Celebration 500 Guest Post - Kirsten from The Geeky Owl

Hi Goddesses

The final Guest Post from Celebration 500 comes from a really dear friend, Kirsten of Geeky Owl.

She's done a smorgasboard of awesome for me - thank you sweetheart, I loves xx :)

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Hello All! This is my first ever guest post that I have written! It’s a bit intimidated to do, especially doing one for The Crumpet! I sat and stewed for a while trying to figure out the best mani I could do for The Crumpet. I ended up coming up with two! A serious one and a not so serious mani. :)

This is my serious purple mani for The Crumpet. I used OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI, which is a gorgeous purple crème with orangey/red shimmer. I then did a funky french tip using Milani Purple Gleam. Purple Gleam is a gorgeous glitter jam packed with sparkles!

Here is a swatch of OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI all by its lonesome self.

Here is me showing off the lovely shimmer that accompanies OPI Dutch ‘Ya Just Love OPI. Isn’t’ this a polish just made for The Crumpet! I think it suits her well!

Alright, now on to my not so serious mani. I had a blast doing this one!  Hahaha!  This is my take on the different blood manis that The Crumpet has done for both her Lostathon and Potterathon weeks! Hahaha! Only The Crumpet could truly get away with a mani that portrays blood as art! Haha! :) Now, mine isn’t such a perfect blood color as The Crumpet’s, because I do not own the best blood color nail polish which is OPI Royal Rajah Ruby. I had

to make do. My base is OPI Skull & Glossbones. I then sponged one a  layer of Nina Ultra Pro in Maple Syrup topped off with Zoya Sooki. I then blotted a little more Maple Syrup for good measure. :)

I had so much fun trying different combinations to get the blood just right!

And I hope you enjoyed my manis of a serious and not so serious nature, because we all know that The Crumpet (bless her heart) is both! :)

Celebration 500 Guest Post - Aimee from Persistently Glittery

Hi Goddesses

Today I have the final 2 Guest Posts for you from Celebration 500.  As usual, I overdid things, and planned far more than could be fitted in.

Today's post is from the lovely Aimee at Persistently Glittery.  Aimee is lovely and her designs are always cool.  She's really good at mixing stamping and nail art, and just for me, she chose one of my favourite things for her Guest Post :)  

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Hello lovely! This is my post for you! I did kitties especially for you :) I know you enjoy a kitty or two.

For the kitty nails I used Zoya Kristen dotted with OPI Pink Friday, and the kitties are A-england Bridal Veil, with China Glaze White on White for the eyes.

The purple nails are Zoya Tru with Cult Nails Seduction which is a super gorgeous sheer purple jelly with lots of lovely flakie goodness going on. I stamped with Konad Special Stamping Polish in White using the bow and hearts image from Konad M84.

Thanks so much for letting me do this Debbie! It's an honour to be allowed a post on your blog. You sexy thing, you. :) xxx

Aimee x

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Thank you, for what has been an awesome month on the blog.  Thank you to everyone who did a guest post, left a comment, or liked The Crumpet for the first time - it really means a lot to me.

Part of the reason for Celebration 500 was to give some of the love back, both to people who read the blog, and other bloggers who I love, and now, dearest dearest followers, it is time for you to feast on The Great British Giveaway!

In my attempts to be universal, I often forget how much most of you want to see British polishes, so here, just for you, is a Giveaway comprised purely of British polishes.  We have -

Nails Inc - Clifford Street, MaliBlush and Paris

Models Own Mystic Mauve, Fearne Red and W7 Lava Flow, a white polish with red glitter and matte black glitter

Rimmel - Sunshine, Pop Your Pink and Orange Your Life

2 small crackle glitters

the infamous Accessorise Pink Spice, supposed to be a dupe for MAC Bad Fairy

aaaaaaaaaand Barry and his M !!!!

There's also some British jam and marmalade - look at the cwute ickle jars!  Now you can have a Very British Breakfast :)

And lots of sweets !

And some more yummies !!

And it will ALL go to one person.

The Giveaway is open internationally and will run until a random time of my choosing on Friday 13th July lol - so, rather than unlucky, it will be extremely LUCKY for someone.

As before, I'm used the old fashioned Giveaway method.  Why ?  Well, cos I like it, it's a great way to capture some much needed feedback from you, and I've heard Rafflecopter is one of the causes of all those malware warnings that went round recently.

So - here you go - DIVE IN !!  Enjoy xxx :)

Celebration 500 - Guest Post - Helen from Nail Newbie

Hi Goddesses

Today's Guest Post is from a lady I LOVE.  Her name is Helen and her blog is Nail Newbie.  She shares my sense of humour and colourful language, and she's one of the few bloggers that can make me guffaw out loud.

Her laptop broke recently, so she's not been posting as much, and I really miss her lighting up my day.  Luckily for me, she found a way to do a Guest Post .... hoping you're back with us everyday soon Helly! xx

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Hello!

 

When Debbie asked me to do a guest post for her Celebration Month I knew there was only one thing I could do. We all know that our favourite Crumpet has a preference for a certain blue/red mix, and quite possibly her collection of purple polish outnumbers my entire stash – and that's no mean feat! So it had to be purple, and since Debbie is the founder of the epic stamping group on Facebook, it had to have stamping. 

I decided on a gradient of three of my favourite purples: China Glaze Agent Lavender, Sally Hansen Delphinium and OPI Parlez Vous OPI? They're all slightly dusty and went really well together. Then I stamped a hearts and lines combo image from the first Bundle Monster set in Barry M Silver Foil. I hope the Crumpet approves!

 

 

I have a penchant for purple too, so loved how it came out. And the stamping hides a multitude of sins with the gradient...

 

Thank you for letting me hijack your blog Debbie! Due to technical issues (the death of my poor laptop) I'm not blogging as much as I'd like to at the moment, but please pop over and say hi at www.nail-newbie.blogspot.com – I'd love to see you!

 

Hx

Celebration 500 - New Bloggers To Watch

Hi Goddesses

Those of you who have been with me for a while may remember that back in December I did a list of my Top 10 favourite bloggers, headed by Sarah of Chalkboard Nails.

One of the things that's struck me this year is how many other bloggers have really upped their game, and also how many awesome bloggers I've stumbled across who I had no awareness of last year.

So here, in no particular order, are my daily "must reads".  2 disclaimers - I have ignored anyone on last year's list, and I have also not mentioned any of the goddesses who featured in my Friends post.   Here we go .....

Jodi at Captivating Claws wasn't even on my radar last year.  This year, she has developed a love of watermarbles and a fabulous eye for colour.  She doesn't particularly do nail "art", but she knows what works well together.

Nicole at Polish Wars is the lady behind Elixir Lacquers.  As you'd expect, she's also got a great eye for colour, and she often puts really melodramatic colours together.  Everything she does is really tasteful and well lit.  

Erika at Polish Fixation also has a great eye for colour.  She's introduced me (through her blog) to some great polishes, and again, she has an eye for what works well together.

Ok, let's share some stamping love.  I met these ladies through Adventures in Stamping.  Jenni from Gold Speck Nails puts some amazing combos together.  She's not your average stamper either - she can do gradient stamping, multi-stamped, and full on make you feel sick with jealousy stamping.

Aimee from Persistently Glittery is similar.  She also does amazing stamping, but mixes it up with her nail art.  She also makes me sick :)

A blogger who I discovered in December has influenced me a lot - Lauren from Dizzy Nails.  Mainly, she does swatches or layerings, but there was something about the big and open layout of her blog that appealed to me.

Adventures In Acetone is a blog that's REALLY improved this year.   Jackie has become really expert at mixing colours and patterns perfectly, and her designs range from sophisticated to this one, my favourite, for her daughter Hailey.

Amber Did It is another blog I'm loving this year.   Amber has the skill of taking quite "childish" patterns and translating them expertly onto the nail. Please, this is not an insult, merely a reference to the patterns being bold, colourful and relatively simple - I love them.

I also love a new blog this year - Rosie from Little Nails.  As the name suggests, she has nubbins, but she does the cutest things with them.  She's a bit of a pattern genius, and her dotticures are particularly amazing.  She has a 50s retro feel going on too which I really love.

Someone else I've only just discovered is Kelsie from Kelsie's Nails.   She is, simply, quite awesome.  Finding her has been like finding Chalkboard Nails for the first time.  Her nail art is scarily good.

I've also got a bit of a passion for Fingers at Fingers Polish Mania.  She's a stamping goddess, with 2 signature moves, plus she has a sense of humour which is pretty similar to mine.  She's great.  

Now for someone who is so awesome she rocks my world.  Carolina from Colores de Carole.  Her manicures are just .... ugh, to die for.  She's a gradient queen, a stamping queen, a bloody everything queen!  This is who I want to be when I grow up :)

And finally, goddesses, the lady who I think is probably THE best and the most exciting nail blogger at the moment - Caitlin from Caitlin's Creative Corner.  Her world really took off at the turn of the year when she did a Fight Club mani that was soooo good, the author retweeted and she got something like a million page views!

Caitlin is constantly pushing the boundaries of nail art, without trying too hard (and some bloggers DO try too hard), and everything she does is pure awesome.









So there you go - I hope that's given you some awesome new nail bloggers to follow.  The list keeps growing and growing by the way - some of the ladies I am doing the Summer Challenge with are just insanely talented, so make sure you check them out too.   Who are your favourites ?




Enjoy xx :)

Celebration 500 - Guest Post - Bee from Bee Polished

Hi Goddesses

Today's Guest Post is from my very bestest polish friend, the gorgeous Bee from Bee Polished.

Bee is effortless when it comes to polish - she makes it all look so simple.  Also, she seems to cram 36 hours worth of stuff into each day - I don't know how she does that :)  Bee is a genuinely lovely soul, and it gives me immense pleasure and pride to be able to bring you her talents again today - enjoy xx

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These nails are a guest post for my very good friend, Debbie at The Crumpet. This month she's celebrating her 500th blog post and invited some friends to join in the celebration!!  I can't say enough wonderful things about Debbie and her blog.  It has everything you could ask for in a blog: humor, art, swatches, and best of all, a lot of heart.  I'm nowhere near five hundred posts myself so I give kudos to Debbie for sticking with it and making time to post!! We all know it can be hard sometimes!  

In honor of Debbie's milestone, I wanted to recreate one of her wonderful mani's!  It took me a LONG time to choose.  Not only are there a lot to choose from, but they're all so interesting and I wanted to choose one that I could really do justice.  Debbie did a series of these crazy cool mosiac mani's in all sorts of colors.  I chose to do the blue ones because I had most of the colors she used in the original!  I think they turned out really well and I was really sad to have to take them off!  Congrats again to Debbie on her 500th post! I can't wait to see the next 500!  :)

PS: you can see Debbie's original blue mosaic mani here: Crumpety Blue Mosaic 

 

                        Colors used: China Glaze Sea Spray, butterLONDON Victoriana, A-England Tristam, Barry M Blue Glitter, Barry M Cyan Blue, China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle

Celebration 500 Guest Post - Victoria from Manicurator

Hi Goddesses

Today's Guest Post is from Victoria, a lovely lady I met recently through a FB group.  She also comes with a funny story.  One of my BPFF is Emma of Manicurity and a few months ago, Emma was gutted to find there was a blog called Manicurator AND that it was quite good lol.

Fast forward a few weeks, and I find Lady Manicurator herself in a FB group I joined ... oh the dilemma!  Was it disloyal to Emma to make friends with Victoria ?  Well, as I'm not 6 years old anymore, I decided to make friends :)  She also has my admiration - she's mum to twin 3 yr old boys - wow, now THAT'S a challenge :)

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Hello everyone!! I'm so happy to be sharing these manicures to help THE CRUMPET celebrate :) And what better way than with F4's purple glitter love fest. This polish is called Grape Escape and it's gorgeous. From their description: "GRAPE ESCAPE is a clear base with purple fine glitters , purple holo glitters , purple square glitters and purple satin matte hex glitters." Those "purple satin matte" hexes are light purple and such a nice unexpected addition, making this not your typical purple glitter. I decided to give you two different chock full of purple looks. 

The first is Grape Escape in a gradient of sorts over Ciate Sugar Plum, which is a lovely lavender creme. I used 3 thins coats and then 1 coat of Grape Escape using just the brush from the bottle, and another coat just on the tips. 

The second look, I started with 2 coats of SpaRitual Heliotrope which is from their new Summer Pigment collection. Gorgeous. Painted the accent nail with Grape Escape and on the other nails, I just dotted on the Grape :) 

Hope you enjoyed this post, brought to you by the color purple :)

XO, Victoria

Stash Week - The Untrieds

Hi Goddesses

What do you do with your untrieds ?  Do you store them separately, or do you immediately rehome them with their new families?

I used to do the latter and I found that I kept forgetting I hadn't worn polishes, so I started making an effort to keep them separate, and that's why these ones aren't mixed in with all the other polishes.  These are mainly swaps and purchases from the last 3 months, and they're waiting to be tried.  Once they've been tried, they'll be "booked in" on my stash spreadsheet, and then they can go play with their brothers and sisters.

I currently have 5 boxes of untrieds plus another 2 boxes full of stuff from recent hauls (which you'll see separately) plus another box worth on the way.   Luckily, as I mentioned recently, I'm thinking of doing different blog blog posts going forward, so I know I will at least be able to show all my babies some love.

Ok, without further ado .... on to the drool!

  3 Nostalgics and Event Horizon from NerdLacquer.

assorted summer brights, mainly from my swap with Sheila of Pointless Cafe.

Zoyas, incl 2 mattes on the left.

My Hungry Asians :)

4 lovely Barielles.

LA Color - I love their range.

My Lynnderellas.

China Glazes, incl 2 of the glitter crackles.

a lotta OPIs - I swear they breed :)

Cult Nails lusciousness.

lotsa lotsa HITS - holos, duochromes and their version of the Elytras.

Butter London loveliness .... aaaah such a happy photo :)

4 luscious Picture Polishes :)

5 Andrea Fulertons - a British brand

a lot of good ole Barry and his M-azing new polishes lol and a fabulous teal in the middle called Mystical Dragon from Fashionista.

5 Glitter Gal babies.  I tell you, these new bottles are HUGE.

my untried purples - happiness :)  Nubar Peacock Feathers just on the end there, on the right :)

3 UP flakies and 2 holos.

an assortment of Ludurana polishes.

mucho ManGlaze.

random loveliness :)

Flormar loveliness

mixed Brazilian loveliness

random swap gorgeousness

 a GOSH lovely and a Catrice oooh-er

DURI magic :) I LOVE their bottles so much, and I've only just now with this photo realised that the bumps spell Duri! lol!

3 polishes from Rockstar Nails.  2 of them have separated badly due to the suspension base issue, but should be ok after a shake.

This is my haul from Red Carpet Lacquer which I LOVE.

Close ups below - 

Aren't they all gorgeous ?

 my Acessorize haul - great little polishes in all sorts of finishes, plus my Jubilee nail art set which I forgot to use ..... DOH

my beloved Bettinas which I had been keeping separately anyway because they are so pretty to look at and the bottles are so shiny and I purr when I stroke them.   Oooops, too far?  OK, close ups then - 

mmmmmm all so pretty!

and finally the Planets set from W7 - all duochromes.

Phew!  Can you imagine how long that swatching session would be lol.  Oh and there's a haul post to come yet too .....

Enjoy, and see you tomorrow :) xx