Warning – nubs ahead.  I finally gave up on trying to save my nails and filed them back to nubs as practically every nail had a broken corner :(  I tried filing them into a more rounded shape and hated it and this was the only option left.  But in better news I’ve discovered I love my new nubs when stamped with a busy pattern.

I really wanted to do leopard print, so I settled on a base of China Glaze FYI (see my swatch of this polish here), then stamped using the leopard print design from Konad plate M57 using Ulta3 Black Satin as my Konad Special Black Polish is MIA, then finally filled in the middle of the spots with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Fairy Teal (beware, this polish stains!) using a dotting tool.  (In other news – I took the first photo using my iPhone in a rare moment of sunshine…I was shocked at how good the quality was.  Big thumbs up for the camera+ app.  It was completely colour accurate, no need for any alterations past cropping.)

I did these for my mum’s big 50th party last night as I really wanted something eye catching.  I already did my mum’s nails earlier in the day – I was so proud of her.  We went to the local nail supply store as I didn’t have a matching pink polish for her top (it was that evil shade in between pink and red that co-ordinates with nothing).  After perusing the store she settled on OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue.  For someone who rarely ventures outside the pink-purple range and likes to always have matching tips and toes (we didn’t break this habit), it was a huge jump for her.  I reassured her that dark blue polishes are very on trend for winter and that even my CFO at work was wearing them (yes, the CFO at work reports to me when it comes to her nail polish purchases lol).  Enough waffle, here is another photo in the shade.  I really love China Glaze FYI.  Such a pretty polish.

ps. Don’t forget that voting is still open on the BundleMonster stamping competition and you can vote for every entry once per day.  You can see my entry and vote for it here.

UPDATE – I’m not the only one digging the nude/blue leopard print combo it turns out – while plugging through over 100 blog posts on my iPad this morning (that’s only two days of backed up posts…I dread to think how many will be sitting there when I come back from my holiday) I came across this post from Marta at Chit Chat Nails which is one of my favourite blogs.  She is rocking something very similar as accent nails right now.  You should definitely all check it out if you don’t already follow Marta’s blog – her nails are gorgeous, amazing swatches and her husband is into photography so they do amazing swatch photoshoots together (look at her most recent Cult Nails swatches – OMG best nail photography ever!).