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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Au Revoir Almonds...

Hi!

This is the last of the manis I have to show you from before my nails got the chop, so say good bye to the almonds for a while! It's a shape I loved and I'm definitely aiming back towards that shape again so hopefully they wont be gone for long. In the meantime though, things are going to be pretty nub-tastic around here!

For this manicure I was inspired by the fabulous Louise from Tips and Topcoat and used a couple of the Models Own Polish for Tans collection, which I think are best described as pastel neons. Contradiction perhaps! Anyway, for this manicure I used a nude base and then added Models Own Beach Bag and Shades, a pink and peach from the collection, using the saran wrap/cling film method. Once that was dry I stamped the basket weave pattern from Konad S6 in white. I had to stretch the image to make it fit, so it's a little distorted, but it kind of fits the theme!

I'm loving this collection of polishes, sometimes Models Own really gets it right! I can see myself reaching for these all summer long...

Hx

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GOT polish? Hot pink!

Hi!

Today's Golden Oldie Thursday is feeling hot hot hot! Actually, we have had some sunshine lately, so hot pink was appropriate. After bashing the Revlon polish I used for last week's golden oldie, I actually reached for Revlon again, this time it was a shimmery fuchsia by the name of Strawberry Electric. The last time I blogged about this polish in the good old days of a pink Wednesday I might have mentioned once or twice how much the name annoyed me. Strawberry Electric? It should be Electric Strawberry surely...? Anyway, name aside this polish was actually much better than last week's coral. I used two coats and then stamped with Pueen 68 and konad black. My stamping isn't the best, so I added some black rhinestones as a distraction. Shiny...

Hot hot hot indeed! Not my favourite polish, but a great golden oldie :)

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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Green meadow flowers

Hi!

This week over at Adventures in Stamping the challenge was to stamp over green. It just so happens that I had Barry M Meadow from the Silk collection sitting in my untried drawer, and so that was the base I decided on! A super pale pearl green with a semi-matte finish, Meadow is a lovely spring colour that took 2 coats to be opaque. Not my favourite from this collection, but greens never are. I stamped over it with Pueen 39, isolating the butterfly from the larger image for the accent nail. I used Konad black pearl to stamp with and then filled the wings and hollow petals with Sinful Colors Out of this World to give them a bit of shimmery iridescence.

I am desperately low on my favourite topcoat (Poshe, in case you were wondering), and what I do have is thick and bubbly, so please excuse the messy edges. I got a little over zealous with the cleanup brush around the cuticles too... More topcoat has been ordered so normal service will be resumed shortly!

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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Tri Polish Challenge April #2 - Barmy Blue and Neon too

Hi!

This week's TPC couldn't be more different to last weeks - in contrast to soft, pastel and girly I have gone for neon, sharp edges and eyesearing! I started with a base of white and then sponged a gradient with Rimmel Barmy Blue and Models Own Bubblegum. Because they're both quite deep colours I had to sponge on a few more layers than usual and so mu sponge started sticking to my nails. So I decided to cover it up with a good old bit of stamping, with Pueen 52 and Konad White.

I think I should have added a navy blue at the cuticle end of my nail, as I wanted the base a bit darker, but overall I was pleased with these :) I think I was all pastelled out after last week! And I must just put a good word in for these new Pueen plates, so far they are flawless. Good stuff.

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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GOT Polish - Pastels!

Hi!

It's been a bit of a Barry M fest on the blog this week! I'm continuing the theme with today's Golden Oldie Thursday challenge which was pastels. I used Barry's first textured range (which I bought and loved but only used once...) in skittles and then stamped sweeties, ice cream and cake over the top. Perfect springy pastels! The colours pointer to pinkie are Ridley Road, Kingsland Road, Atlantic Road and Station Road. I love the textures on these, they're not too much that they're too rough but they're bumpy enough to notice. They remind me of the old woodchip wallpaper I had on my bedroom wall as a teenager!

I do love a bit of a skittle anyway, so it was no surprise that I loved this mani :) Next week's GOT theme is coral, and lord knows I have a lot of those!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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GOT polish? Ruffles!

Hi!

Today the Golden Oldie challenge prompt was ruffles. I didn't fancy a traditional ruffle mani, (where you use a dotting tool to create the ruffles, like I've done here) so instead I went for a lacy, ruffly stamping plate by Pueen. The base colour is Maybelline Color Show Red Grained, a matte finish polish with flakes of glitter which you can hardly see. I stamped with Konad white and left it without topcoat so to keep the matte effect.

The stamping's a bit messy, but I have the new Pueen Stamping Buffet plates to play with now (and a few new MoYous), so I hope to get my stamping mojo back!

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

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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

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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 Challenge Red, Orange and Yellow #3 - swirly stamping

Morning!

I had a brain freeze when it came to this week's Tri Polish Tuesday so I resorted to some simple stamping. I did push a little out of my comfort zone though - I tend to usually stamp in either black, white, silver or gold, because I know I can get a good result with those polishes and I rarely try any others. I have picked up a few Sally Hansen Insta-Dry polishes whenever I've seen them though, as I've heard the majority of them are good for stamping, and in this instance I couldn't be more pleased with the result. I used Barry M Blood Orange and Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Man-go Team and was really pleased with how well both of them stamped! I used Konad plate M65 for the swirls and really loved how it came out. I will definitely be putting more of my Insta Dry polishes into my stamping box!

I visited my Mum on Sunday, for the first time since I started using Duri, and she thought I was wearing false nails! I just love it when that happens! I gave her a bottle of Nail Envy and it's really worked for her. When she showed me she said, my nails are as long as yours, but mine are real, and I got a real kick when I said mine were real too! It's the little things ;)

Hx

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