Mish Mash Challenge Round-Up

PIC HEAVY POST

I recently realised that I'd let the end of the Mish Mash challenge pass me by, it got lost somewhere in my move and recent events. I'm kinda sad to see this one go cos it was this lovely group of ladies that kinda helped me find my footing in the nail art world, and I will miss being connected with them every week. Here's a round up of all the mish mash manis I did:

Week 1-Purple

Week 2-Taping

Week 3-Metallic

Week 4-New Nail Art Technique (1)

Week 4-New Nail Art Technique (2)

Week 5-Music

Week 6-Hot

Week 8-Cold

Week 9-Blue

Week 10-Triangles

Week 11-Book

Week 12-Flowers

Week 13-Rainbow

Week 14-Pink

Week 15-Holographic

Week 16-Faux Stone (ah ha ha, I still think this is hilarious =p)

Week 17-Grey

Week 18-Card/Board Game

Week 20-Nail Stamping

Week 24-Inspired By A Decade

Week 25-Two Colours You Never Normally Pair Up

Week 26-Favourite Nail Art Technique(s)

Week 27-Green

So that's the Mish Mash challenge over and out! It was so much fun, thanks to all the ladies that were involved!

But fear not, there's lots of other challenges I plan on taking part in now this one is over. There's the Tri-Polish Tuesdays challenge (find out more here), Fingerfood's Nail Art Buffet (here) and the Twin Blog Posts (here) plus plenty more I'm sure! I'm also going to try to start what I've been planning for a while and do the 31 Day Challenge but doing one mani a week or something. Basically, there will still be lots going on here, so stick around =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 27-Green

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen! =D

Ahem. Sorry about that. You might remember way back in this challenge for 'blue' week I did a colour block mani with some of my blue polishes, and made a comment about how awesome it'd look with all of them? Well this time around I did exactly that-a colour block using all 40 of my greens! (Not including holos or glitters as they live in a different drawer, haha!) I mean I could hardly pass up an opportunity like this to use every polish I own in my favourite colour, could I?

The bases are Barry M-Matt White and Revlon-Minted. I felt like a challenge so at the end of this post I have actually listed all the other colours I used, in case anyone is interested!

Please excuse my stubby left middle nail, I think all the appliances in this house are out to get it!

All of the green loveliness! I have to say I really like these, I love how each nail is different and there's so many different finishes going on, it's really fun and really green =D

Don't forget to check out the other gorgeous green manis!

~Nail Art Novice~


Polishes used: Rimmel-Peppermint, Camouflage, Pear Drop, Jaded Glamour, Mermaid Green, Camouflage Chic, Block Your Green, Barry M-Greenberry, Key Lime, Watermelon, Mint Ice Cream, SLE '13 B, Spring Green, Cosmic Glow, Revlon-Minted, Emerald City, Emerald, Chroma Chameleon Gold, Sally Hansen-Fairy Teal, Grass Slipper, Going Green, S-teal a Base, OPI-Don't Mess With OPI, Thanks A Windmillion, Cairuo-Greeen Tea 22, Blueberry 19, Stargazer-#101, Unknown, Tara's Talons-Dasher, Carollers, Sinful Colors-Mint Apple, Bad Apple Cosmetics-Russett, L.A Colors-Green Tea, Avon-Midnight Green, Essie-Mojito Madness, BK Polish-#5,L'Oreal Color Riche-Luxembourg Garden, George-Under The Sea, Collection-Hidden, Miners-Tra La La

Make sure you've entered my giveaway! It ends tomorrow!

Mish Mash Challenge Week 26-Favourite Nail Art Technique

This is another one of the themes that I suggested originally, and when I did I had one thing on my mind-fishtails! I do love the way fishtails look when they're done but I don't love the amount of time and patience you have to have with them. Since the challenge has been ongoing, I've discovered a new favourite technique and that's gradients-I love getting the colours to blend nicely together and they're a fab way to have neutral nails but in more than one colour! I decided as a nod to my excited just-started-nail-blogging self I'd combine the two for this mani.

Polishes used: Barry M-Plum, Sinful Colors-Amethyst, Barry M-Prickly Pear, Revlon-Cloud, OPI-I Juggle...Men

They're not the best gradients in the world cos my polishes wouldn't play nice, but they were still quite pretty. I do still love fishtails but they are a pain in the butt to do! They look awesome when done though so can't complain.
There you go, pretty purple pretties.

Don't forget to check out all the other lovely nails in the inlinkz!

~Nail Art Novice~

My giveaway is running for another week! Make sure you're entered =)

Mish Mash Challenge Week 25-Two Colours You Never Normally Pair Up

Hello lovelies! Happy Wednesday!
I was discussing this challenge with my BF whilst I was trying to decide what to do and he pointed out to me (quite rightly) that "you never pair pink up with anything!"-and I had to admit he had a point. In my TT advent calendar I got a pink polish that-shock horror-I didn't actually think was too bad so I decided to use it today. Also, I decided to make my design a geometric one, in keeping with the FingerFood's Theme Week Challenge which I will probably be intermittently joining in with-love a double challenge day!
Polishes used: Sally Hansen-Going Green (Side note-this is such a beautiful green, don't know why I don't use it more often!), Rimmel-Purple Addict and Tara's Talons-Deck The Halls. I painted my bases, added some striping tape to create the triangles and painted on the pink (over a layer of white)-Voila!

Actually *whispers* I kinda like them! I like the combination of different finishes and I think the colours look rather good together! You still won't be seeing all pink manis on this blog though, no siree!

Double inlinkz for double challenge! Check the first one for the other 'Two Colours' Mish Mash manis and the second for the other 'Geometric shapes' Finger Food's one.

~Nail Art Novice~

P. S Don't forget to enter my giveaway! (Slow computers edition)

Mish Mash Challenge Week 24-Inspired By A Decade

Finally, finally, I'm back with another Mish Mash mani-there's still a fair few to go before the end of the challenge! This one was one of my suggestions-inspired by a decade-and I've always known what I wanted to do for it! First I should perhaps show you my inspiration, my faaaaaaabulous 70s glam rock boots:

Haha, I love these babies! You can't help but strut when you wear them! I decided to combine some nail art based on them with some retro 70s style wallpaper, with a little help from this tutorial by Holy Grail Nails. I've had this bookmarked to do since I first got into blogging, can't believe it's taken so long!
Polishes used: Rimmel-Azure, London Girl-#46, Revlon-Silver Screen, Barry M-Navy, Barry M-Lady.

Love these! I think they work on two levels-while they are quite retro I also think the colours look a little "futuristic"-like what they thought the 2000s were going to look like in old 80s films and stuff.

Glad to be back with the Mish Mashers!

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 20-Nail Stamping

Hello lovelies!
Today I've got a Mish Mash mani for you, and those with a keen eye will notice that it's actually an upcycled mani. Because I'm busy doing the 12 Days of Xmas Nail Art, I've had to schedule this post well in advance to fit everything in! I've stamped over my TPC Gradient with Sally Hansen-Purple Bolt and my MoYou London-Back To The 80s 2 plate. My stamping isn't perfect, especially with my non-dominant hand but oh well! I really like this repeating star image!

I really like the way the sparkles from the base peek through the stamping and twinkle in the light, it's so pretty!

Don't forget to check out the other Stamping manis in the inlinkz below, and I'll be back later with another Xmas mani!

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 18-Card/Board Game

Well in my last post I said I wanted some bright colours again and I think I've definitely succeeded with this mani, hehe. It's not my best nail art ever, but then again I was doing it at 5AM because my sleeping pattern is FUBAR'd, so I think that's to be expected. Also my red decided it didn't like being topcoated even though it'd been left ages to dry. Sigh.

I've chosen to represent the classic kid's game snakes and ladders-I've got a brightly coloured grid and then accents of a snake, a ladder, a playing piece and a dice. Main polishes are Rimmel-Red Obsession, Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue, Barry M-SLE 2013 and Barry M-Lemon Ice Cream over a base of Barry M-Matt White.

As I said, they're a  bit wibbly but I blame lack of sleep for this! They're bright and fun so I don't mind too much!


This will almost certainly be my last Mish Mash mani for a while because I'll be busy busy with the 12 Days of Christmas challenge that I've set myself-I'm really quite excited to see what everyone comes up with. If you want to join in, go to the FB group here. Here's a reminder of the prompts:

So I'll be back in a couple of days with the first one-woo!

~Nail Art Novice~

Double Challenge Thursday!

Yes, today I've doubled up on my challenges-this mani represents Mish Mash Week 17-Grey AND November Tri-Polish mani number 2-see this post for more explanation about that! This was the mani that inspired me to do the Tri-Polish challenge-I'd already planned to do this in my head even before I saw the colour prompts. For this mani I've used my purple (Barry M-Prickly Pear) and my grey (L'Oreal Color Riche-Metropolitan)...and some other colours too. I know this means I'm completely breaking the rules of the Tri-Polish challenge but hopefully no-one will mind too much. Everyone has to break the rules now and again, right? Haha! Other polishes used were Revlon-Electric, Barry M-Mango and Rimmel-Rose Libertine plus the Barry M nail art pens.

I'd wanted to do this mani since I first got this grey polish since it's the perfect colour but couldn't figure out quite how. Thankfully Rara did a similar mani in summer which gave me all the inspiration I needed!

I also did a very silly photo when I was cooking dinner last night, but I couldn't resist-teehee

Haha, I love my little micies! Hopefully you guys do too =)

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 16-Faux Stone

I think this week will have collectively made us think more than all the others! There were lots of discussions around the subject on the Facebook group as to how exactly this one could be done, and I can't wait to see the results! I think a lot of people decided to try and recreate a precious stone on their nails (which will be fab!) but my brain took me in an altogether...sillier...direction. I used quite a lot of polishes so I won't list them all, but the background was Barry M-Blue Moon and the grass was a combination of Essie-Mojito Madness  and Rimmel-Emerald. The eyes and writing were, of course, done with my Barry M nail art pens..

I give you my pet rock colony:

Yeah...I do know the one on my thumb looks like a turd...

Now I am quite aware that this is thoroughly ridiculous, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head once I'd thought of it and so I just had to do it in the end. I think my rocks are really quite cute and they keep making me smile a lot because they're just so silly! Haha! Sometimes the silly ideas are the best, I reckon.

Don't forget to go and check out all the (much more sensible and beautiful) other faux stone manis in the inlinkz!

From me and my nine stoney pals, tata!

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Week 15-Holographic

Ooh I can't wait to see this week's entries, I love me some holo polishes, and I definitely don't own enough! They're so sparkly and gorgeous! I did acquire a new lovely scattered holo recently, and used it for the base of my mani. This is Tara's Talons-Ol' Blue Eyes and it's scrummy! For those of you who don't know Tara's Talons are a UK indie range (one of the first) full of hundreds of limited edition and one of a kind polishes and they're all pretty gorgeous! Seriously, don't click on that link if you value your bank balance, haha! This is two coats over a similar base colour (because holos tend to be on the sheer side) and then details/stamping with GOSH-Holographic Hero and MoYou London's Sailor-3 plate. Forgive me, I couldn't resist using them again because the patterns are gorgeous and they stamp so well!

Ooft, love this! Although I feel I should apologise-if you can see some weird 'shadows' on my right hand it's because I was lazy and just painted another layer of Ol' Blue Eyes on top when my first attempts went wrong rather than starting all over again =P

As a bonus, here's a shot of Ol' Blue Eyes on his gorgeous ownsome:

Oh holo polishes, you so pretty, I want to own all of you.

Don't forget to check out the other dazzling goodness in the inlinkz!

~Nail Art Novice~

Mish Mash Challenge Week 14-Pink

Now you might think that this isn't a pink-themed mani at all, but that it's actually a blue one with pink highlights and...well...you'd be entirely correct. See, the thing is, is that I am not a pink person at all-aside from socks (which don't count) I can't think of any one item of clothing I own that has pink on it. I just don't like the colour and never have-from the time I started defyingly dressing myself aged about four I've avoided it wherever I can. It's a miracle that I actually own any pink polishes at all! Actually, thinking about it, I didn't pay for either of the two I used in this mani-one came as a free gift with some polishes I bought and I won one in a giveaway. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is I don't like pink, so I didn't want to do an all pink mani, because I'd HATE it and take it off straight away. This, I feel is a happy compromise, hopefully nobody minds my bending of the rules too much!

Polishes used: Looney Lacquer-Love A Lot, Rimmel-Rose Libertine and Barry M-Guava. I did something that I've never seen done before (although I am by no means claiming to have "invented" it!) -a double laser taping mani. I started with a layer of Love A Lot, which is a very limited edition polish-I own one of the only 5 bottles in existence! It's a white creamy base filled to bursting with pink and red glitters of all sizes and colours, and there's some little hearts in there too. I actually like this a lot more than I ever thought I would-it's a really pretty polish! It's not very 'me' but it's definitely something I would wear, perhaps around Valentine's Day or something.

This is two coats:

I added a topcoat of trusty Seche Vite and once it was all dried I stuck striping tape randomly over each nail and added a coat of Rose Libertine:

Another layer of Seche Vite, another layer of tape and a layer of Guava finished it off:

So that's what I ended up with, my not-pink pink mani! I like it a lot more than I would if it were all pink, and I think the bright blue works really well with the subtler colours underneath it. I'll definitely be trying this technique again too, it's a bit time consuming but the effect at the end is really cool!

Don't forget to check out what the other lovely challenge ladies have done for their pink week manis (I imagine there's will be much pinker than mine, haha!)

~Nail Art Novice~