30 Days of Purple - Day 30 - Purple Bunting

Hi Goddesses 

Hurrah !! It's Friday !!  Wow, it's took some time coming this week!  It's also the official end of 30 Days of Purple, although there is one more mani to come.  This does make me sad as I have LOVED this challenge, but you know, the elves want to get their mani on, so whaddya gonna do?

Today's mani is not what I planned or what I expected.  It turned out 100% different to my intentions, but I still love it.  How cool is that ?

This was SUPPOSED to be an Aztec stamp over a mixed purple base.  On the Dash 18  plate, the stamp looked very Aztecy - on the nail, not so much ha ha, although that might be because I decided to use white rather than black for the stamping.

I do like the effect though - I think it looks like a cross between lace, bunting (those little flags on a string that hang down) and also, like a pair of crazy tights!

The base was gorgeous, but you can't see it very well.  It's a Splodgerama, which is a technical term I am coining, and I will do a tutorial on it soon, because it's such a cool technique for bases.    It's a bit like a gradient, but with a lot less structure.  I probably used 5 different polishes for this, sponging them randomly around the nail.

An interesting fact - I've been trying to square my nails off recently, to see if it gives them a better shape for blogging, and it really amused me that this stamp rounded them off again!  It creates an optical illusion that basically changes your nail shape - cool!

I really hope you've enjoyed these last 30 days.  It's been simple, but also quite freeing.  Just me, my favourite colours, and some imagination.  It's the least pressured I've felt in a long time.

See you tomorrow for the encore!  Enjoy xx :)

30 Days of Purple - Day 29 - Contrary Polish Purple Smoke Fishbraid

Hi Goddesses

OMG I LOVE THIS POLISH !!!  and OMG I love this mani !!!

Wow, wow, wow.  This, for me, was perfection, about the best a Crumpet can get, and I really hope you love it even a teeny tiny bit as much as I do :)

Firstly - sadness, boooooooo - it's Day 29.  Only 1 day left of the best challenge ever.  Well actually, not so.  Being a silly, scatter-brained and stressed Crumpet, I accidentally did 31 - DUH - so on the 31st November .... lol, 1st December, you'll get the final mani.  What an idiot!

Anyway, back to this one.  And I don't care, I AM posting all the photos, they ARE all necessary, the polish is bloody gorgeous, and the fishbraid is fabuloso !!

Contrary Polish is a newish Indie brand which sells through Llarowe.  Initially it left me cold - the collection was full of shimmers, and the only colour I remotely liked was this one - Purple Smoke - but it seemed so similar to Zoya Kelly (one of my all-time loves) that I didn't see the need for it.

Anyway, as these things do, nail polish karma happened, and I ended up owning this polish.   Not only is it gorgeous, the bottle is the cutest, dumpiest, chubbiest thing ever :)

So the polish.  Well, like Kelly, it's a dark grey, blue toned.   Utterly fabulous colour, especially for autumn.  Unlike Kelly, it's also loaded with sublime blue and purple shimmer.  Seriously sensational.

The formula is awesome and effortless, and as you can see, super shiny.  I never managed to get Kelly looking this glossy.  So, the upshot - you don't need Kelly, you just need this.

LOVE.  IT.

So, then I decided to do a fishbraid on 2 nails.  Firstly, there was no way I was covering up all of my Purple Smoke lol - that's why it's only on 2 nails.

Secondly, I deliberately went for sparkly polishes to bring some light to the darkness of Purple Smoke, and I went with Grapevine Goddess by Fresh Paint, and my trusty Mink Mitten by ManGlaze.

Fishbraids intimidated me for MONTHS, and yet somehow, I can do them.   All I can say is, they're NOT as difficult as they look - but they can psyche you out!

My advice ?  Practice first on a piece of paper.  You need to be consistent with your plaiting, so you need to work out how you're going to hold your polish brush to get an even line, and then you just need to practice the overlapping.   Lucy's Stash has an excellent tutorial if you need one.

Et voila - a possible Polish of The Year and a possible Crumpet mani of the year ??

Enjoy xx :)

Work Wear Wednesday - ZOYA Megan

Hi Goddesses

Sometimes I resist Zoya Collections, but eventually, I always come to realise that resistance is futile .... and cave :)

Megan is almost a year old now, but I only bought her a few weeks ago.  Mainly, I bought her as a base for art manis, but wow, you can't deny how beautiful she is on her own.

Megan is a heavenly, lush, dreamy, creamy grey, sprinkled with just one lavender petal.  She is exquisite.   The tinge of lilac gives the grey a perfect cashmere quality.  I love it.

She does dry a tiny bit cooler and darker than the bottle (tell me a Zoya that doesn't dry darker than the bottle) but we really are talking half a smidge.

What's especially delicious is how she manages to be both warm and cold at the same time - fluffy yet aloof; soft yet distant.  Gorgeous.

And if you're wondering about the weird poses and where my index finger has disappeared to in most of the shots, well, you should know by now that can only mean one thing:  I'm hiding something !!  Lol.  In this case, a very wonky nail wrap.  Oops.


Enjoy xx :)

30 Days of Purple - Day 28 - Wobbly Dots

Hi Goddesses

Gah, I LOVE this one !!

This is another fun mani courtesy of my nail stickers, this time the ones that are a lovely wobbly wibbly pattern :)

From the moment I saw the stickers, this was always my favourite one, and the one I've been itching to try, especially once I saw Lucy's Stash do a fab wibbly wobbly mani with dots (her's was funkier than mine tho :) ).

The base of this mani is the lovely OPI Planks A Lot.  I applied 2 coats and Poshe and then let it dry thoroughly.  I then applied my stickers and did a thickish coat of Zoya Savita.   I then pulled the tape off just as I could see the Savita starting to turn matte.

I then took a couple of dotting tools and dotted away, trying to keep it simple.   One final coat of Poshe, and twas done.  Simples!

For details of where to get these stickers, read my orignal post HERE.

Enjoy xx :)