Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Inspired by Jewellery

Morning loves

This week's PCFC was to base your mani on your favourite item of jewellery. I don't think I have a favourite item, and the only thing I wear daily is my engagement ring (and since the Mr and I aren't getting along so well at the moment I wasn't basing it on that LOL) so I chose this pretty charm bracelet. It's only a cheap bit of tat, but it's pretty and I love the coral colours. To recreate it I used an old shimmery coral-orange by Collection 2000, followed by a coat of Nubar 2010. Once that was dry I added some random butterfly stamps with Barry M Gold Foil. I also rounded out my nails a little...what do you think?

I hope you like it :)

Hx

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NOTD - Nails Inc Basil Street and OPI Gold Shatter

Nope, I'm not bored of it yet! And OPI's Gold Shatter is the best gold shatter I've tried (and I have a few...). It's so easy to apply, gives just the right amount of cracks and sparkly! Even though this was a pretty simply manicure I couldn't stop looking at my nails. Shame it only lasted a day :( It's a combo I will DEFINITELY wear again, and I very rarely if ever wear the same combo twice.

Firstly, Basil Street on it's own. This in itself is a great nude, if it didn't give me such bad lobster hands.

Simple sparkly goodness :) Going to slap it on over my current mani to hide the chips ;)

Is shatter still doing it for you?

Hx

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NOTD - Subtle Stamping

Hello!

I was lucky enough to find a Color Club Molten Metals Foil set for £7.99 at TK Maxx the other day (go, run, grab one, you can read this later!), and I'd heard the colours are good for stamping so had to try it out :) I wanted something subtle, chintzy and swirly so went for a pale blue (Accessorize Baby Blue) and stamped with BM 225 and Color Club Lumin-icecent and Cold Metal. I also used the top coat that came in the set, which smudged it a little. Sigh.

Right hand without smudging. Or Clean up. Or camera focus, apparently...

I'll definitely be trying out more stamping with these polishes :)

Hx

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We Stamp on Sundays!

Another polish group I've joined on FB, Adventures in Stamping, decided to do some Sunday stamping challenges. This week's challenge was to use green in your design, whether as the base or the stamp colour. I saw this design on LaqueredMe and decided to recreate it. My nails aren't too bad after taking the gels off, so I am pretty pleased, and they have a bit of length, although I'm not expeting that to last long. The base colour is an apple green shimmer by MNY and I stamped with China Glaze Holly-Day and BM19 before adding the lady bird with BM13 and 17 Risky Red, filling in the spots with a dotting tool and adding some eyes.

With flash, before I added the eyes

Natural light, right hand

Natural light, left hand

What do you think? I quite like them, and was looking forward to doing them which made taking off the gels less of a chore.

Hx

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Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Animal Print

Hi all!

I joined a couple of polish related Facebook groups, and am taking part in some challenges to keep me occupied! The Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge takes place every Friday (you can do your mani any day you like but post it on a Friday IYSWIM) and this week's theme was animal print. What I went with isn't strictly print so I cheated a little... but I hope no-one minded!

To give the base some texture I used Nails Inc Magnetic Houses of Parliament, a cheap market stall striper for the feathers, OPI Designer...De Better for the gold, an un-named pearly blue and the striper again for the "eyes". I really liked it, and peacock nails, freehand like this or stamped, are becoming one of my favourites. Next week's PCFC challenge is a manicure based on your favourite piece of jewellery, and I already know what I'm going to do :) Hopefully it comes out as good as this did.

The gel nails are coming off tonight, so my next post will be on my nubs. Boo.

Hx

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NOTD Smurf Hands...

Hello, sorry I've not posted for a few days, I'm having trouble getting good pictures with this gloomy weather (and my lack of camera skillz). I have a couple of manicures to show you coming up :)

This is a manicure I wore for a few days in the week between Christmas and New Year (doesn't it seem like months ago now?) I used a navy blue creme from 2True on all fingers except my ring, which I used Barry M Lilac Foil and then stamped a flowery Bundle Monster pattern, reversing the colours. But where is this accent finger she speaks of, I hear you cry. Well, I went into Boots before I got to take any pictures, and going into Boots means that I test out nail polish and only two fingers stayed intact... Sorry about that!

Now look at the state of my fingers after I removed it! I've used this polish before and it wasn't too bad for staining which leads me to believe that non-acetone polish remover is pants. It's drying out my skin more than acetone remover does and it stinks to high heaven. It isn't hurting my booboo though, which is a good thing because just about everything else is.

I had to walk around for a DAY with blue hands, nothing would get it off until I went swimming on new years day with the kids! Just call me Smurfette. What do you do about staining? I usually scrub with an old toothbrush and polish remover but even that wouldn't shift it.

Off to pick Ollie up from pre-school now, in the rain. Fun times!

Hx

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New Year Nails - China Glaze Some Like it Haute

Happy New Year polish lovers :) I hope it treats you well.

Although I just stayed in and watched TV with a bottle of wine and a 4 bird roast last night, my nails were celebrating in style. I layered 2 coats of Some Like It Haute from China Glaze's 3D Eye Candy Glitter collection (I also treated myself to Love, Marilyn and Loreli's Tiara with a gift card I won) over 1 coat of Essence Must Have because I wasn't sure of the opacity and I'm a bit scared of taking this off with non-acetone polish remover. The one I got (from Boots) stinks to high heaven and really drys out my skin. I'm really hoping taking this off (with foil) doesn't do too much damage to my gel nails, my cuticles, or my nostrils! Update on the gel nails, they're still going strong after a week and a half, I buffed and filled them a little before I did this manicure, but they don't seem to be growing out very fast. I really love the length, athough how practical they'll prove to be in the long run is yet to be seen.

Some Like It Haute is tiny black, blue and charcoal microglitter and bigger round holographic glitter in a clear base. I thought the base was charcoal jelly too, hence why I layered over a charcoal polish, but when I swatched it on a nail wheel I found it's clear. It took 4 coats to get full opacity on my nail wheel, but you might get away with 3 on your own nails.

Blurry sparklees

It's crazy sparkly, especially in the bottle, and I lub it. The end.

Ok, not quite the end, while this post was in draft I managed to slice my thumb right by the cuticle on my left hand with a breadknife, so now I'm looking forward to the removal even less. Pray for me.

Hx

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