31 Day Challenge Day 31!! Recreate your favorite challenge

Woohoo! It's day 31!  This has been so much fun, but I am definitely looking forward to going back to a 2-3 times a week posting schedule.  Today's challenge was to recreate our favorite challenge, and I chose to redo galaxy nails.  I really liked how mine came out the first time, but I wished I'd done a black background instead of the brownish one.  So, this time I used China Glaze Smoke and Ashes as the base instead of Orly Galaxy Girl.  I used all the same sponging colors and top coats: Sally Hansen White On & Mellow Yellow, Pure Ice French Kiss, Sinful Colors Forget Now, Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, and Out the Door Holographic top coat.

As a comparison, here is the first one from earlier in the challenge:

And here is today's.

LOL, now that I see the black background I think the brownish-purple is more "realistic" looking as a galaxy. It's still pretty though, I think.

Be sure to check out Painting Outside the Lines' Facebook page for the other entries.  She'll be putting all the Day 31 pictures in an album and the one with the most "likes" will win the contest.  There are a lot of pretty manicures posted already!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Hi Everyone!  I have been waiting to try this manicure for WEEKS! Fish egg nails!  The first tutorial I saw on it was the one MissJenFABULOUS did HERE, so that is the one I based this off of.  I used Sephora by OPI It's All About Me and Butter London Slapper for the under color, then Reflections microbeads.  I really like how this looks, I do think it looks much better in person than in pictures.  I have also learned for next time that you should set the beads and then NOT TOUCH THEM until they are fully dry.  I kept fiddling with them and by the time I took pictures (5 minutes later) I already had a few little holes.  :-(  It's not nearly as noticeable in real life as it is in the picture, but with macro focus you definitely pick up all the dead pixels.  All in all, this is a really fun manicure and I want to play with more of them!

I think between this and the flocking powder manicure I've decided I really like using different textures with my nails.  However, I am only giving this until tomorrow around 2PM before most of the beads are gone and I give up and pick the rest off .  We'll see.

30 days down, 1 to go!  This has been so fun, but I am looking forward to giving my nails (and poor dried out cuticles) a rest!

31 Day Challenge Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

I can't believe there are only 2 days left in this contest!! Today's theme was "inspired by the supernatural."  I decided to do a werewolf profile on my thumb, howling at a full moon.  I just did the werewolf on my natural nail because I thought if I did it against the same night sky gradient I did on the other fingers it wouldn't show up.  The werewolf profile kind of makes me laugh..he looks kind of like he has a beak.  But I love the gradient!  I FINALLY got the sponge gradient to work for me.  I used Essie Go Overboard, Pure Ice French Kiss, and OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue for the gradient and then topped it with Out the Door holographic top coat for the stars.  I did the moon in Stripe Rite.

You can check out the other entries HERE, there are some really awesome ones!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

Hello!  This weekend has gone by waaaay too fast!  Happy Mother's Day to any of you who are mothers, I hope you had a lovely day.  :-)  Today's challenge was "inspired by a flag."  I did the Aruban flag.  I used Zoya Jo and then yellow, red, and white Stripe Rite for the details.  My star thing came out kind of wonky, but I like the blue and yellow together.

28 Days Down just 3 to go!  There are still a few days left to enter my giveaway, found at the top of the page.  On another note, did anyone get anything in the Cult Nails sale yesterday?? I got Living Water, Hyponitze Me, and Iconic.  I'm so excited!  I've heard good things about the brand but haven't tried it yet.

31 Day Challenge Day 27: Inspired by Art

Hello!  Today is Inspired by Art day.  I chose to base my manicure off of Henri Matisse's Jazz Icarus.  I used Pure Ice French Kiss and black, red, and yellow Stripe Rite.  This was really hard to get a picture of!! The blue was so dark that the black almost blended in unless there was incredibly bright light on it, but then with bright light the black part also reflected a glare worse than any other part of the nail so it was still hard to see.  Augh.  This was the best shot I got, but I am really pleased with how it turned out.  :-)

27 days down, 4 to go!  Thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

Happy Friday!! Today's theme is inspired by a pattern.  I chose paisley, because I love paisley.  This really is an "inspired by" rather than a direct representation of paisley...I tried to freehand but it did NOT work!  I need to work on freehanding small details.  So I used a stamp that evokes paisley with it's swirls and dots.  I used Konad m64 which is one of my favorite nail stamping plates, I think it was the first one I bought to try out stamping!  I used Pure Ice French Kiss and Sally Hansen White On.  I love the combination of royal blue and white.

26 days down 5 to go!  Only a few days left!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Good Afternoon!  Today's challenge was "inspired by fashion."  Some of my favorite posts on Tumblr are all the gorgeous pictures of lace dresses.  I think some of the friends I follow track the lace tag or something because there are SO many pictures of pretty lace dresses all the time.  So I based my nails on any number of those lace dresses.  I used Julep Pippa as a base color and then cut out pieces of lace ribbon and adhered it with top coat.  As much as I love the end result, I do agree with DH's assessment that it has more of the 80's hair band look than a high fashion look.  I'm ok with that. :-)

25 days down, 6 to go!  Thanks for reading & don't forget to checkout the giveaway up at the top!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 24: Inspired by a book

Hello!  Today's theme is "Inspired by a Book."  This is one of the days that I had planned from the first days of this challenge.  I based it on the book "The Cat and the Hat" after seeing some flocking powder the exact color of Thing 1 & 2's hair at Michael's.  I'd never seen flocking powder nails before, so I was kind of sad when I got home and found out it has been done before.  Oh well!  They are still super cute, and perfect for Dr. Seuss!  I used Sinful Colors Why Not as the under color for the blue flocking powder, and Julep January for the red nail.  I love this and would wear it every day if it didn't seem so wildly impractical.

24 Days down, 7 to go!  Thanks for reading, and don't forget, there are still a few days to enter my giveaway.

31 Day Challenge Day 22: Inspired by a Song

Good Afternoon everyone, today is inspired by a song day.  I had a hard time coming up with this one, and I'm still not really sure how I arrived at "Eye of the Tiger" but there you go.  Originally I had 2 fingers painted as eyes and 2 as tiger print, but it literally made me laugh out loud when I saw it.  So I painted over one so I only have 1 tiger eye.  I used China Glaze Riveting, Harvest Moon, and Fast Track, and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow and White On.  Then Stripe Rite for the tiger stripes.  I like the tiger nails ok, but this eye is still cracking me up.

22 days down, 9 to go!  :-)  Don't forget to enter the giveaway & thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge Day 21: Inspired by a Color

Hello!  Today's theme is "inspired by a color."  I chose blue, because it's my favorite polish color right now, and decided to do polka dots with it.  I chose China Glaze First Mate and For Audrey, and Zoya Jo because they are different blue shades that I thought went well together and also show a good range of blues.  It turned out rather well, I think, and I'm kind of sad I need to take it off so soon!  That's the bad thing about this challenge, you find something you like and don't really get to enjoy it for any length of time before you're on to the next manicure!

21 days down 10 to go!  Don't forget to go enter the giveaway!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 20: Water Marble

I think this is the messiest water marble I've ever done.  Nothing was working correctly last night.  I used a base color of Sally Hansen White On and then Pure Ice French Kiss, Julep Niecy, and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow for the colors in the marble.  Then I used Orly Matte top coat to mattify it.  I do like the matte effect on the marble.  My nails look really rubbery.  I really love water marbles when they turn out well.  This one bled a lot and I had problems with water droplets and the marble missing part of my finger and the base white shows though (how does that even happen??).  Anyway, even though these are incredibly messy and time consuming I still want to play more with it!  Maybe I'll try a dry marble next time.  :-)

 20 Days down 11 to go!  Don't forget to check out my giveaway posted a few days ago!  I may give it its own page up top to make it easier to find.

31 Day Challenge Day 19: Galaxy Nails

It's galaxy nail day!  I've been wanting to try these for awhile now, but they looked so complicated!  I used my thumb as a learning experiment since it's never in pictures and then learned from there.  I'm really happy with how this turned out, although next time I think I will use a black as the background instead of the purpley-brown that I used.  I used Orly Galaxy Girl as the base color; Milani white stripe, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, and Sinful Colors Forget Now for the nebula; Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe and Out the Door silver holographic top coat for the top coats.  This one even got a "That looks awesome" from my husband, who normally only tolerates looking at my nails.  Love this one and can't wait to play with more galaxy nails later!  :-)

19 Days down 12 to go!  Don't forget to go checkout the giveaway posted a few days ago!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 18: Half Moons

Hello! Today's challenge was half moons. Half Moons are one of my favorite looks, but they tend to turn out wonky for me. I'm really bad at getting the paper reinforcement stickers centered on my nail and my nails are also tend to make it look less like a half moon and more like I just taped off the bottom third of the nail in a straight line. Regardless of having a perfect half moon, I still really like these. For today's I used Zoya Charla & Zuza. I had never used either one of these and really liked both of them. I only used 1 coat of each, and if I was wearing them on their own I would say Zuza needs 2 coats. I wanted it to stay light to have more of a contrast with Charla so I kept it at 1. I used a Milani silver glitter striping polish as an accent.

18 days down 13 to go!  I'm really excited about tomorrow's galaxy manicures!!  

Don't forget to check out my giveaway, posted a few days ago!  The Rafflecopter is now fixed.  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 17: Glitter

Hello Everyone!  Today's theme is glitter nails.  I decided to try the triangle on the bottom of your nail thing because I've seen it around a lot and loooove it.  I really like this on my nails and will probably do this many more times.  I used Spoiled The Parking Meteor Has Expired for the base color and Finger Paints Art You Wondering for the glittery triangle.  The Parking Meteor Has Expired is black with a tiny, tiny, green micro shimmer that reminds me of the credits from The Matrix in certain lights.  The tiny, tiny green shimmer is the same color as the green in Art You Wondering and I thought they looked pretty good together.  :-)

17 Days Down, 14 to go!

31 Day Challenge Day 16: Tribal Print

Today's challenge was tribal nails.  This is one of the days I knew what I wanted to do well in advance, and it just did not turn out at all as planned. This manicure is so messy!! I painted a base color of Julep Alyson then put a thin strip of tape down the middle of each nail and painted the bottom half with Julep Nessa and the top half with Julep Ashley.  Then I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen to draw in the designs.  There were several things that went wrong.  A. My hand isn't very steady (I can't blame it all on the pen). and B. The pen ink pooled and shifted and settled funny.  But for better or worse, here it is!

16 Days Down, 15 to go!  

31 Day Challenge Day 15: Delicate Print

Today's theme is delicate print.  I used Konad plate m73 for this.  OPI Russian Navy was the base color with Sally Hansen Celeb City for the stamping.  It showed up really well in person, but was really hard to capture on camera.

You can kind of see the print better at an angle...I think.

15 days down, 16 to go!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 14: Flower Nails

Hello!  Today's theme in the 31 Day Nail Challenge is flower nails.  I've seen several cherry blossom manicures floating around online and always think they're so pretty so I decided to try one of my own.  I used Sinful Colors Cinderella as the base color and then Julep Niecy for the flowers and black Stripe Rite as the branches. I used Konad Black for the centers, and then didn't let it dry enough (again) before adding top coat.  Since I waited 30 min this time I really just think Konad black never ever dries.  Rawr.  Streaking or no, I still like these and have gotten lots of comments on them today.

14 Days down, 17 to go!

31 Day Challenge Day 13: Animal Print

Hi!  Today is animal print day.  Animal prints on nails seem big lately, but I'm not a huge fan.  Especially of cheetah print...I don't know why, I just particularly dislike cheetah print.  But that's irrelevant.  I decided to do zebra print with Konad black polish and Red Angel plate RA113 on top of Butter London Slapper.  Slapper is such a pretty pretty teal.  It took 3 coats for both full opacity and to smooth out.  I used a dotting tool on my index finger to make a little heart with Julep Niecy.  My top coat dragged the black stamping a little, but I kind of think that makes it look more like a hairy, teal zebra hide.  Stamping with Konad polishes always seems to take FOREVER to dry with me and I almost always have bleeding with it.  Even using the floating method.  Oh well.  I like how this turned out anyway.  I still probably won't make animal prints a regular thing though.  :-)

13 days down 18 to go!  Go check out the other participants at Painting Outside the Lines!

31 Day Challenge Day 12: Stripes

Hello!  Today's theme is stripes.  I used Orly Rage again (I've been using this one a lot lately!), as well as green, light pink, and black Stripe Rite.  I like how these look over Rage, the gold only just peeks through and reminds me of distressed paint on furniture.  

12 Days Down 19 to go!  :-)

31 Day Challenge Day 11: Polka Dots!

Hey Hey, tomorrow is Friday!  Today is polka dot day in the 31 day challenge hosted by Painting Outside the Lines.  I used Sally Hansen Rockstar Pink and Konad special black with my dotting tool.  Initially all the nails were Rockstar Pink with black dots, but I messed up one of the dots on my ring finger so bad by not waiting for everything to dry that I just painted that nail black and used Rockstar Pink for the dots.  I think most of my accent fingers come from messing that finger up.  :-)

11 Days down 20 to go!  We're starting to get into the fun themes!