52wkCrumpet26: Mosaic-Stained Glass

Yay!!! Halfway!
This is week 26 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: Mosaic-Stained Glass, and pink and orange (either each alone or combined). I chose mosaic. It is getting very cold and autumnal here so not much in the mood for pinks.

I started with a kind of skittlette of alternating CND Blue Rapture and CND Dark Lava. I haven't worn CND Vinylux for a while so thought I would bring it out again. From the start I had decided to do mosaic-stained glass on only my left hand. We had a holiday yesterday so another short week and I have too much to do to devote heaps of time to doing my nails. Oh well.

I wanted to do a bit of a churchyard scene so first drew the outline of the church and yard in black acrylic paint.  Then I added the colours for the stained glass windows, crossed the crosses and added sky. When all was done I added some Dark Lava to the church to tie the colouring together. Two coats of top coat on the painting as the acrylic paint was bumpy, otherwise one.

As almost always, from a distance the stained glass looks much better than in close up scrutiny! And I love the regal purple shimmer, works well with the smoky blue. I probably should have done mosaics on all nails but honestly didn't feel like it and wanted to do a landscape this week. Hope all is well, girls! Thx for reading!

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52wkCrumpet20: hearts and purple

This is week twenty 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: hearts and purple (either each alone or combined). I chose both as it is Valentine week and I like purple. I also wanted to try out some of new Neiru techniques, though in normal polish vs gel.

This is an alternating accents mani. The four accents were done in the galaxy marbling technique. The remaining six nails were painted in the beautiful OPI A Grape Fit. Two coats on the purple.

For the accents I started with a white base. Then I added drops of Layla Purple Galaxy and A Grape Fit to the nail. I used acetone-free remover and a somewhat larger brush to dab the liquid on to the polish drops. You keep adding drops of the liquid and the polish colours until you are basically happy with the flow. I added some white as well. It all comes together with top coat – before it just looks like a big mess! For these I top coated with Poshé – I find that thicker yet still very quick drying.

One one accent nail I decided to do negative hearts. While I like my hearts I am really not happy with the white back(fore)ground. Find it too harsh. But I was going off a Japanese nail art lesson and was trying to follow that. There, though, the marbled background was softer and more pastel. I drew two hearts with a fine line brush – one going up and one down – and the bottom of hearts on the sides to fill in the gaps.

Then I painted all the spaces around the hearts in white using a finer brush. I had to go over a couple of times. This is where the design would be much easier with gel. On the side spaces I added some glitter (China Glaze Prism, a purple-silver mix) and over the white and in the whites of the galaxy nails some OPI Pirouette my Whistle (a fine dusty silver-white glitter). Good coat of Poshé finished it off.

It is nice to wear purple for a change. One of my fab colours but never seem to get it out much. So big thx to Crumpie for selecting purple!! This has been a week of marbling; from Sharpie marbling to acetone marbling to galaxy marbling. Is fun, and relatively easy and effective. Cheers girls!! Happy V-Day!

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet14: three shades of purple

This is week fourteen 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: dots and three shades of purple (either each alone or combined). I chose purple as dotting tools are next week, and I didn't feel like dots! Purple is my second favourite colour (after green) so I decided to do my signature waterfall mani. I am in no way implying that I made up the whole waterfall idea, but I use this mani a lot for clients and in my To Go sets and see it as one of my "signature" looks.

I started with two coats of OPI Peace & Love & OPI (shade 1). This is a purple based oil slick of a colour, that shimmers in green (talk about a two-puncher!!!). There are also aspects of steel grey.

Using a 00 slimmed down brush I added the wisps of the waterfall. I started with Zoya Monica (shade 2), followed by OPI A Grape Fit! (shade 3). Then I combined shades two and three into my last wisps (so technically still using three shades of purple, if you interpret "shades" as "polishes").

I took the liberty of adding some glitter as it is New Year's Eve soon and this will be my mani for that. I dabbed Glitzology Baby Dragon (a purple and green glitter) on to the cuticle base. I had to work off a palette as the polish is very thick. I also thinned it down with clear polish. This is the perfect glitter for this mani as all the colours come together.

right hand

I trimmed my nails down for a couple of reasons. A major one is to show ladies (and clients) that you can have shorter nails and still do art of groovy stuff. So many stare at their nails and think they are ugly or too short or any other reason to convince themselves that they don't want-need-desire polish. In addition, they were getting too long and typing is much easier now!

This will be my last mani – and post – for 2014. So, Happy New Year to all and may you slide into the new year with ease. Hoping 2015 will bring us all closer to nail art nirvana! Thanks all for reading and following, and I thank you for offering me inspiration in your posts and blogs. I put together my "best of 2014" page if you want to catch a peek (Best of 2014). Cheers girls! xx

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet3: 1960s design in matte

This is week three 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: 1960s design and matte or textured (either each alone or combined). I combined.

Am early in the week on this one as we are going away on the weekend and will need to do my nails to match my outfit. This prompt I had a difficult time choosing a design. I immediately thought "pop art" when I read 60s, but then did some research and there are all sorts of things out there. And, historically speaking, pastel tones were mega in as the red of the 1950s was so yesterday! I got confused. I ended up doing a bubble lava lamp type design and matted the accents.

I started with an alternating base of Zoya Wednesday and LA Girls purple. I thought they looked a bit 60s. Just for the fun of it I matted the purple ones to see how they looked. Really like how that looks, the purple heather tone is perfect.

harvey being a lazy nerd and waiting for me to open the door

Then I mixed chartreuse (another great 60s colour, and don't you just love the name!) in acrylic paints and painted bubbles and lines. Using the polishes, I filled in the bubbles in alternating colours and added more bubbles on the sides. I only matted the purple nails but think with the designs, all need to be matted. So I may end of matting them all. For now they are like this.

Since it waaay early week (Monday here) I will rock this till about Thursday eve when I have to start my mani for the weekend. Off to an 80th and must match my dress!
Looking forward to seeing the other girls and how they interpret the 60s. Cheers ya'll x.

An InLinkz Link-up

Duochrome shimmers à la Lucy

Ode to Lucy! I saw this last week or so and immediately was in the mood for duochromes. Lucy's original post used white cross stitches (didn't really like that) but otherwise was totally totally fab! (here is her post).

I used two duochromes for the mani and applied over a dark blue base. I started with ILNP Mutagen, an almost Ozotic 503 dupe. Almost. The polish shimmers in green through purple to brown. The other side is Ozotic 502, a copper-brown-red shimmer. I alternated one coat Mutagen, one coat Ozotic, one coat M, one coat O. Then top coated.

When all was dry I added some black cross stitches. Probably not good enough, but effective. Then top coat again. Very simple and beautiful mani. I got heaps of comments on them at the market. Apologies, these photos were taken after two days of wearing the mani as I had no time (in the daylight) to take pics! But still looking good!

piCture pOlish Color Storm-ed Amethyst

Am totally in a piCture pOlish extravaganza lately. I splurged and bought some newbies and a couple of basics that have been on my list for awhile. No, I could not wait until they were here in NZ, had to have "now"!

The base is two coats of Amethyst. This is a very interesting purple. pp calls it a denim purple – yeah, makes no sense to me, either! The purple has tiny holographic flecks in it that shimmer blue. So, kind of a denim-y sheen. I can see why it is so popular. Very unique. That said.... it could use three coats. I found the colour almost too sheer for my liking. Had tip wear after a shortish while and the unevenness of some of my nails crept through. Weird that.

I topped this in a cuticle gradient with the extremely exciting and totally groovy Color Storm. This is the most fab glitter!!!! In fact, the Mr thought I had done a dotticure. The pieces are round and multi-coloured. I fished a bit for some yellow but all in all, very good glitter distribution with just stroking on. There is a fine white glitter in the clear base and the round flecks are in the primary colours.

So, this mani was a winner! Really like the purple tone (even if it could be more opaque) and the combo with the glitter.

For those who have been following, life is now on the horizon! The end of the café era was yesterday. Done, dusted and over. After cleaning, scrubbing (on all fours on the floor!), mopping and what-not, the exit inspection went fairly well with only one gripe. The landperson is overly defensive, morally unfair, an ungrateful being. Just no one you want to associate with. The Mr was very nervous going in, I tried to stay calm but in the end did unfortunately let the b*tchy out. !! The Mr brought it back on track. There is just no pleasing the person, so who knew what could be found not up to "standard" (ha! The place was a dump when we took over). But, done. Keys gone. We celebrated with bubbles, relaxing in our lounge, fire roaring, in our home, in our life.

piCture pOlish Aurora

This, without much a do, is the beautiful piCture pOlish Aurora. Really not much to say, as it speaks for itself! I will say that besides being hard to photographically capture, it eats top coat so in the meantime from taking these snaps I have added another coat, and will probably do another tonight.

I started with one coat of OPI Lincoln Park after Dark – as that was the darkest colour on my studio table and I was too lazy to go get another black! It works well. Lincoln has the slightest purple tinge and I think that works well with the whole purplesque of the polish. Then I applied two coats of Aurora.

This time I did cuticle clean up as I went along. So, once after Lincoln, then, if needed, after Aurora. Seemed to be a good idea though I was a bit too zealous on my one index finger. Oh well. The polish is an obvious duo (multi) chrome and has flecks of glitter in it. Hence the need for top coat to bring out the shine. The predominate colour is a purple to blue to green to turquoise shift. At some angles (more in artificial lighting) you will see a copper towards bronze hue. The opalescent glitter flecks pick up the blue-toned colours and give the impression of a starry night. Hence, Aurora.

trying to show the glitter aspect

It really is very, very pretty - but not omg amazing (for my taste). It is very purple toned (and I love purple), but not a deep purple. More the a-england Avalon purple, which I personally find hard to wear on its own. What I am trying to say is that the polish is cold-hued. So depending on your skin tone this can be good or bad.

artificial lighting

I am definitely very glad I have it, especially since it is a limited edition and pp has stopped with their gorgeous Ozotic duochromes. Hoping they will be making more of this type of polish going forward. It is like having a rainbow on your fingers, a definite show-stopper.