Fashion Inspired Nails

Today is day 25 of the 31 Day Challenge. The challenge was to create nails inspired by fashion. Fashion is an opinion, just as most anything else in this world. So, my nails for today were inspired by my fashion.

I wear T-shirts, and the majority of them are black. I’m happy that way, even if it may not look “pretty.” I am myself. I do not follow others. I do not care what others think of me. I am a pretty content person when it comes to being myself. Others can wear clothes suiting their style, just as I will, mine. 

I used a black striper to freehand the half moons (paper reinforcements weren’t as deep as I wanted), then filled the rest in black (I used Wet n Wild- Black Crème). I then mixed a tiny bit of grey polish (Pure Ice- Kiss Me Here) with the black polish to create a super dark grey/lighter black color, and then used a brush to line the half moon to create a collar (I know- you can’t really see it… but it is there!).

I didn’t take much time on this today because I simply wasn’t in the mood. I also used that horrid top coat that likes to bubble (still trying to use it up…)

Now, I need to tell you something that may interrupt posting on my blog (it probably won’t, though)- My 8gb SD card for my camera decided to stop storing files at 200 pictures. After a while of me struggling to find a solution, I decided to delete some pictures, and then tried to take a picture to see if it saved… it didn’t. I can’t find any solutions on the computer, and don’t know what to do. I does save pictures on the camera’s internal memory, but then requires me to use the chord to transfer them onto the computer, then immediately delete them off of my camera, because it doesn’t store many (maybe 10). I doubt any of you have ever had this problem, but I would appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Tomorrow’s nails will be inspired by a pattern. See you then…. hopefully.

Egypt Inspired Nails

Today was the 24th day of the 31 Day Challenge, and the challenge was to create nails inspired by a book. My nails for today were inspired by “Year of the Hyenas,” and the sequel, “Day of the False King,” by Brad Geagley. I haven’t actually had time to finish the second book, but once things slow down a bit, I will be able to pick it back up. The books aren’t very long, but super good! They’re both about a murder in ancient Egypt and Babylon. So, I guess you could say these nails were more inspired by, “Year of the Hyenas.” Anyway, let’s get back to the nails for today:

I wanted to create nails more inspired by Egypt than book related. Otherwise, I would have painted some wine, and a lion… and well, I don’t want to say anything else in case you happen to read the books (which I definitely recommend!) :)

I used L.A. Colors- Sea Siren for my base, then used one coat of Sinful Colors- All About You on each nail, I then painted the ankh and Eye of Horus with acrylic paint on my index and ring fingers. I thought I was done, but decided it was missing something, so I added a line of small gold hexagon glitters onto the rest of my nails.

Tomorrow’s nails will be inspired by a fashion. Uh oh- I don’t follow fashion (only nail fashion :) ), so it looks like I have some googleing to do!

Oh, and if you do happen to be interested in the books I mentioned- you may have to order them; I called bookstores and searched their websites, but they didn’t have anything by the author. Luckily, I bought, “Day of the False King,” for a cheap price once I searched in in Google.

Easy Madagascar Inspired Nails

Today is day 23 of the 31 Day Challenge. The challenge today was to create movie inspired nails. I tried twice to create nails to the theme of The Proposal, but I found it hard to capture the movie onto my nails without it just looking like bridal nails, or anything else. So, once I failed those two times, I thought of my lovely neighbor who likes to dance along to the Madagascar commercials. While I don’t like the movies, I really like the Madagascar inspired nails I did today:

“Polka dot, polka dot, polka dot, afro!” is the part that my neighbor likes to sing and dance along to, which is where I drew my inspiration from. I got the zebra part from the zebra that had the polka dots on.

I sent a picture of my nails to my neighbor, who then told me she loved it :)

They don’t really look like Madagascar nails unless you knew. You know? They kind of look like party nails, otherwise.

I used L.A. Colors- Energy Source for my white base. I then used Sally Hansen- Blue Me Away! for my blue polka dots, China Glaze- Lemon Fizz for my yellow polka dots, OPI- Elephantastic Pink for my pink polka dots, and E.l.f.- Mango Madness for my orange polka dots. I used a striping brush and black acrylic paint for my zebra stripes.

The challenge for tomorrow is “inspired by a book.” See you then!

Seether Nails

I am so extremely proud of the nails I did today! Today was 22 of the 31 Day Challenge, and the theme was “inspired by a song.” I had so many ideas in my head, but this one was the clear winner:

It’s inspired by Seether’s cover of Careless Whisper’s music video. The ring finger is clearly Shaun’s head, and the rest of the nails (except for my thumb that is just blue) are pixels inspired by the “Dig or Die” part of the music video (I used white instead of green).

Yes, that was a lot of photos! I was so happy with them, I had to include a few more pictures than normal :)
I used Sally Hansen- Blue Me Away! for my ring finger and thumb, and used New York Colors- Lincoln Square Lavender for the rest of my nails. I used acrylic paint for the details.
Even if you don’t listen to Seether, you must admit that my Seether inspired nails are pretty wicked!
Tomorrow, when I, painfully, take these nails off, I will be painting my nails to the theme of “inspired by a movie.”
Does the watermark in the center bother you? They will probably go back to normal tomorrow, unless it doesn’t bother you. The reason I put it in the center today is because I REALLY don’t want these pictures to be stolen or plagiarized.

Sunset Gradient Nails

Today’s challenge was to be inspired by a color. The color I chose to be inspired by was Rimmel London- Sunset Orange. I’m not sure you could even think of anything else than a sunset when reading that name. So, clearly, my choice was a gradient sunset. I used the following polishes: Sally Hansen- Mellow Yellow for my yellow, Rimmel London- Sunset Orange for my orange, and Jesse’s Girl- JulieG for my pink.

Don’t you hate when your top coat messes up your nails? This is the most bubbly I’ve ever seen my nails! I think it’s because my top coat is getting a bit old. the problem is I still have half of the bottle, so I want to use it up. I should try thinner in it. Do you think that it will hurt it? I’ve never used thinner in a top coat or base coat before.

Tomorrow’s nails will be inspired by a song. Hmm…. I have so many ideas in my head! I guess I should start to narrow it down tonight!

Water Marbled Nails

Today’s challenge for day 20 was water marbled nails. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve only tried a water marbled mani once. So, since I’m not very familiar with them, I was quite nervous going into it. I actually did it twice today. This was my second attempt (that I like best):

For my purple, I used New York Color- 239, and for my yellow, I used L.A. Colors- BCC 570.

This was my first attempt:

For my purple I used Sinful Colors- Let’s Talk. For my green, I used Wet n Wild- Jade, and I used China Glaze- Light My Tiki for my pink.

I am clearly not an expert on water marbled nails. I obviously had a lot of trouble with air bubbles on both manis, especially my first try. Nevertheless, I think they are really fun and different. I would like to do them a bit more in the future, and hopefully become better.

Today was the last day of the patterns category. I am going into the inspiration category tomorrow. The theme for tomorrow is “inspired by a color.”

Galaxy Nails

This was my first go at galaxy nails. I was never really interested in them, but loved to see others wear them. I didn’t feel I did them much justice, once I tried them out for myself. I like them, but they’re not really "me."




They were fun to create, and super fast, too!
I used Wet n Wild- Black Crème for my base. I then used the following polishes (in order): L.A. Colors- Energy Source, China Glaze- Solar Power, Wet n Wild- How I Met Your Magenta, Nina Ultra Pro- Sailor, Savvy-Touch of Glitter.
I used Cutepolish’s instructions in her video to create my galaxy nails.
Tomorrow is day 20, which means water marbled nails :(  I think they’re really pretty, but I’ve only done it once. Hopefully they come out decent tomorrow... Wish me luck!

Half Moon Manicure (Sinful Colors- Easy Going, Elf- Purple Pleaser, L.A. Colors Art Deco- Silver)

Today was day 18 of the 31 Day Challenge. I was feeling pretty confident going into this challenge because it seemed simple and fun. Well, it is, but since I had never tried it before, I did not know what method to use. I tried using the hole reinforcements method. They worked pretty well aside from them not laying well at the sides due to the nail walls. I fixed the missing polish at the sides by using a detail brush dipped into polish. Another problem I ran into was some sticky residue once I had taken it off (I think the reason for that is they must have been old). I tried removing the residue with a Q-Tip dipped in some rubbing alcohol, which helped a bit, but not enough to save this mani:

I mean, I guess you don’t see all of the flaws in the picture(s), because of I used an Art Deco striper in Silver to cover the areas where the tape didn’t work so well. I think a thick topcoat also helped to hide the residue.

The polish I used for my base/moon is Sinful Colors- Easy Going. The deep purple polish I used is Elf- Purple Pleaser, and I used L.A. Colors Art Deco- Silver for the silver line separating the moon from the rest.

I really liked the combination of the polishes; a light color for the moon looks nice with at darker polish for the rest. I will probably try to recreate this mani some other time and hope it turns out a little better.

Tomorrow’s nails are to the theme of galaxies. Yet again, I have never tried a galaxy manicure, so this shall be interesting!

Wet n Wild–Sparked

Today was day 17 of the 31 Day Challenge, which was in the theme of glitter. I’ve never really been interested in having full-out glitter nails. I like glitter on my tips, or as polka dots, etc., but never craved a full glitter mani. You know what I mean? With that said, I was pretty ill prepared for this part of the challenge; I don’t have many opaque glitter nail polishes that would do the trick. I did, however, take a chance on this one:

I used Wet n Wild – Sparked.

The picture above is in sunlight.

Although I did not use topcoat, they weren’t too rough to the point where it had driven me mad. Plus, I figured if I left out the topcoat, removal would be a bit easier (I am procrastinating taking it off, though).

Tomorrow’s challenge is half moons! I’ve been wanting to try half moons for the longest time, but never thought they would look nice on me. I’ve planned on trying out half moons for the summer, but figured I would just wait until this challenge. I’m pretty pumped for tomorrow :)

Tribal Nails

Today’s challenge was tribal print nails. Like a lot of the challenges, I have never tried this one. I was pretty nervous about it, but once I finished my first nail, I calmed down; I felt like there was some pattern to tribal nails that you had to follow in order for them to look like tribal pattern, but I figured out that they look pretty, even if they aren’t perfect.



How do you feel about tribal nails? After trying them, I became pretty fond.
I used Orly-Faint of Heart for my base.
Tomorrow is day 16, which means glitter nails!

Delicate Nails

Today is day 15 of the 31 Day Challenge, which means I am basically half way done with the 31 Day Challenge! Today’s theme was delicate print nails. When I think “delicate,” I think of pastels, nudes, lace, flowers, etc.. I jumped on the chance to try out my new Orly polish- Decades of Dysfunction. Oh, how I love the name! I have a thing for abnormal/creepy/morbid things, including names :)  Anyway, I went with a simple lace design:



 
I really like lace patterns on nails. I normally would be unhappy that mine aren’t perfect, but that’s to be expected with free hand. Either way, I am very pleased with them! I think I may buy lace stickers and a lace patterned Konad plate in the future.
Tomorrow will be day 16, which means tribal print nails. I have no clue on how I want to attempt them, so wish me luck!

Watermelon Inspired Flower Nails

Today is day 14 of the 31 Day Challenge, and the theme was flowers. I wasn’t completely sure of what I wanted to actually paint on my nails, so I just painted my nails green, then went with it…


They remind me a bit of watermelons because of the colors used.
I used Finger Paints’ Go Van Gogh! for my green base, then I painted the flowers with Jesse’s Girl’s JulieG, and finally added the yellow centers with Sinful Color’s Unicorn.

Leopard Nails

Today is the 13th day of the 31 Day Challenge. The theme was animal print, so I chose to create a  leopard print on my nails.
 

I’ve never really looked at them, but I think these nails look like the leopard Sally Hansen Salon Effects. I always have a hard time picking different polishes for leopard nails, but I really like these ones. I’m sure you will be seeing this combination again :)
I used Funky Fingers’ Down to Earth as my golden base. I then added spots with Revlon’s Copper Penny, and finally added the brown marks around the spots with Wet n Wild’s Rustic.
Tomorrow is day 14, which means flower nails. See you then!