Matte Week - Matte Splatter with Dandy Nails Chilled Down

Hi Goddesses

Today's matte extravaganza has a LOT going on.  When I started doing it, it wasn't even intended for matte week, but it just evolved in the right direction lol.

Owning so many polishes, I tend to not have many lemmings these days, but this year I lost my heart to 2 Dandy Nails polishes (this one and Bound To Fall).  This is Chilled Down, and this is how it looks au naturel.

It's a lovely sandy polish.  This looks like captured beach to me - all golden tones with frozen particles of ocean.  Gorgeous.  And so warm.  I then matted it for fun, and decided the base looked a bit like old fashioned parchment.

And then I new I had to stamp over it. If it looked like paper, it had to be splattered on, no?  Ink blots, lol.   For 2 years I've been obsessed with splatter patterns, and I can't believe this is the first time I am doing it from a stamping plate.

I used this row of images from DRK-C so that I could vary the effect.  I stuck to mainly pastel tones (all Konad polishes), and quickly realised it needed a bit more punch, so added the red.  It still didn't look right, so I added the dark grey.  Annoyingly, Konad don't write their polish names on their bottles, but this one is a real winner.

And I really LOVE the finished effect.  I think this is my favourite stamping mani for a long time.  I also don't ever think I've ever stamped with more than 2 colours before.  Or done a matte stamping.  See!  That's what challenges and theme weeks are for - unchartered territory.

Enjoy xx :) and don't forget to check out what Emma,  Ashley and Kerrie  are up to :) 

OPI - A Woman's Prague-ative

Hi Goddesses

Today we have a polish which isn't the usual sort of polish OPI create.  It's A Woman's Prague-ative from the Euro Centrale Collection.

Thematically, this really belongs in China Glaze's Hunger Games Collection.  It's fiery, molten and full of lava, positively glowing on the nail.

It looks like rust and shimmers like fairy fire, burning brightly.

I'm not totally sold on this polish.  I like it from an artistic perspective, but not as a polish I would wear.   I'll be keeping it though, as it will be fantastic in nail art.

I stamped over it using DRK-C and LA Metal in Graphite.  The choice was accidental (I didn't want to use black), and it's not till now that I've realised I accidentally created iron, and rusty iron!

Enjoy xx :)

OPI - My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours

Hi Goddesses

One of the colours I have really grown to love over the last year is orange.  It has the power to make me smile even when I'm down.

I'm also really drawn to polishes that are half-red, half-orange, and when I saw Paprika, decided she would be ideal.

Sadly, we have not fallen in love, and I'm still not entirely sure I know why.  She's beautifully creamy, and applies with the OPI perfection you would expect.  However, on me, she completely lacked the redder tones I was expecting, and I feel I ended up with another overly loud, overly bright orange.

Don't get me wrong, she's still lovely, she's just not MY kind of lovely.

So instead, I stamped on her with DRK-C - doesn't she look great behind that black design ?

There's something about the combination that really works, and I love that from a distance it looks like I am wearing Spotted!

Enjoy xx :)

piCture pOlish Monday - Tiffany

Hi Goddesses

It's Monday again and that means it's time for another piCture pOlish lovely.

PP make awesome glitters, HOLOS and metallic polishes, but they also do some genuinely lovely cremes, which often get overlooked.

So today we have one of the cremes and it IS creamy and dreamy and greeny!  Despite being called Tiffany, this is NOT (well, to my eyes anyway) the aqua shade I expected, but instead it's a delicious soft mint green.

It's also ridiculously glossy - can you see that shine?   I used 1 coat of Poshe over my mani, and the combination looked really high-end salon.

I then did some stamping with DRK-C.  I wanted a soft leafy design, but the execution wasn't quite as perfect as I wanted.

I think the engravings on the plate were a tad shallow, because I couldn't get a good image (like the thumb) unless the plate was sparkly clean.

Tiffany is perfect for summer and spring - it's a clean, fresh shade that just works.   Lovely.

Don't forget to go and see what Claudia is up to, she's got Cosmos today.

You can buy piCture pOlish from a variety of places which are listed HERE.  If you are in the UK, you can now buy piCture pOlish from the magnificent Sally Magpies HERE.

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Love xx:)

New31DC - Day 1 - Black and White

Hi Goddesses

Wow, can you believe we're back here again?  New Year, New Month, New Challenge :)

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts have devised a new 31 Day Challenge for 2013 and we're starting it today.  It's not too late to get involved - just click HERE.  We'll be running it a couple of times this year - sometimes for 31 consecutive days (like this month) and sometimes over a longer period of time for those of you that like to enjoy your manis for a few days :)

I want to start today with a little bit of waffle.  One of my goals for 2013 is for my manis to look more professional, especially my nail art.  However, I am acutely aware that a lot of you love this blog because I am so open about my imperfections.   Don't worry though - I think today's post might show how we can have the best of both worlds :)  So, on with the show!

For Black and White Day I really wanted to do something that was the opposite of black and white, so I thought of the most colourful thing I could, and then decided to do it monotone.    

So here we have - flowers!  The polish bases were OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and OPI Black Onyx and I used DRK-C and white and black stamping polish from Born Pretty Store (full review coming up sooooon).

So I did it, and I liked it, but it didn't look complete to me.  It was also nagging me that the stamping didn't go all the way to the nail edge.  So I thought about it all night, woke up, and did it !  Funky french!

Now, I don't know about you, but I prefer it with the edging, it just completes it in a way it wasn't complete before.  As you'll also notice, it hides the bits that didn't stamp well !! lol.  But on the other hand, they look like the smiles of the Black Minstrels.  Hhhmmmm.  Win / lose ?

We'll be back tomorrow for Day 2, which is Silver.

Enjoy xx :)