Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Contest Spring Color Block

Press Sample, Purchased by Me

As you all know, I absolutely "<3" nail art. Today I entered the Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art contest for April, showing off my best color blocking manicure (significantly improved from yesterday's disaster!). The grand prize is a trip to NYC and I'm dying to go back ... so if you have a spare minute and want to help send me to the Big Apple, click here to vote— I promise it's really simple and will just take a second if you have a Facebook.

This color block nail art features some of my favorite spring shades from Sally Hansen. Growing up, I loved the "baby" colors: pink, blue and purple. I wanted to stick with these colors, which in my mind are associated with spring, but make the manicure bolder and brighter.

I started out with two coats of Gilty Party, from the Complete Salon Manicure line, topped off with a light coat of Seche Vite to quick dry.

Using striping tape, I sectioned off parts of my nail to do the color block. The pastel colors used for this nail art were Fuchsia Flare and Blue Away from the Insta-Dri line, and Lacey Lilac from the Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear collection.

The trick to color blocking is to make sure that your base color is absolutely dry before applying the tape; also, when removing the tape, make sure you do it immediately after you apply the colors to each section, or else you'll end up smudging polish.

That's all for today, but please, please, please help me win this trip to New York! Remember to vote once a day until the end of the month — if I don't win, I'll be back next month to a participate in the next challenge!

Products in this post were provided for review (Gilty Party, Fuchsia Flare and Blue Away) and purchased by me (Lacey Lilac). See my disclosure policy for more details; press samples do not influence my opinions or thoughts on the polishes provided.