Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Re-create your favourite!

Today's task was to recreate someone elses mani. Simple, right? Actually no! There have been soooo many good ones it was so hard to chose something that a) I could do and b) I could make look as awesome as the original. So hard! In the end I decided to go for something by our illustrious leader, Debbie Crumpet of The Crumpet, and recreate one of her mosaic designs, which she featured for Gnarly Gnails as a guest post. She's done a whole series of these now, so you should definitely check out her blog for more inspiration! I chose 4 greens for my mosaic - Nails Inc Spring Mews, Barry M Spring Green, La Femme Beauty Ultra Green and Sinful Colours Green Ocean, and a teal striper. Debbie recommends using 6 colours but all my other greens were too minty or too baby puke-ish. And believe me I've seen way too much puke over the last week thanks to 2 poorly boys with tonsillitis. It isn't the neatest mani, thanks again to the 2 poorly boys with tonsillitis, but I like it :)

Aren't my pictures a million times better when the sun's shining? Pray for more sunshine!

Last day of the challenge tomorrow! I have to say I'm a little bit glad it's over, although I have thoroughly enjoyed it it will be nice to just wear what I want to for a while :) Well, not exactly as in an effort to not feel so guilty at having never used about a quarter of my polish stash I will be doing a month of untried polishes challenge from Saturday 14th April to Monday 14th May. If anyone would like to join me, please let me know in the comments as there are already a few of us from my Birthday club taking part. You don't have to post every day, but every mani you do should be based around a polish you've never worn before. If you want to add stamping or nail art, that is excluded from the untried rule! Have you got a stash of untried polishes? Join in the challenge!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Favourite thing about Spring

The challenge is nearly over! Just two more posts after this, and we're done with spring! And we're finally getting some Spring weather - today we have had typical April showers, and I don't mind at all!

Onto today's nails, which was your favourite thing about Spring. Now while I love Spring for me the best thing about it is that it leads onto summer, and summer for me means flip flops! Yes, I painted feet on my nails. And what?

The base colour is Nails Inc Basil Street, which is my perfect creamy nude. It's actually pretty squishy and jelly-ish and is almost opaque in just one coat. The only thing is that the drying time isn't great, so if you want a quick perfect neutral mani add a quick drying topcoat and you're good to go! The other polishes are far too many to name, so I've included a picture - ask in the comments if you want to know a certain shade! All off the flip flops were done with striper polishes, and all of toes with a dotting tool and neon polish. I can't wait to try some neon pedicures for real this year!

That's a lot of polish!

Please don't tell me I'm alone in thinking these are kinda cure? No? Just me then...

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Representing Light and Ticker Tape Parade

I missed yesterday, and decided to combine two posts into one - I did do yesterday's mani - which was to represent light - but I wasn't happy with it and couldn't get good photos. It seems one of my adorable children have played with my camera and I can't get the settings right again, so prepare yourselves fr some blurry assed photos! That plus the baby having tonsillitis and spending most of Easter Sunday at the emergency doctors meant I had no energy for blogging! The photos for my ticker tape parade are slightly better, so keep reading for those.

Firstly, I couldn't think of anything better than a crapton of glitter to represent light! I used two coats of Barry M Lilac Foil and then topped it with Color Club It's a Hit, which I won in a giveaway from Pointless Cafe - thank you Sheila! It's a hit has large lilac hex glitters in a clear base and you really have to work at getting them spread evenly. It really is packed with glitter, but this means they clump together and you have to dab them onto the nail. It also means though that you can get pretty good coverage, and I used 3 dabbed coats to make an accent nail on the ringfinger. I thought it would be bumpy and annoying but it only took one coat of Poshe to make it smooth and I wore it for two days before the temptation to pick it off took over! Once again, I'm so sorry for the bad photos, I'm almost ashamed to post them but I don't want to miss a day of the challenge so close to the end!

And for my ticker tape parade, I went ofr my first ever jelly sandwich! I have wanted Revlon Royal for a little while now, so when I saw it in a blog sale I snatched it up. Can you say perfect blue? It's a beautiful, perfect squishy royal blue, and I can't wait to use it under Fantasy Fire. But first I tried layering some bar glitter in between two layers of it. I'm not a huge bar glitter fan, I think it looks a bit hairy and weird, but I can cope with it like this! I used Kleancolor Grand Finale, holo silver bar glitter, and Meteorites Vulcan Probe, lilac, purple and fuchsia bar glitter. It wasn't super visible until you caught it in the right light and then it popped!

I actually ended up accidentally wearing something really chocolatey yesterday! I'm off to throw my camera at a hard thing until I can get a decent picture of it for you...

Happy Easter!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Spring Guest post!

I'm so excited to share my first ever guest post with you! A friend from my birthday club, Jebba, has got something a little bit different for a spring challenge - she is in New Zealand so Autumn is arriving for her! Please check out her lovely blog at The Key to Jennasis and give her a follow! You might even find a cheeky guest post from me there!
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Spring has long passed in New Zealand and having a limited supply of nail polish in my tiny flat room in this University City means I was not able to design something springy. Instead, I was able to produce something that is bright and stands out for this cold rainy autumn and the closing winter.

I really love the design of this stamp, it’s fun and edgy and it suit this cold weather without “being way too happy”. The polish that I used for stamping is part of one of my favourite collections by Kleancolour – they come out unbelievably crisp!

... and of course, I cannot resist adding glitter into the mixture.

It was really fun to be able to paint and design something on my nails after such a long time with plain base colour manicures. Thankyou for reading and Helen for inviting me to guest post on her blog and have a safe and happy Easter Holiday!

xox Jebba

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Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Maundy Thursday

Hello again!

Today is Maundy Thursday, a very religious day in the Christian calendar as it was the day of Jesus' last supper with his desciples. It's also traditionally a day that alms are collected for the poor. Short of recreating Da Vinci's Last Supper on my nails (yeah right) I had no idea what to do. So I created this simple "coin" manicure using OPI Skull and Glossbones as the base and Barry M Gold and Silver foil for the coins. As an accent nail I did a coat of gold foil and topped it with ELF Golden Goddess. And Ta Da! Alms for the poor...

I just randomly dotted the coins on, using a large dotting tool, but if I were to do it again I might place them a little less hotch potch!

On a side note, I really love Skull and Glossbones, more than I thought I would. I can't describe it but I just love how it makes my hands look. Except for the really red middle finger in these pics, what's going on with that?!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Easter Egg Hunt

Hi loves!

This was meant to be posted yesterday but I completely forgot! Oops! Anyway, here is my easter egg hunt! The base is China Glaze Electric Beat, the eggs are done with models own Lemon Meringue and Pink Blush and the grass is Nails Inc Spring Mews, all done with dotting tools and a tooth pick. Simple and really quite cute actually! I didn't wait long enough before the topcoat, though, so don't look too closely! Haha!

I'll have another post for you later, since this one is late, and a lovely guest post tomorrow!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Easter Bonnets

Hi!

Just to forewarn you, the challenges for the next few days are HARD! Curse you Debbie Crumpet! This was my second easter boonet manicure and the first one was such a hairy arsed fail that I didn't even dare take a picture. Then I remembered a tutorial I had pinned on Pinterest and this was born. I figured it looked frlly and lacey and bonnety, so I have it a go. And failed. But I guess you can tell where I was going, right?

I used Sally Hansen Camelia as the base (very sheer pink) then drew heart tops with OPI Steady as she Rose. Then I outlined the heart with a pink striper and added the dots as per the tutorial:

Compared to the perfection above, mine is a fail! Never mind!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Day 29, April Fools

Today's challenge was something a bit twisted for April Fools day. I thought about turning my nails into creepy clowns but quickly thought better of it - I don't think I could stand it! Clowns are freaky, right? So I went for something easier, but it still looked great. I used two coats of Orly Androgenie (a birthday present from the fab Tracy, thank you love!), topped it with a coat of Nubar 2010 and then added some chain stickers in random lines across the nail.

Left hand

Right Hand (Excuse the sore cuticle on the middle finger)

And then I matterfied it, because mattefied flakies are too pretty and I couldn't resist.

I really liked this mani, I'd been wanting to use the chain stickers for ages as I won them in a giveaway a while ago, but couldn't think of the right mani for it. I'm glad I waited!

What do you think, twisted enough?

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Easter Bunnies

Quick post today, for what was a relatively quick manicure! I used two coats of Julep Alicia, which I got in a lovely swap, and them stamped some cute-ass bunnies using HB38 and Barry M Gold Foil.

Cute, but I wasn't super happy with it, so I ended up doing this.

MUA Nail Quake in Quiver. Still love me some crackle!

Hx

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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

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Easter Eggs

Hi!

For today's challenge I decided to use purple and gold and make my easter eggs look foil wrapped and really luxurious and yummy (can you tell I'm on a diet?) I used Collection 2000 Hot Looks Parma Violets and Shimmy Shake as a base, and then stamped over Parma Violets with Barry M Gold Foil. It was quite easy to create, although I'm usually quite disappointed with the Hot Looks polishes and this was no different. But they're so cheap so what do you expect!

Parma Violet is a lovely colour, but the application is anything but smooth. I guess with topcoat and stamping it looks fine though! What do you think? All this talk of Easter eggs has made me want a creme egg...

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Butterflies

Hi everyone! Still here? Good! Only 14 challenges left!

I wanted to try and recreate the admiral butterfly design I've seen lots of people do, and followed Cutepolish's tutorial. I decided to stick to accent nails after the hand cramp that was patchwork day, and I actually like the gradient that I did and didn't want to cover it all over anyway. The gradient was done with 2 coats of Models Own Lemon Meringue (new favourite yellow) and No7 Mojo sponged from the tips. Then I added a coat of Finger Paints Motley for some added shimmer, and drew the wing design in Wet n Wild black creme and a nail art brush. I had hoped that the lines would be a bit more delicate, but I don't really do anything delicately... The white dots were done with a small dotting tool and Collection 2000 French White.

I'd like to do this again, maybe over a blue base. Maybe next time I'll be confident enough to so my whole hand instead of just accent nails!

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Spring Challenge - Subtle Glitterbomb

I don't know about you, but I have never seen the words subtle and glitterbomb used together before. But I guess it means it should be all dainty and spring like, so that's what I went for! Imagine, if you will, a frozen river, hard and cold, slowly thawing in the springand revealing the running waters underneath. Now, take a look at my mani for today and hopefully you'll get what I was going for! Enough of the rubbish imagery, onto the nails!

Lynderella Snow Angel, a polish I never thought I'd own. Way too beautiful for me!

The accent nail is Essence Blue Addicted, another beauty, and apparently a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe.

I have to thank two of the lovely generous ladies from my birthday club for these polishes. The lovely Tracy surprised me with a bottle of Blue Addicted just because she's such a sweetheart. And the Lynderella. Can you imagine the heart attack I had when I opened it? Thank you so much Kira!

I layered Snow Angel over OPI Play the Peonies and Blue Addicted over GOSH Blue Monday. Snow Angel took a lot of top coat. It's beautiful but it's hungry! This was three coats of Poshe but it could have taken more.

So there's my spring glitterbomb :)

I'm sorry to say I had to turn comment moderation on the other day, as one of my posts got attacked by spambots. I will approve every lovely comment I get I promise, as long as you don't try and sell my readers viagra!

Hx

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