Adventures in Stamping - Pulsating Pink and Purple...

...er what ever that means! After last weeks disappointing fail this week I wanted to do much better, and I think I did! The summer theme still didn't win, but I cheekily combined the two...wink wink ;)

I started off with a base of one coat of Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, then sponged the gradient with Accessorise Lilac Sorbet (I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is PINK not lilac), a lilac creme by Miss Sporty (which I suspect my be an Illamasqua Jo'Mina dupe but this is to be investigated...) and Sinful Colors Amethyst. I added a coat of Pink Dazzle by George at ASDA for a bit of sparkle (the pulsating bit if you will) and once that was all dry with the aid of a coat of Poshe I stamped with Konad Special White and fauxnad image plate Q1. *Helly wins the award for longest sentence EVAH* The image I chose is a really long one, so I just about fitted the ice cream and one or two sweeties on my ickle nubbies.

Gradient alone..........................Gradient avec sparkles

A thousand million times better than last week, right? It's girly and fun and totally not suited to the mod I'm in right now, but every time I've lookd at it today I've admired it and it's taken my mind of some of the shitty stuff that's going on around here at the moment. And I think my use of the ice cream image means I ticked two boxes - summery, and pink and purple in one mani. Up here for thinking, down there for dancing my friends...

Hx

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Adventures in Stamping - Unnatural Animals!

Morning!

I have had this mani ready to show you for over a week, since I got confused and missed the announcement last week and thought this was last week's challenge. Oops! Nevermind, it was pretty cool anyway :P For this mani I used LaFemme Ultra Green - a pearly lime green polish which was brushstrokey and gross. Look at the colour though! I added a coat of Sinful Colors Call You Later- a green and gold glitter before stamping the image from a faux Konad Q1 plate that I got on ebay. As the image was too big for my ickle nails, I tried to make it look as though the image went across two nails...I hope you can tell!

The plate was a little bit difficult to work with, but I used my Wet n Wild Black Creme to stamp with and that in itself is temperamental. I swatched the whole plate and I know with a bit of trial and error I could get them all to work, so I'm pleased!!

I love the swallows and can't wait to give them a go :)

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Day 17, Bulb to a flower

I really had no idea what to do for this challenge. The only thing I could think of was to draw a bulb growing to a flower over 4 nails, like drawing a life cycle at school (hands up if you did that!) and while I'm sure some of the ladies on the challenge would rock it, I knew if I tried it would suck. So I came up with something different and love it :)

I started with 2 coats of Color Club Rebel Spirit, a dark, marmitey brown. Super shiny and lickable! Worryingly streaky on the first coat, but the second made it perfect.

Then I stamped with Color Club Perfect Mol-ten and the rooty, leafy pattern from fauxnad M64. I took a chance with Born Pretty again for this plate, and they must've upped their game because it's perfect.

The flower part comes from a dried flower, which I added to the tips of my ring fingers as an accent. I used lots of topcoat here! Because the background was so dark the flowers didn't show up that well and looked kinda brown, so I used Color Club Hot Like Lava and dabbed with an almost dry brush to bring them out a little bit.

I liked this manicure, after I thought I'd hate it, so that was a bonus! I got lots of compliments on it actually. I think dark creme bases with metallic stamping is really eye catching. Think I may have to invest in more foils for stamping....if I ever get off this damn no-buy!

Hx

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Pink Wednesday Woes

My laptop is poorly again :( I'm having to use the OH's slow as a slow thing netbook and I hate it. I tried to post this mani from my phone yesterday but it was sulking so I'm late. Grr technology why you be a hater?

Anyway, for pink Wednesday yesterday I painted my nails with 2 coats of Beauty UK Pink Explosion, a yummy Barbie Pink Creme. It looks more coral in the pic but it really is quite bright pink (and sorry for only having one pic I'm trying to do this quickly before he gets out of the bath - he doesn't know about my ickle blog yet...) If you haven't tried Beauty UK yet, do. Their products are great, really affordable and I've not found anything I haven't loved yet. I should have left it alone but me being me I had to stamp over it. I used a polka dot image and Miss Sporty New Black, which is actually grey with pretty shimmer. Then because the dots were a bit wonky to say the least I added tips in the same colour. Yeah, like I said, I should have left it alone...

(Just spent 20 minutes editing this in sumo paint which I haven't a clue how to use but  the file type isn't recognised. Love my life.)

I really didn't much like this, but wore it for the day yesterday and surprisingly got lots of compliments, even from someone I met who's setting up a Minx Nail bar next to the toddler group I go to. Most people thought they were ladybird nails though. Because you always see pink polka dot ladybirds...

My posts will be a bit sporadic until I get my own computer back I'm afraid :( But please stick with me! Even if I just manage a quick post from my phone I will try to keep up. I fear my laptop truly is dead this time...

Hx

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Stamping with Miss Sporty

I was asked in a previous post which Miss Sporty polishes are good for stamping with. Being new to stamping, I'm on the lookout for good stamping polishes as I don't want to spend a lot of money on the special konad polishes when all you can use them for are stamping. I read somewhere (I can't remember where or I would give credit, really sorry) that Miss Sporty polishes stamp well, and as they're so affordable (£1.99 for 7ml and often on offer) I picked up a few and tried them. I was pleased to find that the first couple I picked up stamped well and now have a total of 12 Miss Sporty polishes! But, at £1.99 each you can't complain, and a couple were bought with the Boots 3 for 2 offer, and about 6 were bought recently as they are £1.99 for two (so BOGOF) in Superdrug at the moment. If I can before the offer ends I'm going to get the yellow and black, although I've not seen the yellow in stores. Miss Sporty does not name their polishes on the bottle, they are numbered, although on the website they are named, but not numbered. The swatches/pictures on the website are fairly good, but there were a couple of polishes that I couldn't work out the name of the colour, so these are marked with a *. The numbers are all correct though, so if you're buying in store you can go by the number. I also put my own description of the colour, as the picures are not hugely colour accurate, so I hope that helps.

I tested each polish over black (Wet n Wild Wild Shine Black Creme), green (Barry M Mint Green) and white (Beauty UK Frozen Kingdom) using the polkadot full nail image from my born pretty fauxnad plate M79 on white cardboard.

Apologies for poor light quality. I still need to figure out better camera settings for evening lighting.

312 - Gold - Gold backstage - transfered well, and stamped well over all colours

311 - Silver - Metallic Crystal - transfered well, but wasn't opaque enough

150 - Red - Red Tango - transfered well, stamped well over white and green, not quite opaque enough over black

322 - Dark Pink Creme- Vintage - transfered well, stamped well over white and green, not opaque enough over black

344 - Lilac Creme - Grape Fit - transfered well, stamped well over white and green, not quite opaque enough over black

326 - Coral Creme - Orange Crush* - transfered well, stamped well over white and green, not quite opaque enough over black

205 - Metaliic Lilac - Purple rain/Hip pop* - transfered well, stamped well over all colours

313 - Indigo - Fatal Plum/Blueberry - transfered well, stamped well over all colours (although black base is too dark)

060 - Turquoise - Hypnotic Turquoise - transfered well, stamped well over all colours

320 - Perwinkle blue - Blueberry/Popfiction* - transfered well, stamped well over all colours (although black base is too dark)

420 - Dark Grey - New Black - transfered well, stamped well over all colours (although black base is too dark)

251 - Bronze - Electric beige - transfered well, stamped well over all colours

In summary, the only polish out of the 12 I have that was not good for stamping was the silver, which was disappointing. I guess if you wanted a subtle look over a darker colour you could use this, but it wouldn't be suitable for an intricate design. Out of the rest, the gold, metallic lilac and bronze worked the best over all colours, although the bronze and gold are quite similar. The cremes weren't great over the black, but were still visible. I hope this has been helpful!

I also wanted to show you the "set-up" I use when stamping. After playing around a few times, this is what I find easiest, but I welcome any suggestions!

On the left I have a dish with a capful of polish remover, a cotton pad soaked in polish remover, a dry cotton pad and some cotton buds. If you set it out this way you don't have to touch any remover with your hands and potentially ruin your manicure. I use the wet cotton pad to wipe the stamper and scraper inbetween stamps (I just leave it on the plate and wipe the stamper/scraper against it to avoid picking it up), the dry one to wipe the stamper, scraper and plate with, and the remover and cotton buds to clean the image plate with, before wiping off any excess with the dry cotton pad. Then you can see an old gift card I use as my scraper. I find this easier than using the scraper you're meant to use as it's flexible, and it doesn't scratch the image plate. Then on the right hand side you can see my stamper, image plate, more cotton buds and a nail buffer. In desperation when I was starting out I stalked around youtube looking at konad tutorials and found this. I wasn't sure if it would work, and I didn't want to ruin my one and only stamper, but it did help. I just gently run the old, blunt shaping side of this buffer across the surface of the stamper every now and then (say, every 3 or 4 manicures) and it somehow helps it pick up the polish better.

Sorry this has turned into a bit of a long winded post, but I think I covered everything I wanted to! As I pick up more Miss Sporty polishes I'll test them out and add them to this post. Let me know if you give any a go and if they're worth having for stamping. For such a great price you can't go wrong, and they're all nice polishes anyway, so even though the silver didn't stamp well like I hoped I'm happy I have it!

I would like to thank The Manicured Monkey for helping me with suggestions for stampy polishes when I was about ready to give up. If you click the link you'll get a list of polishes she successfully uses for stamping. A lot of China Glaze and O.P.I there though, so if you don't have easy access to them give Miss Sporty a try! And if you have any suggestions/links for other good UK stamping polishes, I'd love it if you'd share them in the comments :)

If you've read this far, thanks! Hope I've been at least a little helpful :)

Hx

(I figured I should just say this products were all bought with my own money and I am not affiliated with Miss Sporty in any way, I'm just sharing my experiences in the hopes of helping someone out :) )

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NOTD - Wedding Nails

My bestest friend got married this Saturday just gone! I had such an amazing time, there was such a loving happy atmosphere to the whole day, it really was perfect. Congratulations Gem!

Anyway, here are some craptastic pictures of the manicure I wore for the day. I did this manicure at 10pm the night before, in a dim hotel room (dim because the kids were sleeping so we had to have the lights low) and I couldn't get the stamping to go right. I was happy with how it turned out, although I forgot to take any cotton buds with me, so I couldn't clean up very well.

The base colour is O.P.I Parlez Vous O.P.I? stamped with Miss Sporty Hip Pop, reversed on the ring finger and thumb. I stamped a butterfly design using one of my Born Pretty fauxnads and topped with Seche Vite. I wanted to do a full nail design but I was having trouble getting it to stamp properly.

I'm sorry the pictures are truly awful. I took the first one at the reception after a wee dram or two... then realising I didn't have many pics I took some this morning so there's tipwear etc.

And a sneaky pic of me and the bride, and another friend of ours (I'm in the asymetric dress). She looked exactly like a disney princess. Not how I would do it, but it suited her down to the ground. The weather was a bit dreary but it really didn't matter, the happy couple were surrounded by love and you truly could feel it. Ok, ok, I'll stop, put the sick bucket down!

I'm about to put together some flatpack furniture and then take this off. Thank you for your suggestions and requests for the contents of my untried drawer. I'm going to use two of the polishes for a mani this evening!

Hx

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NOTD - Er, peachy nude Wednesday?

So I messed up. I thought this mani would come out more pink but it didn't. I guess I can't sit with you guys today...

3 coats of 17 Supreme Shine in Bared plus stamping from Born Pretty fauxnad M65 with E.L.F Mod Mauve (great for stamping btw), plus Seche Vite.

The rarely seen right hand...

My stamping non-skillz are getting better. Although I still can't get the flower pattern from M65 to stamp properly :( And I REALLY want to use it for the mani for the wedding I'm going to :(

One more thing, can anyone recommend a silver polish that's easily available in the UK and isn't too pricey that's good for stamping?

Hx

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Funky tiger

Argh I just smashed the screen on my laptop! I actually cried a little bit out of frustration.as you can imagine with two into~ everything kids the poor laptop has taken a bit of a beating; it's already had a new screen once and a new keyboard, there are bits falling off and only one of the 3 usb ports works, and the media card slot doesn't work at all.maybe it's time for a new one...
Any way, hopefully my other half can rig it up to a normal monitor tonight and normal service will be resumed. Until then I'll leave you with a pic of the
French tips I added to my tiger~y mani, straight from my phone so it's unedited I'm afraid.
I hope this works, I'm not au fait with this phone yet...
Until later, I hope...
Hx

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NOTD - semi-successful Konad YAY

Hi
On Friday night I painted my nails with a bright coral Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours polish (they have numbers not names and I can't find the bottle now to tell you the number *insert rolling eyes smiley*). The polish applied well, two coats sorted any streakyness, although the second coat dragged a little, but that may have been impatience on my part. It is sooo pigmented so very thick, but not gloopy and it has a great brush so that I could cover my nails in one or two strokes. LOVE these polishes. I with they did more colours. My camera kinda freaked out a bit at the colour, but the direct sun pic is most colour accurate.

 Indoors

 Direct sun, wowzers

I loved the colour and I think it actually suited me, but I wanted so badly to do a mani with a full nail stamp and thought it would make a great base. I used my Born Pretty fauxnad plate M69 and the animal print pattern (not sure which animal - zebra? tiger?) with Wet N Wild Shine Black Creme. 

Now, just a warning, I know probably most of you will think this is a big ole fail, and there are elements I know need improving. I missed the edges on a couple of nails, there are a few bare patches, where I double stamped on the thumb it doesn't quite line up and it's a bit smudgy on the right hand (not shown). BUT I guess yesterday I was in a glass half full kinda mood and it's a hellovalot better than anything I've managed before! And you really can't tell from a distance...

Do you like how I matched the watermark HA!

Rawr

I used a little trick I blogged about here and it's seems to have helped. I didn't want to ruin my stamper so just ran a blunt-ish emery board over it lightly a few times and it picked up the polish so much better. I tried using the Wet n Wild Black Creme with another stamp and it didn't work then, but there were only a couple of times that the image didn't pick up while doing this. So now I just need to practice! I'm going to wedding in a few weeks and I'd like to stamp a floral pattern over O.P.I Parlez-vous O.P.I? in silver for it, so I'll give that a go next.

I chipped the index fingers moving furniture around yesterday so I either need to take it off or modify it somehow today...black tips maybe?

Hx

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