Neon Week - Tangled In My Saran Wrap

Hi Goddesses

I really don't understand why, but I have found Neon Week really inspiring and liberating.  Maybe it's that the colours are so "out there", that it makes you feel like anything goes, artwise.  Either way, I am a happy bunny this week.

Today's art is super simple, and is a great one for you to try if you want to dip your toe in the experimental pool. 

All the nails started with 2 coats of w7 White, and then got Saran Wrapped!  For those of you who don't know, this is when you apply your 2nd colour over your first, and then, whilst it's wet, attack it with a ball of saran wrap (or cling film, as we call it in the UK).

Now, I am lazy.  I am upstairs in the nail room, and the cling film is downstairs, so I always use what every polishaholic owns - bubble wrap!  I take a piece about 1 inch by 2, scrunch it up, and then dab at the wet polish.

The great thing about this mani, is you can keep going til you get the look you want.  Sometimes, too much white will creep through, but on the next dab, some of the colour (which is now on your saran wrap) will re-adhere to the nail.   If you need more help to rebalance, just add a line of polish to your nail, and maneovre it around.

I love the texture of a saran mani, but top coat does smooth it out.  Whilst it still looks great, it can lose a little something.

Finally, I added everybody's favourite black glitter, Wet N Wild Tangled In My Web, which was just perfect for this mani.

The colours used, thumb to pinkie were - China Glaze Orange You Hot, OPI Ogre The Top Blue, w7 Flourescent Pink, Sally Hansen Limestone and OPI A Roll In The Hague.

Enjoy xx :)

Digital Dozen Does: BLUE - Ruffles

Hi Goddesses

Yes I am obsessed, and nooooo, I am not going to apologise :)  This is my 3rd ruffle mani in as many weeks.  I love them!

As you know, I am a self-declared Splodger, so I tend to like nail art that's not too exact.  Now, whilst a ruffle is more exact than say .... a splatter ... there's still something sufficiently random about this to appeal to my inner child.

For those of you who like the science, let me lay down a few guidelines for you -

* always use a base colour first, ideally using the palest colour in your ruffle.  When I did the rainbow ruffle, I used a nude, as I didn't think any of the other colours were safe enough (they'd have distorted what I dotted on top)

* think about the order of your colours - are you going from light to dark, or random

* think about which size dotting tool to use.  You want to go fairly large, to get the appearance of dots.  I have large nails and I used the next to largest size

* try to make your dots look separate - it creates a better effect.  Where mine are too close together, it just looks like I did a lumpy line

* pick your first colour, and do all your nails in that colour first.  Then stop.

* be patient - you're going to have to wait til that first colour is dry before you can do your next row.  Again, do all 5 nails.  Then stop

So, which colours did I use this time ?

OPI Ogre The Top Blue

Sally Hansen Himalayan Blue

OPI DS Glamour

China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-le

China Glaze Kinetic Candy - also used as the base colour

Oh My Gosh Cobalt Blue

A random layer of holo or glitter really spices things up - I love the impact here of the Glamour layer.

And there you have it - Ruffles !  See you tomorrow, and don't forget to check out the rest of the lovely ladies.

Enjoy xx :)

Which Sky Blue is the Blue For Yooooooou?

Hi Goddesses  

My hummana mummana Bettinas arrived recently, and one of the blues, whilst gorgeous, made me realise that I have accidentally acquired a few that are similar.  So, what better excuse to trot them all out, take a peek, and try and rationalise why all 5 are needed!

The 5 polishes are - 

* thumb - Butter London - Artful Dodger

* index - Bettina - Vintage

* middle - Barry M - Cyan Blue

* ring - a-England - Galahad

* pinkie - OPI - Ogre The Top Blue

At first glance, a few things are obvious to me - 

* how dusty Galahad looks compared to the others, yet when worn on its own it seems quite bright

* how Galahad and Artful Dodger look like father and son

* that Cyan Blue and Vintage are the next 2 most alike

Overview - 

* Artful Dodger - quite crellyish - not a creme, not a jelly.  This took 3 coats, and has a completely different feel and finish to the others.  It's a dusty blue, and the one it most resembles on Wikipedia is Cambridge Blue

* Vintage - fabulous, thick and creamy, this is a 1 coater, but I used 2 out of habit.  The sun shines out of this one.  Ridiculously happy, bright and perky.  

* Cyan Blue - sooooo intense.  This is also a 1 coater, tho again I used 2.   Extremely bright and brilliant, this one if probably the one I would keep if I were only allowed one.

* Galahad - gorgeous.  You can read my original post here.  As I said, it's dustier than the others, a little more antiquated.  It is very similar to Artful Dodger, just deeper.

* Ogre The Top Blue - bright, but slightly darker. This is a real Royal Blue, bright and vivid.

So, does a girl really neeeeeeeeed all 5 ?  Nooooo.  But does a Crumpet need all 5 - well, probably yes quite frankly.  They are all interesting in their different ways, and I will keep them but for different reasons.  The Barry is a brilliant all-rounder, but the BL is probably the one I am mostly likely to wear solo.

Stay tuned, cos I just layered this with Dollish Polish Putting On The Ritzzz! and it looks da bomb!

Thank you, and enjoy xx :)

Blue Mosaic

Hi Goddesses  

Happy Easter to everyone, or Happy Chocolate Day :)

Here's the 3rd in my series of mosaics, and this one is all about BLUE.    The technique is exactly as described in the previous post (here).

For the blues, I used -

* base of CG Sea Spray

* a-England Tristam

* Butter London Victoriana for the shimmer

* OPI Ogre The Top Blue

* LA Girl Glitter Addict in Incognito

* CG Secret Peri-wink-le

There's a lot of congruence to these blues, and by that I mean they fit really well together.   You'll see when we get to the purple one how important that can be!

Choosing the right colours is a bit like selecting the colours for a water marble - you need to make sure they will play nicely with each other.   It helps that blues all have a similar tone, but it's trickier to choose wisely when you get to colours like green or purple which can be either cool toned or warm toned.   From the mosaics I've done, I would suggest you stick to one tone rather than mix them.

Tomorrow - the pink one, which has a twist :)

Enjoy xx :)

Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge - Your Favourite Piece of Jewellery

Hi Goddesses

I am sorry to be late posting this, but last night, the flu finally caught up with me and I was in bed by 8pm.  I honestly didn't think I'd be getting up at all today, but as long as I'm not standing, I seem to be ok lol.

This week's PCFC was chosen by the lovely Joy - do a mani based on your favourite piece of jewellery.  Most of my jewellery is silver, and I had 2 manis in mind.  The first was to do dotted layers of silver to mimic the layers of the silver beaded bracelets I like to wear, and the other was to do a mani based on my very favourite piece of jewellery - a necklace.  I thought the bracelets would turn out better, but whaddya know, its actually the necklace, my true favourite, that turned out ok!

I bought this off ebay (of course) - it's a Links of London silver necklace, about a metre in length, that can be worn anyway you want it.  It has a horseshoe link that fastens onto any of the hoops in the design, so you can wear the necklace in one loop, 2 or a mixed pattern. I absolutely ADORE this necklace.  It really defines me.  I love the bubble pattern and the dangliness of it; I love that I bought a £600 necklace for less than £100; and I love that it is something I am not - delicate lol.  However, that has lead to 3 breakages where it had to be soldered back together - Crumpet has now learnt not to wear it in bed or get it tangled in buttons lol.

For my base I used OPI Ogre The Top Blue, and my trusty silver was, as always, CG Cheers To You.  I used a fairly thin dotting tool, because as we know, I am useless with brushes.

I actually think I have captured the design quite well, if maybe a little indelicately.  And it's a sign of how obsessed I am becoming that I look at my nails and go "ooooh, that would be a cool stamping pattern" lol.

I'm going to see if I can make the bracelets look better in the morning, but it's highly doubtful lol.  In the meantime, enjoy xxxx :)