Monday, 27 August 2012

Zoya Daul - Swatch, Review and Stamp!

Hi Goddesses



So, in this weekend's post that DIDN'T cause all the drama, I spoke about how unless it was an Indie or a super special polish, I wouldn't be doing pure swatch posts anymore.




Well, this is your first look at a new style swatch post - you still get to see how the polish looks in it's clean and pure state, but you also get to see how I arted it up after :)




So yes, Zoya Daul from Zoya's Diva Collection.  Familiar much?  Why, yes, it is ..... super similar to Zoya Faye and OPI It's My Year, this has a delicately coloured base loaded with gold foil which leaves a heavenly fusion on your nails.



Unfortunately for me, it's not my thing.  I can completely appreciate it's prettiness, subtlety and possible workwear-ability, but these types of polishes always lean wrong on me.  Mainly, I look at my hand, and I see gold, and I do not like gold.  On one rare occasion today, in a shady corner of the room, it leaned as purple as it would go, but like a ghost - SNAP - it was gone.   So, beautiful yes, Crumpety, no.




So, what did my playtime entail?  Well, Sally Hansen Purple Bolt and BM-306 - a combination soooo subtle, that not even I can see it clearly!




Actually, that's probably the very thing I love about this stamping - it's subtlety.  Purple Bolt matches the Daul purple base so perfectly, that unless you're super close up, you cannot tell there has been stamping.  And I love the secrecy of that, I really do, as well the delicate pattern I chose.





So there ya go - that's a new look swatch post for ya. I hope you enjoyed xx :)

Sunday, 26 August 2012

Happy Birthday Crumpet !!!!

Hi Goddesses



Well, today is my birthday, and I thought it would be fun to do a little tongue-in-cheek post about ..... Crumpets !!!  And look, I did Crumpet nail art too !!!



So, first of all, what IS a Crumpet?  Well, in England it has 2 meanings - it is either a breakfast food OR the name for a hot tottie :)  Today's post is all about the BREAKFAST variety lol.  This is what a Crumpet looks like - 


Crumpets © Monkey Business Images | Dreamstime.com

It's basically a round thick lump of loveliness that you put in the toaster.  It has a semi-thick / chewy consistency - imagine a really thick pancake.  I prefer to toast them twice - this way the outside gets really hard and I just find it has a better texture all round.


Most people just put butter on theirs.  I also use marmite.  Butter and sugar can be quite nice.  Butter and jam, or lemon curd.   Oh, and if you're patient, you can even make the equivalent of eggy bread with them.   


Personally, I think the best UK brand is Warburtons - nothing else compares; they have the texture PERFECTED !!!




Ok .... on to the mani!  Lol, this actually took a lot of care and attention, especially for me, so I'm going to show how much effort I put into this !!!




1.  base coat then 2 coats of OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh ?
2.  this didn't quite give a pale enough base so I layered it with 1 coat of Nails Inc Colville Mews, a milky jelly
3.  I then used my Konad m57 leopard print stamp and stamped twice, not one over the other, but across, so that you could see both colours.  I used CG Desert Sun and OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know
4.  I then used CG Call of the Wild to add some random darker patches, very irregularly, and then I did frames using the same polish, as the rim of a Crumpet always gets nicely burnt mmmmmm
5.  When THAT was dry, I made my butter.  This was done using 5 parts clear polish, 2 parts Colville Mews and 1 part CG Lemon Fizz.  And I added it sloppily, like real butter




See, for me that's a helluva lotta work !!!  I love how the butter glaze is uneven, just like real butter.




I hope you can tell it's a buttered Crumpet, Beth really wasn't so sure!

Lol, enjoy xx :)

Stamping Sunday - Pulsating Pink n Purple and DRK-B

Hi Goddesses



Apologies that today's post reaches you so late - other things have consumed a lot of my time today, some of them good, some of them negative :(   The GOOD news is that I've started to create Indie Corner and you should now be able to see it in the Page Bar just above this post.  It's very much a work in progress so all feedback is welcome.




With everything that's been going on this month, I haven't done many Stamping Sunday posts, but this week's theme was Pulsating Pink and Purple - how could I resist ?




The base of this mani is the SENSATIONAL pink that is China Glaze Under The Boardwalk from the Neon Collex.   It's less neon than the others, and also doesn't dry matte; it has far more of a jelly composition to it.  Whatever, it looks glorious, even on its own (although it does dry considerably darker than the bottle).





I then stamped with one of my favourite patterns - this lattice from DRK-B.   I used Sally Hansen Purple Bolt for the stamping.





A note for those of you who like to be encouraged - my stamping this past week has been going beautifully, perfectly even.  Why is that?  What am I doing differently?  Absolutely NOTHING!  Lol, stamping - she's a temperamental mistress.



Enjoy xx :)

CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED

CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED 

Hi Goddesses



It's my birthday this week, and I wanted to celebrate with a Giveaway.  The blog is approaching some major milestones, so thank you for all your love, support and encouragement, it means so much.


So, what do I have for you, my Goddesses?  Well, this time, there is more than 1 prize .....


Innnnnnnnnnnn 1, we have 3 new Barry M glitters - Pink Silver, Silver Multi and Aqua




Innnnnnnnnnnnnn 2, we have 5 Models Own polishes - Tickled Pink, Ibiza Mix, Disco Heaven, Bluebelle and Soda Pop Pink



Innnnnnn 3, we have 3 older an harder to get hold of Barry Ms - Aqua Green, Aqua Blue and Grey



and innnnnnnnnnnnn 4 we have 3 Magnetic polishes and 2 Barrys - Nails Inc Whitehall, Magnetic Blue, Magnetic Burgundy, Dusky Mauve and Grey



All you need to do, is fill in the thingy !!!!  The Giveaway is International and will end at some point on Tuesday September 4th.

Good Luck !!!

***************************





Best of British 26/8/12

Hi Goddesses

British Nail Bloggers


The weather in the UK may have improved a little but not enough for Vic to justify running off to Cornwall to catch the surf. Instead she's made do with her Surfin' USA mani.

It's been KBShimmer Week this week at The Crumpet 5 polishes, but which was my favourite ?

Laura has been trying out stamping for the first time this week and was particularly fond of her classy black and silver floral design.

PrettyKittyClaws has been making the most of the sunshine by copying The Crumpet with a Red Holo Dotticure. featuring Ozotics 518

Helly at the Nail Newbie got her holo on with a purple holo gradient featuring OPI DS Original!

Charlotte at Charlottes-nails has been catching up with the lazy days of summer challenge with a ruffle accent nail.

Alexis at Glitter Tips managed to overcome a nasty case of nail art block with a Black and Gold NOTD inspired by her jewellery collection.

Claire at nuthin' but a nail thing managed to get hold of some OPI Black Spotted and gave it a go over some bright NEONS.

Seeing as the British weather has been seasonably rainy, there has been a lack of barbeques this year. Unless it is in the form of nail art from Enigmatic Rambles.

Lou entered the Golden Jungle over at Painted Nails & Baking Scales finding some new polish species to describe

This week at Northern Nails there are Turtles in a Guest Post , Also Jo has started a new series of posts called Mashups!

Emma's been busy swatching the new Barry M Burgundy Croc Effects over different colours on Imagination In Colour!

It's texture time in the BFF Challenge and Kerrie from PishPosh and Polish made great use of Heart-Shaped beads but was it a success?

Ruth had some fun with pastel colours and created some colourful zebra nails using her new stampers!

Steph is showing off. Peacock feathers in the (rare) sunshine.

It's been a special week for Allie and in celebration she's been wearing some Sea Green Glitter Birthday Nails.

Dimpal is absolutely loving these fish egg nails Fish Egg Nails she also did Nicole's Me+Blue Mani

Sarah Louise reviews LeaLaC's Stamping Plate XL - A See the post for swatches and a manicure using her first Bettina Nail Polish.

Sam at Polished Art kicked off the 31 Day Challenge with a red leopard print mani.

Kerry starts the first off Nail Inc Sprinkle swatches with Sweets Way.

***************************


So what's new in Crumpetland?  Well, quite a lot, but as I've done a lot of posts on that over the weekend, I'm not going to drivel on any longer, but I will be spending a large part of the weekend starting to build Indie Corner.


I also woke up this morning to my first savaging on the blog - some quite hateful comments on the Lynderella post.  Intellectually,  I know I should ignore them, and I can rationalise that everyone is entitled to an opinion, but the personal nature of the insults still hurts ...  tears for breakfast anyone ?


This week is my birthday, so I'm off to plan some awesome things!

Enjoy your Sunday xx:)

Saturday, 25 August 2012

Indies - The Good, The Bad, and the Lynnderella ...

Hi Goddesses



Today's post is mainly about 2 things - our love of Indie polish, and She Who Must Not Be Named.

I Like My Polishes Unique

I'm gonna start with the important stuff first :)   You may have noticed that a few weeks ago, this badge appeared in my sidebar.  I don't know who created it, but a lot of the cool Indie Sellers I follow started sharing it, and I was and am proud to add it to my blog.


Since then, I've also proudly reviewed polishes for some of our best Indie sellers, and there are more on the way.  These sorts of polishes are the only ones I will do "pure" swatches of from now on, and I am proud to support these women in their creativity, enthusiasm and passion.


I wanted the badge to MEAN something though, so the blog is going to undergo a sort of Indie-vention, and get Indie'd up a little.  Coming very soon is Indie Corner, a separate page (which you'll be able to see in that little header bar beneath The Crumpet) that will feature all sorts of Indie Feasts for the Eyes!


So Indie Corner will feature Indie Sellers that I have used, with my opinions on them, links to how to find them and follow them, and links to any blog posts I've done about them, all surrounded by oodles of droolworthy photos!  I hope you agree that that's something worth looking forward to.


This week is also the week that my Lynnderella Rockafeller post topped 10,000 hits.  10,000!  That's just c-razzzzy!  I remember ending that post worried that the woman who started it all might have ruined it all for everyone else, but happily, the story is ending differently.   So what's happened since my original post (which you can read here).


Well, Lynnderella is selling her wares on eBay, but we knew that.   Her new Collection seems to have bombed.   And all the love has gone ....


So, let's look at eBay first.   When I first posted my LR post, another blog, Polish Pixelle was also posting about the drama.  Effectively, my post was sandwiched between 2 of hers.  Someone commented on her 2nd post about the Limited Edition polishes Lynn had posted on eBay - you may remember that the bidding reached $800 or something - and at the time, Polish Pixelle took a lot of backlash for it.



At the time, I just shook my head, and couldn't be doing with it, which is why I didn't post about it.  If someone wanted to spend so much time researching and writing that Google doc, then so be it, but I had deliberately tried to avoid being overly judgemental in my post, and I didn't really want to change that.


Anyway, this weekend, someone alerted me to the fact that AGAIN all the LE Lynnderella bids were finishing at EXACTLY the same amount - $700.  Now, isn't that just WEIRD?  Whatever you think of Lynnderella, what are the odds that every time she releases LE polishes, they will ALL be sold at the exact same price, and all the bid details will be kept "secret"?   Personally, I can't be bothered to dig into it too much further, but it smells wrong.  I've watched enough Gil Grissom to distrust coincidences, and this is just so fishy it practically comes with its own pond.


So, weird eBay bids (here) .... and weird eBay polishes.   Whilst I was being curious, I stumbled upon a red-orange maelstrom of semi-loveliness ..... and frowned.  It looked VERY similar to Muy Caliente by Glimmer by Erica which I swatched yesterday (here).  Let's take a look at them side by side -



I contacted Erica to ask for her thoughts - were they as similar as I thought, or were the pixels deceiving me?  Erica agreed, and with a minor exception in the shape of one glitter, they are similar.   Which then raises the following thought - for the woman who cursed those who were duping her, has she now started to dupe others ?


To be honest, I don't know.  What I do know, is that time and again Lynnderella has back-tracked over pretty much everything she's done or said, which leaves her right now with zero credibility .... and a collection which doesn't seem to be selling ....


Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I can probably count on 1 hand how many bloggers I have seen swatching Lynn's new Collection.  Personally, I don't even like it, (and I LOVED her previous stuff) but that's irrelevant.   Consider this - before the initial drama, Lynn would have sold her polishes to Llarowe, who would have sold them on to us, the polish lovers, many of whom are bloggers, and some of whom might have received the polishes in review packages to generate publicity and interest.  I try not to be negative, but I do love that karma seems to have bitten an enormous chunk out of her backside - where's her sales now ?


And this leads me to the end ... and back to the beginning.  I have officially had it with Lynnderella now.  You may have seen me sell several Lynns in my blog sale, well, the remainder are going on sale very soon too.  I honestly can't bear the thought of wearing them.  Why ?  Because the woman they are associated with stands for every value I am personally against - she lies, she's egotistical, she bit off the hand that feeds, she betrayed the trust of her closest business partner ... and there's those fishy eBay sales - and every time I look at one of her polishes, my stomach curdles with distaste.  So, they're for sale.


Contrast this to the amazing Jenna of Lacquistry, who took it upon herself to replace 500 bottles of polish she sold A YEAR AGO because she has now noticed that SOME OF THEM bleed.  What integrity! v what intregrity ?


And that's why Indie Corner is being born.  To champion people like Jenna (who I have never bought a single polish off by the way) and the dozens like her who are providing great polishes, great service and who LOVE all the polishaholics.


It's going to take a while to build, so you'll see it evolving week by week, but wow, what a place it will be.

Enjoy xx :)

Ask Crumpet! Vol2

Hi Goddesses


Thank you everyone for the positive response to last week's Ask Crumpet!  I'm glad you loved it so - it's a type of post I love doing.  Don't forget to comment if you want more things demystifying or explained :)


* franken *

A term that's bandied around quite a lot, this is a noun and a verb - I'm going to franken today // ooh, I made a cool franken.

It comes from Frankenstein and I have no idea who coined it.

Basically, frankening is when you make your own polishes by mixing together other polishes you already own.  The key thing here is that you are not acting like a mad scientist in a lab, but typically only trying to make 1 or a very few polishes.


The most famous franken I know of is this - Rebecca Loves Cupcakes.   This featured on Rebecca's blog over a year ago and I remember my eyes widening with shock at all the possibilities - mix polishes TOGETHER to create the perfect polish - wow!!!  Lol.


I have made a few frankens.  The key is to go slowly - add little by little and keep shaking.  It's easier to add more than take some out.  As an impatient Crumpet, this was very hard for me to learn, but I did ... eventually.


I've made a few frankens - Holy Jizz






And so has Beth - Pink Day's Night




It's a great Mommy and daughter activity :) 


TIPS

* buy cheap polishes or get your friends to give you cast offs.  You can buy polishes in bulk really cheaply from eBay, or market stalls are great too
* look for polishes that have either glitter or flakiness in them - when you mix a colour in with it, it will pop before your eyes
* check out blog sales for awesome glitters like Wet n Wild Party of Five


Here's some polishes which are great for frankening to show you what I mean -



And above all .... enjoy :)  xx



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