Thursday, August 28, 2014

Let's Go Camping Nail Art Challenge Day 1: Under the Stars

   
     It's once again time for another nail art challenge brought to you by the Facebook group Challenge Your Nail Art. This time around the theme is "Let's go Camping!" and today's prompt is "Under the Stars".

    
     For this manicure, I had the vision of a wonderful night sky scene by the lake with the stars twinkling and some waves crashing against the shore. But then I got real and remembered that my nail art skills are severely lacking. I did manage to create at least part of that image on my nails!

blue-and-black-gradient-manicure

    I decided to recreate the night sky from a camping trip I took back when I was about 11. My family sat up almost until dawn watching the Northern Lights dance across the sky. And because we were so far away from any city lights the colors were amazing!

     To get this look, I started out with one coat of Sally Hansen White On so that my gradient colors would really pop. I used Sally Hansen Black Out, L'Oreal After Hours and Maybelline Blue Bombshell for my gradient.  I really wanted to capture the way it looks when the first rays of light start to change the sky from Black to blue.

Gradient-manicure-black-and-blue-nail-polish

     After letting my gradient dry I used a glow in the dark polish from Sinful Colors to make my Northern Lights. By removing almost all of the polish from the brush I was able to create the sort of wispy effect I remembered from my childhood.

     The stars are my absolute least favorite part of this manicure and the reason I don't "love" the finished look. I used my smallest dotting tool and went in with Sally Hansen White On to add them. I think they just look too much like dots instead of stars and that's my issue. Someone will have to give me tips on how to make them look more star-like.

      My favorite part of this manicure is that the Northern lights actually glow! I wanted to get a picture of that for you but realized that it just looks like glowing blobs. I did manage to get a picture where you can see some of the glowing effect and the rest of the manicure at the same time.


     I think it looks really cool this way, and really captures the look I was going for. So what do you think on my "Under the Stars" manicure? Make sure you stop back tomorrow to see what I came up with for "Nature". In the meantime let's check out what the other talented ladies came up with for today. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!







16 comments:

  1. The first part of your post made me smile! That is me EVERY SINGLE TIME when I think about a design and when it is time to get real!
    I love love love the wispy effect you did! Well done!!!

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    1. I'm glad someone could relate and see the humor there. And thank you, I'm kind of proud of my Northern Lights.

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  2. These are cute sky nails! I like them a lot.

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  3. I still think your stars look pretty. :)

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    1. Thanks Sarah. I almost used CG Fairy Dust for the stars, thinking that the sparkle would look like twinkling. I might do that the next time I need stars in a manicure to see if I like it better.

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    1. Thank you. It turned out better than I thought it would. Still wish I had the guts to try my original idea, but that will come in time.

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  5. These look really cool! I love the glowing lights (:

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    1. Thank you! I was hoping that the glowing part would work, so glad that it did.

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  6. I think this looks really awesome, and I love that it glows. I meant to take part in this month's challenge but it looks like I'm not going to be able to... I'll have to enjoy everyone else's posts instead! :)

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    1. Thank you. Maybe you can do next months challenge? The prompts are already out so I figured Id get a head start on them next week.

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  7. I freaking love this! Especially the glowing part of it, it looks absolutely fantastic!! :)

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    1. Thanks Jessica. I really want to work on my nail art and get better at it. I thought this was a good start.

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