You, Foil'er Up, Techno Foil
Image Plate: BM214
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

Dinged my midle finger again ;(

 

For my other Sunday challenge mani's, click here. I hope everyone has had a good weekend! :]

Pink Stamped With Chrome Half Moon + Bullions

I had no idea what to title this, I love the idea of this mani, but not the execution; and I don't really think it's very me. Oh and bullion beads... you annoying little gits!

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: La Femme - Pink Creme
Stamp Colour: N.Y.C - Foil For You
Image Plate: Konad M79
Gold Bullion Beads
Top Coat: Models Own - 3 In 1

From this angle the curve doesn't look wonky ;]

Hope everyone's having a good day. I haven't had a chance to catch up with blog posts, but I shall be doing that tomorrow :]

Pink Chrome Roses

This was one of those mani's that you can't stop staring at, because I mixed the chromes before scraping the plate it made certain parts of the image pop. So fun to wear. Sorry for whatever happened to the ring finger, I think some acetone spillage perhaps.

Some of these didn't transfer so well oops. I started with 2 coats of George - Asda, and then did a zigzag in one of the chromes, and filled in the other parts with the other chrome.

Base Coat: Nail RX - Stuck On You
Base Colour: George - Confusion
Stamp Colours: N.Y.C. - Foil For You & Foil'er Up
Image Plate: Konad M65
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

I think I'll have to use this method more often!

Christmas Tartan

So I didn't have a lot of time to do these nails, Infact I only had a base colour down, so I took 10 minutes to do some quick and easy tartan. This explains why it's not the neatest design in the world, but from afar it's still super fun =D

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: N.Y.C. Nail Glossies - 215
Nail Art Pens: Red, Green, & Silver Glitter
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

3 Coats As It's Sheer

I originally bought this way, way back in the day, maybe about 4 years ago, when I was looking for a white as I had trouble with white drying etc. When I got home and tried this out I remember being disappointed at the fact it was so sheer, and never really gave it a chance until the other day.

This horrible overcast light does not do this polish justice though, as it has some micro shimmer to it which brightens the whole thing up. But it's actually a really nice change to stark white.

Could've done with another top coat to smooth things out even more.

Barry M Grey & Blue Chrome Snowflakes

I love wearing snow flakes on my nails, and this is actually something I wore last year around this time before I started this blog. So it was nice recreating a look, super simple to acheive too.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: Barry M - Grey
Stamp Colour: N.Y.C. Niagra Foils
Plate: Bundle Monster 14
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat

Hopefully I'll have some more festive nails up soon :]

Barry M Bright Purple & NYC Foil'er Up With Bundle Monster :]

First time trying this polish out, Scott bought me it a month ago, and I didn't remember about it until I went to go find the goodies for my giveaway. It's such a nice colour, and as always, Barry M's formula's spot on. First time with this image too, and I quite like it but I think I should of added some gems too.

Base Coat: CND - Stickey
Base Colour: Barry M - Bright Purple
Stamp Colour: N.Y.C. - Foil'er Up
Image Plate: Bundle Monster 202
Top Coat: China Glaze - No Chip Top Coat