52 Week PICK N MIX Challenge - Grey & colour - freehand nail art

Hello everyone!

This was made just a few hours before the deadline. I started with grey nails, and made a grey - pink gradient with grey, white and pink nail polish. The flowers were painted with acrylic craft paint, one angled brush and one round brush. I had just seen this tutorial, so although my nail art doesn't look like that, Cutenails/ Tartofraises is the one who inspired me. And this nail art made by ALPS Nail Art, so that's why I used these colors.

Products used:

Duri Rejuvacote
Inglot: #671
OPI: My Boyfriend Scales Walls
GOSH: #598 Bubble Gum
Sponge
Angled brush
Round brush
Acrylic craft paint from Panduro:
Rose
Titanium White
Lamp Black
Seche Vite

Inglot: 671

I used 2 coats of Inglot: 671, but I would have used 3 if I wasn't going to make a gradient. The lovely purple shimmer that I see in the bottle doesn't show on the nail, but I think it's a pretty grey color.

Inglot is not tested on animals, and it's as close to being vegan as possible; The kind man in the Inglot store explained that they use products like bee wax, and real hair in some of the brushes they sell, but that they also have animal free alternatives. So although no animals are killed to make Inglot products, they are not vegan, if I understood it correctly. :-)


Lani

The Tri- Polish Challenge: Day 7, Cherry Tree with Parrot

Hello everyone!

This is my version of Cherry Blossom Nails. I started with white nails, and made a gradient. Then I stamped the branches with flowers, using the black and the white Konad stamping polish, and Konad m66. Then I added a parrot water decal, and stamped more flowers, and dotted pink flowers with white center. I'm not completely satisfied with this manicure, but it seems to have turned out ok.

Cherry Tree with Parrot nails, holding Konad m66

This is supposed to look like branches from the cherry tree in bloom, and a parrot sitting on one of them. The ground is pink because of all the flowers that has fallen to the ground. After I found out which world day it is today, the parrot also became a symbol for the wild, free, and hopefully happy animal. (More photos after the rabbit!)

Today is World Day for Animals in Laboratories, so let's take a moment to think about these animals. I try to avoid buying nail polish, toothpaste, cosmetics, and household products that are tested on animals, but when it comes to medicines it's not so easy to avoid. Also many countries allow toxicity testing on animals. I think it is unnecessary to test each batch of household products that we already know should not be eaten, like bleach.

Sorry about the dry cuticles on the photos taken outside.

The snow has just melted here, so therefor I had to use fake branches for these photos.

Used:

OPI: My Boyfriend Scales Walls -white (I don't know what I'm going to do when the bottle is empty, now that I have seen that OPI is removed from many cruelty- free lists! I hope it will be like with Body Shop, so that OPI can stay cruelty- free, even though it's parent company do test on animals.)
Gosh: #589 Bubble Gum -pink (I can't find this polish on Gosh's page)
H&M: Bella's Choice -turquoise (also used here) (I can't find this polish on H&M's page)
Sponge -to make gradient (A very good car sponge)
Konad: Black -stamping polish
Konad: White -stamping polish
Konad: m66 -stamping plate/ also used as palette
Dotting tool -to make pink flowers/ mixing tool for the gradient
Parrot water decal (Tropical Birds water decals made by U-Neek Nail Art, from eBay)

Below you can check out the other participants nails for day 7 in the Tri- Polish Challenge. I feel the manicures are getting better and better, and it's interesting to see how different our nails look even though we are using the same colors.

Lani

The Tri- Polish Challenge: Day 2, Easter Eggs & Bunny

Hello everyone!

When I had bought Easter water decals, I saw this Easter/ Spring nail art by Shannara (from Nails and Stuff). So although this looks very different from hers, I got the idea to make a gradient as a background for the water decals from her water decal nail art.

Edited (April 12th 2014): This is my entry for Nail Polish Canada's Easter Nail Art Challenge. You can see all the entries and vote for your favourite, and submit your entry here. (I think you have to sign up here before submitting your entry, before the deadline; April 16th. 2014) When I was invited to participate in this challenge, I got a funny email, and I love these words:

"Why paint an egg when you can paint your nails?"

I made this nail art in the last minute. If I had started earlier, I might have taken everything off because the surface of my nails became very bumpy after making the gradient, and I also managed to get some tiny hairs on when I top coated. But miraculously the second coat of top coat helped.

I started with white nails, used a sponge to make the gradient, and applied two thick coats of top coat. Then I applied the water decals. I wish my nails were longer. I cut one of the water decals, because I wasn't sure there would be enough room on my index finger. I had decided to try fake nails, but wasn't sure how to do it. And now I let the nails dry while I'm writing, before I'll apply one more coat of top coat.

If you wonder how to use water decals, I've taken photos of how I did it in the panda nails post. But basically, you cut out the image, hold it with tweezers, and dip it in a glass of lukewarm water for about 15 seconds, wet the nail you want it on, and carefully slide it over to the nail (use a wet finger for that), dry it carefully with some tissue paper, let it dry, and add top coat.

As you see, I only used two of the Tri- Polish colors today: green and purple. Here is a list of what I used:

OPI: My Boyfriend Scales Walls- white
H&M: Mint Madness- green
Linda Johansen Nail Candy: Lilac Lilly- purple
sponge
base coat & a lot of top coat
N.NAIL Easter Water Decals Nail Art- WDBLE402 (These were not a gift from KKCenterHk. I bought these myself. But I do have a coupon code that will give you 10% off. You can find it on the right side.)

I'm sorry for posting a little late. I hope it's OK that I'm using water decals. Now I'm very curious about what the others have made.


Lani

The Tri- Polish Challenge: Day 1, Lily Nails

Hello everyone!

I have chosen one purple, green and coral nail polish for the Tri- Polish Challenge. That means that the polishes will have to work together for 4 manis this month. I have to use all 3 polishes in one of the manis. There's no theme, and we are allowed to use white, black, gold, silver, and glitter toppers. And next month we will get three other colors, and have to find one polish to represent each color again, and again, month after month. You can find out more about the challenge and how to join in here. But I want to mention that according to Debbie Crumpet, Ashley from Smashley Sparkles is the one who had the original idea.

The 3 polishes I chose:

H&M: Mint Madness- green
Linda Johansen Nail Candy: Lilac Lilly- purple
H&M: Coral Road (also used here)- coral

What I did:

I started with white nails, sponged the 3 polishes on, top coated. (I didn't want them to turn brown this time, so I was careful so that the colors didn't overlap much.) Then I stamped black lilies, using Konad black stamping polish and the lily images on two Bundle Monster stamping plates: BM- 314 & BM- 325.

The palette

And now you can take a look at what the other participants have made, and which polishes they have chosen. Because I'm posting so late, I've already had a look at some of them, and I was very curious. I like that we are so artistically free, and I hope that the challenge will stay that way. For me it's very interesting to see how different manis we make with these three colors.

Lani

Go Pink Wednesday- pink gradient with glitter

Hello everyone!

Breast cancer awareness

Today I want to show you something I made for breast cancer awareness. And on the end of this post, you will find thumbnails with links to all the other participants' pink nail art made for this last Go Pink Wednesday this year.