31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 31: A Movie

Day 31 of the 31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version). Remember that this is the relaxed version of the challenge and therefore today is not the last day and this challenge extends until February 12th! :) Today is inspired by a movie. My movie? Singing in the Rain! :) Oh this mani had great potential in my mind. I'm kind of new to layering stamps so I didn't really think this totally through I guess. But I still love it! :) I think it is fabulous!

For my base I used Essence Romeo (shocker, I know, a grey!) I stamped the rain and clouds using Kleancolor Metallic Aqua and Konad White. The stamp plate is Vivid Lacquer VL006. Next I used Konad Black for the music notes with plate A48 (I got it from Messy Mansions). I then followed it up using Konad Red and Konad Black for the the umbrella with Vivid Lacquer VL 003 plate.

And even though this isn't the song mani, I can't leave without playing you this one! :) During this musical number, Gene Kelly was very ill (some say with a fever up to 101 degrees). Most of this scene is made up on the spot! Ah, such great fabulous old Hollywood! :)

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their movie manis!

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 30: A Song

Day 30 of the 31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version). And today is inspired by a song. Do you know what it is yet? Hint--big hit of the '90s.

Ah-yeah. Kiss From A Rose by Seal!

Get it now? :) Oh and in the lyrics it says "kiss from a rose on the gray". So uh, that is why I had to use Essence Romeo as my base! (win!) I then stamped using Konad red (which was a bit goopy for some reason and oozed a bit which made my stamping smear some) and plates Bundle Monster BM 303 (for the kisses) and BM 323 (roses).

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and see what songs get stuck in your head!

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 29: A Color

Day 29 of the 31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version). Today is inspired by a color. Guess what color I chose! Yep grey! Shocking isn't it. :) Hahaha! Oh and to be honest, there's a lot more grey going on this week as well! :)

I am super in love with this grey ombre mani! But my camera decided to revolt and the pictures aren't the best. But started on the left we have: China Glaze Pelican Gray, which is a dove grey with micro shimmer. Next we have...wait for it...Essence Romeo! My favorite grey creme! :) Third in line we have Catrice London's Weather Forecast, a medium to darker shade with micro shimmer. And finally we have China Glaze Concrete Catwalk, a dark grey creme.

All are two coats with a coat of HK Girl Top Coat. I was going to add more to this mani, but stopped as I love the simplicity of it.

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and see what colors inspired them!

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 28: Watermarble

Welcome to day 28 in the 31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version). Remember this is a longer version of the 31 Day Challenge and will not end until February 12th. Today's challenge (and it really is a HUGE challenge) is watermarble. This is such a cool concept and look.....if you can do it! It has it's tricks that you gotta know in order for it to work just right. And you know what? I forgot to look them up before attempting it today! >_< I tried to watermarble from what I remember doing a year ago with my last watermarble! Yikes! But I don't think I did too bad. But there's a good story here, I promise! :)

Granted, this time I used only one color and a top coat. Well, at least it was suppose to only be one color. Let me explain.

For my base I used Orly Buried Alive. I love the depth of this polish. For my watermarble accent nail (because honestly, I wasn't going to do a full set again. Too much work!) I used Milani White on the Spot with a cleat top coat. But wait a minute..........

In none of these pictures is that a white polish (hear it is with extra sparkles caused by a coat of Orly Shining Star). Look how yellow/green the white looks here. This is not because of Shining Star, it is because of my first attempts of watermarbling that day.

I had this gorgeous watermarble all planned out in my head. The base would be Orly Buried Alive (check) with a watermarble of China Glaze Trendsetter, OPI Don't Talk Back to Me, and China Glaze Kalahari Kiss. Well this was a massive FAIL! They did not work. I'm not sure if shimmers work well in watermarbling. But it was horrendous. So I scraped up all the polish and try it again but this time not Trendsetter. Another FAIL! Fine. I give up. White it is! I empty my cup completely and put in new water. I created the bullseye and dip my finger and pull it out......what the crap? It's not white! Hahahaha! I believe there was still residue in the cup.

So, I cannot truthfully tell you what the color is on my accent nail. But I still love it, it's not a full on watermarble but that's alright! And I love it even more with Orly Shining Star layered over it!

 

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their watermarbles!

TGIF: 31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 25: Galaxies

31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version) Day 25: Galaxies plus it is TGIF: Thank Goodness, Indy Indie Friday! This is one of the days I was excited to re-visit! I love this style! And yes, I managed to use three different Indies! Woot woot!

***Picture heavy!*** I really wanted to show you the process of this, since I hated it for a bit.

I started out with one coat of Cult Nails Time Traveler. A beautiful deep blue.

I used a makeup sponged to sponge on Cult Nails Let Me Fly. This blue is stunning with amazing shimmer! My little nebula is born!

I decided to add some purple and thought that Flormar U06 would be perfect! It's a shimmery duochrome!

Next I sponged some Essence Wall of Fame, a shimmery yellow. It was here that I really started to hate how it was looking. But I still had a few more polishes to add and was curious to see if I could save it. My nebula looks like junk :(

I added Cult Nails Hypnotize Me. A shimmery green top coat. This is my third Indie on this mani! I use this to tone down the brightness of the yellow.

This is a slightly blurry photo to show you how Cult Nails Hypnotize Me just seems to glow! Love it!

I then decided to soften the edges of my nebula by using Flormar U08, another shimmer duochrome! Ugh, still wasn't too thrilled with this at this point.

I then sponged on China Glaze Pixie Dust into my negative spaces to create the tiny stars. I used Milani White on the Spot to make my slightly bigger stars. Ah, that's what it was missing! I liked how this turned out but I still wasn't super satisfied. Something else was needed. What could it be?

Ah yeah! China Glaze Matte Magic to the rescue! I love how this made the mani deeper and richer. Bah! :) You wanna see something cool?

An ever-so-slightly blurry photo to show that the shimmers of all those amazing polishes are still visible through Matte Magic! Oh yeah! Boo-ya! Mysteries of the deep unfold! :)

The Indies I used today were Cult Nails: Time Traveler, Let Me Fly, and Hypnotize Me. These can all be purchased at the Cult Nails Shop here.

Don't forget to check out Emma's TGIF post as well! (I'll make it easy for you, she is also doing the 31 Day Challenge and so is listed in the link thingy below. You are welcome!)

Don't forget to explore the other galaxies with the other ladies!

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 24: Half Moons

31 Day Challenge 2013! (relaxed version) Day 24: Half Moons. Another ugh nail for me. I really don't like this style either. Not going to lie, but I really only put in half the effort for these because I was on my death bed doing them. This is when I had the really bad cold/flu that is going around. I blame Mucinex for my lack of centering and getting the angles right! :)

What I do love though are the polishes I chose to use. Here is two coats of Catrice San Francisco (from the Big City Life collection), a gorgeous green/teal shimmer! And Catrice Dirty Berry, a gorgeous purple holo!

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their half moons!

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 23: Glitter! Dupe Alert!

Yes! An easy day! 31 Day Challenge 2013! (relaxed version) Day 23: Glitter! Oh yeah! But I couldn't just do glitter right? This is a comparison/dupe post! Say what? These aren't the same glittery goodness glitters? Nope. Sorry!

Here is one coat of Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance (index and ring fingers) and Revlon Scandalous (middle and pinkie fingers). I know, this is a bit old news but I haven't done this post yet and I have been meaning to do it! :) As you can tell, Bad Romance has a darker/blacker base. But both have purple hex glitter and micro glitter.

Here is two coats of each in direct light.  Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance (index and ring fingers) and Revlon Scandalous (middle and pinkie fingers). As you can see both are about the same opacity now. But, Scandalous' glitter seems to pop more. This could be because it's own base isn't as dark.

Bottle shot, they look like identical twins. But maybe more like fraternal twins in person?

Here is my first photo again. So, do you need both? Nah, I wouldn't. Not sure how readily Revlon's Scandalous is anymore, but if you can find it I would get that one. Two reasons: the glitter pops more and cheaper! :)

Don't forget to check out the glittery goodness of the other ladies!

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 22: Tribal Print

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 22: Tribal Print. Oh ugh! I hate tribal nails! I really and truly do! Last year my mani was horrendous! This is it's a bit better because I didn't do as much but still not full on tribal because I don't like the style! Sorry! Hahaha! :) I used Diamond Cosmetics Matte Smoke. Love me a matte grey! And Finger Paints Black Expressionism for the design. This design is inspired by Beautopia Nails' Teal and Copper Tribal Nail Art.

And because there is only one picture of this year's tribal mani I thought I would show you last year's. Hahaha! Horrendous no? I didn't have a good thin brush and hadn't really done a ton of nail art before this. At least I can say I have improved since last year?  Phew! :)

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their tribal nails!

31 Day Challenge 2013 Day 21: Delicate Print

Welcome to Day 21 of the 31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version): Delicate Print. Remember that we are not doing weekends so this is the 21st day of January (Day 21) but actually only 15th day of the challenge. :) Today I finally decided to re-create a mani from my pinterest board. Lace Nails! And I love it! I followed The Daily Nail's Tutorial.

I used two coats of OPI I Have a Herring Problem. This is a gorgeous dusty blue with shimmer! Look at that shimmer! Gorgeous! I used Milani White on the Spot for the lace. I love how easy and fun this was to do! I can't wait to try it again!

Question, does anyone else sort of see an alien-like skull in my lace? Hahaha! Because I sure do! :)

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their delicate manis!

TGIF: 31 Day Challenge 2013! Day 18: Flowers

31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version) Day 18: Flower mani plus it is TGIF: Thank Goodness, Indy Indie Friday! I noticed I don't have that many non-glitter Indies. I think I need to change this. >_<

So today I have for you Galahad by A England. This is called a dusty teal, but I would call it more of a cornflower blue. But that's just me. Also, mine seems to dry a bit waxy? Don't get me wrong I still totally love this color and polish (and I'm not that much of a blue gal either!). I searched the internet and no one else's dried like this. Hmmm. Oh, and this is two coats.

I attempted some cherry blossoms. Now, they don't totally look like cherry blossoms, but at least they still look like flowers! This has HK Girl Top Coat on it and I loved how it smoothed out everything! I used Finger Paints Sketchy Character for the branches and centers and I used OPI Sparrow Me the Drama for the blossoms!

You can buy A England on their site here.

 

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their flower manis!

31 Day Challenge 2013! Day 17: Animal Print.....FAIL!

Day 14 of the 31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version) called for Animal Print. I attempted. And I failed....horribly! Hahahaha! Just look! What is that? Looks more like coffee beans rather than cheetah print! I had a very good and long chuckle about this! Cheetah print is easy they say....well, I proved them wrong! Win! ;) I knew I still had to post it because I find it so funny!

Oh and you only get one photo of it as well. It's better that way so your eyes don't bleed! :)

I used China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know, and Wet N' Wild Black Creme. My index and pinky fingers got covered in Wooden Shoe Like to Know when I saw how horrible it was going! :)

Don't forget to check out the other ladies amazing animal prints!

31 Day Challenge 2013! Day 16: Stripes -- at least I think!

31 Day Challenge 2013 (relaxed version) Day 16: Stripes. Errr, what now? Stripes? And just what do think those are in the photo? Stripes I tell you! Badly done stripes, but stripes nonetheless!

Welcome to migraine zone! Hahahaha! Now, I probably could have done another version of these. But I didn't because you know what? I honesty didn't want to, I was running behind schedule with my other nails for this week. So my lines aren't that straight and they almost look like a bad version of a ruffle/cloud mani! Hahaha! But tough beans! I am still putting them out there for you all to see and think, dang what fabulous skills she has! (sarcasm very heavy there!)  :)

But what do I love about this mani? The textures! And that was the main purpose in using these three amazing polishes! Starting at the top with the lightest color we have Catrice Steel My Soul, How I Matt Your Mother, and Steel My Heart. Steel My Soul and Steel My Heart are brushed metal effects (like a suede) and are packed with shimmery goodness! Just look at the bottle! And How I Matt Your Mother is a lovely matte finish! I love having friends across the great big pond who have access to these amazing polishes! Curse you Catrice and not being here in the USA! :(

So pretty....the polishes! The mani....hmmmm, that's another story! Ha! :)

Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their Stripes! (because I can bet you it only gets better!) :)