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31DC2014

31 Day Challenge: Roundup and Final Thoughts

8th October 2014

15 Comments

Time to round up all 31 manicures from the 31 Day Challenge. After an all consuming month of nail art and blogging, it’s fantastic to see the fruits of my labour all in one place. Even though I took a few extra days to finish the challenge at my own pace, I’m still incredibly proud of myself and anyone else who managed to see it right through to the end. It’s certainly called a ‘challenge’ for good reason!

There are quite a few manicures here that I think stand out from the rest but if I really have to narrow it down to just a few, my personal favourites are the polka dot confetti, ‘Love on a Wire‘, the real marble effect nails and the artwork inspired watercolour gradient.

I’m slightly disappointed in myself for not stretching my skills or imagination as much as I could have this year although I think that was mostly down to time constraints. I mentioned on the very first day that I was only tentatively accepting the challenge since I didn’t know if I’d have enough time to do a fresh design every day. Given that I took 6 extra days to complete it, I was obviously right! Having said that, I’m a crazy perfectionist so I could have dedicated 10 hours a day to the challenge and still feel like I didn’t quite do my very best. For me, there will always be room for innovation and improvement in my nail art so I have to remember not to be too hard on myself, there’s plenty of great material here!

Click on any picture below to go to the original post and let me know what your favourites are!

31 Day Challenge, Glitter, Nail Art, Uncategorised

31 Day Challenge: Honor Nails You Love

6th October 2014

12 Comments

Better late than never! I’m here at the finish line of the 31 Day Challenge and amazingly only a few days late. For the very final day of the challenge (oh god, it feels so good to say that!), I have to Honour Nails I ♥ so I’ve selected a design by one of my favourite nail artists – Paulina’s Passions. Paulina was actually inspired by Very Emily – another one of my favourite nail ladies so this mani has given me the chance to pay tribute to two talented artists that I admire!

As you may know, I’m in the running for the Best Established Beauty Blog award at the Cosmo Blog Awards and the ceremony is tomorrow. I’ve had a busy evening spent packing and I’ve managed to get everything I need in to a reasonably sized duffle bag so I’m feeling like a packing pro right now! This is the third year I’ve been nominated but only the second time I’ll be going to the ceremony. Last year was amazing fun and I’m sure this year will be another night to remember. I’ll be meeting up with Lucie and Alice in London and we’ll be representing the nail blogs this year! If you want to follow any of the action, keep up with me on Twitter and Instagram.

For this nail art, I put down my base colours: Barry M White, Essie Go Ginza and Barry M Majesty.

For the patterned nails, I used striping tape to mark off where I wanted the white to show through. I created a textured saran wrap pattern over the top using Nicole by OPI LeaPink for Joy, Sally Hansen Himalayan Blue and Essie Go Ginza and removed the striping tape immediately. There’s a tutorial for the textured saran wrap technique here.

It’s all topped off with two coats of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Gradient, Nail Art, Uncategorised

31 Day Challenge: Inspired by a Tutorial

4th October 2014

10 Comments

There’s a tutorial that keeps popping up in my Pinterest feed by Hannah Rox Nails for LuLu’s Blog and every time I see it, I promise myself I will try it out one day. Well today is that day! This was the first tutorial my mind jumped to for the penultimate day of the 31 Day Challenge. It looks so beautifully intricate but there are only two really simple steps to achieve it – a gradient and some squiggly freehanding! See the original tutorial for this nail art here.

1. I used Barry M Pearl as my base colour again today, then created the gradient using Rimmel Mind The Gap, Victoria (tutorial here).
2. The detail is freehanded with a nail art brush using Graffiti Nails Ice White.
3. Finally, I topped it off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Nail Art, Uncategorised

31 Day Challenge: Inspired by The Supernatural

3rd October 2014

5 Comments

If I undertake the 31 Day Challenge again in the future, I’m going to take a stand and switch out Inspired by the Supernatural to Inspired by Legend (or something of the sort) because each and every year, I get stuck on ghosts! This time, I’ve gone for a more abstract take on the challenge with ghosty silhouettes. Pac Man style!

I used a base of Barry M Pearl and painted on a frame with a wavy tip using No7 Just Black and a nail art brush. It’s all topped with two coats of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

31 Day Challenge, Nail Art, Uncategorised

31 Day Challenge: Inspired by a Flag

1st October 2014

9 Comments

I’m so close to the finish line, I can almost taste it! Must admit I’m a little envious of all the dedicated ladies who are finishing up the challenge today and returning to sweet, sweet freedom. Although, as much as I always grumble about the challenge towards the end nothing beats that feeling of smug satisfaction you get once you’ve completed it!

For today’s ‘Inspired by a Flag’ challenge, I’ve opted for a fictional flag again. From a movie… again! This year, it’s the flag of Genovia as seen in The Princess Diaries. I was really young when I first saw the movie and refused to accept that Genovia wasn’t a real place no matter how much my parents insisted! The real (fake) flag doesn’t have the gold stripes but I didn’t feel like braving a coat of arms design so I made a tactical substitution by adding the gold accents.

1. I started with a base of Barry M Matte White then added a coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl to dry it off.
2. I covered the centre of each nail with a strip of scotch tape, then painted on either side with piCture pOlish Chillax and piCture pOlish Swagger.
3. I added the golld accents with Barry M Gold Foil, then topped it all with another coat of HK Girl.

31 Day Challenge, Nail Art, Uncategorised

31 Day Challenge: Inspired by a Pattern

28th September 2014

13 Comments

Marble image source: rockstella.ca

Today’s inspiration came from out of the blue. I was browsing Etsy for some pattern inspiration as I was in the mood for something graphic and/or geometric, when all of a sudden I just thought it would be cool to do some marble effect nail art.

I couldn’t be happier with the outcome – I think my nails really could pass for solid marble and considering it’s only my second time using the water spotted technique, I think I did a pretty swell job! I was going for ‘veiny’ rather than ‘spotted’ but I’ve found that using a hair spray that shoots out of the bottle pretty fast (although not aerosol) will make your dots spread further, even break apart, and look more like a marble effect.

1. I used two coats of Barry M White as my base colour.

2. Once that was dry, I shielded the skin around my nails with tape.

3. To create the marble effect, I used Sally Hansen Dorien Grey with the ‘water spotted’ technique (video tutorial here) then repeated with Rimmel Moon.

I used lukewarm water straight from the tap with VO5 Plump it Up Blow Dry Spray in case anyone is curious!

4. Finally, I finished it all off with two coats of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

White Marble Effect Nail Art // The Nailasaurus

31DC2014 // White Marble Effect Nail Art

31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Nail Art, Uncategorised

31 Day Challenge: Inspired by Fashion

27th September 2014

21 Comments

Catwalk image source: vogue.co.uk

Last night I spent so much time scrolling through the catwalk galleries on the Vogue website, I didn’t even get round to actually doing any nail art! I did, however, pick out this incredible dress from Naeem Khan as my inspiration.

I thought carefully through all my options on this one – striping tape, loose glitter, glequins and more – but in the end freehanding won out. I always feel a bit wobbly when I get started on a freehand manicure (especially one that requires poker straight lines) but soon surprise myself by doing a pretty good job of it.

I used Barry M Lychee as my base colour and freehanded on the silver detail using a nail art brush and A-England Excalibur Renaissance. It’s all topped with one coat of Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

Barry M Lychee with A-England Excalibur Renaissance

Naeem Khan Inspired Nail Art // The Nailasaurus