piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013: Year Of The Blogger

Hi ladies! It's been a while, I know. I'm actually taking a break from blogging right now mainly because my nails aren't in too good-a-shape at the moment after spending the last 5 months learning how to do acrylics & gels with countless applications to my nails, so they're feeling a little weak and unloved but for now I have a special one off post for you. A while back piCture pOlish advertised for new bloggers to take part in their blog fest for this year, having missed out on the opportunities in the past, I thought that now was as good a time as any to put myself forward. I'd actually forgotten about it until I got the e-mail saying I'd been chosen, needless to say I got a little excited.

However, unlike previous years, this year is a little different, instead of the chosen bloggers receiving a couple of the new collaboration shades to debut, we were given the task to 'create your most amazing nail art manicure ever' using the 3 unknown shades being provided to us by piCture pOlish. Since we didn't know the polishes we were to be using until they arrived, pre-planning a manicure was exceptionally hard, even more so because I am in no-way creatively inclined.

When my piCture pOlish arrived, I pondered over the possible nail art ideas for DAYS until I finally settled on my 'final piece' which was inspired by this negative space manicure I saw on Chelsea's Get Nailed. We were told when creating the manicure, that we could use any accessories/stamping/Black & White paint to help aid us, but the 3 piCture pOlish shades provided must shine through and not be overshadowed so baring all that in mind, I created this;

As you can see from the top photo, I was sent Hot Lips, Jade and Violet Femme which are all gorgeous on their own, but together? They just compliment each other so well. It wasn't until after I had finished the manicure, I realised I needed to make a tutorial, so I've quickly re-created the process of my ring finger using The Nail Trainer.

In hindsight, had I known the direction I wanted to go with this mani, I would have skipped step 6 and added the studs straight away, following the same pattern as they would have been enough to cover the connecting lines. I'm absolutely in LOVE with this mani, just the way the three colours all compliment each other perfectly and how vibrant they all are.

If you love this mani as much as I do, I need your help! piCture pOlish are going to be running a competition their Pinterest between all the bloggers participating in Blog Fest this year where all nail art creations go into the running to be chosen to create a collaboration shade with piCture pOlish launched in 2014! How exciting!!! VOTING IS NOW OPEN HERE FOR 24 HRS ONLY

However, there are only 3 awards that will be voted and chosen as follows via our special Pinterest Blog Fest 2013 board:

• 1 x Award - as voted by PP friends and fan - THAT'S YOU LADIES!
• 1 x Award - as voted by all participants of Blog Fest 2013
• 1 x Award - as voted by Jules & Megs of piCture pOlish

I'm super excited and anxious to see who else is participating in Blog Fest 2013 and find out what other amazing Nail Art creations have been entered!

To make sure you don't miss out on the announcement to vote, make sure you add all of piCture pOlish social media networks; Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & YouTube

Also, if you'd like a bottle of Jade, Hot Lips or Violet Femme of your own, piCture pOlish can be purchased directly from picturepolish.com.au, who ship Worldwide, or alternatively you can purchase through their international network. If you're making an order directly from piCture pOlish with 4 polishes or more, check out their Everyday Deals page for the opportunity to get 1 or 2 FREE shades with your order!

I'M HAVING A BLOG SALE!

Hi ladies! I was unfortunately made redundant from work yesterday, and because of this I've had to put my Nail Polish obsession into perspective and have a MAJOR clear out to help see me through the difficult months ahead whilst I find myself a new job. It was a painful experience but I have managed to clear out over 200 polishes from my stash and more will probably be added soon!

CHECK IT OUT

Guest Post: Nail Jems

Hi ladies! I've got another guest blogger for you today, this time we're graced by Jem from Nail Jems who has been inspired by some Aboriginal art! I love the colours she used in this mani, and I'm sure you will too! So without further ado, let's take a look at Jems' creation!

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First of all I would like to thank the lovely Rachel for allowing me to do a guest post for her amazing blog, I am new to blogging and this is only my second ever guest post, so it's an honour to be featured amongst such talent!

Rachel asked me to do something along the lines of favourite techniques or tools, and one tool that has become very important to me and is so versatile for nail art is my dotting tool. I have used it in so many ways, but I have never done a dotticure before!

I confess that I am not a big fan of polka dots and for this reason I have avoided the dotticure so far, and then I realised that if I didn't like polka dots I was just going to have to get creative, and as I moved to Australia recently I took some inspiration from Aboriginal art! Aboriginal art is amazing, they create an entire image with millions of tiny little dots, and as the Aboriginals are tied to the land much of their artwork is based on Australian nature. So I decided to adopt their dotting method of creating art and did my first Aussie themed dotticure, and I have to say, though not a fan of dots I love it!

Each nail represents a different aspect of the Australian Terrain.

The index finger represents the sun

The middle finger represents the sea

The ring finger represents the hinterland, which is a region of forest covered mountains seperating the coast from the desert behind (which is where I live!)

The little finger represents the desert.

On the thumb nail I decided to feature an Australian animal, and though it's not the most famous Aussie animal, it is my favourite and that's the snake. They are rife here and I have a 3 meter long carpet python who lives in my back garden and showed up as an uninvited guest to my wedding!! This makes me happy, if I didn't move around so much I would have a real pet snake! I love that there are so many here, but some are very dangerous and I have had to attach a venemous snake chart to my refrigerator to know what to keep away from when they show up on my patio!

This was a pretty tricky mani to do as I had to get the dots small enough to form a visible pattern on such a small area as the nail, I think I managed it quite well for a first dotting attempt!

I used a lot of colours in this mani so I will list them all here:

Sun: Sinful Colours ''Hazard'' and Sinful Colours ''All about You''

Sea: YSNY 018, LA Girl ''Mermaids Lagoon'' and Sinful Colours ''Cinderella''

Mountains: YSNY 016, Chresy (no name) and OPI SkyFall Collection ''Live and Let Die''

Desert: Sally Hansen Lustre Shine ''Lava'' Sinful Colours ''Hazard'' Sally Hansen Shine Tech (red but lable has gone!) and BYS Neons ''Shimmer Golden Sands''.

Snake: YSNY 016, LA Girl fruity in ''Blissful Blackberry'', Sally Hansen Lustre Shine ''Lava'' and BYS Neons ''Shimmer Golden Sands''

Some of these polish such as YSNY and Chresy you may never have heard of as they are budget European brands, and others you may not have heard of as I believe they are Aussie brands like the BYS polishes. All of these colours were dotted onto a white creme base, Sinful Colours ''Snow Me White''

I hope you enjoyed my first ever dotticure! If you would like to see more of my work please pass by my blog and drop me some love at: http://nailjems.blogspot.com.au/ 

Thanks again to Rachel for this wonderful opportunity to share my work with you all! 

Jem of Nail Jems x

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I absolutely LOVE her index finger, however with my current Blue obessesion, the middle finger has to be my favourite. Thank you again to Jem for being a guest on Polished Criminails!