Christmas Challenge and Moyou London First Impressions

Hello polish lovers!

Ok so I am a bad blogger.  I said I would post on Tuesday and I didn't.  Sorry, we ended up doing a bunch of Christmas baking and had a big family dinner and then made marzipan so my day really filled up.  So to make up for my broken promise today is going to be a longer post.

I will start with my Christmas Challenge post for Day 3 which is Holiday Colours(I will say I am totally lost for the next few prompts).  I started with 1 coat of China Glaze White on White.

I think this polish has thickened nicely as I use it and is now totally opaque in 1 coat where before it took 2.

Once this was dry I got out my smallest detail brush and OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress and China Glaze Running in Circles and created a candy cane stripe.

I used a white striper to clean up the lines and top coated in SV.  INRAW is an awesome holiday red!

And now on the the Moyou London plates.

I picked up a number of plates recently...using The Nailasaurus's promo code...yay for savings!  I purchased a variety of plates from a number of different sets...but most are from the Pro line because I found I was really into the patterns.

 This is Pro 07, I fell in love with the owl and the handwriting, to say nothing of the awesome hounds-tooth.  The handwriting was the first image I used and that mani will be at the end of this post.

 This is Pro 10, I love the amazing floral branches in the right hand corner, sorry the pic is fuzzy, didn't notice until I was editing.

 Pro 15, as a former Art major I could not resist the Warhol and Liechtenstein images.  I love Pop Art.

 Pro 06...I am unable to resist a good dandelion fluff...need I say more?

 Sailor 6, I love the repetition of waves and this has some great ones.

 Sailor 7, more great waves, you will see the Bridget Riley-esque one in an upcoming post.  Also fish!

 Suki 1, more owls! I couldn't not get one of the artistic plates...even though I think it will be harder to use.  I can see polish getting everywhere!  The patterns are clear and intricate and the peacock is gorgeous!

And last but not least Kitty 11..because I became addicted to having birds on my nails from the Messy Mansion plate and this is the next step.  I am totally going to do a cat gets bird mani:)

So, the quality...is the best of any of the plates I have tried...and this includes Konad.  All lines are clean and clearly deeply etched...but not so deep as to cause pressure smudging, you know, the smudging you get when there is too much polish on the plate and it squishes onto the clean areas.  I got none of that on any of the images I have tried so far.  I also found the variety of plates fantastic...they definitely have something for everyone...whether you are a Princess or Biker or anything in between.

I also got the white squishy stamper and scraper and I am completely in love!  The stamp is so soft that I don't have to wait as long before stamping because there is not as much pressure transfer.  Also because this is a rectangular stamper it is easier to line up my images and make them straight and centered on the nail.

Overall I am very impressed with MoYou London plates and would definitely get more.  You can get your plates here.

And here is what I did with my first attempt:

 The base is Color Club Evolution and I used Seche Hypnotic to stamp, it looked a lot like ink.  Any voids in the stamping was my bad for not putting enough polish on the plate and no fault of the plate itself.

Ok, sorry for the image overload but I am in love and I want to spread it around.

Until next time, polish happy!

Christmas/Winter Challenge Day 1: White Christmas, Snow

Hello polish lovers!

So when I posted yesterday I had completely forgotten that today was the first day of the Christmas Challenge I am participating in.  So I just got finished editing the photos and here we go.

I decided that I wanted to capture my favourite part of snow...that is the falling aspect.  My favourite thing to do in winter is to go for a walk in the evening when the snow is falling and there is no wind and it is so quiet you can hear the snow touch the ground.  I tried to create what I see during those walks.

My first step was to find a dark blue...unfortunately I don't seem to have a creme dark blue(I will have to correct this)  so I used Seche Hypnotic.

Once this was dry I got out my smallest dotting tool and China Glaze White on White and began dotting randomly on the nail.  I waited a few minutes and then added a thin coat of China Glaze Ride the Waves, a navy blue jelly.

I then repeated this step using my next size dotting tool.

Before Ride the Waves

And again with my next size dotting tool.

And again with my next size dotting tool.

The final layer of white dots is not covered in Ride the Wave but allowed to stay true white.  I love how each layer of blue makes the previous layers look further back, great way to fake perspective on a flat surface.

I had to darken this last photo as the others were coming off lighter than it was in reality.  I really loved this mani, way prettier in person than it looks in photos.  I will have to recreate closer to Christmas, I really loved it.

So as I said last time, I will be back tomorrow with my last mani in the 33 DC, really this time.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art Challenge: First Frost

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday as planned but we went to Toronto to pick up my brother so that he could come home for a shore visit.  I, because of this, have 2 posts today.

I will start with my Falling for Nail Art Challenge, First Frost.  I began with 1 coat of Seche's Hypnotic.  I love this polish, the blue is so intense and pigmented.  I really need to see how well Seche polishes stamp, since they are 1 coat-ers they should be really good.

For some reason this photo changed colour when I added it to the post, Hypnotic is much more a royal blue, it is not near this purple.  Once this had dried a added my stamping using Color Club Over the Moon, an awesome light blue holographic, and BMH02 and GA14 to create my frost patterns.

Sorry, when I try to change the size the photo goes really dark:(

This photo is much more colour accurate and you can really see how great Color Club Holos are for stamping.  I really loved this combination and I am sure I will use it again, numerous times, over the winter.

That is all for now, but I will post again soon tonight.

Until then, polish happy!