The Lazy 15 Challenge - Day 2 Gradient

I do love a gradient, and to me there's no better gradient than a nice bright neon one!

So for todays challenge I broke the China Glaze Summer Neons out once again.

I love how this turned out and I love having some bright colours on my finger nails again too!

I used China Glaze Hang-Ten Toes as a base then sponged on Orange You Hot?, Surfin' For Boys, Hang-Ten Toes and Beach Cruise-R for the gradient.

Next up is Dots!

♥ A ♥

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 13 - Animal Print

I'd just like to say first of all a huge thank you to anyone who has voted for my nails so far in the Makeup Savvy Challenge!

My Tangled nails were picked as one of Fee's three favorites and I am absolutely thrilled! Although they are not my favorites from the challenge they were the ones which were the most challenging for me took the longest, a good three hours was spent on them! So for anyone else to see the effort it took is a huge compliment!

Now the challenge is over I can get back to the 31 Day Nail Challenge I was plodding my way through.

I am now on Day 13 which is Animal Print.

I have done these nails before but as I wasn't blogging back then I only have a crappy phone pic of them, so I decided to recreate them for today's challenge.

I used 2 coats of Barry M Matt White as a base then Barry M Pure Turquoise and Shocking Pink for the gradient. For the middle of the leopard spots I used China Glaze Beach Cruise-R and Spilsh Splash then Barry M Black for the outside and Zebra Stripes. Then I added a bit of Models Own Juicy Jules through the stripes for a bit of sparkle.

♥ A ♥ 

Makeup Savvy 15 Day Nail Challenge - Day 14 - Dots

Today's challenge is dots.

I've had some appointments to go to today so I just wanted something that was quick, simple and bright!

I'm still in love with my China Glaze Neons.

Today I used two coats of Barry M Matt White and China Glaze Loves A Beach, Orange You Hot?, Sun-Kissed, I'm With The Lifeguard, Splish Splash and Beach Cruise-R.

Just looking at them makes me want to go jump in a ball pool!

Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge and the theme is anything!

♥ A ♥ 

Water Colouring - NOTN

 If I know I have a night out coming up I always try to plan my manicure to match my outfit. Sad maybe, but as a nail person it's just as important to me as having the right pair of shoes, and last nights NOTN just happened to be inspired by a new pair of shoes and earrings I bought recently.

Here are the nails...

And here is my inspiration.

I was mostly inspired by the mix of colours, but I also really liked the random smudgy pattern on the shoes.

I had a look around on Google and YouTube for a few different techniques I could try to achieve something similar and decided on water colouring.

The water colouring technique is where you mix your chosen colours with some acetone to water the colour down, then apply random blobs to your nail. I used a tutorial by The Polished Mummy HERE.

I used two coats of white polish for the base then for the water colouring I used Barry M Black, China Glaze  Sun Kissed, Love's A Beach, Splish Splash and Beach Cruise-R from the Summer Neons Collection.

I was really happy with how they turned out, but I did actually prefer my right hand as it seemed to be more pink even though I added the colours in the same order.

I thought I'd add a close up of my right hand too as I liked it so much! 

No thumb though as I still can't paint it and it's not very attractive to look at either.

This look was so easy to do using the tutorial and has me thinking up loads of other colour combinations which I'm looking forward to trying out.

♥ A ♥

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 10 - Gradient Nails

I have only done gradient nails once before. Seen here.

I did them by painting the base colour then sponging the tip colour on in layers.

It took me a whole Saturday afternoon, while the kids were out and MrGT was being entertained by his Xbox.

These afternoons are hard to come by in my house so when I saw day 10 was gradient nails I did consider doing a nice easy glitter gradient, but this is a challenge, and a glitter gradient is no longer a challenge for me.

Knowing it was going to take an age to do I had been putting it off and putting it off. 

Until I got my China Glaze Summer Neons Collection 2012 order through.

They were just asking to be a gradient nail.

(Please 'scuse the shoddy clean up attempt! I had the smallest dribble of acetone left!)

For this I applied two coats of white polish (Boots 17 Mini Skirt) then applied with a kitchen sponge I used CG Sun Kissed (yellow) Orange You Hot? (obviously orange) and Beach Cruise-R (purple) then topped it off with Seche Vite.

I actually painted the colours straight onto the sponge to get this affect, it was a bit messy but the gradient is much better than my first attempt and took a few minutes rather than hours!

If you would like me to have a go at a tutorial for the method I used let me know in the comments and I'll give that a go for you as I'm desperate to try the rest of the CG polishes I bought in a gradient and maybe even try a pastel gradient.

♥ A ♥