Monthly Manicure Challenge 2024

[JoSometimes]

Welcome to the Monthly Manicure Challenge! There’s a lot of great manicure ideas and inspiration here on BIC. I find challenges are a great way to channel that inspiration, push me out of my comfort zone, and try new styles or colours I wouldn’t normally go for. It’s a great way to grow in skill and artistry. I hope you’ll join me on this journey.

All are welcome, whether you’re a pro or a novice like me, or if you have a favourite manicurist that is the only one you trust with your hands. You’re welcome to post as often or as little as you like, post late, or skip challenges completely. And feel free to post them on Show Me Your Nails 2.0 too!

April 2024 - April Showers

I’m sure we all know how the idiom goes: “April showers bring May flowers.” So let’s see your water themed manicures this month!

And it doesn’t have to be typical blues for water either. Feel free to try techniques that involve water in some way! Hydrodipping, water marbling, droplet effects, etc… Feel free to try any of these and show us the results!

See My Original Post That Started This Challenge Here

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I’ve been a part of BIC for a while now. I’ve seen makeup, skincare, and photography challenges, which have been great for giving me inspiration, but nothing for mani’s. I love Makeup Challenge of the Week 2021/2022/2023 because it’s given me lots of inspiration, pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me grow in my skills and artistry. I’d probably be stuck doing the same looks if it weren’t for that. I know we have Show Me Your Nails 2.0 which has been a great source of inspiration. I don’t want to take away from it but rather give myself and others a way to narrow down all the great ideas from it and get outside of my comfort zone (which has been bright colours and sparkly toppers lately)

Would there be any interest in starting a challenge for mani’s? We could have a different theme every month or even twice a month so that people can wear their mani’s out without worrying about missing one. People could always revisit themes if they miss them but still want to participate. I’m happy to organize it and if people have ideas for themes, I’m happy to work them in. What do you all think? Let me know if we should go one or twice a month and any themes you might want to see. 

Tagging some people but feel free to tag others who I missed or who you think might be interested.

@RGbrown @Titian06 @itsfi @CynthieLu @ather @jaaayp @Saradestin @Mellmars1185 @WinglessOne @Samtian 

Previous Challenges

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May 2023 - May Flowers
June 2023 - Child At Heart
July 2023 - Fireworks/Canada Day/Fourth of July
August 2023 - A Day At The Beach
September 2023 - We Now Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Program: TV/Movie Inspired Manicures
October 2023 - Trick or Treat! Halloween-Inspired Mani’s
November 2023 - Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice
December 2024 - Happy Holidays: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Years!
January 2024 - New Year Newness
February 2024 - Love and Fortune
March 2024 - Spring Cleaning

Upcoming Challenegs (*Spoiler Alert!* ⚠️ Click at your own risk!)

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May 2024 - May Flowers

In Case You’re Interested In Other Challenges

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Makeup Challenge of the Week 2021/2022/2023 
100 Days of Lipstick Challenge 
100 Shades of Eyeshadow Challenge 
A Year of Beauty- Photography Challenge- Year 2 
💕😌 2023 Mask of the Week Challenge 😌💖 
Please let me know if I missed any!

[Saradestin]

I am posting this mani here because it has some flowers so, why not? 😁

It was so challenging! I had to redo all my white nails. I started with the idea of doing a reverse stamping design, and I did it! It looked quite good. I applied the sticky polish, to stamp the design back, and when it felt sticky to the touch, I placed the design on the nail and it made my white polish below literally melt ruining the design completely! 😭 I tried three more times until I gave up and decided to do a normal stamping to avoid the sticky base. By this time I have reverse painted three designs and tried several more on the nails, having to erase and repaint some nails up to three times. 
This is a photo of one of the designs that were ruined when stamped. 

Don’t pay attention to my dirty fingers. By this time I had already a mess going on.

I only took this picture of the manicure on my right hand, with the middle finger already looking good but with the ring one making me dizzy. I should have taken photos of the entire process but I was so disappointed!

And this is the final result:

 

 

For details on the polishes and stamping plate, you can check Show Me Your Nails 2.0 thread.

[ather]

@Saradestin  Wow!!! These are so pretty despite you having to redo them! 

[Saradestin]

Thank you so much @ather! The end result was very pretty, specially my right hand. It took a lot of effort but it was worth it!

[RGbrown]

@Saradestin 

I think I can (maybe) help with reverse stamping!

Let the stamp dry completely on the stamper head once you've filled it in. Once you're ready to place it on your nail (also needs to be dry dry...go ahead and use your qdtc on your base color, and plan on at least an hour (or more) between painting the base and adding the stamps), lay down a layer of a sticky base coat on your nail (Orly Bonder or the like) and let it dry, then place the stamp. 

I think the trickiest part, or the part most likely to be rushed, is waiting for the sticky base coat to dry...give it a good several minutes, as the solvents in wet polish will soften the dry polish underneath it, so giving your base a little time to set back up again is wise, along with being careful how much pressure you use when placing the stamp. I actually learned that lesson again with my last one...I smeared the base on my thumb with a bit too much pressure, but thankfully the shimmery silver didn't show it very much, and I was able to touch up the worst of it with some strategic dots. 

I know it's not what you wanted, and I know exactly how being disappointed can sour how you feel about a mani even if the end result is fantastic (and this is fantastic!), but I hope you are able to nail your technique soon!!

[Saradestin]

Thank you so much @RGbrown ! Once again, your feedback is gold! I am sure I rushed EVERYTHING! 😅😅😅 I need to be more patient next time 😊. 

[RGbrown]

@Saradestin 

I totally get it, patience is not my strong suit either 😂

[jaaayp]

@Saradestin ILL SAY IT AGAIN. WORK OF ART 👏👏👏👏

[Saradestin]

Aww, you are so sweet @jaaayp !! Thank you! 🤗

[CookieGirl1]

Oh my gosh, @Saradestin, I LOVE that!

[Saradestin]

Thank you so much @CookieGirl1 ! 🤗 It was a painful journey to get there but the result was very pretty! 

[JoSometimes]

Amazing @Saradestin! That looks very patriotic but I also like the floral twist with the stampers. The stamp and stripe on your right middle finger is especially impressive!

[Saradestin]

That’s my favorite as well @JoSometimes ! It turned out very beautiful!

[itsfi]

Cross-post from the Nails 2.0 thread. The nail art on my ring finger nail fits the month's flower nail art theme. 

Tools Used: 

• Dotting Tool 
• Striping Brush 
• Both from the Sally Hansen Salon Pro Tool Kit - I picked this kit up at my local Target

@RGbrown does a lovely job with her lines and I gave some geat tips for a smooth line. On a couple of these, I lifted my brush too soon or paused instead of making a clean lift, and it shows. The stripes on this hand (non-dominant hand) turned out much better than the ones on my other hand. 🤣

Polishes Used: 

💅 Red: Sephora Collection It Girl

💅 White: Nails Inc. Free Time is Me Time

💅Blue: Nails Inc. Need Some Vitamin Sea from the Nails Inc Mykonos Set

💅 Silver: Dare to Wear Stellar Stars 

[ather]

@itsfi  Such a perfect set!! I love the bold red and blue against the white!

[Saradestin]

This manicure is so fun, bright and cute @itsfi ! I love it! ❤️🤍💙

[itsfi]

Thank you @Saradestin! It was a fun one. I was happily surprised with how vibrant the red and blue polishes were.

[Saradestin]

Yes, they are gorgeous @itsfi! I need a bright red cream polish in my collection

[jaaayp]

@itsfi I understand the struggle with the straight lines.. I don't even attempt LOL I think we should have @RGbrown give us zoom lessons 🤣

[RGbrown]

@jaaayp @itsfi 

Ha  😂 Honestly though, I'm not sure Fi's lines look any different than ones I've done! If I want perfectly perfect, I pull out vinyls (or striping tape or whatever sticky straight edge you have) so I can just fill them in, but when I freehand them, they look just like this. Sometimes I try and "square up" the little pointy end caused by the tip of the brush, but I frequently screw that up, so I mostly just leave them be (that can also be avoided by placing the tip off the nail, aka on the skin, but I'm never willing to make that mess lol, nor do I think about having a barrier down until after the fact). 

The best advice I can give for straight (ish) stripes is to get a long brush (really long!), coat it evenly, lay the whole thing flat across your nail where you want the stripe to be, then gently drag it straight down that line to evenly distribute the polish. If your brush had any uneven blobs on it, your line may have some fat spots, but overall, it's gonna be fairly even. Going at it with just the tip of a brush makes it way more difficult, but plop and drag is pretty easy!

^my striper, from a Red Carpet Manicure brush set I picked up on sale at some point.

[Saradestin]

Thank you for the detailed explanation @RGbrown! I don’t have such long brush but have a stamping plate that has three different thickness straight lines and that’s what I will be using until I get the right brush

[jaaayp]

SUPER HELPFUL @RGbrown My June challenge will have some of these "straight lines" which I'll pass off as squigglies 😂😂😂😂