Darlin' it's better, down where it's wetter...

Hi!

This week's Adventures in Stamping theme was Under the Sea, and so I share with you the earworm that has been plaguing me all day. You're welcome. This mani was actually pretty complicated, combining several techniques and finishes to create what I think was mediocre at best. Don;t get me wrong, I like it, but it's not my favourite. I muddled together a watermarble accent nail, saran/cling wrap, glitter, stamping and shimmer topcoat for these schools of fishes from MoYou London Sailor 04 plate (double stamped again, can you tell? Pretty pleased with myself!) My colours were Barry M Greenberry and Nails Inc Baker Street (in the water marble and saran wrap under the stamping), Claires Accessories Shiver (glitter under the stamping which isn't very visible, but it's a lovely polish so I'll be using it again soon!) and then stamped with Konad White. I then added Collection Sparkle Top Coat over the whole thing because I wanted it to shimmer.

I think that for all it's layers and complexities, the fishies have good depth to them. I just wish my watermarble wasn't so wonky and the glitter showed up better! Onwards and upwards!

I want to order some more MoYou plates, and I'm torn between normal or XL images. You get more images on the normal plates, but obviously they are no longer big enough. I can double stamp, but not having to is much less hassle! What would you do?

Hx

Pin It

Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Favourite Spring Green

Technically, Barry M Spring Green is my favourite spring green, but I've used that lots before so I chose something different today. Nails Inc Spring Mews is a lovely spring green, not in the slightest bit minty (unlike in some of my pictures) and not yellow toned either, just really fresh and pretty. It dries a tad darker than the bottle colour, but this was 2 easy coats. I'm starting to really love Nails Inc, whereas I've always been a bit meh over them before. I used a really pretty glitter from claires over the top, I've not seen anything like this before and it's really nice. Large pastel pink, green and yellow/gold hex glitter and a sprinkling of small silver glitter. I dabbed it on the tips of all my fingers apart from the ring, which I used it all over as an accent.

Pic overload, sorry!

Claires has some really lovely polishes, I think I need to go in there more often. Maybe I need a daughter as an excuse, because I feel like I shouldn't be in there on my own, I'm far far too old!

Have you ever had any nice finds in Claires? Anything I should check out? Has anyone tried their matte polish? Any tips on making myself look about 18 years younger so that I fit in?

Hx

Pin It

NOTD - Magnetic lurve

*LeGasp* a NOTD that's not part of a challenge! I have quite a few magnetic polishes now, but they all have the same wavy magnet. So I was placing a Born Pretty order and slipped a pink magnetic polish into my order. It came with a little magnet on a stick, with diagonal lines across it, which I was worried about using since I'm used to having the little "lip" to rest on my finger, but actually it was fine. And the magnet is strong! I find with my other magnets you have to hold it there a long time or the pattern kind of "slips" back into the polish, but with this the pattern jumped onto the nail immediately and stayed there. Fab. You can order Born Pretty magnetics here - don't be put off by the crackle pattern on the lid! I thought they'd sent me the wrong thing at first! I also got this Claires magnetic polish from my birthday club friend Alyssa B and decided to do an accent nail with it. It's really shimmery, almost glittery and I love it! It has a diagonal pattern magnet on the lid too, but spaced further apart than the BP one, so I used the BP magnet.

I LOVE these polishes! How shimmery is the silver! If all the Claires magnetics are like this I want MOAR! And how pretty is the BP one? So elegant. And it's called Blushingham Palace - how cute! I didn't wear top coat because it was a quickie mani, but I really didn't need it. Both polishes faired well and lasted a day of intensive laundry folding, dish washing and sock pairing - which usually kills polish within seconds - with just a little tipwear. Can't say fairer than that.

Hx

Pin It

Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Day 10, Unicorn Magic Day!

So, today comes but every 4 years - a magical day where women can do all sorts of forward thinking stuff like propose to their partners! Fancy that! So the brief for today was to make your mani magical. Magical=sparkly, right? I started off with magnetic polish and bar glitter but that went horribly wrong (Doesn't bar glitter just look a bit hairy to you?) So instead I went for this lilac scattered holo from Claires. Bargain find, even if I do feel a bit like mutton dressed as lamb whenever I go into Claires! It's sooo insanely sparkly and pretty, and it's only £2.50! I applied 3 coats to get it opaque, but you could layer it over a cream or foil and get away with 2, because it did take a while to dry. Although it's a glitter it's not gritty at all.

Then I stamped over it using this sunburst pattern from HB31 and some color club foilds. The stamping didn't come out great...

 It was better on my right hand, where I only used one colour per nail. please excuse the middle finger, it's much better than it was but still a wee bit sore.

So Happy February 29th! Any of my readers only have a birthday every four years? Now THAT's the secret to eternal youth!

Hx

Pin It

Frankenduping...sorta

When I first saw Deborah Lipmann Glitter in the Air I wasn't that impressed. The glitter was sparse, it was sheer and I just wasn't all that keen. But then Revlon starts duping them like a Chinese sweat shop and my interest is perked... I still don't rate the DL but Revlon's version, Whimsical, I want. Have Revlon released it here in the UK? Have you ever seen me in a bikini? The answer to both of these is no. And apparently Whimsical is getting hard to find in the US too. So I thought I'd cut out the middle man and have a go at making Whimsical myself! I wasn't entirely successful, but what I managed is still pretty... I used around a third of a bottle of a pretty glitter I got in Claires - round/hex pink, blue and red glitter and smaller silver glitter in a clear base. I poured about a third of the bottle into an old topcoat bottle and added a glug of a cheap clear polish, then a few drops of Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream and some white. Here's 3 coats of the result:

I also made a pink version, kind of a cross between Revlon Starry Pink (another one they didn't bring to the UK...grrr) and Lipmann's Candy Shop:

Now while I LOVE my Whimsical franken (which I have named Capricious) I still want a real Whimsical. Time to replace Facets of Fuchsia on your concessions PLEASE Revlon!

Have you ever tried to dupe a polish?

Hx

Pin It

31 Day Challenge - day 29 inspired by the supernatural

*Queue X-files music*

Actually, I had another fail...BUT it wasn't my fault this time! I decided to use a Claires Mood Polish that I bought from a blog sale, but it didn't work :( I used Lonely/Loved, which should be a teal/light blue that changes according to heat. But NOTHING I do to this polish will make it change. Hands in freezer, nothing. Hands in oven, nothing. Maybe it's an old bottle and the whatever particles inside have worn out. Maybe my nails are too short. Maybe NAIL POLISH HATES ME!1! /emo

I thought whatever jiggery pokery is inside the polish would be appropriate for supernatural nails. It's MAJIK, obviously! But it didn't work so I stuck an alien sticker on my ring fingers. Lame, I know, sorry!

Pretty still, and super sheer! This was 4 coats!

Never mind, onwards and upwards! Only two days left and then it's time to break out the Christmas nails!

Tomorrow is inspired by a tutorial and I am going to spend the evening looking through a load :) Bliss!

Hx

Pin It