31 Day Challenge : Day 12 : Stripes

Well I was pretty deflated about the dots for yesterday, so I tried to think outside the box for today. I decided to use some toppers to add my stripes to plain black. My recent Picture Polish, Limited Editions wanted me to ;-)

Other than glitters, I rarely use toppers. I'm not sure if it's the thought of having to use a base colour to reveal the magic, or that I'm seduced by my ready to go colour, but I usually forget I have them.

I'm hoping that my newbies, and this mani, will help me remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can already see me using this polish again for the galaxies challenge on day 19....... Planning ahead already.

For this challenge, I used each polish once, for every nail, over a base of Barry M Black.

The others were :

Picture Polish - Illusionist & Altered State

Polish Me Silly - Tease Me

Revlon Chroma Chameleon - Cobalt & Aquamarine

 

And of course, a striping brush.

 

 

I am literally dying to try out illusionist properly so I can see it in all it's glory. You can see it is the stripe that is in line with the M on my watermark. Galaxy in a bottle.

It was nice to see some of my toppers for black, sided by side. Hopefully now I'll remember to use them more.

Remember to go check out more from the 31 Day 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 5 : Blue

I was inspired by my green mani from yesterday, and considering I have a lot of blues, it was worth a go.

This also gave me more practice with straight lines using my striping brush. I think I could use a bit more practice.

 

 

So heres a run down on all the blues :

Barry M - Huckleberry, Cyan Blue & Blue Grape

Rimmel - Mind The Gap Victoria, Loafer Love For You, Midnight Skinny Dip, My Denim & Barmy Blue

Revlon - Midnight Affair

Fearne - Minty Maggie

 

I tried to do 2 coats of each, but during this, the colours just seemed to merge together.

 

 

 

 

This is one I would like to try and perfect. It does need a bit of polishing.

 

 

Remember to check out the rest of the blues by clicking through here.

 

 

 

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 2 : Orange

This is one of "those" colours.... You know the one. Looks great on someone else, but you wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. So, as suggested by my wonderful kids, I tried some Garfield nails. Why didn't I think of that? Best I came up with was fizzy orange juice!

I kept most of my nails, plain orange and based it on his tail. Pretty straightforward with some stripes.

The thumb gave me some trouble, and this was take 2. I'm finding it very hard painting in detail with such small designs, but I think you get the idea of it. I considered going in for try 3, and simplifying it, but it isn't that bad.

 

Polishes used :

RCH - Front Row Orange

Rimmel - White Hot Love, Pink Punch & Grey Matters

NYC - Lexington Yellow

Barry M - Black & Nail Art Pen

 

Striping brush and small detail brush.

 

 

 

 

 

Remember to go check out my challenge buddies, the links are here.

 

 

 

 

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31 Day Challenge : Day 1 : Red

I had trouble sleeping last night, thinking about what I was going to do for day 1. I had visions of red icons, like post boxes, phone boxes and the big red London buses, but I struggled to translate that to my nails.

I need to take a chill pill!

So I settled for a pitiful red colour block. The stripes are just awful, but I'm not in a hurry to redo it, so this is it.

In case you feel like trying to do it better than this, I've included some pics.

 

I applied my normal base coat, then one coat of Rimmel - Red Carpet. It dries fast, and helps when painting on transparent reds.

 

 

 

 

 

I got out my supplies :

Fearne - Heart Ache

Barry M - Blood Orange, Bright Red & Red Glitter

Also a small nail art brush, and foil for a pallet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't have a pattern in mind, as I really was uninspired, so I painted the colours in small sections across each nail, leaving a small gap between each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once finished with the reds, I used Barry M - Black to stripe in between each block of colour.

Once I was as happy as I could be, top coat was applied, and cleaned up the edges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to check out what the rest of the girls are doing for DAY 1 - RED.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights from my challenge buddies.

 

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Dot Phase

I thought I would visit one theme for a week or two and give it all I had to explore my creative buzz. It only lasted a few days and I tripped over and fell into something else. But I'd like to share what I did.

This one began with a different idea in mind and just evolved on its own. I wasn't particularly keen on the finished result so it was off after an hour. 

This one was on purpose! I had to try out my newest find from SuperDrug. 2true Pro Metallica. I must say I was very pleasantly surprised at the formula, as past 2true polishes failed to meet my expectations. 

I had my first try at aborigine inspired dots. It's a style I'd like to try again, but next time using a smaller dotting tool. 

Since I first set eyes on holographic nail polish, I knew I had to have one. Unfortunately it's the wrong time of year in the wrong part of the world to show it off at its best. 

My final set of dots were done by first painting my base colour using the Rimmel polish, then sponging a gradient of more china glaze holographic polish over striping tape. The dots were then added after removing the tape, using the base colour. 

But my personal favourite set of dotty nails were my rainbow dots..... 

.... Probably my favourite set of nails in a long time!