Crunchy Autumn Leaves

This is another manicure where I am attempting to fulfill several different challenges all at once!   The themes all cried out for me to do an autumn manicure with rich autumn colours, using leaves as decals.

My awesome Mexican friend, Mariana and I worked together again.  See more of Mariana's beautiful nail stamping manicures here:   http://instagram.com/stampingqueenblog or on her Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/stampingqueenblog

Our manicures together <3

Crumpets 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge.
This week, we have been given the prompts: "Books" and "Brown".  I don't have any books to stamp with so I used the most gorgeous, glossy, chocolate brown ever: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Cocoa.

This is also a challenge manicure for our facebook group: Stamp one, Stamp all Ten!   And the theme for the group this week is "Seasons"  I chose Autumn since this is my favourite season.

A-Z Weekly Blog
I am so happy to be part of the group of nail bloggers A-Z challenge. I will try to post alphabetically every thursday.  Yesterday's letter is D for "Dark", so I used deep autumn colours for the leaves and background. Hashtag #A2ZNails

Halogen Lighting

The lovely Mariana

Close-up

Bottle Shot!!!

Tools of the Trade

Base and decal colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Cocoa GNP 34

Accent fingers:  Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Plum GNP 1

Glitter tips:  Barry M Aquarium Collection, AQNP4

Stamp colour: Rimmel 60 Seconds, 405 Rose Libertine

Stamping plate:  Cici & Sisi Set 01 - Plate 03

Colour shift!

Shimmery tips

Another Bottle Shot!!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunset Smoosh

This post is a collaboration with my gorgeous friend Sumeet.  If you love nail stamping, you need to take a look at Sumeet's blog: http://talesofcoffeelacquerandbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/tales-of-coffee-lacquer-and-beauty-and.html  She posts the most gorgeous, inspiring manicures you could imagine.  Sumeet has such a wonderful way of explaining how to use techniques to get the effects you want.  Furthermore she also provides some of the best stamping product reviews I have seen in combination with her love of indie polish reviews.

Close-up

Take a look at these popping colours by Sumeet:

Our manicures together ❤

Now, I would like to explain my post title.

Sunset:  When I first sent a message to the lovely Sumeet, my mobile phone was convinced that I needed to change her name from Sumeet to Sunset!  And even though I knew I hadn't misspelled it, Sumeet will always be a gorgeous sunset to me.

Smoosh:  This is a technique I'd never heard of before.  It involves stamping multiple colours onto the nail in one go.

Sumeet directed me to @With2L (http://instagram.com/p/sZlXl2KmiM).  Elle applies different coloured polish onto one stamper and smoooooshes it onto a second stamper before placing it onto the nail.  And then Mariana (http://instagram.com/stampingqueenblog) showed me a similar technique by @Nailstamp4fun  (http://youtu.be/aQE9lIdYG4o) Swanette applies dots of different nail polish onto a non-porous surface.  She then uses a stamper to pick this smooosh up and transfer it to the nail.

I used Swanette's method, but adapted it slightly by waiting for the "smoosh" to dry on the stampers before applying it as a decal to my nails.

Bottle shot

Halogen Lighting

Gigantic Fingers.

How I smooooooshed!

Base colours:  (Sumeet was much braver than me)

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Blood Orange GNP 4

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Paprika GNP 32

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Satsuma GNP 7

Stamp colour: Konad Stamping Polish, White
Stamping plate: DRK xl Designer - 01

Smoooooosh Atttttack!!!!!!

Cobbles and Waves

C = Copycat

A-Z Weekly Blog
Oooops,  I am running a day late!!!!  This is my third post for the A-Z challenge. We will post alphabetically every thursday, So today is the letter C. The theme for C is "Copycat". Hashtag #A2ZNails


My amazing Mexican friend, Mariana and I copied each other to create these matching manicures.  See more of Mariana's beautiful nail stamping manicures here:   http://instagram.com/stampingqueenblog or on her Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/stampingqueenblog

Base colour: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine, Coconut GNP 28 and Lychee GNP 10 (mixed)
Stamp colour: George (Asda) Molten Metals, No. 5 Party Animal
Stamp accent: Barbara Daly Nail Polish mini, boulevard
Stamping plate: Cici & Sisi Set 01 (white cover) Plate 03

Copycat!!!!

Autumn Love

The amazing Mariana ❤

Closeup

Hearts and Petals

Tools of the Trade

Halogen Lighting

Bottle Shot

Check out the other participants manicures too

An InLinkz Link-up

Fireworks and Flowers

I've been very slow in getting this post together considering how excited I've been about sharing it with you all.

When my sister Amity came to visit last week, she also brought along the nail polish she had used for my birthday nail party.  I used it to create a matching fireworks manicure on my own nails.  Amity was inspired to use this colourful glitter to create firework nails by Naomi, author of the blog, Bewitchery.  Click here to see Naomi's firework nails

Amity got me the beautiful Pueen Encore set of stamping plates for my birthday present and I couldn't wait to try them out.  Together we chose a beautiful floral section of plate plate 4a with butterflies and elegant tendrils surrounded by a lovely collection of different flowers..

Base colour:  Essie, Boat House
Base colour:  Technic, Carnival Glitter
Stamp colour: Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 12. Cream
Stamping plate: Pueen Encore SE04A

Our Fireworks Glitter Base

Fireworks and Flowers

Close-up

It was so nice to have you here <3

Tools of the Trade

Giant Finger!!!!

Double Trouble!

Halogen Lighting

B = Bold

A-Z Weekly Blog
This is my second post for the A-Z challenge. We will post alphabetically every thursday, So today is the letter B. The theme for B is "Bold". Hashtag #A2ZNails

My lovely friend Priscilla had the idea of using these bundle monster plates to create a vivid, bold Chinese style manicure, I loved how these three images worked together, so couldn't wait to try them out.   Here is her gorgeous blog:  http://pcontreras8nails.blogspot.co.uk/

My amazing Mexican friend, Mariana came up with this hot colour scheme and we worked together to create matching manicures.  See examples of her beautiful nail stamping manicures here:   http://instagram.com/stampingqueenblog


Accent nails base colour: Rimmel 60 Seconds, 450 Get your Shades On
Accent nails stamp colour: Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 20. Fiusha
Dotting:  Barry M Instant Nail Effects Foil, NP319 Silver

Accent nails stamping plate: Bundle Monster - H15

Base colour: Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 20. Fiusha (sponged on)
Stamp colour one: Barry M Instant Nail Effects Foil, NP319 Silver
Stamp colour two: Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polish, 46. Mustard
Stamping plate: Bundle Monster - H22

Our Nails

Bottle Shot

The Amazing Mariana

Mdu Stamping polish is AMAZING

Close-up

Gigantic thumb!!!!!!!

Tools of the Trade

Another bottle shot

Halogen Lighting

Check out the other participants:

An InLinkz Link-up

Diwali Decals with San

I had the opportunity to work with two very talented nail artists to collaborate manicures for my birthday.  Here is the full post for my second manicure:  (See my previous post for my first collaboration.)

This time I got to work with San.  She is my wonderful friend and an excellent teacher, please, click here for her amazing YouTube stamping tutorials.  The quality of San's work is just perfect.  I have learnt so much from her.

You can also find San's manicures on instagram:
http://instagram.com/santie_nails

We both adore our DRK designer plate 01, and when San agreed to work with me it was obvious we would use this plate.  We decided to stamp the flowers, swirls and flourishes at the bottom of the image to make decals to colour and apply to our nails.  These beautiful patterns really remind me of Mehndi:  the art of painting the body in ornate designs with henna.  After a few tests, we both loved the way metallic colours worked with softer peachy pinks and this image.

Base colour:  Primark Nail Polish, Unnamed (pale coral)
The decals (from left in photo below):

Savers Nail Polish, Unnamed (copper)

Barry M Aquarium Collection, AQNP4 Mediterranean

Barry M Instant Nail Effects Foil, NP319 Silver

Essie Mirror Metallics, 944 Blue Rhapsody

Stamp colour: Konad Stamping Polish, Black
Stamping plate: DRK xl Designer - 01

Bottle Shot

The gorgeous San

Close-up

The Decals

Tools of the Trade

Our twin nails <3

I love this plate!

Enormous fingers

Halogen Lightining