26gnai – yellow + 1 bold color

once again i’m ho-hum about this prompt. i don’t know if my being uninspired is due to me (there’s a lot going on in my life right now) or the prompts.

either way, i don’t like this mani – but i took the time to do it, so figured i might as well post it. i had a hard time with bold color with yellow – because yellow is such a bold color. i typically like to pair it with muted or neutral colors (grey is my fave with yellow) so that the yellow is the bold color.

i thought purple would be good because it’s opposite on the color wheel. and i thought the chrome style would make it stand out more. it didn’t. i probably should have used the purple from my watercolor nails instead. oh well!

colors used: claire’s tropic thunder, sally hansen mellow yellow, pop gold glitz.

26gnai – pastel to bold gradient with something on top

um. i think i’ve run out of things to say about my nails…

colors used: sally hansen lacey lilac, pop ablaze.

26gnai – green freestyle

for my green freestyle the first thing i thought of was a mermaid tail. so i gathered up all my green polishes and just started dotting away. that’s kinda all there is to this one…

i really like these nails close up!

colors used: blackheart beauty green/ylw shimmer, mentality pastille, sourball, sally hansen sparkling water, kbshimmer pt young thing, opi green on the runway, sinful colors mint apple.

26gnai – spring animals

this week’s theme is spring animals. at a loss for something to paint i googled it. and ohmygoodness i died looking at all the super cute baby animals that popped up on my screen!!

unfortunately i knew i would never be able to do justice hand painting these cute little furry friends, and i’m assuming there will be a lot of stamping going on this week, but i neither have stamps that apply nor the skills to make it happen.

so i stuck with what i’m comfortable with – simplifying! each nail is a different baby animal. can you tell what they are?

26gnai – mixed tape mani

today i was feeling the most literal! i couldn’t think of any ideas for this challenge then suddenly it hit me – be weird ;) i had 4 out of 5 of these tapes already sitting on my desk from other projects and i just figured, why not!

this is not a lasting mani. i had to press on my nails in between every photo for some of the tapes to even look like they were stuck down. the duck tape in particular wouldn’t stay stuck. which surprised me because it has the stickiest adhesive.

the one with the least sticky adhesive, painter’s tape, actually stayed in place the best. huh. the electrical tape stayed fairly well too – i think because it’s so stretchy it can handle the curve of my nails better than the thicker duck tape.

colors used: masking tape, painter’s tape, unicorn duck tape, rainbow glitter washi tape, electrical tape.

26gnai – blue floral

short and sweet this week :) i think i just did the simplest most abstract version of blue floral possible. i think it looks good – but is just skirting the line of fitting the challenge. oh well!

colors used: models own everyday grey, sally hansen celeb city, essie no more film.

26gnai – red and pink

it’s way too early for valentine’s, although try telling that to target etc! but when i see red and pink together i can’t help but think of valentines. it’s the only reason i combine the two. so i got a bit of early valentine’s celebration in today with this mani.

i really like how this turned out – it’s a cute simple pattern that was pretty easy to do. i started with the base coat of gold + glitter on three fingers, hoping to make it not too overwhelmingly red and pink.

then i made two rows of double dots, one pink one red and connected them with a little triangle of the same color with a small paint brush. i did my thumb first and learned the spacing, therefore like my ring and pinky fingers a lot better ;)

i’ve also gotten in the habit of painting my “painting” hand with something that matches but is not as fancy, just so that while i’m wearing it throughout the week it matches when people see my hands. mostly i’ve just used the same base coat as my fancier design.

this is what my right / “painting” hand looks like this week. this would have been cute for the challenge too actually. i haven’t been posting pics of this other hand because they’re not as interesting, but i thought it’d be fun to share that this is what i do – instead of leaving it blank or painting it some random way or spending a ton of time and energy to make it look the same (except worse because as ambidextrous as i may be, i’m still much better as this with my right hand).

to be honest, the reason i showed my right hand was to give context to this photo. i’m so in love with this perfect tiny little heart that i managed to make on my thumb!

colors used: sally hansen fuchsia power, red carpet, wedding glitters, pop gold glitz.