Purple Mermaid Dotticure

Hi Goddesses

Another post from the vault today.  I'm not sure whether this was done for a challenge, but for some reason I never got round to posting it.

This combines several of my favourite things - lots of purple polishes, dotting and a mermaid dotticure.    I tried to use my very favouritest purples, but that's not always possible as purple can lean brown or blue.  Still, I'm really happy with the colour combo here.

Mermaid dotticures always look gorgeous.  IMO, they're not as difficult or as time-consuming as they look, you just have to get a good system going.

I'm always keen to use a mixture of textures as I think it adds more interest - in this one we have holos, glitters, shimmers, all sorts!

31DC2015 - Day 31 - Your Signature Style

Hi Goddesses

OMG it's the final day of the challenge!  And do you know, I'm not sure I'm ready for this to end?  This has been my favourite 31DC without a doubt, and I can honestly say I didn't hit the wall at any point - yay.

So the final day is all about the individual bloggers taking part, and our signature style.  Well, I think I'm known for purple, dotting and splodging - so here come 2 of those 3!

I deliberately used some of my very VERY favouritest bestest purples for this mani -

- on base, Barry M Blackberry
- OPI DS Original
- Literary Lacquers Rebecca, Always Rebecca
- OPI Planks A Lot
- Sally Hansen Delphinium
- Powder Perfect Lorelei

The key here was to pick purples which complemented each other but still popped, and I think this combination works really well.

I'd like to say a massive thank you to all the amazing bloggers in Crumpet's Nai Tarts who made this such an amazing adventure - we'll see you at the next one!

An InLinkz Link-up

NEW31DC Day 28 - Inspired By Your Favourite Colour

Hi Goddesses

Hmmmmm so today was the day I realised this challenge had a lot of dupes in it - whoops!  Fave polish, fave colour family and now fave colour.  All so samey, but you can't be samey on a challenge, can you ?

In the end I decided to compromise and do a gradient using possibly my favourite polish of all time - OPI DS Original - and my favourite polish of 2011 - a-England Lady of the Lake.   Oh and then add a giraffe.  As you do.

In reality, this gradient was more subtle than I expected.  Next to each other, the two polishes have several degrees of separation, yet if you didn't know it, I don't think you'd realise there was a gradient happening here.

I then added one of my favourite stamps - the giraffe from BM-313.  Ah, he make me happy!

Overall, I quite like this mani, but it has less impact than I expected.  Holographic, yes; clearly 2-tone, no :(

Enjoy xx :)

Christmas Ornaments

Hi Goddesses

You may have noticed, but I haven't personally done much Christmassy mani-ness this year.  That's partly because last year I did 31 Days of Christmas (THE hardest challenge ever) and also partly because with all the stress I've had going on in my other life, I just am not feeling it this year.

However, I'm always tempted by a brilliant new stamping plate, and as it's against my religion NOT to recycle my nails, I came up with this little pretty :)

This is my purple one stroke mani from a few weeks ago (which you can see HERE) which I absolutely loved.

The stamp is from MJ 8, which is available via My Online Shop on Etsy.

It may surprise you to know that I don't actually have a purple tree or purple ornaments lol, but if I did, and they looked like this, I'd be quite happy.

Enjoy - and have a fabulous time over the next 2 weeks :) xxx

30 DoP/D24 and Sat-ART-Day Club - One Stroke Mani

Hi Goddesses

Oooh what a busy day!  I haven't loaded a lot of posts yet, but I've done more painting than I have for weeks, and I'm excited about the next few weeks and the inevitable Christmas Challenges!

Today's Challenge in Sat-ART-Day Club was one-stroke-mani, and as it's Day 24 of 30 Days of Purple, I decided to combine them.

These are my polishes - 

Nails Inc - Charlotte Mews - 2 coats as my undies (coming soon to a Work Wear Wednesday)

Nails Inc Duchess Street

OPI Planks a Lot

OPI DS Original

Claires Cosmic

So, how is this technique done?  Well firstly, there's several ways / patterns for one stroke manis.  All of them involve getting all the colours on your nail art brush and then swiping in some sort of movement - either a straight line, a curve or a flower shape.

I decided to recreate something I first saw months ago on Neverland Nail Blog, where Lindsey found a great use for the fan tail brush you get in nail brush kits!

To do this mani is ridiculously easy - I decided to use 4 polishes, but if you have narrower nails, you might need 3.  As it was, poor Cosmic barely made it on to any of the nails :(   On my plastic surface, I placed a good dot of each colour, in a row.  I then dipped my fan tail brush in it, so that the polishes were lined up horizontally along the brush,  and then swiped it once down my nail.  AND THAT'S IT !!!!

This is also a really economic use of polish.  For the second nail, I turned the brush over, as there was still plenty of polish loaded on it.   And then I managed to do the next 3 fingers with another brush load.

This mani is also a splodger's paradise !!  It's arty in that inexact and random way I love, and I really did like this mani.

One final word - I deliberately tried to add a little texture, and the use of a holo was literally a stroke of genius.  It bled into the other polishes in a way I couldn't have predicted, and added a dazzle factor that was just heavenly.  Don't overdo the texture though - you don't want a holo competing with a duochrome, a metallic and a glitter, as it will just bend your eyes out of shape!

Enjoy xx :)