Cracked Mirrors

Hello lovelies!

I actually love what I am currently wearing on my nails. I'm fairly new to stamping; I purchased my first set of plates/stamper/scraper just after Christmas, but I'm quite pleased with how these turned out.

Half Moon Street is a beautiful, highly pigmented, shimmery cerise, which was pretty much flawless in one coat. It does stain though, just look at my cuticle on my ring finger! (I think I need to get some pure acetone for clean up/cleaning my plates) As you can see, Bond Street Lights is a perfect stamping polish, too.

The image is from BM-208 and kind of reminds me of a cracked mirror or something. I like it!

Holographic Zebra

Hello!

Today's mani is one that I did for a group I'm part of on Facebook, Adventures in Stamping. This week's challenge was to do a mani using a plate ending in the number 3. I only had three plates to choose from because I'm fairly new to stamping, and only have the second Bundle Monster set, but I had a look through them and couldn't resist using this one:

The polishes I used were M&S Rainbow for the base, GOSH's Black Passion for the image and China Glaze's Fairy Dust over the top. The image is from Bundle Monster's BM-223 plate. Annoyingly, my thumb nail was a smidge too long for the image, but it's not too noticeable in person!

In all honesty, most of the time this looks like zebra print over silver polish, with some fine holo glitter over the top; it's only when in direct sunlight that you can really see the holo from Rainbow coming through. I still think it's pretty though, and I think I'll be re-creating this mani again at some point. Can't go wrong with a bit of zebra print! ;)

I'll do graffiti if you sing to me in French

Today I wanted to show you another Max Factor polish I picked up when I got my first bottle of Fantasy Fire - Graffiti.

Graffiti is a beautiful sparkly green/teal colour. The photos show two coats of Graffiti over Nails Inc's A&E Protein Treatment base coat. No top coat, cos I forgot! Bad Kat.

 

I'm not really sure where the pink flashes came from in the photos, because there isn't even a tiny smidge of pink in this polish! I'm guessing it might've been the reflection from my hair, or my bath robe or something!

I found the brush a little difficult to work with because it's so tiddly, but it wasn't too problematic overall. Application was okay, the polish is a little sheer and the first coat went on a bit streaky, but with a second coat of polish over the top, it evened out and looks lovely! I think I might layer this over GOSH Ocean next time I use it. Ocean is lighter but I think it might look quite pretty!

Did you all have a good weekend? I ventured into London yesterday to see Brand New, who are one of my favourite bands in the world ever. It was the third time I'd seen them, and they never fail to impress. I got home around 00:50, and my alarm went off at 05:45 this morning. Needless to say, I am a tired bean so even though it is only 8:30, I am going to bed now, cos I've been wanting to go to bed since I got in at 5!

Cosmic Purple

Hello lovelies!

Today I wanted to show you a polish I was given for Christmas; W7 Cosmic Purple.

Cosmic Purple is a gorgeous glittery polish, consisting of pink, silver and blue glitter in a sheer purple base. Lovely! Almost full opacity was achieved in just two coats of polish (though upon seeing some of these pictures, I realise I probably should've done added another one) the finish was a little gritty, but that was nothing that a couple of coats of top coat couldn't sort out!

Anyway, onto the pics... These are two coats of Cosmic Purple over Nails Inc A&E Protein Treatment base coat, with Nails Inc Albert Bridge top coat.

As you can see, on my index finger in particular, I could've done with another coat as there's a bit of a bald patch and visible nail line, but it's not that noticeable in person, promise! And I apologise for the chinchilla hair on my ring finger! Those hairs get everywhere....

After a day or two, I decided I wanted to see how this looked matte, because I really like the look of how glitters/flakies/shimmers/etc look when they have a matte top coat on them. So, I added a coat of Essie's 'Matte About You'

I really like how this polish looks, both shiny and matte. Which do you prefer?

I'd never actually used a W7 polish before I put this on my nails on Friday, but I think I'll be keeping an eye out for more.. I am impressed. On Amazon, prices for W7 polishes start at under £2, so they won't break the bank.

Have you all had good weekends? Mine has mostly consisted of watching rugby, drinking tea, cuddling chinchillas and watching the snow :)