Gothic Black and Fuchsia Nail Art - WIDW

Hey y'all!

So uhm... it's been a while.  My bad.  I had a rough month, and to be honest, I'm not sure I still have the blogging spark that I used to have.  I'm hoping that some time off will ease that and help me get back in the groove, but at this point I'm not going to make any promises to you or to myself.  Mostly this month has been consumed with me practicing my acrylic sculpting, going to the BeautyUK show in Birmingham to pick up some goodies for said acrylic practice, earning my certificates for hard gels, gel polish, and a few other nail procedures, and trying to clear out some old stuff from the house to make a little money and make space.  I'm also considering going into practice as a mobile nail tech, unless I can find a suitable position in a nearby salon first, so I am seeing my available free time starting to shrivel up and frankly that's what kept me blogging for the past 2 years (having a lot of time on my hands).  In any event... I have a few posts to finish off this month and the first of those is this WIDW look with Sinful Shine's Royal Flush - a gothic black and fuchsia look with studs.

Purple and Gold Vortex Nail Art - WIDW

Hey y'all!

It's hump day again, and that of course means it's time for What I Did (with it) Wednesday!  This week I created nail art from a swatch of Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Witches Get Stitches.  I decided the plummy purple needed a bit of gold and some stamping, so I turned to my semi-recently-acquired chrome finish polishes for help to create this look.

FingerFood's Daisies - NCC Recreations

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Happy Friday!  Today we kick off my second month in the Nail Challenge Collaborative, which happens to be celebrating its third anniversary this month!  In honor of 3 years of talented nail artists doing monthly themes, we've decided to use this month's theme to recreate some of our favorite NCC looks from days gone by.  Today I'm recreating a really sweet look done by a former NCC member and an all-around really cool chick, so here's my version of FingerFood's Sugar-Coated Daisies.

Teal and Plum Dot Flowers - WIDW

Hey y'all!

Happy April to you!  The first three months of 2015 have absolutely steamrolled me, and I can hardly believe it's already springtime, and more importantly, birthday time for me. :)  Today's What I Did Wednesday plays on that spring theme, and I've used Monday's swatch of Plush to create some drop-dot flowers in this colorful and playful look.

Hey, Swatch It! Sally Hansen Velvet Texture Plush

Hey y'all!

Since I overrode Saturday's normal Swatch It with my haul, I figured a mani Monday was in order to actually do a swatch post for ya.  As you'll have seen in the Texas Polish Haul, I picked up a couple more of the Sally Hansen Velvet Texture polishes from the States which weren't released in the UK.  The first of these I would like to show you is Plush.

Texas Polish Haul

Oh.  Hi y'all!

I apologize for the delay in today's post.  Apparently the last few days have fallen into a black hole where the only things that exist are hot water bottles, Midol, and Downton Abbey on the DVR.  Don't judge me.  However, I promised you a haul post from my Texas trip, so I dragged my lazy fat butt up the stairs and set to work taking pics of all the pretty things that I'd already managed to put away but it's okay because it's for you and you're like family.  F'realsies.

Funky White Negative Space Nail Art - NCC Inspired By Fashion

Hey y'all!

Friday is here again, and that means it's time to delve back into some nail art as inspired by fashion for the Nail Challenge Collaborative.  This week I'm presenting some more funky, abstract nails with a hint of negative space, pulled once again from a look in the pages of a fashion magazine.

Purple Chrome and Black Nail Art: What I Did Wednesday

Hey y'all!

Good morning, fabulous faffers!  Today I'd like to start a new segment here at Fixin To Faff, wherein I show you the nail art I create with a swatch AFTER I've shared it on Hey, Swatch It Saturdays.  Today's inagural "What I Did (With It)" Wednesday will showcase how I transformed my last swatch from the Models Own Colour Chromes, Chrome Mauve.  With it, I created this purple chrome and black nail art look.

#dressgate #thedress - What color are my nails?

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When I woke up this morning, almost the very first thing I saw in my social media feed was referencing some huge debacle that the internet had while I was sleeping, about the color of #thedress and the two camps who saw it differently.  Over the course of the day, the rest of the UK picked up the debate and I decided I couldn't let it go without commemorating #dressgate with some nailart.

Multichrome Black Lace nail art

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On Saturday's swatch I showed you a beautiful multichrome shifting polish.  While multichromes are certainly beautiful on their own, after a couple of days, even they can begin to feel a bit "blah."  Today I'd like to show you how a little bit of creative stamping can up your mani game and extend the life of a mani for at least a couple more days.

Chrome stamping over glitter bling nail art

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Once again, another holiday has completely snuck up on me, and for no good reason other than I've just been in my own little world, but that's okay.  Last year I was quite surprised to discover that Mardi Gras isn't a "thing" as we 'murkins know it in the UK, but they call it "Pancake Day" and the premise is pretty much the same.  I got my ingredients together over the weekend, and tomorrow I'll be griddling up some fluffy pancakes for dinner, because yum!  While today's nail art isn't exactly traditional for Mardi Gras, I think the festive flair and spectacular blingyness make it totally appropriate for living it up on Fat Tuesday tomorrow.

31DC-D30 - Something You've Never Tried Before

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Ahh... the penultimate day of this month-long challenge, and it's a Friday to boot!  I'm glad to see this week come to a close, and frankly, the month as well.  Today's prompt challenged us to do "Something You've Never Tried Before" and I decided it was a perfect time to try leadlight stamping (as well as clear some jellies out of my untried box).

31DC-D28 - Non-Glitter Topper

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We're so close to the end of the 31-Day Challenge now that I can almost smell it, but that may have something to do with pain killers for my tooth affecting my ability to sense things properly.  The good news is that the dentist will see me this afternoon, and with a bit of luck I'll have my wits about me enough to finish the month and get ready for the beginning of February, when I'll be launching a new giveaway, so stay tuned for that!  Today's prompt for the challenge is Non-Glitter Toppers, and that gave me the perfect opportunity to play with some new goodies in my stash.

31DC-D23 - White Base

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Happy Friday!  I've been a bad blogger.  See, I had built up a couple days' worth of buffer on this challenge and this week I've managed to piss them away, so today's nail art was done hastily last night after two days of shopping and binge watching TOWIE, because apparently I *am* a basic B.  To my defense, I can honestly say that I started watching it because I wanted to nail down the accent, so I'm not sure how many more seasons I'll be able to stomach before I become completely allergic to the orange.  ANYWAY... today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is White Base, so I fell back on a bit of stamping to create this musical manicure.

31DC-D17 - Recreate a mani

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Happy Saturday!  Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is "Recreate a Mani by your Favorite Blogger."  I actually have far too many "favorite" bloggers to be able to pick just one, but I've had a few manis in my hat for future recreations, so I've just pulled one of those out of the vault.  Jessica at BeHappyAndBuyPolish created this awesome dark blue and neon coral dotticure for her "What You Need to Have (And Keep) Great Nails While At College" composite post, and I loved the color combination so much that I knew I wanted to have a go at recreating it.  Although I didn't have the same colors as Jessica, I approximated them with what I had on hand, and came up with this look.

31DC-D16 - Tranquility

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Ah, Friday is here at last, and this one in particular also would have been my dad's 74th birthday, so I am thinking of him today.  The theme for the 31-Day Challenge today is Tranquility, which is a nice, open prompt that gives lots of wiggle room for technique and interpretation.  Because I liked yesterday's green smoky watercolor effect so much, I wanted to practice with it a bit more, so I give you these blue smoked nails to represent the theme.  They have an aquatic feel that I think translates to tranquility for a lot of people.

Magical Mondays and 31DC-D12 - Film

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Happy Magical Monday!  Today I'm back with the next installment of the collab series I'm doing with Belle Glamour, celebrating one of our favorite mutual interests, Harry Potter.  It also works out quite nicely that today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Film, so I could kill two birds with one stone!  This month, Cat and I are showcasing our favorite characters from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorceror's) Stone.  My personal favorite character is Hagrid, played by Robbie Coltrane in the films.

31DC-D11 - Reversed Polarities

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Today's prompt for the 31-Day Challenge is Reversed Polarities, which confused quite a few people, apparently.  Originally I had intended to do a purple and yellow half-and-half nail with some needle dragging in concentric circles, but after Debbie explained what she meant with this prompt on a group discussion board, I had to rethink what I was doing.  The less confusing term for this look would be something like photo negative, or inverted colors, where the colors of a nail art are flipped to the opposite color.  I almost immediately thought a skyline mani would look cool with the colors inverted, and possibly because we just booked our next trip to Austin, I just had to give it a try with my hometown's skyline.

31DC-D8 - Monochromatic

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I feel like I've lost track of the days.  I had gotten into so such a good groove with the M-W-F-S posting schedule, and then December came and the 12DOC challenge threw that all askew, and now we've rolled on into 2015 with this 31DC and I don't know what I'm doing WITH MY LIFE anymore.  Also because Mr. Faff and I have not bought new calendars yet, I have a blank space on my wall where I normally track the days, so it's like, where am I?  What am I doing?  WHO AM I???  So exhausting!  Okay, vent over.  Today I think is Thursday, and today's prompt for the 31DC is Monochromatic.  I toyed with the idea of doing shades of a single color (because did you know that monochrome doesn't just mean black and white?) but ultimately decided that I wanted to play with something in my stash that I hadn't tried yet, so I went to greyscale for this look.

12DOC: Freestyle Christmas Tartan Plaid

Hey y'all!

Today is an exciting day for two reasons!  First, it is the final prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas challenge which has consumed this month's blogging activity for me, and the second reason is a fairly big blogging milestone.  This is my 300th post!  Who would've thought when I started this journey just over a year ago that I'd have logged 300 entries into this blog?  It's very bizarre for me.  In any event, today's final prompt for this challenge is Freestyle, leaving it completely open to each artist's interpretation.  I took inspiration from another artist's design for the Red and Green prompt and while my attempt is nowhere near as sophisticated or chic as Natasja's of Love Life Lacquer, here are my Christmas tartan/plaid nails!