Christmas... Unicorns?

*** Some of the items in this post were provided free of charge for honest review ***

Unicorns are Christmas-y, right?

Ah, who cares. Unicorns are good any time of year.

Pardon my funny coloured hands, I have circulation problems and it gets cold in Casa de Painted Claws!

Pick N Mix Nails Catch up post!

Apologies for my absence, the holidays are always super busy in the Painted Claws household.

Instead of doing a series of posts for my catch up manis for the 52 week challenge, I'm putting them together in one giant post!

Monochrome Party Nails

*** Some of the items in this post were provided free of charge for honest review ***

Born Pretty Store kindly provided a few items to me for review in the middle of last month - this is the first of 3 posts showing you these items and how I've chosen to show them off.

Pick N Mix Week 8 - Book / Brown

I tried desperately to think of a not massively popular book series to do and failed miserably which is such a let down as I read loads and loads of books. So I went for brown, which is a bit of an under-represented colour in the polish world.

Pick N Mix Week 7 - Wild Animals / Yellow

I am a secret lover of yellow nails. Painted yellow, not just stained from too much polish yellow. I think they look super summery as long as you find the right tone of yellow for your skin. If you pick the wrong one you tend just make your hands - and thus by extension, yourself - look a little ill.

I tried this mani first with pastel yellow and had to change it - I liked the colour, but a) I wasn't sure if it liked me, and b) it got totally overpowered by the dark grey.

Pick N Mix Week 6 - Domestic Animals / 3 shades of blue

Late post this week and I do apologise - work has been super hectic and its been all that I could do to keep awake for tea before falling asleep on the couch.

This is what should have been posted last week, which was domestic animals OR 3 shades of blue.

I went with 3 shades of blue.

Pick N Mix Week 5 - 80s / 3 dark colours

I was a bit torn this week, but as winter is coming (or so says Ned Stark...) I opted for 80s - dark colours will get used enough in the next couple of months anyway. They can wait.

Neons, on the other hand, can not.

Pick N Mix Week 4 - 70s / Grey & colour

Despite not actually being any where near born in the 70s, I have this really guilty pleasure for 70s era clothing. I love the earthy colour schemes, and the sometimes quite hideous mustard and brown combos that were frequently seen. And so, inspired by pinterest and all the fabulous 70s clothing on there, I present....

... 70s sweater vest nails!

Pick N Mix Week 3 - 60s / Matte or Texture

I'm really cheesed off about this week - I did have an awesome monochrome 60s geometric mani done, I even wore it to work for a week.... then I forgot I hadn't photographed it and took it off to do my nails for a night out.

When I realised I'd not actually done any photos I could have actually kicked myself - it took ages to do all the taping and painting.

I then remembered that I'd just gotten the three new matte Silks from the BarryM winter release and I was busting to try out Forest. How could I resist?

Pick N Mix Week 2 -3 colour Gradient / Pink

Week 2 of the Pick N Mix challenge, and the prompts this week are 3 colour gradient and Pink.

My nails aren't really long enough for 3 colour gradients at the moment - I cut them right back when I went on holiday at the end of august and they've been quite slow in growing. I also have quite short nail beds, so its not the best.

Instead of a 3 colour gradient including pink, I went for a pink ombre - I have far more pinks than I thought I did!

Pick N Mix Week 1 - Teal / 2 Colour Gradient

My first post of the epic 52 week Pick N Mix challenge!

The prompts for the first week of the challenge are teal and 2 colour gradient. This being a pick and mix challenge, we get to mix up these prompts and use one or the other prompts - or both!

Back to Blogging

Hi everyone! Its been a long time since I posted here, and life has been incredibly hectic. I have only advice for any younger readers out there - being an adult isn't all its cracked up to be! Stupid jobs and houses and bills.

I've pledged to make a little more time for myself though, and that means more time to paint nails! I'll be starting The Crumpet's 52 WEEK Pick-n-Mix challenge next week, which means that there will hopefully be content at least weekly for the next year! This is the longest challenge I've ever done, so I'll have plenty to post about in the next 12 months.

Becca x

Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

I'm a bit of a nerd, this is no secret.

For years I actually refused to read Harry Potter, I can't remember why. When I did get round to it, I have to be completely honest and say that I really could not stand 2/3rds of the main characters. But I persevered and read all of them, and from considerable thought on this topic I can definitely would (like to) be in Ravenclaw. I even own an official Ravenclaw silk house tie. I loveses it so.

So it was safe to say that when I bought China Glaze Frostbite and one of the new Maybelline glitter toppers - Bronze me up! - this weekend, I had to use them together.

Here be Dragons...

Having this weekend off polish making has actually given me time to paint my nails, and thus there will actually be some posts in the next week or so!

These nails were actually what I wore to work last week - quickly thrown together on sunday night before bed, with the colours being picked by Mr Painted Claws.

Base is Nails Inc New York Noir - since I got this as a freebie in Glamour magazine a month or two ago this has been my absolute best black polish. Its actually a little devastating that I've only got two bottles as its so much better than the other black polishes I've used. The only one I've found that comes close is Sinful Colors Black on Black.

The edge highlights are A England Dragon on my pointer, middle and pinky and Models Own Bronze Rage on my ring finger.

I love tape mani's, they're so easy to do!

What does everyone think? Like the colour combo?

2013 & 2014

Hey everyone, sorry for yet another bout of silence on the blog lately but I've been up to my eyeballs in a new (and possibly slightly crazy) project.

I present to you all - R&R Lacquers...

Rachael of Racho's Nail Love and I have decided to try and start our own range of handmade polishes, and thus we have spent the last 4 weekends covered in glitter and pigment and surrounded by many many prototypes. My living room now looks like it hosts a weekly meeting of fairies. So glitter, many sparkle!

We've finally pared them down in to a six polish collection we'll be releasing at the end of the month (ish) so stay tuned for more info. or alternatively visit our Instagram, Facebook or Twitter for more information and sneaky peeks!

2013 has been an experience - this time last year I think I had maybe 8 nail polishes and no nail art brushes or anything. I don't really know what started me off, although mostly I credit Rachael because she was the one who pushed on in to blogging about it (Thank you Rach!).

I've managed to amass quite the stash of polish and try loads of delightful manis this year, and hopefully 2014 will just mean more and more!

I don't make New Years Resolutions, except to continue existing for another year which I always seem to be rather good at (after all, I've made it this far!), but there are a few things I want to do this year in terms of the blog. These mainly consist of blogging more consistently and trying to better my photography.

One more thing - Is there anything you guys would like to see? You're the ones that read the blog after all, so its only fair to ask what you'd like.