Hello Kitty manicure

I wanted to do a Hello Kitty stamping over Rimmel London "Simply Sizzling", a stunning one-coater, people, a one-coater! I used the HK designs from the fantabulous MJ Hello Kitty plate. Meann, the owner, is a dream to deal with. I also used the HK bows from Q12, the cupcakes from Konad M14 and the strawberries from Konad M55.

Asian inspired manicure

I decided to do an Asian-inspired stamping manicure (2 designs are not exactly Asian but I loved them and wanted to throw them into the mix) over Pretty Serious "Gargoyle Ganache", which is a wonderful duochromish polish, it's basically grey with pink and green shimmer but takes on a brown tinge under certain lightings. My photos do not do it justice, it's much better than this but I'm a bit over taking pictures, it's hard for me to get my camera to pick up the shimmer, colour shifts, etc. Application was a dream, one of the easiest I've ever done, perfect brush, perfect formula.

All of the plates I used are divine and work perfectly. I used Konad special polish in black for the stamping.

First hand:

Thumb: Manekineko from Chez Delaney's "Civilisation 001" plate with added Hello Kitty bows from QA12;
Index: beautiful floral design from Messy Mansion's MM09 plate;
Medium: exquisite Kokeshi doll from Chez Delaney's "Civilisation 001" plate;
Ring: Chinese lantern from MM09;
Pinky: Buddha from MM09.

Second hand:

Thumb: design from Chez Delaney's "Divers 001" plate;
Index: beautiful floral design from Messy Mansion's MM09 plate;
Medium: design from Chez Delaney's "Divers 001" plate;
Ring: super cute Kokeshi doll from Chez Delaney's "Civilisation 001" plate;
Pinky: fan from MM09.

Love manicure

Here's some stamping I did in the love theme, which is a favourite of mine as it's cute as hell. As usual I was a bit sloppy, but the good thing about stamping is that, even though it may not come out perfect, it'll still look good (or at least I'd like to think mine does)!

All the plates I used are fantastic and stamp amazing. The base colour is Mac Stage Red, while the stamping polish is Konad special polish in black. The first manicure features the following designs:

Thumb: hearts from MM03, wonderful plate from the fabulous Messy Mansion;
Index: swans from Delaney's Divers 001, from the great Chez Delaney;
Medium: birds from OB10;
Ring: heart rainbow from KD17;
Pinky: birds from an Essence plate.

The second manicure features:

Thumb: same hearts as before from MM03;
Index: heart balloon from the gorgeous "Love is in the air" plate by the fantastic Nailways;
Medium: happy couple holding a heart-shaped balloon from an Essence plate;
Ring: hearts from Delaney's Divers 001, same as above;
Pinky: cat couple in a heart from the "Love is in the air" plate by Nailways.

Picture Polish "Focus"

Picture Polish Focus is a collaboration shade by PP with Sheila from Pointless Cafe. Oh I love this one so much! It's a gorgeous fuchsia (my pictures make the base colour look red, in real life it's fuchsia) packed with flakies that look silver in the bottle but turn pink on the nail. It's insanely sparkly in the sun, my photos don't do it justice! 2 coats, easy application.

 

I did some stamping on it using MoYou white polish. I was inspired by this beautiful manicure by Spellbinding Nails. 

Thumb: Konad Q1 plate;

Index: Konad M12 for the Christmassy candycane and an Essence plate for the cone;

Medium: Betina B-01;

Ring: BM308; 

Pink: BM322 for the big candy (I messed it up a bit, but that is no flaw of the plate or the polish! I had already done that nail and then I had the dumb idea of filling in the candy with colours, but unfortunately that didn't come out all right so I had to stamp it again, this time being careful of not stamping it over the smaller candy, so the end result wasn't too good) and Konad Q1 for the smaller candy. 

A England "Ascalon"

A England Ascalon is a dark grey polish with a subtle purple duochrome and a scattered holographic effect. I'm not normally into grey polish but I love this one quite a lot! The purple duochrome, although rather subtle and not "in your face", is definitely there but my camera had a hard time picking that up (just like it did with the green flash that shows up on the sides at an angle. The 5th picture kind of shows that a bit). 2 coats, easy application. I have other polishes by A England that I love, it's a fantastic brand.


Shade

Artificial light

Sun

I did some stamping using Konad Special Polish in black and the following image plates:

Thumb: Apipila P.7
Index: Apipila P.1
Medium: OB16
Ring: BM 322
Pinky: Apipila P.7

Essence 151 "We rock the green"

Here are my swatches of the new Essence shade We rock the green. Yeah we rock the green and this polish rocks my socks! I am a sucker for greens and this one is so pretty! The formula is on the thick side but didn't give me any problems.

I was dying to use my MM04 image plate and do a belated St. Patrick's Day manicure. We don't celebrate it in Italy but it's such a cool theme, I certainly wouldn't mind if we did! This plate is fantabulous, it stamps amazing and the designs are spot-on for St. Patrick's, perfection! I got it from Messy Mansion. Julia, the owner, is exquisite and her service is flawless!

Easter manicure

On my left hand:

Thumb: Kiko 332, smooth application, beautiful colour;
Index: Debby 206, love the colour, very easy to apply and very opaque, I did 2 coats for good measure but 1 would have been ok too;
Medium: Kiko 288, love the colour, Barbie pink slightly pulling violet, 3 coats;
Ring: Illamasqua Serenity, gorgeous turquoise, amazing application, 2 coats, self-levelling, dries to a rubber finish but I like glossy so I topped it with Essence "Better than gel nails" top coat;
Pinky: Catrice Planet Tokyo, lovely bright green, very easy application, 2 coats.

On my right hand:

Thumb: Essence With X's and O's, lovely lilac, easy application, 2 coats;

Index: Gosh Peachy, I love this colour, it's dark peach, I had to do 3 coats for full opacity;

Medium: Sinful Colors Pink Forever, lovely Barbie pink, opaque in 3 coats;

Ring: Illamasqua Noble, gorgeous turquoise, slightly darker than Serenity, fantastic application, fully opaque in 2 coats;

Pinky: Essence Upper Green Side, love this colour, light pistachio green, easy application, 2 coats.  

Stamping:

I used a combination of designs from Nailways "Spring Time - Easter Bunny" and HB Nails HB38 plates, plus Konad M60 and an Essence plate for the flowers. I love all of these plates and I highly recommend them!