Pre-Spring Challenge 2013 Archives | The Nailinator

Rhinestones galore!

The Nailinator — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

I can’t believe we’ve made it to the last day of the Pre-Spring Challenge! Day 14 is “Recreate” so I’m recreating a favorite look from the other challenge participants. Eeeek Nail Polish submitted this for our “Jewelry” theme and it is just stunning as have been all her manis! Check out her blog here!

I went with a dark plum color so mine would be a bit different. I used rhinestones from born pretty store and the top coat fuzzed a bit but it is still glittery and pretty! My nails aren’t as long so the spacing does look the same but I think they turned out quite nice. I am proud of myself for doing a good job with even spacing. It’s pretty and I received several compliments on it today. I’m so glad I was able to participate in this challenge with these ladies! Everyone did a grey job! thank you Mommy Loves Polish and Polish Alcoholic for hosting this challenge. ! Check out all the manicures! My next challenge for myself will be to make my light box and up the quality of pics!

For my version, I used
24k – Raspberry
BPS Rhinestones

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Harlequin Hardware goes horribly and hilariously wrong.

The Nailinator — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:20:00 +0000

Day 13 is “sponging” in the Pre-Spring Challenge and while my victim may not completely agree with me, in my mind this was my first epic fail art. My sister-in-law offered to let me try out my idea on her nails. She has absolutely gorgeous nails and I was excited to try out this tutorial. Unfortunately I didn’t have quite the right shades of pink and my makeup sponge was not cooperating which confused me because I have done several gradients with these same sponges. I had a tough time getting the gradient to work right and when I went to add gold tips with my metallic acrylic paint… well, lets just say it was bad, folks. Perhaps if I had a gold polish it would have worked better. The good thing about it all was that, since I used acrylic paint, I was able to use a cotton ball and alcohol to remove the gold.

Perhaps we can call it a sponged ruffian mani? *Looks hopeful but doubtful*

Anyway, my sweet SIL has a weird side that loves to watch creepy movies and stuff like that so she said she really liked it anyway because it reminds her of bloody zombie nails. Definitely not what I was going for but I’m glad she is happy. I just don’t love because I had my heart set on the gorgeous mani in the tutorial.

What about you? Do you love it or hate it? Any specific type of sponge you recommend for sponging?

For this mani I used:
Oh My Golly – Bikini
Jocarste – #36 Light pink
Sponge

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Stripes!

The Nailinator — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:57:00 +0000

Day 12 of the Pre-Spring Challenge is “stripes” so I came up with this very simple yet elegant mani with a touch of flair. I picked a dark color with a silver undertone and used my silver striper to add two stripes, offset just a bit, down each nail. I think I looks great. These pictures don’t really capture just how gorgeous this blue is. I’m still figuring out a better setup for taking great pictures. I usually prefer to take them outdoors but sometimes the weather does not cooperate. I hope you enjoy these. Please leave a comment if you do.

I think this is a work friendly look.

For this look I used
Chic – Blue Velvet (deep blue)
Kids nail art Striper – Silver Glitter

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Buried treasure

The Nailinator — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0000

Day 11 of the Pre-Spring Challenge is “beach”.

This manicure was pretty easy actually. I tried the tape method used here the index finger which is supposed to be a nautical pattern (makes me think of old school bathing suits) and I used bits of striping tape for the treasure map on the middle finger. The ring finger is supposed to be sand glittering in the water and obviously the pinky is an anchor.

The colors I used were:
Sinful colors – nirvana
Sinful colors – Why not
Chic – silky white
Chic – Pure gold
NYC – sidewalkers (grey)
Scotch tape, dotting tool and a small paintbrush

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I Scream for Ice Scream!

The Nailinator — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:48:00 +0000

Day 10 of the Pre-Spring Challenge has “Ice cream” as it’s theme. I am still lovin my rainbow nails from yesterday so I asked my youngest sister to let me do hers again. I wanted to do each nail a bit differently and do several kinds of ice cream. I did the thumbs like cones and the rest of the nails are each different.

Starting from left pinky we have chocolate marble, cherry on whipped cream, mint chocolate chip, chocolate with sprinkles, cookies and cream, strawberry with chocolate fudge, Neapolitan and vanilla with sprinkles.

I used the following to achieve this look:
Bobbie – Touch of Beige
Sally Hansen hard as nails – Fireball Red
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear – Mint Sorbet
Oh My Golly – Demure
Oh my Golly – First Date
Caronia – On the Go
Caronia – First Crush
Jocarste – White 56
Sinful Colors – Nirvana
Klik – Mango Shake
Dark brown acrylic paint
Striper, large and small dotting tool, small paint brush

What do you think?

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It’s Raining Rainbows!

The Nailinator — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:20:00 +0000

Today’s theme is “Rainbow” for the Pre-Spring Challenge Day 9! I am loving these nails. they turned out so great! They are so cute they make me happy and they make me even happier because when I was browsing nail art online a few months ago my then 3-year-old saw these and said “Mommy do those rainbow nails!” So my sweet boy will be happy when we wakes up tomorrow and sees I finally did them. These are based on the beautiful and creative dripping rainbow mani by Simply Rins, another nail artist in the Philippines! Check out her blog!

I used some acrylics and polishes along with my striper brush.

Sally Hansen Hard as nails – Fireball Red
Sinful Colors Nail Art Striper – Morning Breath
Sinful Colors – Amethyst
Enchanted – Orange
Reeves Acrylic paints in Light Green, Phtalo Blue and Violet (mixed the last to make indigo)

As you can probably tell from the pictures, these were a doozy to clean up!

I hope you like them as much as I do!

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Gold finger

The Nailinator — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:06:00 +0000

Day 8 of the Pre-Spring Challenge is “Jewelry” so I decided to add a touch of gold to one of my untrieds I have been aching to use.

Chic – Purple Lustre (not sure why they chose this for the name but it is a beautiful red with a hint of gold)
Face Shop – Gold glitter GL112

Simple but cute wouldn’t you say? I’ve done sponging on the tips of my nails before but never the base so I’m glad I tried it. Tune in tomorrow for “rainbows”!
Have a great day!

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Striped pastels

The Nailinator — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:32:00 +0000

Day 7 of the Pre-Spring Challenge is a tape mani in pastel. I chose to do yet another first for me with the striping tape. I first put two coats of Amethyst and On the Go and let them dry well. Then I placed striping tape and put a thick coat of First Crush and Mint Sorbet and promptly but slowly removed the striping tape while the polish was still wet. I guess the thing to remember is to work quickly but don’t peel the tape off quickly because that will cause wonky lines. Mine aren’t that crisp but hey, not bad for a first try.

The colors I used were:
Sinful colors – Amethyst
Caronia – First Crush (light purple)
Caronia – On the Go (green)
Sally Hansen Xtreme wear – Mint Sorbet
Striping tape

I like the way it turned out. Do you? Leave a comment!

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Let’s go fly a kite!

The Nailinator — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:17:00 +0000

Day 6 of the Pre-Spring Challenge is “Sun” and I grabbed my youngest sister for my model and came up with this cute cloudy sky with the sun shining and a kite flying. I even threw a bunny shaped cloud and a heart shaped cloud in there too. I think it is adorable and so cheerful. It makes me want to go out and have a picnic. How about you?

Adorable kite

Heart cloud.

To achieve this look I used:
Bichun – A65 (sky blue)
Sinful colors – Amethyst (purple)
Oh My Golly – Sunset (orangey pink)
Klik – Mango Shake
Jocarste – White
Kiss striper brush in black
I also used two different dotting tools and a striper pain brush.

On a side note, the Bichun light blue was a NIGHTMARE to use. It is pretty but so hard to apply. It is too thick and streaky. I did the best I could with it but if you look closely you can still see some streaks. Definitely not to be worn alone!

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Subtle Galaxy Nails

The Nailinator — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:06:00 +0000

I hooked both of my younger sisters into letting me do their nails so I could catch up in the Pre-Spring Challenge. The theme for day 5 is “Sky” and I had a little bit of an extra challenge coming up with a manicure that my more… let’s call her reserved… little sister would feel comfortable wearing and was suitable for her work. I wanted to do something different but “galaxy nails” kept coming up but my sister didn’t want galaxy nails like I did a while back so I thought about a way to tone it down a bit and tried it out with some subtle colors that don’t contrast as much. I also didn’t start off with sponging white to make the colors “pop” but chose a similar color to start my nebulas. A lot of these colors are holographic or have a hint of holo so I am excited to see what they look like in the sun.

Aren’t they pretty? They are different but I think they are a great option for someone like my sister who needs a little more subtlety. The pictures don’t really do it justice. They have a holographic magic to them.

To get this look I used:

Bobbie – Weng Weng (black soft holo)

Sally Hansen Beyond Perfect – peaceful plum

BK Holographic polishes in 01 (silver) 09 (aqua blue) 11 (pinkish purple) and 21 (light pink)

Sinful Colors – Let me go

Jocarste – White

Jocarste – 49 Holographic glitter

I also used a sponge and a tiny dotting tool to add the white dots for stars after I finished sponging.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.

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