31DC:Green/Yellow

Today's prompt was three shades of green/yellow.

I sort of made these up as I went. I don't love how they turned out, but they're ok!

I used two shades of green to create a saran wrap background: Ciaté headliner, and Essence That's What I Mint! I then added a green and blue glitter 'Mosaic Nail Varnish' by Pretty and stamped leaves over the top with Revlon Buttercup and Born Pretty Store stamping plate BP-19.

Remember, you can get 10% of this stamping plate and many more with the code: EHG10.

Check out the other girls designs':

31DC: Tranquility

Initially I was a bit stuck for this prompt. I asked my boyfriend and he immediately thought of Buddha, so that's what I went with!

I painted a lotus flower on my middle finger and attempted a Buddha on my ring finger, though he  ended up looking rather like a monkey!!

I used Revlon Trade Winds as my base colour (This is rapidly becoming one of my most used polishes!) and created a Saran Wrap mani with Essence Thats What I Mint!. I thought these were very natural colours which created a calm, tranquil feel. I then painted the details with brown acrylic paint.

Apart from Buddha looking like a monkey, I quite like the overall look of these. 

Check out the other entries:

Saran Wrap

Last week for the Simples group, the challenge was to do a Saran Wrap mani.
I had a go but mine was not very successful in the end (here, if anyone really wants to see!), so I decided to have another go at the weekend!

This was the outcome:

I much prefer them to my last attempt and may even be  beginning to like Saran Wrap mani's!! 

This time I chose to use more contrasting colours, to make the effect more obvious, as I felt this was the biggest problem last time (OPI, Where Did Suzi's Man-Go? and Barry M Black). I also used a 'dabbing-off' technique, rather than dabbing the second colour on, which I did last time. I think this was much more successful! :)

Lace Saran

This week's Simples technique was Saran Wrap.

I used Sally Hansen Fuchsia Flare as my base colour, then dabbed on Sinful Colours Cream Pink and Barry M Papaya. These blended much more than I had hoped, creating a very, very subtle saran effect! You can tell if you look very closely but only just!

If you haven't already realised, I can never leave my nails plain, so I had to add some nail art! I used white acrylic paint to paint a lace design onto my nails, varying the pattern between each nail. I then finished with a matte top coat.

I really like these! My middle finger didn't quite turn out as planned but overall I still like them. :)

Fingerfood's Challenge: Something New

Today for my something new nails I have gone all out on the 'new'!
I have used 2 new polishes and 2 new techniques. :)

The first new polish is the 'Jess' Polish, in Madison, which I reviewed here yesterday. This is the base colour in these pictures, and is actually a deep purple. The second new polish I have used is a crackle polish. I have to admit to having never used a crackle polish before. The look just doesn't do anything for me. But I saw one yesterday and thought I'd give it a go so this is Sally Hansen, Star Burst, on my index fingers. The crackle effect actually looks better than I imagined  and it has glitter in, which creates quite a cute look, so maybe it will get a bit of use!

 I also tried out two new techniques today. First, I tried the Saran wrap method on my ring fingers. I love how this looks on other people's pictures, but mine doesn't seem to have had the same effect. I did think this might be because I used an insta-dry polish so it dried before I could get much off, but I'm not sure. The top polish I used was Sally Hansen, Grape Race.

The second technique I tried was making my own decals. These are on my thumb nails and I kept it nice and simple with just a star on each hand. I used the sandwich bag and clear polish method of doing this and was surprised how easy it is and that you can't see or feel any edges at all of the clear polish once on the nail. Although, peeling the polish from the bag was extremely difficult and I ended up breaking one star in half, then having to line it back up on my nail!! I will definitely be doing this again, as it is so much easier than trying to paint designs straight onto the nail.

I then finished the whole mani off with a matte topcoat. :)

 Does anybody else's Blogger keep turning their photo's around? At least 3 of these photo's started off the other way around! It's very frustrating!