The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33DC Day 4 - Tribal

Greetings All!

Just a quick post today. Tribal nails are something I really have no interest in - they just aren't my cup of tea. It seemed like a bit of a waste to spend ages freehanding something I have no interest in. So I cheated and stamped.

I used three untried polishes for this manicure - adsa Cackle, Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Raspberry Race, and an unnamed blue by Pink Tease, who make pretty terrible, very opaque (good for stamping!) polish. Then I stamped with Konad Black and Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1, Viva Mexico. I'm fairly happy with the outcome - it doesn't look like it only took me 10 minutes!

CrowsToes Shoot The Butterfly - Another Lemming Slain!

Greetings All!

Last Sunday, Rainbow Connection opened. This is a UK based online shop selling all kinds of international indies. I was initially going to stay away for the first few days (I know me. Things would have got expensive!). Of course all of that changed when I saw the list of polishes being sold. a) Halloween polishes. More on those next month! b) Shoot The Butterfly. It's been on my wishlist since the first time I saw it! So I hung around like some sort of stealth polish shopper, and as soon as it opened I flung what I needed into my cart and checked out as fast as I could!

Now I have that wonderful feeling of finally getting my hands on a polish I've been wanting for months! Of course it went on my nails very quickly! This is 2 coats over black.

I think I bought it at the perfect time, because it's very Autumnal looking. It's also just as pretty as I had hoped! It looks like fire, and Autumn leaves, and a butterfly in a blender!

If you're in the UK, I'm sure you can make your wishlist shorter (or longer!) over at Rainbow Connection.

Nail Lacquer UK - SpecialGirl Nails!

Greetings All!

Today I have a very special polish to share with you. Last week I ordered some polishes from Nail Lacquer UK (I'll have swatches next week of her My Little Pony collection!), and because she's so lovely, she made a polish just for me, as a gift! And it's called...SpecialGirl Nails!

How exciting is that?! SpecialGirl Nails is a hot, slightly coral red crelly, full of black glitter, and with a scattering of colour too. It's so perfect! I love the personal touch, but it's amplified by how fantastic and 'me' this polish is! I was actually a little overwhelmed, because that's such a lovely thing to do for somebody.

I also tried it matte. Well I had to really!

You can buy Nail Lacquer UK polish here.

Autumn Floral

Greetings All!

I hope you are all having a good start to your weekend! Here's a quick little stamped manicure I did using plate DRK-B and Sally Hansen Cinna Snap over white.

Can you believe September is nearly over already?! I'm looking forward to October though!

Relaxed 31DC Week 31 - (This Time) Inspired By A Tutorial

Greetings All!

I made it!!!

31 weeks ago (in March!) I started this challenge. I'd love to say I was so new to blogging and nail art back then, but let's face it, I still am! It does seem like a long time ago though, manicure wise. I do plan to do it all again 'properly' over one month next year.

So this is the final post for this challenge! I rearranged the order slightly, so last week I recreated my favourite manicure (bats!), and this week I followed a tutorial. Well, kind of. The reason I didn't post last week was because I failed miserably!

I have made nail decals in the past, but this is the first time I've done a full manicure of full nail decals. Eeek! I followed this tutorial. I always need to use a tutorial for doing nail decals, because for some reason I always forget which order to 'make' them in. I can't seem to retain the information!

These are a bit scruffy, and they took me forever to do! To be honest, for the work I had to put in I probably wouldn't do a full manicure again. Maybe an accent nail. After two attempts, and hours of fiddly work, I'm not really feeling these! I do think the stamp is pretty cute though.

The base is Sally Hansen Commander in Chic, the stamping plate is Cheeky Jumbo Plate 5 Musical Nails and I coloured it in with Konad White and Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Rapid Red.

And that's it! Thank you to everyone who has taken part, I know it got away from some people, but that's OK! Also, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to look at, and comment on my posts!

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33DC Day 3 - Tape Mani

Greetings All!

Today's theme is stripes, and even though I did pinstripes last week for the TPC, I really want to practice them! I love a pinstripe manicure - they're so eye-catching, and personally I think they look really impressive! So I'm having another practice today (heads up - there is also a 'stripes' theme, and I plan to do pinstripe for that too!).

So here is my tape manicure.

I think I'm improving! In my mind, there are three main 'elements' to a pinstripe manicure - getting the lines straight, getting them evenly spaced, and preventing them from bleeding. I very nearly have the first and last somewhat mastered, I just need to take my time a bit more when I'm lining them up.

The base is Sleek Polish in Millionaire, and I painted over it with Sinful Colors Mesmerize. Both of these polishes are untried! I was going for a nautical, navy and gold look, but I think it's ended up looking more Egyptian!

The 33DC returns on Monday!

Tri Polish Challenge September 2013 - Manicure 4

Greetings All!

We have reached the end of another Tri Polish Challenge. There have been some seriously gorgeous manicures this month, and I've really been enjoying these colours together! Here's a reminder of the polishes I've used this month:

Essie Lights, Berry M Gelly in Prickly Pear and Sally Hansen Model Behaviour

And here's what I did with them today!

I felt like I haven't done roses for a while, so I combined them with some dots. I think they would have looked better if I painted some leaves on! This is another matte manicure - the colours are just too perfect for a matte finish!

I haven't decided if I'll be taking part in the TPC in October - between the 33DC and all my Halloween themed nails, I don't know if I'll fit them in! We'll see...

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33 Day Challenge - Day 2 - Your Most Used Colour Polish

Greetings All!

Today's post is unfortunately a little dull, as my most used colours (by miles and miles) are black and white. Not only for nail art - I use them both as bases fairly often. They're pretty much the only colour polishes I ever finish a bottle of! So today is a black and white manicure. Boring, I know. But honest!

Bonus! I found an untried white. I tend to pick up white polishes if they are cheap and a fairly decent brand, as I know I'll probably end up using them! This one is pretty good, and only needed 2 easy coats. I also used a stamp I haven't used before, from Cheeky Jumbo Plate 5, Musical Nails.

Tri Polish Challenge September 2013 - Manicure 3

Greetings All!

Things are certainly getting very challenge-y around here! In fact I have a different challenge post every day this week, between the TPC, the 33DC and the 31DC. Good thing I prepped like a maniac last weekend really!

Here is a reminder of the polishes I've been using this month.

Essie Lights, Barry M Gelly in Prickly Pear, and Sally Hansen Model Behaviour.

I've been using matte topcoat for all these manicures, because the candy colours seem to cry out to me 'please make us matte!', but somehow I forgot with this one!

The plate is definitely from the third Bundle Monster series, but my stamping plates are in such a mess at the moment! I really need to reorganise them.

Darling Diva Polish Bubble Time

Greetings All!

Yesterday Rainbow Connection opened. This is a brand new UK online shop selling international indies! With the recent postage restrictions, this really couldn't come at a better time, and not only did I snag something from my lemming list, but I got some Halloween polishes! I also grabbed a circle glitter topper, which reminded me of this little cutie!

Bubble Time is a creamy, off white base containing all kinds of circle glitter. These swatches are 2 coats over white.

I'll readily admit that I was cynical of circle glitter - unless it's large, you have to look closely to see that they aren't hexes. I'm converted now though. Circles rock!

You can buy Darling Diva Polish here and here.

The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33 Day Challenge! Day 1 - Dots

Greetings All!

Are you ready for a new challenge? Am I? I do enjoy a challenge - it forces me to do nail art I wouldn't usually do! This one is running three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next 11 weeks. It isn't too late to join in, you can do so here.

Here's a look at all the themes!

I appreciate the effort of making the graphic match my blog lol.

So there are definitely some themes I wouldn't choose to do on my own, but I kind of like that I have to try different things. There are also a lot of themes I would choose to do!

In an extra added twist, I am going to try and use at least one untried polish (or failing that, an untried stamp) for every manicure. This may prove a little difficult, but I'll give it a go! My untried pile is probably the smallest it's been this year at the moment, and if I could use another 30 in this challenge, I'd be very happy!

Today the theme is Dots. Something I constantly struggle with! It can be such an easy technique, and I see so many stunning 'dotticures', but I struggle terribly with getting uniform dots, and even my random dots aren't very good. Anyway, here's what I came up with.

The idea for this was supposed to be bubbles, and as I used a champagne gold polish, champagne bubbles. But it just kind of looks like some dots! The gold is an untried, a Color Club I think is called Winter Affair (after much searching online!). It's a mini from a Christmas collection, and it's scented with vanilla, I don't know what else it could be! I've had this untried since last December!


Now check out some people who can do dots!