Why does it have to be such a blue kiss?

Hi!

It's been a while since I've done a Sunday Stamping mani, and this weeks theme was to use a colour combination you've not used before. I had to think hard, but eventually decided to use pink and blue and a design inspired by Mod Nails. I left off the bow from her design, as I only have white ones, and replaced it with a stud, and moved the designs around a bit. The polishes used were OPI Pink Friday and Sally Hansen Insta Dry Blue By, and the glitter was China Glaze Snow Globe. The kisses were from two Bundle Monster plates and an Essence plate, and the stripes (first time I've got them straight!) from MoYou Pro 01. Oh, and I went back to almonds which I think suits my curvy bendy nails much better when they're long.

I like this as a colour combo, and I wouldn't have thought of it if it wasn't for the challenge. I love how challenges continue to push me, even if I'm not always happy with the result! This time, I was though. Happy Helly.

Hx

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We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Hi!

On Friday last week, I spent a lovely day getting sunburnt seeing the animals at Whipsnade Zoo with my 6 year old's class. Their topic this term is Africa and so our agenda for the day was to see as many of the African animals that the zoo houses, and so I had to had nails to match! It was hard to resist putting penguins on my nails, as they're one of my favourites that the zoo has to offer but in the end I settled for a skittle comprised of cheetahs, tigers, giraffes, zebras and snakes! We had an amazing day, and I especially loved the giraffes - they're just beautiful, and they had babies! Adorable, and I'm totally jealous of their eyelashes! I wasn't allowed to take any pictures while we were there, but I'll try to get some of the animals from the school website when they go up. In the meantime, here are the nails! I'll list polishes below, because there were a few. Stamped with a mix of Cheeky and Bundle Monster plates.

So: cheetah was Barry M mocha stamped with Cheeky CH2 in Konad Black, tiger was Barry M Mango sponged with Crabtree and Evelyn Snowdrop and then stamped with Cheeky CH2 in Konad Black, giraffe was China Glaze Kalahari Kiss stamped with BM 313 in Barry M Mocha, zebra was Crabtree and Evelyn Snowdrop stamped with Cheeky CH2 in Konad Black and the snake was China Glaze Rare and Radiant stamped with BM 215 in Konad White. Lot of polish, but it was worth it!

I loved my zoo nails, and the kids got a kick out of them too! Talking of the kids, I better go and grab them from school!

Hx

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Bad to the bone...

Hi!

This week's adventures in stamping theme was to create a Bad A$$ mani, whatever that means! Now, I'm probably about the least bad ass person you could hope to meet, and so my mani was relatively simple but something I wanted to do for a while. I started with Color Club Nomadic in Nude, which is just a little cool for my skin tone and then stamped knuckle tattoos from the Bundle Monster CYO set - LOVE with a love heart on the thumb, and HATE with a skull on the thumb. Now while this is quite a simple mani, it is tricky to sget images like this to stamp cleanly because of the thin lines, and centrally on the nail. I don't think I did too bad (until I smeared a couple with the top coat), but I could do with more practice getting the stamps in the middle.

Photo courtesy of my 6 year old!

And my real tattoo, maybe I am just a lottle bit bad ass after all ;) Told you I like feathers!



Hx

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GOT Polish? Totally Tropical!

Hi!

Today's Golden Oldie theme was tropical, and I thought I'd try my hand at a little stamping decal again! My golden oldies were China Glaze Peachy Keen and Color Club Poptastic (should have used Flip Flop Fantasy really!) I also used Milani Gold Gems and Sinful Colors Paris for a little glitter gradient. Don't look too closely at the decal, it folded over at the edge and smeared a little bit. I will perfect them one day!

Fits the tropical bill, no? I loved the gradient despite the little decal accident! I really can't wait for summer, I can't stop cracking out the neons! My pedi is even neon in readyness for real flip flops!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Chick chick chick chick chicken....

Hi!

Today's Adventures in Stamping theme, of course, was Easter! I was loving my Models Own speckled polishes so much, I turned them into Easter eggs with Bundle Monster BM402 and Konad white, then drew an egg shape on top and filled in the outside with a nail art pen. Lazy nail art? Why not, it is Sunday after all!

Simple eggies. Happy Easter everyone x

Hx

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GOT Polish? Coral!

Hi!

Today's Golden Oldie is one of my favourite colours, at least on my nails! I have a fair few coral polishes, from high end to drug store, neon to pastel. I chose a pretty polish with a troubled upbringing - I am never wowed by this brand unfortunately. Revlon Tropical Temptation is a really nice colour, but the formula leaves much to be desired - it's thin and watery, patchy and streaky, the brush is thin and stiff, I got nasty bubbles and it chipped within hours, which rarely happens to me anymore. I used three coats when it really could have done with another, but I used a fan brush to 'antique' it with some gold (Nails Inc Chelsea Bridge Road). I love how coral and gold goes together and originally had planned a skittle. Instead I stamped a lock and key on my ring finger, which sort of matched the antique theme.

Not wowed by this, but maybe it was the polish that put me off. Revlon are the higher priced end of the high street for me, but I think I got this one at a discount store. Good job really...

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Valetines Week - Love Letters

Hi,

Later post than usual from me as I am not well and feeling very low. But I wanted to keep up with the theme week, so I'm gonna make this quick. I've seen this design floating aroud but I have no idea who did it first, so if it was you let me know and I'll credit you. I started with Glitter Gal Light as a Feather as a base, then stamped the image from Bundle Monster 311 in Color Club Halo-graphic. This didn't show up so I stamped again with a-England Briar Rose. I like the double stamped effect, it almost makes it look distressed or vintage. The envelope was freehanded with Halo-graphic and sealed with a Briar Rose love heart.

I think I should have done the envelope the other way around, but other than that I liked it.

Tomorrow, the GOT polish challenge gets the Valentines treatment.

Hx

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Loves Me, Loves Me Not?

Hi!

I haven't done a Stamping Sunday manicure for a few weeks and this week over at Adventures in Stamping we had two themes to chose from - Valentines day or Love and Hate. I did a bit of both, and I must say I'm rather pleased with my effort! I started with a base of OPI If You Moust You Moust - a mid-pink creme. I then stamped on love hearts (the little sweeties!) in pastel colours by mixing Konad White Polish with primary coloured polish. I have sooo many pastel polishes, but I didn't think any of them would stamp opaque enough. It was really easy to do, too - I just put a blob of the stamping polish on my plate, then a smaller blob of the colour polish and mixed them with a nail art brush before scraping and stamping as usual. The polishes I mixed were Orly Lucky Duck, Sinful Colors Amethyst, Nails Inc Notting Hill Carnival, Orly Shockwave and If You Moust You Moust again. The plate I used was Bundle Monster 421, which has two versions of the love hearts - the usual, lovely dovey ones (lover, cutie pie, crazy 4u etc) and not so lovey dovey ones, which I stamped on my right hand (stalker, go away, don't call me, dumped, and my personal favourite, not tonight!). Please excuse the lumpy thumbs, they both have patches that I'm struggling to get smooth.

I think the stamping on the "mean" side came out better, but I don't actually mind the miss-stamping because I think it looks like the real sweets. Or that's my excuse anyway...

I'm starting a little Valentines week tomorrow, so check back for that!

Hx

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Tri-Polish Tuesday - red, orange and yellow #4 - glassy gradient

Hi!

Last TPC of the month, so the last with these colours and to be honest I'm glad! These are not my colours! Yellow is the colour polish I have the least of, and coming up with ideas has been a struggle. I'm looking forward to next months colours, pink, grey and brown, but until then here's my last January effort.

I used completely different polishes this time around - all glass fleck - in a pretty gradient which I then stamped over. I used Color Club Daisy Does It (yellow) as the base, and then sponged Zoya Tanzy (orange) and Barielle Elle's Spell (red) to make the gradient. The stamps are from BM208, and I think it looks like stained glass. I'd love to do this again with different colours from the Color Club Take Wing collection.

I'm excited because I'm getting a hair cut today! It's badly needed after the summer purple ombre I had has gone green and left my hair in poor condition. It's going to be quite a change so if you're interested, look out on my Instagram!

Hx

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Studs and Roses

Hi!

I was in the mood for roses, and I won some of Mr Barry M's new matte polishes from the lovely Lane's Laquers, so I decided to combine the two and throw some studs at it for good measure! I used Vanilla and Espresso, stamped with Konad Black and plate BM 323 for the roses. The stripes were freehanded and came out somewhat thicker than I wanted, and none of it was topcoated to keep the matte effect. But this also meant that 6 out of the 8 studs pinged off while I was getting my eyebrows threaded...

I don't know, but it kinda reminded me of Robyn Thicke when Miley Cyrus ground her rubber clad but against his groin. Not pleasant. I liked it enough but it didn't last the day... Vanilla is going to be a favourite though. What do you think?

Hx

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