31DC2013: Day Seventeen - Glitter

For this manicure, I used 2 coats of Barry M Navy as the base. Then two coats of Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Mermaid's Tale glitter polish. I then stamped four fingers with the peacock feather from the image plate Nailz Craze NC01 with Essie No Place Like Chrome. I added in some more strokes of glittery gold with Max Factor Ivory on to the feather. Added a rhinestone on the ring finger and finished it off with top coat.

I love the colours in this glitter polish - the combination of the blue and green glitter is beautiful. The green and blue combination reminded me of peacock feathers, which is why I decided to stamp that image. The silver stamping looks striking against the dark base. I loved this manicure - couldn't stop looking at my nails!!

31DC2013: Day Sixteen - Tribal Print

For the tribal print nails, I painted the entire nail with NYC Lexington Yellow. Then I painted a thick vertical stripe on each nail with Barry M Matt White. After this, I used Konad Black and a fine nail art brush for the pattern. Lastly, I used a dotting tool and nail polishes in various colours for the dots. I painted over with top coat.

I must confess that when I first saw tribal art nails on the internet, I was silly enough to think they would be easier to do than other patterns/techniques. But I learnt the hard way that its a little bit trickier to free hand symmetrical lines and dots than it looks!

31DC2013: Day Fifteen - Delicate Print

For this manicure, I painted my nails with Sally Hansen Green Tea. Then I sponged it very lightly with Rimmel 830 Camoflouge, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Chartreuse Chase & NYC Lexington Yellow. I wanted to create a lightly dappled yellow-green effect. It turned out quite subtle and I don't think the photos managed to capture it really but I quite liked it! I then stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Jumpin Jade and the Gals Fairy GA31 image plate. Here's another look ...

31DC2013: Day Fourteen - Flowers

I really liked the flowers I did for my Blue Nails for Day Five. So when it came to this challenge, I decided to revisit that manicure but I thought I would look around for some tutorials to see if I could refine my technique. There are some great tutorials for one stroke flower nail art. I was inspired by two such videos: One Stroke Flower Nail Tutorial and Simple, Easy One-Stroke Pretty Flower Painting Nail Art Tutorial

For this manicure, I used Barry M Gelly in Lychee. Then I painted the petals with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick and Chartreuse Chase, with a nail art brush. I added 3-4 hexagonal nail glitters from the Born Pretty store to each half flower and finished with top coat. I absolutely love free hand floral nails like these and hope to do more of them in the future!

Although originally, for the Flowers challenge, I had planned on doing stamping decals. I painted some squares of top coat onto a plastic bag and waited for it to dry. Then I stamped a flower image onto each of these. After this, I filled out the flowers and leaves with different colours with a fine nail art brush. Waited for it all to dry, peeled them off with a pair of tweezers and applied to my nails with topcoat.

The decals came out quite well but I think I used too thick a layer of top coat on the plastic bag. When I applied the decals to my nails and added more top coat, it bubbled up quite badly.

So I thought I would do these free hand flowers instead...

31DC2013: Day Thirteen - Animal Print

I wanted to do a snakeskin print for the animal print nails. But I don't have an image plate that has this image. So I looked around at some of the wonderful tutorials on the internet and found this one that I really liked - "How To Snake Skin Your Nails Tutorial"
I got some net fabric and some tulle from a fabric shop for under a pound for this and its enough to last me for snakeskin nails for many years!

I painted my nails with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Wet Cement. After they were dry, I wrapped each nail with the net fabric and sponged with a light purple, Precision Nail Lacquer Purple Rain. After this I wrapped each nail with the fine tulle and sponged with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Grape Escape.

I really liked the results this technique produced and look forward to using it again sometime!

31DC2013: Day Twelve - Stripes

This manicure is easy to do and I was surprised at how good it looked - it came out better than I  expected! The stripes look a little uneven in this extreme close-up but it wasn't noticeable in real life. This was done freehand. I first painted my nails with Barry M Cyan Blue and then drew on the stripes with the Barry M nail art pens in black and silver. In the end, added the rhinestones and finished it off with topcoat. 

I have always loved nail art but never really tried to do much earlier because I thought it might be too difficult. That is until I discovered nail art stamping. I still love stamping - you can get amazing nails with that but with this challenge, I have tried so many other nail art techniques, including free hand. And I have realised that some of them are not that hard and don't need a lot of special equipment. Its just a matter of starting somewhere! And something like some stripes or dots or some rhinestones can really make your nails look fabulous and make a nice change from plain painted nails. If you have never tried nail art and don't really have many tools for it, then something like this might just be the one to start off with! 

31DC2013: Day Eleven - Polka Dots

Polka dots for Day eleven!
For this manicure, I used, Barry M Gelly Lychee. I sponged on a gradient at the tips with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Flashy Fuschia. Then I stamped the polka dots with the Fuschia and Konad M79 image plate. On the accent finger, I painted free hand roses with the same colour, Konad white and Barry M Gelly in Key Lime.

There are a few tutorials out there on doing these free hand roses on my ring finger but I was inspired by this one - "simple dot rose nail art, sweet for Valentines day" These roses are so cute and quite easy to do.

See what the British Nail Bloggers have been up to this week!

An InLinkz Link-up

31DC2013: Day Ten - Gradient Nails

Gradient Nails for day ten of the Challenge.

I love gradient nails and I love the pink and blue colour combination, so I am quite happy with these nails! For these nails, I used Revlon Cupid and Barry M Gelly Blueberry and sponged on the gradient. I also stamped the accent nail with Konad M89 and Essie No Place Like Chrome.

This is the last of the nails based on colour and we are one third of the way through the challenge. Tomorrow marks the the beginning of the pattern based nails!

31DC2013: Day Nine - Rainbow Nails

I did two manicures for Rainbow Nails. First I did a water marble.

This was my first attempt at a water marble and I found placing the design properly on the nail a bit tricky. For this look, I used all these polishes - Sally Hansen Hard As Nails White Tip, Avon Decadence, Barry M Gelly in Blackberry, Key Lime, Mango, Rimmel Riviera Red.
Hopefully when I do the water marble again for this Challenge, this experience will come in handy!

I decided to give the rainbow nails another try and came up with this.

For this, I used Barry M Gelly in Blackberry, Guava, Key Lime, Mango, Barry M Matt White, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Grape Escape, Konad Yellow, Rimmel Pro Riviera Red
I painted a line with each colour and finished it all off with Rimmel Rock Your Colour Glitter Topcoat.

At the end, I thought that even though the water marble wasn't as successful as I had hoped for, it still looks kind of artistic and quite pleasing. I am definitely looking forward to trying out this technique again!