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:

Guest Blog from Pocket Money Polishes

Right now I am in Brighton, doing my final rehearsal bits before my first performance of Titus later, woo!
So last Saturday I was chatting on FB with Charlie from Pocket Money Polishes and really cheekily asked her if she would be willing to do a guest post for me whilst I was away-completely expecting her to say no. To my surprise she readily accepted so I'm sending out a MASSIVE thanks to her. With no further ado, I'll let her get on with it!

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Hello Nail Art Novice Lovelies!
My name is Charlotte and I have a blog called Pocket Money Polishes. I'm delighted to say that I've been asked to do a guest post for you this weekend-apologise for the intrusion. I'm having a crazy busy week between deadlines, blogging and other projects so I have put together a simple look today using some of my favourite trends and techniques.

First I created a block ombre across my nails (going from light on my thumb to dark on my pinky), I excluded my ring finger as that is my finger of preference for an accent-this I painted white. I used a total of 5 varnishes for this look: Fast Track from China Glaze is a beautiful neutral gold that glistens and has a great textured appearance but is smooth to the touch, it does take a little building up and this photo shows 3 thin coats. Barry M's Mushroom is a grey leaning brown and one of my favourite polishes for the days when I need to have serious nails.Cackle is from George (Asda) and is a fairly standard brown with a good formula for easy consistent coverage. Finally, the darkest brown on my little finger is Roasted Chestnut by W7, which is one of my most beloved polishes with its deep chocolate brown colour and coppery shimmer. To these colour block fingers I added a slightly curved column of white dots to one side of my nail, as always my white is from the Natural Collection at Boots. Dots are a nail art staple and such a quick way to spice up a simple mani.

I painted my accent finger first to ensure that it had plenty of drying time as I was using thin striping tape, and if you don't give your base enough time to dry it will just be ripped up when you remove the tape. I used three pieces of tape, two horizontally across the nail and one vertically down the middle. The next step was to randomly add a square of each colour to my nail, and then while this polish was wet remove the tape. I then added some top coat to smooth the edges and voila-all finished! I am describing this manicure as 'coffee squares' in my head as it has all my favourites-latte, cappuccino and vanilla colours.

Thanks for having me today, please feel free to pop over to my blog and see what I am up to-I am usually up to something!! Wishing Novice luck with her polish buying ban and hope she's having a good weekend away.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
 <3 Pocket Money Polishes

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Yay! Look at those pretty nails =) I love this look, I'm definitely going to try it out myself soon! BIG THANKS to Charlotte for doing this so last minute for me, I'm so impressed that she managed to fit it in her busybusy life! Please do go check out her blog, I'm sure she'll be glad to have you!

I'm back on Monday so normal posting should resume on Tuesday!
I'll see you then

~Nail Art Novice~