Celebration 500 - Post 7 - Recycled Nails

Hi Goddesses

Today’s post is all about Recycled Nails.  It’s something I stumbled on by accident, but something that has helped keep me sane and time managed as a blogger lol.  It’s also something I’m going to make into a weeklyish feature on the blog.

I’m going to take you back in time.  During the Christmas Challenge there was, appropriately enough, a Christmas Miracle, and I did some nail art of an angel that was both okay AND looked like an angel.  So good in fact, that I didn’t want to take her off, only to redo her for some other manis that were coming up later.  So, what does a Crumpet do?  We recycled her, and eventually she appeared in 3 manis –

What does this accomplish?  Well, it saves time redoing stuff, which is a smart way to work.

This then collided with one of my other philosophies – always experiment on your nails before you take them off.  Itching to try a tape mani?  Do it on your current mani, just before you take it off.  Want to know if you can do a gradient?  Do it on your current mani, just before you take it off.   Want to try a watercolour mani?  Do it on your current one, just before … yeh, you get it :)

Gradually, this experimentation mutated into a bit of a game with myself.  How many different looks could I get out of the same mani ?  Usually I manage 3.  At the weekend, I paint each hand different colours, so eventually I end up with 6 manis.  And that’s how you help your scheduling problems.

I thought I’d take you through some examples of when I’ve used this on the blog.  I see some other bloggers doing it, but probably not to the extent I do, but believe me when I say it’s a sanity saver.

So, first of all, let’s go back to the Spring Challenge.  Day 2 asked for your favourite spring pink.  Easy – OPI Sparrow Me The Drama.

Day 16 asked for a Spring Gradient … which I prepped on the same day as Day 2 … using my base of Sparrow Me The Drama …..

And then I stamped over it, and a few weeks later I posted “Squiggles”.

3 posts from one mani.  Recycled Nails.

A couple of weeks ago I wore Cult Nails My Kind of Cool Aid.

I then wanted to do a gradient with it, so picked up OPI Give Me The Moon, and I wore my nails like this for another day.

And then I stamped over it – puddy cats!

3 posts from 1 mani.  Recycled Nails.

Sometimes, the recycling is different.  Day 6 of the Summer Challenge was Summer Sunrise.

When I looked at it from another angle, I also realised it looked like a farmer’s field of crops, which is what it then became for an Adventures In Stamping post.

1 cool gradient.  2 posts.  Recycled Nails.

This style of working won’t be for everyone, but I find it gives me variety, AND more crucially, encourages me to play with my polishes more.  Every single mani in this collage is a Recycled Nails mani, meaning it started life as a completely separate idea or swatch, with its own individual blogpost.

Tomorrow, we’ll go through my favourite Recycled Mani so far :)   Enjoy xx