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

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

Lynnderella Elf Assured

Dilemma nails. Believe it or not – come on, you won't believe it – I spent time on these nails. Inspired by Procrastinating Polish, I decided to do some water-spotting and then add glitter. Originally, I was going to keep with the aqua blue water spot idea but there was this glitter that I hadn't used yet. So, why not combine??? In my mind, yes. On my nails, hmmmm.

I started with two coats of China Glaze Neon and On and On. I love this pink neon as it dries matte and covers fairly well in two coats. Not perfect, but good enough for what is to come. And the pink pops. I top coated and let that dry before doing the water spotting. Like water marbling – or anything water-y – there is heaps of clean-up and organization and preparation and just plain "work" involved. But I was game and had website pages uploading in the background, so also time. I used Orly Liquid Vinyl for the black.

Then I added a coat of Lynnderella Elf Assured (a destash glitter). The glitter is pretty cool, though am still unsure of how to wear it: black, white, metallic teal and pink bits in a clear base. Well, one coat did basically nothing for the nails. There were little bits of teal and white and pink but not at all like I thought it would cover (fishy, fish, fish). So I added another. And fished around some more. I don't know, it just seemed to be the wrong background. Way too tone-in-tone. So in the end I added just a wee bit of teal glitter (LA Colors). Now, that was too much! I tell you - not enough here, too much there. Arghghghgh!

So I went to bed (after top coating of course). It is raining like crazy here so not a lot of pics. In the "light" the nails don't look have bad, but really nothing special. All my time invested in the water spotting was to no avail as you can't really see it.
So my dilemma is: raining here today. Will it rain tomorrow? Does the craft faire take place in the rain? Do I go in the rain? Do I pull out my rain gear and "just do it"? What if I drive there and it is not happening? Do I redo my nails so they look like something worth having for the faire? Do I leave them for now? Am I taking this too seriously? 
And..... on a completely different note: where the hell is the electrician, who stood me up yesterday and still isn't here today????

GOT: skittle – Hawai'ian style

Have been a bit lax in the GOT challenge. Seems it always falls on the wrong day. But I love skittlettes and wanted to take part this week. Was not without heartbreak, though, as I had to get rid of my lovely a england rosey mani. Oh well, the hurdles in life!

For this ABCCB skittlette I used Nicole by OPI Alex by the Books (A), Zoya Aurora (CC) and a base of Zoya Trixie with hand painted flowers (BB). The great thing about this challenge is that the longer the year goes on, the more polish I have to choose from! All colours are two coats each. I started with Trixie so I could top coat before continuing.

Then I drew big petals and filled in with Alex and then Aurora. Trixie is a fab silver. It looks a lot like foil and reflects. It really pops in the shade. The teal of Alex works well off the silver, too. Another coat of Out the Door finished off the BB fingers. For some reason the flowers and colouring remind me of Hawai'i.

I took yesterday off as well as I had my first glammy mani customer! Very exciting! And while I was all ready to do some nail art or something she was happy with For Audrey with glitter. Oh well, why make things complicated! Just need to find some way of advertising. The local supo keeps taking down anything I put up on the board (am currently relishing in a down-in-the-dumps mood). So doubt if that is an option. Word of mouth is always good - need more mouths!

right hand

Check out the others below - looking forward to some groovy skittlettes! btw: made a cool necklace to match (read more here)!

GOT: stripes – hand drawn fronds over stripes of copper and blue

I am enjoying the GOT challenge. Makes you take a long look at your stash, see what's old and try to find away around the prompt. Sorry I am a bit late in posting this - well, in my part of the world it is Friday. But things mounted up yesterday and I couldn't get it done. There was film night last – great, great Norwegian film (Headhunters) – and I had to get ready for that. Then before that, I had Ripponburn day with the little ladies. It just all piled up, felt behind all day.

So this is my take on stripes. The base is (yicks, another mini bottle) Orly Chocolate Martini. This is as old the OPI from the last GOT mani. I must have thought that mini bottles was the way to go four or five years ago. I was not that glam back then and probably thought this will be fine for those days when I felt like painted nails. My, how times have changed! I applied two coats and top coat before continuing. I waited a while.

Then I used one coat of Zoya Wednesday for the accent stripe. This was one of the first polishes I bought back in Oct 2012 when I re-started being glam. I still love it and have many similars (CG For Audrey, NOPI Alex by the Books). I lightly top coated the stripe area before continuing.

harvey getting in on the action!

I drew black outlines for frond like leaf-flowers. Carefully I filled them in with OPI Greenwich Village (bought at the Viet shop Nov 2012 in the States) and Zoya Sooki (got at my local NW in a buy-a-box-of-Kellogg's-and-get-a-free-bottle-of-polish-special also in Nov 2012). I use Sooki A LOT! It is a fantastic shade of tomato red. The red and green complement the copper and teal really well. Who'd of thought? And, I have gotten a lot of compliments on this mani - people really noticed it. In fact, I have started a similar based pendant (oh! sold two pendants this morning at the café!!!!).

right hand

Today is very windy in Central. And now a coldness is blowing through. Not that nice when the Antarctic winds swept the plains. Especially in summer. Even though I am late to the GOT party today, I am going to take time and check out all the other lassies and their creations!

I did end up making a pendant after all! more here: etsy shop.