31 Day Challenge: Day 30

Day 30! One day left! Holy cow!

Today's theme is Inspired by a Tutorial. There are so many nail art tutorials around... It is nearly impossible to decide on one to do for this challenge.
I knew I wanted something simple and fast, and who better to showcase than Kayla Shevonne!

Kayla has done several tutorials of her nail art and I suggest you check them out! I chose the adorable Cherry Blossom Tutorial for today!

Please, please excuse the crappiness of this mani! And go look at Kayla's instead!

You see, my striper brush is all splayed and I am in serious need of a new one. And then I tested out a new topcoat and it smudged my pretty flowers.

Sad, because this really is cute. Cute and messy and smudged...

But when you don't look so closely, it looks adorable!

For this mani I used:
China Glaze - For Audrey
Wet N Wild - Black Creme
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White
Sally Hansen Insta-Dru - Presto Pink

Check out the tutorial I linked at the beginning of the post for a closer look on how to do it!

I'll leave you today with a sneak peak of some upcoming swatches...

Can anyone guess what those pretties are? :)

See you tomorrow with my final challenge mani!

31 Day Challenge: Day 29

Another buzzer-beater challenge post from me!
Truly I almost gave up today, on day 29.
See, I had 2 tests today in school, so I got up, studied, went to school. No nails. Came home, went to supper with my parents who recently got home from Las Vegas (with a HUGE polish haul for me!)
And then I got home, showered, and really didn't want to change my nails.
...But I did. I can't be a quitter!

Today's theme is Inspired by the Supernatural.
Now this can mean lots of things - ghosts, vampires, werewolves, etc. But for me, the word supernatural means one thing and one thing only...

Ah, the Winchester boys.

Supernatural Season 6 came out on my birthday and I spent 3 days last week rewatching the whole thing! And season 7 just started! But I haven't gotten a chance to watch the new episode yet - it's waiting on my PVR!

For this mani I took inspiration from the show's title frame in season 6.

Glass breaks really loudly which can sometimes scare you if you are really interested in the show... Like me...
(And by "really interested" I mean "overwhelmingly obsessed.")

I used Wet N Wild Black Creme as the base and I stamped from BM-208/painted the name with Color Club Lumin-icecent from the Foiled Collection! (That's something mommy brought me from Vegas! I'll show a picture of my haul at the end of the post.)

The Foiled polishes are super shimmery metallic and just did NOT want to cooperate with my camera. It just would not focus properly... Too blingy! So sorry for the crappy photos. (And the crappy mani... This was so rushed!)

Considering how bad my mani sucks today I'm going to point you in the direction of my friend Sarah from Chalkboard Nails who did the cutest ghost mani EVER today. Ever. Click here to see it.
Do you have a glow in the dark polish from this season? Check it out... You will run to your stash and do this immediately! 

Just 2 more days left in the challenge... Let's hope I find the time to do something nice for those!

31 Day Challenge: Day 28

This is probably my worst challenge post yet. And it will be really short because I need to go study!

Today's theme is Inspired by a Flag.

I figured, I'm from Newfoundland, I should do the Republic of Newfoundland flag!

I did these freehand so it is messy and the flash washed out the green so it doesn't look opaque even though it was!

For this mani I used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Presto Pink
OPI - Jade is the New Black

Sorry for this terrible mani! I can't win every day.

31 Day Challenge: Day 27

Day 27! I'm almost there!
Today's theme is Inspired by Artwork.

For me, it was easy to choose an artist to be inspired by. Andy Warhol. My all-time favorite.
But what painting could I chose to somehow represent on my nails?

I did a bit of googling, and one print stood out.

I decided to do like Andy and stamp the same image three times.
I don't have a gun stamp, obviously, so I chose my favorite image instead!

Bows!

I know this manicure is loosely inspired, but I'm actually really proud that I came up with this! I really enjoy this look.
I should have used a brighter pink but it's still good.

The base color is Orly - Lollipop, and I stamped the bow image from Konad m59 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White, Nail Art Diva - Heartfelt Red, and Wet N Wild - Black Creme.

Oh, Andy. One day I will have a house filled with your prints.
What do you guys think of my Andy Warhol nails? I love them!

31 Day Challenge: Day 26

Good evening! Another delayed post from me today. I've been busy!
Today's theme is Inspired by a Pattern.

The nails I chose to do for today were something I did on a friend, and then loved so much I had to do it myself! So I guess I was inspired by this pattern! Haha.

This is Color Club - Age of Aquarius, stamped with Wet N Wild - Black Creme and Bundle Monster BM-203.

I'm sorta fond of these 2-hand photos. The angle is weird but I think I like it. Do you guys like it?

Those are Jill's nails! I think I did them a bit neater on her.

I love this pattern! I wish all of Bundle Monster's plates were this awesome.
Sorry for the super quick post today!

31 Day Challenge: Day 25

Hi everyone! Did you think I failed the challenge today by not posting at my usual time?
Well have no fear, I have just been extremely lazy all day - watching Supernatural on DVD and napping.

I wasn't going anywhere today, so I didn't want to change my nails, but I knew I had to! I can't fail the challenge with so few days left.
I found the energy to do my nails an hour ago and let me tell you - it's a good thing I did because these babies are fierce.

The theme for today is Inspired by Fashion. I'm not big on fashion, really, but there is one designer who always interests me.
Betsey Johnson.

Picking the designer, easy. Finding the right idea for the nails? Hard, because there are so many possibilities!
I settled on the design from one of her perfumes for my nails. (Yes, perfume isn't exactly fashion, but she does carry these patterns across all of her items so I'm sure this works, somehow!)

I am just so pleased with how these came out.
I think that one nail is my best floral nail ever! It look so realistic, doesn't it?

Here is the box I was inspired by. I couldn't find a larger picture that showcased the 2 sides of the box I did so this small one will have to do. The box has a different pattern on each side, but those two were my favorites!

The base color is Color Club - Almost Famous.
The leopard print is Color Club - Yum Gum (light pink) and Raspberry Rush (dark pink.)
The leaves are OPI - Jade Is The New Black.
The flowers are made of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Presto Pink, Wet N Wild - Tickled Pink, and OPI - Dim Sum Plum.

I'm going to work on a tutorial for this kind of floral nail because I get a lot of questions about how to do them! Expect that sometime soon.

I chose to do the accent nail on my index finger to be a little kooky - because Betsey is kooky!

Here are my nails with the only Betsey Johnson item I own - the cutest earrings ever!
The earrings are a bit heavy and hurt my poor little ears, but I wear them anyway.

I'm so pleased with how these turned out, and I hope you guys like them too!

31 Day Challenge: Day 24

Hi guys!
Today I'm going to be showing you what I think is my best design thus far for the challenge.

The theme is Inspired by a Book, and I knew exactly which book to choose!
My favorite author is Ellen Hopkins so of course I had to do one of her books. I even have an autographed book from her!

Coincidentally, her latest one just released 2 weeks ago on my birthday! I haven't had time to go buy it yet, but I did these nails inspired by the cover art!

I. Love. These. Nails.

I couldn't stop staring at them. They were so fast and easy and so visually pleasing!

Here are the polishes I used to create this look:

The base color is one of my all-time favorites, OPI Skull and Glossbones. (I recently bought the full-size bottle of this because the mini is not enough!)
For the coloring I used L.A. Colors Color Craze in Static Electricity & Nuclear Energy, plus elf Dark Navy & Dark Glitter Purple.

To create the messy watercolor look, I first mixed small amounts of the L.A. Colors polishes with clear polish on some paper. Using a dry brush I smeared some messily onto my nails. This made the polish really thin and give it just a hint of color.

Then, again with a dry brush, I smeared on some of the deeper elf colors and just quickly brushed them on to make them messy and splatter-ish.

Sadly, I did these nails and had to take them off 10 minutes later because they weren't an appropriate mani for where I had to go that day. Boo hoo.
I need to do this again and be able to appreciate the mani for more than 10 minutes!

What do you guys think? Did I capture the book cover well? Would you wear this grungey look?

31 Day Challenge: Day 23

Morning everyone! I have a busy day today so I scheduled this post because I wanted to make sure I got this posted for you all to see!

The theme for today's challenge is Inspired By a Movie.

I thought all day yesterday about what movie to do. I could not think of anything particularly great, but this one idea kept coming back to me...

I don't know why I couldn't stop thinking about The Little Mermaid. It wasn't even my favorite childhood Disney movie.
But I just had this idea... So I went with it.

I guess this is loosely inspired - just hair and tail - but I think it is cute!
Maybe my want to do this design came from recently overhearing a child point at me and say "Mommy! Her hair looks just like Ariel's!"
That's a pretty good compliment, I think!

To create the wavy red "hair," I started with a base of OPI - Conquistadorable Color.
Ariel's hair is more orangey-red, so I added a very thin coat of OPI - OPI On Collins Ave.
Then, I used a small brush and started creating waves with Conquistadorable Color.
Finally, I mixed a tiny amount of black with Conquistadorable Color for the defined waves.

Under the sea... Deep blue cardigan sea.

The tail nail (hehe) is 2 coats of Zoya - Ivanka, with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. I think it makes for a pretty nice tail!

I really enjoyed doing these nails, especially the hair.
Maybe I should be Ariel for Halloween... But I don't know about that seashell bra!

31 Day Challenge: Day 22

Good morning!

Today's theme is Inspired by a Song.
As you might remember, I have previously done nails inspired by Nicki Minaj's Super Bass video, so I knew I wanted to do another type of video-inspired nails for this challenge.

I landed on this one, my guilty pleasure song:



S&M - Rihanna.
This video is crazy. And probably should be PG-13. Or higher.
There are some interesting patterns and scenes in the video, and I chose to do skittles based on 5 of the patterns you see in the video!

They don't match at all but I love the way they look! Crazy and random, like the video.

Here's what I used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White
Wet N Wild - Black Creme
Nail Art Diva - Daffodil (yellow)
Wet N Wild - Tickled Pink (light pink)
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Presto Pink (darker pink)
H&M - Coral Summer (blue)
China Glaze - Recycle (gray)

The lace pattern is Konad m57 and 71 together.
The chains image comes from Bundle Monster BM12.
The zebra image comes from Bundle Monster BM16.

I took some screenshots from the video to show where the nails came from!

The zebra inspiration is easy to see!

So is the blue with X's.

Polka dots are always cute!

If you look closely you'll see that I tried to do the newspaper nail trick but it just didn't work very strongly so I added the chains image to those nails for a better look.

The lace nail doesn't come from one particular scene but there is lots of lace going on in the video!

What do you guys think? Do they suit the video?
:)

31 Day Challenge: Day 21

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the final section of the 31 Day Challenge! If you want a refresher of what exactly this challenge is, head to my Day 1 post.

This final section of themes are all inspired by something or other. Today's theme is Inspired By A Color.

I wasn't quite sure how to go about this one, and then I chatted with a friend about it, who gave me the great idea to make it inspired by a polish color, and use the name to enhance the inspiration!
(That friend, is Sarah from Chalkboard Nails, and she is awesome! Seriously check out her blog. She has been doing this 31 Day Challenge right alongside me and she has blown me away every day!)

I looked at a few polishes, seeing which names could make a good design, and I settled on this one:

H&M - I Love Candy. Yep, another Hello Kitty polish from the lovely Line in Denmark.

This is a 2-coat shimmery purple polish, awesome formula, awesome color!

It's full of pink shimmer. Very nice! The quality of H&M's polishes is shockingly good.

Now, to bring in the inspiration from the name! Candy!

Cute little candies!

Awkward hand position to try and catch the last bits of sun coming in my windows!

I used a very small brush to draw on these candies using polishes from the China Glaze Kicks Collection:
China Glaze - It's Poppin' (pink)
China Glaze - Entourage (green)
China Glaze - Sky High Top (blue)

What would this design have been without some Hello Kitty decals? Haha! Too cute.
These stickers are from Born Pretty.

Thanks, Sarah, for helping me find the right inspiration for this!