30 Days of Colour Challenge - Catching Oop

So it's fair to say that I'm already behind with the 31 day challenge for this month EVEN though it's a new mani every three days or so. I'm in between jobs at the moment and looking for a job and figuring out what I want to do next is like two full time jobs at once! 

Anyway, enough of my belly aching I'm keen to show you the wonderful creations I've done for the next two prompts! First Up PINK, yes I know, not my favourite colour, however I incorporated a nice Hot Purple/Pink into my Mani below. It's more a gradient than a Pink Ombre, but I can't rock an all pink nail. The inspiration for this manicure was a Thank You card I gave to my other half for supporting me during my time out of work. The card had a lovely purple to pink to orange gradient that I wanted to recreate. Colour is a little off what it truly was in picture below as I've fiddled about with it. The Pink though is a must have from Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure line called 'Aria Ready'.

Day three's prompt was 'Floral' and if you excuse the pun, I nailed it. Not very Autumnal but I don't give a stuff and really didn't want to take it off!

As per usual I looked for ideas online for design and found this design on mycosmeticsbag along with a super easy idea on how to create the flowers. Super easy and really affective.

For my vintage blue I used OPI 'Can't find my Czechbook' one of the first OPI polishes I ever bought. A lovely shade of blue with a drop of green. For the white stripes I used a striping polish I picked up from eBay ages ago, super impressed I managed to get the lines so straight.

Then I used a variety of red and white polishes to create the flowers as per tutorial on mycosmeticsbag and the leaves using a lighter and darker green polish. Simples!

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!

Days 29 and 30 of 31 Day Challenge - Blue Base and something you haven't tried before

Ug this picture is awful, but all the ones I took were and the manicure is GONE now darling, GONE! Still digging through my unused polishes and picked out all the blue ones I had yet to use. This is 'Blue Sparrow' by China Glaze. It says it's a neon on the base and it is pretty bright (not that you can tell from this pic). I thought I'd pop a flakey glitter over the top which is Barry M 'Atlantis' and because the colour combination of the glitter had some green I alternated the base colour on my fingers.

This Glitter is gorgeous and Barry M along with Rimmel was one of the first brands I started to collect. Their collections are just getting better and better and at £3.99 for a polish, with constant offers at both Boots and Superdrug, you can't go wrong. I still have bottles that I bought over 5 years ago that are still good to use. Today they also released their new speedy nail paint collection!

So on to something I've never tried before... double stamping! I bagged a few of the new Models Own Chrome polishes which I heard were good for stamping with and used the Indigo and Mauve to double stamp this image on a base of 'Tempest' by China Glaze.

Still need a bit of practise at this stamping business but quite happy with this attempt, one word of warning though, you have to be quick with these Chrome polishes if stamping with them.

They dry quite quickly and if you're too slow the image won't transfer to your nail and stay stuck on the stamper.

Days 27 and 28 of Challenge - Recreating one of your own manicures and non glitter topper

Closing in on that 31st day now, and a chance to recreate one of my previous manicures. I chose the Lightening Bolt manicure that I did in my very first post on this blog and using the very first OPI polishes that I ever bought!

I love the colour combinations, these OPI's are from their EURO Central Collection and are 'I can't find my Czechbook' and 'OPI... Eurso Euro' and for the silver I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 'Coat of Arms' a lovely £1 purchase from Pound World.

Takes a wee while to do this manicure as you need to wait for each layer of polish to dry before taping and painting the lightening bolt. I followed this tutorial from elleandish/ Janelle.

Very happy with the way this came out and I think it's neater than my first attempt.

Next was a question of topping a manicure with something other than glitter? Bit stumped on this one, considered a crackle topper or matt coat. But decided to go with this topper from W.I.P nail polish called 'All-Sorts' that I bought from Urban Outfitters.

Technically I guess it's a matt glitter, and it's much brighter than this picture shows. I tried to create a heart with this topper on my ring finger and thumb, you can kinda see it, but as I had to fish a bit for the glitter there was quite a build up of the clear base in making these shapes. I also tried to create a heart stencil with some scotch tape and that didn't quite work either and because the tape was clear it was hard to see the shape, what do you guys use?

The base for this manicure is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 'Pat on the Black' which is a really, really dark purple polish. GORGEOUS!

Also my Model Own's sale polishes arrived, I can't WAIT to try them, think they may be appearing in this challenge before it ends!

Day 25 & 26 of Challenge - Complement and Contrast and Fishtail Braid

I've wanted to do this combination for a while and saw this manicure on Pinterest AGES ago using Sally Hansen lustre shine polishes in Azure and Scarab. This was months and months before these polishes started appearing in Pound World, and I never thought I'd get my sticky little mitts on them.

Not contrasting so much this manicure but these polishes go VERY well together. So well in fact that I didn't in the end use the sponging technique to create the gradient, as the polish wasn't quite dry and was creating bald patches when dabbing it on.

I ended up just painting the dark blue polish on the ends of my nails and blending it in to the base colour, worked pretty well and gorgeous colours!

Next day's theme is Fish Tail Braid, not something I have ever done on my nails or on my hair before. I watched a few tutorials on YouTube which make it look easy, it was however NOT!

Apologies for appalling picture, and messy manicure. Think this would have been better if the two purples I used were much different shades, they are too similar and merge into each other. I took this off the next morning before going to work as I thought it was a bit garish.

I will attempt this again I think, and pick my colours more carefully... 5 days to go and 5 days behind!

Days 24 & 25 of Challenge, White Base and Decals

I've done plenty of manicures during this nail art challenge that start off with a white base, and now I'm understanding just how important a good white polish is. I have three that I've been using, 'Cotton Buds' by Butter London, 'Snow Me White' by Sinful Colours and a white PS polish from Primark which I bought for 80p and this is what I used for my white base here.

Aswell as white other light colours have become essentials when doing nail art, OPI's 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' is a favourite of mine and of many bloggers as it's an off white. This has led me to start hunting down other off white colours that have a hint of something else in them.

Anyway I digress, this design I found on Pinterest and is by SparrowNails and is her Triangle Gradient Nail design.

I used 'Purple Glare' and 'Blue Glint' both Models Own Hyper Gel polishes and this gorgeous Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polish in 'Aria Ready'. I used some scotch tape to mask off my nails and used the sponging technique to apply the three colours as a gradient. Very happy with the way the gradient triangles came out. Will be trying this again and the colours worked really well together.

Speaking of Models Own they have an amazing SALE on at the moment where if you buy more that four polishes they are half price!

It ends midnight on February the 4th, so if you've been after some Models Own polishes and fancy picking up some of their gorgeous new Colour Chrome polishes get yourself over to their online store or bottle shop. I had a bit of an accident on their on line store myself today! 

Day 24's theme is Decals and a chance to use some of the lovely stuff I bought from She Sells Seashells a UK shop that sells all kind of nail accessaries. I was after some chevron nail stickers and saw these flower decals for £1.75.

I was still in the mood for gradients so complete the look with a few gradient nails, using varying shades of dusty pink/red.

As last time, I'm a week behind with the challenge, but will be finishing!

Days 21 & 22 - Three shades of green and Blobbicure

A chance to use three shades of green from my untrieds, main colour here is Revlon in 'Minted'. I painted a white base on my ring finger and used 'Minted' to make the dots along with Rimmel 'Block your Green' and Revlon Parfumerie in 'Balsam Fir'.

I used a small and medium sized dotting tool to create the dots. 

Day 22's theme was Blobbicure and a technique I'd never tried before. I used the end of one of my nail art brushes to create the blob's but perhaps I didn't use enough polish as it came out rather like a large dotticure rather than a blobbicure.

I love the colour combination here, I used two Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes here, the dark purple is 'Malbec' and the gorgeous grey/lavender colour is 'Greige Gardens'. 

Fire and Rainbow - Challenge Day's 19 and 20

Trying  catch up with me days this weekend but still falling behind. This quick evening manicure after the Monet success was a firery type affair. I tried the old marbling on the nail type of technique where you blob a couple of different coloured polishes on your nails and then use a tooth pick to drag and swirl the polish. I think the mistake I made here was choosing polishes that were to close in colour and shade. There are actually four different colours here, from gold to copper and light to a darker red. 

I wanted to use glittery and metallic polishes too to create a more abstract design rather than a obvious yellow to orange to red flame.  

Bright colours and rainbow type nails are not my favourite and I struggled to decide want to do both in last years challenge on the rainbow day theme and this. Oh yes I remember now, I did a Waterfall manicure using a few different colours, so not to gaudy.

This time I took my inspiration from Vlogger Jessface90 who did this rather dazzling Watercolor Nail Art Tutorial using OPI Sheer Tints. I've only used my mini tints once so a perfect opportunity to dust them off.

I used Maybelline Color Show in 'Light Up' which is from their Crystallize collection. It's a textured glitter polish very much like OPI Liquid Sands. The finish is gorgeous and even more so when I took the coloured top coats to it. I tried to merge the colours together and put the blue sheer tint next to the yellow so I'd get a bit of green in there too. Loved the way they came out.

You don't need to buy the OPI Sheer Tints if you fancy a bit of colour in your top coat. You can make your own coloured top coats by just taking a clear top coat (I'd recommend not using a quick dry one) and adding a few drops of any coloured nail polish to get the desired shade.

You can make a whole bottle or just mix together a little on some tin foil or plastic and use straight away. 

Day's 17 & 18 - Inspired by your favourite Blogger and Art!

I've mentioned The Nailasaurus many a time before in my Blog and here's another shout out in Day 17's theme. This design was to be inspired by your favourite blogger, and although I follow many Vloggers (I think that's because I'm lazy and want to watch rather than read) I do keep coming back to The Nailasaurus and her Blog.

This is my interpretation of her Streaky WaterColour Nail Art using a couple of my lovely Models Own Hyper Gel polishes. This Nail Art is so easy to do and so unusual and different. I kinda like these abstract patterned nail art. Will definitely do this one again.

Next was inspired by Art and I started thinking of the Zoya polish I bought all those months ago called 'Monet' that I had neglected and NEVER worn. Shame on me. I went one step further and painted my interpretation of Monet's Water Lilies on my fingers. Here's the pic:

And here's my nails:

Uncanny, I think you'll agree? But seriously, quite happy with how these came out too. Maybe a little much for a day in the office but certainly for a special occasion. I used a similar technique as the Water Colour manicure. I painted a white base on all my nails and watered down all the colours I used with Acetone and built them up to create this impressionist piece of art.

Green Base and Tranquility

Day 15's theme was simply stated as 'Green Base'. Green for me is a funny colour, I do have quite a few polishes in varying shades of green but tend not to reach for them often. 

I copied this design from a picture online but I can't find it now, may have been Pinterest. What I like about this design and not something I do very often is having the two middle nails different to the rest. I used a thin nail art brush for the stripes of colour on the middle nails and topped everything off with China Glaze 'Golden Enchantment'.  

The next day's theme is Tranquility and I've wanted to do a sea type of design for a while. Orginally I'd seen the Nailasaurus Beach Wave Mani. But then when looking though her Blog I saw her Water Colour Gradient manicure and opted for this instead.

I found the video after doing the manicure, so first attempt was a bit of figuring it out. It's OK but next time I'll work longer at building up the colours and merging them into each other.

The ideas was that this looks like the seas which the sound of I find quite calming and tranquil.

Holo and Inspired by Pinterest - Days 13 and 14

It's safe to say that I have fallen behind in the second week, but I shall continue on. Realistically doing a new manicure (with nail art) EVERY day just isn't going to happen. As with the last challenge I'm enjoying trying new techniques, challenging myself and using my untrieds. This is going very well, I have now reduced my untried down to a mere 191 well below half of my collection.

So Day 13's theme was holographic and a nail polish effect I love, but only have a handful of. I'd never used GOSH 'Holographic Hero' before so wasn't sure if it was opaque or not, so I layered it over Revlon Parfumerie in 'Spun Sugar'. I'm not sure why the GOSH polish says for 24 hour wear, I'm not going to be wearing it longer than that anyway.

I topped with HK Girl, as I needed these dry before heading about my day, and the top coat seemed to dull the holographicness (is that even a word?). So I decided I needed something else and stamped this pattern from a Bundle Monster plate. Pretty chuffed with how this looks!

Next was to recreate a manicure from Pinterest, which I do all the time anyway. This is one I've tried before without much success, I couldn't figure out what order to put matt top coat and glitter on and whether to paint or dab the glitter. This time it came out much, much better. Here's the pin:

And here's my attempt...

I used Nails Inc 'Wigmore Street' as the base and Orly 'Fowl Play' for the glitter, turns out painting it on a sponge and then dabbing it on my nails worked best. I then topped them both off with a OPI Matt Top Coat. Lovely!

Day 11 & 12's Challenge - Reversed Polarities?

After getting Day 8's theme a little bit wrong I had to check up on Day 11's title of 'Reversed Polarities'. Luckily for me someone else on Instagram asked The Crumpet to clarify and was given the word Negative. So.... I had a go at a reverse gradient striping tape manicure that I saw Colette from My Simple Little Pleasures do on YouTube. This woman knows how to water marble, her designs are awesome.

Here is Colette's tutorial for this manicure.

I used three polishes to create my look, White (Sinful Colors - Snow Me White) a pale purple (Sinful Colors - Sweet Tooth) and a Navy Blue (Sally Hanson Complete Salon Manicure - Blue Rose). I painted my nails in the pale purple and created a gradient using a makeup sponge painted with the colours to dab on to my nails. Once done I topped with a quick drying top coat and placed three lines of striping ribbon on my nails. Then I used the same technique to create a gradient in the opposite direction over the tape. 

Very happy with the outcome apart from the messy edges around my cuticles.

Next up was a manicure inspired by a film. The last challenge I did included this theme too, I did 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. This time I used little imagination and went with Hunger Games using China Glaze's 'Electrify' from their Hunger Games collection.

I've only used this polish once before and wasn't keen. This time I layered it over Revlons 'Autumn Spice' a lovely dark shimmery brown and I rather like it!

Catching up with day's 9 and 10

Day 9 asked for a Red Base, and red isn't a colour I choose to wear very often, but when I do I'm pleasantly surprised. In this instance I didn't know what to pick as I have quite a number of red polishes that I have yet to try... here's a gander at them! Which one would you have chosen?

That's 10 red polishes I own and have never worn. Now some can be justified, the essie which is a beautiful pillar box red, was part of a set I bought from TK Maxx, and my first essie polishes. Two of the the OPI's were presents, oh and the Nail's Inc and Leighton Denny were freebies from a magazine purchase, so that's half of them justified for.

So I chose, OPI's 'Affair in Red Square' for my Red Base manicure and topped it off with Orly's 'Star Spangled Banner'. Picture does this NO justice and I'd be interested to see how opaque the Orly polish would be on it's own, as this really has depth. The micro glitter really looks suspended in the polish. This is going to be my go to manicure if I want red.

Day 10 was glitter base and the last few days with work and training all day Saturday have left me little time to embellish these manicures with some nail art. However the polish I chose below, Maybellines Color Show in 'Rose Chic' from the Crystallize range needs nothing else. 

I can't believe I have NEVER used this polish before, it's freaking gorgeous! Formula is great, finish is slightly textured but not too bumpy and the other thing about this polish is it's one of those that when applied, doesn't look messy AT ALL. You could get a monkey to apply this to your nails and it would STILL look fabulous. I have no idea if you can still get these Crystallize polishes and looking online the range they had in the US was even more awesome!

I'm STILL wearing this, and don't want to take off, and I need to do Day 11's manicure. I do have a feeling that it's gonna need a soaking in acetone and wrapping in foil for removal.

Days 7 & 8 of Nail Art Challenge

OK, I cheated a bit, back at work and training on Monday evening has made me fall behind a day so I painted both hands with Models Own Hyper Gel 'Naked Glow'. Did Day 6's Half and Half on the left hand and this on the right. The theme was Pink and Aqua, so I did some pretty stamping in those colours using my first and December purchased MoYou stamping set. 

Been after some of these bad ass stamping plates for a while, but their range is so vast and so gorgeous I really didn't know what plates to pick first.

This was solved just before Xmas, when I was alerted to the fact that Boots were selling MoYou sets. These sets include two plates, a stamper and scraper, and three stamping polishes for £22.99. SOLD!

There is three to choose from and I got the Mother Nature set pictured below.

I used the pink stamping polish from the set, and because the blue wasn't quite aqua enough, I used Sephora by OPI in "Mermaid to Order', which stamped surprising well.

You can use normal polish to stamp with, providing the colour and pigmentation of the polish is bright and opaque enough. It's just a process for trying them out to see which ones work and which ones don't. General consensus is that Barry M Gelly polishes work really well and the MUA polishes you can get a Superdrug for a £1 do too.

My understanding of Day 8's theme was a little off. The theme was 'Monochromatic' rather than 'Monchrome'. So I could have gone with different hues of one colour rather than just Black & White. But here's what I did anyway, using a bit of striping tape, no cheating here and both hands were painted the same.

Again I can't take the credit for this design and copied this this from Polly Polish. I used Butter London's 'Cotton Buds' as the white base and Revlon 'Espresso' from their Parfumerie range for the black. I smudged the lines by applying my top coat before the black was dry, but overall fairly happy with my attempt!

Day 5 & 6 of 2015 Nail Art Challenge

Time to get the old dotting tools out! 

And this is what I cooked up. I nicked the idea from Pinterest and Paula Passions. Boy is this a gorgeous manicure, colours just pop and I did not want to take this manicure off. I think this is my favourite manicure of this years challenge so far, I will DEFINITELY be doing this again. Polishes used are....

Dark Blue Base - Revlon Top Speed in Royal

Gold - China Glaze in Mingle with Kringle

Aqua/Teal - Sephora for OPI - Mermaid to Order

Purple - Revlon ColorStay in Amethyst

Copper - No17 in Copper

Day 6's theme was Half and Half, wasn't sure how to interpret this, but good old Google and Pinterest gave me this idea. By the way I'm still trying to go through my untried polishes so trying to incorporate these polishes into designs. Two., no THREE untrieds used below!

Base is Models Own Hyper Gel in 'Naked Glow, dark blue creme is 'Stormy Blue by Make Up Academy, a new line that Pound World seem to be stocking not the MUA sold in Superdrug. The Glitter in the picture is Essie, 'Stoke of Brilliance'. Kinda worked, kinda didn't, wasn't too bothered about taking it off, apart from the usual Glitter removal struggle. Meh! I NEED a peal off base coat that works or a glue that I can use which will be quarter of the price. 

31 Day Challenge Completed!

Day 31 was to Honor the nails you love. So I'd like to give a shout out again to The Nailasaurus who's blog and Youtube tutorials have given me constant inspiration for nail designs and this challenge in particular. She has completed this challenge many times before and I was originally going to do her Underwater Gradient that she did for inspired by a tutorial.

But instead I did this. It's a Saran Wrap technique and although I picked different colours I used her Textured Saran Wrap Tutorial to help me with the effect.

Again my picture doesn't do this manicure justice and I think this may possibly be my favourite one out of the whole 31 Days. It's certainly a manicure I'm looking forward to sporting for more than just one day. And one I'll definitely do again with different colours.

Although I completed the challenge 12 days late, I was determined to finish. I've really enjoyed it. It's pushed me to try all the nail art I've wanted to try for ages and also get some real use out of my ever growing nail varnish collection.

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by The Supernatural and a Tutorial

I wimped out the supernatural, conscious that I am nearly two weeks late now with this challenge and have too many other things going on. Significant birthday party to plan and have also started a new part time course which I have DONE no course work for as yet. 

So my Supernatural for Day 29 was inspired by the film Poltergeist. The ghostly being communicates with the young girl through the static in the TV and this polish reminds me of that. I picked this up from Urban Outfitter and is part of their polish range called W.I.P. This one is called 'Blue Beaded' and I have this in purple to, I think there was a grey too.

Bit patchy I think I could have done with another coat, or maybe next time paint over a base colour. Not to keen on the polish to tell you the truth, drys matt and slightly textured, I supposes as you'd expect. I popped some top coat in after this picture which evened it out a bit, but it may need to go in my swaps pile.

Day 30 was inspired by a tutorial. One of the first videos I saw on Youtube that really got me into Nail Art was by PackAPunchPolish and is her Star Burst Water Marble. Take a look at this tutorial, she makes it look sooooo easy, and it really isn't. Also when I saw this video, I was like, you can make your nails look like this? I need to know how!

I did pick out similar colours to what she used, but some of my polishes just didn't want to spread, so I had to work with what I had and here's my attempt...

My pictures suck at the moment and my thumb nail probably came out the best and was the first nail I tried. I just can't get my crappy phone camera to focus. By the way this Revlon Scented polish in 'Raspberry Scone' was the best polish to work with for marbling. I can't say the same about the rest...

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by a Artwork and a Flag

I've been wanting to try a splatter manicure for a while and now was my chance. It's not so much inspired by a painting, but you could say an artist and reference Jackson Pollock. So here it is! I checked out a few tutorials first to get an idea of what I needed to do and opted for the dip a straw in your polish method and blow it on your nails.

Some worked better than others and I ended up with a few splodges where I probably had too much polish in the straw, but again happy with my first attempt. 

That's what I've really enjoyed about this challenge that it's actually got me round to having a go at all the great nail art I see on the Internet.

So that was Day 27. Day 28 was inspired by a flag, and I chose Cuba! Cuba is one of those places I'd love to go and I read a really great autobiography called 'Waiting for Snow in Havana' a few years ago. It really intrigued me about the history and the still Communist Government that it's ruled by, that has helped the country retain it's unique culture and society.

Here's what the Cuba Flag looks like (incase you didn't know):

And here's what my manicure looks like:

Stamped stars are a little wonky, I'll admit that, and I supposed I could have coloured them in. Reminds me more of Captain America or Wonder Woman I think.

Only three more challenges to complete and I'm only two weeks behind!

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by Fashion and a Pattern

Day 25 was a design inspired by fashion, so I took the design from a scarf I purchased recently as my inspiration rather than something from the catwalk. I've found it hard to find my own style over the years but something that always sticks with me and that also goes in and out of fashion is Grunge. I grew up in the 80's not really finding any music I liked or could identify and then in 1992/93 I found Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. This music scene, largely from Seattle had it's own signature fashion style too. The boys wore ripped jeans, band T-Shirts and lumberback shirts with green army Eddie Vedder style jackets. Whilst I wore DM's tie die tights and denim shorts with big baggy jumpers, and wishing I could carry off the Courtney Love Baby Doll dress. But looking more like a fat member of L7. 

Anyway, Grunge on the catwalk now tends to refer to these type of non coloured patterned items, and to my delight there is a lot of this about at the moment. This scarf looks like tree branches very similar to these nail wraps I bought a wee while ago.

So I tried to recreate this on my nails after seeing a similar manicure on Instagram by nailblazer and asking them how they created the effect. Using a fan nail art brush apparently, so that is what I did.

  

Similar to Day 25, I took inspiration for Day 26 'Inspired by a Pattern' from a dress I own from a company called Amari. There is a little shop in the town that I live and this is one of the brands they stock. This dress is made out of a light fleece like material and is just the best thing to wear in winter. I wear it over a pair of skinny jeans and it's so comfy and warm.

Anyway you can see the pattern here, and my attempt to replicate it. I'm thinking I need a lighter hand and also Mr Blobby springs to minds.

I'm massively behind with the challenge having been away for a long weekend during the last week of the challenge, and I was already 2, maybe 3 days behind then. I am however going to continue until I finish all manicures, I'm keen to do this again next year, like many nail blogger do and see if I've improved. I do hope so from the above attempt!

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by a film and a book

The last week or so of the 31 Day Challenge is a series of manicures inspired by different things. Day 23 was a film. One of my favourite films for ages directed by Spike Jonze is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. With my limited nail art skills how was I going to interpret the film on my nails though? So I Googled and I Pinteresed until I found this:

So I used the background of this Poster or DVD cover as the inspiration for my manicure and this is how it came out...

I do love a good gradient and the lines give it an added something. I wore this all day without the clouds as I was running out of time and added these the next day. Pretty pleased with how they came out!

Day 24 was inspired by a book, and I thought I'd use the book I was currently reading. I run a monthly book club at work and we've all put our suggestions into a hat and picked out a book to read each month. This month is The Crow Road by Iain Banks. The cover is black and white and I wanted to add a bird or birds, or even a feather to the design. But my tests looked rubbish and my birds like ticks. So I did this and left it how it was, I guess this could be inspired by any book...

I used Models Own 'Coconut Cream' as the base, this smells LOVELY. One of the better scented polishes I own.