May Tri Polish Challenge day 1 - Nubs and Roses

See what I did there? Do ya? Ok....let's move on.

So, the tri polish challenge has rolled around again and this month's colours are grey, red and blue. I wanted to challenge myself, so didn't chose "easy" colours - they're all shimmers, fairly dark and not what I'd usually use for nail art. All three are China Glaze - Want My Bawdy (blue), Immortal (grey) and Bend Over Backwards (red).

I'm babying my peely pointers, so still sporting nubs, and I've wanted to do a floral mani for a while. I used Immortal as the base (amazingly pretty grey with blue and pink flecks of yum) then striped with Want Your Bawdy and added the splodgy roses with Bend Over Backwards. The detail on the roses was done with Barry M's new black nail art pen.

There we are, TPC number one for May :) Now I just have to come up with 3 more!

Hx

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Starry Skittle Sunday!

Hi all!

It's Sunday and that means stamping! Today's Adventures in Stamping theme was over a skittle base (where each nail is painted a different colour) and my favourite kind of skittles are neon skittles! I used the Models Own Ice Neon collection for my base and then layered a coat of Australis Speck-tacular, a flaky topcoat, over them before stamping stars from QA18 (an ebay purchase) with Konad Black. I layered the neons over white to make them pop a little more, but honestly the formula on these is so good I don't think it made much difference, apart from on the yellow.

Konad black is so messy to clean up, so I apologise that they're a little scruffy but I liked them :) Lots of compliments too, which is always nice!

The Tri Polish challenge for this month is starting this week, so I promise to get some mid-week posts up! Looking forward to this month, I've picked some tricky colours ;)

Hope your weekend has been kind! Hangover central here today - what Sundays are made for!

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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Stamping Sunday - Lilac Love!

Afternoon! I'm suffering with a hangover today, so I'm going to spare you my misery and keep this brief! This week's AIS challenge was to use a lilac base, and I went for OPI You're such a Buda-pest. Such a pretty polish, but yes, it was a pest! Very thin and watery - this was three coats but could have done with at least one more - since I only have a mini I was not impressed! And it chipped awfully too. On the accent nails I used Dollish Polish I Triple Dog Dare Ya!, which is now officially my favourite silver/holo glitter. Yum! I kept it simple with silver stamping to go with the very subtle (aka invisible) silver shimmer in the base.

Hx

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April Tri Polish Challenge day 4 - going out with a bang!

Morning!

We've come to the end of the Tri Polish challenge for this month, and I'm going out with a bang! This manicure is pretty much perfect for me - bright, gradient, stamping and glitter - who could want more! I made a sideways gradient (for the first time - why hadn't I done this before?) on my ring and middle fingers with Essie Off the Shoulder and Rimmel Sky High, and topped it with some animal print stamping (zebra from Gals GA32 and Cheetah from Cheeky CH2. On my pinkie and index fingers I just painted a single colour and added a bit of a reverse glitter gradient using Barry M Silver Glitter and Revlon Stunning.

And here are my four manicures for this month - isn't it interesting how different you can make the same three colours look?!

Next month's colours are red, blue and grey, and I've chosen my polishes already! Come over to Crumpet's Nail Tarts if you want to join in!

Hx

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April Tri Polish Challenge day 3 - You've been framed...

Morning!

Day 2 of April's Tri polish challenge, and I'm not sure how I feel about this one... The idea was good, but I'm not so sure about the execution. I started with a base of my turquoise (Rimmel Sky High) and used the cling film technique with Nails Inc Candy Orange (reversed on the accent nail). I was hoping for something a bit more jewel-like, but I kind of got mud. Then to fit in with the gem stone theme I painted a frame with a gold striper - thinking that as it was an antique-y sort of gold it would look like a cabuchon set in old gold...hmm not sure if I got there to be honest. It was ok in bright sunlight, but we don't get much of that in good old Blighty so I think it was a bit of a fail...

I think the accent nail looks better, maybe I should have done them all that way. Or maybe I shouldn't have used a muted gold for the frames. Or maybe I should have done something different altogether...

Hx

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Adventures in Stamping - World Earth Day

Hi loves,

This weeks challenge prompt for Stamping Sunday was World Earth Day, which is tomorrow. I had no idea what to do, so I looked through my plates and found a bamboo-leafy kind of pattern and freehanded little pandas. The base is Models Own Bora Bora, an addition to their Hed Kandi collection which is meant to be textured. While it is very glittery and pretty, the texture is very fine - no more than a full coverage glitter. I do love it though, and can see me using it a lot (I always say that though with almost 700 polishes it rarely happens...) I stopped at two coats, although if you were wearing it alone you'd probably need three. The stamp is from the Gals Fairy plate 37.

Isn't he cute?

Hx

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