New Crumpets Nail Tarts - Orange, Purple and Green

So, it's week 4 and we are back on a colour week (or should I say colour combo week!!!) and this week it is Orange, Purple and Green

For those of you that read my Teal blog, you will know that when the Nail Tarts are on a colour week, we are all allocated a different pattern or technique - this week my technique was gradient!!!

So, I raided my helmer for said colours, grabbed a make up sponge and some white polish for undies and created a gradient!!

This isn't a colour combo that I would normally go for but that is the beauty of this challenge, it gets you creating manis that you would never normally do and then you get to see everyone else's interpretation in the weekly collage.

Talking of which, here's the last 3 weeks collages for you to take a peek at (see if you can spot my contributions!!!)

Week 1 Hobbies

Week 2 - Teal

Week 3 - Geeks!!!

So, there's what the Nail Tarts have been up to for the last few weeks!!! Hope you like them!!!

Xoxo

New Crumpets Nail Tarts - Geeks!!!

So, we are back on 'Theme' week with the new Crumpets Nail Tarts 52 week challenge and the theme for this week is Geeks!!!

I really struggled with this, so decided to google the word "geeks" and came up with lots of images linked to computer games and technology. Not really inspired by what I was seeing, I decided to look for inspiration elsewhere. I was just about to close the tab, when I spotted the word "scrabble" on one of the images - light bulb moment!!! 

I decided to create the base for my scrabble letters using a new Gellux Gel polish "Naked" from the Nude range that I purchased at the Beauty Show at Olympia earlier in the month. I also decided to try out a new product that Gellux have just released - nail guards!!!

Nail guards come in 9 different nail sizes but the larger ones can easily be cut to size (or used on big toes!!) For once, having short nubbins was a benefit, as I was able to cut the nail guard in half and make one guard do 2 nails - yippee!!! 

Once the correct nail guard size had been selected and cut to size, I had to peel off the white backing paper to reveal a transparent nail guard with an exposed sticky side. The sticky side needs to be placed on a clean, dry nail. As long as 90% of the nail bed is covered, the nail guard will work. Once in place, the clear, hard protective cover can be removed and the nail is ready to have Gellux gel polish applied (with no need for fast bond!!!)

Once the gel has been cured in an LED lamp you would never know that the nail guards are in place. That is until you come to remove the gel!!!. No more soaking cotton wool in gel remover, no more wrapping my fingers in foil (and looking like Edward Scissor Hands!!!) and no more messy gel residue after removal. Simply peel the polish off in one piece (incredibly satisfying if you enjoy picking at things!!!)

So, there it is, a review of Gellux Nail Guards which I can't recommend highly enough (especially if like me you like to change your colour regularly!!!) and this week's contribution to the New Crumpets Nail Tarts - Geeks!!!

Xoxo

Salon System Gellux Nail Guards £24.95 for 720 nail guards (that's 34p per mani - or less, if like me you manage to get each nail guard to do 2 nails!!)

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New Crumpets Nail Tarts - Teal / geometric

So, it's week 2 of the New Crumpets Nail tarts and this week, everyone taking part in the challenge does a mani using the same colour ( although this is clearly subject to interpretation of the colour!!! Who knew there were 50 shades of teal??? ) The challenge has a twist as every mani will be created using a different technique, design or pattern  (sound complicated? You should see the spread sheet!!!)

Teal is the colour this week and my pattern is geometric. I used Morgan Taylor "The Big Reveal" which is a dark sparkly teal and then I stamped a geometric design over the top using MoYou plate 122

Once all the manis have been posted, a huge collage of all the manis is created under the hashtag 40 great nailart ideas!!

New Crumpets Nail Tarts - Teal / Geometric

Xoxo

 

New Crumpets Nail Tarts - Hobbies

So, I've had a few weeks away from nail art, but the start of a New Crumpet's Nail Tarts challenge has inspired me to go back to my blog.

The new group will be posting challenges on a weekly basis on a Friday - one week it will be a theme (this week's theme is Hobbies) and the following week it will be a colour, linked with a pattern. Each member has a different pattern to create with the colour for the week and all the designs will then get posted in a giant collage. 

Sounds complicated huh!!!! Hope I don't mess up!!!

 We've had several weeks notice to get our heads around how it's all going to work, and yet I find myself on the evening of post day, week one and have only just thought about what my first post will be !!!

My first thought, was to do something nail related, (as it's the only real hobby I have!!!) but I guessed quite a few of the group members would do something similar, and I wasn't wrong!!! 

Instead, I decided to go back 35 years to a hobby that my Grandma introduced me to - Patchwork!!!

I used 3 Leighton Denny polishes "I Like Likac", "Really Royal" and "Morning Dew". They were free gifts with last month's Harper's Bazaar Magazine (I managed to get 4 of the 6 colours - although the girl in the shop thought I was mad!!!)

So, there it is, week 1 of New Crumpets Nail Tarts - Hobbies!!!

Xoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

Tweed and/or Pale Pink for Crumpets Nail Tarts 52 week pick n mix challenge!!!

So, I've been a bit quiet lately with my blog, mainly down to being on holiday and the kids being off school - where does all my time go???

I'm determined to keep going with the blog though, especially now that a New Crumpets NailTarts group has been set up with a fantastic year long challenge with a twist, starting in October - all will be revealed in due course!!! 

But for now, I'm going to keep going with the old weekly challenge that offers 2 prompts. You can choose to do either of the prompts on their own or opt to do a combination of the two - I usually try and do both so that I push myself and my Nailart and this week is no exception!!!

This week the prompts are Tweed and/or Pale pink, so I decided to use my Ciate Liquid Chalk Duo of Confess (Nude) and Cheek to Cheek (Dusty Pink) along with my Born Pretty Stamping plate QA81.

I started with a base of Ciate Cheek to Cheek - this Liquid Chalk polish is so opaque that it only needs one coat and it dries really quickly to a matte finish.

Next up, I stamped a houndstooth design using my Born Pretty stamping plate QA81 and the other half of the Ciate Liquid Chalk Duo, Confess. The polish stamped really well using my new squidgy square stamper from MoYou that I reviewed on my last blog.

I'm never really sure about a mani when it comes to a matte finish, so I decided to add a coat of my favourite top coat Glisten & Glow HK Girl from Rainbow Connection just so I could see what it looked like with a glossy finish!!!

So, there it is (with a little bit of artistic licence where Tweed/Houndstooth are concerned!!!) this week's contribution to Crumpets Nail Tarts 52 week pick n mix Challenge - Tweed and/or Pale Pink!!!

Xoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

MoYou Summer Refreshments Collection

So, I was lucky enough to be asked by MoYou Nails to review their new collection of stamping polishes - The Summer Refreshments Collection

http://moyounails.com/shop/moyou-nails-summer-refreshments-collection/

There are 4 colours in the collection shown here from left to right Minty Mojito,  Peachy Passion, Pineapple Paradise and Strawberry Surprise. The colours are really vibrant (I'd go as far as to say neon!!) and scream summer at you, both visually and with their "Summer Refreshment" names!!!

In addition to the polishes, I received Stamping plate 301 from the Concept Collection http://moyounails.com/shop/image-plate-301/ 

and Moyou's new square stamper to review http://moyounails.com/shop/moyou-square-stamp-scraper-black-white/ . 

I've only ever used round stampers so was quite excited to get going and try all the new products out. 

I started off with plate 301 and decided to try and create a stamping gradient. I painted a base of white then set about adding three colours to the plate, Strawberry Surprise, Pineapple Paradise and Minty Mojito. Having scraped the excess polish away, I was disappointed that the stamper didn't pick up any of the polish. Not to be beaten though, I cleaned and dried the plate, then primed the stamper using a magic eraser. After removing any loose particles from the head of the stamper, with the sticky side of some masking tape, I added the 3 colours to the plate again, scraped and hoped for the best!!! This time the design transferred beautifully both onto the stamp and then in turn onto my nails. My photography doesn't do this mani justice as the gradient stamping was really effective in real life.

The head of the stamper is "squidgier" (is that even a word???) than any of my others and it allowed the design to be stamped in one movement, rather than rolling the stamper across my nails - my nail almost sank into the stamper (albeit my nails are very short nubbies at the moment!!!)

Sticking with Plate 301 I decided to pick out the rose/flower design. I alternated the base colour and stamping colour on each nail using white and Strawberry Surprise. Plate 301 has a continuous design so consequently it's impossible not to pick up unwanted parts of the design on the stamper. I used the sticky side of a piece of masking tape to remove the unwanted part of the design from the stamper head before transferring the flower onto my nails.

I liked how the polishes were looking over a white base so kept going with this. I changed to Plate 128 and stamped the scales design with Minty Mojito. As in the previous mani, I then used the stamping polish as the base colour and stamped a flower from the same plate in white. Although the polish is designed for stamping, it works really well as a base colour and could even be worn on its own!!!

Having exhausted the white base mani, I had a go at creating decals using all 4 Summer Refreshment polishes. I painted some squares of topcoat onto a piece of cellophane and once it was dry, stamped a design from Plate 122 in black onto the top coat square. The design is the same shape and size as the head of the stamper which made stamping "seem" easier, but this may have been psychological!!! Once the design was in place on the cellophane, I used all four colours to "colour in" the back of the design. Once completely dry I peeled the decals away from the cellophane and was ready to add them to my nails.

I used Peachy Passion and put one coat on all my nails. Before the polish was dry, I placed the decals over the middle 2 nails and gently pushed them into place with an orange stick. I finished off by adding a top coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl - which sets the decal in place. I then painted a second coat of Peachy Passion on my index and little fingers.

I was so thrilled with how this mani looked, I removed the Peachy Passion and added Pineapple Paradise ......

......then Strawberry Surprise ........

......then, you guessed it, Minty Mojito.

I can't decide which one I liked best - loved them all!!!

The polishes were great vibrant colours, stamped beautifully and looked great as a base polish too!!! The stamper will definitely be my stamper of choice in the future - it really suited my nails and I found it far easier to use than my current stampers (once I'd primed it that is!!!)

 

All four polishes in the Summer refreshment collection have a rrp of £4.99 and the plate is reduced to £3.99

Hope you like the manis I created with these gorgeous polishes from MoYou nails Summer Refreshments Collection!!!

Xoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

Wiki'd Nail Challenge - Salicylic Acid!!!

So, another week into the Wiki'd nails challenge and another week where I was totally stumped and didn't have a clue what to create (it's a bit of a recurring theme with this challenge!!!)

Here's the Wikipedia definition

Salicylic acid (from Latin salix, willow tree, from the bark of which the substance used to be obtained) is a monohydroxybenzoic acid, a type of phenolic acid and a beta hydroxy acid. 

This didn't help me much (I was never any good at Chemistry at school!!!) so I checked out the photos on the Wikipedia post.

There weren't many but this one caught my eye and sewed the seed of an idea!!!

I was going to try and create the design freehand but I came across a stamping plate with a similar design (whilst looking for something else!!) so decided to practice my stamping skills (or lack of them!!!)

I started with a simple pastel neon gradient ....

.....then stamped the design in black. I was really pleased with how this design turned out despite an initial lack of inspiration!!!

So there it is - this week's contribution to Wiki'd Naiks Challenge - Salicylic Acid!!!

Xoxo

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Wiki'd Nail Challenge - Midas!!!

So, another week gone and another Wiki'd nail challenge completed. This week didn't prove to be quite so challenging as previous weeks but maybe that's because I went for the easy option!!!

The Wikipedia definition of Midas is as follows

Midas (/ˈmaɪdəs/; Greek: Μίδας) is the name of at least three members of the royal house of Phrygia.

The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched with his hand into gold. 

I started with this amazing neon coral polish from Claire's as my base colour. I've got to mention at this point, (and I know it's going to expose my age!!) but all the way through this mani, and even now as I write this blog, I've got the 1986 Midnight Star song "Midas Touch" running through my head!!!! Please don't tell me I'm the only one who remembers this tune!!!

I then used Ciate Carousel on a piece of sponge to create this Midas Mani.

So there it is, this week's Wiki'd nail challenge - Midas!!!

Xoxo

Wiki'd Nail Challenge - Deinocheirus!!!

So, the Wiki'd Nails Challenge continues and this week the prompt is as random as ever - Deinocheirus!!!

Here's the official definition from Wikipedia

Deinocheirus (/ˌdaɪnɵˈkaɪərəs/ dy-no-ky-rəs) is a genus of large ornithomimosaur (ostrich dinosaur) that lived during the Late Cretaceous around 70 million years ago

As has been the case on most of the challenges I was really stumped and this week I even considered missing the week out!!! But it bothered me all day that I was taking the easy option by not creating a mani - so instead I decided to try and think outside the box again.

And here's what I came up with....

I dropped the dinosaur part and took my inspiration from the Ostrich part!!! I used China Glaze Dashboard Dreamer and then used acrylic paint to create the design!!!

I'm glad I persevered and thought outside the box, as I'm quite taken with this little guy I created for this week's Wiki'd Nails Challenge - Deinocheirus!!!

Xoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

Wiki'd nail challenge - Huang Hongtao!!!

So, the last few weeks have seen various nail challenges inspired by miscellaneous Wikipedia links.

This week however is slightly different, as we were given a free run of Wikipedia for a random prompt!!!

Fortunately for me there is a random search function on the Wikipedia website, so I set about finding out what my prompt was going to be this week and here it is ....

Huang Hongtao (Chinese:黄洪涛) (born December 3, 1970) is a former Chinese international footballer who played as a Goalkeeper. 

Where to start????? I decided to take my inspiration from the Chinese version of his name.

I started with a red base using Nails Inc by Victoria Beckham Judo Red.

As Huang Hongtao played football for his national team I decided to add the Chinese Flag on my index finger using Rimmel London Chin Up Buttercup.

I finished by adding the Chinese Spelling of Huang Hongtau's name using Maybelline Blackout.

Hope you like my interpretation of this week's Wiki'd Nails Challenge - Huang Hongtau!!!

Xoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

Saran Wrap and/or Glitter for 52 Week pick n mix challenge.

So,  this week I learnt a new technique and a new term - "Saran Wrap"

It appears that Saran Wrap is indeed what I have called cling film all my life and it also appears that it can be used in a nail art technique!!! 

Step 1 - paint your nails with a base colour and allow to dry fully.

Step 2 - take a piece of Saran Wrap (cling film) and scrunch it up 

Step 3 paint another coat of a different colour and dab with the cling film

Step 4 (optional) - add a glitter top coat (cos its part of the prompt!!!)

I love how simple this technique is yet how effective the mani looks 

So there it is - Saran Wrap and/or Glitter for 52 week Pick n Mix Challenge.

Xoxo

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Wiki'd Nail Challenge - Bridge!!!

So, the Wiki'd Nail challenge continues to go from random prompt to random prompt and this week is no exception!!!

We've gone from Tattoo in Week 1 to Water Babies, then Tesla and now Bridge is this week's prompt - 

A bridge is a structure built to spanphysical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. 

Like most weeks with this challenge so far, I've struggled for inspiration. I'm not a great fan of designs that go across all my nails, as I can never get them to line up properly for a photo!!! So I tried to think outside the box and strayed from the official definition and took my inspiration from the first part of the Wikipedia link

This article is about the structure. For the card game, see Contract bridge .

So, instead of a physical structure on my nails, I went with hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades on a green background to represent cards on a card table for a game of Bridge!!! I used Sinful Colours Envy as the base, Ciate Mistress for the hearts and diamonds and w7 black for the clubs and spades. 

Hope you like my alternative (if somewhat  off the wall!!!) interpretation for this week's Wiki'd Nail Challenge - Bridge!!!

Xoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

Free NailsInc polishes with July's issue of InStyle Magazine

So, from time to time magazines will offer freebies to entice you into buying. I'm not usually tempted by the various offerings - unless of course the free gifts are nail polish - then it's a whole different ball game - not only am I tempted to buy the magazine, I turn into a crazed customer rifling through the magazines to ensure I've got EVERY shade!!! I'm now quite used to the strange looks from the shop assistant when I purchase 4 copies of exactly the same magazine!!!

The July issue of InStyle magazine has 4 gorgeous shades of NailsInc polish and I am now the proud owner of all 4 polishes (plus I've got 4 copies of the same magazine!!)

From left to right When Doves Cry, Love Will Tear us Apart, The Tide is High and The Boys of Summer - great names for great polishes (Dont tell me I'm the only one who found myself singing the tunes and showing my age!!!)

First up was When Doves Cry - I love grey (my wardrobe is full of it!!) and always find myself being drawn to it. This grey has a slight lilac tinge to it which somehow gave a summery feel to the mani. 

Having seen what the polish looked like on its own, I was itching to add another colour and some nail art. I love grey and orange together so I added China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy to create my Take That mani for their concert at the O2 Arena.

Next up was Love Will Tear Us Apart - a vibrant tomato red/orange. This polis is really glossy and the photo is with just 2 coats of polish and no top coat!!!

With the name of the polish in mind I used this polish (along with The Boys of Summer) to create this Ikat heart mani with Sarah @sezies_nails on Instagram. 

I'd never used the Ikat technique before and it was great fun doing it with another nail addict!!! I was really pleased with how the mani (and the twin mani!!!) turned out.

Then it was the turn of this delightful pale turquoise blue - aptly named The Tide is High - this wasn't quite so glossy and is shown here with a top coat of my favourite super glossy Glisten & Glow HK Girl. 

One of my challenges on Sunday had the prompt "Ocean" so what better polish to use as the base for my Ocean nails

Last , but by no means least, is The Boys of Summer , a vibrant shocking pink which again had a super glossy finish with no need for top coat.

I used Smart Nails Nailart stencils (along with When Doves Cry) to create this final mani.

I loved all four colours and would thoroughly recommend rifling through the magazines  in your local newsagents or supermarket and putting up with the strange looks you might get to bag all 4 free NailsInc polishes with the July issue of InStyle Magazine!!!

Xoxo