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
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.
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!)
@JoSometimes I’m so into purple 💜. Love your mani💜. You mentioned Dragon Ball, is it the same as Dragon Ball Z ? My son watched it and was even one of characters for Halloween when he was 4.
@Cissy63 Yes! The one I’m watching right is called Dragon Ball Super and was released just a few years before the pandemic hit. It picks up a few years after where Dragon Ball Z left off.
Your nails are growing beautifully @JoSometimes and this is a fabulous purple! They are very reminiscent of Whis. I was just googling this character and stumbled across some really cool powered up images.
Thank you @CynthieLu! I used to cut them down to the smile line and keep them super short. Now, the shortest they get is in line with my finger tips. They would be longer except I trimmed them down last week for my mermaid mani.
I’ve been binging the show quite a bit over the last few weeks. Of course I would connect with a powerful yet somewhat effeminate character! 😅
The grow out is really going well and showing 😄@JoSometimes.
Animes have such a great variety of characters and there's always someone that hits just right. I can see why you are drawn too this character. Fashionably powerful 😉 and a good balance of masculine and feminine. 💜🩵
Me and my friends as kids would pick who we were in the show, when we went to movies or watched tv together. And if someone reconginzed something similar in a characters traits or attitudes, you were them. You had no choice lol. But it made the movies and shows more interesting. 😂
I wanted to do a “trick” manicure and a “treat” manicure this month.
The treat manicure also happens to be mermaid inspired. These are from a Disney x Miniso collaboration for The Little Mermaid. The shades are so cute and adorable. I have an idea for a trick manicure after this one. (Hopefully it works out the way I’m envisioning it in my head. 😏)
when Susan did these she said Halloween but not too Halloween... maybe not Halloween enough for the challenge but thought I'd post and see ... good luck too all
At first, I wanted to do a Jaws themed manicure with Clionadh Cosmetics - Sunken Treasure and a dark grey polish to represent Bruce the shark. When I looked at the only grey in my collection, it was much lighter than I remembered and gave dolphin vibes, not shark vibes. I could have mixed it with some black to darken it but I decided to pivot instead. Its Pirates if the Caribbean themed now! The blue representing the open water and the gold topper representing the cursed gold that kept them all from dying in the first film.
The main polish here is Clionadh Cosmetics - Ring of Fire. It gives me lava/centre of the earth/peering into a volcano vibes 🌋
The name of the polish makes me think of two movies. The first is Pacific Rim because another name for that part of the world is the Ring of Fire.
The other one it reminds me of is The Hunger Games trilogy because of Katnis’ nickname of “The Girl on Fire” with the white being a nod to President Snow and the glitter topper as a reference to President Coin.