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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!

ER31DC Week 25 - Inspired by Fashion

I'm terrible at fashion. If its not jeans and a t-shirt, I'm probably not gonna wear it. I did however spot this jumper in the New Look autumn collection and fall in love with it a little. I love jumpers. They protect me from my bitterest enemy - the cold.

I love the colour with the white of the lace on the front, co I went to try and replicate it. Then I realised there is no way I'm that good at freehanding things so I pulled out my Born Pretty Store lace stickers and BAM. Instant pretty.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 4

Water Round!

I love octopi. Its a bit odd how much I really do love these bizarre creatures, but they're great. So naturally, I went for Octillery as my Gen II Water pokemon choice.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 3

Round 3 - Fighting!

Not many new fighting types added in Gen II. so I fell back on a Gen I classic...

ER31DC Week 23 - Inspired by a Movie

Apologies for the massive lateness of this post, but I'm off on my holidays on sunday and last minute panic is in full swing in the Painted Claws household. And by that I mean my other half keeps telling me not to worry and I keep writing insane lists and losing things.

This mani was inspired entirely by Rachael over at Racho's Nail Love and one of the mani's she did for a recent challenge - Comic-Con Geek Week Day 3.

I love Stargate. I remember watching the film so many years ago and absolutely adoring it. I even had the video game for the Mega drive back in the mid-90s. I was terrible at it. But the thing that captivated me most and the one thing that ties all of the various versions together is the gate itself.

Pokemon Challenge Gen II, Round 2

Fire pokemon!

I do enjoy a good derp face on a pokemon, and as I didn't do Magmar in the last challenge, I figured I'd have to make up for the lack of duckface too.

So I went for Magby for the Fire type round.

ER31DC Week 18 - Half Moons

Ah, a blissfully easy week in the 31 day week challenge - half moons. Not really much I can say about half moons, except they always come with the biggest problem... what colours??!? I have a terrible habit of wearing colours that are either too similar (green and green, turquoise and teal etc etc) or ones that would sear the eyes out of a normal human being (offensive pink and super orange orange, as work by me to work this week).

For once, I ended up with something vaguely classy.

ER31DC Week 17 - Glitter

I don't do glitter a lot, mainly because the cleanup is the biggest chore on the planet. I know there are solutions to this - PVA basecoats, fancy basecoats designed to make glitter removal easier, soaking in polish remover to get evrything off at once - but I'm lazy and impatient, haha. So sadly, this look didn't linger long on my nails.

Which is kinda a shame, because I quite liked it.