Instagram Nail Art Challenge (Glam Nails): March Edition

Okay so I have been a little bit... not around on this blog for a while (again) thanks to finally adopting my cat! His name is Billy and he's an absolute sweetheart when he's not throwing the cat litter everywhere except the litter tray. As you would expect a lot of my time has been taken up dealing with him, and as such I've just been too tired to do my nails and write about it.

Anyway, today I wanted to share with you a nail art challenge on Instagram I recently took part it. It's called the Glam Nails Challenge and is a series of prompts that you follow each month. Its feature account is @glamnailschallenge, which is run by the lovely Bianka at @nbnailart (definitely check her out; her work is awesome!). The challenge uses the hashtag #glamnailschallenge followed by whatever month it is e.g. March was #glamnailschallengemarch.

March was the first month I took part (my first ever challenge actually) and I absolutely loved it! Below is the list of prompts for each nail art design and the dates we had to post them:

And here are my corresponding manis! 

(Note: I am gradually updating my collection to be cruelty free but to do that I am using up old non cruelty free polishes. Most of these I bought years ago. I hate waste and the companies already have my money so I personally feel the best thing to do is use them up but not repurchase & look for cruelty free alternatives. I will however always highlight when I have used a polish from a non cruelty free brand.)

Prompt 1: 3rd Anniversary (of the challenge)

This was a freehand attempt using nail polish. I really liked how the cupcake came out... the balloons not so much. We all have to start somewhere though, right? The silver base is Barry M Holographic Lights, the pink is Barry M Freestyle, and the colours used for the balloons & shading on the cupcake are various Seventeen Gel colours. 

Prompt 2: Patchwork

I extra challenged myself for this one and created this design using my non-dominant left hand. I used Primark polishes & Rimmel Salon Pro, and striping tape for the stitches. Unfortunately this mani isn't totally cruelty free but I think I may have discovered a dupe for the Rimmel polish (more on that in a future post!)

Prompt 3: Butterflies

For this design I chose to stamp the butterflies as I seem to have a few plates with butterflies on them! Again this mani isn't cruelty free as I'm trying to use up my old polishes. Everything except the black stamping polish is Rimmel Salon Pro. I used the reverse stamping technique to colour the butterflies wings. It didn't come out super perfect but I was still happy with it.

Prompt 4: Blooming Flowers

For this mani I decided to use striping tape to make the background a little more interesting. I started with a white base, then used the striping tape and topped it with a Rimmel polish. I then reverse stamped on the flowers using Barry M in Vintage Violet and Flamingo. Finally I finished off with some cute flower studs that I had just got.

Prompt 5: Pastel

For this prompt I wanted a rainbow spectrum across my nails, but my collection was seriously lacking in pastel colours (something that I have now rectified!). Instead I took red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and another purple (I wouldn't really have called it violet) and mixed each with white polish. I followed ROYGBIV across my nails. Some of the colours came out really similar so the only nail that really stood out was my index with the yellow and green.

Some of the polishes I used here were from non cruelty free brands. This mani didn't come out exactly as I pictured and was very time consuming as I was mixing polishes, but it was still quite fun to do!

Prompt 6: Easter Chicks

For this nail art look I completely free handed the whole mani using acrylic paint. I copied the chicks from an image I found on Google. This was my first attempt at a totally freehand mani and I definitely have respect for those who have mastered freehand nail art! Painting that small is really not that easy! I finished this design with a top coat and it stayed on my nails fairly well.

Prompt 7: Easter Bunny

So the nail art for this mani was not done on my own nails. I got myself muddled and in my head thought the next prompt after chicks was eggs, so I found myself unprepared for this one! 

Luckily my younger sister was around so I nabbed her nails for these cute bunnies. She hates nail polish so this was done completely using acrylic paints. There's no top coat so it stayed quite matte. My sister is a bit of a nail biter and has the TINIEST nails (seriously, I thought mine were quite small when short) so painting the bunnies was a bit of a challenge but I think they still came out looking cute.

Prompt 8: Easter eggs

Easter egg was the final prompt for March and for this mani I started off with an aqua base (Rimmel Salon Pro). I wanted to create a somewhat speckled egg look but I didn't want to use the traditional splatter method. Instead, I painted nail polish over the bristles of a toothbrush and both dotted and brushed it onto my base (similar to dry brushing). I used brown, white and navy blue (Sinful Colors & Primark polishes), then went back over with the original base colour to break the colours up a little more. I was (and still am!) super psyched with how this mani turned out, and I managed to keep it on my nails for a full week before it started cracking.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and I am 100% on board for next month's. Please check this challenge out on Instagram and join in if you feel up to it!

Hopefully now Billy has settled in I will be able to jump on and post more next month. I can't believe we're almost in April (which means my birthday yay)! It gets said every year, but seriously, where is this year going?!

Bye for now!