Dragon Day

Today is "Dragon Day" because dragons are the theme for day Eight of September is Stamping Month.  I was delighted to use another plate from Moyou London's Suki Collection.  It was so hard choosing what to place with the dragon since there are so many beautiful parts to this plate.

Unfortunately this was a really tricky manicure for me!!!!!!   I do now believe this dragon came from Hell! You are looking at the third set of decals!  By this time, I had given up on getting those scales perfect and was just releived I'd managed to put together a full set of shiny fingers.  Alas, this did not last long, I stopped to wash up my tea cup on the way outside to take some sunny photos.  Check out the damage I did to my tips :(

Base colour: Sinful Colors,  101 Snow me White
Stamp colour: Konad Black
Decals:  Barry M Nail Paint, AQNP5 Arabian and Beauty UK, unnamed (gold)
Stamping plate: Moyou London Suki Collection - 07

Scales under halogen lighting

Fierce!!!!!

The Decals

Tools of the Trade

Washing up is bad for fresh manicures!

I didn't even manage to wear these an hour!

Straight Suki Tryout

Hooray, it's the AIS Sunday Challenge again :)  With 95 votes the challenge for Sunday Sept. 07 is:  Geometric Nails.

I am really excited about this, but I had trouble choosing which pattern to wear...Sailor, Artist, Greek Mythology, Suki, Pro, Princess Cheeky or Konad.  Hard decision!  But Suki won, and even then, there were several gorgeous geometric images to choose from.  So I went for the most difficult...straight lines, in a cartesian pattern.  Watch out for wobbles!

Base colour: Sinful Colors, 300 Easy Going
Stamp colour:  George (Asda) Molten Metals, No. 5 Party Animal
Stamping plate: Moyou London Suki Collection - 06

I am still trying to master the straight line!  I even attempted a video of this manicure to analyse my technique.  Apparently, having the tripod on my lap isn't a good idea.  Every time I cleaned the plate (ie, after every nail) the camera moved with me.  I felt quite dizzy watching the footage back!  So luckily for you, I am just showing off the photos :)  But I hope you like them. <3

Self timer again.

Bronze labyrinth

Tools of the Trade

The last sunshine of the day

My right hand

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Left hand under halogen lighting

Japanese Red Maple

Moyou London Stamping Plate  Birds in Tree Decal

Today is day five of September is Stamping Month and the theme is "Birds"  I have been inspired by the Japanese red maple tree, it is so perfectly suited to this moyou suki plate.

I had intended to have an owl on my middle finger (you can see it in the decals shot) but I accidentally destroyed it up and added more flowers instead.  I did manage the silhouettes of two smaller birds on my index and pinky though <3

Base colour: Miss Sporty Lasting Colour, 540 Boys Love Me
Gradient: Beauty UK, Unnamed (gold) and OPI Nail Lacquer, Ski Slope Sweetie HL E15
Stamp colour: Konad Black
Decals: Primark Nail Polish, Unnamed, (sky blue)
Stamping plate: Moyou London Suki Collection - 01

Rose Pose!

My inspiration: The Red Maple

Indirect sunlight

Tools of the Trade

The decals

Golds sponged over RED!

Autumn sunshine <3

The base gradient

Before clean-up

Bollywood

The AIS challenge for Sunday 10th August is:   Bollywood.  I thought I'd go for a full nail image in a hot summery colour as a background to some striking dark flourishes.  Unfortunately, my stamping was off, and so every finger has a wonky black mess on it instead.  For this reason, I thought I'd start the post with the base stamping images.


Base colour: OPI Ski Slope Sweetie HL E15
Stamp colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Papaya 416
Base Plate: Moyou London Suki Collection - 06 and Artist Collection - 11

Under a tree

Halogen lighting

For the black bits:

Stamp colour: Konad black
Stamping plate: Moyou London Pro Collection - 07  XL and Tourist collection - 20

Self timer function helps position fingers to hide wonky stamping

Right hand, missing parts of every flourish

Left hand, spectacularly off center :)

Scary close-up of the base stamping

Matte with Blue Dots!

Everything melted today.  It was too hot for stamping and too hot for dotting!  But I wanted a cool manicure to end the week with, so went for icy looking blues and whites.   I also learnt that stamping polish does not help produce consistent dots.  It simply is too thick and gloopy.


Base colour:  Rimmel 60 Seconds, 842 Too cool to Tango
Base ring: Rimmel 60 Seconds, 825 Sky High
Stamp colour: Primark unnamed nail polish
Stamp ring: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine,
Top coat: Rimmel Lycra Pro, Matte Finish (sadly I can't get this anymore)
Image plate: Moyou London Suki Collection - 05

Polka dots: Konad White, which was a mistake.

Forgive the inconsistent dotting

Tools of the trade

I will practice dotting 

Indirect sunlight

Shimmery Seaside Suki

I am a newbie at stamping, but these images made me feel like a pro.  Great fun to use.


Base colour: Sally Hansen diamond strength, Crystal Beading
Stamp colour:  Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Grape
Image plate: Moyou London Suki Collection 05 and Sailor 04

Suki Sailor

Iridescent 

Hopefully he distracts you from lack of thumb clean up!

Willo Stamping

Chinese Blue and White Porcelain Inspiration

The term "Willow" is applied in a general way to many of the copies of the blue-and-white porcelain imported into England from China (more info here).  The suki plates by Moyou London reminded me of this style, so I had to stamp my nails with white and blue.


Base colour: Sinful Colors, Snow me White 101
Stamp colour: 17 (Boots), Seabreeze
Image plate: Moyou London Suki Collection - 07
Ring finger:  Cheeky ch44

I totally love this stamping plate

Check out the dragons foot

Mostly scales on the right hand

Flowers and butterflies on the left

Summer Suki

I adore this plate and everything about it. I want to carry it with me everywhere I go.  I have yet to do it justice in a manicure, but I will keep trying.

Base colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Lychee
Stamp colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Satsuma
Image plate: Moyou London Suki Collection 01

Lychee doesn't stamp well over satsuma

Smeared with top coat application