Little Night Flower

My goodness, I can't believe it is that time again.  I've been working so hard and lost track of time, I thought the challenge started next week, just as well I was a bit more organised than usual. My chosen polishes for this month are: Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream Barry M Cyan Blue Barry M Mint Green More details after the break.

After seeing cherry blossom nails all over the place I really wanted to have a go myself but wasn't sure where to start.  I found this Cute Polish tutorial on You Tube ( http://youtu.be/nuc0iNXLZmM ) really helpful but I did change the colours a little bit when I did it myself. Details after the jump.

Saturday night and nowhere to go.  At least my nails are ready for a night on the tiles. I used a base of Barry M Matt White and added the detail with Claire's Two Way Nail Art Pen and Brush in black and white.  For a bit of extra sparkle I added Claire's glitter top coat over the black jacket and bow tie and China Glaze Nova over the white jacket and bow tie.

Day 4 of the tri-polish challenge and time to try out a new technique. This required a few days planning as I decided to use a dry marbling technique.  I used the chosen polishes (Rimmel Sky High, 17 Tropical Island and NYC Faithful Fuchsia) along with China Glaze Liquid Leather and Barry M Matt White.   I started by painting a base of Liquid Leather onto a sheet cut from a freezer food bag.  Onto this base I dripped a line of Matt White and various drops of the other polishes.  I swirled the colours together using a cocktail stick then left the polish to dry for a couple of days. Once dry I peeled the polish off the plastic and cut to a size that would fit on each nail.  I painted a base of Liquid Leather on each nail and carefully placed a piece of the marbled polish onto each nail using a cocktail stick to get the dry polish piece to stick to the wet polish.  After a couple of minutes I covered each nail with a layer of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.  This helped

In between coughing and spluttering this week I've had a go at a basic tape mani.  The polishes I've chosen for the challenge are Rimmel Sky High, NYC Faithful Fuchsia and 17 Tropical Island.  For this look I've added China Glaze Liquid Leather for the black top coat. I originally had the idea for this using blue, yellow and pink.  However, given the polishes I had chosen for the tri-polish challenge were quite bright I thought they would work well for this idea too. I cut thin strips of masking tape as I wanted lines thicker than the standard striping tape.  I had all kinds of fun trying to mask off just the small colour blocks in the middle of the nails and avoid getting black polish all over my fingers while painting over the tape.. Always room for improvement but not bad for a newbie! I look forward to seeing what everyone else has chosen to do for today.

While having a look around at nail art challenges I noticed there was one which included a sand/textured polish on one of the days.  I didn't own any textured polish but it got me thinking about what I would do if I did.  While I'm not a huge fan of textured polish I do like the colours available in the latest range of Barry M's sand textured polish and I thought the yellow Station Road could be used in a beach scene. However, Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer on Barry M nail products and I was struck by inspiration while shopping.  The shimmer from the Barry M Emerald Green polish made me want to do a Wizard of Oz inspired mani so along with Station Road I also bought Red Glitter and Blueberry Ice Cream. This is the result: I used a base of NYC Lexington Yellow on the the thumb and little finger.  I cut thin strips of masking tape and placed these to create the brick pattern and painted Barry M Station Road over the top.  This worked really well, but I spoiled it a lit

I thought it was time for something a little more spring like so I'm having a go at entering a competition with a floral theme.  Crumpet's Amateur Nail Art Contest I started with a base of Barry M Blue Moon and added Barry M Spring Green for the grass, with a bit of Barry M Emerald Green and Mint Green sponged over the top.  The clouds were stamped with Konad white stamping polish and Gals image plate GA26, using only half the image on each nail to add a bit of diversity to the pattern.  The flowers were added using a dotting tool and Vivo Tall Order for the petals and NYC Lexington Yellow for the centre.  Finally topped with a generous coat of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat to stop me smudging it all before I can take a picture.

April is Autism Awareness month and 2 April was International Autism Awareness Day.  In honour of this I painted blue jigsaw puzzle pieces on my nails with the help of some thin strips of masking tape and a dotting tool.  This was the end result: I used Barry M Cyan Blue and Barry M Cobalt Blue for the puzzle pieces and topped it off with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward to smooth everything out and add a nice shine.

Inspired by this  Easter Egg Nails  tutorial on the 10 Blank Canvases blog I thought I would have a go at doing mini egg nails for Easter.  This is the end result: I skipped the white acrylic paint stage over the top of the colour as I was away from home for the weekend and didn't have all my kit, but I'm quite pleased with the result. From left to right I used Collection Candy Floss, Barry M Blue Moon, Barry M Lemon Ice Cream, Barry M Berry Ice Cream and Barry M Mint Green.  The speckles were painted on using a fine nail art brush and a chocolate Brown Miss Sporty polish 2300 (I think).  This was all topped off with a coat of Essie Matte About You.

I wasn't able to capture in the picture quite how vibrant the colours are in this and I'd had the polish on for 5 days before taking the picture so there is a bit of tip wear but I really love this look. There are shimmering shades of orange, gold and coral and the addition of the tiger stripes stamped on top really made the colours pop!   This was created with a base of No 17 (Lasting Fix) Glisten with a stripe of Rimmel (Cocktail Colour) Shirley Temple in the middle of each nail and stripes from Gals image plate GA32 stamped with Konad black special polish.  All this was topped off with a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward top coat. I love the range of colours that the No 17 polishes offer, they do a good line in subtle shimmer.  They are quite cheap as well so I can see me purchasing quite a few more in the near future. My stamping skills still leave a lot to be desired but I think this is one I will have a go at again as it was so much fun.