Spring Challenge 4: April Showers

Wow, the last few days were really tiring... I didn't get around to do anything. It's just horrible if half your colleagues are sick and you have to do their work too... But well, it's the same every year, so nothing we didn't expect. Last year around this time I wasn't doing my nails as frequently though. I managed to do my nails for theme 4 as planned, but I forgot to take pictures at first. Yet, this turned out to be a good thing!

I didn't really have an idea for theme 4, April Showers, so I ended up looking at random pictures that turned up when searching for rain patterns. I'm sure a few have done the same and have seen the pattern I ended up using. I wanted to do something quick and easy and this pattern just did the job for me.

First of all, I removed my previous manicure just to find out, that the polish had stained my tips even though I had used a base cost. Boo. I cut them down a bit to minimize the damage. After applying two coats of base coat this time, I painted my nails using two coats of essence Into the Dark, which is a polish from the fall LE called Vampire Love. So far, I hadn't used it. In the bottle it's a greyish dark blue with some shimmer which reminded me of rain clouds, hence my choice to use it. It doesn't translate like that to the nail though. It's darker and the shimmer is not as prominent. Still a nice color though... more of thunderstorm clouds maybe.

On my ring finger nail, I painted the pattern using white acrylic paint. The white also makes the colored drops pop a lot more. Here's the end result:

 

The next day, when I was showering, I was looking at my hands and had another idea. I thought, why not try to make the dark nails look like they were just hit by some rain. Using clear polish, I tried to imitate this. What do you think?

No spring-like manicure, but I like the rain effect. I didn't go to work leaving it like this though. After taking pictures, I added top coat which smoothed out my little raindrops somewhat. It was an interesting effect, almost 3D. I might have to try this again... doing it on purpose next time.

And again, here are the links to the other wonderful ladies participating in the Spring Challenge:

Amanda from Mandy's Polish
Heidi from DIY Polish & More!
Katee from A Girl and Her Polish 
Charlotte from Charlotte's Nails
Tess from Football and Fingernails
Karine at Karinea0a
Victoria from Manicurator
Ashley from One Nail To Another
Dani from Rustic Comfort
Sue from Creative Nail Design by Sue
Amanda from Counting Down to Bliss
Hannah from Polished Prisms
Sarah from All This Polish
April from Munia's Nails
Sharra from The Blahg
Jess from Nearly Natural Nails