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Nail Art

31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 14: Flowers

14th September 2013

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Today is the first time all week that I’ve had time to really sit down and dedicate a lot of time to a manicure and it felt goooood! I miss having the time to focus on these more detailed, fun manicures and I know you guys like to see them just as much as I like doing them.

A little while back I found myself in a Cath Kidston store and I just wanted everything on my nails so when I sat down to paint my nails today, that experience came back to me and I went straight to the Cath Kidston website. I spent a bit of time browsing the website for a pattern that was clean, simple and eye catching and decided on Provence Rose.

I started with a base coat of Barry M White and let that dry before moving on to the art.

I started by painting on the shapes of the flowers using a nail art brush and Collection Think Pink. I added a bit of detail to the flowers using Rimmel Heart on Fire and painted on some leaves with NYC High Line Green.

Next I took NYC Raindrop and freehanded the scalloped line around the flowers then filled in the blue sections by whatever means necessary! I used a combination of the brush straight from the bottle and a few different nail art brushes in order to get it smooth.

I added on the little spots using a dotting tool.

I finished it off with two coats of No 7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

Photo credit: cathkidston.com

Day 14: Flowers 2012

Day 14: Flowers 2011

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31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 13: Animal Print

13th September 2013

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Last year I got really creative for Day 13 of the challenge with some real feather nail art but this year I couldn’t come up with anything half as exciting so I’ve played it safe with some classic leopard print nails!

Press Sample

All the polishes I used in this mani are from Barry M’s upcoming Autumn/Winter releases. There are 12 new polishes launching including some mattes, textured glittery polishes, a new creme and a crystal topper. I haven’t had a chance to try them all yet so I thought I’d smash a few bottles with one stone as it were, and mix them up in some nail art to get a feel for the new offerings.

I used Barry M Matte Vanilla as my base colour and then took a nail art brush to freehand on the leopard print in Barry M Countess and Majesty which are both textured polishes. I can already tell that Countess is gonna be my favourite of the textured polishes – it’s very dark and mysterious with a plum base and hidden gold flecks. Just my type!

Barry M’s Autumn/Winter collection is launching on September 25th in Superdrug and exactly one week later on October 2nd in Boots.

Day 13: Animal Print 2012

Day 13: Gradient Nails 2011

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31 Day Challenge, Gradient, Holographic, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 10: Gradient

10th September 2013

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So today is the last of what you might call the ‘easy’ challenges. From here on out it’s hardcore nail art time! This is actually my 3rd gradient in the challenge to date. I’ve been pretty bad at planning, or even glancing, ahead so far! I must admit, this is my favourite of the bunch. It looks good enough to drink, like a sickly sweet cocktail. Mmmmm… cocktails!

The lighter colour that I used for the base is A-England Princess Tears and I created the gradient with A-England Rose Bower. There’s a gradient tutorial here with detailed instructions.

I used one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly as my top coat.

Day 10: Gradient Nails 2012

Day 10: Gradient Nails 2011

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31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised, Waterfall

31DC2013 Day 9: Rainbow Nails

9th September 2013

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For Day 8’s nails I created a rainbow waterfall mani! It seems crazy that I got this far in to the challenge without doing a waterfall so while today is potentially the last day I will have the freedom to do one, it’s also an idea I’ve been holding on to for a while so it feels good to get it out and on to my nails! I used 20 different shades of nail polish in this nail art. Most of the time spent on this mani was just screwing and unscrewing the bottles!

My base colour is Sally Hansen Crinolin and I used a selection of colours for the rainbow effect, too many to list here! There’s a tutorial for the waterfall technique right here if you fancy it yourself!

And as always, it’s topped off with a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Day 8: Rainbow Nails 2012

Day 8: Rainbow Nails 2011

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31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 8: Metallic Nails

8th September 2013

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I was really struggling with ideas for today’s Metallic Nails prompt but when I came across NYC Full Metal Jacket I knew it was the one! And of course, what else would I pair it with other than black?!

Since my Great Gatsby inspired manicure I’ve been itching to try something similar and I’m so pleased with the result. I’ve been on such a freehand kick this weekend – trying lots of new things and pushing my own boundaries when it comes to freehand nail art. I’ve really surprised myself with what I can actually do!

I used A-England Lancelot as my base colour then freehanded the details in NYC Full Metal Jacket with a nail art brush. It’s all topped off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

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31 Day Challenge, Glitter, Gradient, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 7: Black and White Nails

7th September 2013

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There’s no doubt that I really packed as much black and white in to this nail art as I possibly could! The plan was just to create a gradient in grayscale but it didn’t look as smooth as I’d hoped – it was kind of speckly – so I added the black and white glitter to try and disguise the fail! I think this teeters just on the edge of ‘over the top’. It’s a nice effect but there is a lot going on!

I started with a base coat of Barry M White and created the gradient by painting W7 Black, Rimmel Grey Matter, Sally Hansen Dorian Grey and Barry M White on to a sponge and dabbing it on a few times over.

The black and white glitter is Seventeen’s Off The Wall Graffiti which I picked up in Boots recently for a bargain price of £2.99.

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

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31 Day Challenge, Studs, Uncategorised

31DC2013 Day 6: Violet Nails

6th September 2013

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Press Sample

For Day 6, the last day of the plain colour prompts I wanted to do something simple so I decided on something I’ve never done before… an ombré manicure! I’ve attempted ombré before but I never seem to gather up the right combination of colours and it always ends up looking like a skittle mani. Today I used one of the ombré kits from The New Black so I already had the perfect graduation of colours set out for me. Easy peasy!

For this manicure I used the Haze Ombré set from The New Black. I switched out the darkest colour in the set for Sally Hansen Plum Luck (on my thumb) because the one included is a shimmer and I wanted to keep the finish the same on each finger.

Once the colours were dry, I added a top coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and used a toothpick to place and push some 1.5mm Silver Studs down in to the polish.

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