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!