Thursday 29 March 2012

31 Day Nail Art Challenge continued...


OK guys, here's the next batch of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge! Getting slightly trickier now, but you mustn't give up, the results (and compliments!) are well worth it!

Day 9 - Metallic
Though fairly difficult to tell, I aimed to do a sort of tartan pattern here using a metallic blue, pink and silver. It sort of turned into a mass of blobs, but still looks quite striking we think!
What you'll need: a metallic base coat, and then two metallic nail art pens. After the base coat has dried, paint on crosses with one of your nail art pens. Then (and this is where we went wrong!) once it is BONE DRY, take the other pen and draw crosses over the top of these, making these crosses slightly thinner. Tartan-tastic!

Day 10 - Gradient
Ridiculously easy to do and just gives your nails that extra something! Here we used a dark purple, purple glitter and then silver glitter nail varnishes.
For this effect you will need a sponge and then lightly dab each colour on, waiting for the nail varnish to dry in between.


Day 11 - Polka Dot
This design is so much fun and really bright, perfect for the lovely weather Spring brings!
After painting your base coat, grab a few nail art pens in different colours and go wild! Here especially like the over-lapping of the dots, giving it that little somethin' somethin'.

Day 12 - Stripes
We went for a simplified manicure here, which has quite a classy look. But give it a go with clashing colours or more stripes! Go mad!

Day 13 - Animal Print
We LOVE LOVE LOVE a bit of leopard print, so it was obvious what animal we wanted on our nails! But just to spice things up, we went for a crazy colour combo.
To achieve leopard print: paint on your base coat. Then after it's dry, using one of your chosen colours paint small circular blobs on your nails. Then finally, using your other colour (we recommend a darker one to the blobs) draw semi-circles around the dots and add a few small dots next to these!

Day 14 - Floral Print
There's nothing better in life than stopping to smell the roses, and with this design you can have these beautiful flowers at hand any time (get it?) Perfect for the sunny seasons!
You will need: a background colour of your choice, a dark green nail pen, a white nail art pen and then two shades of the same colour for your roses.

1) Begin (after your base coat has been applied) by painting relatively large circular blobs on your nails with the darker shade of the colour you have chosen for your rose

2) Now using the lighter rose colour, draw some small semi-circles (3 worked for us) onto your rose
3) Using the white pen, do the same and paint semi-circles on the outer edges with a cheeky one in the centre to shape the petals
4) With your dark green, add the leaves to the roses ... and there you have it!

Day 15 - Tribal Print
This design was so fun to paint on and looks really original and exciting! 
It's pretty much up to you how you want to paint on your tribal print, we chose three very different colours: purple, red and cream as the base. All you need to do is paint on a few stripes (vertical or horizontal!) anywhere you fancy on your nails, then use a black nail art pen to add the tribal detail. Pretty nifty eh?

Day 16 - Glitter
As you may have guessed, it was St. Patrick's Day when this day came around, so we wanted to incorporate the Emerald Isle into the design!
What you'll need: three different shades of green nail varnish and a glitter polish.
How to do it: start by painting a stripe of green over the top of your nail; once dry, paint small light green crosses on your nail; once these are completely dry, use your darker green polish to draw an outline of the clovers and the stalks!

Day 17 - Half Moons
This design has always seemed quite plain and, well boring, but after trying it out we loved it! Very simple (and easy!) but very effective for a more interesting mani!
All you need is a couple of contrasting colours, and you're good to go! Start by applying the base coat, then once dry use your second colour to paint a semi-circle at the base of your nail and it's that simple! We added an extra line to break the colours up even more.

Day 18 - Galaxy Nails
Now this one is a bit tricky... But is well worth all the effort! An AMAZING tutorial for this can be found by cutepolish at:

Cutepolish Galaxy Nails Tutorial

Day 19 - Water Marble
OK, if we're perfectly honest, this isn't real water marbling. We tried and tried so very, VERY hard but we just couldn't make it work! So here we've painted a water marble effect design on, though this didn't soften the bitter sting of failure. Ha. A tutorial for this one:

Cutepolish Water Marbling Tutorial


What do you guys think? 


HanDee

xx

Friday 16 March 2012

31 Day Nail Art Challenge



So, being not-so-productive in the student lives we lead, we have decided instead to focus on something truly important... experimenting with as many different nail art styles and colours as possible! And what better way to properly break in the nail art pens than to take on the mammoth challenge of 31 different nail art styles in 31 days? 

Here's the list!

Day 1 - Red
Day 2 - Orange
Day 3 - Yellow
Day 4 - Green
Day 5 - Blue
Day 6 - Purple
Day 7 - Rainbow
Day 8 - Black and White

Day 9 - Metallic
Day 10 - Gradient
Day 11 - Polka Dots
Day 12 - Stripes
Day 13 - Animal Print
Day 14 - Floral Print
Day 15 - Tribal Print
Day 16 - Glitter
Day 17 - Half Moons
Day 18 - Galaxies
Day 19 - Water Marbled

Day 20 - Inspired by a colour
Day 21 - Inspired by a food
Day 22 - Inspired by a song
Day 23 - Inspired by a film
Day 24 - Inspired by a book
Day 25 - Inspired by fashion
Day 26 - Inspired by a pattern
Day 27 - Inspired by artwork
Day 28 - Inspired by a flag
Day 29 - Inspired by the supernatural
Day 30 - Inspired by a tutorial

And finally, Day 31 - re-create your favourite challenge!


To start off with, here are the first 8 days. Apologies for the quality of the first 6 photos!


Day 1 - Red
Simple, and a good way to ease yourself into the challenge - it only gets tougher from here!
All you need is a white nail varnish and a red nail art pen, and the rest is self-explanatory!

Day 2 - Orange
Deciding to take it up a notch now with tiger print!
You need: white nail varnish, orange nail varnish, a black nail art pen and a small piece of sponge.
Easy peasy really! Paint a white base coat, then, using the sponge, dab orange varnish over most of your nail, then finish with black stripes coming from either side! Easy Tiger!

Day 3 - Yellow
BANANARAMA! Though they may not look like it, these are in fact bananas on a blue background.
For this one you'll need a contrasting base coat, a black nail art pen, and if you're feeling particularly arty, TWO different shades of yellow nail art pens.
After you have your base coat down and dry, paint semicircles of the darker yellow. The next step is the paler yellow, to highlight. Then finally, there's the banana outline and hey presto, you're done!

Day 4 - Green
Feeling a manicure with a colour twist here...
Two different shades of green, simples. 

Day 5 - Blue
It was a particularly sunny day, so decided to match the weather!
Paint yourself a blue sky base coat, and then add white fluffy clouds with a white nail art pen! And if you're feeling particularly sunny, add yourself  some small rays of sunshine on the thumb!

Day 6 - Purple
You need a fairly steady hand for this one!
We used three different shades of purple, one for the base coat and 2  for the square outlines.

Day 7 - Rainbow
This is a personal favourite, being so bright and cheerful!
Red and yellow and pink and green... Well, you get the idea. Take care not to paint the early stripes too large or else there won't be enough room for poor purple on the end...

Day 8 - Black and White
There's nothing cuter or girlier than bows, so I decided to use this design to finish off the colour phase of the Challenge!
These are crazy easy, after the base coat is on, paint a small circle in the top corner of your nails. Follow this with 2 bow-looking blobs either side. Voila!


Stay tuned for the next batch!


HanDee

xx

Monday 5 March 2012

Black & white stripes...

All you need to do these nails are:

- One black nail art pen
- White nail polish 
- Glitter nail varnish
- Clear top coat

Simply paint the nails with a white base coat, draw on the stripes with the black nail art pen, and dab some glitter in between the lines. Finish with a clear top coat and voila! 


Bit wobbly on the stripes, especially on the other hand, but it isn't too hard! 

HanDee

xx