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31 Day Challenge

31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

31DC013 Day 5: Blue Nails

5th September 2013

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I was really stuck for ideas today but I quite like the nail art I came up with in the end. I wanted to do something freehand and when I thought of blue the only thing that I could picture was Facebook!
My nails seem to be growing at double speed recently and I’ve been wondered if I should try to grow them out a bit and see how long I can get them. At the same time I love my nubbins, I kind of feel like short square nails are my signature look and I find long nails kind of annoying to have on me! It’s like telling yourself you’re gonna grow out your hair down to your waist but inevitably end up chopping it all off anyway! What do you guys think? Should I stick by my shorties or try a longer look?

I used Essie Mezmerised as my base colour and freehanded the details using a nail art brush and white acrylic paint. I added a little bit of detail on the ‘Like’ using Barry M Blueberry. It’s all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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31 Day Challenge, Galaxy, Studs, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 4: Green Nails

4th September 2013

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My green polish for day 4 of the challenge is NYC’s Blue Sky. I spotted this shade when I was in Superdrug recently to pick up my second bottle of NYC Raindrop which is my favourite polish that I’ve purchased all year!

Blue Sky is a weird name for a green polish huh? I actually began to question my eyesight when I saw the name, but this polish is definitely green! I would describe it as a very vibrant mint green as there is definitely a pastel tone about it but it’s bright at the same time.

I couldn’t resist adding the pastel galaxy nail accent! I’m still completely obsessed with this nail art and slide it in to my manicures every chance I get!

My base colour is NYC Blue Sky and I added some 2mm pastel blue studs from Born Pretty Store. I created the galaxy nail with NYC Raindrop, NYC Lavender Cupcake, NYC Lexington Yellow, a coat of Calvin Klein Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire and white acrylic paint for the details.

It’s all finished off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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31 Day Challenge, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 3: Yellow Nails

3rd September 2013

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Today’s post is quite a bit later than normal because I got cold feet about the first yellow look I came up with. It involved pastel yellow with gold glitter and although I was happy with it at first, the more I looked at it, the more repulsive it became to me! So at 8 this evening, I decided to scrap it and start over. I’m very glad I did because I LOVE these nails. I remembered very last minute that I had a neon yellow and I always forget how good neon shades look when you mix them with something subdued.

The neon is only visible under certain lighting so I think you could totally get away with these at work or anywhere else you have to wear sensible nails. It would be like your dirty little secret that you actually had the craziest nails in the room!

I used Barry M Lychee as my base colour and stamped on the fishnet design from Konad Plate M57 using Models Own Luis Lemon. It’s all topped with one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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31 Day Challenge, Gradient, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 2: Orange Nails

2nd September 2013

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This challenge is bringing a few issues to my attention. Today it was the fact that although I have quite a few bottles of orange polish, they’re all pretty much the same shade! I seem to have a real penchant for bright, tangerine orange. I eventually found something a bit different – Barry M Papaya which is a creamy, coral orange and decided to mix the two up in a gradient for Day 2 of the challenge.

I started with a base colour of Barry M Papaya and created a gradient with Essie Fear & Desire. Click here for a gradient tutorial. It’s all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Find out what’s coming up next in the challenge here!

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31 Day Challenge, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 1: Red

1st September 2013

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My red nails for Day 1 of the challenge aren’t too adventurous as I wanted to keep it classic to go with the red polish. I went through a phase when I was crazy about this polish, Rimmel Heart on Fire, but it’s been sat in its drawer unloved for a few months. I was very glad to dust it off and give it a whirl today.

1. I started with a base coat of OPI Nail Envy and waited for that to dry before applying hole reinforcers to mark off the half moons near my cuticle.

2. I then painted the rest of the nail with Rimmel Heart On Fire and removed the sticker straight away. Fragrance Direct currently has loads of Rimmel Lycra Pro polishes for 99p including Heart on Fire!

3. When it was all dry, I added on the accent lines in Barry M Gold Foil with a nail art brush.

4. Finally I topped it all off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

I did a pictorial for half moons over at Divine Caroline if you’d like to see the process in a bit more detail.

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31 Day Challenge, Uncategorised

Call Me Crazy…

31st August 2013

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…but this is happening again! This will be the third year running that I’m embarking on the 31 Day Challenge and I’m incredibly nervous but excited at the same time! The challenge always pushes me to come up with original nail art ideas and I definitely feel like I need a boost as I’ve been lacking in inspiration lately. Although it can be tough at times when you’re struggling to find inspiration or enough hours in the day. But hey, they don’t call it a challenge for nothin’!

If you want to see past years’ challenge manicures, you can click through the 2012 challenge here and the 2011 challenge is here.

This year, I’m jumping on board with Sarah from Chalkboard Nails who called the nail art community to action this week! Sarah wrote a post with plenty of information and a few other images for you guys to grab on her blog here.

I will be starting with Day 1 tomorrow, September 1st and posting every day until the challenge is over. At least if everything goes to plan! Who else is going to be taking the challenge?

Thanks to Chalkboard Nails for the lovely new graphics

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31 Day Challenge, Uncategorised

31DC2012: Day 31 Recreate Your Favourite Challenge (Part 2)

21st December 2012

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Here it is. The very last. The final day of my 31 Day Challenge 2012! It’s been a long and bumpy ride, we even lost a woman 5 weeks in but just like last year, I’m so glad we did it! I don’t really have much else to say on the subject so I’ll just leave you with my recreation of Rie’s Day 8 Metallic Nails.
I’ve never ever done a splatter mani before and I probably won’t be doing one again any time soon. The clean up on this took just as long, if not longer, than the mani itself! I think part of the problem was the metallic polishes. Whenever I touched acetone to the mess, it would send a million bits of shimmer swimming in to my cuticles and I just couldn’t get it all off! Saying that, I did grow to love the result and maybe a bit of practice will do me good.

I used A-England Lancelot as my base colour, then used Essie Penny Talk, Barry M Gold Foil and Barry M Silver Foil for the splatters. I topped it with one coat of Seche Vite to make it dry quickly and then one coat of Rimmel Mattifying Top Coat.

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