Steampunk Nails- Twinsie Nails

 Hi guys, today I have for you a challenge that I did during the week with @cats_n_nails from Instagram. Natalia has been doing Twinsie nail manicure all week with different nail art chicks and I popped my hand up to try a bit of a challenge :)  Natalia was keen to re create/re-interpret a manicure by @mrslochness involving Steampunk, bling and cog stamping. Since I love the idea of steampunk and had some nail art watch bits, I was completely up for the challenge! LOL. As an aside, it's hideously hot here so stamping is a complete pain in the rear end..Essie Good as Gold is my go to stamping polish, but she was having none of it in the weather!  Anyways, here is the end result!

Base coat- Essie Good as Gold and Five Stars Bron-zite. Stamping with China Glaze Passion, Swarovski studs and Nail art Watch pieces from Cherry Poppins.

Here is a side by side of my nails and Natalia's nails :)

I love how these watch pieces look :)

 Gorgeous gold flecks in Five Stars Bron-zite! :)

 Gah, not the best stamping effort..but the heat I tell you!

Super pleased with how these came out. I love the bronze gold flecked polish and the watch bits was really fun..and completely impractical. I would have top coated my little finger and hoped for the best if I had faith I wouldn't knock the nail art off. Since I am super clumsy I took the larger gold piece and the sharper bit on the bottom of my pinky off. The stamping was so difficult in regards to I was unable to pick up the polish from the design, stoopid heat. Anyways, it was worth the persistence. You can check out me on instagram if you like, I am @jasmsb or Natalia- @cats_n_nails :)

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter and Jelly

Hey Guys, gah! That's what I think of this week. Today in particular..ones of those days. TGIF tomorrow. Anyways, I am sure it's nothing that polish can't fix :) Today I have for you a lovely swatch of Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter and Jelly..and a bit of a average lightbox pic of some stamping. It looked awesome in real life, I promise.

Whimsical Ideas by Pam Peanut Butter and Jelly, 2 coats.

 Loving the glitter suspending in jelly! So yummy :)

 I then stamped PB n J with Essie Penny Talk with an accent nail of glitter Sinful Colors Scene Stealer

 I stamped using various Fun IP plates from Llarowe

So much more glittery and awesome in real life :)

I love the color and depth of this polish. To me it's a bit of a wintry color and since it's winter here, it fits right in! I love that its squishy and the glitters swim with each layer. Whimsical Ideas by Pam are a little hard to get in Australia, as she currently only ships to the US. Mine were shipped in a big group order through a parcel forwarding service. The Fun plates from Llarowe are awesome, great for stamping, very easy to transfer and cute and different designs.

Kleancolor Sandstone, Ulta3 Early Grey and Ulta3 Gold Rush Fever Gradient

Tonight, I am going to show you a lovely neutral gradient mani that I did after my Flying Dragon Floam mani peeled off after I may have used Ulta3 Non Chip top coat instead of the base, oopsie! I will show the result in just a moment, it's not exactly super pretty, but it's art I tell you..art! LOL. The colors I used are here:

But first, I don't usually do rants because you always upset someone, but I've just read something on another blog of whose name I won't mention because she doesn't deserve it. Seriously. I am that so astonished and incensed at what I read that I am not going to mention her name, but I am sure you can guess who/what it's about with recent polish world goings on. ANY respect I had for this polisher as a person has gone, gondidy, gone, gone. I am not even going to go into what it says but it left me thinking "Oh my giddy aunt and are you freakin' serious?" I haven't read anything so delusional, nor more clarifying of how I feel about the whole thing. I was a bit Switzerland on the whole thing until today. Now I understand why a few people reacted like they did and their actions. My actions will be to not enable any further delusions of grandeur ...do you think the average chick wants polish at super inflated prices supported by the creator? Not this one. Simple as that.

Anyways, moving forward, I hear Dollish, Pretty & Polished AND Crows Toes have joined Llarowe..so exciting! I have managed to order some Dollish polishes and am waiting for them. I also have some Pretty & Polished polishes which I love and was sad when she announced that she wasn't going to ship internationally. Also was lusting after some of the Crows Toes polishes but again no international shipping, now not a problem! I shall make some mine :) Lets go forthwith onto the gradient mani!

The colors I used, Kleancolor Sandstone (42), Ulta3 Gold Rush Fever and Earl Grey. I was hoping to achieve a neutral but still interesting mani! I applied Ulta3 base coat, 2 coats of Kleancolor Sandstone. Then took a makeup sponge and painted 3 lines of polish with Kleancolor Sandstone at the top, Gold Rush Fever in the middle and Earl Grey down the bottom. The polish lines made up the length of my nail and then I dabbed and moved the sponge up and down slightly. This is the result.

I like the foil shiny effect, even though Earl Grey is a creme

 Beige, Gold, Taupe gradient with flash

With a change in light/angle the gold can look gold or bronze, the bronze doesn't mesh quite as well.

After a day I tired of the neutralness and thought, stamping..have at it. I'd swatched Kleancolor Coffee Addict previously and thought it would go well, so did a few accent stamping nails to make this mani bling a bit :)

 Left hand stamping using Konad and Bundlemonster

 Left Thumb stamping with Cheeky Plates

 Right hand stamping with Cheeky plates and Bundle Monster

 Right Thumb without and with flash

 The stamping transforms this gradient mani from pleasant to great. I particularly like the thumbs as one looks very giraffe pattern like and the other thumb looks snake skin like! A very happy co-incidence. This also answers my posed question does Kleancolor Coffee Addict stamp well? Yes, yes it does. I did a top coat with Seche Vite and there was no bleeding of the stamped design as with some Kleancolor colors.
Phew, that turned out to be a bit of a marathon post..I hope you didn't mind and congrats if you made it all the way to the end! Hope your week is going well, I get to sleep in tomorrow before my shift and am mightly looking forward to it :)