Picture Polish Illusionist - galaxy in a bottle!

Hello!

I'm going to jump straight in today and say I can't do galaxy nails. The fact I've only actually tried them once, about three years ago is irrelevant. It was a fail and I shelved the idea and never tried again. Galaxy nails are so pretty, I "ah" every time I see one, traditional or pastel, and I think to myself I really should try that again someday. But in the back of my mind I still have the fail and a little niggle that says don't even go there. So I don't try. But now, along comes a polish that does it all for me, in one little bottle! Picture Polish Illusionist is a beautiful glittery multi-chrome polish with just the right amount of holo glittery flakies running through it to make it twinkle like the night sky. So. Beautiful. As multi-chrome polishes tend to be, this is sheer so I layered two coats over Sally Hansen Navy, Baby so you can see the full shift from pink to purple, blue and turquoise, and even a rusty red at the extreme end (which you can see in the underwater pic at the end). I combined it with a silver accent nail and some simple white stamping. But the Picture Polish is the real star of the show.

Stunning! I nabbed my bottle from the wonderful Sally Magpies when there was a sale, but even though it's back to full price now I suggest you grab it because it wont be in stock for long!

Maybe next time I wear it I will attempt some galaxy art over the top...or maybe I'll wimp out and just admire it instead!

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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Adventures in Stamping - Tone on tone

Afternoon polish lovers!

It's Sunday and that means it's Adventures in Stamping time. This weeks theme was tone on tone, so we had to create a mani using different tones of the same colour. I chose green, and used Sinful Colors Kissy as the base (lovely, greeny blue jelly base with green and gold flakies) and stamped with Color Club Perfect Mol-ten, a green foil. The stamp I used was Cheeky CH10 to give it a sort of under the sea/mermaid/fish scales look. I love the result. I was going to try something to fancy it up, with some glequins or loose glitter, but I left it plain.

Here's a swatch of Kissy on it's own. It really is lovely. It's of the same ilk as OPI Catch Me In Your Net, Zoya Charla or the UK Dupe Accessorize Mermaid, so if you have any of those you probably don't need this one. On the other hand, if you don't have any of those, this one is cheaper ;) Also, these kind of polishes have a tendency to stain, so be careful there. I hope I've avoided this by using a sheer nude underneath but we shall see when I take it off later! I will report back...

Actually for once I'm pretty pleased with these swatches, I do think they give a true representation on the polish. Now if only I could figure out a way to bottle the early morning sunshine for all of my photos...

Hx

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Nub nub nub!

Hello!

Over the weekend I managed to break two nails - not super low but they were flaky corners so I decided on a cull and chopped them all short! I was dreading it, but am actually loving my neat little nubs for once. They're all even, tidy, no splits or peels, easier to stamp and I'm at less risk of poking the children's eyes out when I wipe their faces. Win win.

Anyway, to celebrating the nubbing, I wore this very special polish my birthday club friend Ashley made me. Yep. MADE me. Just me, all mine! And it's so pretty! Holo, sparkles, flakies and purple. Perfection! And we even got some sunshine on bank holiday Monday to show it off with. Lots of pics ahead...

In shade you can see the flakes of goodness...

With flash the holo sparkles peep out...

And then in sunshine struts it's stuff!

Thank you so much Ashley, my very own polish named after me :)

Hx

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Adventures in Stamping - Using 2 or more stamps for Rockabilly nails

So, I thought my nails couldn't get any shorter. Apparently I thought wrong. Say hello to the super-nubs! I actually took the middle on down a bit too far and it's sore, but it'll soon grow out I guess. I'm trying to convince myself they're cute...

Anyway, this week's Adventures in Stamping challenge was to create a mani using two or more stamps, and I decided on this Rockabilly style mani based on one that I pinned from Nail Polish Wars a little while ago. I did two coats of a black creme polish, then topped it with Finger Paints Motley and a coat of Poshe to dry it quickly. Then I stamped the bow from BM317 on my little finger, the swallow from Konad Q1 (well my fauxnad version) and the little heart with wings from BM03 on the thumb with Konad special white, and then used my dotting tool on my index and ring fingers.

Excuse the mess, dry cuticles and shrinkage on the thumb. I have never gotten shrinkage with Poshe before, so I don't know what happened. Maybe it's because they're too short to wrap the tips at the moment, or maybe it's the flakie coat. Why do flakies take so long to dry?!

Hope you're liking the new layout. I made the header a little smaller and my pictures bigger on the suggestion of some friends (thanks ladies!) and I think I'll leave it at that :)

If you want to join Adventures in Stamping on Facebook, come and say hi here! We're really friendly, honest!

Hx

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NOTD – Sinful Colors Cinderella + Zoya Maisie

Howdy!

Continuing with the soft and pretty theme (I don't know what is wrong with me...I'll be back to elephant-clumsy soon I'm sure) I used super pretty Sinful Colors Cinderella for this manicure. I got this polish from one of my birthday club girls, but I think the new Models Own Indian Ocean is close for us UK-ites.I applied three coats, as it's pretty sheer, then two coats of Zoya maise (blue flakies, yum!) over the ring finger and thumb. Subtle and pretty. Two words I don't use very much in association with my nails!

Bit blurry to see the flakies better *drool*

If you were getting married, I think this would be a lovely polish to have as your something blue. What do you think? Would you have blue nails for your wedding day?

Hx

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