Pick N Mix Week 15 - Dotting Tools / Pink & Aqua

I'm really fond of odd colour combinations. Orange and blue, purple and green (Hulk smash), and pink and aqua.

Alas, my aqua turned out a little more green that I wanted.

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 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!

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...

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.

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

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

ER31DC Week 22 - Inspired by a Song

Nothing jumped out at me to do for this one, so I decided to stick my iTunes on and let it decide for me. Thankfully my music collection is varied beyond most people's wildest imagination, and the first song it threw up on shuffle was this beauty...

From Blood Orange to Candyfloss

Nails Inc seem to like sending me pink/red polishes. So far, in my lucky dips and other bulk buys they seem to have sent me 15, which actually equates to just under half of my total Nails Inc collection.

Not that I'm complaining, I keep thinking to myself that I need something to balance out my ludicrous amount of blue/green polishes.

So after trawling through them all I picked out 5 and went for a pretty pink skittle...

Swatched - Essie All Tied Up

Once again I find find myself unable to actually tell what colour this is. I've been staring at it for three days now and I'm still not sure how to describe it.

ER31DC Week 19 - Galaxy Nails

Oh my word these were a right faff on. Don't even think they've come out that well, but I'm a heinous perfectionist that is unhappy unless I'm absolutely perfect on the first try, so not much to worry about there.

ER31DC Week 14 - Flowers

Last week's flowery stamping has come in useful - I don't read ahead for this challenge, I just do the weeks as they pop up and thus this is a fabulous coincidence.

My favourite flowers are Cherry Blossoms.

They're so pretty, and delicate. And when they drop from the trees the look like pretty pink snow.

Swatched - Catrice Raspberryfields Forever

I'm totally not allowed on Sally Magpies unattended any more. I buy things when I can't really afford them, and then feel no remorse because OMG I HAVE PRETTY POLISH. Even worse when I'm exploring new brands.

Rachael of Racho's Nail Love recommended Catrice polishes to me after she bought The Monkey Gets Funky, a delightful brown creme polish that is such an amazing colour. Due to my unreasonable love of "offensive" shades of pink I impulse bought Raspberryfields Forever, a super amazing pink/red.

ER31DC Week 12 - Stripes

I love stripes. I'm actually really surprised that I haven't done more stripey manis on here, but then again I only have one roll of striping tape. I'm preserving it haha.

The base colour for this mani was given to me by my Chief Enabler, Rachael of Racho's Nail Love and is Orly Lola. I have a bit of an odd love for all things "offensively pink" as I like to term it, which is quite amusing as I'm not big on the whole girly thing.

Swatched: KBShimmer Lottie Dottie

I eyeballed this polish for absolutely ages before I eventually got over myself and bought it. Prior to this I'd not really been too fond of white nails, and thus the wash of white based glitters that swept through the indie polish collections over the winter left me a bit puzzled. I came to realise that I actually had nothing against them apart from the fact that I never had worn white as a main colour on my nails.

Easter Nails

Just a quick post this morning before I continue lying around dying of a nasty cold (illness makes me so melodramatic haha!). Did these last night as everyone seemed to be doing Easter nails and I decided to hop on the bandwagon.

Nails are done in Sinful Colors Snow Me White, with sponged gradients of (thumb to pinkie) Nails Inc Albert Place, Sinful Colors Verbena, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Yellow Kitty, Sinful Colors Mint Apple and Essie's Off The Shoulder. Then, for the super cute icing on the cake, I topped them with Cagedbird Lacquer's Faerie Carnival, a beautiful pastel glitter which kinda makes my nails look like frosted cakes.

Mmmm, cake.

A shot of the gradients before glittering. I quite like the semi-matte look you get from sponging polish.

Pokemon Challenge Week 11

Psychic week.

Psychic pokemon are my favourite type - I always have an Abra or its evolutions kicking about somewhere in my party. Theres nothing quite like Psychic to lay the beatdown on some poor unsuspecting wild pokemon haha. I picked today's pokemon entirely for its appearances in the anime though.

Specifically, this appearance...

Thats right - Its Slowpoke time! I love this episode so much, its hilarious.

I'd have done Psyduck as well, but despite its name and kick-butt psychic powers... Psyduck isn't a psychic type pokemon. Very surprised at that one.

Color Club Foiled Collection

These were brought over for me to play nice with by Rachael of Racho's Nail Love, as she wanted to see these against my skin tone. Rachel's skin is quite pinky toned and I'm much more on the yellower end of the skintone spectrum.

Rachael's post is here, so you can compare the two.

Warning - this post is very image heavy!

Look at the shine on that!

All pictures are two coats - I tried both with and without topcoat and it made little to no difference on the shine as they're insanely shiny on their own. Get out your sunglasses.

I have to say that the polish itself, in all colours, was a dream to put on. Almost completely opaque in one coat and fast drying, these are great colours to make an impact with - there's no way anyone will not notice these bad boys!

Sort of Skittles

One of my favourite colour combinations is gray and assorted brights - usually bright yellow or bright blue. Think Swedish flag and school-uniform gray and you're right there. I'm also becoming terribly fond of orange as a colour, which is something I've avoided like the plague up until now. I'm also fond of a mixture of gloss and matte finishes - this is something I've always had a weakness for. Show me a video game box that is both matte and shiny and I'll go mental for it.