31 day. Challenge - violet

I did some stamping for this but decided I liked the plain colours better with the contrast in texture. Kleancolor's My My Sapphire for the middle two fingers, and Ciate's cream polish in Talent Scout for the index and little fingers.

An InLinkz Link-up

31 Day Challenge - blue

I had planned to do all-blue nails but the weather was so nice I couldn't resist adding some colour to the mix.

I painted my nails with Kleancolor's Sensual Lagoon (what a name!), a nice matte blue, then stamped the orange seahorses on with Born Pretty's BPL-025. I finished with a matte topcoat from OPI. I really like this look! Unfortunately I smudged one finger getting my camera out. Too impatient. :(

An InLinkz Link-up

31 Day Challenge: Orange

I've been looking forward to these nails: oranges! I stamped with Bundle Monster 308 over Kleancolor Boogie Nights.

Melbourne Cup nail art

The Melbourne Cup was just on, so I painted my nails in honour of the Race That Stops The Nation.

On my left hand I did the silks for Admire Rakti, the favourite. I used Essie's Bikini So Teeny and Butler Please, and some nail vinyls from Celestial Cosmetics.

Admire Rakti's silks (from Races)

On my right hand I painted Who Shot Thebarman's silks. I used Kleancolor's Boogie Nights for the orange and Celestial Cosmetic's Snow Clouds for the white dots, which I did using a dotting tool. It was strangely awkward to try and pose my right hand!

Who Shot Thebarman's silks (from Races)

In the end Who Shot Thebarman came third, but Admire Rakti came last and later died of a rare heart condition in his stall just after the race, so that was quite sad.

31 Day Challenge, Day 30 - Owl Be Inspired By A Tutorial

For today I followed a tutorial by Sunshine Citizen for making owls. Super cute! This is actually a tutorial that's probably better suited to short nails, but it's still cute on longer nails.

Sunshine Citizen did a pictorial tutorial and also a video. Here's the picture:

Tutorial by Sunshine Citizen - http://www.sunshinecitizen.com/autumn-owl-nail-art/

For my base colour I chose Ciate's Iced Frappe, a warm brown-grey-mauve colour. Application was pretty good with two coats and good flow onto the nail. I then used white acrylic paint for the face and feathers, because it's so much easier to get solid white that way. (I started with white nail polish - not good.) I finished by doing the eyes/nose/outline in Kleancolor's Dark Brown.

I tried a new hand pose today... pretty satisfied with it, actually. How do you decide how to pose your hands? Do you do the same pose each time? I like to try to vary my poses a bit from post to post and keep things interesting. Also sometimes the manicure can be seen better with a different pose, particularly since my nails have a pretty deep C curve.

An InLinkz Link-up

31 Day Challenge, Day 19 - Galaxies

Apparently I've been living under a rock, because I had never heard of galaxy nails before. A short google later though and I was all across it. It's a pretty easy, fun manicure, although you do need a fair number of polishes.

I painted my nails with Revlon's Black Magic, then used a damp sponge (it does work better than a dry sponge!) to apply OPI's Alpine Snow, Maybelline's Green Park, Kleancolor's Metallic Fuchsia, Kleancolor's Boogie Nights (the orange), Crows Toes' Indian Summer (multichrome pink/purple), and Ulta3's Blue Marlin, plus a topper of Sephora X's Shifty (holographic glitter). Whew! More Alpine Snow was applied with a toothpick for the stars.

It was so colourful! So astronomical! And yet... I couldn't help but do a cheeky little bit of stamping with Cheeky plates CH45 and CH46. Rocket ships, planets, and some alien spaceships, oh yeah. They white means you miss them on a casual look, which I love - it's like a little Easter Egg.

An InLinkz Link-up

31 Day Challenge, Day 16 - Geometric stamping with Emily de Molly EDM09

Today's theme is geometric, a theme I've been looking forward to since I got my new Emily de Molly plates in the mail. I'm glad.also that it's been changed from "tribal" on request - props for being more culturally sensitive.

To start, I painted my nails with Kleancolor's Boogie Nights, a beautiful metallic orange, then stamped with Sally Hansen's Whirlwind White. It was inspired by one of my housemate's doona, a cheerful orange and white geometric design. A very easy manicure today.

An InLinkz Link-up

Femme Fatale's Mr Pinchy swatch and nail art stamping

In my last order from Femme Fatale, I received a free sample polish - a pink/coral holo called Mr Pinchy. I decided to try it out, so here are some swatches. Application was lovely - nice even flow.

Indoors - it's a very light pink, and actually a nude for my skin tone.

In the sun the orange holo sparkle comes out. Shiny!

Another shot in the sun - holo goodness.

Close-up of the holo, under my desk lamp.

To finish things off I did some stamping with a brown Kleancolor polish using one of my Cheeky plates.

This is a lovely polish - not something I would usually wear, because I prefer a more obviously polished look on my nails, but I enjoyed this one. The holo keeps it from being too plain. I have another Femme Fatale polish which I have yet to use, Gentlemen's Scuffle, so I'm looking forward to it!