I think I have something tonight that's not quite correct for evening wear...

Hi!

Not blue suede shoes, but purple suede nails! This mani was just intended as a quick stopgap, but I think they turned out too pretty not to share. I'm not usually a huge fan of mattes and suede polishes ( have a few, obviously) but I just think the application is tricky, they show every flaw in the nail and while they look like they dry quickly they stay dentable for hours. Quick dry topcoat is a no no because you lose the effect, and that also means they chip more easily than most. Too much work when you can just use matte topcoat and get the same effect, amirite? BUT I was lucky enough to win a full set of these Moyra suedes and boy do I eat my words. They are all autumnal, wintry shades with pretty silver sparkle, they apply really well, dry (properly dry) quickly and don't make my nails look as bumpy as the Pennines. The only issue I had was a little bit of dragging on the first coat, as they really do dry super quickly, but any bald spots vanished with a careful second coat. This lovely purple is Suede 505. I stamped a simple little paisley design from plate QA 59.

Super pretty, and I imagine it would look gorgeous topcoated too. I can wholly recommend these suedes, and they're really affordable at just £3 too, available here. Like Moyra UK's Facebook page for regular special offers too!

Hx

*Edit - I've just noticed the website is currently down, so I'll try to update once it's back!*

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Adventures in Stamping - Happy New Year!

Hi!

This week's AiS theme had to be New Year nails really, didn't it! I decided to go against the firework/party inspired nails since I will be doing neither, and instead went for a special polish, something sparkly and a bit of bling! My special polish is Butter London Fiddlesticks, the only Butter London in my fast approaching 900 polish stash, and it's a pretty sparkly deep pink. I accented it with Barry M Black Multi Glitter and stamped with Pueen 29 in Konad Black Pearl and Barry M Silver Foil. The stamping itself brought with it a new challenge - stamping linear patterns on long nails is something I'll need to practice! And I even had to double stamp a couple of nails (can you tell which ones?) The rhinestone bows were popped into the topcoat and secured with another dab of topcoat either side. I say secured, but I've already had to rescue one from my hair and stick it back on... I don't think these are actually going to last me until New Years!

I've had a little blogging break for a few days, and it's been nice but I'll be back in force soon with a couple of new challenges!

Hx

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Merry Owlmas!

Hello!

If you've been a reader for a while, you will know I have a thing for birds and feathers, especially owls and peacocks. So when the mood struck for matte flakies and silver stamping I rolled with it and came up with some festive owls! Sticking with the bird theme I used Orly Fowl Play as my base, then amped up the flakie level with a coat of Finger Paints Motley. I stamped the cute owl from Pueen 40 in Barry M Silver Foil and once it was dry (with the aid of Poshe - does anyone find flakies take forever and a day to dry?) I mattefied the whole thing. The accent finger was Maybelline Foil Flash (from the Colour Show Brocades collection). As well as taking ages to dry, I find flakies have a tendency to shrink - there's a teeny bit of shrinkage here unfortunately. Still loved it though. I know it's not strictly a Christmas image, but I do think the colour combo looked quite festive.

Pic spam!

Twit twoo!

Hx

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Wrap it up...

Hi!

I have been wanting to use the Christmas jumper/fairisle pattern on my Nailscraze NC03 plate since the moment I got it in my grubby little paws, but seeing as that was July I had to wait! And with the release of MoYou's festive plates it seems everyone has gone Christmas jumper mad, so I took a different route in order to use the awesome pattern! (Don't worry, I have a jumper mani planned too ;) ) Instead of jumpers I took my inspiration from wrapping paper and used sparkly Zoya Blaze as the base and stamped with Barry M Silver foil, combining the fairisle image with some Bundle Monster stripes. I smudged it with my topcoat and could have kicked myself, but hey, they still attracted lots of compliments! Now I've got my nails "wrapped" I guess I should get on with the actual wrapping...

Anyone else still not feeling Christmassy yet? I'm not exactly bah humbug but I'm just not feeling festive...

Hx

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Skittle me blue...

Hi!

I was in the mood for blue and chevrons the other day, so blue and chevrons is what I had! My base was China Glaze First Mate, and the glitter on my ring finger was Glistening Snow. I used a plate from the newest Bundle Monster set for the chevrons with Barry M Silver Foil and freehanded the stripey liney things on my middle finger with Barry M Silver Nail Art Pen, which matched perfectly. A couple of rhinestones and done.

Glistening Snow was so sparkly, I just couldn't quite capture it. I was happy with how this turned out, I don't think it was anything special but it was well executed for once! I've seen people struggle with the stamp I used so I was pleased I got it even and had no real gaps in the image. It's the little things that make me happy.

Hx

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33 Day Challenge day 28 - lines!

Hi all!

I must say, I'm rather proud of this manicure! I didn't want to just go for stripes for the 'lines' prompt, so I made a stamper decal using Konad S6, Konad Black and Barry M silver and gold foils. I paired it with black and gold studs, and gold and black studs on the thumb (Models Own Bora Bora and gold studs painted black!). I had a few bubbles and a wrinkle when I applied the decals, but I actually think in this case the foil polish was quite forgiving and it didn't look horrendous. Well, I hope it didn't!

Possibly my favourite mani of the challenge? It's high up there at least! Not long to go now...

Hx

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Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink...

Hello!

Before we get to the nails, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all my readers and followers - I've hit 100,000 page views on the blog! It's taken a long time, thanks to technical issues and several breaks from blogging, but I promise this time I'm going to try to keep it up! Thank you everyone :) I hope every single person who peeks at my blog enjoys reading it as much as I like writing it.

Now, onto today's Stamping Sunday manicure - based on water. I used Revlon Royal - a lovely squishy royal blue jelly, and paired it with a very special UK indie polish - Peace Is Free by Quirk. Peace is Free is a mix of neon purple and blue hexes which glow under a blacklight! I don't have a blacklight to prove it, but check out Quirk's Facebook page for more pics and updates. Once that was all dry I stamped these silver waves from MoYou London Sailor 03 in Barry M Silver Foil.

Then I experimented and added another thin layer of Royal over the stamping to create a stamping jelly sandwich. I think Royal is a teeny bit too opaque but I liked the subtle effect!

Hope you've had a nice weekend :) The 33 day challenge continues tomorrow!

Hx

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33 Day Challenge day 20 - based on a pattern in your wardrobe!

Hello!

Today's challenge was to create a mani based on something from your wardrobe, and what I ended up with wasn't what I intended (is it ever?) but it came out so well I had to use it! The base you have seen before, when I used Zoya Storm in between layers of SensatioNail gel in this post. I added some stamping on top of the gel, and sealed it with regular topcoat. This worked really really well, and it meant that I could take off just the stamping (with non-acetone nail polish remover) and change it up if I wanted to! The stamp is from the Pueen Love Elements set, stamped with Barry M Silver Foil.

And here is a mighty fine picture of me looking my absolute best, wearing the top that I based it on. /sarcasm.

I'll go over the process of adding stamping and nail art on top of gel polish in a future post (and how to remove the gel polish), but it really was simple and it's definitely something I will be doing more of in the future.

As for the night out that this outfit/nail ensemble was for. Let's just say it was messy...

Hx

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Baby you're a firework...

Hi!

This week's Adventures in Stamping theme was to stamp over a holo base. Can I just say I officially hate holos. Officially. They are a bitch to photograph in anything less than full sunlight and I live in a country that's famous for the amount of rain we get. Yeah. So excuse the awful crappy photos and focus on the pretty stamping, please!

I used Glitter Gal Marine Blue 3D holo with an accent of Color Club Revvvolution, and then stamped the arrow-y things from Pueen 46 in Barry M Silver Foil. I liked it. My camera didn't. Any tips for photographing holos when the sun wont come out?

It is holo, honest...

I think today's lesson is that I need to invest in a lightbox...or a Caribbean island...who's with me?

Hx

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Smarter than your average mermaid...

Hi guys!

Today, I have a victory to share with you! Today, I defeated two long-standing adversaries, and I did it with brain power! My conquests were French tip stamping, and my XL squishy stamper; they mock me no more! I rarely use the Frech tip stamping images in my collection, one because my nails have been short and two because I can never line them up properly. But since my nails are a little longer at the moment (thank you Duri-Rejuvacote!) I wanted to try a funky French on them. I thought, if I could line up the image and then press my nail into it, rather than pressing the stamp onto my nail or rolling it on, I'd stand a better chance of getting it straight, but the only problem with that is my nails are too curved and I'd inevitably miss the sides or blur the image. Enter squishy stamper - if I could get it to work, I could press my nail right into it and hopefully not mess up. But, my squishy hates me. I can usually get it to work for one or two goes, then it stops, or only partially picks up the image. So I babied it. I made sure it was totally clean by sitting it on an acetone-soaked cotton pad for a while, then was careful not to touch the surface when I put it back in the holder. In between stamps I cleaned the excess by pressing it against a lint roller and not using acetone, and pressed super lightly when picking up the image. I even cleaned my image plate every other stamp - unless it's a really stubborn image I can usually get away with only cleaning it between hands but I guess by pressing lightly it leaves more polish on the plate? Anyway, it worked and once I'd got the image on the stamper it was easy to line it up and get the tip image in the right place.

The resulting manicure? Well, actually I was less than enthused about it - I think the solid silver of the stamp isn't quite right with the jelly glitter of the base, but I hope you'll agree the stamping at least lines up! The base is one coat of 2True Crystal Shade 3 (super deep, glitter packed jelly) over one coat of Orly Shockwave. The stamping is done with Barry M Silver Foil and Bundle Monster 217, for a mermaid-y look.

I'm so pleased I worked out my squishy, and I'm hoping I can now line up my stamps better :) Now I just have to work out if I can line it up for double (and triple) stamping so I can get this image to cover my full nail...we shall see!

Have you had any successful stamping lately?

Hx

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