Tri Polish Tuesday - September & The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Geometric

Hi all!

Today is the very last Tri Polish Tuesday mani, starting this week there'll be an entirely new challenge for Crumpet's Nail Tarts: the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge. You'll see my first mani for that challenge tomorrow (I hope).

Today's also the last geometric mani for The Nail Challenge Collaborative! In October we'll be doing stripes *winks*.

From left to right:

• Catrice - 880 No Snow Petrol
• OPI - Push and Shove
• Essence - Sparkle Sand Effect - 183 Be my lucky star
• KIKO - 331 Violet
• Mundo de Uñas - 18 Silver 

And I also used two geometric images using GA21 from the Gals Princess set (top and left).

Base for most nails is No Snow Petrol (2 coats) and the accent nail has Be my lucky star on top of Push and Shove. I added triangle studs to my index and middle finger, I love triangle studs! For my other nails I made some stamping decals. The Gals sets have some great geometric images, but they're quite small and won't fit most of my nails if they're longer. I stamped with silver, let it dry on the stamper itself and then filled some empty spaces with the KIKO polish. When it dried I added a coat of top coat. When the decal is dry it's easy to get it off your stamper, I usually squeeze the sides a bit and it will start to loosen. I placed them on my thumb and little finger and added another layer of top coat to seal them in. I removed any excess decal with nail polish remover.

Unfortunately I had some bubbles on my thumb, boo.

I should do more skittlettes like this, I really like them.

The last of the Tri Polish Tuesdays down here!

And more Geometric mani's down here!

31DC 2.0 - Stripes

Hi all!

Today I've got some stripes for you, for some reason I went with grey and blue again (remember this mani?), but it's different anyway.

The long list, from left to right:

• NYC - 003 Prey of Grey
• W7 - 28 Black
• Essence - Sparkle Sand Effect - 165 Here's my number
• OPI - Push and Shove
• Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue (old version)
• Nail Pattern Boldness - Glitter Food
• Glisten & Glow - HK Girl top coat

I started out with a plain grey base and then just started adding stripes with my striping brushes. Because my accent nail is Here's my number over black, I added some of it on the other nails as well. It's textured so I added a coat of Glitter Food to smooth things out. Unfortunately some stripes "moved" making them not so straight anymore. Glitter Food dries matte, so I added HK Girl top coat for a glossy finish.

Most moving on my thumb sadly.

If you're into stripes, the October prompt for The Nail Challenge Collaborative is stripes... so I'll have to do more of them *winks*.

Nail Art Ideas Linkup - September - Ladybugs/Ladybirds

Hi all!

N.A.I.L. is back! For more info, visit the lovely hosts: Brijits Digits, Craftynail, Eeeek Nail Polish! and Nail That Accent!

This week's theme is ladybug (or ladybird for those of us who prefer British English). I'm not sure why they chose this theme in September, because most ladybirds are gone from our garden. We have a few fruit shrubs that unfortunately attract aphids in spring and summer. Ladybirds are welcome guests for us as they feed on aphids, especially the larvae. The larvae are little ugly looking things, but cute in their own way. If you see these in your garden, do not kill them! They are good to have!

Today's lovelies:

• Sinful Colors - 101 Snow Me White
• Miss Helen - 24
• KIKO - Sugar Mat - 643 Spring Green
• OPI - NL 908 Front Lawn
• W7 - 28 Black

On my desk sits a collection of a few drawers that holds nail art supplies and other random things. You can see them here. The design is by Vogue Cosmetics, they used to have a "Girl" line with these ladybirds on them (not anymore) and I picked up these drawers in a local drugstore for €1 each (I have 3 stacked on top of eachother, 6 in total).

My accent nail is two coats of Spring Green, a lovely textured polish, it's not too rough and has a golden shimmer. The other nails have Snow Me White base (2 coats). I used Front Lawn to draw the greens and added some Spring Green on top of it when it was dry. For the ladybirds I used dotting tools and a thin nail art brush. The ladybirds in the original pattern only have four legs... which is anatomically incorrect. All beetles belong to the Insect Class and have 6 legs, it's part of what defines an insect. So obviously mine got the correct number of legs. The ladybirds are by no means perfect, but they are very tiny, so I'm happy with them anyway. When it all dried I used one coat of HK Girl top coat on the ladybird nails.

You get to see the cinderella thumb for close up, because I botched up the other thumb before it was dry. It looks worse than this one *chuckles*.

Even though the ladybirds are not perfect, I love having these on my nail. I hope they last until tomorrow, because my best friend's oldest daughter is having her 7th birthday celebration. Yay!

More ladybirds below!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Brown & 31DC 2.0 - Dotticure

Hi all!

Today is the very last Golden Oldie Thursday... and we're ending with brown. Not a colour most people have a bunch of, myself included. But I do own a Brown I bought well over a year and a half ago. I picked it up from a sale bin for €1 as this polish was discontinued. There's still glue on the label from the discount sticker *chuckles*. Because it's also time for 31DC 2.0 Dotticure I combined these two today.

Today's polishes:

• Catrice - 710 Dulce & Havanna
• Catrice - 910 Oh My Goldness!
• Essence - 124 Wanna Say Hello

I'm wearing two coats of Dulce & Havanna as a base. Using the other two polishes I added some dots, and did dots within dots. When everything was dry I added a coat of HK Girl top coat. I'm not really digging the gold, it is so yellow.

For some reason none of my thumb photos were sharp, so you'll have to do without today.

Even though I do like the brown polish, it's so chocolatey, I just don't like it combined with the gold.

The last GOTs...

Tri Polish Tuesday - September - Triangles & The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Geometric

Hi all!

And my second post for today is of course my Tri Polish Tuesday one, again combined with a geometric mani for The Nail Challenge Collaborative. I just went with some simple triangles for this mani, nothing too fancy.

The polishes, from left to right:

• NYC - 257 Lavender Cupcake
• Catrice - 880 No Snow Petrol
• OPI - Push and Shove
• Essence - Sparkle Sand Effect - 183 Be my lucky star

I'm wearing two coats of Lavender Cupcake and instead of taping off my nails for the teal triangles, I painted some scotch tape and cut triangles after it dried to make some decals. It's easy to stick to your nails, but I found that come corners decided to curl up, which annoyed me. I probably won't try this decal method again. I added a silver line to the teal triangles with Push & Shove and a striping brush. My accent nail is one coat of Be my lucky star on top of Push & Shove.

On my thumb I placed the triangle from the tip down, which meant even more sticking up from the tape... not a good idea.

Sometimes simple is all I need... so besides the tape decals sticking up, I do like this design.

Other Tri Polish mani's down here!


And more Geometric mani's as well!

31DC 2.0 - Metallic & The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Geometric - Silver Asa no Ha

Hi all!

This post was supposed to go up yesterday, but a combination of not wanting to take my previous mani off and my camera not wanting to auto-focus means you get this today (and also a Tri Polish Tuesday post later this evening!). This morning my camera still did not want to auto-focus, so I had to focus manually. I'm absolutely not experienced with the manual focus of my Nikon D60, but I did my best.

I'm combining yesterday's 31DC 2.0 Metallic prompt with a NCC one, because I have wanted to do Asa no Ha since I saw Very Emily's post. Also, my best friend gifted me The Final Frontier by Lucky 13 Lacquer. This polish is being discontinued and still being on a no-buy meant I could not grab it myself (sweet Kyoti already promised me I could always get it as a custom once I'm off my no-buy as she still has the ingredients). The Final Frontier is, obviously, inspired by Star Trek. It has tiny iridescent rainbow flecks and silver flecks (yes, real silver!) in a black jelly base. There is still some stock of this polish left and on sale, you can grab it here! Silver is a metal, so I thought this fit perfectly!

The pretties:

• W7 - 28 Black
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - The Final Frontier
• Mundo de Uñas - 18 Silver

The Final Frontier is a black jelly, you can get it opaque in about 3 coats by itself. I am wearing one coat of The Final Frontier on top of a black base. My thumb and ring finger also have a black base topped with the Asa no Ha pattern. I used Very Emily's tutorial, but you can also use LadyCrappo's tutorial, they are slightly different. The outcome is not perfect, but it's so tiny, you can hardly see the imperfections *chuckles*. It's also easier than it looks, you just need a very fine brush (I've got one that I cut to a few bristles that I used).

I did the Asa no Ha on my thumbnail first and it's slightly larger than the one on my ring fingernail (not intentionally). I really like this pattern, it's so intricate!

I'll enjoy these nails for a few days (the joys of doing the challenge mani's in a different order) until it is time to paint some Ladybugs! Will you attempt to do Asa no Ha?

More Geometric mani's down here!

Nail Art Ideas Linkup - September - Watercolour

Hi all!

N.A.I.L. is back! For more info, visit the lovely hosts: Brijits Digits, Craftynail, Eeeek Nail Polish! and Nail That Accent!

Tonight I've got to start on my Elfia mani for tomorrow... it will be green but otherwise I have no clue yet, eeeeppp! Weather is supposed to be warm, hubby will be a grumpy knight in shining armour *winks*. But for today I've got a watercolour mani to show you!

Polishes for today

• NYC - Foil Explosion - 011 Power of Elements
• NYC - Foil Explosion - 013 Aqua Mystic
• NYC - Foil Explosion - 014 Magic Earth
• W7 - 28 Black
• Essence - Sparkle Sand Effect - 165 Here's My Number 

Black base. I tried different techniques to do watercolour with these polishes. Watercolour is much easier to do with acrylic paint from what I've seen, but I don't own those, so polishes it is. On most nails I swiped a diluted polish across my nails, like you can see in this video tutorial by The Nailasaurus. I just swiped away in different directions. I really like this effect of these metallics on top of the black. I did top coat when dry with HK Girl.

My thumb is where I started with blobs, but it just does not look as nice as the swipes.

Have you tried any watercolour technique?

More watercolouring below!