This week's Friday Challenge is... Sweet Shop!
I wanted to go for a sweets-inspired look, rather than actually painting sweets themselves onto my nails.
For this design I used two coats of Barry M Blossom from the Silks collection (my bottle is down to 2/3 full! I'm going to need a back-up!) on three fingers, and two coats of Jacava Raspberry Bavarois on my thumb and ring fingers.
I then added studs to the Blossom fingers. The studs are from the Born Pretty Store, and are stuck down with topcoat. I used striping tape to tape off stripes on my Raspberry Bavarois fingers and then added a coat of Barry M Princess, the textured pinky gold glitter, for a sugary texture.
I'm quite pleased with this look. It's pretty and sweet, and I think it meets the brief! I was really pleased with how well the studs stayed put too - they've been on for 24 hours now and have survived intact, which doesn't always happen with studs and topcoat for me.
This week's Friday challenge is... GRAFFITI.
My favourite ever piece of graffiti is this - I snapped this photo in my town centre about 5 years ago. It's still there, and every so often I see it, and smile.
However, I decided not to recreate this on my nails. Instead I did this.
This was done by splodging on a mess of a combination of Barry M Greenberry, Satsuma and Cyan Blue, and Models Own Bubblegum. Then I added a coat of Layla Bubbly Effect in Black Forest. On the ring fingers I did my initial (yes - Elanor isn't actually my real name!) in what is meant to be a graffiti-esque style, using Barry M Nail Art Pens in white, pink and silver, over a base of W7 Black. Doing my right hand was hard!
I was a bit disappointed with how black these are - I had hoped more colour would show through. I'd forgotten that the Layla Bubbly Effect needs a very VERY thin coat! My right hand looked lots better, because I did that second. I can't photograph that though! However, I'm still pretty pleased with these, as I do think they look quite graffiti-ish.
(You'll notice that my nails are all short and horrid - I ripped a nail off in a door at work, and had to cut them all short to match. Booooo!)
The Friday Challenge is back! I didn't do it two weeks ago, and last week I did it, but didn't manage to take a single acceptable photo. But today is back to business as usual. Today's theme was... Cat's the way (aha aha) I like it!
I love cats! I also love cheesey 70s pop songs. And puns. But I went with cats. I didn't want to feature any old cat, I wanted to feature my sweet boy Ferg, aka Lord Fergus, Sir Fergustopher, Mr Fergington... He came to me sort of by accident. My lovely Patty girl had died in October 2012, and a few weeks later a colleague mentioned that she desperately needed to rehome her cat as she was moving, and I said I'd take him, and then regretted it but didn't like to say no... and within a couple of weeks I was smitten and couldn't live without him. He's my darling, he's ridiculously affectionate and cuddly, and I love his heart shaped white face patch.
This is two coats of Barry M Blossom, which by the way, I love so much that my bottle is now down to 2/3 full already! I then freehanded the portraits of Fat Ferg with Rimmel Black Out and Barry M nail art pens in black and white.
I was really happy with these!
This made me feel better quite a lot today during a more than usually frustrating day at work. Mr Fergface was there to cheer me up!
These might not be the best cat nail art there is, but it's recognisably my baby boy, (or at least, it is to me!) so I'm happy with them.
My Friday Challenge today is... SPACE INVADERS!
I was excited. I don't do Valentines. I'm off sick, so as preparation for these nails I spent quite some time playing Space Invaders online and humming beepy noises most of the afternoon. As research, you understand! Anyway, on to the nails, which are less impressive than my imagination.
This is two coats of Opi's 4 in the Morning, from the Gwen Stefani collection. I then freehanded the space invaders using white and black nail art pens by Barry M, and a tiny bit of Models Own My Midori. The plan was good... the execution less so!
Oh well, at arm's lengths these look quite fun! Those little alien dudes are HARD to draw, who'd have guessed it?
So it's Thursday night again and it's time to do my Friday Challenge nails!
This week, with the Olympics opening ceremony tomorrow, my theme is... WINTER OLYMPICS.
This is two coats of Barry M Lady, which is a lovely white textured glitter. I love this polish for a snow effect; the texture works really well I think. As all the pre-Olympics talk has been about Russia's attitude to gay rights (or lack of them), I went with the rainbow design, which I did with striping tape. I did a quick Olympics rings design on the thumb with a Barry M nail art pen. I don't like my rings, as they didn't link properly; I think I made them too small.
I have decided that I don't like striping tape left on the nails - it's almost impossible to get it to lie totally flat at the sides, and I know I'll end up picking this off.
I don't really watch much of the winter olympics, I have to say. I like figure skating, especially the men's competition (but don't like ice dancing) and I used to enjoy skiing, although I haven't watched it in years. I quite enjoy watching the ski cross and the acrobatic skiing too.
As for the nails, I like the white, I like the look of the rainbow (although not the feel) and I don't like the thumb.
This week's Friday Challenge was on the theme of NAUTICAL... BUT NICE.
Yes, I know it's now Saturday! I usually do these nails on a Thursday night, but I was (ahem) otherwise engaged on Thursday and have only just had the chance to do these!
I wanted to avoid the common theme in nautical nails of the blue and white stripes, and the anchors, much as I always like those nails when I see them on blogs. I started by painting my nails with a base of OPI I Have a Herring Problem, a pretty dusky blue with lots of shimmer. Then I sponged a rough gradient over that using Zoya Sunshine on the tips and some Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream to lighten up the sky area. I also dabbed on a bit of Barry M Lady, a white textured glitter, over the top of some of the Sunshine.
I like how the glitter and the texture makes the sea look. And I like how the sky came out - sort of blotchy and stormy, with the dusty I Have a Herring Problem peeking through the prettier blue. I then used Barry M nail art pens in black and white to make the little boat, and added a few seagulls for good measure.
I love this matte, with all the texture showing. But then I decided to try it glossy too, and I like it that way too!
What do you think?
My friend hasn't seen this yet - I hope I pass muster! And I hope I'm forgiven for being late with the Friday nails; I did have a very good reason, honest!
I'm posting these tonight as I'll be busy tomorrow, but my Friday Challenge nails are ready!
This week, my friend's theme is... TURNING JAPANESE. Whilst I was very tempted to depict the fabulous 1980 pop song on my nails, in the end I decided to go instead with that beautiful Japanese image of cherry blossom.
I painted a base of one coat of Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream. Then I sponged on a gradient of Barry M Cyan Blue. It was a bit uneven, but I figured I'd be covering a lot of it with blossom, so I left it.
Then I painted the branches using Zoya Cheryl and a fine dotting tool. I thought the dotting tool would be better than a brush for making the knobbly branches. I also really like how the sparkliness in Cheryl made the branches look as though they were damp with rain or dew.
Then I used a very fine nail art brush and daubed on some random petals using Barry M Bright Pink. At this stage, I thought it looked awful - it was messy and ugly and nothing like blossom, and I almost took it all off.
However, I then daubed some more using Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream (paler pink) and Barry M Shocking Pink (deeper pink) and I think it looks a lot better! I topped everything with Seche Vite to finish off.
I'm so pleased with how these turned out! They're not neat, and they don't really want to be looked at too closely, but I think in a sort of blurry, impressionistic way, they look really pretty! At arm's length, I love the effect! I kind of wish I hadn't covered the branches so much, and left a bit more of them visible, but overall, I think my work friend will approve!
I've also thought recently that I've been getting better at doing my right hand...
Looking at these photos, I realise that this design is reminding me of one of my favourite poems ever, by Ezra Pound:
In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
It's Friday! That means it's time for my Friday Challenge, as set by my work friend (he of the comedy blog comments!) Today's theme was ART DECO.
This is what I did.
This is two coats of Barry M Silver Foil, some tape, and Barry M Gelly Blue Grape (and some Seche Vite).
I started by google image searching 'art deco' and then 'art deco geometric patterns' and saw lots of inspiring ideas. I deliberately wanted to avoid the black and gold style nails, as I've done those before and have seen them around a lot as well, so wanted something different. The particular image that inspired me most was this one:
(source: http://nurgonzalez.wordpress.com/)
In the end of course, my nails looked nothing like this design, but it was the blue and white pattern that appealed to me, and I mostly improvised from there. Apparently I passed the challenge!
My work friend is one of the biggest supporters of my blog. This week, when I was feeling uninspired and unenthusiastic about my blog, he gave me a pep talk and also suggested he give me a theme to work on once a week! So now... introducing my new regular page, the Friday Challenge!
This week, the theme he gave me was Vegas Bling. These nails were done with Barry M Christmas 2012 Limited Edition pink foil, and rhinestones in pink tones.
I am happy with how blingy these are! They're not particularly Vegas, I know, but they're more interesting than most of my Friday nails.
I haven't used rhinestones in ages! I always think they'll be fiddly, but they really aren't, and I always think they'll fall off and catch on things, and they really don't do that either.
So, overall I'm pretty happy with these!
