52wkCrumpet28: Burgundy-maroon

This is week 28 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: Needle drag and Burgundy-maroon (either each alone or combined). I chose Burgundy-maroon as it is harvest time on all the vineyards – lots of pinot grapes being picked! And it is autumn and I felt like a more luxurious colour combo.

This is a Luxio 100% gel mani and untrieds for me. The burgundy is deep pigmented but with shimmer. Really pretty when it catches the light. On four alternating accents I applied a concrete grey. Two coats each.

Using fine brushed I drew a diagonal French on the grey nails. Then I added a fine line in a glittery blue and some petals. Then I topped with a Swarovski crystal and cured with top coat. I am starting to embrace and enjoy all the rhinestones-crystal-embellishments. Curing in gel really 1) makes them stay on for weeks and 2) leaves no edges to catch on hair or sweaters or anything else.

Am becoming a gel nail art snob!! Am getting addicted to the smoothness of the gel and all the possibilities with the gel. Bye girls till next time!

An InLinkz Link-up

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.

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet13: grey (in a candy cane style)

This is week thirteen 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: distressed and grey (either each alone or combined). I chose grey as after all it IS Christmas and I could not think of a festive way that I would want to wear distressed nails. But I had an old fab grey that I decided to use and since we are allowed to also use white and red, I jazzed them up for Christmas.

I started with a one coat base of Layla Silver Galaxy. I love this polish and it is one of my first Laylas, and my first magnetic. In the meantime I have purchased a total of six magnetics from Layla, and a double up of this one!! The polish has a gradient grey with little sparkly bits! You can do one or two coats, I did one today. I probably should have done two; if you look closely at my index finger you can see the blue gel polish shining through. I top coated with Out the Door before moving on.

Armed with my fine line brush I decided to use gel polish and my new knowledge to paint the lines. I used Gelicious Queen of Hearts for the red, and their basic French White for the white. I did the red lines first and then cured the nails. Then I added wisps of white on each side and cured again. I purposely did not want a big band of white next to a band of red. More swirvy is what I was going for.

right hand

My right hand was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Using the gel had the bonus of being able to correct as you go (as long as I didn't cure). A couple got too thick and one white line wisped over the red so I got a flat brush with rubbing alcohol and lightly removed it before curing. Then I top coated.

The nails look really nice and festive but in the macro photos you can see some bleeding. I probably should have waited more before top coating, I guess. In the sun the silver really sparkles! I may have bent the rules a tad, but this will be a great Christmas mani to take me through the weekend.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Frohe Festtage and all the jazz!!! xx

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet4: 1970s design with grey and red

This is week four 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: 1970s design, and grey and another colour (either each alone or combined). I combined.

right hand

I went to high school in the 70s so grey was a fab choice as my school colours were grey and red. So those are the colours I am working off of. The very bottom base is still the Gelicious Lemon Meringue gel that I applied last week. Using non-acetone remover I removed my yellow flowers. My polish choices are Layla Ceramic Effect Sweet Concrete (grey) and Zoya Sooki (red) and I applied in alternating accents (ring, thumb, index, pinkie). Two coats each then I top coated. I think grey and red are a nice combo and this red has a tomato aspect to it - so, very cheerful.

I have vivid memories of my jean situation during the 70s. It seemed that the proverbial "everyone except me" was wearing these cool bell bottom jeans with double button up fronts. Or double zips. Like sailor jeans, but wide and bell-bottomy. I had to wait for-ever until the style was at FedCo where we always shopped. I was so proud of those jeans! I felt like I fit in and was finally "cool". They were a faded jean with double brass buttons – and actually long enough for my tall skinny legs!!

Using black acrylic paint I drew the bell bottoms then highlighted with bronze acrylic paint. So, that is my interpretation of 70s design this week. More a 70s memory, or a 70s style than a design per se.
Looking forward to seeing the others - ciao bellas x

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet1: 2-tone gradient teal with negative design on accent

This is the beginning of Crumpet's new 52 week challenge and I am so excited to begin again! This is a great one as 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: two-tone gradient and teal (either each alone or combined). I combined.

The base is Pahlish Sitting in a Tin Can. It is a great grey with a concrete aspect to it. Flecks of black and white embedded in the grey. Then I chose Manshong teal as my gradient colour. One coat of top coat brought it all together.

right hand

I decided to do two accent nails (ring on left, index on right) using a negative checkboard design with nuanced colouring. For the checkboard I used Layla CE50 grey (the Pahlish would not have been as effective), China Glaze For Audrey, basic black and the Manshong teal. I applied the tape to my nude nail (no base coat) and then used a tiny brush to fill in the squares. I top coated twice.

right hand

The grey and teal work well together and the darker Pahlish adds extra dimension. I really like the checkerboard in negative. Though fiddly, totally cool!
Can't wait to see what the others do! The more ambitious will do two prompts a week, but I am hoping to stick to one! Cheers girls! x

An InLinkz Link-up

a-england Fated Prince

This is a simple mani I was wearing in the middle of preparing for garage sales. The last of my beautiful a-englands I had yet to swatch / wear. I really think it is a shame that a england no longer ships worldwide. I know you can get the elsewhere, but it is not the same!

The base is two coats of Fated Prince (Burne-Jones collection). A beautiful holographic grey. a-england always has such a smooth velvety texture. And this holo really shines! I decided to add some purple glitter (inspired by someone out there who had just worn purple glitter).

But first I applied a coat of Pretty & Polished 7 Year Lich. This is a great black and grey glitter. Of course, it would look better on a lighter base! The glitter has a slightly clear grey base with black and grey bar and round glitter pieces. Then, I topped with a nice purple hex glitter from Orly (Can't be Tamed).

Top coat sealed the deal. Pretty simple, but almost elegant looking. So far today all I have really done is clean out our kitchen and my studio. I lost a polish!!! I thought it may have dropped behind my polish shelves, so moving that started a domino effect of cleaning. And stock take:

glitters = 36; Pretty & Polished = 8; Layla = 9; Zoya = 16; Essie = 4; Nfu Oh = 4; a-england = 8; piCture Polish = 11 (really 12); butter london = 7; Ozotic = 3; Cult Nails = 2; China Glaze = 40; OPI = 58; Orly = 11; Nostalgic Lacquer = 7; CND = 4; and lots of singlettes.



But did not find my missing piCture pOlish. Perhaps George played with it and it is under a sofa somewhere....

P&P H-equinox in gradient with accent nail

I saw this mani on Eeeek! Nail Polish! blog a couple of days ago and totally stole it!!!! I think she used plates but I don't stamp so tried a freehand drawing of the hearts. I think this whole mani of gradient with glitter and hearts and accent and - oh just so fab!!! Eeeek, I thought. Must have!! And I knew exactly the glitter I wanted to use so planned the whole mani around that.

The glitter I have wanted to wear forever it seems is Pretty & Polished H-equinox My Socks Off. I have had this for months but spring then summer came and the colour just appeared too "wrong season".  The base of this glitter is light nude-grey. Very faint, but not a clear polish. Then there are specks of turquoise and gold. Totally unique.

I started with one coat (accent nails two) of Cult Nails nude. I fast dry top coated the accent nail so I could work on that later (last). Then I sponge gradiented the turquoise about three times on to my tips. This was then topped with one coat of the P&P glitter. I knew the coloured base of the glitter would give the visible nude a bit more depth – that's why I only applied one coat of nude.

right hand

By this time, my accents had dried sufficiently to start the heart art. I drew overlapping different hearts and then coloured them in using the gradient polishes as well as a blue glitter and grey. I used Out the Door top coat on the whole thing.

I was out and about in town, picking up my nail studio flyers (invested $20 in flyers, no idea of where to put them!), going to the bank, etc. Basically showing off my nails! Quite a few women said they looked "a-may-zing" and I told them they could have this, too. This prompts their automatic look at their own nails and the typical sentence: oh, my nails look so bad and I'm going to crawl under a rock and die because polish always chips on me and radi radi ra. Oh, how to build clients - that will be a challenge. Had another lady today (fab pastel orange glitter sandwich) and someone wants to call for an appt next week. So, let's hope.

Polishes used main nails:
nude = Cult Nails Cruisin' Nude
turquoise = alessandro 1507
glitter = Pretty & Polished H-equinox My Socks Off

Additional polishes used accent nail hearts:
grey = Pahlish Sitting in a Tin Can
gold = OPI L.A.M.B.
blue glitter = LA Colors Aqua Crystals

Below my inspiration, gorgeous nails from Mrs Eeeek!!! Thank you!!