China Glaze Foie Gras matte damask nails

It's Chocolate Week this week - did you know that?   Originally I thought I would use my China Glaze Foie Gras to do a chocolate themed manicure, but I just couldn't make up my mind what to do.  Never mind, it's not too late - it's Chocolate Week till Sunday!   So for now I decided to do a bit of stamping with it, and also try out the matte topcoat I picked up from Claire's a couple of weeks ago.

Foie Gras is from the China Glaze Hunger Games Capitol Collection 2012, and is a lovely creamy chocolatey brown.  It does dry darker on the nail than is visible in the bottle, and you can kind of see that in the pics, but it is perfect coverage in two coats.  I have to admit, this is my only brown (at the moment!) but it is a brown that I am quite fond of.

I stamped this with Konad Special Polish Hepburn Blue, and used two plates from Bundle Monster 2012 collection - 306 and 318.  I think I like the mix of the two different stamps, but sometimes I think I should have just stuck to one - what do you think? 

And then to finish off, I used Claire's matte topcoat.  This is the first matte topcoat I have tried and I am really impressed.  It gives a lovely satiny sheen, and I can't stop touching it! I have to say, I have been really impressed with the polishes I have bought from Claire's lately.    Oh and apologies about the slightly shoddy cleanup.  I was falling asleep at this point and it looked okay until I pointed a camera lense at it....

Base coat Nail Envy
Two coats China Glaze Foie Gras
Stamping polish Konad Special Polish Hepburn Blue
Top coat Claire's matte topcoat.

An InLinkz Link-up

Breast Cancer Awareness Month October 2013 - Pink Friday mani!

So we are in October, and the whole of October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with "Pink Fridays".  So perfect excuse to do a pink themed mani!

Now, I will say right up I wasn't particularly happy with it - it's cute, but it didn't go particularly smoothly.  Plus those tip images on stamping plates are a bugger to get straight!

So, to start of with, 3 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet.  On my little finger, Barielle Pink Diamond - a really beautiful pink glitter.  I did a silver sponged gradient on two nails, using Barry M Foil Effect in silver which is probably the bit I was most miffed with as I completely botched my middle finger (but was too tired and ran out of time to do it again). Stamping is done with Bundle Monster plates BM324 and BM321 and a Konad Special Polish in one of the pinks (sorry, don't know which one - I have the tiny little bottles and can't find it on them!) and then finished off with tiny little pink crystals to accentuate, from Born Pretty Store.  And COPIOUS amounts of Seche Vite....

 Well, at least it's massively pink!!!

China Glaze Something Sweet & Bundle Monster plate 314

Except from dabbling with a couple of Konad plates I got in a kit a couple of years ago, with tiny little images on like a couple of stars (which were a bit uninspiring but I do know Konad do some lovely images), I haven't done any stamping.  Until today!  My new set of the Bundle Monster 2012 plates turned up yesterday and I was excited to give them a go.

Last night I had a go and got seriously frustrated and nearly started throwing things around in a temper.  So I went to bed and tried again this morning - much better!  I'm getting the knack of getting the image off the plate onto the stamper, which is the fiddly bit for me.  So this is my first ever stamping manicure - be gentle!

I am not generally that big on pale pinks, but I do like China Glaze Something Sweet and thought it would be a nice base for the tendrilly image I planned on using from BM 314. 

Something Sweet is a baby pink creme - massively streaky on the first couple of coats, but does level out eventually.  In fact, I used between 3-4 coats for this, depending on whether all the streaks were gone or not.  But it is a pretty, candy-floss pink cream and flattering on my skintone.

The stamping over the top was done with plate 314 from the Bundle Monster 2012 set and I used OPI DS Extravagance after reading that holo's tend to stamp well.  I may order some Konad stamping polish in silver, black and white as a base set, unless anyone can recommend others that they use?

Not too bad a job - a few missed patches, but overall I am quite chuffed with my first effort!

Orly Bonder base coat, 3-4 coats Something Sweet, stamped OPI DS Extravagence, Bundle Monster plate 314, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.

  

Autumnal Gradient with China Glaze Agro

China Glaze Agro is from The Hunger Games Capitol Colors Collection Spring 2013, and is a lovely, rich olive green shimmer, that applies nearly to opacity in one coat, though I used two here, and very little brush-strokiness.

I then decided to try my first ever attempt at a gradient polish with it, and sponged the tips with OPI Sprung.  It is getting colder now, and with thoughts turning to autumn, I was inspired by leaves turning from green to gold.  As I said, it is my first attempt at a gradient, but I'm actually quite pleased at how it turned out! 

I normally take photos in the morning sunlight as well....but there was none! So took my camera to work and waited for a bit of sunlight.  I also have a lightbox and lamps on the way, so will no longer be limited by available natural light - cant wait to have a play! 

Nail Envy base, two coats of Agro, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.

An InLinkz Link-up

China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le

Autumn is drawing close and I am feeling the need to cling onto the last vestiges of summer, and I have always found this polish such a summery colour, a gorgeous periwinkle blue cream. This normally applies beautifully for me, but don't you just know it - today wasn't one of my best applications of this polish and it ended up a tad streaky  To my eyes, light seems to change this polish as well - when overcast, it is a duskier violet blue, and then when the sun hits it, the colour becomes altogether more vibrant.

The polish is a difficult one to photograph though - they all come out blindingly blue, when in reality it has a definite lilacy edge.  After a million attempts, I think the closest to real life below is the one I took in natural light, but you can see the troubles I had with all the variations in the photos!

Two coats with Orly Bonder base coat and CND Super Shiney top coat.

 

Natural light

Artificial light

With flash

Dim artificial light