31dc2012 - day 30

Okay, I'm late again. Later than before. I've gotta hurry this post up!

The theme for today is Inspired By A Tutorial.

I decided to copy from my friend Laurie @ Dressed Up Digits, and recreate the same mani she did today. I saw it and I just loved it!

Tada! Herringbone print!
It looks ultra complicated, right? But it actually isn't, because it's just a stamp plus a few added lines.

This look comes from Miss 80 Million on YouTube. Click here for the tutorial.

You start by using the chevron stamp from Bundle Monster BM-201, and then using a striper, you add the vertical lines.

I used OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape - Matte as my base color.

I really like the color of this polish, but I'm still not sure how I feel about flat matte polishes.
This is a bit brighter than the original Gargantuan Green Grape and it's practically a matte-dupe for Color Club's Twiggie.

I used Konad Special Black for the stamping and an It's So Easy Stripe Rite for the striping.

I noticed that my striper polish dried matte as well, and stamping usually turns out mostly matte, so I decided to just skip the topcoat and leave this one matte!
(Plus I'm sure I would have smeared the hell out of it! Haha!)

I'll probably add topcoat tomorrow before I take it off just to see what it looks like.

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY! It's good that it is ending now because I am really burned out. As you can tell by the three last-minute posts I did this week. Haha! I'm just too busy for changing my nails every day now.
I can't wait to enjoy a manicure for a few days!

31dc2012 - day 29

Reader beware, you're in for a scare!

...Not really. But you're in for Day 29 of the 31 Day Challenge - Inspired By The Supernatural.

The theme for today is pretty dull and difficult to come up with ideas for.
I decided to do nails inspired by Goosebumps!

Why Goosebumps? Well... One reason, and one reason only.

Ermahgerd Gerseberms!!!!
Not gonna lie, I get way too much enjoyment out of the Ermahgerd meme.

Memes aside, these nails are fun!
I love drippy nails and the bright colors really make it pop.
I remember watching Goosebumps as a kid and being totally creeped out by the goo dripping down the screen (and let's not talk about how much the show itself creeped me out.)

I did this manicure with two polishes from Color Club - Twiggie & Express Yourself.
Unfortunately my photos aren't really showing these colors accurately - the purple is much less blue and the green is less minty and more bright.
For an idea of what Express Yourself really looks like, check out my swatches of the Pride Collection.
I just was not in the mood to take 1,000,000 photos of this manicure tonight to try to get the colors right! (Plus I wouldn't have the time - I'm late posting again, I know!)

Wearing these nails makes me wanna do more drippy nails. The effect is really cool. They look better in person, too, because you can't see all the flaws like you can in pictures.
I'm pleased with this mani despite not liking this day of the challenge.

Just two more days left! It will be weird to go back to regular posting... Haha!

31dc2012 - day 28

Hello and welcome to Day 28, otherwise known as "big ol' fail."

Well, maybe not a fail. But it just isn't super interesting. I'm so low on time!
Today's theme is Inspired By A Flag.
Part of the reason I am low on time today is because I am doing homework for one of my classes. Which happens to be a German history class. German homework... German nails?

Do you think this will get me extra credit in my German class?!

German class, German nails, and OPI Germany collection polish!
I used OPI - Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! on all my nails except the flag. It's a beautiful dark gray-green creme that covers in 2 coats, flawlessly. Yum.
I only picked up two colors from the Germany collection, and I definitely recommend this one.

The flag colors are Color Club - Almost Famous (yellow,) OPI - Comet Loves Cupid (red,) and Color Club - Where's The Soiree? (black.)

Not my most exciting work, but hey, it's done! OMG only 3 more days!

And now I'm off to complete my busy day. So long!

31dc2012 - day 27

Hello! A late post coming from me on Day 27 of the 31 Day Challenge.

Today's theme is Inspired By Art and the artist to choose is a no-brainer for me.
Andy Warhol has always been my favorite artist and he probably always will be!
I used one of his paintings for last year's challenge and I'm doing it again now!

There's a bit of a twist though - I'm taking inspiration from another thing that took inspiration from Andy. Ha!

You may be familiar with the NARS cosmetics Andy Warhol collection that came out this year.
The polishes were pretty lackluster but man, the packaging of the makeup and stuff was just phenomenal.

I can't believe the eyeshadows are actually made like his prints. I wouldn't be able to use them!
You can see the piece I took inspiration from above.

I don't think Andy's print actually came in these colors, but I quite like the combo!
(As a matter of fact, if the print does come in these colors, I'll need to order it somehow for my new bedroom. Haha!)

I know I used the completely wrong shade of purple for my nails though, it's not the same as the original. But hey, it's late and I just wanted to use something opaque and bright!

This was an all-Color Club manicure: Where's The Soiree?, Pucci-Licious, and French Tip.

I sort of did a lot of screwing around with the base of this manicure before adding the flowers... Let me show you some iPhone pictures from the in-progress look.

I started with a black base.
I then began by doing the tissue-technique in white - where you coat your nail in polish but quickly remove most of it with a balled up tissue.
It looked too white, so I did it again in black.
And that's how we got to the above photo - a fuzzy-looking gray textured base. It was pretty cool actually! But not what I was going for.

To get the scratchy look I was hoping for, I started adding white polish with a tiny dotting tool and essentially scribbling around to smear it all messy and streaky. It really gave me what I wanted!
But I think if I were to do it again, I would just do this step over a black base. It would probably look more like the original inspiration.

But hey! I still think it turned out good.

I did the flowers with a dotting tool and added the black centers with an even smaller dotting tool.

I hope these nails would have made Andy proud! Haha. I quite like 'em. Too bad they gotta come off tomorrow morning so I can get started on Day 28!

Have a lovely evening.

31dc2012 - day 26

Hello and welcome to Day 26 of the 31 Day Challenge! I am really getting tired of this now. Haha.

The theme for today is Inspired By A Pattern.

I took inspiration from an adorable notebook!

The notebook features polish bottles so of course I had to do a matching mani!
(Thank you to my friend Jini/MakeupMom123 for sending it to me!)

Doing polka dots was probably a cop-out choice for today's theme but hey, this is my challenge, don't judge. Haha.

I tried to match the colors exactly and I did a damn good job if I do say so myself.

The background is Essence - L.O.L
The blue glitter is Color Club - Sexy Siren
The pink glitter is Orly - Bubbly Bombshell
The silver glitter is OPI - Crown Me Already!
The blue is OPI - Fly
The pink is Orly - Blushing Bud
The nude is Orly - Decades of Dysfunction
The purple is China Glaze - Spontaneous

I love the glittery bottles on the notebook and I love the added glittery dots on my nails!
This is a fun mani and I'm enjoying wearing it for today.

Just 5 days until I can wear whatever I damn please on my nails for more than one day! LOL.

31dc2012 - day 25

It's Day 25! Today's theme is a fun one: Inspired By Fashion
Let's get right to it!

I found my inspiration in the dress that Kristen Stewart wore to the 2012 MTV Movie Awards.
I kinda wish I owned this dress. Haha. It's hot!

I'm really pleased with how this translated onto my nails!
Part of me wishes I did something Betsey Johnson inspired (like last year) but hey, I pretty much do Betsey-like things all the time, so it's nice to push myself into a different type of design.

I did this design using DIY nail decals, otherwise known as nail polish on scotch tape cut into shapes.
Yes, you read right - you paint some strips of scotch tape, and once they are dry, you cut off pieces and stick them to your nails! It is so simple, and a great way to get crisp lines and shapes.

I did this sort of thing once before, seen here - and check out the step-by-step as seen on The Beauty Department.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep is the silver base for my manicure. This is such an awesome silver polish, it covers in one coat, and I find the Insta-Dri brush to be ridiculously easy to work with. One coat and no clean up necessary? Yes please!

The colors I used for my "decals" are:
Color Club - Almost Famous
Color Club - Where's The Soiree?
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Trouble Maker

Don't forget a thick coat (or two) of topcoat to seal in your decals so they don't peel off.

I love the contrast of the metallic and the cremes, and the random shapes really pop!
Which nail is your favorite? I think the index is my fave.

6 more days to go! Yikes! Almost there!

31dc2012 - day 24

The theme for Day 24 is Inspired By A Book.

Just like last year, I turned to my favorite author to find inspiration for this challenge.

I chose to do my nails like the cover of Ellen Hopkin's Glass.
I think I really got this one dead-on!

To create this look, I started with a purple base (one coat of China Glaze - Gothic Lolita followed by one coat of Orly - Preamp) which I let set completely.
Then, I quickly applied a coat of Essence - Black is Back, and immediately dabbed off most of it with a balled-up tissue.
I really like the texture this technique creates! And it is perfect for the look from the book cover.

Another day complete! Just one more week to go!

31dc2012 - day 23

Hey! Did you think I was about to lose the challenge? Think again! It's 11:30pm, I've got a half hour to spare!

Today's theme is Inspired By A Movie.
I struggled all day to come up with an idea for this theme. Literally all day, I drove myself crazy trying to think of something.
I think the problem is that there are just too many movies you could possibly pick so you're on sensory-overload and nothing seems right. Or everything seems too over-done.

Finally I managed to settle on a design after consulting my (relatively small) stack of DVDs.

Juno! This used to be one of my favorite movies, I think I watched it about 100 times. It's been a while since I've last seen it though, but now I'm in the mood to watch it again!

Not only did I incorporate the recognizable orange and white stripes, but also Juno's hamburger phone! Haha! (Credit to my friend Emma for suggesting the hamburger!)

I really like the stripes! I can't handle fully-orange nails but I can handle them with stripes. Heh.
I did them using a stamping plate from Essence - the image is meant to be used for diagonal stripes but I used it sideways and still managed to cover my whole nail which made me really happy.

The orange, which is a perfect match for the Juno orange, is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Sun Kissed.
The stamping and the hamburger were done with Nail Art Diva stamping polishes.
I forgot to include one polish in the photo - Sally Hansen Advanced Hard As Nails - Myth, which is the color of the hamburger bun.

And a final close-up of my hamburger phone. I did the black details with a sharpie because there was no way I had the patience to freehand that right now.

Now I want a hamburger phone!

Okay, holy crap, let's hope I can do tomorrow's challenge with a bit more time to spare. I'll put on my thinking cap straight away!

31dc2012 - day 22

The theme for day 22 is Inspired By A Song.
Let me just start off by saying that this is not my best effort. Haha.

The song I chose to use as my inspiration is Domino by Jessie J.

This song is my jam and I have been wanting to do nails inspired by it (moreso the video) for a long time! However I did not have enough time to incorporate all the ideas I had so I had to go with a more simple design.

It's pretty easy to see where the inspiration of my index and middle fingers came from, and the other nails are inspired by an awesome wall in the video.
(I wanted to do each nail a different pattern from the video but that would have taken forever! So I settled on my favorite one.)

This image is from Konad m60. I hadn't used it before but now I'm really diggin' it!

I used only three polishes to create this look:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White
Konad Special Black (I used this for the freehand domino detail too but I don't recommend using special polish for nail art. I was just being lazy.)
NOX Twilight - Crush

 
Like I said, not my best effort. Still pretty cute though!
I wish I'd had more time to go for a more complicated design but hey, I'll just have to try for something cooler tomorrow!