GOT Polish Challenge Flowers - Silver-lined daisies

Hello everyone! My biggest achievement today is that for the first time in forever I remembered to use only old polishes!!! I dug out the Ciate minis from my 2012 Mini Mani Advent Calendar and picked out a few that I haven't shown the love to in a long time.

I started with three coats of Power Dressing (over a very thick layer of Cacee Nails base coat - this blue is a stainer, but its worth it!). Once dry I dotted on the flower shapes with LA Colors Metallic Silver using one of my larger dotting tools. I then went over those with a smaller dotting tool using Ciate Cupcake Queen which creates the "silver-lined" effect. I finished by dotting Power Dressing in the centre of each flower and a coat of Seche Vite.

The flowers themselves are simple, but I think having the extra layer of silver gives it a little something extra. The metallic silver really catches the light when I move my hands (and being quite Mediterranean, I use my hands a lot!)

Take a look at the links below to see all the other fab and groovy flower manis from Crumpet's Nail Tarts :D

Sam xx

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Got Polish Challenge "Something Tropical" and NAILS Mag April Challenge "Pink"

Hello everyone! Today I am combining prompts again! The Golden Oldie Thursday challenge wanted "Something Tropical" while NAILS Mag wanted "Pink" so I combined the two and here's what happened!

I started with two coats of Jessica Purple Burst and waited for it to dry. I then stamped some hibiscus flowers from an old BM plate on to each nail with Konad white. I added in a little more detail with some white acrylic paint, used Color Club Psychedelic Scene for the pollen, Color Club Pucci-licious (thinned with a little acetone) for the petals and Barry M Gelly Greenberry for the greenery, before finishing off with another coat of Seche Vite.

 I think that I also deserve a cheer this week for remembering to use only old polishes! The last couple of weeks I realized as I typed up my posts that I may have forgotten the central point of the challenge (oops!), but I made sure this week that they are all well over a year old and despite the fact that its both pink and flowery (two of my least favourite things!), I actually think that this turned out pretty cool :)

Tomorrow's prompt is "Inspired by your favourite nail artist". I'll be honest and say that I hate this kind of prompt. I always feel like I'm copying (even though I always give full credit - I'm a good girl!), and I would much rather be doing my own thing. Still, I'll have a go and see what happens! 

Follow the links below to see all the other fabulous tropical manis from Crumpet's Nail Tarts below :)

Sam xx

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GOT Polish challenge - Hot Pink

Hello everyone! Another week has rolled around in the GOT Polish Challenge and the theme for this week is Hot Pink. I was a little undecided as to what to do this week, but I was stamping a floral while I was thinking about it and realized that I had what I needed right under my nose!

I started with a base of LA Colors French White and then stamped an image from MoYou Pro XL 06 in Konad Black and waited for that to dry. Once dry, I thinned out Cacee Nails Olivia and Jessica Purple Burst with some acetone and started "colouring in". I added some Color Club Fly With Me for the leaves and finished with Seche Vite.

I was originally planning to do something bold, bright and HOT pink, but when this idea presented itself I decided to go with it and I think it works! 

The GOT challenge has seemed to have become a stamping challenge for me the last couple of weeks - I promise to try and do something freehand for next week! Having said that, I have a stamping mani tomorrow to close out Texture week with The Digit-al Dozen, but after that I'll be freehanding my way into the Easter weekend :)

Sam xx

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GOT Polish Challenge - Coral

Hello everyone! Just putting this out there at the start - I hate coral! Not the colour itself, but the horrible way it sits next to my pasty skin, making it look even more pasty! Now that's out of the way, I've been stamping again! Still loving it but glad to have got back to some freehand nail art this week too. I may actually have found a good balance between the two :)

I painted my nails with LA Colors Hottie, but my bottle of this is super old that its hard to get a good finish (mental note to buy new bottle!), so I topped it with the very similar Nails Inc East Austin and then stamped using an image from MoYou Pro XL 03 using Konad White stamping polish before finishing with Seche Vite.

Its simple but it was the quickest way for me to do something pretty and then to get that coral off my nails! I am still loving my MoYou plates (might have to place another order this weekend!)! I'm going to a wedding on HMS Warrior on Saturday and am planning to use one of the stamping images to match my dress (although I'm still deciding whether to go out and buy another dress tomorrow!). Either way, I'm going to be blinging up the nails as much as possible :)

Sam xx

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GOT Polish Challenge and NAILS Mag April Challenge - Pastel

Hello everyone! Today I painted my nails while watching "Frozen" with Scarlett which may be responsible for some of the colour choices. I'm not really a fan of pastel colours, or Disney films if I'm honest, but I'm enjoying this one so far, and its the quietest that Scarlett has been for about a week in one sitting, so I'm happy with that! Luckily, the NAILS Mag challenge prompt for today is also Pastel (serendipity, yay!) so its a buy one, get one free today too :D

I started with a base of Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau (I adore this as its opaque in one coat!), and then added curves of graduated dots in Nail Essentials Silver Shimmer. Once dry I added smaller dots inside the silver of OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, and Models Own Lilac Dream and Lemon Meringue before finishing with Seche Vite.

Quite a simple design for me, and I toyed with the idea of adding more to it, but I think it works fine as it is so I'll leave it there :)

I have had the chance for a bit of a catch up this morning and am making good progress with my first Digit-al Dozen manis which will be coming at you from the 14th April - I can't wait to show you all some of them. It'll also explain why my fingers have spent a lot of this morning stuck together with nail glue, and why I am therefore now missing sections of skin from a couple of fingers... 

My MoYou plates also arrived today and I haven't even had the chance to play with them yet - how's that for self control?! If I get a chance later today, that's next on my agenda, so hopefully I'll have some manis featuring those too...

Sam xx

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GOT Polish Challenge Yellow/Peach and NAILS Mag 31DC - Marbling

Hello everyone! Another Thursday and another GOT polish challenge day has come around. The colours for this week are yellow/peach and I can't say I was thrilled with them, especially as I wamted to be able to tie them in with the NAILS Mag prompt "Marbling". Many of you know that I have a love/hate relationship with water matbling (love how it looks, HATE doing it!), so that was a no go from the off. However I have been trying out Robin Moses No Water Marbling technique (tutorial here) with up to now fairly inconsistent results and today it all finally clicked into place - I am so happy! 

The base is LA Colors Illusion. It really is an illusion as I promise I didn't really use purple in a yellow/peach prompt, honest! ;) Then while the polish was still wet, I added blobs of LA Colors  French White and Hottie along with Models Own Lemon Meringue. I used a fine detail brush to drag the wet polish into marble patterns and allowed to dry for a good while before finishing with Seche Vite.

I was so happy to have got this technique right finally that I did two sets, one in the GOT colours (ignore the glaring misuse of purple - but it needed a background colour to make the yellow/peach work, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), and another in coffee and chocolate similar to the ones in Robin's video. Here is a sneaky peak at my yummy "mocha coffee chocolate frappuccino" version:

I'm off to do some more of this, playing around with the vast array of colour combinations alone are enough to keep me going for weeks, so expect to see a few of these. I've also spotted a tutorial on how to do flowers in this style - I am all over that!

Tomorrow's prompt for the 31DC is "Mint" and I have something fun lined up for that one! Until then, follow the Inlinkz for all the other GOT manis :)

Sam xx

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GOT Polish "Ruffle", NAILS Mag 31DC "Dotting Tool" and "A New Technique" (a couple of days early!)

Hello everyone! Today I am combining three prompts into one. I was hoping to get four out of it, but realized that it was going to be a little tricky to cover "Untrieds" in with "only polishes over a year old". Once my brain accepted defeat on that one, I settled on my older polishes for the "Ruffle" prompt, you have to use a dotting tool to create the design, and as its a new technique, it covers the NAILS Mag prompt for Saturday too!

I started with a white base to help the colours hold, and then dotted on lines of (from base to free edge) Rimmel Sunshine, Barry M Gelly Satsuma, LA Colors Absolute, Jessica Purple Burst, LA Colors Edgy, Barry M Gelly Blackberry, Blue Grape, Guava, Greenberry and Key Lime. Finished with Seche Vite.

I can't say that this is my favourite look, but I flung in as many colours as I possibly could, so its bright and "in your face" if nothing else! Its a simple technique and can be made more or less complicated by using a smaller or larger dotting tool.

Tomorrow's prompt is stamping - I might try and be bothered, but I have a few other manis lined up for you if I really can't face it! Can you tell I'm not a fan? ;) It looks lovely, but I would much prefer to paint :D At the very least, I promise to think about it...

Sam xx

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Purple madness! GOT Polish, Theme Buffet and NAILS 31DC!

Hello everyone! Today I have a three in one post for you. This mani combines the GOT Polish challenge and NAILS Magazine 31DC "Purple" prompts, along with FingerFood's Theme Buffet "Dots and Stripes" prompt. The polishes are all over 1 year old, there are dots and stripes and its all purple, so therefore made of win!

The base is two coats of Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear. I then taped on a grid pattern and went over the whole nail with French White before carefully removing the tape. I added dots to each white space using a selection of my favourite purples (light to dark: LA Colors Wisteria, Electra and Edgy) and finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

I was able to use some of my favourite colours in this design and I love the fact that I managed to get it to line up for the most part!

So that's my three for the price of one post! I hope you like it. There are loads of links beliw to some gorgeous nail art, so be sure to check them out!

Sam xx

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GOT Polish Challenge - Skittles!

Hello everyone! Its Skittles week in the Golden Oldie Thursday challenge which makes for a very happy Sam! I love having an excuse to get random!

I also felt the need to use some clashy colours, so this post comes with a "May need sunglasses" advisory :)

I started with Barry M Gelly Prickly Pear as my base and then added in dots, heart flowers (Hey, why not? Its skittles!), stripes, leopard print and a hybrid zebra/tiger using LA Colors Hottie and Barry M Gelly Blackberry.

Next week our theme is "Purple". Wondering now why I didn't look at next week's prompt in advance! Not to worry, I think I have bought more purple polishes over the years than anything else, so finding some different ones for next week shouldn't be too hard!

I will be back with a fun post for you later today as its "Your favourite drink" day in the NAILS Mag 31DC - can't wait to share that one :)

In the meantime, check out all the other skittles on show from Crumpet's Nail Tarts today...

Sam xx

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GOT Polish Challenge - Orange

Hello everyone! Today's theme for the GOT Polish Challenge is Orange! Its not my favourite colour, but despite that I seem to have a lot of it! I do use it a lot in nail art so it appears that I've picked one up from all my favourite polish brands over the years and I chose four of those for this colour block mani.

I taped two different patterns over a French White base and added Color Club Psychedelic Scene, Barry M Gelly Satsuma, LA Colors Spat! and Ciate Speed Dial. 

The photos are still censored but I'm pleased to say that although its still not pretty, its all looking a little bit less gruesome, so I think I'll be dispensing with the "censorship" of new manis as of next week. I think this mani has changed my opinion of orange a little. Maybe I should be a little more open minded to its zesty, bright goodness in future! :)

Our theme for the GOT Challenge next week is Skittles - yay! I love painting skittles, and with no colour restriction I can really go for it :) Check out all the other fabulous orange creations by following the links below.

Sam xx 

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GOT Polish Challenge - Chevrons

Hello everyone! Its another post from me today, this time with the GOT Polish Challenge. The theme this week is chevrons and for some reason I don't do these often (only for challenges in fact!). I've tried to find a way of doing them that appeals to me a little more!

I started with a white base and then sponged on a selection of three Collection 200 Hot Looks polishes that I've had since forever. The green is Look At Me, the Turquoise is Electric Dreams and the pink is Siren. When sponged together they created some awesome extra purple and orange tones! I added Seche and then left them to dry. Later, I taped off a couple of chevron shapes and went over them lightly with white. Then I got bored so I freehanded the rest (you can tell which are which!) and added a coat of Seche Vite to finish!

I love the base of these and think that the white chevrons manage not to intrude too much!

Next week our theme is orange - I have quite a few of these that meet the polish age requirement, but I'm going to have to figure out quite what to do with them! Until then, follow the links below to see what everyone else has painted this week :)

Sam xx

  

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GOT Polish Challenge - Valentines

Hello everyone! Today I have a couple of posts for you as I have two challenge prompts due today, and as promised, I am trying to get back on track!

The GOT polish challenge theme for this week is Valentines (I cannot wait for it to be over - much as I love "love", I've had just about enough of Valentines manis now lol!), so I stepped away from the traditional a little and went for something that never fails to cheer me up, in colours that I have owned forever and have never got tired of, so its made of win from my perspective!

I started with a French White base and then added heart shaped leopard print using Jessica Purple Burst and Barry M Indigo. Super simple!

Admittedly I stretched the theme a little, but I am in love (get it? ;) with the colour combination and leopard print is still my nail art true love... The polishes are certainly old enough to qualify for the challenge too, even if this is my third bottle of Purple Burst :)

Check out all the other fabulous manis by following the links below and I will be back shortly!

Sam xx 

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