October is Autumn: Day 5 - Wine (Burgundy)

So the lovely She Loves Lacquer has set this month's challenge: to paint your nails a beautiful autumnal colour depending on the day of the month. Here's her colour scheme below: how sweet and varied is this? :)

So the 5th October called for a red wine colour, so I dug out my O.P.I. Skyfall, from the James Bond collection. It's a rich, deep red creme polish that is very brown-toned. While that may make it look a little boring in the bottle, it goes on like a dream and is a colour that looks good on my skin - I can't quite believe it's the first time I've used it in about 2 years! Like most OPIs, it does goes on easily (opaque in two coats) and lasts well on me. I did however put it on under a low energy light bulb last night, as my cuticle line now shows in the light of day. I really need a good lamp now that the evenings are pitch black again!

OPI Skyfall in natural (but dull) light

OPI Skyfall in daylight (no direct sun)

While this is lovely, I am however itching to stamp it, and am feeling that a gold design is in order... So, I'm sure this post will be updated soon. In the mean time, why not check out how my fellow participants are getting along :) Feel free to share your blog links so that I can see what you are up to as well! Thanks for reading :)

UPDATE: I have indeed added some gold stamping, with Barry M Gold Foil and Moyou Sailor 07. I'm so pleased with this - I had pictured this exact pattern in my mind, but wasn't sure if I owned it. I love it when a plan comes together!

OPI Skyfall, Barry M Gold Foil and Moyou Sailor 07, in natural light (no direct sun)

The ingredients. Does anyone else get this streaking with pure acetone? It doesn't wash off with hot water and liquid soap: I only find normal nail polish remover to work so far.

October Autumn Colour Challenge: (Belated) Day 1 - Moss Green

This month, I will be taking part in Lady Loves Lacquer autumn colour challenge as often as I can.  Sadly her blog is offline at the moment, or I'd share a link and describe the challenge in more detail. I hope she's okay and is back soon!

Day 1's challenge colour was moss green, and I was excited to dust off a colour I haven't worn in over a year, but I love it for its distinctiveness - it's Nails Inc Belgrave Mews, a moss green colour with very subtle copper shimmer when it catches the light.

Nails Inc Belgrave Mews in direct sunlight

As a polish, this lives up to the usual Nails Inc standard - easy to apply, opaque and glossy in two coats, and with a shimmer that just makes me smile. No wonder NI make up 3/4 of my collection really!
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So, being me, I wanted to stamp this mani (although that's not part of the challenge itself). I chose Nails Inc Westminster (magnetic) to stamp with, as it's a lovely copper colour. In fact, when I wear it using the striped magnet, I refer to it as my 'tabby cat polish'! Despite me remembering all the magnetics as thick and opaque, I found that this was a temperamental and thin beast that required gentle scraping, but oddly enough that worked in my favour. Just as the copper shimmer in this polish is subtle and faint, so too was this stamping over the top, and it's made for a manicure that is even more pretty than it photographs, and is only really visible to other people when it catches the light.

Nails Inc Belgrave Mews stamped with Nails Inc Westminster magnetic and Pueen Encore SE02B. Taken in direct sunlight.

Nails Inc Belgrave Mews stamped with Nails Inc Westminster magnetic and Pueen Encore SE02B. Taken in indirect daylight.

All in all, I'm really pleased with this mani and these two polishes, but I wouldn't use a magnetic again without taking the time to test run it on an outgoing mani, paper, or a painted nail wheel. I'm also surprised at my last of autumnal, leafy patterns among my plates. I seem to have 90% flowers, 5% butterflies, and 5% other stuff! I really need to try and shit on my hands and not just browse Moyou and spend another fortune...

The ingredients: Nails Inc Belgrave Mews and Nails Inc Westminster (Magnetic)

Leaf pattern from Pueen Encore plate SE02B

Farewell Stamping September, Hello Autumn Colours!

So, yesterday was my last manicure for Tina's September Stamping Challenge. It was a choose your own day, and I wanted to do a technique-oriented manicure; I had a few ideas on my head, but settled on a multi-coloured stamping technique and a theme from a day I had missed - Day 5, birds.

So, peacocks were the name of the game. I first painted my nails gold with Zoya's Richelle, and got my Moyou plate ready - Pro XL 05. I decided blue and green were the most in-keeping with the peacock colour scheme, so took two Mundo de Unas polishes out for a spin - #3 Navy Blue and #38 - Neon Green. I dobbed both colours on the image, scraped twice to mix them, and then stamped them on my nails. I think the more mixed nails looks better (the unmixed green on my little finger irks me), but it's not bad for a first attempt I don't think!


Taken in direct sunlight:

With flash:

Ingredients:

So, I have a mani of my choice, with a theme of Tina's choice, and using a gold base that will no doubt return again in the Lady Loves Lacquer October Mani Challenge. I look forward to taking part, and seeing what everyone is wearing. This month has been a lot of fun though: thanks Tina for setting up and running the challenge. It's been a blast! :)

Stamping Challenge Day 29: My Choice

So, it's almost the end of the stamping challenge, and it's Tina's 'Your choice' days. Having missed so many of the set themes due to lacking plates for the days I was free, I decided I should do a catch up, so I am going for Day 17 - Candy.

I loved Tina's candy manicure - colourful, sweet and old school. I have no directly relevant plates, so went for the old wrapper of a sweet I have been craving these past few days - a strawberry cream from Cadbury's Roses. Sadly, Google isn't providing me with an image of the wrapper from my childhood - a closely wrapped cerise pink foil with roses stamped over it, so a modern wrapper with it plastic pink cover and print of the word 'Roses' will have to suffice as a poor second:

So, this one I created with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Pink Fast, Konad White and Moyou Pro XL 12. I was in a rush, so haven't photographed my tools - apologies!

In direct sunlight:

With flash:

Moyou Pro XL 12 (Moyou's own picture) - bottom row 3rd image:

This Insta-Dri pink is lovely (although the bottle is ugly and the brush is terrible to use). For £1, it is a great stamper, and actually seems to last a few days without chipping - something fast dryers rarely do. I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of this one!

September Challenge, Day 24: French Manicure

A very quick post during my tea break, showing how a 'zhoozhed' up a French manicure using a stamp - my favourite rose pattern from Moyou Pro XL 07.

Moyou-London's official picture of the plate (and I used the bottom row, second image in):

So, I'm not usually a fan of weird and wonderful coloured tips on French manicures - I like them traditional or not at all. Well, at least I thought I did, but having seen some lovely stamping such as Tina's here, I do feel it's an option I need to play with more in future

So, for this mani I used Nails Inc Elizabeth Street as the nude pink, and Zoya Snow White for my tips. The roses were stamped with Konad white.  Sadly, I was photographing on the fly, so it's not the best lit - apologies for that!

Before stamping (with flash):

After the addition of accent roses on the ring finger:

In dappled, evening sunlight:

While I don't think I've photographed this well and you can see the day's wear on the tips, I like it a lot... in fact, I think it's a contender for my bridal manicure (given that in my head, that's always been a French manicure, perhaps with room for a subtle twist, particularly a lace-type design on the ring finger). So, I'm still not ready for overly busy or colour twists on a French mani, but I am enjoying dipping my toe in to a brand new pool for now :)

Remember to keep up to date with Tina's challenge here, and see what us fellow participants are doing here. Thanks for reading! :)

September Stamping Challenge: Day 22 - Partial Stamp

So another day, another mani for Tina's monthly challenge, and this is a technique I have been meaning to practice for a while as it takes careful placement - using a stamp that only covers part of the nail. (To see what the other participants have been up to this month, find them all listed here).

I started by choosing a polish I owned but hadn't got around to wearing yet - Color Club Cherubic, a nude shade holographic. With a subtle, taupy shade, a stamp with fine detail felt appropriate, so out came Moyou Pro 02, and the 2-sided partial on the bottom row.

As well as Cherubic and the Pro 02 plate, I also used Konad black stamping polish, OPI Matte Nail envy (base) and HK Girl top coat.

I try to take photos in natural light, but with a holo, I have included the obligatory 'with flash' photo!

I do rather like the understatedness of this mani; I just need some more placement practice :)

Natural, direct sunlight:

Natural but indirect sunlight:

With flash:

As always, thanks for looking, and please feel free to leave a link to your blog in the comments, so that I can see what you're up to as well :)

September Stamping Challenge: Day 18 – Leaves

So, I have finally managed to get another of Tina’s great suggestions on my nails, albeit on the day suggested.  Oops! With the time to do 1-2 manicures per week though, that was to be expected.

I was excited about today’s manicures as it uses one of my staple polishes – a navy with green shimmer (Nails Inc New King’s Road), it was my first time using a mini Mundo des Unas polish that I got recently from Rainbow Connection (38 – Neon Green), and it was my first time using the Pueen Encore plate SE02B (and I’m still enjoying the choice and challenge of using full image plates). This photos have been a bit rushed, so pardon the fact that clean up isn’t finished and that I haven’t oiled my cuticles yet!

The list of ingredients should come as no surprise:  

•         (OPI Matte Nail Envy as a base coat, HK Girl as top coat)
•      Nails Inc New Kings Road
•         Mundo des Unas Neon Green (38)
•      Pueen Encore SE02B

September Stamping Challenge: Day 16 - Rainbow

Apologies for my tardiness in posting, but life has been busy! I have finally done one of Tina's set manicures on the relevant say - a rainbow manicure. I just can't believe it's taken me 2 days to post it! (Voting in Scotland's Independence referendum first thing this morning has paid off by giving me more time to spare than anticipated).

So, I don't have a rainbow on my plates to make a stamping decal from as it's not really my cup of tea. I took a different approach though: to go rainbow with the colours themselves and create a skittle mani. Once I had the colours on, the plate pretty much decided itself: Moyou Tropical 02 and its exotic summer flowers just spoke to me!

The ingredients list is a bit longer than usual:
- (matte OPI Nail Envy base and HK Girl top coat)
- Nails Inc Seymour Walk (pink), Royal Botanical Gardens (powder blue), Notting Hill Carnival (yellow), Mornington Crescent (orange) and St John's Wood (heather).
-Moyou Tropical 02

(Apologies for any poor formatting - the mobile app really isn't all that great for Blogger)!

September Stamping Challenge - Day 8: Inspiration Mani (Clothing)

So, once again I looked to Tina's wonderful list for stamping inspiration, and found myself sadly lacking in dragon stamping plates. So, what did I do instead? Well, I copied the clothing I was wearing of course!

My favourite every-day top is a forest green and white patterned long t-shirt:

I also think dark greens are under-rated as a nail colour, with black and navy seeming more popular for people going for dark shades. While I had originally planned to use a Moyou plate and then use a dotting tool to add the spots, I had a look through my brand new purchase - the Pueen Encore plates, and found this pattern! Not an exact match by any means, but has 5 petal flowers including stems, foliage and some dotting.

So, here is the resulting mani. It is far from perfect: I didn't always pick up well, but find it so hard to see the white Konad polish against my white marshmallow stamper. If anyone can recommend a coloured marshmallow, please do let me know! I do like the bit of variety in which part of the image I placed where on my nails (I would have used masking/washi tape if I'd wanted the same uniform pattern and placing across my hands). Given it's my first time using these plates, and my first time using a full-image plate, I'm happy enough :) Half the fun is in the practising along the way anyway!

The main ingredients were:
-Nails Inc Emerald Street
-Konad White stamping polish
-Pueen Encore plate SE03B
-(OPI Matte Nail Envy and HK Girl as base and topper)

Thanks again for looking :) Don't forget to check up on Tina's progress here, or see what my fellow participants are up too as well (listed here).

September Stamping Challenge: Day 1 - National Symbols

So, I am taking part in the lovely Miss Tina's stamping challenge this September (Tina's September Challenge), as often as I can (sadly not daily). I don't have huge variety in my plates yet, and I pretty much live in flower and butterfly manicures, so can't stick to this fabulous guide Tina has come up with. So, I'll try and do some from Tina's list, and some of my own as time and my imagination allow.

So, today's manicure is a floral one, but the theme is one of Nationality (not mine, might I add) - in fact, it's Malaysian in origin. So, how did an Irish girl living in Scotland dream this one up?

Well, on Sunday night, I watched the Edinburgh End of Festival Fireworks and concert. The finale was played out to Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture (the Scottish Chamber Orchestra did an amazing job, as the the pyrotechnics team). I have listened to this piece of music countless times over the years, but never before had the hints of La Marseillaise, France's national anthem, stood out so well before, as the fireworks reflected the colour and formation of the French flag. So, while watching these fireworks with my friends from China, Malaysia, Indian and England, National Colours and symbols came to mind. When it came up that the national flower of Malaysia was the hibiscus, and the flag was mostly red and white (with some blue and gold too), my mind was made up!

Hibiscus Flower

Malaysian Flag

So, here's the list of ingredients that went in to my manicure (left to right):
-OPI Matte Nail Envy base coat
-Nails Inc Greenwich Market polish
-Konad White stamping polish
-HK Girl top coat
-Stamper and scraper kit from China (marshmallow)
-Moyou Pro XL 13 (top row, 4th image from left)

(I should say that, unless stated otherwise, all my manis on this blog use Nail Envy as a base, HK Girl as my topper, and this marshmallow stamper and plastic scraper as my tools).

So, here is the finished article. Sadly there wasn't great sunlight to catch the full beauty of it, and I'm still learning about placement, but I for one think it's pretty, as do my OH and several strangers so far!

Thanks for taking a look! Feel free to leave a comment so that I see your blog too :)