31 Day Challenge, Day 14. Floral!

I have to admit, I think floral prints are a little girly and I'm not girly. I do, however, have flowers in my tattoos and these flowers are from my newest, Layla.

She's not terribly new, April I think is when she came into my life. I designed her myself and love her to pieces. So, she inspired my floral mani:

The base is actually another untried by Wet n Wild - Night Prowl. I really like it. The pics don't do it justice, it's a beautiful black with fuchsia micro glitter. Love! This is also the thrid mani in a row I did on top of the others and the glue base. It was actually pretty cool to take it all off in one big chunk. I hope you're enjoying this challenge, I'm definitely enjoying doing it!

Happy Manicures!

31 Day Challenge, Day 13. Animal Prints

I just want to go on record saying that I think animal prints are cliche and overdone. Especially savannah animals. Giraffe, leopard, hyena, whatever. And they're on everything, clothes, furniture, linens, throw pillows, fat women's underwear etc. It's bullshit! My neck of the woods needs some representin too. We need to see some moose print kitchen towels. So, to kick off a new trend I decided to do animal prints of the locals. Here in the Inland Northwest, we have some great creatures. I have recreated their prints for you with black acrylic on a new franken white and silver base and displayed them next to the animal they represent. I chose pics of them looking natural and I think you'll find, our animals are very happy. Except the turkey, turkeys are bastards. Now, without further ado, here are my animal print nails!

Look at all those happy Northwest animals!

Check out who else came to see me the other day:

Isn't she pretty? I'm such an outdoors-person. LOL


Happy Manicures!

31 Day Challenge, Day 12. Stripes!

Ok, I dunno why I keep doing this, but my fingers make me look like a sports fan. Broncos or some crap. I really actually don't like sports but I seem like to love the garish look of blue and orange together. I really liked these nails, but next time I won't try to paint over another mani. Where it looks a little muddy in the orange is where it was over something else. I wanted to cut down on how many times I removed the polish during this challenge cuz it's usually every two to three days that I change it. During the challenge I want to do two or three a day, so I don't have to do them every day. I started with an Elmer's school glue base(this makes it so it just peels off) and did my animal print mani, thinking that was today's. Then I did this one and then my floral. It got really thick, I think I had 15 coats of polish by the end, LOL, and it lasted 3 days through showers and all. The glue base is great for glitter and stuff that's hard to remove too. I'm not going to credit anyone with that idea because I read nearly 50 blogs and several have mentioned this technique. So whoever started the idea, thank you! Anyways, The colors I used today were China Glaze - Riveting and Blue Year's Eve. A lot of the girls doing this challenge are doing 30 days of untrieds, using polishes they haven't tried before. I am almost doing that. Riveting, and a majority of the other polishes I've used are untrieds, kind of fun! Ok, I'll stop babbling...
On to the picks! 

So, what to you think? I like the horizontal ones the best. I used this striping tape I got for $1 on ebay, free shipping. I got 10 rolls and I'm about halfway through one. I don't think I'll need to buy more for a while.

Happy Manicures!

31 Day Challenge, Day 11. Dots!

I woke up yesterday morning and thought, What if I did my dots mani as draped pearls, aw genius!
So, I did a base of Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris, it's a great, fast-drying, super glossy black. I used my dotting tool and a couple of old frankens I made, plus Homo-Reptilia and went to work.

 

I just realized I chose kinda christmas-y colors, oh well. I still think it's really pretty and I have gold silver and copper and wanna try it with them too.

What do you think? Other colors to try, backgrounds, more or less beads?

Happy Manicures!

31 Day Challenge, Day 10. Gradient

Alright, here we go! I feel like this is the truly creative part of the challenge.  I decided to do my gradient in contrasting colors, two of my newest frankens, Homo-Reptilia and Companion's Kiss.
For a little fun I added a rinestone. What do you think?

I really love how these turned out. Homo-Reptilia is such a pretty kelly green with a nice silver shimmer. I plan on adding some green and possibly blue glitter. Companion's Kiss is a very sparkly grape with silver shimmer and some purple and blue micro glitter. I love how this set of frankens is turning out. So Vibrant! I'll be sure to do a page of full swatches once they're all finished. Super Excited!

Happy Manicures!

31 Day Challenge, Day 9. Rainbow!

I love rainbow nails and I always want to use my color club take wing collection for them. The problem is, there's no red or purple, and the green is a weird shiny olive. Come on! So, I substituted Sally Hanson Red Carpet, a Purple I made called Purple Paradise, and just used the green in the collection cuz I didn't have one that would look good. Not that this one does. Overall I like this mani, but I think it looks less rainbow and more candy. Candy is good though right?

So there you have it, kind of a half assed mani. I am dissapointed with my work on this one, but its ok. Tomorrow's is fab-u-lous! I am excited to show you that one. It features two frankens of mine and maybe something else, we'll have to see.

Happy Manicures!

31 Day Challenge, Day 8. Metallic

I love metallic polishes. I didn't know the possibilities until I got into blogging though. It used to be that polish that claimed to be metallic was really just pearly. Now, it's damn near chrome! I love it. I really want Layla's Mirror Effect polishes, but I can settle for Essie's Mirror Metallics. Today I used Penny Talk and Blue Rhapsody, I've noticed that their names kind of resemble names of songs. Like Penny Lane, and Rhapsody in Blue. The other colors are Nothing Else Metals(Nothing Else Matters), No Place Like Chrome, and Good as Gold. The last two I can't think of off the top of my head what song they sound like. Anyways, these are really great for stamping, but really crap for just painting your nails. The brush is super tiny(as with all Essies) and the formula is super patchy. If you happen to paint over something you just painted, you know like by trying to paint your whole nail? It will totally wipe off the lower layer. So them it is totally uneven. My nails are nice and smooth but this problem made them look super ridgey. I like this mani, but won't do it again, I'll keep these polishes for stamping though.

In a lightbox of sorts

In the sunshine

With NYC Matte Me Crazy topcoat

This challenge is actually kind of fun, so far. Lol. I am happy that we're out of the color constraints after tomorrow. I like picking my own colors. I like making my own colors too. I created a gorgeous green and purple that will be in a mani coming up soon. Super excited!

Happy Manicures!