Nub Club - Tree in the Snow

I'm trying to pack the nub nail art in before Christmas, and this was something I was intending to do on my larger nails before my de-clawing.

Little Christmas tree!

Nub Club - Christmas Reindeer

A few weeks ago I bought some gorgeous little deer charms from She Sells Seashells, but there was one little problem - my talons were (at the time) too big for them! I was devastated. The poor things would have just looked completely lost on my nails.

So the nail breakage was kinda good, as it means I can finally get my cute little (rein)deers on to my nails!

Welcome to the Nub Club

So, in this last week, the day before Mr Painted Claws's Christmas party to be precise, I was forced to join the dreaded Nub Club.

Stupid car door snapping my nails.

Please ignore the slightly blue tinted nail beds - its a bit chilly in here and I have totally poor circulation!

Now, at first I was devastated - how am I supposed to do super festive nail art on those tiny things!? Then I realised - some people have their nails this short as a choice or by necessity. Why should they not be able to see what nail art looks like on their neat little nails? Also, I've finally got nails small enough to use all those little decorative bits I've got squirreled away.

So, for the next month or so, welcome to the Nub Club, nail art on neater nails.

Armed and Ready ... to stamp!

I've been pretty good in December - I put myself on a no buy last pay day (22nd Nov) and I can honestly say I've not bought anything.

Mr Painted Claws, on the other hand, saw me looking longingly at the Essie that is the base colour for this mani and promptly informed me that he couldn't let me go home without it. 

Swatched: Nicole by OPI My Cherry Amour

I've been waiting for this collection to cross the pond for ages - possibly since I first saw it on the Chalkboard Nails News section back in April! There was one in particular that I lusted after in this collection - My Cherry Amour. A beautiful deep magenta with not only a textured finish but a scattering of holo glitter, I knew I had to have it. Somehow.

The problem was, when the polishes actually came out... no shops over here actually sold Nicole by OPI. And then Superdrug popped up its NOPI displays and I went in to paroxysms of joy. Until they filled the display with polishes and I saw we were a few months behind our pampered sisters across the pond in the US. So I was made to wait patiently, which I can tell you is no mean feat. But I was well rewarded when this eventually turned up in my local Superdrug...

Apologies, and some Winter Sparkle

My apologies for the almost three week silence here on Kitty's Painted Claws - Winter hasn't been awesome so far as I've been super run down. I have, however,  managed to get a few mani's done in between bouts of coughing my lungs up or other things and I nearly exploded with glee when I got my first MoYou London Festive plate for stamping.

As you saw in the last post, I bought myself quite a few MoYou London stamping plates recently and I totally couldn't resist picking up one of the new Festive collection - specifically plate 02, the one with all the snowflakes. I'd put up a link directly to the plate but... its sold out. As it has been pretty much since it was released - it's been that popular.

In which I manage to stamp properly...

Quick one for you all tonight - I think I've managed to "get" stamping.

With thanks to my brand spanking new MoYou London stamping plates, I present...

... neat stamping! I'm so proud of myself.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 17 - Steel Type

I'm nearly at the end of the Gen II pokemon journey, which makes me both sad and excited. Sad, because I'm almost done, and excited because I totally can't wait to do Gen III in the new year! Stay tuned for more details in the next month on that one, but first - the last type group of the challenge, Steel.

Steel was one of the new types introduced in Gen II, along with Dark, and its another of the types that I don't really use often. Some existing Gen I pokemon were retyped as dual-type to include steel, so I've gone for one of these this week...

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 16 - Dark Type

Dark was first introduced as a type in Gen II, and since then theres usually at least one pokemon in my party that knows a dark-type move as its so strong against psychic.

I'm quite fond of all of the dark type pokemon introduced in Gen II, but very little beats an eeveelution.

Umbreon!

Tara's Talons & Pocket Money Polishes Snow White Duos

I picked up these gorgeous pairs of polishes from two of my favourite indie makers - Tara of Tara's Talons and Charlie of Pocket Money Polishes when they released their limited edition Snow White duos a while back. Originally I only intended to get one, but in the end I was paralysed by choice and bought the two I couldn't decide between, which was the best option I could have gone for.

Hallowe'en 2013 - Trick or Treat

Mmmm candy.

Now to be perfectly honest, I was a bit stuck on what to do for all five nails. You see - I never went round knocking on doors and demanding tasty treats as a child. We just straight up asked for cash. We never really got that much, or at least not much per house - perhaps 20p or so - but as a small child that might as well be a fortune. In fact, I can only remember being given something edible once, and that was because the very nice man in the house had just cooked cupcakes but had no change left.

Hallowe'en 2013 - Gothic

Slightly delayed Hallowe'en post - unfortunately I've been a bit under the weather the past week and a bit so nail were put on a bit of a back burner whilst I attempted to sleep it off.

Hallowe'en 2013 prompt 4 - Gothic

Fall Into Fall Giveaway Winners!

The Fall in to Fall giveaway has now officially finished and the winners have been drawn! Congratulations to the winners shown below on the Rafflecopter widget - you will either be contacted or already have been contacted about your fabulous prizes.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'd just like to say a great big thank you to all who entered and a big welcome to all of Kitty's Painted Claws' new followers. Feel free to comment or email me - I love to hear from everyone!

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 15 - Ghost

I love Ghost pokemon. Mostly I'm big on Ghastly, but Gen II brought in one of my other big favourites - Misdreavus.

Hallowe'en 2013 - Things that go BUMP in the Night...

What better to go bump in the night than...

Frankenstein's Monster!

Pink Wednesday

Welcome to yet another Pink Wednesday!

We've had glequins, stripes and a waterfall so far, this week is the turn of a fairly understated mani with one of my favourite techniques - dots.

Hallowe'en 2013 - Pumpkins & Jack O'Lanterns

I'm terrible at pumpkin carving, mainly because I hate the smell of pumpkin! Not the best at Hallowe'en, but I love looking at other people's carved pumpkins - some of them are absolute works of art!

Mine, however, are slightly childish. Like my actual pumpkins would be!

Hallowe'en 2013 - Scary Movies

This was a bad prompt to pick.

I'm terrible with scary movies - heck, I was terrified by The Little Mermaid as a child - so I went for the most Hallowe'en appropriate film I knew... Nightmare before Christmas.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 14 - Dragon

This round posed a small problem - there was only one new Dragon pokemon introduced in Gen II, which was the water/dragon type Kingdra. But its not cute or derpy looking, so it clearly wasn't going on my nails haha.

So back a generation I had to go, for Dratini!

Pink Wednesdays

Time for another Pink Wednesday!

This week we've got a design inspired by The Nailasaurus' Waterfall Manicures for Pink Wednesday, and I had so much fun raiding my inexplicably large stash of pink polishes for this one!

The base for this is OPI Step Right Up, a beautiful pale pink which is unfortunately super sheer. This is four fairly thick coats to get it opaque.

The waterfall itself is done in OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips, Orly Sterling Silver Rose, Orly Lola and Essie Big Spender.

I love the look of this mani and I've been wanting to try it for ages, so what better opportunity than a pink wednesday!

An InLinkz Link-up

BarryM Textured Glitters - Countess, Duchess and Majesty

When I saw the two halves of BarryM's Autumn/Winter releases I nearly had an excitement based fit - one half was brown, nude, red and black matte polishes and is super awesome, chic and a good staple for the coming seasons. The other half was textured glitter polishes that are similar to the OPI Liquid Sand polishes in finish, except with a big helping of sparkle thrown in for good measure.

I picked up three of the five glitters in the collection - clockwise from top left in that image above is Countess, Duchess and Majesty - and here they are in all their sparkly and shiny glory.

Warning, post below the jump will be image heavy.

Hallowe'en Challenge

I kinda thought about taking a break from challenges for a little while after the end of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge ended, but seemingly I just can't get enough.

Kitty's Painted Claws and Racho's Nail Love are proud to bring you.... Hallowe'en 2013!

A challenge running three days a week - tuesday, thursday and saturday - in the run up to Hallowe'en. If you fancy joining in, come join us at the Nail Art Challengez facebook group and join in!

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 13 - Bug

Yet another pokemon type I don't use, or like.

Bug type are so annoying, with their paralysis and sleep and poison attacks!

There's one bug pokemon you just don't mess with though...

Shuckle.

Pink Wednesday for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer awareness month, and what better way to combine a cause with a colour I love but to do Pink Wednesdays with my partner in nail-based crime, Rachael of Racho's Nail Love.

The base for this mani is Nails Inc Elizabeth Street, with the stripes on my ring finger being Nails Inc Walton Place for the middle colour and Catrice Raspberryfields Forever.

The glequins are from Born Pretty Store, from this set of 12 colours. They're great for adding a little extra sparkle to a mani, especially with so many colours in one kit! They are a little hard to manipulate if you don't have (or can't find, curse my poor organisational skills!) a wax pencil, which are totally fab for picking up glequins like this, rhinestones and studs.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 12 - Ice

Ice is yet another pokemon type I don't use (unlness there's a dragon pokemon trainer in the elite four). I'm such a simple soul when it comes to pokemon, haha. So this week's pokemon is another in the "aww isn't it cute" category - Swinub.

I used swinub as an excuse to try out my new BarryM Matte in Mocha, which comes out as a beautiful milk chocolate colour with a great waxy finish. Two coats were used in the nails above, however I totally could have gotten away with one as its such a pigmented polish and it dries lightning fast.

The glitter used for the snow on my other nails is OPI Pirouette my Whistle which looks awesome matted, I love it.

An InLinkz Link-up

Swatched - Nails Inc Emerald Street

As you may or may not know, Pantone voted Emerald Green as 2013's Colour of the Year. I was over the moon at this because I love green, but I've been searching for the perfect green for months now.

I came across Emerald Street in a blog sale last week and I knew I had to have it.

Multi-Blogger Giveaway!

Today I'm proud to present, for all the Kitty's Painted Claws readers, the chance to win yourself some swag!

Together with the other members of the Nail Polish Blogger Connection Facebook group, we are giving away :

• $50 gift certificate
• $40 gift certificate
• $30 gift certificate
• $20 gift certificate
• 2 polishes of your choice - one from InDecisive Nail Lacquer and one from 6 Harts Craft company

The gift certificates can be redeemed at either Llarowe, Harlow & Co or Ninja Polish, so there's plenty of choice to be had there! 

Theres also plenty of time to take part, as the giveaway runs from midnight PDT (8am BST) October 2nd until midnight PDT on October 30th, so we can choose a winner on Hallowee'n.

All you have to do is make your entries through the rafflecopter widget below, and wait and see if you win! This giveaway is open internationally too, so everyone can join and and hopefully bag themselves something nice.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ER31DC Week 31 - Redo!

Well, the last week of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge is upon us, and this one was quite difficult. I didn't quite know what to redo.

The other half suggested tribal, but to be honest I nearly wept tears of blood after how long it took to do the first one. Then I was thinking glitter or polka dots... until I remembered I'd not done a gradient mani in an absolute age. I love gradients. Not so massively fond of the cleanup afterwards, but I have a new bottle of pure acetone on my desk that says that isn't going to be a problem any more.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 11 - Rock

Carrying on on the theme of "Pokemon I love that aren't quite a full picnic", I present to you....

SUDOWOODO.

Green on Green Half Moons

I picked up Orly's Lucky Duck and OPI's Live and Let Die in a blog sale last week and I totally couldn't resist using them.

Lucky Duck (the half moons) is an amazing bold green creme, with great colour. I looooooove this colour. Three coats for full opacity but you could probably get away with two careful coats - I have to admit I'm not entirely the most delicate when doing my nails. Thank god for acetone and a clean up brush!

The rest of the nail is done in Live and Let Die, one of the OPI Bond collection. A dark, glittery, foresty green, this polish is a one coater and dries in fairly reasonable time too. The glittery shimmer in this just lights up when the light catches it, it takes the polish from normal but pretty to amazing.

The half moons were done with paper hole reinforcement stickers, bargain from WHSmith. I love halfmoon manis, they look so classy and awesome.

Whats your thoughts on the green on green?

An InLinkz Link-up

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 10 - Psychic

WOBBUFFET!

Wobbuffet is painted in BarryM Cyan Blue, with details in the usual Models Own Pro Jack's Black and Sinful Colors Snow me White

Somehow I've ended up with two copies of the same picture for this mani, rather than more than one useful picture... so I'm gonna leave you with a GIF.

An InLinkz Link-up

ER31DC Week 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

I was originally going to do gradients for this, until I realised that that was a bit of a cop out because I love them and they're dead easy. Also I had no inspiration other than "do a gradient". So I went surfing through the great and mighty google to see what I could find in the way of tutorials there.

I found this super easy tutorial on Nail Art Express for corset nails, and I immediately knew what I was doing.

These were done with a base of Rimmel's Princess Pink for a nice nude background, with the corsets themselves done in OPIs Meet Me On The Star Ferry. Meet Me on the Star Ferry was part of my birthday present from Mr Painted Claws and is an absolutely amazing polish - a metallic, muted pink that looks super classy and nice.

ER31DC Week 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

I did try and do mermaids for this one, but only after I had painstakingly painted my nails with a super sheer polish did I realise that I did not actually own the fish scale stamping image that I thought I did. And then hand drawn scales came out badly.

So I went on to do the obvious... Vampires.

Not the crappy sparkly kind though. I grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with proper vampires in it.

Leibster Award

I think I'm starting to collect these or something (Gotta catch 'em all!) - I now have 7 nominations for this.

As I've been nominated by so many people, I've decided that I'm going to answer everyone's questions, because I'm polite like that, but I'm not going to nominate anyone. All of the blogs I follow have this (possibly more than once by the flow of nominations I've had), and if you don't feel free to take it from me. I'm sure you'll get nominated pretty soon anyway!

I'm gonna put this all under a cut because this is gonna be an absolutely mammoth post....

ER31DC Week 28 - Inspired by a Flag

There was absolutely zero hesitation for this one (for once!) as this is my now yearly holiday destination and home country of Mr Painted Claws' mother - Portugal!

ER31DC Week 27 - Inspired by an Artwork

OMG I'm so late with these! I've had these done and photgraphed for about a fortnight to be honest, and for some reason I'd absolutely convinced myself that I'd post them (when I clearly have not!)

Inspired by the artwork of Andy Warhol, or more specifically this print of Marilyn Monroe.

I was never good at appreciating art, I'm not gonna lie.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 9 - Ground

I barely use ground pokemon. In fact, if it ain't fire or psychic I'll probably not use it. But there are some pokemon I adore simply for their derpy faces, or their appearance in the anime.

This one is clearly in the derpy face category.

WOOPER! (Beware, GIF heavy post below!)

Models Own Velvet Goth Collection - Absinthe & Valerian

Models Own released one of their new autumn collections quite recently and I managed to beat the rush and grab two of the shades from my local Boots (buy one get one half price too!).

I'm terribly predictable and despite my self-imposed ban on new polish I managed to pick myself up the blue (Valerian) and the green (Absinthe) out of the 5 colour set. The ones I'm missing, Sardonyx, Amethyst and Obsidian - Red, Purple and Black respectively - are a definite temptation after seeing how these two beauties came out.

Beware... this post is pic heavy!

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 8 - Electric

Finally caught up to date!

With the occurrence of Creepachu in the first pokemon challenge, Mr Painted Claws suggested I stay away from Pichu lest the same happen again.

Totally showed him with this one!

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 7 - Poison

There aren't many poison pokemon I like. Maybes Grimer / Muk, Ekans and Oddish, but I've already done Oddish and Ekans, and I can just tell how Grimer/Muk would come out. Lets just say its a good thing y'all ain't seen creepier-than-creepachu Ditto that I tried last year. I've seen horror movies that were tamer than that creepy looking thing.

Then, all the way down at the end of the list for gen II, at number 211... Qwilfish!

Swatched - Tara's Talons Becca's Polish

I am so in love with this polish its not even funny.

Rachael (of Racho's Nail Love) commissioned Tara (delightful maker of indie polish brand Tara's Talons) to make me a customer polish for my birthday at the end of August. I knew Rach was up to something as she kept asking me what I'd put in a polish if I could make one for myself, but I really didn't expect the end result to be this fantastic.

The polish base is a slightly jelly grass green, and is loaded with gold and green hexes that just float on the nail and give such awesome depth.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 6 - Grass

Round 6 already! I was a little torn for this round, but I've already done my favourite grass pokemon for the first generation challenge - oddish. So I went hunting for something cute, and came out with...

Jumpluff!

Birthday Polish Haul

I turned 27 last wednesday, and I got some amazing polish-based presents from  Mr Painted Claws and from my bestie and Chief Enabler Rachael (of Racho's Nail Love).

Just to warn everyone in advance, this is gonna be a fairly pic heavy post - and these are just the bottle shots! I haven't even gotten time to think about swatching the lot!