ABC Challenge Round Up!

~Pic Heavy Post~

Way back in April I joined in with a challenge group I found doing the ABC Challenge-where you do a mani that features a polish/brand/technique/nail art design etc in each letter of the alphabet and link them up with everyone elses. I joined smack in the middle of the challenge and I've really enjoyed myself! The ladies taking part are a really wonderful bunch and it's been so much fun getting to know them through their posts and the Facebook group. The challenge has sped by super quickly but I'm glad to say that we have another one in the pipeline-hurrah! (For more details, go here-you will need to message the admins before you can join the group)
I thought I'd do a quick round up of all my posts from the challenge here, now it's all over (boo!):

-N is for Nautical

-O is for Owls

-P is for Purple Phishtails

-R is for Rainbows

-S is for Sealife Stamping

-T is for Tulips

-U is for Umbrellas

-V is for Valiant and cheVrons

-W is for Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey

-X is for X Marks The Spot

-Y is for Yellows and YRNails

and Z is for ZigZags!

So there we go! I only missed one week since I started which I don't think is too bad going really. Look out for the new challenge starting at the end of July-it's a bit of a mix of nail art and fun things and should be really cool!

I'll see you there!

~Nail Art Novice & Kimber's Awesome Challenge Ladies~

The Final ABC Challenge Mani-Z is for ZigZags

So this is it, this is the end of the ABC Challenge-boo! I've had a lot of fun doing them and have met some really lovely ladies through this challenge, who've done a lot of really fabulous manis along the way. I decided to go out with something ridiculously bright and colourful so did a zigzag mani using the new Barry M summer Gellies collection.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how fab these colours are together?

Thumb to little finger that's Blue Grape, Guava, Key Lime, Mango and Passion Fruit, 2 coats of each. And that shine? Not a hint of topcoat in sight, they're just that glossy and lovely on their own! I think this is the first time I've ever wanted an entire collection-all of these colours are amazing on their own but together they're just totally delicious! After a layer of Seche Vite on top of them and a short wait to make sure they were completely dry, I stuck on some zig zag french mani guides (from the same set I used in the V mani which you can find on ebay here) and layered another colour on top before removing the sticker. To add a hint of subtle (read: impossible to capture on camera) shimmer I added a coat of OPI-I Juggle...Men which shifts from bright fuchsia to electric blue and looks fab when it catches the light.

I love these, they're so bright and fun! A fab way to end our challenge, don't you think?
But fear not, because there is a new nail art challenge starting at the end of July  and you can join in, if you so wish! I'm not 100% sure on the organisation right now (as I am scheduling this post) but drop me an email (nailartnovice@gmail.com) for now if you're interested and I will let you know more details as and when.

As always, don't forget to check out all the other fabulous 'Z' manis in the Inlinkz below.

~Nail Art Novice~

ABC Challenge: Y is for Yellows and YRNails

I can't quite believe that it's nearly the end of the ABC Challenge already! I know I joined at the half way mark but it still seems to have flown by so quickly! Luckily we're already planning our next challenge as a group, woohoo!

So this week is Y and like a lot of people I reached for the yellows-although I don't actually have any polishes that start with 'Y' to use! This is a couple of lovely Revlons-Electric (the darker-3 coats on its own) and Sunshine Sparkle (the paler-2 coats over a coat of Barry M-Matt White). I also added in a lovely water decal by YRNails to get another Y in there, and because it's been a while since I used them. I've only done so twice before-once fairly successfully and once disastrously! I was hoping that this time it would go well, and thankfully it did!

I chose these delicate little bird cage decals to go with my lovely shimmery yellow and I really love them! I also added some La Femme Beauty glitter to my other nails-sadly it doesn't have a name or even a number but it's a mix of small purple and even smaller black glitters with gold and turquoise hexes and it's really pretty-I think it looks fab over Electric (my new favourite yellow polish-it's so bright and has a touch of shimmer to it too!)
For such a relatively simple mani, I'm really enjoying this look. I also really can't believe we've only got one week left in this challenge-boo! If you want to join in our next one then I will let you know the nitty gritty next week in my Z post. The ladies involved are all really wonderful and I'm so looking forward to taking on another challenge with them all. As ever, don't forget to check out all their fabulous 'Y' manis in the Inlinkz below.

~Nail Art Novice~

ABC Challenge: X is for X Marks The Spot

I had a really great idea for these nails but it just didn't translate well, probably due to my poor art skills! I wanted this to be like an old treasure map with X marking the spot and a trail to follow but I'm not sure how well it's turned out.

Polishes used: Barry M-Lychee  as a base colour with London Girl-# 95 sponged on top. For the details I used a dotting tool and OPI-Suzi Loves Cowboys. From little finger to thumb it's supposed to be a compass point, a ship, a dotted line trail and an island with X marking the spot for treasure. My right hand just has waves and an island because by this point I was rather tired and couldn't be bothered repeating all the details with my non-dominant hand.

I'm just not feeling this really. It feels weird having such neutral colours on my nails and I don't think the nail art is the best I've ever done. Be sure to check out the other ladies in the inlinkz collection for some much better x-amples (haha) of 'X'!
~Nail Art Novice~

ABC Challenge: W is for Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey

~Pic Heavy Post~

I was discussing this challenge with Rara and said that I didn't really have many good ideas for 'W'. We were chatting about it and she came out with 'Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey' which, for those of you who don't know, is a Doctor Who reference. Part of me knew this was going to be ridiculously hard, but I like a challenge so agreed to give it a try. Apologies to the non Whovians amongst you, this one's going to get nerdy =p


Polishes used: Barry M-Blue Grape (the perfect TARDIS blue!), Revlon-Fire (for the all important bow tie) and the black and white Barry M pens. The 'panels' on the TARDIS were done with a mixture of Blue Grape and Barry M-Black. For the galaxy/space nails I used Rimmel-Midnight Blue for the base and then sponged on Barry M-Matte White, Barry M-Cobalt Blue, Barry M-Navy and Barry M-Moondust

From thumb to little finger we have the new Doctor Who logo, number 11's bow tie (because 11 is my Doctor), a space/gradient scene because we all know the Doctor is a mad man in a box who goes flying around in space, Sexy, the type 40 TARDIS and another space scene because I tried to draw a sonic screwdriver and failed. I've done the same on my right hand but changed the thumb to say 'Doctor Who' (because my left hand isn't good at doing straight lines!)

So there we have it, I'm a colossal nerd. A very happy one though, because I'm super pleased with these! If I could never take this mani off I'd still be happy with it-I love it! Sorry if you've never seen/don't like Doctor Who though, they probably won't make much sense to you, but that's OK.

And as a bonus measure, here's a picture of me running away with The Doctor himself (I WISH!):

Geronimo!

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to have a look at some of the other awesome 'W' designs:

ABC Challenge: V is for Valiant and cheVrons

I only have one 'V' polish but I knew I wanted to use it today because it's a colour I really rather like. Valiant by L'Oreal is a lovely tarnished silver/gun metaly sort of colour that I used as a base for some chevron nail art-because chevrons are essentially just 'Vs' anyway, right?

I had to be pretty valiant with this mani-it's not a difficult one at all, and I was using some French mani guide stickers I got on Ebay to make the chevron shapes so should have been a doddle but I had so many problems with it. I nearly gave up on it several times but persevered in the end and it's turned out OK. It's annoying that it doesn't show how much effort went into it though-it took me an hour and a half in the end! AAH.

Anyway. Other polishes used were Collection-Look At Me!, Barry M-Mango, Barry M-Key Lime, Barry M-Guava and Barry M-Prickly Pear (Haha, guess what collection I bought the other day?!). I love the effects you can get mixing different types of polishes-in this case a shimmery metallic and some cremes.

By the time this was done I really didn't care about the wrinkles you can see in some of them-I wasn't starting again! It's not perfect but it'll do, and sometimes that's the best you can hope for! I dunno...the colours are awesome but I'm not really feeling it after all the trouble it caused me!

Hoping for better luck next week! In the meantime, check out all other ladies' entries on the Inlinkz below =)

~Nail Art Novice~

ABC Challenge: U is for Upcycled Umbrellas

I decided at the end of the weekend that I wanted to do something more fun with my grey gradients so I decided to incorporate them into this challenge and 'up-cycle' them. They were the perfect colours for a rainy theme, so I went with umbrellas and raindrops.

Polishes used:
Backgrounds: (as before) - Revlon-Hazy (Lightest grey), Topshop-Cloud (mid grey), Rimmel-Stormy Skies (darkest grey) and OPI-I Juggle...Men
Umbrellas: Barry M nail art pen in Black, George-Under The Sea (to get another 'U' in there), Revlon-Blue Lagoon, Rimmel-Pear Drop
Cloud (ring finger): A mix of Revlon-Hazy and Topshop-Cloud 
Puddle/Raindrops: A mix of Revlon-Blue Lagoon, Sally Hansen-Himalayan Blue, Rimmel-Aqua Cool and Barry M-Neptune Sea

Posing with my umbrella, as you do

I enjoyed doing these, they were all just sort of freehanded on. To make the water I just put a small amount of each colour on a paintbrush and painted to see what came out of it. I quite like the fact that there's a real mix of colours in there, and each raindrop is slightly different to its neighbours. Unfortunately this mani didn't last long, because my grey-dients were already in a state when I put this on, so I probably took it all off about 12 hours later. It was fun while it lasted though!

~Nail Art Novice~

Check out the other awesome 'U' manicures:

ABC Challenge: T is for Tulips

Hello lovely readers! Sorry I've been absent recently, as I said on Thursday I had some work over the weekend which was really good, but as I was leaving the house at 6:30am and not getting back til after 8pm I really couldn't be bothered to do much in the evenings but curl up and sleep! I'm back now though and have lots of plans for some fun nail art things, yay.

I knew exactly which polish I wanted to use for this challenge, even though it's not strictly a 'T' name-Above the Curve's beautiful Field of Tulips that I bought for myself in their sale about a month ago. It's a pale green polish full of hundreds of different coloured glitter pieces and it's super pretty! I also added some tulip nail art to my accent nails.

Other polishes used: OPI-Thanks A Windmillion as a background colour/base for my glitter, No7-Siren, Collection 2000-Damson Jam, Rimmel-Sunshine and OPI-Don't Mess With OPI for the leaves.

Here's what I came up with:

As you can see, the little tulips on my right hand aren't quite as good as the ones on my left but I'm  gstill overall pretty happy with the way this turned out. I love that glitter and it's really nice to have colourful nails again after a weekend of plainish grey ones.

Hope you're all enjoying this glorious bank holiday/Memorial Day weather!

~Nail Art Novice~

P.S Please would you take a moment to go and vote for me and Rara (Jenni and Sarah) in this competition? We really would like to win but we're lagging behind somewhat. Get your mum to vote get your dad to vote, get your sisters, brothers, nan, dog, everyone you know to vote, pleeeease. All I can offer in return is my undying gratitude and love (and some Irish-themed nail art, of course!), but I would be so grateful! It'd be so awesome if we won.

Don't forget to go and check out all the other amazing 'T' creations:

ABC Challenge: S is for Stamping & Sea Creatures

Hello lovelies!
I've got some underwater nail art for you today for 'S' week, yay! This is only my second time stamping but I think I've already improved from the first time, with thanks to this video tutorial by soguesswhat11 on Youtube.

I started this mani with about 4 coats of H&M's Blue Glitter Nail Polish which has holographic bar glitter laced through it and is pretty unique as far as I can tell. I think it really looks like water. In real life the nail lines are much less visible than in the pics, but I think next time I'll wear it with a similar colour underneath to eliminate the need for all those layers!

I completely forgot to even try and clean up this week,
my apologies!

Then I took my stamping kit out of its drawer and hunted for some appropriate 'sea creature' images. In the end I chose the turtle and the seahorse to keep things simple. (I don't know what brand of plate these are, they were in a random set I got on Ebay!)

I stamped with Barry M-Gold Foil because I know lots of people use this for stamping and it seems to work pretty well for them, and thankfully it did for me too!

Overall I'm pretty happy-apart from some slightly off centre placements I've managed to get a good stamp image on pretty much all of my nails. I love the colour combination and the way the light hits those holo glitter strands is really cool! Sadly it doesn't seem to have much sticking power and I've got some tip wear and a couple of chips already-which to me is another reason to use a base colour under the glitter. It's very pretty and twinkly though =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to check out all the other wonderful 'S' manicures:

ABC Challenge: R is for Rainbows!

A few days after I received my first ever holo polish (and immediately fell in love) I got my second one in the post after purchasing it from the Nail Newbie's blog sale. (I ordered it in April before my polish ban, just so you know!) It was GOSH-Holographic Hero which is a limited edition silver holo polish. It shines with all the colours of the rainbow, so it was my immediate thought when it came to doing rainbows this week:

3 Coats-could have used two but smudged it!

But that was much too boring so I decided to add some nail art on top. On my fingers I've got a dotted rainbow ombre/gradient and then stripes on my thumbs because I loved them so much last time. I didn't want to cover up too much of the lovely holo, so I used striping tape between the colours. This way I've got rainbows on top of rainbows =)

Polishes used: Red-No 7-Siren, Orange-Barry M-Satsuma, Yellow-Rimmel I Heart Lasting Finish-Sunshine (I finally caved a few weeks ago and bought a decent yellow polish because the London Girl one was an amazing colour with an AWFUL formula!), Light Green-Cairuo-Green Tea 22, Dark Green-Rimmel I Heart Lasting Finish-Block Your Green, Light Blue-Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure-Himalayan Blue, Dark Blue-Maybelline Forever Strong Pro-Dark Denim, Purple-Maybelline Forever Strong Pro-Mellow Mauve. And Holographic Hero of course! The bottle says it's only good for 24 hours of wear, but I have topcoated the life out of it in the hope to prove them wrong-we'll see!

This is another mani I love, it's so colourful and cheerful and when the holo particles (if that's the right word!) catch the light it's amazingly sparkly too! I'm really hoping it at least lasts the weekend. Fingers crossed ey?

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to check out the other ladies' 'R' entries:

ABC Challenge: P is for Purple Phishtail Plaits

So I may have taken a little liberty with the name there ;) Forgive me?

I was going to do penguins originally for this mani but thought they would be too similar to my owls in the end. Also I've been working at my friend's Dad's factory this week and am frankly too exhausted to do anything fancy-so I've done a simple fishtail. I love these manis, they're so effective! Also I apologise for not doing a Try Something Tuesday post this week-the simple fact is that I fell asleep for most of Tuesday night when I got in and therefore didn't do any nail art!

Polishes used were Rimmel-Marshmallow Heaven (pinky-lilacy colour), Rimmel-Purple Addict (shimmery purple loveliness) and Marks and Spencer-Blue (dusky purpley blue). Incidentally it bugs me when people call what are clearly purple polishes 'blue'.
After I'd finished the mani I felt like it was missing something, so I added a layer of Absolut Lacquer-Maybe I'm Crazy to my non-fishtail nails and I think it's really added something magical. It's basically a rainbow glitterbomb in a pot-every colour of glitter imaginable and it's so pretty. It's also the first indie polish I ever bought, so it has a special place in my heart!

It's a really simple mani but I reckon it's really quite pretty too! I just noticed the chip on my middle finger though, boo =(

~Nail Art Novice~

Check out what the other particpants have done this week:

ABC Challenge: O is for Owls

Following Tuesday's total disasticure I am pleased to say that this mani is probably my favourite piece of nail art that I've ever done-I'm totally in love with it and don't want to take it off ever! Sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging but I'm just really proud of myself that I've done something that looks so good, I was so surprised how well it turned out!

So this week is 'O' in the ABC Challenge and I knew what I wanted to do straight away-something I saw a while ago and knew I would recreate. Before I even started my own blog I found these amazing owl nails by The Little Canvas and loved them. I finally got around to doing them myself!

Polishes used: Essie-Mojito Madness, Barry M-Lychee (finally I own this beauty!), Collection 2000-Look At Me! and Rimmel-Tangy Tangerine. Details were added with my new Barry M Nail Art Pen (I LOVE being able to spend my hard earned Boots points on awesome things!) which worked like a dream. 

Without further ado then (I took lots of pictures because I love them so much!):

Sadly this guy suffered a surprise zip attack shortly after he was
finished, hence the dint

This one really makes
me giggle!

So there we have it! I think next time I do these (there will be a next time!!!) I'll put a neutral base on over my nails first, just because the green makes my natural nail colour look a bit weird and purple (see my thumb on the first pic). I really love them though! They're making me really happy =)

Hope you like them as much as I do!

~Nail Art Novice~

Check out the other 'O' posts by these lovelies: