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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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 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.