The Challenge Wks 2 & 3

So I didn't get a chance last week to update this blog - I don't necessarily think that posting pictures of plain colours on nails is the most exciting thing possible. But I wanted to keep a record of the colours that I've used and this is easily the best way to do it.

I'm enjoying this challenge - or at least, I am right now, I may get bored of painting my nails is one colour. The current alternating colour, or one hand per colour was something I remember from high school. Back when I only had a handful of nail polish (shock horror) and painting different colours on different nails was as interesting as I got.

But anyway, I am enjoying it because there's an element of surprise. Sometimes I start the week with a definite plan, but often I have no idea what colour I should paint them. I'm facing a similar problem with my toenails at the moment. But this current 'just putting my hand into the lot and picking some up' is great! Most of my nail polish (say...60%) is on a bookshelf. And I started at the back of the shelf, so I don't know what's back there. I just stick my hand in, pull out two bottles and go from there. The element of surprise is great.

 Last week, I stuck my hand in and brought out another bottle of white and a bottle of orange.

 Neither colour is ground breaking, and the white is a bit translucent which I don't really like.

 The orange could be brighter, or bolder, or something.

  I tried to break it up with some daisies on my ring finger, but I don't know what it did.











 This week - I pulled out yet another white! Or, to be more accurate, cream. I'm not even sure why I own so many bottles of white/cream. One I understand, and I do love the black/white look. But 3...so far? Overkill.

 The pink/red I pulled out though - one of my favourite colours, and one I had practically forgotten about. It's still nice and thin and spreadable with great coverage. And it's a wonderfully vibrant colour.

T

The Challenge (Wk 1)

So the challenge for the foreseeable future is to use ALL my nail polish. The best way, I think, to rediscover all the colours that I have at my disposal. Being away from them for a year has made me forget some of the colours that I have.

 The real challenge has been how to use all the colours - I could easily do 10 a week, but that doesn't feel like really getting to know them again. I considered doing one colour a week, but I suspect that will take me over a year, and I will get bored if I don't get to mix it up at all. I still haven't really decided yet, but I have decided I'm going to do them row by row. I might change my mind depending on how things are placed in relation to each other, but for now I decided to go with two colours.

There really wasn't much decision involved - I have a bookshelf of nail polish, so I put my hand in and pulled out these two colours. I used them together because I love using black and white together. But this isn't how I will always choose, as I am not sure that, for instance, orange and blue will really work together...

Mimicry...

So I've been a bit slack this week - I meant to post this last Tuesday, as I had a nail design that I LOVED! Honestly, words can not describe how much I loved my nails last week. They were bright, they were funky and they were really easy to do! I bought some nail apps a few months ago, when I was living in Edinburgh. My favourite design of the lot consisted of leopard print down one half of the nail, and a bright metallic pink down the other.

But when I attempted to apply it, it immediately fell off. I was very sad, and attempted to reconstruct the design - an easy feat here, where I lost count of my nail polish years ago, but basically impossible in Edinburgh where I only had 10 bottles of nail polish.

So last week, I decided to finally reconstruct it; in Brisbane I have all the necessary colours - a bright pink, a deep gold and a black OPI shatter.

For the occasion I used La-Paz-itively Hot, Bling Dynasty and Black Shatter. And this is what I got...

It was fairly easy to do - just paint pink down one side of the nail, and gold down the other. I always make sure I do the darker shade second, in order to cover up any mistakes by the lighter. Of course, this means you have to be really careful with the darker colour.  After two layers of each, I painted black shatter down the gold side, and let it dry. And you end up with this effect - unfortunately, it does not do it justice. As getting the lighting right was impossible.

 

Just so you can get a better idea of the colour...

This design, however, has led me to my next challenge - to use all my nail polish again. I was going through looking for a bright pink (and having a surprising amount of trouble finding one) and I kept finding colours I had forgotten about. So I decided to go through and use every colour - and not just on one nail either...but that will wait until the next instalment...