Spectraflair!

Greetings All!

A few months ago I got myself some Spectraflair. This is a magic little holographic pigment that can be used to make any polish a linear holo! I've been messing around with it for a few months (with mixed results!), but I wanted to show you an intensely holographic topcoat I made, and actually got pictures of! Please excuse the flash/less than excellent quality, I'm just pretty happy that my camera recognised the holo!

Full on rainbow! How cool is that?! I've probably made this one a smidge too strong, as it does hide the base colour somewhat. It's insanely holo though and I love it! I'm wearing it over W7 Black here - one coat of black, and one coat of holo. The lazy person in me likes that!

I'll be back later, with a little haul post!

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33DC Day 12 - A Pattern In Your Home

Greetings Al!

I'm late again with this challenge! I don't even have a good excuse, I just didn't get around to posting these yesterday.

The pattern I have taken inspiration from is leopard print. I have quite a bit of animal print in my room, mostly tiger print from all the cuddly tigers I own (usually with a cat snuggled up somewhere in with them!). I have a bed linen set that has tiger print on one side, and leopard on the other.

The colours I used aren't an exact match, but I did use three untried polishes! So far for this challenge I've used 21 untried polishes, which I'm very happy about! Of course I've bought more than that in the same time frame!

The polishes I used are Bourjois Beige Nude, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Brash Brunette, and Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Plus in Real Royal. I have loads of these Sally Hansen Amazing Nail Claim polishes, they're often 2 for £1 in Pound shops. I can't say I really believe any of their claims, but I think they're pretty good for 50p!

Chirality Gacy Charms

Greetings All!

This isn't technically a Halloween polish, but it is from the Cereal Killer Collection, which is close enough! And it's one of my favourite polishes, if not my very favourite, and I finally managed to get myself a full sized bottle. It combines so many things I love, it's almost like it was made for me! Let's see...pale crelly base, different coloured glitter, shaped glitter, foolproof application, and a deliciously dark name! This is 2 coats over white.

I love it I love it I love it so much! It's pretty much my perfect polish. Amanda received mixed reviews for the names of these polishes, which personally I think is a little bit ridiculous. If they aren't your cup of tea then fine, but clearly they are meant to be taken as humourous, and the cereal element fits with the milky base really well!

I just love all the colours and shapes going on - in many ways I'm like a small child really! Amanda was also really lovely - I ordered my first parcel just before the whole international postage crisis took hold, and my first parcel went missing! Although she says on her site that lost parcels are not her responsibility (and they aren't, of course!), she still sent me a second parcel (I also got the mc chris for the win! mini collection), which was incredibly nice and generous of her. Thank goodness this one arrived safely!

You can buy Chirality polishes from Etsy and Big Cartel. Amanda does beautiful work, and also has a wide range of styles. If it weren't for the postage hassles, her Halloween collection would definitely be mine!

Fire Bats

Greetings All!

I am absolutely in love with this evening's manicure! It is what I would have worn as my birthday manicure, but I had to work and so couldn't. I wore it the day before instead! I spent a lot of time gazing at my nails, and basically congratulating myself on being so generally awesome!

I love bats, and I LOVE this stamp (I've already used it several times!). It's Cheeky Jumbo Plate 6, Happy Holidays. I'm also very happy with my fiery-coloured gradient, which I made using OPI The 'It' Color, Barry M Gelly in Mango, and Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Right Said Red. I just love it! I was genuinely sad to take this off. I'll definitely be recreating it now I'm on holiday for the next two weeks!

TarasTalons Haunted House And Apple Bobbing

Greetings All!

Today I have two beautiful Halloween polishes from TarasTalons. Somehow I've managed to amass quite a Halloween collection (who could have seen that coming?!).

Haunted House is a sheer black jelly, loaded with fine holographic glitter. I'm wearing 2 coats over W7 Black.

It's beautiful, and something that has been lacking in my collection - Barry M Black Multi Glitter just doesn't quite live up to what you see in the bottle, but this does! It's sparkly and colourful and stunning!

I also used this as a base for Apple Bobbing, a fiendishly festive glitter topper! This is 2 coats.

Lots of holo glitteriness going on here! I love the big, green, appley hexes. They were very well behaved for larger glitter too, which is always nice!

You can buy TarasTalons polish (along with so many other nail related items!) here.

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33DC - Day 11 3D

Greetings All!

A quick post today, as it my birthday! I am ridiculously tired, so let's just try and get through this without going off on a tangent!

Today's theme is 3D. Not my favourite theme - I love the concept, and I love looking at pretty pictures of 3D nail art, but it just isn't practical for me. I'm a picker, plus it feels like I'm always doing things with my hands and I always think they'll pop off!

However I do have quite a wide selection of 3D nail art bits, mostly from TarasTalons. She doesn't just sell polish! She has all kinds of nail art bits, from glitter, to flocking powder, to 3D embellishments. I've been wanting to try some for a while, so what better opportunity?

OK, so the red roses are just a little bit too big for me. The first time I reach into my pocket, they'd be gone, which is a real shame as they're so cute! The little black and white ones, on the other hand, are fabulous! I assumed they would be something like plastic or fimo, but they're actually made from rubber (or something rubbery!), which means they bend to sit perfectly on the nail, and they have a bit of give, so knocking one isn't automatically going to destroy my manicure! I have these in some other colours as well, and I can't wait to use them!

I stamped Boots 17 Smoke Signal and BM204 over Sally Hansen Dorian Grey, then stuck the flowers on with topcoat. Glue would work better, but this was a brief manicure!

Halloween Then And Now - Blood Spatter

Greetings All!

Before I started blogging, the only manicures I really took pictures of were my Halloween ones. They were never intended for anyone elses eyes, but I thought it might be fun to recreate a couple of them, and hopefully see that I've improved over the last year!

The first of these is blood spatter. Here is this years manicure.

Beauty UK White and OPI Got The Blues For Red. Last years nails weren't technically splatter nails, as I just painted the red on!

Still quite bloody looking! I remember being really happy with these at the time, although I think this years nails are definitely better!

I also recreated these nails in January, for the new 31DC.

I prefer my most recent ones. Should I have this many bloody manicures? Maybe not! But it is an easy, effective technique.

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33DC Day 10 - Flowers

Greetings All!

All caught up now! Phew! Today the theme is flowers. I only ever seem to do one type of flowers, so although I tried twice to do something different, here are some roses!

I also tried it with some matte topcoat!

These are my favourite roses to date! I did them a bit bigger this time, so I could fit a bit more detail on without it all just turning into a mush! I also managed to sneak in three untrieds - Revlon Get Reddy, an unnamed Sweet Heart green for the leaves, and an unnamed Pink Tease pale green for a bit of detail (OK, that barely counts as 'trying' it, I know). The base is Barry M Bright Purple, which I've been using quite a bit lately. It's a really gorgeous colour, great for Halloween (and the rest of the year!), and I'm just loving it lately!

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33DC Day 9 - Indian

Greetings All!

This post is a bit late - either three days or one day, depending on how you look at it! I just wasn't really 'feeling it' this weekend, so I took some time off, even though I had these nails all prepped and ready!

I went for the fairly unimaginative henna tattoo design. I took inspiration from several nail art designs - I basically just put 'henna nail art' into Google images, and picked elements from various manicures.

I'm fairly happy with them - I didn't get as much swirl into the spiral as I would have liked, and I had terrible trouble photographing them, but they were very easy to do. The 'henna' is Barry M Red Black, and the base is Sally Hansen New Lengths in Sheer French Blush (an untried!).

Liquid Sky Lacquer Dem Bones And Trick Or Treat

Greetings All!

I'm doubling up on the swatches tonight - I still have a lot to get through! I was lucky enough to grab these polishes from Rainbow Connection.

Dem Bones is a black jelly with black and white glitter, and red hearts. This is 3 coats.

This was a bit lumpy with all the glitter - quite a bit of topcoat taming required! I'm in the process of frankening up a black jelly for the half a dozen black jelly polishes I own, but it's still too opaque at the moment. I love the red hearts in this - they're a great touch sitting in among all the black and white.


Trick Or Treat is a super colourful matte glitter topper. This is 2 coats over Sally Hansen Dorian Grey (I'm loving grey with bright colours at the moment!).

This is so fun and colourful! It definitely reminds me of sweet treats. I especially love all the tiny glitter.

I bought these polishes from Rainbow Connection. You can also buy them here.