Day 18 #31DC2014: Half Moons

Day 18 #31DC2014: Half Moons

Half moon manis are a pretty classic look, but of course, I had to take it to another level. So I mixed in a gradient look with it. Once again, I managed to pull in a neon color! I normally freehand the lines, but since I was sponging on the gradient, I used reinforcement labels to block off the cuticle areas. I also added some shard glitter to the moon area to give it a more edgier look. I had been dying to finally use that glitter polish!! 

• China Glaze Celtic Sun
• Zoya Taylor
• Maybelline Color Show Gleaming Graphite

Day 17 #31DC2014: Glitter

Day 17 #31DC2014: Glitter

This prompt seems pretty open to interpretation, but the simple ones are always the most difficult!  Every time i thought about what to do, I had to resist picking up every kind of glitter polish I have and layering it over all my fingers!! But I only held myself to silver holographics ;) After I layered a few, i decided to try to make it look like a top layer was peeled off to reveal the glitter underneath. What resulted was a geode looking nailart. I think it looked ok in person, but it didnt come across very well in pictures.


These are initial shots of the look before the whole geode idea came to me.

 These are the after shots. in the last ones I ended up painting over my accent nail as well. I think the 3D effect comes across better when all of the nails are the same.

• Essie DJ Play That Song
• OPI Muppets World Tour
• OPI Servin Up Sparkle
• OPI Lights of Emerald City
• OPI Rose of Light
• Sinful Colors Silver Rainbows
• Revlon Stunning

Day 16 #31DC2014: Geometric Print

Day 16 #31DC2014: Geometric Print

This day was pretty fun and effortlessly awesome for me! I originally planned to do some kind of "tribal" print looks, but I couldn't figure out a way to pull everything together, so I went for a more 3D geometric look. After about 5 minutes in, I started to quickly fail at that too. So then I just started painting more lines and angles and decided to fill in random triangles. The effect was pretty successful. I used some of the OPI Nordic Collection and Push and Shove for the colors. I wish I had more time to enjoy these, though. This mani probably wasn't even completely dry before I had to take it off. I had an interview the next day and wanted to have neutral nails. :(( Even though the interview was at my current employer and the seeing me with crazy looking nails is nothing they haven't seen before, I still wanted to have a good impression. haha. 

• OPI Push and Shove
• OPI Can't Afjord Not To
• OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid
• OPI Viking in a Vinter Vonderland 

P.S. I wanted to give a quick shout out to the neutral shade I wore to my interview - OPI Bubble Bath I didn't think I would be getting my money's worth with it - I honestly thought it would be sheer and impossible to dry. But it is exactly the opposite! It gives the ultimate coverage and dries so smooth. It also makes my nails look healthy! This was also what I kept on my Cinderella hand for the beginning of the challenge. My new go to neutral shade! I can't say enough about this polish!

 

Day 15 #31DC2014: Delicate Print

Day 15 #31DC2014: Delicate Print

So anyone who knows me knows I am not a delicate kinda gal ;) so this prompt was kind of difficult to decide what to do with. So, at the last minute, I decided on a simple strand of pearls. For all its simplicity, a lot of people seemed to like it on Insty! I used Zoya Sailor as a background color and Sally Hansen Platinum and OPI Ski Slope Sweetie for the pearls. Ski Slope Sweetie added a nice sparkly definition to it. I was almost so discouraged about it, because I thought I didn't have Sailor and  I had my little heart set on her being the perfect background for this look. I was just about to give up, but I finally spotted her in my Zoya stash! Crisis averted! How freakin sad is that? I have probably 50 variations of dark blues, but I had to have THE dark blue :) I know other nail art junkies can sympathize. 

• Zoya Sailor
• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Platinum
• OPI Skii Slope Sweetie

Day 14 #31DC2014: Flowers

Day 14 #31DC2014: Flowers

This day was another one of the "outside the box" days. I have been enamored by the dimension and beauty of the one stroke flowers, especiallyy by Love4Nails on Youtube! (https://www.youtube.com/user/LOVE4NAILS) I have watched her since the very beginning of my nail art journey and I decided to do a look inspired by her beautiful work. I used acrylic paint in Bright Magenta, Holly Branch, and White. For the background I used OPI Bubble Bath, Zoya TInsley, Zoya Darcy, Sinful Colors Scene Stealer, and Finger Paints Vivid Reflection (not a very noticeable effect, but it's there) I am pretty proud that these came out actually looking like flowers, and that's about all I can say. It will take a lot of practice to get on Raquel's level :) 

• Zoya Darcy
• Zoya Tinsley
• Finger Paints Vivid Reflection
• OPI Bubble Bath
• Sinful Colors Scene Steale

Day 13 #31DC2014: Animal Print

Day 13 #31DC2014: Animal Print

I thought i definitely had to think out of the box on this prompt! I knew for sure everyone would have some variation of zebra, cheetah, or tiger print on that day - not that there is anything wrong with that, but I wanted to get away from the norm. So, I went for this "abstract" rooster print. I have a huge rooster we bought at Ross we like to call "Miracle Mike" after this rooster that lived for a long time after his head got popped off. My mom told me that story a few years ago and it hasn't stopped being funny! So Mike perches on a shelf we have in the dining room, and I thought "Man, roosters sure have beautiful feathers, and their colors are so vibrant!" And boom, there is my animal print! Now, there is only one polish brand that i thought would have rooster-like colors: Zoya!! And I was right! I had all the colors I needed to make a nice blend of rooster colors. I also reached for an OPI polish to help with the transitions. I even placed my muse in the background on my Insty post! haha. I really love the way these turned out. 

My nails and Miracle Mike :)

• OPI A Woman's Prague-ative
• Zoya Sarah
• Zoya Tanzy
• Zoya Amy
• Zoya Ivanka
• Zoya Charla
• Zoya Remy

Day 12 #31DC2014: Stripes

It has been so long since I've posted anything on here! The 31 Day Challenge is long over, so now I can actually catch up on my blog posts. I didn't have time to actually put as much effort into a blog post for every look, so I decided to wait until it was all over to post them. So I think I left off on Day 12...so let's continue on:

Day 12 #31DC2014: Stripes

I have a hard time not gravitating towards brighter neon colors, as you can probably notice in this look. This is definitely a bright look, but I tried to tone it down with a more "fall" color. I used two China Glaze polishes - Pool Party and Boundary of Memory from The Giver collection. Both are absolutely amazing; the pictures don't even give them justice!! BOM is just a beautiful, sparkly, chunky glitter. I felt like this looked kind of like a heater glowing red behind a grate - in a spacey kind of way, I guess.

• China Glaze Pool Party
• China Glaze Boundary of Memory