The NPC - Had to have it...

I am late again - but I am so happy with what I have on my nails right now! I bought Gravity a few months ago, but because I also snatched a bottle of Aurora, I hadn't worn Gravity yet. So, for this manicure I went with it - but instead of layering it over black (as I did on my swatch stick), I went with a dark purple base. The effect is interesting, although I have to say the multi-chrome pops better over black. In future, I think I will try it over green just to see how it works!

Picture Polish Gravity with Stargazer 232 stamping, using Vivid Lacquer plates

I used two coats over a coat of Misa Sorry Just Can't Help It, sealed it with Butter London Hardwear top coat (which is seriously amazing!) and once everything was dry, I stamped the moon and the bats with my favourite Stargazer 232 silver foil. The plate I used was Vivid Lacquer VL-013.

A starry sky just after sunset, a full moon and some bats - just screams spring, right?

I really love how Gravity looks just like the night sky.

Thanks for looking, and check out other untrieds below!

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Tri-Polish Tuesday - April week 2

This has been quite a busy weekend for me, and the camping trip means I am a bit behind in the posting schedule. It's been hell on my nails as well, so I apologise in advance for my fingers!

Polishes Used: Ciate Main Stage, Color Club Poetic Hues and Barry M Cyan.

This week my new Vivid Lacquer stamping plates have arrived, so I decided to play around with them for the challenge. While I have a few stamping polishes I am confident using, I always try to find out what else I can use for stamping. After some experiments, I decided on two very opaque and saturated crèmes - Cyan and Main Stage. Both of these stamp well over pale backgrounds (as I found out when I tried a different colour configuration), so I decided to use the pale peach/yellow Poetic Hues as my base.

Stamping with Vivid Lacquer 019 plate.

 I started with two coats of Poetic Hues, and once these were dry I used the blue and pink polishes with the Vivid Lacquer plate number 019. I still seem to have random problems with stamping - sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes the design breaks a bit on my nail.

Blue and pink stamping.

The Vivid Lacquer plates are great - the designs are beautiful and fun, and large enough to cover my entire thumb with space to spare. Some designs work better with thinner polishes, especially the ones with a lot of tiny details - so if something isn't working, don't give up and try a different polish.

Polishes I used:

• Ciate Main Stage - an eye-catching saturated berry pink crème, one of the few pinks I like! Very opaque (two coats alone), with a creamy consistency and excellent application.
• Color Club Poetic Hues - peach leaning off-white crème, opaque in two coats and great as a base for nail art. The first coat is a bit uneven, but a thick second one solves any issues.
• Barry M Cyan - intense blue crème, opaque in a single coat and easy to apply. Very good for stamping over lighter colours.

Thanks for looking and check out other TPC manicures below!

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Golden Oldies Thursday - Pastels

I seem to be perpetually stumped for GOT challenges - it might be because my old polishes are often boring! This week's prompt was also difficult - I used to hate pastel colours, and never bought them until quite late in my collecting career. Hence, I only had one candidate for this manicure - Sally Hansen Loyal Lavender.

Polishes used: Sally Hansen Loyal Lavender and OPI Alpine Snow, stamped with MoYou London Sailor 06

Do you know those bad hair days, where no matter what you do your hair looks horrid? I was definitely having a bad nail day when I took this - the stamping was muddled, the base had shrunk and my cuticles suddenly dried up like the Sahara. And yet, here it is - my first effort at stamping with a white nail polish. I promise, the next manicure will be much nicer :)

 Polishes used: 

• Sally Hansen Loyal Lavender - a pale lavender base with an intense violet shimmer. It's lovely on the nail, and applies like a dream in two easy coats. Quite an achievement for a pastel!
• OPI Alpine Snow - a white crème polish, and in my hands, not ideal for stamping with. It's great for other nail art purposes though!

Thanks for looking, and check out other GOT manicures below!

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Golden Oldies Thursday - Purple

Up until this morning, I wasn't sure if I would create a manicure for this prompt - but then I found out the two polishes I had in mind were good for stamping! My MoYou London XL stamper arrived just yesterday, and I spent the entire day stamping away, getting used to the super squishy surface and trying out different polishes. So, how could I resist?

Rimmel Hot List

The base for this manicure is Rimmel Hot List - a dusty purple with a hidden shimmer that only comes out to play in direct sunlight. Incidentally, this is one of the first three polishes I'd ever bought! I must say I was very chuffed with myself when I found out later it's a dupe for Chanel Paradoxal. Nail newbie me had good taste!

Rimmel Hot List

I love this colour - it works very well with my skin tone, and it started my passion for dusty purples.

I then picked up my other oldie Rimmel - Trend Spotting, and stamped over my base with MoYou London Pro Collection 04. Trend Spotting a saturated warm purple with some shimmer visible in the bottle, but never on the nail.

Rimmel Trend Spotting stamped over Rimmel Hot List.

Trend Spotting was very good for stamping - it's slow to dry, and nicely opaque. Any problems with the stamping were due to my limited abilities rather than any issues with the polish or plates. However, it stains the cuticles, so the cleanup is really annoying.

Overall, I like this look - the monochrome stamping is subtle, and the two shades play off each other very well.

Polishes I used:

• Rimmel Trend Spotting- saturated dark plum purple, opaque in two coats but super slow to fully dry. The pudding-like consistency and slow drying time made it perfect for stamping, since the pattern didn't just fully dry on the plate or the stamper before I managed to transfer it onto my nail. It's sadly a bit of a pain to clean up.
• Rimmel Hot List - a gorgeous dusty purple with a brighter purple hidden shimmer. Opaque in two easy coats (the wide maxi brush Rimmel has is perfect for my wide nails), but also fairly slow to dry. It would be a great stamping polish over lighter shades!

Thanks for looking, and check out other Golden Oldie manicures below!

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Tri-Polish Tuesdays - March round two!

Polishes used: Nails Inc York Street and Wardour Street, Claire's Shiver and China Glaze Highlight of my Summer (not shown - Stargazer 232).

This week's challenge manicure is clear evidence that reality smashes the best laid out plans. In my manicure planner I had sketched out a beautiful skittle manicure with water marble accent nail - and yesterday evening I sat down to my first ever session of water marbling. Guess how that turned out? I attempted the marble maybe 10 times, but it just wasn't really going anywhere; all I was achieving was a complete mess on my finger and a waste of perfectly good nail polish. In the end, I decided to give it a rest and had to improvise something new today.

Skittle, glitter and stamping - a very spring themed manicure

Since the sun was out again, I felt drawn to the neons and pastels in my stash, and chose three complimenting polishes - lavender, neon mint and light dusty blue. I started by painting my nails with the base colours of my chosen polishes, and then added a coat of the gorgeous glitter topper from Claire's. I really love how it looks over the neon green and the lavender. The whole thing still looked unfinished, so I added some floral stamping with MoYou London Mother Nature 02 plate and my trusty Stargazer 232 silver chrome.

I really like the partial coverage stamping achieved with the full image plate from MoYou London

Because Mother Nature plates are all full pattern ones, I was able to stamp different sections of the floral pattern onto my nails, and have the stamps cover only some of my nail.

I will go back to water marbling one day - I'll try different polishes, and maybe I'll settle for making decals from the dried film rather than dunking my fingers right in. But for now, I acknowledge my defeat :)


Polishes I used:

• Nails Inc York Street - dusty pale blue crème, opaque in two coats and reasonably quick to dry. A bit patchy on the first coat, but completely self-leveling on the second one.
• Nails Inc Wardour Street - beautiful lavender crème, super easy to apply and opaque in two coats. My new favourite purple.
• Claire's Shiver- a glitter topper of white and semi-translucent green hexes in a shimmery base that flashes blue, pink and purple. I wasn't able to fully capture the shimmer in the sunlight over the bright undies - but it's there. This glitter is very easy to apply, dries fast and to a slightly rough finish. Great polish from a budget brand!
• China Glaze Highlight of my Summer - neon mint crème, much brighter than my photos show it to be. It was a nightmare to apply - patchy, streaky and uneven; needed three coats for full opacity and dried uneven. The glitter and top coat solved most of the problems with the finish, so in the end, it's worth the bother.
• Stargazer 232 - seriously silver chrome, perfect for stamping.

Thanks for looking, and check out other challenge manicures below!

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Tri-Polish Tuesdays - March round one!

Polishes used: Hits Specialita Apollo, China Glaze When Starts Collide, Lilypad Lacquer Clover all over

 March has come, and with it a new set of colours for the Tri-Polish Tuesdays challenge - my favourite colours, in fact! My stash is filled with green, blue and purple, so I was eagerly awaiting this part of the challenge :D It's still sunny here in Scotland as well, so I whipped out my holos and set to work.

Stamped gradient with green, blue and purple holographic polishes

I started with two coats of Clover all over, a gorgeous cool green holo, and then sponged on a gradient of the deep blue Apollo. These two polishes have a somewhat different holo quality, with Apollo having a finer linear effect, while Clover has larger particles and more sparkle. I then used When Stars Collide to stamp an arabesque floral design from my trusty MoYou London Pro06 plate, and finished it off with Seche Vite.

Holographic gradient and stamping

Unfortunately, while the China Glaze polish stamped well, the transferred pattern had lost a lot of the holographic dust, and ended up looking rather dull in comparison to the base colours. I still love the effect - and just look at it in the sun!

Holographic gradient in the sun - rainbows like whoa!

This was definitely one of the best manicures I've worn, and I got many compliments from my friends.

Polishes I used:

• Hits Specialita Apollo - intense blue with a holographic finish. I've not worn it alone yet, but it worked wonders for gradient work, and dried very fast.
• China Glaze When Starts Collide - plum purple with a fine holographic effect. The first coat goes on streaky and draggy, so the second coat needs to sort of glide on - but once it's on, it's a gorgeous polish. Dries fast, stamps well and isn't extinguished by a topcoat.
• Lilypad Lacquer Clover all over - a beautiful cool green with serious holographic sparkle action. It's a bit sheer, and the first coat looks patchy, but a medium-thick second coat fixes all flaws. Easy to apply, but it took a good while to be fully dry.

Thanks for looking, and check out other challenge manicures below!

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FingerFood's Theme Weeks - Flowers

Polishes used: F.U.N. Lacquer Decentber and Stargazer 232

The first theme of March is, very appropriately, flowers. Edinburgh is starting to look like it's properly spring now, with crocuses on every lawn and some trees in bloom. The days are longer as well, and sunnier - so sunny that I'm getting direct light in my room, where I usually take my pictures. This situation was begging for some holographic goodness, and that's what I did for the challenge.

Stamped red and silver flowers

A friend of mine had recently gifted me a gorgeous silver chrome polish, Stargazer 232, and seeing how opaque it was I immediately thought about stamping with it. I gave it a trial dry run, and it looked awesome - so my manicure plan was complete. I started with two coats of the gorgeous red holographic Decentber on all but one fingers, and a single coat of the chrome 232 on my ring finger. Once everything was dry, I stamped over my ring finger with Decentber, and over my middle finger with Stargazer 232. I used the MoYou London Pro 06 plate, which has some amazing floral designs, and stamps like a dream. In the end, I sealed it all with Seche Vite - for some reason, it never smears my stamping design. When I applied it at first, it looked like it was dimming the intensity of the holo, but this passed once it dried and settled.

Holo and chrome madness in the sunlight.

I was considering stamping over all my fingers, but in the end I wanted to see more of the red holographic beauty uncovered. I loved wearing this manicure, but sadly, it chipped really fast - I'm not sure if that was my application error, or the drumming I had been doing that night...

Polishes I used:

• F.U.N. Lacquer Decentber - a juicy red holographic polish. The colour is slightly desaturated by the holo dust, but it's nonetheless amazing deep red, with a mostly yellow-orange rainbow sparkle. Super easy to apply, I used two coats to achieve full colour depth, but a single coat was pretty much fully opaque on its own. It stamps pretty well, although for some reason the stamped lines lost their holo effect.
• Stargazer 232 - a mirror-like silver chrome polish. It's opaque in a single coat and like most chromes it shows brush strokes so care is needed when applying. It's insanely shiny and reflective, dries almost instantly, and stamps like a dream come true. Because it dries so fast, you need to work quickly or risk the stamp not sticking to the nail, but the lines come out crisp and any bits that are not adhering can be tamed with some top coat. The best bit - Stargazer is a UK brand, and should be widely available!

Thanks for looking, and check out other Theme Week challenge manicures below:

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