First Emily de Molly Stamping...Lead Light Technique

Hello polish lovers!

I know, I know...bad blogger.  I have been doing my nails and taking photos but not editing or posting.  I am going to try to get back into the swing of things.  I really need to find some of the new polish that has been released for summer.  I didn't find many of the spring polishes spoke to me or were anything new.

Today I have a mani that I did a few weeks ago when I got my Emily de Molly plates from MessyMansion.  I am addicted!  I have 4 of the 5 available and I love them all.  This was plate EDM03.

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, which I will not show because I know I have posted about it before.  It is my favourite white, kind of dirty and gray for when you don't want it to be too bright.

I used Mundo de Unas black stamping polish...by the way I am loving all the stamping polishes of hers that I have tried so far...except peach...but that is for another post.

Once I stamped my image I used Sinful Colors GoGo Girl, China Glaze Keepin' it Teal, China Glaze Ride the Waves and OPI Need Sunglasses and a small dotting tool to fill in random spaces.

I have done a few more using this technique since then that I really enjoy as well.  I love the Frank Lloyd Wright-ness of this plate.  All the images are crisp and transfer perfectly from the stamper to the nail.

That is all for today, until next time, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 28: Art Nouveau

Hello polish lovers!

It's the last day!  I made it...with a few late posts in there, but posting every day very difficult when I don't have a set schedule at work and with this cold I am still trying to get over.  So some days were better than others.

For the Art Nouveau prompt I began with 2 coats of SOPI Chestnuts About You! a gorgeous copper-y rose gold metallic.

Once this was dry I added my stamp, one of my favourites from Messy Mansion, William Morris and Friends plate MM16.  I love how intricate the images on this plate are, they are very indicative of the Art Nouveau style, with flowing organic forms.  I chose the grape vine image(its my favourite).

I used Konad Black to stamp with and I love how crisp the image turned out.  I have used this image a number of times before and I keep going back to it.

That is all for today and the end of Gnarly Nails Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge.  I will go back to my regular mix of reviews and nail art on Sunday.  There are also a few polish comparisons that I want to do as well.  As well as posting about a few Awards that I have been nominated for that I have never gotten around to creating posts for.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 7: Primary

Hello polish lovers!

I know I didn't post yesterday but I was just feeling like being lazy, so I edited the photos but didn't post.  So this is going to be short and sweet since I will be posting again soon.

Today's prompt was Primary, and that is exactly what I did.  I started by painting one third of my nails Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening, the middle third Formula X Omni, and the final third Formula X Flashy.  They are all bright primary colours, and this reminds me of a child beach ball.

For my stamping I used Essie No Place Like Chrome and the crown image from the MM05 plate.

I didn't realize until I was editing the photos that I stamped this upside down but I kind of like it that way.  This mani reminds me of a Renaissance Fair with a jousting match.

That is all for now but I will be back with my Still Life mani soon.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 30: Same Pattern, Various Colours

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today I have one of the last posts for The Crumpet's 33 Day Challenge, one week left!  Its been nice to have outside ideas about what to do to try to get me out of my nail polish box, I will have to find more challenges to keep me going...although I will have a few reviews and more nail of the day coming soon.

Today's prompt was same pattern, different colours, which, to me, means stamping.  So I started by painting each of my nails a different colour.  My pinkie is OPI Alpine Snow, ring is Essie No Place Like Chrome, middle OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? and my index is Seche Risque.  These are all one coat except for Bite My Neck which was a little streaky so I did 2 coats.

Once this was coated in SV and dried I began my stamping, choosing to run the stamping in the opposite direction of the base colours, darkest stamping on pinkie, lightest on index(you get the picture).  You will notice that the stamping on my middle finger is a little wrinkled, that is what happens when everything is one coat except that finger and you don't let it dry quite long enough, but what are you going to do?

The pattern that I chose was Messy Mansion's In the Garden plate, an image of lattice and vines, which I totally fell in love with, like I do with all the MM plates that I own...she showed a prototype of a Book plate, which I cannot wait to come into production.  For these images I used the same polishes as for the base, except for the white stamping, which is Konad white, and also my favourite completed nail.

I found this was a great way to see how different polishes transfer the same image and how background colours can change how an image appears and the colour it appears to be, the stamping on my pinkie finger is a totally different colour from the base on my index finger, and yet they are the same polish...something to keep in mind.

That is all for today, I may post tomorrow or Sunday depending on how life goes...I have a Christmas Party Sunday night so it may have to be tomorrow.  I do have another of the Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes I would like to review so maybe I will post that.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 29: Favourite Pattern and Last Falling For Nail Art Post

Hello polish lovers!

So today I have another double post for you with the 33DC and the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  Today is the last Falling Challenge and I have really enjoyed the sense of accomplishment I have gotten from these challenges...and they really are a challenge.  Sometimes its finding inspiration within the theme and other times its just finding the time to complete the entry and get it blogged in time.  But anyway on to the manis.

First up my 33DC for my Favourite Pattern.  This was incredibly difficult to narrow down, and knowing me will change as quickly as the new year will come upon us.  I started with a base of Joe Fresh Evergreen.  This is a product line that is brand at the Real Canadian Superstore, and I was really impressed with it, especially given the fact that it was on clearance and I got it for 94 cents!  This is a lovely deep green with gold sparkles in it.  And it could be a 1 coater but I did 2 because, you know, I have a problem.

As you can see the bottle is quite squat and had a short brush, which I find easier to control.  The sparkle is even more pronounced in real life and was quite dense.  This was topped with SV and let dry until I was ready to stamp.

I finally decided to stamp using the paisley pattern from BM315 using Color Club Over The Moon, an awesome blue holographic polish, you can really see the rainbow in the bottle and it is not dulled by top coat.

The reason that I chose the paisley image is because it is the first image that I ever stamped that actually turned out correctly.  I love how the image is not overpowering and allows some of the base polish to shine through.  Some of my plates have images so busy that you barely see the colour, and to me part of the fun of stamping is having at least two colours on my fingers that go together and make a statement.

For my final Falling for Nail Art Challenge the theme was Thanksgiving, which, for me, was over more than a month ago.  So instead of more turkeys and the ubiquitous pumpkins, which I did on Sunday, I went with a very fall image that I fell in love with.  I am sorry to say that I totally forgot to take a photo of the base before I began my stamping, but know that I will definitely use this colour for a base again so that you can see more of it.  My base was 1 coat of Seche's Risque, a very dark aubergine creme that in most lights appeared a very deep rich black.  Once this was dry I used Essie's Good As Gold, one of my favourite golds to stamp with, and MM16 plate and the image of grape vines, leaves and grapes.  If you have not checked out Messy Mansions stamping plates you are doing yourself a grave disservice, check them out!

I will definitely be recreating this mani again.  I love the contrast between the deep purple and the shine of the gold! Love, love, love, love, love.  And on this high note I say good by to Plump and Polished's Falling for Nail Art Challenge for this year.

That is all for now, but I will be back on Friday with Day 30 of the 33DC!

Until then, polish happy!

Sally Hansen Triple Shine First Look and Review

Hello polish lovers!

I was browsing through my local Walmart earlier this week and stumbled upon the new Sally Hansen Triple Shine display!  Me being the nail polish addict that I am, I could not resist getting 2 to try out.  I decided to limit myself to 1 creme and one glitter, to get a sample of both.  The colours that I got are, Kelp Out, a bright leaf green creme, and Fanta-Sea, a silver and ice blue glitter.

I started by swatching Kelp Out.  The instructions on the bottle say to do 2 coats...but this is what 2 coats looked like on my nails.

2 coats equals definite VNL and I can't do that, my OCD kicks in and makes me want to take it all off.  So I decided to add another coat....and this is when the magic happened.

Yes! This is what I was looking for.  I love this colour!  It is so bright and cheerful, it reminds me of new leaves in the spring, not at all like Kelp, I've seen kelp and that stuff is usually much more brown than this.  The formula, besides being a 3 coat-er was smooth and creamy.  I don't think I have a similar colour in my collection.  The Triple Shine bottles have the same brush that the Insta-Dri do so it takes very few brush strokes because the brush is so wide(these photos show zero cleanup, this polish stays where you want it and doesn't flood the cuticles).

Now for Fanta-Sea.

On my pinky I have 1 coat, ring is 2 coats, middle is 3 coats, and pointer is 4 coats.  I did not do this over a base colour because I wanted to show the true colour of the polish without influence.

As you can see, this polish isn't really meant to be worn alone.  It would take way more coats than I have patience for to achieve opacity.  I am really looking forward to seeing what this looks like over undies, I think I may go dark, like a navy polish.  I may show something like that in the future.

Overall, besides the misleading instructions on the bottles(neither of these polishes are 2 coat-ers), I am rather impressed with this new line.  My photos are taken showing the polish by itself, no top coat!  They are super shiny! I have only swatched so far, I have not done a wear test, that may come in the future.

And now, for a mani I rocked for almost a week!

Ahh! Empty hand!

As you can see, this photo was taken before the sun disappeared from the skies and we were left in darkness.  This is a few days in so you can see some legitimate tip wear(normally my mani comes off way before wearing can occur) but I love this Bird plate from Messy Mansion!  The feathers look drawn on and sketchy and I love that.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with the next theme in the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 6: Texture

Good morning, polish lovers!

Today is texture day in the Crumpet's 33 Day Challenge.  I have only recently gotten into textured polish and only own 3 so choosing one to use today is easier for me then it would be for some.

I started this mani with 3 coats of Ciate's Kiss Chase, this is a bright fun pink with hints of coral,  I could have stopped at 2 but there as a slight visible nail line at 2 and I was covering the tips anyway but I am a bit OCD about these things and don't like to see nail line through polish.  Once this was dry I used my OPI Matte Top Coat.  I love the smooth soft texture that matte-ifying nail polish gives you.

I actually did my textured tips using NOPI's A-nise Treat from the Gumdrops collection before I did my stamping.  I love this textured polish because it is all fine sparkle without chunks of glitter, which I find makes them more messy looking.

Once the texture had dried sufficiently I added the thistle image from Messy Mansion's MM16 plate, which is William Morris and Friends(I love William Morris design and did a little squee when I found this plate on her Etsy site, which you can find here).  I realize that this did not stamp perfectly every time but that was because I did not want to put too much pressure on the textured polish, not any fault of the plate itself.

That is all for this post but I think I will post tomorrow, even though it is not a challenge day.  I have been sitting on my photo's of Lucky 13 Lacquer's Bad Wolf and I feel the need to share that amazingness with everyone, so look forward to that post tomorrow.

Until next time, polish happy!

Hallow e 'en Challenge delayed, Cool mani instead

Hello polish lovers!

So as my title suggests the Hallow e'en Challenge will not be beginning until October 8th, so that we will be posting each Tuesday and Thursday until October 31st.  The new schedule is



So this is the plan now, I have the first challenge done and will post on the 8th, I had a couple done from last years challenge list which I can use for my #fallingfornailart challenge instead.

So, to show you a mani that I did last week and absolutely loved.

China Glaze VIII with MM20 mattified

I love this stamping plate!  It is so pretty and girly!

I started with CG VIII, a great deep aubergine, 2 coats and topped with SV.  Once this was totally dry I added my stamping from various images on the MM20 plate using Essie's Good as Gold, which is an awesome stamping polish!  I coated with SV again and then used my OPI Matte Top Coat to finish it off.  I have to say this was one mani I did not remove until it started to chip.  For some reason I did not take a photo before I did the matte coat, so sorry about that, but I am super pleased with the result.

I will be back tomorrow with my next 33DC mani, which is Mexican(this was a bit difficult to decide on but I ended up doing a freehand that I liked).

Until tomorrow, polish happy!

Crumpet's 33DC Day 2: Mani featuring most used polish

Hello fellow polish lovers!  Its a gorgeously sunny yet cool day in Central Ontario and the perfect day to show off this mani.

China Glaze For Audrey and OPI Vant to bite my neck? with MM20 plate

I didn't even have to think about what I would use because I could see on my rack that my For Audrey by China Glaze has a very visible usage line(one of the very few polishes I own that has that).  I absolutely love the colour and use it often, even though I have polishes by Essie and Orly that are very close matches to For Audrey I keep coming back to it.  My favourite polishes are blues, greens, teals, and aquamarine.  For Audrey has a great 2 coat-er formula, and I love the Tiffany blue.

This is 2 coats of For Audrey set with SV before I began stamping.  I noticed the first time I used Vant to Bite My Neck? that it had fabulous coverage and on shorter nails it was a one coat-er.  I knew I wanted to use it to stamp, and I have on a friends nails before but this is the first time I used it on myself.  The plate I used is Messy Mansion's MM20 plate In The Garden, which is available here(she has new plates that are going to be coming out soon and I can't wait!) this was the first time I used this plate so any inconsistencies that you see are user error and not the fault of the plate, I have used it more than once since and have had no more issues.

Everything is topped with SV as always(I have tried using other top coats like Out The Door but I find for me they just don't work as well, although NailPolishCanada is going to be getting in Glisten&Glow Top Coat, which I know a lot of bloggers like, so I may give that a try.

That's all for today, polish lovers.  Until Friday, polish happy!


Weds 25 Sept – mani featuring your most used colour polish