Frozen Jewel

Hello lovely fellow nail stamping fans!

Thank you so much for your patience.  This post is long overdue, and I truly apologize for my absence.  As the title indicates, I have been "frozen" -  not literally, but I have really been finding it difficult to function as a normal human being these last few weeks.  Pah, enough grumbling...it's a brand new year!

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My Warmest Wishes 

 for 2015

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This manicure is part of a nail art collaboration organised by Mary who created an amazing collage to start the new year off with a bang.  #NewYearManiCollage.   I have added her incredible collage as the finale of this post, so keep scrolling down to see it...

For my manicure, I decided to go for a cool wintery look to mark the start of a bright and fresh new year.  I included all the best things to complete this look:  a uk indie duochrome, double stamping DRK, MDU, and rhinestones!!!!!

I am also so happy to be back posting with A2Z nails and this week is the letter J for Jewel.

Huge finger

Before I get into further details for this mani,  I would like to give an extra special mention to my amazing friends:  Mariana, San, Sumeet and Elaine. Thank you all so much for being here for me. You have all helped me through winter and I really appreciate your friendship.

Mariana @StampingQueenBlog
https://www.facebook.com/stampingqueenblog

San @santie_nails
https://www.youtube.com/user/Sannejoey/videos

Sumeet @tales_of_coffee_lacquer_beauty (more information below)
http://talesofcoffeelacquerandbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

Elaine @LollyBlackHeart (more information below)
#FrightfullySpectacular

Bottle shot

I also need to give thanks to my amazing friend Marty, I am the proud owner of this Messy Mansion super soft stamper head.   This is part of a set of two stamper heads that come in a little tin.(http://www.messymansion.com.au/products/soft-stamper-set-with-tin.html).  For easy use, I placed the head in the lid of a nail polish remover bottle which acts perfectly as a holder.

Tools of the Trade

One final stamper note before moving on:  When I first saw the set of stamper heads they looked so shiny I didn't expect them to pick up any nail polish at all.  I was prepared for some serious priming, however, to my surprise, when I tested them out, they both picked up the image first time like a dream.  And in fact, they seem to perform better and stamp more reliably than any of my other stampers on all of the images I've tried them with.

Base colour:  Frightfully Spectacular, Happy New Year [By Abba] (Aqua with gold shimmer)

Base stamp colour:  Essie Mirror Metallics, 944 Blue Rhapsody
Base stamping plate:  DRK Themes:  Enlaced (left below)

Stamp colour for flourish:  Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 06. Pastel Blue
Stamping plate for flourish:  Born Pretty,  BP - L 008 (right below)
Rhinestones:  http://www.moyou.co.uk/nail-art-decoration-set-design-glitters-rhinestones/rhinestones-nail-art/1200-rhinestones.html

The Stamping Plates

I could not believe my luck when this gorgeous lacy DRK plate arrived for me over Christmas...I had drooled over the plate, but I hadn't ordered it!  Then I discovered it was a present to me from the wonderful Sumeet.  I simply could not wait to try it out, and this pretty intricate pattern was ideal to add a beautiful detailed background for my flourishes.

I am a gigantic fan of  Tales of Coffee,Lacquer and Beauty, Sumeet's fantastic blog.  The link is to her honest, informative reviews of stamping plates, but I would highly recommend her other posts and pages to anyone interested in nail art or indie nail polishes.  And if you are trying to figure out how to stamp your own nails, then look no further: Nail Stamping 101 has all your questions answered.

Frightfully Spectacular, Happy New Year

Here is the base colour for my manicure...I am wearing "Happy New Year" from Frightfully Spectacular. This is now, one of my all time favorite polishes.  Just look how the gold dances around the blue in the light.  My fingers and toes are so happy right now!

Frightfully Spectacular is a brand new UK indie polish line coming soon to you by @LollyBlackHeart.  I can honestly tell you that this girl turns colour into magic.  She chooses combinations that I've never seen before, and they work wonderfully.

Check out  #FrightfullySpectacular for more news.

As an extra special bonus, Here is a compilation of my all time favorite manicures.  I had so much fun creating these, I really hope you like them too.

My favourite manicures of 2014

More details and many more photos for each of these manicures in the links below.

1.    Neon Disco
2.    Snowflakes Skittle
3.    The Bird is the Word
4.    Crunchy Autumn Leaves
5.    Flower Power
6.    A = Angles
7.    Diwali Gradient with Mariana
8.    E = Elegant
9.    Diwali Decals with San
10.  Back to School
11.  Pink Roses
12.  Orange for Elisa
13.  C = Copycat
14.  Candy Cane Chevrons
15.  Holographic Stars
16.  Elements
17.  Pretty Paisleys


And last, but by no means least:

Thank you so much Mary

An InLinkz Link-up

Pretty Paisleys

Hello lovelies!

Here is a girly, swirly and fun manicure for you...I am sharing these pretty paisley patterns as a quick break from all the festive madness that takes over this time of year.

Curly cuteness!

This manicure is a design that took me a while to post.  That's because this is actually my third attempt at completing this...and it still isn't perfect! Ah well.

Bottle Shot

I love this amazing full image paisley pattern that born pretty have created.  But to be quite honest, it was beyond my stamping decal abilities.   (The fine detail is sooooo hard to colour)

To make things easier for myself, I isolated a really small section of this image for my decals, and tried my best to colour the pretty paisleys in!

For my accent finger, I reversed the decals by stamping over a "smoosh attack" base (see tutorial at the end of this post).  This meant I only needed to colour the centre of the paisleys white!

Close-up

Base colour:  Sinful Colors, 101 Snow me White
Stamp colour:  Konad Stamping Polish, Black

Tools of the Trade

Decals and Smoosh Colours:

1. Primark Nail Polish, Unnamed (Pink)
2. Barry M Nail Paint, NP318 Peach Melba
3. Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Sugar Apple GNP 21
4. Rimmel 60 Seconds, 450 Get your Shades On

Stamping plate:  Born Pretty, BP-22

The Decals

Here is the smoosh attack accent finger before I added top coat....don't worry, one coat of clear smoothes out all of these lumps and bumps.

Smoosh Attack

I will definitely use this gorgeous stamping image again, but next time, I'll try it with gradient stamping instead of decals.

Halogen Lighting

Thanks so much for taking the time to  look and read my post <3

October We Wear Pink

Today I have taken part in an important challenge for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October 2014.  Every Wednesday this month I will be following a theme (showed in image below) and each manicure will be pink!  Out comes my girly side <3

Base colour:  Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Coconut GNP 28
Stamp colour:  Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 20. Fiusha
Stamping plate: Konad m71 and Born Pretty  QA 61

Bottle shot

Please support this campaign by joining in :) Use the following instagram hash-tags when you post a manicure using these themes <3

For the nail challenge:
#‎enoctubreusamosrosa‬
‪#‎manirosaenoctubre‬

And also more widely:
‪#‎OnWednesdaysWeWearPink‬

Halogen lighting

Tools of the Trade

Indirect sunlight through a window

Born Pretty Manicure with Pam

This manicure was down to Pam.  She had the idea of working together, but we didn't have any identical plates!  We were going to compromise and try to use moyou images, I have xl an Pam had the regular. Then she received this born pretty plate just in time! Hooray!!!

Base colour: Sinful Colors, 101 Snow me White
Base gradient: Beauty Uk, unnamed (purple)
Stamp colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Plum GNP 1
Decals:  Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Green Berry GNP 12 (turquiose) and Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Sugar Apple GNP 21 (light turquiose)
Stamping plate: Born Pretty Stamping Plate QA61

Bottle shot!

Giant Fingers!!!!

I <3 this mani...even before clean-up

Tools of the Trade

The Decals

I wish I'd taped my fingers!

Twin nails with Pam

My right hand under halogen

Big fingers

Indirect sunlight

Stamping Polish Experiment

The Sunday challenge for Sunday Aug. 24th is:
Color combination I have never tried before.

This was a chance for me to try reviving my nearly empty gloopy konad white by adding another colour.  I chose a Loreal red I don't like much and I hoped it would make a soft rose colour when added to the white. It took a lot of shaking, I should probably invest in some mixing balls! I am not convinced this manicure is any better than if I had left my Konad white.  I probably should have added more, for a stronger colour but I am very happy with the consistency.  I will probably add red more at a later date, and will let you know the outcome.

Base colour: Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours, 320 Pop Fiction
Glitter topper: Essence Nail Art Topper, 02 Circus Confetti
Stamp colour:  Konad White mixed with 1/4 bottle of Loreal Color Riche, 403 Femme Fatale
Stamping plate: Born Pretty QA88

Direct sunlight

The glitter base

Artificial lighting

My left hand <3

Sunshine and glitter

Tools of the Trade

My phone seems to take better glitter pics!

Phone camera again

Party Time

I simply can't resist neon corals, pinks and oranges.  The problem I have now, is deciding which one to wear. Today, I couldn't choose, so I picked three of my favourites:

On my right hand: (I reversed the colours on my left)
Primark PS Nail Polish, unnamed neon orange (thumb and index)
Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Papaya 416 (middle finger)
Essence Colour & Go, 109 Off to Miami (ring and pinky)

Glitter (applied in the following order):
Maybelline Street Artist, 04 Alley Attitude
Born Pretty loose glitter (1mm-2mm Mixed colourful round glitter dots)
Loreal Top Coat Confettis, 927 Splash Peach

If you are interested, click here for my next post to see what I did with this manicure.  There is also a photo of the coral polishes and glitters I used.

The first layer of glitter.

I placed these born pretty spots on by hand

Finished with a coat of Loreal confetti

Party fingers <3

Missing Bits!

This is why it is necessary to top coat your stamping creations!  I wasn't able to photograph this manicure immediately, so decided to wait and apply top coat the next day just before shooting, to make everything look shiny and new.

I didn't anticipate how fragile those little lines are.  By the time I got my Seche Vite and camera out the mani had half disappeared!  I would like to reinforce that the plate picked up beautifully, first attempt on every finger, so please don't think Born Pretty is to blame :)

Base colours from pinky to thumb:

• 17 Lasting Fix, Seabreeze
• Rimmel 60 Seconds, 825 Sky high
• Miss Sporty clubbing colours, Pop fiction 320
• Rimmel Salon Pro, 337 Purple rain
• Primark nail polish, unnamed

Stamp colour: Konad White
Stamping plate: Born Pretty QA61

Indirect sunlight

This is how my index finger should look!

This photo has a green tinge to it, but shows the blues slightly more realisticallly

Halogen lighting

I am so sad I didn't take photos sooner