Nails: #fightforlightandlive - Depression Awareness

Nailsandpolkadots on Instagram - "The passing of Robin Williams has again shown that there is more to a person than meets the eye. Having suffered from depression myself me and a few friends have decided to collaborate to raise awareness for the invisible illness. Join us this Sunday by posting a green manicure using the hashtag #fightforlightandlive. Feel free to repost this picture to get as many people involved as possible".

These are my green nails for this cause, raising awareness and showing solidarity.

Base Polish: Barry M - Key Lime

Stamping Polish: Sleek - Poison Ivy

Stamping Plate: MoYou 123

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Nail Challenge: Green

Today's prompt was 'green' and for this I used Sleek's Poison Ivy which I got in if not before June 2011, it also stamped quite well which was good to know. The accent nails are Barry M Greenberry which is more of a recent purchase, from May 2013.

Polishes Used: Sleek - Poison Ivy, Barry M - Greenberry
Stamping Plate: Bundle Monster 407

Nerd Nail Challenge: Lego

This week's challenge is Lego, and how could I not attempt to do the little men.

Nail Polishes Used: 
Sally Hansen - Lavender Cloud
Sleek - Poison Ivy
Color Club - Almost Famous
Yes Love - K036
MUA - Shade 13

Acrylic Paints

Nail Art: Holiday

I started by painting my nails ELF Yellow, then sponged on ELF Party Peach and ELF Black to get the gradient, I did a tutorial on how to do this here if you are interested. Then I went on to stamp the designs using W7 Black and the following stamping plates; Bundle Monster BM315 and BM310, B22 and M71.

Nail Polish: Battle of the Greens

For some unknown reason I have quite a selection of green polishes! Green isn't even a favourite colour of mine, so this was quite a surprise even though I sit and look at my polishes most days when choosing what to paint on my nails.

 ELF - Teal Blue, Kleancolor - Metallic Green, MUA - Green, Maxfactor - Graffiti,  Yes Love - 408, 17 - Peacock, Rimmel - Camouflage  Nails Inc - Electric Teal, Miss Sporty - Rain Drops, Barry M - Racing Green, Sleek - Poison Ivy, Models Own - Emerald Black, W7 - Metallic Neptune, NYX - Robotic, OPI - Unripened

Thinning down the 15 polishes wasn't as difficult as I imagined as Yes Love - 408 and 17 - Peacock Green are dupes. Models Own - Emerald Green and W7 - Metallic Neptune are dupes and NYX - Robotic and OPI - Unripened are dupes also.

Making the final four were ELF - Teal Blue, Max Factor - Graffiti, Miss Sporty - Rain Drops and W7 - Metallic Neptune. Teal Blue is a really sturdy teal cremé which holds its own in a world of glitters and shimmers which vie for attention.

Another battle round and making the final two were Max Factor - Graffiti which is a beautiful glass flecked mid green and W7 - Metallic Neptune, which is a black green duochrome, similar to a common black ground beetles back.

The winner is the blackened green, how could a blackened shade not win! W7 - Metallic Neptune in all it's duochrome amazingness. What is there not to like!

  

Nail Polish: Battle of the Reds

Another day, another battle! This time it is red polishes.

 Eyeko - Saucy, ELF - Light Red, Miss Sporty - 160, ELF - Medium Red, ELF - Cranberry, Barry M - Raspberry, Kleancolor - Metallic Red, ELF - Red Velvet, Sleek - Royalty  ELF - Dark Red, OPI - Sanguine, No.7 - Damson Dreams,  Eyeko - Vampira, OPI - William Tell Me About OPI

First off the top four are such a wide range of shades, which will make the next battle really difficult! ELF - Light Red is a prime colour, so simple. Barry M - Raspberry is a really lovely colour difficult to know where to place it red or a pink?

Barry M Raspberry and Eyeko Vampira made it through the round. Vampira is a very blackened red with red glitter throughout the polish.

I could have easily brought both in to the final but alas Eyeko Vampira made it on its own, purely because its a blackened polish and I have a leaning towards darker shades.

Nail Polish: Battle of the Blues

Battle of the blues, so many blues to choose from!

Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream, Collection 2000 - Electric Dreams, Essence - Let's Get Lost, MUA - Smurf Blue, Barry M - Chameleon Blue, Stargazer - Blue Chrome, Miss Sporty - Pop Fiction, Models Own - True Blue, Barry M - Retro Blue, Barry M - Blue Plum Gelly, Max Factor - Odyssey  Kleancolor - Metallic Blue, Sleek - Oxford, Sinful Colors - Hot Spot, OPI - Road House Blues, Eyeko - Cosmic, No.7 - Betty Blues, ELF - Navy, MUA - Navy

Cutting down all of those polishes to just four wasn't too difficult, Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream is such a nice cream base polish perfect for nail art. Miss Sporty - Pop Fiction is quite a unique periwinkle blue, shame it smells really weird.

Making the final two are Barry M and OPI. The Blue Plum is just so rich of a colour and covers in just one coat.

And the winner is... Road House Blues! It's just more of a colder navy compared to the Barry M. Something very wearable, plenty of polish in there (15ml) and the brush makes application so easy.

Swatch: Sleek - Poison Ivy

Finish: Somewhere between a shimmer and a frost
Longevity: Use a top coat otherwise it will chip in hours
Opacity: Standard two coats needed
Brush Type: Standard, lid is a pain to work with

£3.89 - 10.5g
Sleek

52 Week Challenge: Week 7 - Based on a Tutorial

The challenge this week was to come up with a manicure based on a tutorial 

I chose a frenchy dot tutorial as explained by Leslie from polishartaddiction

Sleek - Poisoned Ivy (green)

Sleek - Royalty (red)

Sleek - Oxford (blue)

Swatch: Sleek - Royalty

Swatch: Sleek - Oxford