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 - Scary Movies

This was a bad prompt to pick.

I'm terrible with scary movies - heck, I was terrified by The Little Mermaid as a child - so I went for the most Hallowe'en appropriate film I knew... Nightmare before Christmas.

ER31DC Week 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

Stripes. I love stripes.

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.

Swatched - Sinful Colors Kissy

I love teal. And blue. And green. I'm not sure if you've noticed.

When Sinful Colors launched over here I was like a kid in a candy shop - damn good polishes for only £1.99? Get in my shopping basket!

Then I spotted Kissy ... 

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.

Work Week Nails - Spotty!

I actually made an effort for once for my nails for work, thanks to the three day weekend we've just had here in the UK.

Managed to pick up OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts for only £3.99 and really wanted to give it a try as I'm quite fond of grey polishes at the minute.

Colours used for the spots were Sinful Colors Savage and Be Happy, as well as Essie Mojito Madness and Asda George Quick Dry Polish in Cloudless Sky.

Pokemon Challenge Week 15

The final week of the Pokemon Challenge! I'm a little bit sad, to be honest, because I absolutely loved this. Also I'm about to finish the very first nail art challenge I started!

Week 15 is dragon type, which doesn't leave much choice in Gen 1 - we've got Dratini, Dragonair or Dragonite. So I decided to go for the middle child - Dragonair.

I don't quite understand the evolution from Dratini to Dragonite - it starts off kinda looking like a big worm, gets all super graceful and water-snakey... then turns in to a massive dinosaur? Hey-ho. I suppose its Pokemon, it doesn't have to make sense, haha.

Pokemon Challenge Week 14

I'm far too excited about this week to produce justification of my pokemon choice. There ain't enough Ghost pokemon to have much of a choice from in the first generation, but they're all awesome anyway so it doesn't matter.

GHASTLY!

ER31DC Week 7 - Black and White

This is a terribly conveniently timed week. I am over the moon.

I live in Newcastle Upon Tyne, where the local religion is football (or soccer to any Americans). Twice yearly we must vanquish the savages from the next city, and the next fixture is sunday.

Newcastle United play in black and white stripes, so my nails this week are dedicated to my football loving other half and his religion.

Pokemon Challenge Week 13 - Rock

Because I am Queen of the derpy looking pokemon (judging by my previous choices), I totally couldn't resist doing another odd choice for rock week....

Look at those eyes, how could I not paint that vacant little face?

...Omanyte! Handily, Rock/Water type, which allowed me to test out my latest Sinful Colors buy - Savage, a matte blue.

ER31DC - Week 6 - Purple

Week 6 already!

With the colours in the first few weeks of this challenge I'm trying to do manis and styles that I've not really tried (or succeeded at!) before. SO, I humbly present....

In artificial light...

... my first ruffian.

I have no idea why I've never actually done this before. Its not even like its difficult, especially if you use tip guides. I do have the terrible feeling that it'd be a massacre if I tried to freehand these.

... and in natural light! We've been allowed to see the sun!

The polishes used were Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the base, with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Grape Escape for all but the ring finger, which is Sinful Colors Verbena. Grape Escape is an amazing, deep purple which is that opaque in only one coat. Its awesome!

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.

Pokemon Challenge Week 10

I never use fighting pokemon. In fact, if it doesn't burn or mentally crush, then I'm probably not a big user of it haha. My squads are always big on fire and psychic pokemon, with others thrown in as necessity dictates.

So I had a real problem deciding which of the fighting pokemon I was going to use this week. I don't like any of them! I was tempted to go for Mankey or Primeape, as I do love the episode of the anime where Mankey steals Ash's hat, but as always I had to be awkward and go for the non-obvious choice...

...Poliwrath.

Poliwrath is conveniently a dual type pokemon, water/fighting. And far more interesting to look at the the rest of the fighting bunch, with their various shades of brown/beige.

Poliwrath was done in Sinful Colors Snow me White, with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Thinking of Blue and LA Colours Art Deco in Black. Gradient (as always) was done using the fabulous tutorial from The Nailasaurus.

ER31DC - Week 2

Ah ha! Caught up.

Week 2 is Orange, a colour I was always convinced I didn't suit until I stopped being afraid of wearing anything that wasn't black. I love orange on nails, and I'm pondering doing a super 70's orange/white/brown mani at some point because that is one of my favourite colour combos ever.

I decided to do an orange skittle as I really couldn't decide what I wanted to do or which orange I wanted to do it with. I found I had quite a few different oranges today, ranging from quite pastel to pretty damn in-your-face.