Purple Water Marble Fail

Hi Goddesses

Last week, when I was wondering what to do for my 300th post, I thought of this - using my favourite colour (purple) and my favourite style (water marbling).  I am no water marbling goddess, but usually they come out ok.

Well this sucked.  This sucked big style.  This puckered up and hoovered the very life force out of me.  It was hideous, and I hated it, so no 300th post.  However, I am still going to share it, because it's a useful example of what you can do when things go wrong.

Right, you're only going to see this once, cos it's truly hideous - man it's ugly!!  This is a base coat of CG Spontaneous, and then the colours used for marbling are -

CG Spontaneous

CG First Mate

Color Club Jack n Jill

Barry M Vivid Purple

Gah!!  it's all so gaaaaaaaaaah!!  oh, it's so hideous I can barely look at it, though I do like the stripes on the thumb.  So, why do I hate it ?  Well, it's just too DARK.  With water marbling, you need to pick colours that are tonally similar, but these are just TOO similar.  There is hardly any difference between the Vivid Purple and the First Mate, meaning that there are 2 layers of pure darkness in there.  Against this, the pink and the medium purple, just don't stand a chance.

I also have to say, I under estimate Spontaneous A LOT.  Whenever I use it, things go bad.  It looks so similar to Planks A Lot, but it's MUCH deeper.  Also, every time I use it, I have spillage - this time I managed to gloop it everywhere when I overloaded the brush!

As I was still in a water marbling mood, I played a little more, and for the right hand, took out the layer of Vivid Purple, leaving just the blue, the pink and a medium purple.  Doesn't it look better ?  Much more balanced.  And the pink takes the stage a lot more.

Some days, I might have considered tarting this up with a glittery or shimmery top coat, but there was no point really, it came straight off!  I just HATED it. 

Looking at the photos now, some of them aren't too bad, and I do like how the ring finger looks a bit like a purple peacock feather.

So, this one gets chalked up to the god of Learning.  We will NOT be making this mistake again lol.  But I guess the real joy of water marbling is that because every nail looks so different (unless you're Colette lol), you CAN get away with making some tweaks and changes.

Enjoy xx  :)

Purple Rainbows

Hi Goddesses

It's doodle time!!    Last night I was toying with the idea of another 31 Day Challenge (why are they sooooo irresistible) and one of the challenges was rainbow.  I'd just painted my nails lilac, and an idea was born: what sort of rainbows do they have in CrumpetLand if not purple ones ? Lol.

This is 3 coats of Essence Hang Loose from the their Surfer Babe Collection.  It is like a pink-toned lilac version of Essie's Marshmallow - very sheer, but lovely and squishy.

I wasn't totally sure how my rainbows were going to look, but I knew I didn't want them the same on every nail, or to look like 1 rainbow spread across 5 nails - and so any idea somewhere in between was born!   The boyf thinks it looks a little like a mountain range - I'm not too sure, but at least it was a compliment!

For this is used my beloved dotting tools, only because I knew I wouldn't be steady with a brush - I ended up using the 2nd largest size.   The rows were built up with -

* SH Mystic Lilac - still love - that green shimmer takes me by surprise every time

* OPI Planks a Lot

* OPI Parlez Vous OPI

* CG Spontaneous

I was going to add 1 final row in Barry M Bright Purple, but I really didn't think I had the room.

Loving how this turned out - so simple, so effortless :)

Enjoy xx :)

Nails I Love - Purple OTT Mania

Nails I Love

10 Purple Polishes Sitting On My Nails J

I confess, I was bored.  And as I was mooching through my favourite nail polish box (the purples) I found I had 10 I hadn’t tried…. I actually love wearing different colours at the same time so yay, here we go !!  (But be warned, I will be saving the best for last).

The Right Hand

Thumb – LA Girl Rockstar

Index - Color Club Electronica

Middle – Color Club Wild At Heart

Ring – OPI Catherine The Grape

Pinkie – Color Club Tru Passion

In the bottle, I had a MASSIVE crush on Rockstar.  Dark, delicious and possibly poisonous, this is a very dark glass-flecked purple.  On the nail ?  Waaaaaa!  Where’d’all the purple go ?  Everything that made this edgy and cool in the bottle, disappears, and whilst you’re still left with an arresting nail, virtual black with teeny tiny flecks does NOT match my expectations.  It’s still very cool, but not as glam-cool as I’d hoped.

Color Club is fast becoming one of my favourite brands.  Solid, dynamic colour, excellent bottles and application, these tick so many boxes.  My purple splurge included some amazing CC colours.  Electronica (bottom) is just so perfectly named, it’s absurd.  Dark, cold, maelstrom purple, this shines with a thousand volts, fluorescing glossy electricity at every moment.

Wild At Heart (top) shouldn’t be able to compete, but does.  Less blue, and more royal, this is semi-holographic, catching moonbeams in its midnight glow.  There’s a beautiful dusty depth to the holo here – deliciously infinite.

Tru Passion is the odd one out – lighter, a medium glittery purple, this sparkles and shines like it belongs on a Christmas tree.  Whilst it looks beautiful on, it didn’t really look right against its darker cousins, so I layered it with China Glaze purple crackle.  The glitter broke through like a crazy cracked paving slab – love!

And then there was Catherine The Grape .. the odd one out, and doesn’t the name just make you break into a big grin ?  This is a shiny, shimmery brown purple with oodles of class and glamour.  Super glossy, super divine, this is a purple that defies description – the nearest I can get is that it reminds me of what mahogany would look like if it was purple!  Seriously lovely.

Left Hand – The China Glazes

Thumb – Mummy May I

Index – Grape Juice

Middle – Let’s Groove

Ring – C-C-Courage

Pinkie – Spontaneous

So, bottom’s up.  Spontaneous is a lovely lively dark lavender / medium purple.  A shade or 2 darker than OPI’s Planks A Lot, this is just a FUN colour, and I bought it so I would have a good mid range colour for blending.

Grape Juice and C-C-Courage, whilst lovely and sparkly, are not quite as wow on the hand as they are in the bottle, mainly because they come out a couple of shades lighter.  GJ is the lightest, and almost looks anaemic – icy but with nice flecks of colour.  CCC is soooo cool in the bottle – a dark yet bright grey purple that glistens with light – but on the nail it blanded out a little, although I’m sure a little KleanColor magic will brighten it back up.  This is very indigo, and a little too matte for my liking.

Let’s Groove is coolness personified, a 70s swirlfest of shimmering violet tones.  In the bottle, it looks like blackened purple roses, and on the nail, it loses some of that olde elegance, but not much.  It is supremely rich, flashing magenta, brown, royal purple and dark polished wood.  This is almost like the unblued cousin of CC’s Electronica, and should come with its own pair of flares.

And finally … ladies, ladies, ladies … Mummy May I?  Mamma Mia this is ah-may-zing!  Purple has never looked so fine, so sexy, so poisonous and so goddammed witchy.   In the bottle, it is super pretty, devilish and full of voodoo.  A purplish black base, flecked with violet, on the nail this looks like blackcurrant crush, the clash of the bruised skin mixing with the sweet inner juices.

This reminds me a little of some photos I have seen of Merry Midnight – that beautiful clash of the dark and the bright.  There is a holiness to this colour.  It should be bowed down to, worshipped, prayed to.

This, girls, is BEYOND magical. 

Enjoy !

Top Tip – if you’re ever unsure what a nail colour looks like, go to Google images, which will give you plenty of contrasts and compares.