31 Day Challenge Completed!!!

Only 12 days behind, but I've done it! The last days theme was 'Your Signature Style' and to tell you the truth I don't think I have one. However what I do really like is doing is Saran Wraps and Water Colour techniques. 

I thought I'd do a Saran Wrap effect as I did on the last day for my last challenge. This time I didn't merge the colours all together and dabbed them on individually over a base of 'Boho Bonnet' by Orly. Too much going on here I think, and again colours I chose were not contrasting enough. I chose Cirque 'Epoc' and pictured here one of the lovely Urban Decay polishes I have yet to try called 'Addiction'.

Here's some of my favourite manicures from the challenge. I have now used 69 'dude' of my untried polishes and tried many nail art techniques which I hadn't before. Looking out for another challenge in a couple of months maybe whist I catch up with every day life!

November Untrieds Part 2

So my previous untrieds can be excused, but not this one! I went on a bit of a splurge at Rainbow Connection when they first started selling Cirque polishes. This is one I'd not gotten round to trying in 'Vaudeville' described as a muted lavender with gold and turquoise sparkles. As with all the Cirque polishes I purchased, formula is perfect and finish is stunning.

Time to step up my untrieds numbers with a saran wrap mani that I first tried on my last day of the 31 day nail art challenge. I picked three lovely shades to go together, No7's 'Cruising' and 'Betty Blues' and OPI's 'Skull and Glossbones'. Only second time round with this technique, happier with some nails more than others, but colour combo worked, and three untrieds ticked off the list.  

Next I really wanted to try the Chevron guides I was given in my Nail Polish Swap and do something a bit different with Color Shows Bleached Neon polish in 'Sun Flare'. This is what I came up with, using Barry M 'Blueberry' as the tip and chevon colour. A little messy on close inspection, but looked quite striking at first glance and provoked a few comments. Another two polishes used. Not really a winter colour scheme and it clashed with what I was wearing but maybe something to revisit in the Spring/Summer.

Excuse the chips in the next pic, I'd been wearing the polish a few days before taking a pic and had washed a few dishes. It was time to try these PS polishes from Primark that I'd been hearing about. These disappointingly don't have names, so this is just a creme red.

For £1 a pop, I was really impressed with this polish, the application and formula were as good as any £3-£5 polishes I have and the last time (barring washing dishes) was very good! I went back to Primark in December and purchased 'a few' more!

31 Day Challenge - Rainbow and Gradient

So I'm getting a little behind with my Challenge. Now a day and a half behind. Will catch up at the weekend hopefully. Anyway Day 9 was Rainbow Nails, which I have to say I was stumped with. It's not really my thing, and I needed to tone it down for work too. So this manicure was inspired by the Nailasaurus who has done the challenge for the last four years. 

I took her 2013 Rainbow manicure as my inspiration. She has some amazing manicures and as you can see a much steadier hand than I. However it was a first attempt at this Waterfall manicure and I was fairly happy with it.

The base is OPI's 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and the colours I used were a real hotchpotch of brands including Rimmel, Revlon and Sally Hansen.

Day 10 was gradient day and I knew exactly what I was going to do. I'd seen this post on a Holo Gradient on Chalkboard Nails ages ago and had yet to attempt it! This was my chance to crack open another gorgeous Holo Cirque polish and here's how it looks!

This is Cirques 'Never Nude' and 'Fascination Street' using the sponging technique to create the gradient. 

Now then... I had a bit of trouble with this!

I thought I had a great idea on how to make clean up quick and easy, having seen many tutorials using craft glue to mask cuticles whilst doing nail art. I thought, I know what glue peels off your fingers nicely, Decopatch glue, you can get from Hobbycraft. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and I'm not sure if it was due to the top coat being applied before peeling the glue off, or if it was just a bad idea in general. But it was a bugger to get off! Got the other half to help with removing the glue on my right hand before doing the gradient. Even that was a pain to peel off. So lesson learnt here then, don't be so damn stupid! 

Cirque Polishes - OMG

So whilst writing my Blog the other day and linking to Rainbow Connection, something caught my eye! Cirque polishes! For Sale! I've had my eye on these little babies for a while, and only found one site, Covet that was selling them in the UK for £15.

Well rainbow connection are selling these babies for £9.50 and it's £1 shipping if your order is over £20. Easily achieved when purchasing these polishes, oh go on then, I'll have to order as least three! Other wise I'd have to pay £3.50 and that could be put towards another bottle. Makes sense right?

This is the first one I've used called "Never Nude', a champagne nude with a rainbow holographic finish, most of these polishes I bought are linear holo's, can't get enough. This was bought specifically with the intension of doing this holo gradient from Chalkboard Nails.  

Obviously I needed to buy the darker polish called 'Fascination Street' in order to do the manicure and these other polishes fell in the basket too!

The boxes give them a little something else don't you think?

I shall get round to swatching the rest, the colours are so amazing on these polishes, it's not JUST the colours it's the depth and effect of the holo too.

Other news! As you can see from my last few posts I've been going polish crazy and this is only the tip of the iceberg, I haven't revealed the complete story of my polish purchases of late. I blame that Nail Polish Group on facebook, I may need to go cold turkey. People keep posting about polishes that previously was unaware of, and know I am, I need them.

So my Destash Swap buddy has invited the Group to an untrieds challenge. Total up your untried polishes and use as many of these as you can during the rest of the month. Also this is to encourage you to not buy new polishes. Really should be using the polishes I have before buying more. So no more polish purchases... for his month at least. What date is it?