The Neverending Pile Challenge: Hard Candy Gummy Green

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Good evening everyone! I thought it would be nice to kick off my second year of blogging by starting a new challenge! The Neverending Pile Challenge was created by Missy of Gnarly Gnails and is designed to help those of us with enormous stashes get through some of our untrieds. I went through my stash list and discovered that nearly half (almost 200!) of my polishes have never been worn. This is clearly unacceptable!

If you'd like to join in, simply join the Facebook group! You can do as many challenges as you like (nail art and just swatches are fine), so long as you try the untrieds!

For today's prompt, glitter, I only had time to do a swatch (I was actually off making money tutoring, so that's a good thing!). I tried on Hard Candy Gummy Green, which I've owned for at least six months.

Hard Candy Gummy Green. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Gummy Green has a minty green crelly base with small black and silver glitters. It's similar to the speckled style of glitter polish, but definitely not the same! I needed three coats for opacity. The polish dried quickly and was easy to smooth with one coat of topcoat.

Hard Candy is a Walmart exclusive brand, and I can't find this polish on the Walmart site but it might be available in stores! ($4 for 7.8 ml)

Don't forget to follow along with the other challenge participants!

31-Day Challenge #31: honor nails you love

Well, I made it...the final day of the 31-Day Challenge! I almost can't believe I managed to do 31 manis in a row. There were definitely some days when I really didn't feel like painting my nails, but in the end I'm glad I stuck it out. This month I tried several techniques for the first time and expanded my repertoire of nail art by quite a lot; I also discovered many great blogs to follow! I'm looking forward to doing the challenge again next year (but not before, heh!).

The final prompt is "honor nails you love". I think my favorite nail art blogger has to be Chalkboard Nails; she has impeccable technique, her nails always look fantastic, plus she takes perfect photos! I decided to reproduce her metallic mani from Day 8 of this challenge. When I saw her pictures, I thought, "whoa, how did she do that??" but it turned out to be very simple! (The best kind of nail art!)

Instead of a gradient, I randomly sponged on several metallic polishes for the base color. (I think it turned out a little too subtle.) I used China Glaze Swing Baby, Sephora by OPI I Only Shop Vintage, Revlon Enthrall, Hard Candy Crush on Tin, and OPI The World is Not Enough. For the "distressed" effect I applied Revlon Stiletto after wiping most of the polish off the brush.

I made another collage for the final third of the challenge. Click to see my previous manis!




I also thought I'd be slightly vain for a moment and pick the challenge manis I'm most proud of. I think my top three would have to be:

#21 Inspired by a Color--my version of a waterfall mani. I just think it turned out really pretty, and apparently it's my #1 challenge mani among visitors to the blog!

#23 Inspired by a Movie--probably my best freehand effort so far. It's not perfect, but it makes me smile!

#30 Inspired by a tutorial--one-stroke flowers. The one-stroke technique is one I've been interested in for a long time, but never managed to get right until this time.








OK, that's all, folks. Now I'm off to give my nails a break for a few days. :-D Don't forget to check out the final challenge posts from all these other lovely ladies! (And thanks again to More Nail Polish for organizing the linkup!)