31 Day Polish Challenge DAY 31! Redo Your Favorite Challenge

So, I decided for day 31 to redo my least favorite executions of the challenges. Maybe not totally with the rules, but who cares? I've made it this far, I'm making the rules now!

First: Water Marble. As you guys probably remember, my water marble day was a massive failure so I didn't even post it (I posted an old one instead). In the end, I FINALLY got one to work out for me! I used Finger Paints Paper Mache, OPI Fly, and Sally Hansen Coral Reef for the marble.

Next I decided to redo my Black and White mani because that was back when I still wasn't comfortable with stamping and my technique was a bit off. This time I used Sally Hansed Insta Dri Whirlwind White for the base and Fingerpaints Black Expressionism to stamp. This was Bundle Monster plate 212.

And my final mani is a redo of the Rainbow mani becaue the first time I just did a holo, which was sort of

lazy. This time I did stripes of rainbow colors as the base of my mani (I used OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock, Essence Get Up!, Jaybird's Fruit Martyr, Essie Pretty Edgy, Nails Inc Baker Street, and OPI Funky Dunkey). Then I stamped on top with Finger Paints Black Expressionism and used Bundle Monster plate 201.

So...THAT'S IT GUYS!! I made it through all 31 days! It actually took me 51 days to complete this entire challenge because I skipped some days here and there (and several weekends) but still in all, I'm pretty proud of myself that I actually completed it. It has been a long, strange journey and I have learned so many things along the way. When I started out on this challenge I didn't stamp, I didn't do nail art and I didn't wear orange or yellow! My how things have changed over the course of 51 days! I hope that you guys have enjoyed this as much as I have! Thanks for looking!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Today's mani was inpired by a tutorial and one of my favorite things: CUPCAKES! I have always wanted to try this tutorial and this was the perfect time to do it!

I started off with a base of OPI Sparrow Me the Drama. I used OPI Mermaid Tears for the "cup" with a pink striper for the stripes. I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps for the cherry and a purple and blue striper for the sprinkles. Then (and this doesn't show up in pictures as well) I used a fine paint brush and dabbed Sephora for OPI Wild About Shimmer (dupe to China Glaze White Cap) onto the frosting to give it, well, a frosty look. It looked really pretty in real life!

Better view of the shimmer:

Here is OPI Sparrow Me the Drama by itself. I almost got rid of this once because I hated it and now I love it! It is so funny how tastes change.

So that is all of the real challenge days. Whew! I can't believe that I'm finally done with those! All I have left to do is redo my favorite(s) for day 31!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

So...I decided not to go the obvious route and do an American flag mani since there were so many of those with the recent Olympics and the Fourth of July. Instead, I decided to do something more off the beaten path: PIRATES! Arrrgh!

So for my pirate flag inspired mani I chose to go full out pirate with inspirations from the flag, pirate clothing, and nautical things all in one. I won't bore you will the full details of this mani, but I will tell you that I used striping tape to help in creating the stripes on my index and ring finger and stamping on my thumb (the image plate was from the second Bundle Monster Set). I used a dotting tool to do the freehand anchor and crossbones. I thought it was fun!

Hee hee. Not your typical flag mani I don't suppose, but definantly fun! Thanks for looking!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 27: Inspired by Art

Today's mani was inspired by one of my favorite pieces of art: Monet's Water Lilies. This mani was actually surprisingly simple to do. If you want to give it a try, don't be intimidated! It is impressionist art, after all, so it isn't precise work. I thought it was really fun to do!

I used this tutorial from Michelle Phan to get an idea of how to do the nail art. I started off with a base of Orly Snowcone and then sponged Nina Ultra Pro Cobalt around the edges for depth. I then used a small, flat paint brush and OPI Thanks a Windmillion to make the lily pads. I used white and a tiny detail brush to make random strokes which give the water movement. Finally I used a detail brush and dotted on a bright pink and then accented with yellow to make the lilies. It isn't exactly a Monet, but it looks pretty cool for nail art!



Who knew I was such an artiste? More like an artiste impersonator! ;)

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

Ok so today's mani wasn't so much inspired by a specific pattern as it was inspired by the fact that I have ALWAYS wanted to stamp a pattern over a holo. That counts, right? :)

I recently got my hands on some of the new Laylas and I have been itching to wear them. I started out with Misty Blush, which seemed to be a favorite. It did not disappoint. It is a very confusing color to actually pinpoint but I'm going to say it is a purpley brown holo. I used Finger Paints Black Expressionism and the Bundle Monster 203 stamping plate for the design. I really love the way it turned out.

And here is Layla Misty Blush alone. This is 2 coats over 1 coat of Jessica Retro Revival Aqua Base.

So what do you think? Was stamping a cop-out for the pattern challenge? Maybe so...but I still loved it! I purchased my new Layla Hologram Effect polishes from Ninja Polish.

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Today's mani was inspired by Fashion. I decided to use an amazing shoe from Betsey Johnson as my inspiration. I figured that I would probably kill myself if I actually tried to wear this shoe, so why not enjoy the pattern on my nails?

Image from: http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/betsey-johnson-diskko-rose-print-platform-pumps

For this mani, I started out with a base of China Glaze For Audrey. I wish I could have used a blue base closer to the color of the actual shoe (like OPI Fly) but I was afraid that it would drown out the roses. For the roses I used OPI Panda-monium Pink as the base of the roses and OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock for the rose stamping. Essie Pretty Edgy was used for the leaves. The tutorial I used for this mani can be found here on Rebecca Likes Nails. I used the stamping technique, but she also has a freehand technique for creating the roses if you would rather do it that way.

 

I absolutely adore how this mani turned out. I will definantly be doing it again in the future with different colors. Whew...only a few more days to go in the challenge! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 24: Inspired by a Book

Hi everyone! Today my mani had to be inspired by a book. What other book could I pick than the hottest smut around right now: Fifty Shades of Grey. I could not resist! I was only sad that I did not have a helicopter stamp so that I could do a Charlie Tango accent nail.

So the inspiration for my mani was Christian's grey silk tie that was Ana's favorite in the book...for many reasons. I used Zoya Kelly as a base on all of my nails and then did Lynnderella Fifty Shades of May-be as accent nails. For the other nails, I tried to go for the look of a striped silk tie with black, white, and silver stripes done with my handy nail stripers. It um...didn't really turn out looking very tie-like as I had imagined, but it looked pretty cool anyway. It was grey at least, right?

I hope you guys don't mind my smutty inspiration (c'mon...you know you've read it!).

LATERS!!!

31 Day Polish Challenge Day 23: Inspired by a Movie

I had a lot of fun with this mani. I almost didn't do it because it was a little too crazy for me, but I made a compromise: I did an over the top one for pictures and then a more "demure" (haha) one to wear. I chose the movie "Mean Girls" because it has a special place in my heart. When I was in college, my friends and I (for some reason) watched this movie an insane amount of times. It got to the point where we could quote it in its entirety. It became a running joke amongst my group of friends and we eventually started having an annual Mean Girls themed party where we all wore army pants and flip flops because:

"I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops, so I bought army pants and flip flops" - Mean Girls

So for my over the top mani, I of course did everything in pink because as you all know: "We wear pink on Wednesdays." My designs were centered around the theme of pink, black, and white to look like the famous "Burn Book" from the movie.

*Thumb and index and pinky: black, white, and pink to resemble the "Burn Book" with the name on the thumb and lips on my index to look like the lips on the cover of the "Burn Book"
*Middle finger is pink camo to represent the army pants from the movie that I mentioned earlier
*Ring finger represents the candy cane grams from the movie which are involved in one of my favorite quotes: "Two for your Glenn Coco, You go Glenn Coco! (And none for Gretchen Weiners)"

So then I decided to do a more tame and "wearable" mani (for me at least). For this one I just used inspiration from the colors and overall teenage girl theme from the movie. For the base of the mani, I randomly dabbed on OPI Steady as She Rose, Sparrow Me the Drama, and Kiss Me on my Tulips. I let that dry and stamped on a leopard print from the BM 221 plate with Finger Paints Black Expressionism.

And just for fun, a few pics from our annual party for you guys so you can see that we are indeed crazy and do have a party about this ridiculous movie!

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did making it! Thanks for looking!