As is usually the case when I'm doing challenges, I consulted my trusted friend, Google Images, to try and get some inspiration. There were lots of brightly coloured neon manis to choose from, but none of them really caught my eye or inspired me. So I decided to be really brave and try and create something myself !!!
I started with my "go to" base coat Glisten and Glow Stuck on Blu and then applied 2 coats of Opi Life Gave Me Lemons. That was the easy part - now for the creative bit!!!
I started with my pinkie and used one of my long thin brushes to create a freehand, half nail, geometric pattern using my favourite black polish - China Glaze Liquid Leather. Relatively happy with the result (don't look too closely at the zoomed in close up!!!) I moved onto my ring finger.
This was where disaster struck (or so I thought!!) I had decided to use a star from one of my nail vinyls from @teismom and the plan was to place the star in the middle of my nail, apply my black Liquid Leather over the whole nail and then remove the star to reveal a gorgeous neon star!!!
I used tweezers to remove the star from the backing paper and was just about to position it on my nail, when the tweezers slipped (actually I let go of them too early!!) The star positioned itself right up by the free edge of my nail - aaaggghhh!!! It wasn't firmly in place so I gingerly used the tweezers to try and reposition it, but as is usually the case when I'm doing manis, I hadn't waited long enough for the polish to dry. Instead of coming away easily (as nail vinyls usually do) the star took the polish with it, leaving a rough star shape of bare nail!!!
I was just about to reach for the cotton wool and acetone (swearing under my breath!!!) when I remembered reading something about negative space manis, where bare nail is part of the design.
I used some acetone, on my clean up brush, to tidy the edges of the star and then edged the star in black. Although I liked the effect I'd created, it didn't look quite right, because the star was so close to the free edge of my nail. So I grabbed a silver star shaped, nail stud, painted it black and stuck it in place - Ta dah - 2nd nail completed!!!
My middle finger was going to be something different, but it too went wrong, so I ended up having to paint a rather large area of the nail black. It needed more neon colour so I reached for my trusty dotting tools and created a line of decreasing (or increasing depending which way you look at it!!!) dots.
Next up was my index finger, and again, following the theme of this mani, my original plan went wrong!!! I was attempting to create a triangle of black nail studs from my cuticle. I placed the first 3 studs, for the base of the triangle, by my cuticle. So far, so good!!! All I had to do next was place 2 more studs on my nail to form the next layer of the triangle - Easy right??? Wrong - because the studs were quite large, I'd inadvertently placed the first row in a curve, so the second row of studs didn't fit properly!! As I tried to reposition them - guess what - the polish wasn't quite dry and it came away with the stud - double aaaaaaggghhh!!! You'd think I'd learn!!!
Never one to be beaten, I continued applying the studs, reached for the acetone and my clean up brush ( it's never had to work so hard!!) and created a negative space flower!!! Who said I wasn't creative????
Last, but not least, came my thumb. Having spent a lot longer than originally planned on this mani ( dinner wasn't going to cook itself!!) I needed to get a move on, so played it safe with a relatively simple dotticure.
A quick coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl and my mani was finished
Really pleased with the result and it just goes to show - Patience is a Virtue - or is it???
Xoxo
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