Inspired by... Kitty's Painted Claws

Hey all!

So we're at my second inspired by day already! I chose someone close to home today. My best friend Becca from Kitty's Painted Claws.

I loved these when she did them. I even sat and watched her as she did them (I am not a stalker.. promise!). Here is her original post for them. Just divine!

We have both recently got stamping - Becca before me, and I have ogled her stamped nails ever since! I didn't have the exact plate that she used, so I perused my (now scarily vast!) collection and picked out BM-406 for a swirly design. Couldn't find similar studs either (god only knows where the safe place is that I have stashed them!) so I chose some new ones I got.

The polishes/studs I used were:

Sinful Colors - Secret Admirer

Kate Spade by Nails Inc - Soho Silver

3.5mm Silver Shells (which I was bought as a present but I believe are from She Sells Seashells )

Really love this mani - I heard that the Nails Inc doesnt stamp, but it worked just fine for me. Well chuffed!

What do you think? 

Rachael xxx

A little hallowe'en stamping

Hey all!

Last week may be a bit quiet as I have one of my other loves in my life. Pokémon! Yes, it was released last weekend, so I have devoted a fair amount of my life to it!

So I sat down yesterday and decided to have a go at some designs and get making my blog a bit more lively. No matter what, they just weren't working out.. apart from this one.

A nice simple design, but I love it none the less - the polishes and the plate are just perfect together! I wanted something I could wear for work and I got so many compliments, nobody believed I had done myself - I got accused of having salon nails and also of having used foils - compliments indeed!

I used the MoYou London Pro Collection 05 XL plate and used the cobweb design from the top row. The polishes I used are Zoya - Raven for the base and Mentality - Scalawag (my favourite stamping polish) for stamping over.

I am so pleased with how these stamped - the Mentality polish is perfect opacity and in light has a beautiful holo rainbow to it. Beautiful! And the stamp, I am so in love with these MoYou London plates so far - they are just perfectly engraved, pick up beautifully.. I just can't fault them at all!

What do you think? Do you like the simple finish or would you have gone more detailed and added something else? 

Dont forget to check out what other British Bloggers are doing!

Rachael xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art using MoYou London stamping plates

Good morning all!

Just a quick little post to show you my autumny nails - these are my first full hand of successful stamps - I feel like I have just 'got' stamping!

I used an image from one of the new MoYou London plates - I picked up a few when they released some of their new collections. This is one of the XL plates, although my nails are easily small enough for the small plates at the moment.

The base is the beautiful Butter London Tee Total. I then used Barry M Gold Foil Effects as the stamping polish (because its brilliant for stamping!) and used the tree rings from the top row. I really love this plate and can't wait to try out some more images - the tree rings turned out really crisp - they picked up well from the plate and then transferred brilliantly from the stamper to the nail. Really really happy!

You will definitely be seeing more stamping from me! Those cobwebs are definitely on my to-do list for Halloween! 

What do you think? Are you yay or nay for stamping? Do you have any of the MoYou plates yet? What do you think? 

Rachael xxx

Nail Art with Revlon's French Mix 'Sneak Peek'

Hey all!

Today I have some nail art to show you using one of Revlon's French Mix dual ended polishes in 'Sneak Peek'.

I actually picked this little beauty up in TJ Hughes a while back for £2.99 as its last years line, but after getting some of the Moon Candy range, I wanted to try these.

I've only just read reviews of this line while searching for the name of the polishes. I was surprised to see that so many people haven't rated them at all, but I really love the combination of light blue and a sort of difficult to describe golden caramelly brown colour. 

Here is my nail art - I am determined to master stamping, so I tried out my NC01 plate again and used the small dandelion image to stamp onto two of my nails. Its really quite subtle, but the image transferred well and both polishes dried nice and quickly.

Sneak, the pale blue needed 3 coats to be completely opaque. I wasnt surprised as pastel cremes are notorious for needing so many layers, but they dried quickly and levelled nicely so I couldn't complain too much.

I was worried after waiting for those layers to dry that Peek (the shimmery golden coppery caramelly brown) wouldnt stamp, but luckily it did and next time I will be double checking by stamping first!

What do you think? I know these are supposed to be for french manicures which I am sure I will try at some point, but I quite like the subtle stamping design. Please let me know what you think!

Rachael xxx