Untried Polish Challenge - 2 Colors

Today, I have an exciting challenge to tell you guys about. You may have seen a few blogs doing this challenge already, which is how I came across it. This is the Untried Polish Challenge made by Just Add Polish. I think this challenge is a brilliant idea! As a person who tends to buy polish at a rate faster than she wears them, a group of polishes start to sit around waiting patiently to be tried. So this challenge will really help to make my untried stash smaller (maybe even non-existent!). The term "untried" I think of as polishes that have never been worn. Polishes used in pedicures, nail art, stamping, if it has been opened and put on the nail in anyway I do not consider as an untried.

The challenge is extremely flexible. It can be done in any order, over how ever many days, and not all need to be done if some do not apply. The flexibility is great, because I have a very hard time keeping up with 31 day nail challenges (I attempted once and abandoned ship). I like to enjoy my manicures for a couple of days. Let's get cracking' on this challenge!

We are starting off with "Two Colors" because I am doing this challenge in random order based on how my mood strikes me. Or stating it in a more poetic way: where ever my inspiration shall come from. The two untried colours are OPI Play The Peonies and OPI Give Me Moor!.

What made the manicure:
Two coats OPI Play The Peonies as base for all nails.
Thumb & Index - Stamp with OPI Give Me Moor! from Cheeky Jumbo C plate
Middle - OPI Give Me Moore! half moon
Ring - OPI You Glitter Be Good To Me
Pinky - OPI Play The Peonies

This is my first attempt at a half moon and it did not turn out well. Me trying to fix it also made the half moon worse. The stamping was not as successful as I had hoped either, but maybe with more practice I will get them perfect. With all that said, I really enjoyed wearing this mani because I loved the colour combination and how it looked from afar.

Do you guys have a stash of untrieds? Will be taking part in this challenge? (If yes, I would love to see what you come up with in this challenge! Provide a link in the comments below)

Review - Gals Fairy Stamping Set

Awhile back I won this Gals Fairy stamping plates set from a skittlette contest held by ChitChatNails. I couldn't believe I actually won a prize and was super excited to receive these. You can see my contest entry mani here. To review these plates I decided to stamp the most intricate design I could find to test pattern carving quality.

The ring finger is stamped with the most intricate design. The pattern seems to be carved well, since I am able to make out fine details. I should have chosen a different type of polish for stamping to better show the quality and details. A foil polish (lots of particles) was used instead of a cream, which stamps better. However, I wanted to use a gold and only own a foil. Nonetheless, the quality of these plates still shined through my poor polish choice and beginner's stamping skills. The other fingers are just stamped with small designs that matched the complicated pattern on my ring finger. Everything stamped very well.

I am totally in love with this polish combo. Base polish was China Glaze Velvet Bow and stamped with OPI I Get A Kick Out Of Gold.

Below are close-ups of each nail and its corresponding plate pattern.

Here is an image showing all the designs offered from this set.

You can find these Gals plates on the Cheeky Beauty website, which sells many nail related products and great quality stamping plates. I am very pleased with the quality of these plates and love the stamping designs. A big thank you to Marta at ChitChatNails for these awesome plates!

Haul - Cheeky Nail Art Tools

Hello~ I thought I would show you what I got from Cheeky during their 15% off promotion. There were some plates that I wanted along with nail art tools. There are lots of nail art out there that I still want to try, so I decided to get a brush set and dotting tools. Let the creative juices flow!

The package came in a bubble wrap envelope, then everything inside was wrapped in bubble wrap as well (no pictures posted). I do have an issue with the bubble wrap envelope, because it is not stiff enough to stop the items inside from bending/folding. As a result, my nail brush bag was bent and one of my plates was slightly bent at a corner. The bending is minor that it doesn't actually affect the outcome of the product, but still I like my products to arrive in mint condition. My thinking is they should have put a piece of cardboard in the envelope along with the items. Payment, order processing and mailing took 3 weeks total (shorter probably for those who pay by credit card).

On to the goodies! I got a set of 3 large plates that I have been wanting for a long time, been wanting to stamp my nails in a paisley pattern! Set of 5 dotting tools giving 10 dotting sizes. Lastly, a set of 25 brushes for nail art that came in a roll up bag.

I am so so excited to use these! Already started using my new dotting tools to create a flower dotticure. One thing I did not realise until I got the package was that larger stamping plates means larger stamping images. So the images on these new plates I got are way too big for my slim nails. This means I won't be able to get the whole pattern on my nails...sadness :( But this is great news for people who have large nails, since many seem to have a hard time finding images large enough. Nonetheless I'm still over the moon about my new toys to play with!

Did you order anything from Cheeky during their promotion? How do you like Cheeky products? Thanks for stopping by~

NOTD - Stamping with China Glaze Robotika and Cheeky Plates

Hello everyone! I decided to try my hand at stamping a full image for the first time today. Since I wasn't liking Desert Sun against my skin tone too much I thought I would try to do some type of safari-like nails. I received China Glaze Robotika for Christmas and the main reason I wanted this polish was for stamping. Now this was my first time stamping a full pattern for a whole nail, so the stamping is FAR from pretty. Out of 10 nails I was only satisfied with 3...*sigh* I'll just have to keep practicing! Also, sorry for the slightly blurry pictures. I guess I wasn't able to hold my hands steady anymore by the end of the night before bed. And one last apology, which is for my dry fingers. There was no hope since I had spent the holidays is such a cold and extremely dry climate.

Left then right hand taken with warm artificial light (no flash)

 Left then right hand taken with warm artificial light and flash.

I used China Glaze Desert Sun as the base and stamped with China Glaze Robotika using what I call a "pebble" pattern from Cheeky CH01 plate. Loved this color combo! For some nails there was no full coverage by stamp and others where the stamping was messed up. I found Robotika a bit harder to stamp with than other polishes I have used, and I think it may be due to it's fast dry time meaning I need to work even faster when stamping. Need more practice definitely! Thought the Cheeky plate was excellent, all the details of the pattern came out clean each time!

Despite the bad stamping job by me, what do you guys thing of the color combo and pattern? What does this pattern remind you of? I think it looks like pebbles in a stream.
Thanks for stopping by!

Mani entry for ChitChatNails Skittlette contest

I entered in ChitChatNails' Skittlette contest and it was super fun to do a skittlette mani (it was my first time!). It took a real long time for me to decide on what I wanted to do on my nails, then I finally settled on what you see below. I apologize ahead of time for the dark pic, since it was taken at night the lighting is much less than ideal.

What was used in the mani:
          Thumb & Middle: China Glaze Wagon Trail
          Index & pinky: OPI Did you 'ear about van gogh? stamped with bow from Cheeky plate CH1
                                   using ChG Wagon Trail
          Ring: ChG Pizzazz

Hope you enjoyed this mani, I sure did. And I hope I have inspired you to go create skittlette mani's of your own. Check out the other entries for the contest here! Thanks for stopping by~

Dec 30 edit:
I actually WON a prize from this contest!!!! When I saw the post I literally kept refreshing the page to make sure what I was seeing was real. I came in second place and received my prize of choice...the Galz Fairy stamping set. I was taken completely by surprise considering how amazing all the other entries were, so I am extremely honored. Thanks again Marta (@ChitChatNails) for holding this contest!!! To see the other winners click here.