Thursday, April 26, 2012

Spring Challenge - Bugs

Hi everybody! It's time for another installment of the Spring Challenge created by the lovely Mateja at Purple Glitters. For all the rules and info, you can go to the great write-up she did right here because I am horrible at explaining things.

Today's theme is bugs. When I first started looking at nail art online, I was always amazed at the butterfly manicure. I knew one day I wanted to try it and with a theme of bugs how could I resist? But I didn't want to do just the same butterfly wing everywhere, I wanted to try to make it a bit different. Enter my inspiration, this manicure by Wickless & Polished, who also drew inspiration from the amazing videos by Tartofraises.

Just a warning to you all, this ended up in a total failure. I am very not pleased with my results but I know exactly where I went wrong, so I will post it as a what not to do :P The color combo I had left was pink and orange. No big deal, pink to orange gradient was applied without major incident. Then the acrylic paint came out and it all went downhill. Protip #1: Make sure you have the right size brush. None of my paint brushes are actually for nail art and so they of course aren't the right size. My smallest was still leaving very thick trails and it was very sad. I had to go back with a toothpick to scratch some away but it just made it worse. Plus I ended up covering most of what was a pretty nice gradient I had going. Protip #2: For the love of chocolate let it dry before you apply top coat. I am such an impatient person. This coupled with the fact that I am at the bottom super spazzy part of a bottle of Seche Vite and you can see for yourselves what happens. Learn from me, people. On to the horror show...






Polishes used:
  • Sinful Colors base coat / Seche Vite top coat
  • Sally Hansen First Blush (lightest pink)
  • Sally Hansen I Pink I Can (medium pink)
  • Sinful Colors Hazard (dark coral pink)
  • Pure Ice Hot Tamale (orange)
  • Assorted acrylic paints (black/white/orange/pink)

Color Combinations
Pink and Green
Blue and Purple
Yellow and Green
Orange and Pink
Rainbow


Check out what all the other wonderful ladies on this challenge did!



After being so unhappy with my attempts I tried several other ideas and just ended up making my cuticles very angry with all the polish remover and myself very tired and cranky. Protip #3: Plan ahead so you don't frustrate yourself for no good reason. If I had followed my own advice, I would have seen I didn't have the proper tools to attempt this and I would have given myself a good backup plan and time to actually execute it. In the end, lessons were learned. Not a total failure, right? After all this I'm gonna go put on a solid creme and just appreciate a nice two coats of polish.

If you made it this far thanks for reading! Come back for the last installment of the challenge on Monday (April 30th), rainbow day. I WILL REDEEM MYSELF!

18 comments:

  1. I know you are not happy with this mani,but looking at the pics I really like it,sometimes the imperfections can make it look perfect:)

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    1. Thanks! I guess the old saying is true, it gives it character haha

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  2. Not a failure. The index finger looks perfect to me. I am totally guilty of ruining designs with a top coat.

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    1. Thanks, I'm glad I'm not the only one who does it. It's nice to hear it's not as horrible as I thought ^_^

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  3. I also end up applying top coat too soon and end up smudging the design. It look good....not a failure at all.

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    1. It's just so darn hard to wait, especially when it's quick dry top coat haha. Thanks for the encouragement!

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  4. maybe not as good as you were hoping, but it's still a great looking mani to me :-D

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  5. It looks pretty good to me! It may not be what you were expecting, but hey... many things end up that way and usually end up better anyway. Just have fun with it and learn from it. That was a very difficult mani you took on! Failure? I think not. Your not a perfectionist are you? Lol.

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    1. Yeah I'm totally guilty of being a perfectionist >.< I'm workin on it though haha thanks!

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  6. I think this is really pretty! Definitely better than I could do :P

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    1. Thank you so much! I was just admiring your recent franken and drooling a bit.

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  7. i think these are great!!! you did very well! :)

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