31 Day Challenge : Day 31 : Re-Create Your Favourite

The final day of the challenge is here, and what a full on 31 days it has been. As there were a few of us doing the challenge together, we decided to change up the final day and re-create/copy someone else's. For me this was an easy choice, as the mani I chose was just stunning, and it was something I'd never done before. Bring on the mosaic nails!

+Magali Neuville-Bisceglia (Instagram - Arwen Of The Dark) shared her mosaic nails for Day 6 - Violet, and I fell in love. As soon as I saw them, I knew that was what I wanted to finish off with.

 

I had to buy some extra purple shades to do this, but I didn't mind as it is a colour I lacked a variety of in my stash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used Barry M - Vivid Purple as my main colour, and Models Own - HyperGel White Light, as my mosaic base.

The mosaic was done using :

Models Own - Pukka Purple

Barry M - Vivid Purple, Berry Ice Cream & Bright Purple

H&M - Misty Plum

Rimmel - Ultra Violet

L.A. Colors - Nuclear Energy

 

 

 

 

I do hope to try this design again in the future, it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It's one of those, "just go for it", designs.

Remember to check out everyone else's nails for the challenge today. And if anyone has any tips on HTML code for putting in a thumbnail grid with links, please do drop me a note. I'm hoping to wrap this up nice and neat.

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 29 : Inspired By The Supernatural

So my first instinct was to go with vampires...... But I always choose vampires, so I went on the hunt for something else. Mermaids? A Phoenix? I couldn't decide. Until I remembered about everyone's favourite supernatural, mystery crime fighters!

So it wasn't until I saw the photo, I noticed the tiny missed bits and bad lines, but it's done now. Here's is the mystery machine inspired, Scooby & Shaggy nails.

I used :

Barry M - Key Lime & Mushroom

Rimmel - Sunshine, Hot White Love & Mind The Gap, Victoria

Also red, blue, yellow, white and black acrylic paint and a nail art brush.

 

 

These look much better from a distance..... who looks at your nails this close anyway? ;-)

Tomorrow is inspired by a tutorial, and I have had mine looked out for a long time. I'm actually quite nervous about it as I promised the artist a link to have a look :-o

Check out what the other girls are doing for the challenge today.

 

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 27 : Inspired By Artwork

After some debate, I decided to stick to my original plan and go with some Charles Rennie Mackinosh inspired nails. And now I am glad I did, they turned out much better than I hoped.

I based these on various elements of lead lined windows and mirrors, using a mix of silver and black acrylic paint to do the outlines, to mimic pewter. The effect is fab, but not nice to photograph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was all freehand, and I started with a base of Ciate - la confidential, which is a perfect creamy white base, but needed 4 coats to achieve full coverage.

I then used white acrylic paint to paint on my guide lines. I used the following polishes to colour in the design:

Fearne - attention seeker

Barry M - cyan blue, fuchsia & blueberry

 

Then outlined the design with my "pewter" mix.

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure I'll be trying ones like these again in the future..... I'm just sad they need to come off for tomorrow's challenge.

Remember to check out what the other girls are doing for the challenge.

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 26 : Inspired By A Pattern

When it comes to patterns, I usually reach for the stamps. I admit, I do like my patterns to look precise, but I managed to find a pattern I liked, that didn't really rely on precision to make it work.

I found the background image on google images, and I instantly loved it. I changed the base colour so I could make use of my new Rimmel polish - Mary Mary Quite Contrary.

For the freehand leaves, I used :

Barry M - Guava & Key Lime

Rimmel - Aqua Cool, Navy Seal & Sage Green

And acrylic black for the outlines.

I used Rimmel Matte top coat after applying HK Girl - Glisten & Glow.

It was just begging to be mattefied.

I am quite pleased with how they turned out, but I need to keep reminding myself that it's "inspired by", and not "copied from".

Please remember to check out what the other girls are doing for the challenge.

 

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 22 : Inspired By A Song

How do you choose just one song, out of the hundreds and thousands that spark up a memory or feeling, each time you hear it? Hard choice huh! As it's my Birthday, I chose the song that was number one, the day I was born.

I tested it out on my husband, to see if he could guess the song. He said "Spice Girls"! Just because of the Union Jack. Wrong!

Do you know what it is? Answers below ;-)

I used :

Ciate - LA Confidential

Rimmel - Riviera Red & Loafer Love For You

Acryclic paint, dotting tool & a nail art brush.

And just because I like a guessing game, here's another one based on a song. ;-)

Some of it is taken from the music video, and other parts from the lyrics. Hopefully the thumb is a big help for you.

I used :

Ciate - Boom Box & Palm Tree

Barry M - Black Multi Glitter

Picture Polish - Shocked, Altered State & Illusionist

Rimmel - White Hot Love

Acrylic paints, cosmetic sponge and a nail art brush.

 

 

I'm hoping some of you can guess at least one out of the two.... Please do check out what the rest of the group are doing for the challenge.

 

*UPDATE* The first one is Let's Dance by David Bowie, can you believe that is 31 years old now! And the second one is Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californiacation. I was hoping for some more guesses, but considering Magali guessed right almost right away, I'm happy that my effort wasn't totally wasted.

 

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 21 : Inspired By A Colour

If there is one colour that always gets me happy, it's this. Turquoise & teal has a magical essence to it, don't you think?

A while ago, one of my fave NPQ's - Magali, mentioned that my ipad cover would make a good pattern for a mani. So I gave it a go.

 

 

 

 

 

I found it difficult to focus on the pattern while painting my nails, so it is just an inspiration job. It was also a bit rushed, as I had mis copied the challenge list and I thought it was "inspired by colour"! I had missed out the "a". That ruined my plans!

I used Barry M - Guava for the base. Acrylic white and L'Oreal - Blue Reef.

 

 

 

 

 

This was the set of nails I had painted, before realising it was a single colour! I prefer the way these ones turned out, using the dry brushing technique again.

 

Please remember to have a look at everyone else's challenge nails.

 

 

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 19 : Galaxies

I have done galaxies before, but I wanted to do something a bit different this time. My attempt with special polishes (Picture Polish - illusionist & altered state), didn't quite work out, so I returned to what I knew.

Excuse the bad photo, but I was trying to highlight the glitter "stars".

I used a sponge to add the lighter colours, all at the same time, over a base of Barry M - Black Multi Glitter.

The other colours were,

NYC - Lincoln Square Lavander & Blue Sky

Revlon - Midnight Affair

Models Own - White Light

Barry M - Shocking Pink & Diamond Glitter

 

After my standard galaxy base was dry, I got out my acrylic paints - black, white, red, orange, yellow, green and silver - to add some space stuff.

My arty skills are limited, but I just went for it, and again, I resisted the temptation to put in too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don't forget my little green alien...... And that's how I did my galaxy nails, a little bit differently.

I am so not looking forward until tomorrow. It is water marbling...... Let's see if I can get a proper pattern out of it for once.

Please click through, and check out the challenge nails from the other girls.

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 17 : Glitter

Oh I had high hopes for this when I finally got my hands on some glequins, but no. It wasn't to be. I found it quite difficult with the ones I have as they weren't uniform in size. So some were placing fine, and others were too small, cut funny or just around the wrong way. Glequin glitter placement is far more difficult than it looks. I started again and this time kept it simple with these.

A single line of (almost) hex glitter, and double lines for the accent. I resisted the temptation of covering the whole nail.

The base colour is Barry M - Black Multi Glitter, which considering it is packed with teeny, weeny multi glitter, it has a great opaque coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a dark shot, with some light to reflect the glitter. Sparkly!

It's been a long time since I've used loose glitter in this way. I should really make better use of my stash in future.

Have a look at what the other girls are doing for the challenge. +Cynthia Lee Perez is out of the game at the moment as she has an injury, preventing her from taking part. I hope she gets better soon.

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 16 : Tribal Print

I admit, I was quite worried about trying this one. It's a style I've been itching to try for a while, but I always seemed to put myself off. I'm not sure if it was the propsed mess, or the patterns, but it scared me off. Now I wonder what the hell I was worried about.

Way back, before starting the challenge, I had browsed the internet for images as inspiration for the tribal print. My intention was to try aboriginal print, but decided just to go for this. All out of my head too.

I wonder now why I've never tried before, it wasn't messy at all, in fact, probably one of my cleaner jobs recently. I kept the pattern simpleand chose two bold colours and one neutral over a white base.

I even managed to snap some how to's. Just to remind myself how freaking easy it was.

 

 

 

1. A base coat of white - Rimmel's White Hot Love, seems to be my go to, at the moment. It dries quick!

2. Using a striper brush I applied one band of Barry M - Key Lime and one band of Rimmel - Brit Pop to each nail, followed by a thinner stripe of Rimmel - Grey Matters at the right edge of each band.

3. Using my striper, I lined the colours with acrylic black.

4. Again with the acrylic and striper, I painted on my patterns, keeping each colour the same on every nail. Also a dotting tool to stick some dots it.

It doesn't seem to matter what the pattern is, but keeping each nail the same is the key.

 

Yeah, I'm quite pleased! I think I'll be trying variations of this out in the future, maybe even get my original plan into action too.

Remember to check out what everyone else is doing for the challenge.

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 15 : Delicate Print

Yes, I struggled with this one. I lost count on how many attempts I made, and I ended up resorting to stamps again. I think it's time I sat down and planned out some more for the rest of the month, before this ends up being a total fail. So here we go.

This is just Barry M glitter, ( Superdrug Special Edition - E 334) over a base coat and stamped with one of my more delicate looking stamps.

I am a fan of my delicate stamps, and there's not many in my collection I haven't used.

This one is from MoYou Pro Collection XL 14.

I used Konad white, which I managed to fix(ish), by leaving the top off the bottle for a while. It was quite runny and appeared to be separating, but it looks much better now.

 

I did take these pics with the flash on, I never do this nowadays, but the glitter asked me to. As you know, glitter is bad for photographing, and the delicate print didn't make it much easier.

But there we go, out of the way! Phew! I'm so glad to be back on track.

Remember to check out the rest of the girls doing the challenge.

 

 

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 11 : Polka Dots

I was feeling quite uninspired by this challenge. I think with having such a long and busy week, and some of my previous dotticures, I couldn't come up with anything better than before.

 

So these are a very simple, and you could say, quite traditional polka dots.

I haven't really much to say about them, so I'm just going to wrap up with the polishes I used.

Rimmel - Riviera Red, White Hot Love

Barry M - Black

Collection - BlackJack

Models Own - White Light

 

And of course, a dotting tool.

 

Be sure to check out the other girls doing the challenge.

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 9 : Rainbows

I've done a rainbow mani a while ago, I think it was for a Wizard Of Oz theme, so I wanted something a bit different. These are dedicted to my youngest daughter, who is My Little Pony daft. She wasted no time in expressing her excitement over them, and that made my day!

My freehand skills aren' really the best, so I thought placing just the head on the thumb was enough for me. The rest of the rainbow is painted to be the tail.

 

I used the following polishes:

Barry M - White

Rimmel - Grey Matters, Riviera Red, My Denim, Aqua Cool & Trend Spotting

NYC - Highline Green & Lexington Yellow

RCH - Front Row Orange

Barbara Day - Passion

Collection - BlackJack

HK Girl - Glisten & Glow

The Aqua Cool was lightened with some white for Rainbow Dash, and the Grey Matters was also lightened to use as an outine base.

 

Remember to go check out what my challenge buddies are doing. I'm sure they'd love the support.

Tomorrow's challenge is gradients! Oooh, my fave! Hopefully I can do something different to my usual kind of thing.

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 8 : Metallic

I had intended to keep my stamping plates away for the duration of the challenge, but I thought I'd treat myself after trying out a new technique.

These are my dry brushed, metallic nails. And I actually like them. \0/ yay!

So I included some pics on the "how to" and "what for".

 

 

 

 

 

My supplies were :

Barry M - Espresso & Foil Effect Silver

2True - Athena, Artemis & Aglaia

Silver Foil & Foil Adhesive

MoYou Pro Collection 07

Konad - Black Pearl

 

 

 

I chose a matte black base colour as it dries faster, and I thought the finish would help the next step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start with one of the metallics, and wipe of as much of the polish in the neck of the bottle. Now randomly apply brush strokes to the black base.

You will need to reload and wipe off the brush every so often. Move onto the next colour, filling in the spaces of black. Don't be afraid to overlap, or redo a particular colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apply your foil adhesive to the full nail, it should appear blue like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't touch the nail with foil adhesive until it looks fully transparent, with no blue hue to it.

Now we're ready to apply the foil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Press the foil onto the prepared nail and use your finger, or a silicone cuticle pusher to smooth the surface of the foil. The angled edge of the cuticle pusher is ideal for getting to the edges of the nail.

Pull off the leaf of foil, and the silver should have been transferred onto the nail. Patches and spots can be fixed by placing the foil back over (on a new piece), and rubbing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I felt the siver foil was too shiny to compliment the brushed nails, so I applied a black stamp directly over it, just as you would normally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apply top coat, and clean up the edges, and you're done.

 

Remember to check out the work of my challenge buddies.

 

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