12 Days Of Xmas Nail Art 12-Freestyle Christmas

Well we've finally reached almost the end of December and the end of this little challenge! I'm quite sad to see it go, I've had a fantastic time doing these and shared the experience with some really lovely ladies. Originally my plan was to choose some of their manis to do on my nails today but there have been so many lovely ones that I couldn't just choose 10, and I also would not be able to do them credit at all. So instead I want to dedicate this mani to lovely ladies who have taken part alongside me-there's been over 150 fabulous designs created for the various prompts and I, for one, have really enjoyed myself. I want to say thankyou to everyone who took part with me, whether it was just once or every mani-I never thought when I had this idea in November it would have become something this great! You've all been really awesome company, and I've loved seeing so many different designs. I can't wait to see what you've all come up with for today!

My 'freestyle' mani is made up of various things I've done along the way, and I used about 30 polishes in total for it! I won't list them, most of them have been used in the other Xmas posts anyway, but if there's one you want to know for definite just ask =) Also I used this tutorial from The Little Canvas to do the reindeer.

Here we are then, my final Christmas mani of 2013:

And just because it's Christmas, and I haven't yet, here's some pics using decorations too:

I can't believe it's over! Look out for my round up coming soon, but other than that I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it), and I will be back after the festivities have quietened down a little!

~Nail Art Novice~

Randomised Mani-Double Dots

Ever since I saw the first Tri Polish post (run by The Crumpet's Nail Tarts) I've been a bit intrigued with the idea of doing a mani with no control over the colours used in it. I haven't yet decided if I'll join in with the challenge, but it's something I'm considering for when the ABC challenge ends (Sob!)
I have a habit of using the same colours over and over again for my manis because they're the ones my eye is naturally drawn to so I decided to set myself a similar challenge-I'm calling it the Randomised Mani. Basically, using a random number generator, I select the number of polishes for the challenge (between 2 and 10) and then the actual ones I'm going to use. I have my swatch wheels all catalogued in a book (because I'm a nerd!) and so just kept selecting random numbers which represented a polish. I'm not explaining this very well but basically I didn't pick them by choice but by chance! I also gave myself the option to veto one polish from the lot if it didn't fit very well.

So for my first Randomised Mani these were the polishes that got chosen:

 Colour Me-Pure Gold, 17-Nightshade, Rimmel-Sunrise and Kleancolor-Jewelry Red (It really pains me to have to spell jewellery wrong because it's the polish name!)
I decided that the orange didn't really fit with the opulence of the other colours so I got rid, leaving me with three polishes. I really liked the double dot effect on my little finger in my Fabulous mani the other day so I recreated that here.

I used two coats of Pure Gold and three of Jewelry Red as bases and was suddenly struck with the thought that they really look like the colours used for Tony Stark's Iron Man suit! (Yes, I'm a big nerd. But Iron Man 3!! *fangirls*) Had I not already decided what to do I might have attempted an Iron Man mani but alas (earwax) it was not to be, today.

I added dots in the opposite colour down the sides of my nails, then black ones on top. My camera really didn't like photographing this at all so I've done the best I can!

 What do you think? I reckon it's not too bad! I think the red dots look like poppies, which is quite cool. I'll be doing this random challenge every so often-at least once a month, perhaps more if I get stuck for inspiration.

Hope you enjoyed this mani!

Edit 19/5: I can't believe I never realised how pretty this gold was before-it's actually full of tiny green and orange shimmery bits and is such a lovely colour! Hard to believe it cost £1.99 and is a cheap brand I've never seen anywhere else!

~Nail Art Novice~