31 Day Challenge - Day 1 - RED

Hi Goddesses

There have been many times in my life when my sanity has been called into question.  Hell, for most of the people who know me, it's now accepted that it's pretty much AWOL.

So today started with me wishing everybody doing the 31 Day Challenge luck and saying I would be watching "smugly" from the sidelines.  Why "smugly" ?  Well, the 31 DCs are hard - VERY hard - they are relentless in terms of the timing and pacing, so I was content to stay on the outside, looking in, and laughing as they attempted THIS -

8 hours later, here I am posting my Day 1 nails lol.  How did THAT happen !!  Ha ha.  Well, other than blaming my missing marbles, I know quite a lot of the people doing it, and it's always more fun when that happens, when you're part of something bigger.  ALSO, as we well know, I have a vault of manis the size of Texas, and a quick flick through it showed me I already had the photos for 13 of the days.  So, that and a bit of peer pressure, and I was in!  Lol.

It's a shame that it starts with red .... for no other reason than that I did Red Week all of 3 weeks ago, so all of my red ideas are pretty much used up.  Luckily, I already had a date planned with OPI Danke-Shiny Red so all I had to do was move it forward some :)

Danke-Shiny Red is gorgeous.  It's rich, electric and full of vigour, but ..... it's also the dupe of Zoya's Elisa.  Why does this keep happening ?  Remember the similarities between the Holland Collex and Zoya, and now the same again.  Do they both sit in a room together and agree 3 colours per season they're going to dupe and then agree lower terms for that colour pigment from the supplier?   Don't get me wrong, I believe in happenstance, I just usually don't expect it to be within 1 degree of another colour.

So, a couple of week's ago, I would have RAVED about this polish, but as I've already worn Elisa .... well, I'm a bit deja vu'd out.  But it IS shiny.  And lovely.  And electric.  And maybe I prefer it to the Zoya because it applied sooooo smoothly.  Still, they're dupes.

So, I decided to do something else.  I fell in love with THIS mani Cris from Let Them Have Polish did a couple of weeks ago, and I've been itching to do a variation of it since.  There's something so decadent and debauched about it, I just love it.

So I did my own version.  The gold stamping is with BM-310 and Barry M Gold Foil.  My plan then was to dot clear polish where the gold lines intersected and dip them in the caviar .... nooooooo, that did not work.   

Phase 2: hide the fact that this did not work by covering ENITRE index nail with caviar, thus hiding the fails and the bits where the stamping lifted off !

Phase 3 : shit, what am I going to do with the other nails now that THAT plan didn't work?!  Cris used beads.  Shit, shitloads of beads.  Crumpet not patient = nooooooo.   So I dotted.  With black polish.  Oh well.

So there you have it, if you ever need to know how the woefully untalented copy a top bloggers pattern - there ya go!

Lol .... see you tomorrow.  And the next day.  Oh and the next day .... 

Enjoy xx :)

Summer Challenge Day 35 - Summer Lovin

Hi Goddesses

This is one of those challenges which SEEMED such a good idea when I was putting the challenge together lol, but in reality, well, what does Summer Lovin MEAN ??

Obviously it makes me start singing my fave Grease song EVER, but that's not really what it's about, is it ?   I was super stumped for ideas, and then hit on the idea of holiday romances ..... so here we go .....

This started as a China Glaze Neon skittle - Splish Splash on the thumb, then Sunshine Pop, Orange You Hot?, Hang-ten Toes, and Aquadelic on the pinkie.  Yes, Aquadelic is not a neon, it's from the Brights Collex, but it's pretty ....

Then they all had a layer of a lovely Lush Lacquer polish which now was a different name and has to be referred to as Flippin Out.  Whatever, it's a great happy, sunny, summer mani type of glitter - a total rainbow.

I then turned to this strange stamp in the new Bundle Monster set - it's BM-310.  When it first came out, I had no clue whatsoever what it was, til Kirsten pointed out to me that it was the male / female symbols ...... ah!  yes !!!  hence .... summer rumpy pumpy lovin !!!

I stamped, as I always do, with Konad White.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - I wish I had just caved and bought this from the start.  I get too frustrated to faff around with trying to stamp with other colours.   Each to their own, but I would seriously recommend that if you're dabbling with stamping you set yourself up with a Konad white and a Konad black.

And that, goddesses, is Summer Lovin :)  Enjoy xxx