52wkCrumpet27: Not worn enough

This is week 27 of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: Music and Not worn enough (either each alone or combined). I chose Not worn enough as I had spied this old green a couple of weeks ago and thought "I need to use this again sometime". Today is the day!

This is a one coat base of China Glaze Agro (Hunger Games collection). I love this green!! The hue is an antique metallic shimmer, going into olive green. Fab fall-autumn colour. Very rich and a bit medieval (go Game of Thrones!). I wore it heaps a couple of years ago then stopped. Too many polishes, not enough days.

When this was dry I used acrylic paint and drew flower-fronds in grey shades all over. I like the grey-green combo. Out the Door sealed the deal. This is one of those manis I really like on myself and others. For some reason, painted flowers always look elegant and in some way artistic. I try other things, but always come back to something like this.

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Vineyard grapes on Luxio gel base

We were invited to a 25th anniversary vineyard party (the Mr's employer) and I decided to rock a grape vine mani. Also, I was super happy that my new shipment of 100% gel Luxio arrived - such a great product. Am totally happy with it and my clients love it.

The base for the mani is two coats of Luxio Delicate (usually my base for French), and then top coated with the gloss top coat. I like the sheer look to the background. Delicate is nude but with a light pink tinge.

I started with the leaves, fatter than normal as grape vine leaves, in acrylic paints. I mixed green, black and silver to give the leaves a shimmer. I highlighted them with a lighter tone of the same (mixed in white) and then with a tad of white. Then I drew curly vine-y branches in black acrylic.

For the grapes I used a two tone mix of purple polish (OPI A Grape Fit and China Glaze Rendezvous with You). I drew them on with a brush. Then I highlighted them with A Grape Fit, followed by white acrylic paint. I outlined a couple of the grapes in black to give them a hand painted look.

When done, and dry, I top coated with Poshé for a super shine to match the gel gloss top coat. Whew. Then I did my right hand. I really like the look and am quite happy with the result. A couple of people even noticed – but not as many as I had hoped!! Tja, they were all too busy drinking wine!

52wkCrumpet11: red and gold

This is week eleven of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: chevrons, and red and gold (either each alone or combined). I chose red and gold as it is Christmas and I feel like I just did chevrons. I took inspiration from the great Robin Moses and painted poinsettias.

Inspiration from Robin

I started with a one coat base of OPI Gwen Stefani's last year's holiday collection: L.A.M.B. (Love.Angel.Music.Baby). This is a beautiful polish, applies very satiny and is 95% opaque in one coat. I did not worry too much about the remaining 5% as I knew I would be painting over the gold.

Although, in the pics, you can't really see it, the poinsettias are painted in two tones of red. I mixed a darker red and a lighter one. I started with the darker petals, then drew the lighter petals on top. I had to go over some of the petals twice. At fault would be the gold base vs a white base. Well, that's my excuse!!

Then I drew the leaves in two tones of green and added some white and black accents here and there. In the middle of each flower I used a dotting tool and dabbed a splotch of China Glaze Electrify (a great holiday red-gold glitter).

right hand

I am getting better at using my non-dominant hand. Key is to hold the brush really far down, at least for me. I find I am having a lot of control now. Top coat brings it all together. I will be adding a gel top coat on this one so that I do not ruin it by removing client polish and for it to last until the next challenge mani.  I wonder if any of the girls will also do holiday stuff???? Cheers all! x

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piCture pOlish Marine in white floral

This is a polish I bought in the great Candy Girl 50% off sale going .... on still !!! (here the website). The online shop is clearing out some polishes and everything is half price - such a deal!! I have picked up some piCture pOlish colours – and some more Zoya as well!

This is two coats of Marine, a bright blue oceanic creme. Almost turquoise, but not quite. Application was easy and two coats was enough for full opacity.

Then I drew some lined petals - really nothing fancy, was a quick mani - in white acrylic paint. I added some blue and some white glitter in the petals using two more pp finds = Splash and Storm. I have had Storm for a while but just got Splash as well. Not a lot of photos, as pretty easy peasy - but fun and really pretty and summery! Cheers girls x!

52wkCrumpet8: books and brown

This is week eight of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: books and brown (either each alone or combined). I combined. I was convinced a lot of girls would be doing the newspaper transfer mani so I decided to paint bookshelves and be different. And then I noticed lots of girls did bookshelves, so I wasn't so clever after all!

The base is two coats of Essie Sable Collar. I have had this colour for-ever it seems. I bought it in the wrong time of year, then forgot about it in winter. I like the silkiness of the colour but I am still not a fan of Essie. I find their polishes way too thin. I would have needed a third coat to wear this on its own but settled on two as I knew I was painting on top. There must be a reason why I only have four Essie polishes!

I hand-painted all the bookshelves and books – and my wee cat Harvey sitting on top of one shelf – using acrylic paints and thin brushes. Top coat sealed the deal and brought it all together. There are a couple of reasons why I only did my left hand: 1) lazy! 2) too many nail studio clients and I needed my dominant hand to remove their polish and 3) was almost dinnertime.

left side more in the shade

So on my right hand I applied the beautiful – and very, very similar shade to Essie – Fake Tan from Gelicious. This is a rich shimmering coffee brown colour. I kept it pure, so I have lopsided hands this week! But people will think it is on purpose! And I have removed numerous polishes (with non-acetone remover) and the mani still looks top!

That's me for this week! And now I am wondering what Crumpie means with "brush stroke".

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet7: wild animals and yellow

This is week seven of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: wild animals and yellow (either each alone or combined). I combined. Yellow is a colour I do not wear often enough and wanted to try some different freehand animals. I love giraffes! So I went for giraffes standing in the pampas of the African plain – even if some look like dinosaurs or emus. Fun fact that I learned on safari once: giraffes sleep mainly with their heads upright because if they lie them on the ground they do not have enough strength to pull them back up. How bizarre!

you can kind of see the base shimmer here

I started with a base of Butter London Cheeky Chops, my oldest yellow. What a mission! It is one thing to use the colour for nail art by dribbling drops of it on a palette, another to paint your nails. The colour was a bit thick and the bottle half full. I was too lazy halfway through to thin it down and just trudged on with two coats. To give a bit of a pop I topped this with a coat of NfuOh 029, an old untried (man, I am ticking all the boxes this week!) holographic jelly yellow. Basically clear, it is a holographic in a yellow liquid. I top coated before moving on.

right hand

Using black acrylic paint I drew giraffes in either profile or semi profile. Some look rather like aliens from The Jetsons but the Mr figured it out all on his alone! My right hand doesn't look half bad, either, so improvement. Even if, in hindsight, my right thumb looks more like a donkey!

I wisped on some grass stalks using different polishes and a longer brush: China Glaze Happy Go Lucky (another old yellow and a bit darker than BL), OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me (a greenish yellow) and an older Thai polish with no label or name that some may classify as orange, but I am calling amber. Keeping with the safari theme, I added I Herd That to the tips (China Glaze On Safari collection). Now to scroll through the other creations - bye girls x!

An InLinkz Link-up

Big day, big mani: NZ Citizenship ceremony

Hi all! I am now a New Zealand citizen! I took my oath on Friday. It goes without saying that I am very proud and happy. Totally groovy experience! This is the mani I wore for the event (and am still wearing). All in greens and kiwiana colouring! I had my dress sorted, and even my ring (my own) and my earrings (glass north and south islands).

I started with a base of OPI Green-Wich Village. This was perfect green to match my dress, which was green with black (kind of looks like an awning!). Three coats, though, for complete coverage and then I top coated.

Then I mixed an acrylic paint a bit darker than the OPI and drew fronds over my nails. That formed a backdrop leaf pattern. Then I used an army khaki green (Thai indie) and drew over those frond for depth. I used black polish for the silver fern and added some valuable 18K OPI flakes (if not now, then when???) and some dabs of China Glaze I Herd That (soft gold glitter). Top coat sealed the deal.

right hand

I did each step at a time on both hands and made it up as I went in regard to fern placement. I really like the green, looks very rich.

So, proud of my mani I set off in the morning on Friday to take my oath in front of His Worship the Mayor. There were twelve of us, plus partners and family. Each of us took the oath (first with a bit of a story of where you come from etc), then we sang the anthem, then there was an obligatory pic in front of the flag, a cuppa and we each got a Kowhai plant that I have already planted in our garden. Below a bonus shot of the new Kiwi and the Mr.!!
Thanks for following girls xx