Pinkin Party - Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams, Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink, Bundle Monster BM-223

We're on a stamping roll! Nothing like a stamp-over to refresh an ageing mani..

[On Wednesdays...]

I'm of half a mind with my stamping colour choices though..

[2 coats: Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams]

Quick recap - my base shade from last week, Emily de Molly's Cauldron of Dreams, deep blurple full of small multichrome flakes.

[Bottle to nail: Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink, Bundle Monster BM-223;
Base: Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams (2 coats)]

I then picked a bright contrast shade for stamping - Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink which is hot pink! I didn't want to go for my tried and tested golds/silvers so this is what I ended up with...

[Stamp to nail: Bundle Monster BM-223; Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink;
Base: Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams (2 coats)]

This design is a cube/honeycomb(?) pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-223. I use a fairly squishy silicone stamper so my lines are not as crisp as the stamp since it squishes as I press my nail quite firmly over it to pick up the design.

[Base: Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams (2 coats);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink, Bundle Monster BM-223]

I think I'm pretty happy with the outcome! It perhaps doesn't show off the base shade as much as it could, but it ended being quite a nice low-fuss design despite the bright colours.

Ice Blooms - Sally Hansen Royal Icing, Australis Settle Petal, Born Pretty BP-65

I'm still learning as I fumble along with the art of stamping so here's a less than stellar result from my stamping endeavours.

[Base: Sally Hansen Royal Icing
Stamping: Australis Settle Petal, Born Pretty BP-65 plate]

The base polish I used is Sally Hansen's Royal Icing, which I reviewed here. For reasons unknown, I'm just realizing how blue-greeny Royal Icing looks in my previous review. In these photos, it leans blue which I think is the truer real life shade.

Using a floral pattern from Born Pretty plate BP-65, I stamped over Royal Icing with Australis' Settle Petal, a very, very pale shade of pink-beige. As you can see, it's practically white. The Australis' nail polish range, referred to as 'intense colour with a high shine and streak-free' makes for a surprisingly good stamping polish. It's not as opaque as I would prefer it to be but it has all the other characteristics of a stamping polish.

[Base: Sally Hansen Royal Icing
Stamping: Australis Settle Petal, Born Pretty BP-65 plate]

Alas, as you can see, I still have a long way to go to perfect the art of stamping. So many patches missing or just stamped on unevenly. At least it's visible that there's some sort of floral pattern involved here. :P  I did also amuse myself by using a nail polish called Settle Petal for a floral stamping pattern.

Witchy Brew - Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams

I'm (still!) slowly working through gifts from Jme, oh dear! So many untrieds...

[Bottle to nail: Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams (2 coats)]

This beautiful shade is Emily de Molly's Cauldron of Dreams - what a great name! 

[2 coats: Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams]

Cauldron of Dreams is a deep blurple jelly base packed full of multichrome flakies of fairly small size, giving a lovely shimmery effect. The first coat went on a bit thin but it was fully opaque in two coats. It did do a strange thing, separating on my nail into blank circles, sort of like OPI's 'spotted' polish. Possibly because I didn't wait for my base coat to dry properly before putting on the first coat... Interesting!

[2 coats: Emily de Molly Cauldron of Dreams]

Anyway, all clear by the time I put the second coat on. Quick dry time but I popped on a layer of topcoat for extra shine as usual. Quite a dark shade, as you can tell from the second photo, but the flakes really pop in sunshine or direct light!

Candy Girl - Sally Hansen Royal Icing

When I looked at this nail polish, I had the Archies' Sugar Sugar song playing in my head, which is why I have part of the lyrics as my title today!

[Sally Hansen Royal Icing]

Sally Hansen's Royal Icing is from their Sugar Coat collection. As you can tell immediately, this is a textured matte nail polish.

[Sally Hansen Royal Icing]

First, let me say that I love the name Royal Icing. It seems so fitting and it sounds so delicious. Royal Icing is very sheet and it would need more coats than advisable for it to be opaque. As it is, even with three thick coats, you can still see a visible nail line.

Royal Icing is a light blue textured polish with a faint pink shimmer. It dries quickly and I do think it's pretty but it definitely needs to go over something else as a base if the VNL is a problem.

Golden Gears - China Glaze Midtown Magic, Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold, Born Pretty BPL-022

After last week's lovely dark base, I wanted to pick a bright contrasting shade for stamping over the top.

[Grinding them gears]

I ended up going with metallic gold! Gold is just one of those shades that I love combining with pretty much every shade there is.

[2 coats: China Glaze Midtown Magic]

Quick recap of my base shade - China Glaze Midtown Magic, a vampy purple-burgundy with gold microflakies.

[Plate to nail: Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold, Born Pretty BPL-022;
Base: China Glaze Midtown Magic (2 coats)]

The design I'm using is the pattern of gears from Born Pretty stamping plate BPL-022. I love this plate, it's just full of fun designs. I've previously used the pencil design off this plate as well.

[Bottle to nail: Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold, Born Pretty BPL-022;
Base: China Glaze Midtown Magic (2 coats)]

The stamping shade I used is Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold, a bright yellow gold which I've also used in a previous stamping mani. I think it really pops against the dark base.

[Base: China Glaze Midtown Magic (2 coats);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold, Born Pretty BPL-022]

Pretty pleased with this one! The only thing I'm a bit iffy about is that with shorter/smaller nails, you wouldn't be able to fit very many gears on each nail. But the good thing is that there's a nice mix of sizes and they're not spaced too far apart, which helps prevent blank spots with no design.

You got to mauve it, mauve it - Essie It's Genius

What we've got here is Essie's It's Genius! I was going to use this as a base for stamping but then I got busy and no stamping happened. Oops... It's Genius will have to feature on its own!

[Essie It's Genius]

I got Essie's It's Genius in a big purple box full of goodies from Ev! <3  Okay, these are gifts for my birthday back in March, but I haven't posted photos (I don't think I have, but don't tell me if I'm wrong, leave me to my delusions!) so here they are:

[Box of goodies!]

I'm convinced that this deserves to be on our nail blog because it features so many nail goodies. So exciting! There's classic chrome polishes, oldies but goodies, textured polishes, temperature changing polishes (I love those), pretties from Dance Legend who always get it right! Then there's gorgeous stamping plates and decals and vinyls. Obviously there's non-nail related items too, like scented candles and melts and a wax melt warmer (because Ev is evil and trying to lure me to the dark side). There's lippies and more lippies (I love lippies) and hair treatment (that I'm loving) and it all comes in a purple box! \o/

This is a birthday box that I'm still dipping into 4 months after I got it. :D

Okay, okay... Now back to the original intended topic...

[Essie It's Genius]

So, It's Genius is a beautiful deep mauve shimmer nail polish. It applies smoothly, easily, and it's opaque in two coats. I really like the colour but I'm sad to report that the beautiful golden shimmer you can see in the bottle in the first photo only shows up as a bare hint of gold when the polish is on the nails. I was hoping to get more of that antique gold shimmer that we can see in the bottle! Alas... Oh well, at least it's still a pretty shade!

Night Out - China Glaze Midtown Magic

This is a polish generously gifted to me by C a few weeks ago. 

[Bottle to nail: China Glaze Midtown Magic (2 coats)]

China Glaze Midtown Magic from the Metro collection 2011 is a dark vampy purple-burgundy base with lots of gold micro flakes.

[2 coats: China Glaze Midtown Magic]

I initially thought there was also some pink/red microflakies mixed in, but after a closer look I think it's the gold shining through thin layers of the dark base.

[2 coats: China Glaze Midtown Magic]

Great dark shade, opaque in two coats although you could probably do one careful thick coat with no problem. Quick dry time and nice smooth finish. Also.. a perfect contrasting dark base for nail art!

Bust A Cap - Lacquistry Soulstice, Lacquistry Rediculous, Orly Au Champagne, Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot

It's Marvel movie themed nail art again! What a mouthful.

Last time, I showed you my Iron Man themed nails for when I watched Captain America: Civil War. I'm Team Iron Man through and through, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate Cap (and that wonderful scene with the helicopter :P). So I had fun putting together a Captain America themed mani for the Civil War movie!

[Spiral: Lacquistry's Soulstice and Lacquistry's Rediculous
Base: Orly Au Champagne and Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot]

So this is an approximation of Steve's shield. Very red, blue and white.

[Orly Au Champagne and Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot]

So for my base, I used Orly Au Champagne, my favourite white nail polish ever. You can't see it very well here, but it's this semi-matte, shimmery snow-like nail polish, and okay, have a link to a close-up from an old post. On top of Au Champagne, I added Amy's Nail Boutique's Patriot. Patriot, which is aptly named, consists of matte blue, red and white microglitter. I was going for a theme obviously! The reason why I added Patriot was because I didn't want there to be too much white for this mani.

[Spiral: Lacquistry's Soulstice and Lacquistry's Rediculous
Base: Orly Au Champagne and Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot]

Then I used spiral nail vinyls that I got from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. The vinyls are mostly easy to use, just peel them off and stick them on your nails, then paint over with nail polish of choice and remove vinyls. My only problem was that it's really hard to keep them adhered to your nails perfectly. Because our nails curve, so the vinyls tend to lift off.

So to paint over the vinyls, I used Lacquistry's Soulstice, which is microflakie glitter in a blue jelly base, and Lacquistry's Rediculous, which is a microflakie glitter in a red jelly base.

I think it turned out nicely. The red and blue 'splatter' from Patriot makes the mani look a little more artsy.

I got plenty of comments on this mani and all in all, I loved how this Cap mani turned out!