12 Days of Christmas: Presents

For today's prompt, Presents, I decided to make my nails into presents, rather than just painting presents onto my nails!

I painted them using Make Up Gallery Scarlett Sparkle, which is one of my very favourite polishes!

Then I cut out little pieces of silver ribbon and stuck them onto my nail using clear polish, to create the look of a pretty wrapped present! 

Super simple, but I quite like how these turned out! 

See more entries for this prompt:

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12 Days of Christmas: Ugly Sweater

The prompt for today was 'Ugly Sweater Nails'.
I had what I thought were the perfect water decals for these nails, but unfortunately it didn't go quite to plan!

I have used water decals plenty of times before, I know what I am doing with them, but these just would not work. It seems that the plastic they are printed onto is way too thick for this purpose. Even after soaking in hot water the plastic remained rigid and wouldn't adhere to the nail the way decals usually do. I ended up covering the nail in topcoat and sticking the plastic to that. Even then I had problems getting the image to lay flat as the plastic was too rigid and I could feel them sitting on top of my nail, which isn't usually the case with decals. (The image below shows how bad this was!)

It's a shame as I have never has a 'bad' product from Born Pretty Store before, but these were so disappointing and I was so looking forward to using them!

Urgh, look at how bad those decals are! Not nice!

The base polish I used was Ciaté Cupcake queen, topped with Ciaté Candy Cane glitter. I love these two polishes together!

See the other, more successful entries for this challenge:

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12 Days of Christmas: Glitter

Today the prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas challenge was Glitter!

I may have gone a little overboard with this, but I love it!

I used two Ciaté loose glitters from my Mini Mani Manor: Let it Snow and Slumber Party.

I used a wet brush to put them onto my nails and create a gradient effect.

I love how these turned out, so christmassy! The glitter is lasting really well too, I have been wearing this mani for two days now and there is only a small amount of tip wear.

Doesn't it look even more beautiful when blurred!!

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12 Days of Christmas: Decorations

Yay, a prompt that is not colour based!! Today it is decorations.
On my tree I have lots of delicate, cut-out decorations, so I chose to base my mani on a particular one of these.

I'm really pleased with how these candles turned out, though the ribbon leaves a little to be desired!

I used a tiny detail brush and a whole load of Ciaté polishes: Strawberry Milkshake, Silhouette, Fit for a Queen, Velvet Tuxedo, Encore! and Big Yellow Taxi. I also used OPI AmazON... AmazOFF for the leaves.

You can see the other entries to this challenge here:

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12 Days of Christmas: Red and Green

I am a little late with this post, it was supposed to be yesterday but I found it really difficult to think of a design for the prompt 'Red and Green'.

This prompt is probably one of my worst nightmares!
1. I hate colour prompts. They are just so vague!
2. I don't like contrasting colours. I am all about matchy colours!

But this is what I came up with:

I know, its kind of cheating using each colour on different fingers, rather than integrating them, but by this point I was fed up! I already tried using the colours together, creating designs with red on top of the green watermarble, but they turned out horrendous! This was my 3rd attempt and I wasn't going to try again!!

For the red fingers I used Essence, Do You Speak Love?, Rimmel, Red Steady, Go! and Nails Inc. Hanover Square.

For the green nails I used Essence, Thats What I Mint!, Essence, Lets Get Lost! and Sinful Colours, Kissy.

I'm really happy with how the green turned out... not so much the red!

Check everyone else's (much better) mani's for this prompt:

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12 Days of Christmas: The Song

Today the prompt for the 12 days of Christmas challenge was the '12 Days of Christmas' song.

I have kept it quite simple and chosen the line '2 Turtle Doves'.

I started with two coats of Ciaté Mineral Clarity, which is such a gorgeous deep blue glittery texture polish. I then stamped the doves using George Natural White and this cute stamping plate from Born Pretty Store.

The doves don't stand out quite as much as I might have liked. The George white polish is not the best for stamping, but my favourite Barry M Matte White has thickened too much to use. I desperately need some polish thinner!

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12 Days of Christmas: Blue and White

The promp for today was 'Icy Blue and White'.
I felt a bit lost for what to do with this prompt, I much prefer the more structured prompts!

I went for a simple sponged white to blue gradient using George Natural White, Revlon Blue Lagoon and Make Up Gallery Sky Blue.

On my index finger I used a blue Barry M crackle polish followed by MUA Luna, the pretty glitter.

Finally, I added a little bow stud from Born Pretty Store on my ring finger. I think it finishes off the look nicely.

Overall, I'm not too sure about this. I didn't really have a direction when I started, I just made it up as I went and I think you can tell that.

Check out the other entries:

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12 Days of Christmas: Santa, Baby

Today the prompt was Santa and/or Elves.

I also just recieved my Ciaté Mini Mani Month Calendar, yay! So I wanted to incorporate some of the polishes from that.
BTW, I won't be posting swatches from the calendar on here each day but I will be posting them on Instagram @nailsmustbepainted so make sure you're following me if you want the updates! :)

The grey is Ciaté Sharp Tailoring (Day 2), the red is Ciaté Runway Ribbon and is a gorgeous loose glitter and the white is George Natural White. The Santa is a sticker I got from Poundland a few months ago! I am feeling poorly at the moment so didn't feel like concentrating long enough to do my usual freehand art.

Take a better look at that red glitter! I have never used a loose glitter before but wow this is gorgeous! The picture doesn't really do it justice. It is sooo sparkly and beautiful! 

I discovered just how difficult loose glitter is to clean up though!

Check out the other amazing entries:

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12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Trees

Today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge is Christmas Trees.

I started out intended on a really simple mani for this one. Then I kept adding to it, though I'm not sure if I was improving it or making it worse! I took photo's at each stage anyway, so you can decide for yourself! I think my favourite is the second one.

I started with a base coat of OPI AmazON... AmazOFF on most fingers and a PS by Primark unnamed Gold polish on my ring finger and thumb. I used striping tape to create the shape of the tree on my ring finger and added a small star stud from Poundland. 

Then I decided it needed more glitter, so I added one coat of Ciaté Party Shoes and one coat of Barry M Starlight, both on my Index finger.

Next I felt the actual tree was missing some glitter/decoration. I remembered I had some caviar beads I had never used before aptly named 'Christmas Tree Caviar' by Ciaté, so went about creating a string of beads on the christmas tree. This is where I ruined it I think. It's just a bit too much!

Which is your favourite stage of this mani?


Check out the other entries to this challenge below:

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12 Days of Christmas: Snowflakes

Hello!
This month I am planning on taking part in Challenge Your Nail Art's '12 days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge'. I have never managed to complete a challenge where I have to post more than once a week, so we'll see how it goes!!

The first prompt is 'Snowflakes':

I love how these turned out! The two different blues really make me think of day and night.

I used L'Oreal Million Sapphire on my index and middle fingers and Make Up Gallery Sky Blue on my ring finger, pinky and thumb. 

That L'Oreal glitter is so perfect! Full, even coverage of glittery goodness in just two coats. Bad side, it peeled off in the shower. As a whole piece. Strange!

I then used acrylic paint and a tiny paintbrush to paint the snowflakes and finished off with my usual Essence Quick Dry topcoat.

See the other entries for this challenge here:

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