I love a good nail art challenge. It gives you a chance to try some new designs or brush up on some old skills, it gives you inspiration from places you’ve never thought of (“The theme is ‘dogs in hats’?* Alright, I guess…”), and from a networking standpoint it gives you a chance to connect and linkshare with other bloggers. Win-win-win as far as I’m concerned!
That being said it’s not often that I can get my butt in gear for any long-term or intensive challenges. 31 Day Challenges? Love ’em, but they are 100% not for me. I usually keep up for the first week and then drop off into the void.
With this in mind I’ve decided to put together a list of my personal Top 5 Casual Nail Art Challenges. These are challenges I’ve taken part in (or plan to take part in!) that don’t require a long-term commitment. Generally for all of them you can complete fills for the challenges as frequently or infrequently as you like. That’s my kind of challenge! 🙂
My fill for Challenge Your Nail Art’s ‘Sunsets’ theme |
1) Challenge Your Nail Art
Frequency: Monthly for 3-7 days each month
Theme: Changes month to month – the group votes on both the overall challenge and the daily fills within that challenge. This is usually done during the preceding month.
Link-up?: Yes
Details: This group was originally created by Jessica at Be Happy and Buy Polish to give bloggers a place connect and participate in small and realistically-fillable challenges. The challenge themes are fun and varied (Pirates, Easter/Spring, Embrace Your Geekness) and you don’t need to have a formal blog to be involved – sharing links from Instagram or Facebook are okay, too.
How to join: Request to join the closed Facebook group – there are no requirements for membership
2) The Lacquer Legion
Frequency: Monthly for one day each month
Theme: Changes monthly – the theme is announced at the beginning of the month and fills are expected on an announced day at the end of that same month
Link-up?: No
Details: This one isn’t actually a group, it’s just a challenge anyone can participate in. On the set day for fills to be posted you can share your post across social media with a specific tag (which is announced on the same day the theme is first announced) and a few exceptional fills will be linked and shared on the official Facebook page. Some of the themes they’ve had in the past include garden, fandom and adoration.
How to join: Check out the Facebook page for the next theme and on the set day get to posting!
My fill for #HePicksMyPolish July 2014 |
3) #HePicksMyPolish
Frequency: Monthly. Fills have a week to be posted, and the dates of that week are voted on by the
group.
Theme: A guy in your life picks 1-3 polishes for you, and you have to create a design using only those colours.
Link-up?: Yes
Details: This is a really fun challenge that was started by The Sparkle Queen, and you can check out more details on her blog. Basically the “he” can be any guy in your life – a partner, a father, a friend, a stranger at the store… Anyone you can find! He chooses the polishes without any influence from you, and then you have to brainstorm how to make them look good (or at least not horrible) together.
How to join: Request to join the closed Facebook group – there are no requirements for membership
4) Crumpet’s Nail Tarts Tri Polish Challenge
Frequency: New colour themes are posted monthly and fills are done weekly starting on Tuesdays
Theme: Three colours are chosen monthly – you can post up to 4 manicures using those colours (plus black, white, silver, gold and glitter toppers). At least one mani must contain all three colours, and the others have to have at least two of the chosen colours.
Link-up?: Yes
My fill for FingerFood’s Theme Buffet ‘Rainbow’ theme |
Details: This is just one of the many challenges run from the Crumpet’s Nail Tarts group (which was created by Debbie at The Crumpet) and it’s actually one I haven’t been able to take part in yet. That being said I think it leaves a lot of room for creativity. Some previous colour combos have included pink/green/purple and pink/blue/yellow.
How to join: Request to join the closed Facebook group – there are no requirements for membership
5) Finger Food’s Theme Buffet
Frequency: On-going
Theme: Changes weekly with each challenge open Sun-Sat
Link-up?: Yes
Details: This is a casual one mani a week challenge with some really awesome people run by Sam at FingerFood. The themes are all over the place (in a good way!) and some previous themes have been: Something New, Cocktail Nails, and Patriotic.
How to join: Request to join the closed Facebook group – there are no requirements for membership
This list is by no means exhaustive but it’s a selection of the challenges that I’m the most active with at the moment (or plan to be active with). You can check out some of my previous fils for these – and other challenges – through my Nail Art Challenge tag. If you want any clarification or have any corrections/comments about any of these challenges let me know!
Are you part of any of these challenges already? Thinking of joining any new ones now? Let me know! 🙂
Thanks for visiting! xx
*Note: I have never yet had a challenge include a fill that had to be based around dogs in hats. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it if it came up!