33 Day Challenge 05: Mexican

Hola! Como estas? That's as far as my Spanish goes, and it's probably wrong. Well, I know a little more, but it would be totally random and probably inappropriate. The prompt for the fifth day of the Challenge is "Mexican". So I came up with something fun and playful, a pinata with candy patterns!

I'm sure you noticed my nails are significantly shorter than in my last post. There was an incident with the nail on my index finger. It got somewhat mangled and I don't even know what happened. I frequently get injured and don't ever realize it until I notice a bruise or other sign of trauma. I guess I'm just tough like that.

I shaped my nails the best I could to work around that nail. The irritating part is that I have so many manicures that I am planning on doing and am excited about, but I don't think they'll look like I want them to while my nails are this length. So I'm going to just have to work with what I've got!

I started off with a different base color on each nail. Then I added the candy shapes. I made all of them with my Stripe Rite polishes which have tiny brush that you can make small detail with. I outlined them in white with another of those polishes. I made the pinata with my striping brush and the eye ball with a dotting tool.

What I used:
(base colors)
Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma- green
Clinique Different Nail Enamel Pinkini- bubble gum pink
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-Away- light blue
Sephora by OPI Paisley Attention to Me- orange
Sephora by OPI What Aura Gonna Wear?- bright medium pink

(candy colors)
It's So Easy Stripe Rite- medium bright blue (these polishes don't have names, these are descriptions)
It's So Easy Stripe Rite- bright pink
It's So Easy Stripe Rite- berry
It's So Easy Stripe Rite- white

(and a few other colors for the pinata)

What do you think? Muy bueno? I appreciate you all for visiting. Muchas Gracias!

33 Day Challenge Day 04: Tribal

I've got some catching up to do with this 33 Day Challenge. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be all squared away.

I wanted to do something a little different again my second go (this was my first) around tribal print. So I did some searching on Pinterest for inspiration, and found this tutorial from Nailed It. I seriously love, love this! I've mentioned before how much I like red nails, and this is no exception. This is so simple yet bold, and lots of fun.

If you want to know how to do this, click the link I mentioned above. I follow the tutorial exactly step for step.

What I used:
OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock- red
Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?- black
Sephora by OPI White Hot- white
Sephora by OPI Yellow My Name Is Betsey- yellow
Sephora by OPI Too Too Turq
Sephora by OPI Alley Cat

What do you think? Do you love this design as much as I do?

31 Day Challenge 2013: In Review

The 31 Day Challenge 2013 ended a couple of days ago, and I'm already feeling nostalgic. So I gathered together each manicure from the challenge to view them again, or in case you missed any. Click on any of the photos if you want to view the entire post. You can also view them all on my Pinterest board.

     

     

      

    

    

    

    

    

    

Once again, I am so glad I participated in this challenge! I tried so many new techniques, saw my skills improve, and especially enjoyed seeing what everyone else came up with. I hope you enjoyed it along with me! 

Did you have any favorites? Many of mine ended up being the ones that were most meaningful to me, such as the gray and pink leopard print, Starship Enterprise galaxies, Let's Dance song inspired, Phantom of the Opera movie inspired, and the Cath Kidston stationary inspired nails.

Some surprise favorites were the black and white animal close-ups, karma chameleon inspired by a color, aboriginal dot art tribal print, Banksy art inspired, and skull mail glitter nails (most fun ever in a post!).

A lot of "favorites", I know. I'm already looking forward to next year's challenge! Let me know if you have any suggestions.  

31DC2013 Day 31: Honor Nails You Love

Day 31!! I made it through the entire Challenge! Being so new to blogging, I honestly didn't know if I had the stamina to make it to the end. I am so pleased to find that I do, and that I pushed myself not to cop out. What really carried me through was all the support and encouragement I got from everyone. So a big, fat, Thank You! to y'all.
Today is about honoring nails you love. Again, there were way too many options for me to choose from. I wanted to do something both beautiful and achievable, so I chose this manicure by Alice from One Nail To Rule Them All.

Alice always has such cute, playful designs that I love to draw inspiration from. Fortunately for me she has also put much time and effort into making tutorials for many of them. Her tutorial made this pretty straightforward. 

One reason I love this design, besides it being adorable, is that it's Cath Kidston inspired. I love her stationary, and own quite a bit of it. Come to think of it, I actually just received a sweet thank-you card from a friend this week that was on Cath Kidston stationary. She obviously has good taste.

What I used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-Away- blue
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pink Blink- light pink
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rose Rum- darker pink
Sephora by OPI White Hot- white
Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma- green
Seche Vite top coat

I can't believe that whole month flew by. So what's next? Well, I am still participating in the 33 Day Challenge that started last week. I just need to catch up with the post I missed on Monday. I can't wait for all the fun manicures this second challenge will inspire!

31DC2013 Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

The penultimate day of the Challenge! Woot!

This mani was inspired by a tutorial, made by the very talented Rosie from Little Nails. Please go check it out because it is so good! It will give you a better idea of what I was aiming for here. Also, then I won't have to explain how I did this!

In the tutorial it's suggested to use a disposable paint palette, but I don't own any and forgot to buy it. I thought regular wax paper would work, but the polish never dried, even left over night. So I used a plastic ziplock bag and I got the polish off okay, but I struggled cutting it (the plastic). My scissors are a little dull and I just couldn't get straight lines.
You'll also notice a lot of bubbles. I think that was a result of not having the pieces completely flush on the nail before the top coat? Then the top coat kind of ate away at some of the pieces as I applied it.
This was quite the adventure! I have 100 times more respect for the work and skill that when into her tutorial!

What I used:
Sephora by OPI Pale is the New Tan
Finger Paints A Grape Catch
Finger Paints Sage It Ain't So

What do you think? Was it worth all that work? It was for me because it was a huge learning experience. There are so many different technique I'd never tried going on here. And I love that this is a look that couldn't be achieved by just painting it straight on the nail.

Last day of the challenge tomorrow!!