NEW31DC Day 2 - Silver

Hi Goddesses

It was great to see so many wonderful ladies take part in the Challenge yesterday.  I think there were about 50, which is an awesome response :)  Today we turn to Silver, and I actually ended up dong 2 manis.

The base for today is the STUNNING Jade Psicodelica.  Amazing.  Holo does NOT get better than a Jade.  In terms of quality, price and spectacularness, I would recommend Jade over any other brand, and this beauty is no exception.

This is quite a white silver - light enough that you could wear it as a holo top coat.  I've got 2 coats and then Poshe on here.  Gah, can't stop staring !!!

So, the first time I wore it, I used Cheeky CH10 and Born Pretty Store blue stamping polish to add this clockwork design.

I then wanted to embellish it a little, so I added some clear rhinestones, and ooooh, now it looks like bubbles in the water!  Ah!   And then I trotted off to take my photos, only to discover that Beth had changed the settings on my camera so that everything had this god-awful urine-soaked  lighting effect.  And could I change it back?  No I could not. 

Ggggrrr... So a couple of days later, I reset the camera (ooops, I hadn't realised there was a reset button) and decided to suck it up and redo the mani.  More than anything, it bugged me that you weren't going to see how beautiful the Jade was.

This time I decided to go for silver on silver, and did some simple rhinestone stuff.  I am very new to this and let me tell you - it's not as easy as The Nailasaurus et al make it look!  There was me all excited just to get the square rhinestone ON my thumb, and then I realised I had to level them up !!  Tricky.  Especially for those not blessed with patience :)

Tomorrow we move on to Gold - and didn't Ashley from Smashley Sparkles do an awesome job with the graphic ??

Ask Crumpet - PVA Glue

Hi Goddesses

Thank you for your response to yesterday's 10 Things I Learnt in 2012 post.  I do enjoy doing posts like that, and it seems you all got a lot out of it too.

I got asked some questions on my Facebook page about PVA glue, so here is some more info.   This isn't a planned post, so it's a bit scattered, but hopefully it will answer your questions - and if it doesn't, just leave them in the comments and I will reply to them there xx

1 - so, any glue ?

I'm not a technical person, but what we're talking about is PVA glue.  Basically, that white stuff.  It's the one you will have used at school, or buy for your children because it's non-toxic.  It's also water soluble, which is key.

2 - how do I put it on ?

I decanted mine into an empty bottle.  I'm actually glad I chose a Zoya bottle, because the brush is thinner.  You don't want to be splashing this up onto your nail walls or surrounding skin, because you can't just clean it up the way you can a normal base coat.  Yessss, of course I ended up pulling some of mani off when I tried to tidy my first messy one up!  lol.   I keep a dotting tool handy, and use that so scoop away any excess.

3 - how much do I put on ?

A good coat, not too little, not too much!  That's such a cop out answer, but hopefully the photo will guide you.  Too little and it can be tricky to pick your polish off later.  Too much and the bloody thing never dries, AND it falls off way too easily

4  and I have to wait for it to dry ?

Yes - wait for it to turn clear, and then you're good to go.

5 - will it work for all polishes ?

Personally, I only use it when I am wearing a glitter-soup polish, or undies and a top layer of glitter.  Although as a blogger it has been tempting to use it for everything, I find it just doesn't give me a smooth base and there are just too many hideous imperfections

6 - wait - should I have used base coat?

No.  I haven't tried it, but apparently it interferes with the picking it off part

7 - how durable is it ?

I think this depends on personal chemistry.   Mine usually fall off within 24 hours (which is fine as I change mine every day) but other people have tested them for 5 days with great success.  Also, I moisturise my nails, and I think that encourages mine to come off quicker.

For me, as soon as I go near a lot of water - eg peeling potatoes, washing my hair - my nails will come off.  Usually I notice I have a bare nail and then have to hunt for where I lost the polish lol.

8 - how do I take it off ?

Ideally when you do a mani, you should be leaving a 1mm edge all the way round.  This then gives you plenty of free edge to pick away at.  I usually find somewhere along the side of my nail where it's already starting to lift, and I just encourage it.   If I can't find a loose bit, well, it's just like a scab, get picking!

OR just soak your hands in warm water, and it will start to lift off.

9 - will it harm my nails though ?

well, apparently not.  I'm not seeing any damage yet, and I think I will see damage if there's damage to be had, as I've used Nail Envy pretty much every day for 2 days.

10 - finally

pretty much every glitter mani you've seen me do in the last 2 months has been on a PVA base.  Could you tell ?  Course not :)

Give it a go - the glue is relatively inexpensive, and honestly, it may just revolutionise your glitter usage!

Love xx :)

My Favourite Things - December 2012

Hi Goddesses

First and foremost - Happy New Year!!  I wish you nothing but happiness for the coming year - may it treat you well :)

Ok, so this is one of the items off my Bucket List - to do a monthly round-up of my favourite things, not necessarily all polish related.  It's been quite fun actually :)  Let's do the non-polish things first :)

Dexter

Oh I became a MASSIVE fan of Dexter in December.  I don't know why I had never watched it before but wow oh wow oh wow.  Genius writing and plotting and just brilliant acting - so much so that you forget everyone even IS an actor - they just ARE their characters.  

So in the space of one month I watched 6 seasons - I am now waiting eagerly for Season 7 to come to the UK in a couple of weeks :)

Homeland

Ah, Homeland has been my other big TV love of the year, and last weekend, the 2nd series finished in the UK.  It gets some criticism about not being realistic, to which I say "shut up, it's FICTION!", but I just love it, again partly due to the superior acting.  I've loved Claire Danes for a LONG time, and she's never been better than in this.

Without ruining it, I'm still not sure what I think to the ending of the 2nd series.   I think they overran it by 15 minutes.  I think it would have made a much better ending if they'd stopped the series while Carrie had her doubts in that small, wrecked room.

Emeli Sande

Music now, and this album I have been pretty much obsessed with for the last 4 months.  You may remember seeing her in the Olympic ceremonies.  Her voice is stunning and pure and with an amazing range, and if I'm honest, I bought her album in the search for something soothing.  What I didn't expect was for it to be filled with uptempo, gospel-tinged soul-searching numbers.  Just brilliant

Fun

And this is my other favourite CD of the year.  I love Ben Folds Five, and this CD very much reminds me of them - unstructured, unexpected, harmonies to die for.  A fabulous eclectic mix.

Bluebelle

And finally, aw my ickle Bluebelle.  She's such a sweetie, even when she's being a hooligan.  Just super cute, super cute.

And now to the polish!!

Well to be honest, this was really difficult.  For various reasons, I didn't do a lot of polish in December.  Because of all the stress that was going on, there were even days when I didn't wear polish at all.

Despite the pickings being slim, I think these 5 would still have been my Top 5 in an ocean of swatching.

KBShimmer - Berry Christmas

Tinsel in a bottle, but without the hairy bits!  Loved this polish - cranberry, pink-tinged red with oodles of glitter.  Winner.

HARE Polish

I wore HARE polish for most of the month, having bought obscene amounts of it :)  There's lots of HARE posts coming up soon.  In the meantime, 4 polishes jumped out at me as my favourites, all from the Finders Keepers Collection.   Just bear in mind they haven't been cropped yet.

Amethystos

Golden Years

Ocean of Alloys

King of Carat Flowers

Aren't they stunning ?  A full blog post will be coming on them soon.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a Few of My Favourite Things - sorry, bursting into song here :)

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 :)