John Lewis Bloggers Nail Art Challenge

I was contacted by someone from the John Lewis makeup team to ask if I'd like to take part in a nail art competition alongside some other bloggers. I am no nail artiste - and am in total awe of those that can do things like paint the whole cast of Sesame Street on their talons... I seem to be a bit shakey when it comes to the finer details on nails, and can just about manage a messy reverse manicure, as you may see later. I'm more a fan of 'random' nail art, as you may also see later!

All of the bloggers looks would be judged by someone from John Lewis, and the winner would win £150 John Lewis voucher - so of course, I said yes!

The polishes I was sent were Nails Inc - Trafalgar Square, a magnetic polish

YSL La Laque Polishes in 12 (Pure Pearl) and 19 (Fuchsia Pink)

and NARS Space Odyssey

We were told "Which polishes you use, how you use them and the number of looks you create is entirely up to you – you could even mix and match these with shades from your existing collection." So I decided to run with that, and try every kind of nail arty kind of thing I knew. I can tell you now, I have never painted my own nails so often in one day - but it was so much fun!

Excuse the iPhone pics coming up - but these are the different looks I did using these polishes.

I used the YSL No12 with microbeads to create this look:

I used YSL No19 with NARS Space Odyssey layered over the top and pulled off with lace for this look:

I used both the YSL polishes with my black striper and dotter to make leopard print nails for this look:

And again I used both the YSL polishes to make marbled nails for this look:

I used the Nails Inc Trafalgar Square for this, then used Nails Inc Whitehall for the ring finger accent for this look:

I used NARS Space Odyssey with the black striper and dotter and black diamantes to create this look:

And lastly, I used YSL No12 and newspaper to create these newpaper print nails:

And there you have it - that was pretty much my day in photos! I hope you like them... I think all the looks are pretty self explanitary, but if anyone would like a tutorial for any of them then just shout!

Let me know what you think of the looks I have done - and check out the other entries too - Lipglossiping has done a gorgeous valentines nail look, and I'm looking forward to seeing what The London Beauty Review and A Beauty Junkie in London do with their polishes. The deadline is today so their looks should be up by tonight at some point.

Thank you John Lewis, for this fab opportunity!


01/02/12 - edited to add - the deadline is now mid February due to the original deadline being unrealistic for some of the participants. I think I will leave my entries as is, but if anyone has any wonderful ideas for me to add to it please let me know :)