Purple Rainbows

Hi Goddesses

It's doodle time!!    Last night I was toying with the idea of another 31 Day Challenge (why are they sooooo irresistible) and one of the challenges was rainbow.  I'd just painted my nails lilac, and an idea was born: what sort of rainbows do they have in CrumpetLand if not purple ones ? Lol.

This is 3 coats of Essence Hang Loose from the their Surfer Babe Collection.  It is like a pink-toned lilac version of Essie's Marshmallow - very sheer, but lovely and squishy.

I wasn't totally sure how my rainbows were going to look, but I knew I didn't want them the same on every nail, or to look like 1 rainbow spread across 5 nails - and so any idea somewhere in between was born!   The boyf thinks it looks a little like a mountain range - I'm not too sure, but at least it was a compliment!

For this is used my beloved dotting tools, only because I knew I wouldn't be steady with a brush - I ended up using the 2nd largest size.   The rows were built up with -

* SH Mystic Lilac - still love - that green shimmer takes me by surprise every time

* OPI Planks a Lot

* OPI Parlez Vous OPI

* CG Spontaneous

I was going to add 1 final row in Barry M Bright Purple, but I really didn't think I had the room.

Loving how this turned out - so simple, so effortless :)

Enjoy xx :)

Drum Roll Please

Hi Goddesses

Are you ready to find out who won my Giveaway ??

Just as reminder, the prize was 2 bottles of Ozotic and 1 bottle of A-England. 

I love that the winner was the first person to enter the Giveaway lol.   It's nice when you can reward a genuine supporter and some one who was so damn keen!

Ha ha, so the winner is ..... Elizabeth Stern !!!!

Rather ironic, as Elizabeth was the person who got me to 200 Followers so that I could start the Giveaway.

Thank you everyone who reads my little ramblings, and thanks for all your comments too during the Giveaway.  It seems my nail art is tolerable but I had to chuckle at the people who asked for more swatches, posts of hauls and photos of my stash .... read me much ?  Lol.

Back to work for me tomorrow - booooooo - I have been loving the long lazy holidays.

Sooon  xx  :)

Galloping Sir Galahad

A-England - Galahad

Hi Goddesses

I hope you are enjoying this very special week of VERY special polishes, and here is another from what I firmly believe could be THE brand of 2012 - A-England.

Those of you who follow me know I am not a big fan of blues (although I am getting there, yay), but wow, Galahad blew even me away.

Galahad is a luscious creme, nice and thick, perfectly opaque in 2 coats.  He is a lovely turquoise, yet not brash - he is not too bright, too electric or too much of a diva.   There's a murky serenity to this blue which lifts him above the obvious and into much rarer territory.

He's very grandiose, and again, speaks of ancient houses and lost pearls.  He's rich, darker than Tiffany, but would look AMAZING with silver - he also looks pretty damn hot with some of the Essie Luxeffects, and I will show you later in the week.

This is just a total love for me, which from someone who doesn't really "love" blue, is a big compliment.  For those of you who DO love blue, buy Galahad and you may just pee your pants :)

Enjoy xxx :)

Happy New Year

Hi Goddesses

Wow, what a special way to start the day - I woke up to 300 Followers !!

Thank you so much - and here's to us ALL having the best year ever xxxxx

D

Ozotic 621 - Red Holo Wonderness

Ozotic - 621

Hi Goddesses

Oh boy.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy.  Something as pretty as this should not be let loose in the universe without a warning! Oh My God, This Is 621.

Ozotic 621 – man I hate it when they give a polish a number.  It’s VERY hard to remember, and this is why SOME Crumpets, accidentally order a polish twice.  Because it’s a number.  A polish should have a name.  Ideally a witty OPI-styleee name, but even a plain-as-you-like Barry M style name would be nice.

So let me rename thee – Ohzotic Red Wonderbomb.  How much sexier is that, right ??!!  Oh yeh, and I stuck a H in Ozotic cos they make me go Oh.  Oh-zotics.

Lol.  Enough.  I have wanted 621 ever since I first set my greedy little eyes on her, which I think was on the blog of More Nail Polish , which features a lot of Australian stuff.  Usually, I buy my Ozotics from Leah Ann Rowe but she was out of stock of the Eleytra I wanted, so I accidentally ended up in another eBay store (Dusk To Dawn) and oh my.  They had LOTS of naughty pretties.

So USD200 lighter, I came away with this and some other gorges, but my oh my, 621.   Also, thank you sunshine gods.  I wore this over Christmas, and on Boxing Day, sunshine was POURING into the nail room - how AWESOME are some of these photos ?  No credit it to me, just total credit to the heavenly marriage of holo + sunshine :)

621 is a deep red holo.  The holo is wild and luminescent, and this polish looks lit from within.  It *seems* very similar to Glitter Gal Red Holo Sparkle, and as soon as *another* red holo (I know, me very bad) arrives, I am going to do a comparison post.

The holo particle size in this is very similar to the Milani size, like flecks of sugar, but nothing has ever glowed like this polish.  It’s like wearing molten lava on your nails – amazing.

Redwise, it is RED, with no blue tones and no brown tones either, but because of its obnoxious level of sparkle, it goes on a little bit less ruby than it looks in the bottle.

This is an absolute BELTER of a polish, just utterly utterly gorgeous, and it’s one of those polishes you also cannot stop staring at (good job I can touch type lol).

This applied like a dream and has been hard-wearing.  I’m not ready to take it off, but I have to because I have 1 mani left to do for the Christmas Challenge.

So bye-bye sweet Red Wonderbomb.  I love you.  I lust you.  I am going to be wearing you often.  I love you.

Enjoy xx J

xx

J

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.

2012 - Hopes, Predictions and A Bucket List!

Hi  Goddesses

Welcome to the New Year, and if we are to believe the Mayans, it could be our last, so best go out with a bang, eh?

I decided a few days ago to do a Bucket List for my nail polish year - the things I would like to achieve - and also to list the things I am really looking forward to.

So, first of all, The Predictions / Things I Am Looking Forward To

* 2012 will be The Year of The Flakie, no doubt

* I cannot WAIT for OPI's Holland Collection and all that flecking and shimmering

* for the first time ever, even Essie looks ooooooohey to me

* China Glaze - holy triple whammy.  I know a lot of you are freaking out about The Hunger Games, me, my eye is on the Prismatics and the Magnetix

* A England will have a new Collection out

* Glitter Gal have some new beauties on the way

* and finally, those Zoya fairies keep mentioning that H word .... man, if Zoya did holos .... they would be the best EVER

And so to my Bucket List.  I pondered whether to keep it private, but I decided to "put it out there" for a few reasons.

1.  Cosmic Ordering - I am a big believer that if you tell the Universe what you want, it will find a way to help you

2.  by sharing it, it deepens the commitment, and I know some of you will nag me / cheer me on

3.  Me?  keep it private ?  pah!  lol

So here it is.  By this time next year (or when we die our Mayan death) The Crumpet 

* will have at least 1000 blog followers and 500 Facebook Followers

* will have shown a variety of posts, with the emphasis on quality rather than quantity (quantity is soooooo 2011)

* I will have become a Stamping Goddess

* I will be adept enough to do credible tutorials

* I will stick to my recent rule of the 2 day mani - wear it plain for one day if you must, but tart it up on Day 2 or else!

* Pinterest - I am loving Pinterest.  I only joined it recently, but I'm finding it a great way to keep inspirational photos and wishlists organised.  If you want to, you can also follow me on Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/thecrumpet/ 

* expand the blog - I want a few more tabs and "stuff"

* make the Facebook page a community.  That's not really happening yet, and I'd love that page to have a lot more on it from YOU

I also want to be able to master certain things - 

* stamping

* chevrons

* tape manis

* funky french manis

* plaid manis

* water marbling

* needle marbling

* half moon manis

* skittles
* more frankens

* gradient manis

* glitter gradients

* checked nails

And that's my starter for 2012.  This will be pinned on my nailboard in the nail room.

Here's to an inspirational year, and a new chandelier !

Enjoy xx :)

Happy New Year - Stormy Skies

PAM’S GIRLY BITS – Stormy Skies

Hi Goddesses - Happy New Year !!!

Wow, I cannot tell you HOW good it is to do a mani I want to do rather than another Christmas Challenge lol.

How are we all?  Did your NYE rock ?  I hope so, and here’s to a great year, even if the Mayans think it is our last!

I bought this ages ago, and sorry, it’s taken me an age to get round to it.  Pam Heil makes her own polishes under her Pam’s Girly Bits brand.  She released her first collection of 6 polishes in October.  I chose 2 sparkly pinky purple things (biiiig surprise) but also this beauty, which I hoped would calm my Illamasqua Raindrops lemming.

THIS is Stormy Skies, and she is utterly beautiful.  There is an old fashioned quality to her that I really like.  She’s ornate, and belongs in a stately home amongst gold bathroom fittings and LOTS of pearls.

A lot of her beauty is from her base colour.  This pale blue is built on a duck egg blue and has a lovely murkiness to it.  And THEN there are all these little bits of fairy dust swirling around.  Teeny tiny holographic particles within the polish!  As the layers build up, these taken on an electric baby turquoise quality, adding real depth to the polish.

I love this lots.  I’ve especially loved how it matched my jewellery lol, not that that’s important, but sometimes, these things *really* matter lol …..

Now, there are 2 slight drawbacks to this polish.  If I’d known about them beforehand, they might have had an impact, but let me tell you, now that I HAVE the polish, they make not 1 jot of difference –

The bottle is SMALL.  5ml.  That’s smaller than Glitter Gal and 1/3 of an OPI or China Glaze.

It’s also quite sheer (as I guess this colour needs to be) and as I needed 3 layers …. You can do the maths.  So next time, I am definitely layering it over CG Sea Spray.

Most of the girls who make their own polishes use these really dinky bottles, and I understand why – my advice is check the size of the bottle before you buy.  Hopefully, as they get more successful, they will offer bigger bottle sizes – I would definitely pay an OPI price for 15ml of this beauty.

Finally, my Picture Polish FESTIVAL arrived today, so I thought I may as well try it before I took this mani off.  Well, I didn’t expect it to look this wow!

It’s hard to tell in these photos, but FESTIVAL has a lot of peach coloured flakies, and a bit like GITA, peach and pale blue is just a total winner.

I’ll be showing you Pam’s other 2 polishes that I bought in the next couple of weeks, both nude, and with underwear lol, as well as 4 polishes I picked up from Chelsea McDonnell’s Etsy store, Pretty and Polished.

Enjoy xx J

xx

J

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.