31 Day Challenge Completed!

Day 31 was to Honor the nails you love. So I'd like to give a shout out again to The Nailasaurus who's blog and Youtube tutorials have given me constant inspiration for nail designs and this challenge in particular. She has completed this challenge many times before and I was originally going to do her Underwater Gradient that she did for inspired by a tutorial.

But instead I did this. It's a Saran Wrap technique and although I picked different colours I used her Textured Saran Wrap Tutorial to help me with the effect.

Again my picture doesn't do this manicure justice and I think this may possibly be my favourite one out of the whole 31 Days. It's certainly a manicure I'm looking forward to sporting for more than just one day. And one I'll definitely do again with different colours.

Although I completed the challenge 12 days late, I was determined to finish. I've really enjoyed it. It's pushed me to try all the nail art I've wanted to try for ages and also get some real use out of my ever growing nail varnish collection.

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by The Supernatural and a Tutorial

I wimped out the supernatural, conscious that I am nearly two weeks late now with this challenge and have too many other things going on. Significant birthday party to plan and have also started a new part time course which I have DONE no course work for as yet. 

So my Supernatural for Day 29 was inspired by the film Poltergeist. The ghostly being communicates with the young girl through the static in the TV and this polish reminds me of that. I picked this up from Urban Outfitter and is part of their polish range called W.I.P. This one is called 'Blue Beaded' and I have this in purple to, I think there was a grey too.

Bit patchy I think I could have done with another coat, or maybe next time paint over a base colour. Not to keen on the polish to tell you the truth, drys matt and slightly textured, I supposes as you'd expect. I popped some top coat in after this picture which evened it out a bit, but it may need to go in my swaps pile.

Day 30 was inspired by a tutorial. One of the first videos I saw on Youtube that really got me into Nail Art was by PackAPunchPolish and is her Star Burst Water Marble. Take a look at this tutorial, she makes it look sooooo easy, and it really isn't. Also when I saw this video, I was like, you can make your nails look like this? I need to know how!

I did pick out similar colours to what she used, but some of my polishes just didn't want to spread, so I had to work with what I had and here's my attempt...

My pictures suck at the moment and my thumb nail probably came out the best and was the first nail I tried. I just can't get my crappy phone camera to focus. By the way this Revlon Scented polish in 'Raspberry Scone' was the best polish to work with for marbling. I can't say the same about the rest...

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by a Artwork and a Flag

I've been wanting to try a splatter manicure for a while and now was my chance. It's not so much inspired by a painting, but you could say an artist and reference Jackson Pollock. So here it is! I checked out a few tutorials first to get an idea of what I needed to do and opted for the dip a straw in your polish method and blow it on your nails.

Some worked better than others and I ended up with a few splodges where I probably had too much polish in the straw, but again happy with my first attempt. 

That's what I've really enjoyed about this challenge that it's actually got me round to having a go at all the great nail art I see on the Internet.

So that was Day 27. Day 28 was inspired by a flag, and I chose Cuba! Cuba is one of those places I'd love to go and I read a really great autobiography called 'Waiting for Snow in Havana' a few years ago. It really intrigued me about the history and the still Communist Government that it's ruled by, that has helped the country retain it's unique culture and society.

Here's what the Cuba Flag looks like (incase you didn't know):

And here's what my manicure looks like:

Stamped stars are a little wonky, I'll admit that, and I supposed I could have coloured them in. Reminds me more of Captain America or Wonder Woman I think.

Only three more challenges to complete and I'm only two weeks behind!

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by Fashion and a Pattern

Day 25 was a design inspired by fashion, so I took the design from a scarf I purchased recently as my inspiration rather than something from the catwalk. I've found it hard to find my own style over the years but something that always sticks with me and that also goes in and out of fashion is Grunge. I grew up in the 80's not really finding any music I liked or could identify and then in 1992/93 I found Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. This music scene, largely from Seattle had it's own signature fashion style too. The boys wore ripped jeans, band T-Shirts and lumberback shirts with green army Eddie Vedder style jackets. Whilst I wore DM's tie die tights and denim shorts with big baggy jumpers, and wishing I could carry off the Courtney Love Baby Doll dress. But looking more like a fat member of L7. 

Anyway, Grunge on the catwalk now tends to refer to these type of non coloured patterned items, and to my delight there is a lot of this about at the moment. This scarf looks like tree branches very similar to these nail wraps I bought a wee while ago.

So I tried to recreate this on my nails after seeing a similar manicure on Instagram by nailblazer and asking them how they created the effect. Using a fan nail art brush apparently, so that is what I did.

  

Similar to Day 25, I took inspiration for Day 26 'Inspired by a Pattern' from a dress I own from a company called Amari. There is a little shop in the town that I live and this is one of the brands they stock. This dress is made out of a light fleece like material and is just the best thing to wear in winter. I wear it over a pair of skinny jeans and it's so comfy and warm.

Anyway you can see the pattern here, and my attempt to replicate it. I'm thinking I need a lighter hand and also Mr Blobby springs to minds.

I'm massively behind with the challenge having been away for a long weekend during the last week of the challenge, and I was already 2, maybe 3 days behind then. I am however going to continue until I finish all manicures, I'm keen to do this again next year, like many nail blogger do and see if I've improved. I do hope so from the above attempt!

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by a film and a book

The last week or so of the 31 Day Challenge is a series of manicures inspired by different things. Day 23 was a film. One of my favourite films for ages directed by Spike Jonze is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. With my limited nail art skills how was I going to interpret the film on my nails though? So I Googled and I Pinteresed until I found this:

So I used the background of this Poster or DVD cover as the inspiration for my manicure and this is how it came out...

I do love a good gradient and the lines give it an added something. I wore this all day without the clouds as I was running out of time and added these the next day. Pretty pleased with how they came out!

Day 24 was inspired by a book, and I thought I'd use the book I was currently reading. I run a monthly book club at work and we've all put our suggestions into a hat and picked out a book to read each month. This month is The Crow Road by Iain Banks. The cover is black and white and I wanted to add a bird or birds, or even a feather to the design. But my tests looked rubbish and my birds like ticks. So I did this and left it how it was, I guess this could be inspired by any book...

I used Models Own 'Coconut Cream' as the base, this smells LOVELY. One of the better scented polishes I own.

31 Day Challenge - Inspired by a colour and a song

It was always going to be purple, I have a thing for purple and why complicate things when the colour says it all. I never really thought of purple as a girls colour, that is pink, but turns out it is. I don't care, it's a great colour and the below is pretty much the perfect shade of purple.

This is Illamasqua 'Faux Pas' and stupidly enough a polish I have never worn since purchasing it. This pic has no top coat as it dries matt, and I kinda like it.

Day 22 was inspired by a song and one of my favourite songs is 'Seasons' by Chris Cornell. The manicure doesn't reflect the songs lyrics, but the title and I tried to theme each nail around the four seasons.

So blue and white if for the Winter, red and orange is for the Autumn, yellow and orange is for the Summer and shades of green is for the Spring. 

I ended up using glitter top coats for extra effect, as my nail art painting of snow flakes and leaves didn't go according to plan. It kinda works except for the Autumn I think.

Going away to Berlin this weekend to run the marathon so the challenge will have to continue when I'm back!

31 Day Challenge - Galaxies and Water Marble

Day 19 was one of my first attempts at Nail Art, Galaxies. I love this design and I have to say this attempt was much more successful than my first.

Really, really love this design and again not a manicure that I wanted to take off once done. This was a base colour of black using Revlon Parfumerie in 'Espresso' (my new favourite black polish) and various polishes in white, yellow, purple, green and blue to create the galaxies. Just used a random sponging technique for the patterns. The real finishing touch to this was topping it all off with China Glaze's 'Fairy Dust'! 

Day 20 of the challenge is probably the day I feared the most! From reviewing Instagram I was not alone! A Water Marble manicure was required. I had NEVER been able to water marble despite several attempts before. I have studied this technique on YouTube for sometime, and the top tips I picked up from failing previously, were to use bottled water, ensure it was at room temperature and use the newest polishes I owned.

I had a couple of dummy runs with no particular pattern or colour combination in mind and managed to come up with a few marbles swatch sticks that were passible. So I decided it was time to stick my fingers in the watery polishy mess. Here's what happened!

It looks OK, I mean I've obviously seen better, but pretty happy that it worked AT ALL. The pinky is the favourite I think.  My thumb adopted a pretty weird design. But I'll be having a go again now that I know I can marble.

Design was marbled over Barry M 'Carousel' a limited edition polish for Boots, and the accent nail is topped with China Glaze 'Fairy Dust' too!

Also note, the nail on my middle finger broke last Sunday I think, and it's been patched with a bit of a tea bag and some nail glue. Surprised it lasted this long but now you can see the crack, so that's a gonner. Replaced it after this mani with a false one until it grows any decent length back. Always the middle finger nails that go with me!

31 Day Challenge - Glitter and Half Moons

Glitter was the order for Day 17, and I liked the look of this manicure from naildecor which she calls a glitter moon manicure. She also has a Youtube tutorial of how she does this, but I can't figure out what she paints the area of the nails where the glitter goes before putting the glitter on. No idea! So I just popped on a couple coats of China Glaze 'Lotus Begin' and painted on this lovely glitter polish I picked up from Urban Outfitters called 'Cloud 9'.

Fairly happy with this, and smoothed out the glitter with a good coat of HK Girl top coat. Picture is a wee bit burned out, but you can see that glitter polish pretty good in the bottle. It has purple and silver glitters and the odd star too.

Day 18 was half moons, and I've never done these before. I also didn't have, and couldn't find any ring binder hole reinforcements to create by half moons. I had a quick look on Youtube for some tutorials and a lot of people just painted then on. One lady used a plaster, the ones with the curved edges, so I gave that a go!

It's fairly neat, I painted China Glaze 'Oxygen' as the base the night before and top coated, before popping on the sticking plaster and painting on Revlon's 'Raven Red. The moons look a little straight in this photo, but I can assure you, there is a curve. You can see better on the thumb.

Not sure if I like it... I'm going to buy some of those Ring Binder thingies and give it another go, might look better with a smaller moon. Next two days are looming and Day 21 is WATER MARBLE. I have never done this successfully, dreading it and the mess I shall make...

31 Day Challenge - Delicate Print and Geometric Nails

Day 15 was entitled 'Delicate Print' and I didn't really know what that meant or how I was going to interpret it. Looking around Instagram and the Internet in general I got the impression it was pretty much fancy nails with a very fine or complex design... I was going to stuggle.

The only way I was going to do this was by searching through my stamping plates and finding some sort of intricate design. Inspired again by The Nailsaurus by her manicure for the theme. I went with a light colour which I normally don't wear and looked for a gold polish to stamp. And here's what I came up with...

I used Models Own in 'Peach Melba' as my base, a polish I bought a while ago and hadn't yet worn. I then tried stamping with practically every gold polish I had. The only one that really worked was Revlons Parfumerie polish in 'Italian Leather'. Both of these are scented polishes and the combination seemed to smell quite nice, although primarily of nail polish!

Stamping efforts still not great and the above took a few goes to get it to even look half decent. Still waiting for my new rectangular stamper to arrive from China, hoping it's here soon!

Day 16 is geometric and I love these type of designs, what I hate though is the lack of time I have this week to wait for each coat to dry before I can tape it up and paint the next colour and shape.

I rummaged around my polish draws looking for three untried polishes that would go together in this design I wanted to do. 

I started of with 'Loden Green' from Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure line. I've wanted to go Khaki green nails for a while, but have to say once painted on it reminded me more of diarrhoea! Or is that just me?

Once two coats were done, I'd gone to far to turn back, so I started with my design doing the grey colour first in Orlys 'Boho Bonnet'. The last shape in the dark blue is Revlons ColorStay in 'Midnight'. The Orly was a bit sheer for this type of nail art, I really needed something more opaque and the Revlon polish was perfect for the striping shapes. I used the last shape to cover up the mess I'd make with the first design where I could. 

Overall I like the design and colours, just wish I'd had more time to be careful with drying the polish before each colour. Now firmly two days behind with the challenge! 

31 Day Challenge - Animal Print and Flowers

Well after being chuffed with my last two manicures for the challenge, I really struggled with Day 13, Animal Print. 

I wanted to do something different, and when looking through my Bundle Monster stamping plates for inspiration I came across a plate that had an Octopus on it, and some rather spectacular tentacles.

I thought, this will be a great idea! I knew what base colour I wanted to use for the sea and the glitter topper I wanted to pair it with... the trouble came with the polish to use for stamping with. I was going to aim for a deep red for the octopus, and maybe something in a metallic finish. Unfortunately all polishes in this arena either didn't show up on this base colour or just didn't stamp well. So this is what I ended up with...

Stamping with the same Barry M Foil Effect polish I used for my metallic manicure on Day 7. You can just about make out the tentacles on my thumb and on the middle finger. Trust me this was the best picture I could get, the images were just not up to scratch. 

I love this deep duo-chrome polish though. It's from Sally Hansen's lustre shine line in 'Scarab'. Perfect for mermaid or peacock nails. Just ruined by my stamping efforts.

Day 14 however proved more fruitful! The challenge was flowers and I saw this post on Pinterest and I thought this is what I'll do! 

Anyway, needless to say mine, didn't quite come out as planned but overall happy with the effect.

I used Barry M's Gelly Shine in 'Blue Grape' and Sinful Colors 'Snow me White' for the accent nail. Both great polishes, particularly impressed with the white from Sinful. I created the flowers using a dotting tool and the two polishes.

31 Day Challenge - Dots and Stripes

I'm getting more behind with my challenge but persisting as much as I can, and I have to say I think the last two days have been a breakthrough in my previous dodgy attempts at striping and nail art.

Day 11 was Dots and I tried out a few colours and combinations and came up with this!

I cannot however take the credit for this idea. I was showing the other half my practises and he said, oh they look like pebbles on the beach. So I thought, that's a top notch idea, that's what I'll base my design on. I used China Glaze 'Metro Pollen-Tin' as the base for the sand. Maybe could have been a touch deeper and browner in colour, but I went with it anyways. 

I started off with a large dotting tool for the brown in Sinful Colors 'Nirvana' and did some smaller dots in the same colour. Then I alternated between the small dotting tool and large one with black, white, silver and a darker brown. I actually liked the manicure just with the base colour and brown dots. Really happy with the way it came out!

I also had a little moment in PoundWorld and picked up my first Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes.

Seems they have a few of these brand coming through the door, alas they had no more of the Revlon Parfumerie or ColorStay polishes. These from left to right are, 'Changing Tides', 'Grape Jelly' and 'Sparkling Water'. The middle one I hear is like the OPI Sheer Tints, the name suggests it a Jelly but you can see how sheer it is from the photo as you can see the brush.

I also popped in to Boots and they were selling Barry M, buy one and get on half price, I picked up these limited edition polishes, but I think they have been out for a while. This was going to be the original colours for my dots manicure. 

Love the caps on these, left is 'Carousel' and right is 'Bikini.' I picked up Carousel as I'd seem some gorgeous swatches on-line.

 Day 12, was stripes and I think this may be my best striping work yet! Look at these badgers!

To start off the base cost is a gorgeous purple holo from Color Club called 'Eternal Beauty' and this is the business just on it's own, without any frills. I used striping ribbon to create the design on all nails and then a small nail art brush to fill in each colour. The black is Revlon Parfumerie in 'Espresso', the dark purple OPI 'Vant to Bite my Neck' and the light purple is Rimmel Pro in 'Purple Rain'. I DO NOT want to take this design off for Day 13, especially as purple is my favourite colour and I spent some time over this! Anyway I shall have to, as tomorrow I have a few days to catch up on. Really enjoying the challenge, it's really making me practise my nail art and use all these little bottles I collect.

Next up, Animal Print (Have no idea on what to do here) and Flowers!

31 Day Challenge - Rainbow and Gradient

So I'm getting a little behind with my Challenge. Now a day and a half behind. Will catch up at the weekend hopefully. Anyway Day 9 was Rainbow Nails, which I have to say I was stumped with. It's not really my thing, and I needed to tone it down for work too. So this manicure was inspired by the Nailasaurus who has done the challenge for the last four years. 

I took her 2013 Rainbow manicure as my inspiration. She has some amazing manicures and as you can see a much steadier hand than I. However it was a first attempt at this Waterfall manicure and I was fairly happy with it.

The base is OPI's 'My Boyfriend Scales Walls' and the colours I used were a real hotchpotch of brands including Rimmel, Revlon and Sally Hansen.

Day 10 was gradient day and I knew exactly what I was going to do. I'd seen this post on a Holo Gradient on Chalkboard Nails ages ago and had yet to attempt it! This was my chance to crack open another gorgeous Holo Cirque polish and here's how it looks!

This is Cirques 'Never Nude' and 'Fascination Street' using the sponging technique to create the gradient. 

Now then... I had a bit of trouble with this!

I thought I had a great idea on how to make clean up quick and easy, having seen many tutorials using craft glue to mask cuticles whilst doing nail art. I thought, I know what glue peels off your fingers nicely, Decopatch glue, you can get from Hobbycraft. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and I'm not sure if it was due to the top coat being applied before peeling the glue off, or if it was just a bad idea in general. But it was a bugger to get off! Got the other half to help with removing the glue on my right hand before doing the gradient. Even that was a pain to peel off. So lesson learnt here then, don't be so damn stupid! 

31 Day Challenge - B&W and Metallic Nails

Days 6 & 7 of the 31 Day Challenge were a little more involved that previous days. First up Black and White. My other half mentioned I should do Humbug nails, but didn't have the time or patience to do the stripes so I did THIS! 

For the base I used Revlon's Parfumerie polish in 'Espresso', it was a toss up between this and China Glaze 'Liquid Leather', but I've not used the Revlon Polish so another one checked off my untried list. Great polish, goes on so smoothly and finishes to a lovely shine without top coat. For the white splatter I used Color Show's Acid Wash Effect in 'Top Splatter'. Really quite happy with the effect and will definitely do this manicure again and try the Splatter polish over other colours.

Day 7 was Metallic Nails and I totally ripped off this idea from Lou is Perfectly Polished. Her manicure is amazing and much neater than mine, I need to practise stamping more! Here's my efforts...

Smudgy at best, but you get the idea! check out Lou's Blog to see how it should have been done.

For this I used Barry M 'Denim' as the base, pretty much opaque in one coat and sooooo pretty. It's a dark blue with a silver shimmer running through it. I have worn this before but not on it's own, it's good to go without the smudgy stamping! The pattern is from Konad's m65 plate and stamped with Barry M Foil Effect polish in Silver.

31 Day Challenge - Blue and Violet

The next two days on the challenge have both my favourite nail colours, blue and violet. For the blue I chose Revlon ColorStay in 'Coastal Surf'. Holy crap, this polish is gorgeous, I DID not want to take it off. Opaque to this lovely finish in two coats and topped with HK Girl Top Coat. This polish is NOT going in the swap pile, it's a keeper.

I wasn't sure if a violet was a very specific type of purple and all the polishes I have with violet in the name are all very dark purple, so I chose save and picked a Barbara Daly mini polish that I've had for ages in 'Very Violet'.

I picked this up from Tesco, I have a few others of this brand but haven't seen any recently and they don't stock them in my local Tesco. This was chosen by my other half, actually so was the shade of blue. He's suggested Humbug nails for the B&W manicure!

Anyway, what makes this polish so special, and you can JUST about make out, is that it has a blue shimmer running through it. Great formula on this little polish, and I think I picked it up for 99p or something, it was in their Bargain Bin. I've just checked Tesco's online store and they have a few Barbara Daly polishes, £5 for a full bottle, but limited colours. So not sure if these are being discontinued.