Halloween Bats

Happy (almost) Halloween! I've had a busy day today. After work I came home and baked sugar cookies in the shape of bats, pumpkins, ghosts and witches for my friends to decorate tomorrow. I then carved my pumpkin, which was a lot easier than I thought it would be (I've only carved a pumpkin once before, back when I was about sixteen). I went for a vampire face and it looks really cool.

Anyway, for my final Halloween design I decided to attempt stamping again and settled on bat design from one of the Bundle Monster plates. I love bats. We have pipistrelles in our garden and I love watching them swoop around in the evening - which is where my inspiration for this manicure came from. I started with two coats of Barry M Matt White before using LA Colors Shock (yellow), Barry M Block Orange (um...hopefully self-explanatory) and OPI Strawberry Margarita (pink) to create a sunset gradient. It's only the second time I've done a gradient (the first is here) and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Finally, I stamped the bats on using Nails Inc Black Taxi.

The smaller of the two bats didn't transfer very well. The larger one was fine so I think it might be the plate rather than my own ineptitude. I tried to fix it with a brush but ended up making the higher bat on my little finger look really bloated! Oops.

Halloween Spider Webs

When I was in Spain a couple of weeks ago (I can't believe it was that long ago already!) I went on a mission to find some Essence polishes. I thought they'd just be sold in chemists like nail polish is here, but apparently not. After some Googling I found a shop on Calle de Fuencarral called Beautik. It turned out to be a great place - not only did they sell Essence, they also stocked Catrice, Konad, two Layla ranges, and a few other brands. I was quite restrained and limited myself to one Catrice, a Konad plate, and four Essence colours, one of which I'm showing you today.

I really like grey polish at the moment, so Essence I'm the Boss is right up my alley. It's a medium to dark grey polish with sparse-ish silver glitter. It's really pretty and was opaque in two easy coats. To make it Halloween-y I stamped spider webs using a Bundle Monster plate and Barry M Silver Foil. I'm still working on my stamping skills so the image didn't transfer perfectly, but I think it adds to the effect rather than detracting from it (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Finally, I used Nails Inc Black Taxi and some striping tape to make black French tips.

I went to Waitrose today and they had a section dedicated to Halloween food and decorations. I bought a bunch of it. Apparently if something is coloured orange and black at this time of year, I will buy it. All of it. People don't really trick or treat where I live but I bought some spooky chocolate just in case - and if we don't get anyone, oh well, more for me!

Medieval Nails

I may have mentioned (once or twice!) that I am a bit of a history geek; in fact, I work at an historic house and intern at another! My favourite period is the Regency, but I also have a huge soft spot for the medieval era. A couple of weeks ago I decided to go to a medieval fair that was happening nearby, and knew I had to paint my nails especially for it.

I ummed and ahhed about it, and eventually decided use medieval banner designs as inspiration. Every noble family had their own individual design as a means of identification (particularly in battle). Their range of pigments and dyes was much smaller then, so I used bold, primary colours for the designs.

I used so many colours that it seems silly to list them all, so if you want to know any, please ask. I stamped using a two Bundle Monster plates on my thumb and ring finger; my index was done with a striping brush; the middle finger used a striping brush and a dotting tool; and finally my pinkie used scotch tape. I made the designs up except for the one on my middle finger, which actually comes off a fireback at work!

What do you think of my medieval-inspired nails? Are you a history geek too?!

Can You Keep a Secret?

I have a confession to make. For the last couple of weeks I have been harboring a deep, dark secret from you...

...I finally took the plunge and tried nail stamping!

It's something I've wanted to have a go at for a while, so I bought a Konad starter kit. The designs on the two plates it came with were pretty boring though, so I got a set of Bundle Monster plates too. I've been playing around with them and slowly getting the hang of stamping - I didn't want to mention it on here until I'd familiarised myself with it because I'm a bit of a perfectionist! Here's Barry M Silver Foil stamped over Essie She's Picture Perfect using one of the BM plates:

You can see there are some missing bits - I'm having a bit of trouble getting the images to transfer onto the nail perfectly - but hopefully this will improve with practice.

Have you tried stamping? Do you have any tips for a newbie like me?