31 Day Challenge - Dots and Stripes

I'm getting more behind with my challenge but persisting as much as I can, and I have to say I think the last two days have been a breakthrough in my previous dodgy attempts at striping and nail art.

Day 11 was Dots and I tried out a few colours and combinations and came up with this!

I cannot however take the credit for this idea. I was showing the other half my practises and he said, oh they look like pebbles on the beach. So I thought, that's a top notch idea, that's what I'll base my design on. I used China Glaze 'Metro Pollen-Tin' as the base for the sand. Maybe could have been a touch deeper and browner in colour, but I went with it anyways. 

I started off with a large dotting tool for the brown in Sinful Colors 'Nirvana' and did some smaller dots in the same colour. Then I alternated between the small dotting tool and large one with black, white, silver and a darker brown. I actually liked the manicure just with the base colour and brown dots. Really happy with the way it came out!

I also had a little moment in PoundWorld and picked up my first Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes.

Seems they have a few of these brand coming through the door, alas they had no more of the Revlon Parfumerie or ColorStay polishes. These from left to right are, 'Changing Tides', 'Grape Jelly' and 'Sparkling Water'. The middle one I hear is like the OPI Sheer Tints, the name suggests it a Jelly but you can see how sheer it is from the photo as you can see the brush.

I also popped in to Boots and they were selling Barry M, buy one and get on half price, I picked up these limited edition polishes, but I think they have been out for a while. This was going to be the original colours for my dots manicure. 

Love the caps on these, left is 'Carousel' and right is 'Bikini.' I picked up Carousel as I'd seem some gorgeous swatches on-line.

 Day 12, was stripes and I think this may be my best striping work yet! Look at these badgers!

To start off the base cost is a gorgeous purple holo from Color Club called 'Eternal Beauty' and this is the business just on it's own, without any frills. I used striping ribbon to create the design on all nails and then a small nail art brush to fill in each colour. The black is Revlon Parfumerie in 'Espresso', the dark purple OPI 'Vant to Bite my Neck' and the light purple is Rimmel Pro in 'Purple Rain'. I DO NOT want to take this design off for Day 13, especially as purple is my favourite colour and I spent some time over this! Anyway I shall have to, as tomorrow I have a few days to catch up on. Really enjoying the challenge, it's really making me practise my nail art and use all these little bottles I collect.

Next up, Animal Print (Have no idea on what to do here) and Flowers!

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! 

31 Day Challenge - B&W and Metallic Nails

Days 6 & 7 of the 31 Day Challenge were a little more involved that previous days. First up Black and White. My other half mentioned I should do Humbug nails, but didn't have the time or patience to do the stripes so I did THIS! 

For the base I used Revlon's Parfumerie polish in 'Espresso', it was a toss up between this and China Glaze 'Liquid Leather', but I've not used the Revlon Polish so another one checked off my untried list. Great polish, goes on so smoothly and finishes to a lovely shine without top coat. For the white splatter I used Color Show's Acid Wash Effect in 'Top Splatter'. Really quite happy with the effect and will definitely do this manicure again and try the Splatter polish over other colours.

Day 7 was Metallic Nails and I totally ripped off this idea from Lou is Perfectly Polished. Her manicure is amazing and much neater than mine, I need to practise stamping more! Here's my efforts...

Smudgy at best, but you get the idea! check out Lou's Blog to see how it should have been done.

For this I used Barry M 'Denim' as the base, pretty much opaque in one coat and sooooo pretty. It's a dark blue with a silver shimmer running through it. I have worn this before but not on it's own, it's good to go without the smudgy stamping! The pattern is from Konad's m65 plate and stamped with Barry M Foil Effect polish in Silver.

31 Day Challenge - Blue and Violet

The next two days on the challenge have both my favourite nail colours, blue and violet. For the blue I chose Revlon ColorStay in 'Coastal Surf'. Holy crap, this polish is gorgeous, I DID not want to take it off. Opaque to this lovely finish in two coats and topped with HK Girl Top Coat. This polish is NOT going in the swap pile, it's a keeper.

I wasn't sure if a violet was a very specific type of purple and all the polishes I have with violet in the name are all very dark purple, so I chose save and picked a Barbara Daly mini polish that I've had for ages in 'Very Violet'.

I picked this up from Tesco, I have a few others of this brand but haven't seen any recently and they don't stock them in my local Tesco. This was chosen by my other half, actually so was the shade of blue. He's suggested Humbug nails for the B&W manicure!

Anyway, what makes this polish so special, and you can JUST about make out, is that it has a blue shimmer running through it. Great formula on this little polish, and I think I picked it up for 99p or something, it was in their Bargain Bin. I've just checked Tesco's online store and they have a few Barbara Daly polishes, £5 for a full bottle, but limited colours. So not sure if these are being discontinued. 

31 Day Challenge - Green and Yellow

More untried polishes to use for the 31 Day Challenge. First up Day 3 : Yellow. Keeping with the Revlon ColorStay Theme this one is 'Buttercup' a pale yellow creme.

Like 'Marmalade' the orange used on Day 2, this took 3 coats to hide all sign of the nail line and first coats applied a little streaky. I was planning on some nail art, but time being short, I used some of the Bourjois Nail Tattoos to give the manicure a little something else.

Not overly inspired but I used these bee designed on alternate nails. These Nail Tattoos are so easy to use, and you'll need to top coat them so they don't wear off. I have to say I'm not sure I'm keen on this colour. It was a rushed manicure, so maybe if I'd taken more time it would have been neater and not so patchy.

Day 4 : Green moves from Revlon ColorStay to their Parfumerie range and the polish in 'Wintermint'.

The parfumerie polishes are scented, and this polish, as the name suggests whiffs of mint, oh and nail varnish... a bit. 

It's a little on the sheer side but you can build to full opacity, this is three coats and you can just see my nail line. The colour is a light metallic green with blue flecks of glitter, gorgeous. It dries to a slightly textured finish and I've abandoned top coat as I'll be changing my polish tomorrow to a lovely blue for Day 5!

Again I picked this up from PoundWorld for a £1, when this range is still being sold in Boots for £5.99. PoundWorld are stocking loads of polishes from this range, so keep your eyes and noses peeled. 

31 Day Challenge

The Nailasaurus is doing the doing a 31 day nail challenge with a different manicure every day based on the guidelines here:

So I'm kinda a day behind, and doing my manicures in the evening of said day. However this hasn't deterred me and a perfect way of trying some of my untrieds and wearing colours that I normally don't gravitate too.

I was in luck when I saw the above, as I was already wearing Revlon's ColorStay in 'Antique Rose' so I was ahead of the game. See pic below (excuse ring finger, I had a bit of an accident with a bread knife!) So this is my Day 1 - Red Manicure!

Day 2 is orange, and keeping with the untrieds I tried another of my Revlon ColorStays in 'Marmalade'. Wasn't keen on the colour when first applied, but after wearing it all day I like it. Formula on this one wasn't as good as 'Antique Rose' and the below took three coats for full opacity and so you couldn't see my nail line. But overall both polishes have a beautiful finish and application was pretty good.

Both were bought at my last visit and haul to Pound World, so a great bargain at £1 each, especially as some SuperDrug and Boots stores are still selling ColorStay polishes for £6.99.

Day 3 is yellow and I'm thinking I need to spice it up with some nail art! Stay tuned, I have a lovely Revlon ColorStay in 'Buttercup' to try!

More essence polishes from Wilkinson

Keen to try more of the essence polishes I bought from Wilkinson, I attempted another nail art design inspired by this pin. You can see theirs is a little more elegant than mine. But I'm pretty pleased with they way it came out, better than my last striping manicure.

This time I used striping ribbon instead of scotch tape, I found it leaves a cleaner line. Base colour is essence 'prom berry' and the light purple is 'hello marshmallow'.

I have only one more to try which is a lovely teal colour with a purple/blue shift, so keen to try and see if the effect shows on the nail. I also bought an effects polish called 'Blue-jeaned' (Jeans Sugar) which is a dark blue matt polish with a silver shimmer. Lovely, very much like OPI's Suede version of Russian Navy.