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    31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 21: Inspired by a Color

    21st September 2013
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    Wow, I really can’t believe we’re on the last leg of the challenge already! This month has completely flown by and I’ve had so much fun doing the challenge so far. Here’s to hoping the last 10 days will be as smooth sailing as the rest.I think this is when the challenge starts to get a bit tricky!
    I think ‘Inspired by a color’ is a very vague prompt and I never really know where to start looking for inspiration. So, as you do, I just googled ‘colours’ and ended up reading a list of colour names to see if anything jumped out at me. The colour that did was Cornflower Blue. 
    I wasn’t confident that I even owned a cornflower blue polish but I found China Glaze Fade Into Hue and knew it was meant to be! So today’s nail art is inspired the Cornflower on a cornflower blue base. I daren’t try to replicate the flower exactly – far too many angles for me to get wrong – so I decided on a more abstract take on the flower.

    I used China Glaze Fade Into Hue as my base colour and let that dry.

    Next I freehanded on a sort of star burst design using a long thin nail art brush with an unnamed royal blue Miss Sporty polish near the bas of my nails. When that was dry, I painted on a smaller star burst with Barry M Prickly Pear.

    When everything was dry, I topped it off with two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat.

    Day 21: Inspired by a Color 2012
    Day 21: Inspired by a Color 2011
    See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!

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    31 Day Challenge, Galaxy, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 19: Galaxies

    19th September 2013
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    I made a huge effort to stay away from the pastel galaxy nails today but I just kept getting drawn back. I tried a few variations with dark colours and I didn’t like any of them as much as I did the pastels so I just stuck with my favourite colour combination – pink, blue and purple!

    I started with a base of Barry M White followed by a coat of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat to dry it off.
    I placed scotch tape on the sides of my nails to mark off the white ‘frame’ and then created the galaxy by sponging on the different colours. There’s a full galaxy tutorial here.
    The colours I used for the galaxy are Barry M Prickly Pear, NYC Raindrop and NYC MoMa. I painted over them in a coat of Calvin Klein Blue Wants to be a Millionaire and added the star details using acrylic paint with a nail art brush and dotting tool.
    It’s all topped off with a coat of Essence Better Than Gel Nails High Gloss Top Sealer.

    Day 19: Galaxies 2012
    Day 19: Galaxies 2011
    See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!

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    31 Day Challenge, Glitter, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 17: Glitter

    17th September 2013
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    Press Sample

    Even though Glitter was the only prompt that I had an idea for before the challenge even began, today’s design still isn’t as glitter packed as I’d originally planned because I kept changing my mind about the specifics! I ended up with one glitter covered nail and a few sprinkles here and there so I think it can still pass right?
    As I mentioned in my Day 15 post, I’m working my way through a selection of Hex nail charms and second on my list is the Unicorn! ($1.75 at hexnailjewelry.com HERE). I wanted to do some nails that were ethereal, mystical and enchanting to match the charm so I knew it would have to include holographic glitter and pastels which is why I saved it for Day 17. I’m so in love with this nail art and it’s made me realise that I definitely need more holographic glitters.

    The creme colours are China Glaze Pink-ie Promise and Barry M Prickly Pear. The glitter is H+M Jo Is In The House. To get full coverage on my index finger, I used a base coat of Barry M Prickly Pear and then sponged on the glitter. For the nails with glitter on, I used a base coat of PVA Glue to make for easy, peel off removal.
    I topped everything off with two coats of No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat and applied the nail charm using a dot of nail glue.

    Day 17: Glitter 2012
    Day 17: Glitter 2011
    See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!
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    31 Day Challenge, Freehand, Uncategorised

    31DC2013 Day 15: Delicate Print

    15th September 2013
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    Today’s nail art is another labour of love inspired by the Mehndi patterns traditionally associated with Hindu weddings. I have a few charms from Hex Nail Jewelry to show you guys this month and each one of them has a completely different theme which inspires me in its own way. Today’s charm is Elephant No. 2 which is what brought about the eastern inspiration for this nail art. 
    Elephants are actually my favourite animal ever! I was too young to remember but my Mum always tells me the story of when I got to feed apples to ‘Wendy the Elephant’ at Bristol Zoo in the early 90s when I was just a toddler. You were allowed to take your own apples in to the Zoo to feed her so we would always pick up a bag of ‘happles’, as my little brother would call them, on the way there!

    I used Barry M Lychee as my base colour and freehanded on the Mehndi patterns using brown acrylic paint and a nail art brush.
    For the accent finger I painted on NYC Midtown Mink and added a top coat. When it was dry, I attached the Hex Charm using a blob of clear nail polish. In the future I’ll probably attach the charms with nail glue because I didn’t feel 100% confident that the charm would stay on with just nail polish. I thought it was worth a go though!
    Everything (except the charm) is top coated with Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

    Day 15: Delicate Print 2011
    See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!

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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!

    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
    See what’s coming next in the 31 Day Challenge 2013!

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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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