Thursday, September 24, 2015

HPB Presents & 30 Days of Colour: Autumn

 I've joined a great group on FB recently - Hobby Polish Bloggers (HPB for short) and although I'm still lurking and not posting, I wanted to participate for the first time in their themed linkups - and the theme is Autumn/Fall! Of course there'd be a prompt like that in the 30 Days of Colour Challenge too, for Day 22.

As soon as I saw the inspiration and the first swatch of Frenzy Polish Apple Picking, it had to be mine, and I had to stamp leaves on it. It was decided on first sight! 

Sunday, September 20, 2015

30 Days of Colour: Nude & Neon

 Day 17 Neon & Day 20 Nude
I had the idea for this mani some time ago and despite other color prompts, I reaaaaly wanted to do it, so I did, and just saved it for today's prompt ;)
The neon pops against the nude in a different way than it does when it's a stark white base, I really like the look. 

And the nude polish is one of my favorites, it's Fair Maiden Polish Fairest of Them All. The neon polishes are Yas and Slay from LynB Designs

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Stamping Saturday: Mermaid Scales


Stamping Saturday is here once again and today I decided to return to a gradient manicure. I'm happy that my nails have grown this long without breaking, so I wanted to take advantage of that and try a 4 color gradient. As we're packing more seriously now for our move next week, I feel like I'd better shorten them down before a casualty occurs and I'll be left with nubs!
My color choices for the gradient are blue-ish and that determined my stamp - mermaid scales! 

Monday, September 14, 2015

30 Days of Colour & Stamping Saturday: Holo

Day 14 Holo & a late Stamping Saturday mani

I had this design in mind for stamping, so I went with a non-traditional holo polish. KBShimmer Home Surf  - a muted teal crelly with silver holo glitters. 
 When I first swatched it on a nail stick, it looked a lot grey-er and more "muted" then I was expecting, but after looking up additional swatches, I concluded that's just what the color looks like, and it actually grew on me - it changes slightly, depending on the lighting.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

30 Days of Colour: Magenta & Turquoise

Day 8 is Turquoise & Day 9 is Magenta
I'm sure I could have dug around and come up with a turquoise to use on it's own, but I liked the 2-in-1 color combo, so here's the next one I put together. I'm not sure if that's more turquoise or teal, after a while my eyes give up trying to differentiate, but my stamping polish is MdU Fiji.  Once I pulled it out and stared at my girly magenta nails, trying to decide on a design that showed off both colors, I realized what I was holding - teal is the color of the awareness ribbon for PCOS and Ovarian Cancer. And the month of awareness is September. And I just happen to have an Uber Chic plate (3-01) hanging out on my desk that proudly shows off the ribbon and the slogan "fight like a girl".  I seriously didn't want to take this mani off, and was really tempted to skip the rest of the challenges and keep making teal manis for the rest of the month. I wear teal for me.
Now how about that magenta? Say hello to one coat of Nvr Euff Polish Unicorn Bait.

Monday, September 7, 2015

30 Days of Colour: Orange & Blue

 Day 6 Orange & Day 7 Blue
Since I like to add nail art to most of my manis, I noticed that what I ended up doing for the orange prompt could double as blue as well - so here's 2 in one! I quite like the idea - I'm already incorporating it into turquoise and magenta, so come back to check that one out in a couple of days ;)
I'm going to say that this is the first official koi design, of hopefully many more to com. As it's the blog name, the koi is present in pretty much every social media account I have, so it's about time I started on the manis :)

Saturday, September 5, 2015

30 Days of Colour: Green

 Day 4 is Green + Stamping Saturday
Uh-oh, I fell behind a day! It's supposed to be purple already, but I quite enjoyed this green. 31DC2015 also had green prompt for day 4, so that's who challenges in one! With our weather finally changing and looking more like what's expected this time of year - well, there hasn't been much sunshine in the last few days, and I needed it to show off this beauty.
There's slim pickings for green polishes in my stash, but a lot more than yellow! This is either #27, Herbalist, or Травник  by Anna Gorelova (blogger collaboration line with Dance Legend

Thursday, September 3, 2015

30 Days of Colour: Pink

Day 3 is  Pink 
I'm kind of surprised by how my color preferences are slowly changing. Not that long ago, I hardly had any pinks in my collection, but that's been rapidly changing. This is one of my more recent additions, Fair Maiden - Dance Up On Me.   It's a pink holo with tiny pink flakes in it.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

30 Days of Colour: Yellow

Day 2: YellowHonestly, I stay away from certain colors and yellow is one of them. I probably have 2-3 bottles in my collection. That's why I was hesitant to use it as a full mani, it's too intimidating. But for some nail art it works wonderfully ;)
 LynB Designs YOLO. I put my toes in the water this summer and got a couple neon polishes, and I love this highlighter yellow! I used one coat of it over a white base on my pinkie, and sponge gradient on the other two. It was good to finally put it on, it's not as scary now!
The stamps are from MoYou plates, and the little bit of green I used for coloring is also a LynB polish, YAS. Black stamping polish is once again, Ya Qin An.

Let's see what yellows were used!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

30 Days of Colour: Red

30 Days of Colour is happening again and I'm feeling ambitious!! Let's see how long I can make it :D Red it also day 1's prompt in 31DC2015, another month-long challenge. Maybe I can double dip if other days are coinciding or are close enough
Day 1 is RED
 I don't wear red often, but I do have a couple in my collection. I wanted to show off this one - Lacquistry Rediculous. I think on shorter nails this is easily a one-coater. But because I'm hung up about any VNL not showing, I did apply a second coat. It's basically the red version of Amazeballz which is a struggle to describe if you aren't familiar with these polishes - it's like tiny metalic/foil like particles. No issues with removal as it's not glitter.
And a new discovery - Messy Mansion designs now fit my nails pretty much perfectly in terms of length! The rose is from MM20, and the quality is top of the line as far as stamping plates go. Black polish of choice is Ya Qin An from BornPretty Store.

Ta-da! Day 1 is complete, look at all these reds!!