31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 14: Flowers

So I've failed yet again at posting on time for this challenge :/ If anyone is waiting with bated breath every Tuesday and Friday...well, I'm sorry I'm always late! haha I actually had this manicure painted and photographed late last night but I had some misgivings about posting them. I decided to sleep on it and after looking back over my photos, I decided to use these as my flower nails!

What were my hesitations, you ask? Well, I was putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on myself for today's mani. I feel like on the whole I am relatively good at doing floral manicures but that has become a bit of a double edged sword! I feel like I've got to outdo myself every time I do florals and I've managed to let it stress me out - sad right!? ;) Please tell me I'm not the only one who is crazy and does this to themselves!? 

I was also a bit hesitant about using this design for my flower look because I don't think they are immediately recognizable as flowers. They are very abstract and more of a sketched and messy look (Meghan and I were totally on the same brain wave with our flowers!) and I thought that maybe I should stick with a more realistic look. In the end, though, I'm really happy with this mani. 

I just got all the cremes from the OPI San Francisco collection and was itching to use them! I started out with a base of Skull and Glossbones and added a top coat (I like doing this because it lets me easily remove errors with acetone). With First Date at the Golden Gate, I painted the red flower petals, followed by In the Cable Car-Pool Lane with the smaller purple petals. The leaves are several messy lines of A-Piers to be Tan and then with a tiny tiny detail brush and black acrylic paint, I did all my outlining. I didn't worry too much about how clean my line-work was or if I painted outside the lines because I wanted the messy, sketched look. 

What do you think of these? Do you prefer realistic flowers or more artsy looking flowers? 

Happy Polishing! :)

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print

I'll start this entry with yet another apology - I'm so late with this post! I made an impromptu trip up to my parent's house (4 hours north of where I live) and was gone Friday and Saturday. But, I'm posting now!

The latest theme of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge is animal print, and as Meghan had also mentioned in her post, animal print is not really my thing. This is in fact the very first animal print I have ever done - I've never had the desire or need to do it before now! 

When I think of animal print and nail art, leopard print and maybe zebra print and the two that really come to mind. I like a lot of the leopard print ones that I've been seeing lately that use unique colors and varying textures and really contemplating going down a similar route for today's look. However, I decided that I wanted to go with a print from either one of my favorite African animals - Giraffe or Elephant. I was going to make an attempt at the wrinkly and wise skin of an elephant, but as that is not really a "print" per say, nor is it a very recognizable design, I went instead with Giraffe print!

I considered making these bright and fun colors, but when it comes to animal print, I'm a purist and really like print that looks exactly like that of the animal. I used Zoya's Flynn as the base color and Zoya's Louise for the spots and really think these two colors were made to be a giraffe print together ;) I'm a little bit bummed that I had some smearing of the colors on my ring and pinky finger, but alas, things happen. 

I free-handed this pattern with one of my Winstonia brushes (these ones, I love them! You can use the code WONDROUSLY for 10% off of this whole kit!) and it was much easier to create than I thought it would be. I randomly chose the starting place for the first spot and then just made sure to keep a consistent distance between each spot, while varying the size and shape to add interest. For those who don't know, a giraffe's spots are similar to a person's finger prints in that no two giraffe's have the same spots so it felt perfect that I was creating my own unique spots :)

What do you think of these? How do you feel about animal print nail art in general? 

Happy Polishing! :)

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 12: Stripes

I can't believe we're already on day 12 of this challenge! I'm so happy that Meghan and I are sticking with this - I'm still really loving this challenge :) 

For today's stripes theme, I thought about doing something complex with striping tape and going crazy, but in the end, I settled on classic vertical stripes. I recently bought the China Glaze Avant Garden collection and I've kind of been obsessing over the colors since I got them. I used 38 strips of striping tape for this hand alone and I felt my eye start to twitch in frustration after about the 12th strip being placed on my nail! How is it that the tape suddenly acquired a magnetic attraction to my nails for this mani!? 

I don't normally like vertical stripes on myself, but I think I like how these turned out. They sort of remind me of Candy Striper stripes! The colors are subtle enough that it still feels "right" if you will. I'm so relieved that there was little to no bleeding of the colors in the stripes. My secret for fixing any bleeding under the tape is to use a top coat over your base color. This lets you use a brush and some acetone to carefully remove any misplaced nail art polish without taking up the base polish and having to restart. 

I used 7 China Glaze polishes for this look and I'll share them from the darkest/brightest pink up to the darkest blue/purple stripe. 

Base Color - Keep Calm, Paint on

Brightest/Darkest Pink - Passion for Petals

Life is Rosy

Pink-ie Promise

Tart-y For the Party

Fade into Hue

Fancy Pants

I really love these colors together and while this is a super simple look, it took me a long while to get my tape where I wanted it. How do you guys feel about major tape manis like this? Worth it or would you rather forgo the insipid task of taping this much and attempt some freehand? ;) 

Happy Polishing! :) 

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31 Day Nail art Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dots

I'm so sorry that I'm posting this mani late - I suppose that's par for the course for me this challenge, but I'm still fighting this silly cold and it's seriously kicking my butt. I'm so tired! 

I was so excited about today's theme. I've been wanting to do a scene of some sort using polka dots for awhile and haven't had an excuse to do so lately. However, when I sat down to do the design that I've been thinking about for a long while, I was suddenly uninspired by that concept. To my frustration, my tastes vary per day - some days I'm feeling floral and other I'm feeling tribal or geometric (or anywhere in between!) and even if I had loved an idea the night before, suddenly I'll hate it the next day. Does this happen to anyone else?! 

Anyway! I recently splurged and bought OPI's Euro Centrale collection (I know everyone is obsessing over the San Francisco collection, but I'm really not feeling it) and I really wanted to use some of those polishes in today's look. I ended up doing a funky and simple triangle pattern with some tribal print undertones and I really love how it turned out. It definitely shows the touch of the hand, but I like that so much. When I think of Polka Dots, I tend to think of larger dots than these, but I think I'm still staying within the theme for today. 

This was a really simple look to create, but definitely requires some patience to get your dots evening spaced and sized similarly. I used OPI's My Vampire is Buff as my base (big surprise there!) and then I used the smallest dotting tool I have (which is probably equivalent to a thick needle) with OPI's OPI...Eurso Euro to do one straight line across my nail with then added in the triangles lines. I repeated these steps with the light purple (OPI's You're Such a Budapest) and the red (OPI's My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours) to finish off the look. Funny how You're Such A Budapest looks like a light blue next to these colors!

I feel like I need a dress made out of this pattern and coloring - I think it would be so fun! Hopefully everyone is having a fabulous Saturday! 

Happy Polishing :) 

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 10: Gradient Nails

If you've been in the nail art world long enough, you might notice there are some discrepancies between the terms "gradient" and "ombre." Personally, when I first got into nail art, I learned that a gradient is when the color transition happens on each individual nail and an ombre is when the color transitions over a series of nails from a lighter shade of a single color to a darker shade off that same color (one color per nail). There are some who swear ombre is what I think of as a gradient and vice versa. There are others who think the terms are interchangeable. If the nail art world can have an up in arms debate about something, it would be the difference between the two terms.

As an homage to this classic nail art argument, I decided to do a gradient look that also ombres - meaning, each nail has two colors that transition AND each nail color will go from light to dark - that way I can appease everyone's opinions! What can I say, I'm a people pleaser ;) 

I'm still trying to decide if I like the color combo I did for this look. It's a very hard transition and the purple I had hoped to achieve between the red and blue didn't appear as I had hoped it would. Regardless, I do think I like these. 

I used 10 colors for this look, mostly Zoyas (apparently I'm in a Zoya mood lately). From the thumb and starting with the red for each nail: 

Zoya Pepper

Zoya Natty

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Breezi

Zoya Maura

Zoya Robyn

Wet n Wild Heatwave

Zoya Yummy

China Glaze Surreal Appeal

Zoya Kristen

If you're looking for a gradient tutorial, there are several fabulous ones if you simply type in "gradient tutorial" or you can check out a Lulu*s tutorial I did a few weeks back that shows the steps I take for a gradient look. You can find that here. 

I also took a picture of the ombre that occurred before the gradient occurred using my red polishes. I really liked this ombre look on it's own :)

Where do you stand in the gradient/ombre debate? Also, final side note, I think I'm going to switch back to my dark background - thoughts between that and the white background?

Happy Polishing :)

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 9: Rainbow Nails

Friday nights are my absolute favorite. I have been browsing numerous Fall polish collections (and yes, buying them as well) and painting my nails. I've also watched Best In Show, Ella Enchanted and I'm not on Hotel Transylvania - totally random titles but that's the nature of OnDemand. There will likely be at least 2 other movie viewings tonight ;) the boyfriend is out of town so I don't feel too bad about being a lazy bum (that and I'm still recovering from the office plague I caught so that's even more reason to watch movies all night). 

Today is the next theme in Meghan and my 31 Day Nail Art Challenge! I was initially really excited about this day because I've had a rainbow pattern saved on my phone for MONTHS and I knew I wanted to do it for today. However, my execution of said pattern was lacking so I switched gears and went with a super simple (and perhaps often done) striped rainbow look. While I'm sure several people have done something like this, I'm really happy with how these turned out. They're simple in design but visually interesting nonetheless. 

I did this look free handed with a cheap-o brush I purchased off of Amazon that I trimmed down to about 5 hairs. It's crude, but makes doing detail work easier. I started with the red line at the tip and worked my way up, color by color, nail by nail. These lines are definitely a bit wonky but I actually really like that about them. I think it produces a bit of a blurred effect which almost makes the rainbow more of a gradient...if you squint at them ;) 

I used - count em' - 17 polishes for this look. I'll list them from the dark red at the tips, up to the purple near my cuticle. 

Zoya - Pepper

Zoya - Livingston

Zoya - Maura

China Glaze - Desert Sun

Zoya - Arizona

Kleancolor - Neon Orange (terrible formula :( )

American Apparel - Manila 

China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss

Zoya - Pippa

China Glaze - Def Defying

Zoya - Hunter

China Glaze - Exotic Encounters

Zoya - Yummy

Zoya - Breezi

Zoya - Natty

Zoya - Mira

Zoya - Kieko

Whew! So what do you think of these? They make me feel a bit on the happy side ;) 

Happy Polishing! :)

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 9: Metallic

I'd like to preface this post with two things. The first, I am SICK. I feel like complete crud and I'm fairly certain a baby elephant has been sitting on my sinuses all day long. To be completely honest with you all, I rushed tonight's look a bit because of this and I'm not overly happy with the final result. I apologize and I hope you'll forgive me a few weird and funky manis here and there. Second, I have been listening to the Harry Potter books on audio books so I blame that for that fact that this mani reminds me slightly of the Deathly Hallows symbol ;) 

Metallic. Hmm. I don't really "do" metallic polishes. I feel like they clash with my skin tone and I tend to avoid wearing them which completely bums me out because they are so fun looking. I am jealous of anyone who can pull them off with ease. I decided to go with Zoya's Trixie as my metallic polish and, since I so love southwestern style artwork, I decided to incorporate the two into this super funky (and messy :/ ) mani. 

I started with a base color of Ciate's Twilight (which I love) and then used Trixie and a striping brush to outline and fill in the underlying shape. The tan polish is Zoya's Flynn from their new Cashmeres collection and the white is Butter London's Cotton Buds. I'm not sure how I somehow ended up with what appears to resemble the Deathly Hallows symbol, but whatevs! While this look is really different, the part of me that likes that sort of thing digs how this turned out. I would recommend heading over to Meghan's post now though to see how you're really supposed to pull off a metallic look! :)

I also wanted to share what Twilight looks like on its own - it's pretty great but difficult to capture with my artificial light. Here's my best attempt. 

Happy Polishing and hopefully you all stay healthy with no pesky colds! :)

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 7: Black and White Nails

You should all be scolding me for how terrible I am at keeping up with this challenge. I feel like I've got a good excuse this time since I was visiting family out of town the last two nights, but I still feel badly that I'm late with these posts more often than on time! An extra big sorry to Meghan and a ginormous thank you for putting up with me! ;)

For today's look, I was inspired by Arabic/Persian artwork! The boyfriend is trying to learn Arabic for his work and I noticed a really cool round pattern on the cover of one of his workbooks and was immediately inspired to find a pattern that I liked in the same vein. I fumbled around on google images and came across this one and I got to working! 

This was a tough design for me to keep clean - I really struggled with brush drag on this one :/ I wish it was a bit cleaner looking, but I'm still happy with the amount of detail I was able to get out of this. I'll have to hunt down an even smaller paint brush now! I do love my art supply shopping so I can't complain too much ;) 

I achieved this look with my no. 10/0 brush from Michael's again and used black acrylic paint, rather than trying to fight with my fast drying black polish. The base is Cotton Buds by Butter London (great white, but a bit thick) and I used Essie's Matte About You to help bring out the detail in the photos a bit better. 

I started by painting a square in the center of my nail, then another rotated square on top of that. I then painted even smaller squares on the corner of those squares (square-ception!). From there, it was a matter of attempting to paint tiny hearts off of each tiny square and filling in the extra lines at the end. 

Despite the flaws that I see in this, I really do love this look. My camera seems to bring the mess-ups out a bit more than in person so I'll still enjoy looking at them in person. 

Happy Polishing! :)

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31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 6: Violet Nails

Oh boy, it is late! I'm a few hours past the Tuesday "deadline" for today's challenge, but I think it's worth the wait! I must say, I'm pretty proud of Meghan and I for keeping up with this so far...even if we've been a few hours late with some posts. 3 weeks into this adventure, and I am really enjoying this experience. Meghan is so talented so I doubt anyone can complain about having to look at her work :)

After trying out a completely different design and scratching it around 11 PM (3 hours ago!), a friend of my suggested a violet gradient with lace on top and I knew immediately I was going to do it. I feel like I say that a lot, but there is something that happens when you love a design - it just FEELS right. ;)

 I love how delicate and soft this look is and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I used Zoya's Julie (light purple) and Malia (dark purple) to create the gradient underneath the lace and though it's not a super prominent gradient, I like it. It's a little tough to see in the photos, but Julie has a very subtle and very pretty shimmer as it has some fine glitter mixed in with it. Very unique! With the help of my no. 10/0 brush from this kit, I painted the lace on with a generic white acrylic paint. 

 I wish I had some fancy tricks for painting patterns like this, but ultimately, it requires patience. If you try something intricate and delicate like this, don't sweat the small stuff! By that I mean, if you have a line out of place here or there, it's no biggie. You will drive yourself insane if you try and make everything completely symmetrical and the same! I also always recommend using a top coat over your base polish (especially in this situation since your base is also nail art) so that you can easily remove any mistakes you've made with the acrylic nail art on top of it.  

What do you think of this look? 

Happy Polishing! :)