31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2015: Week Four (and Final) Round Up

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Hi everyone! Here is my fourth and final round up of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge (or #31DC2015) that I have been posting on my Instagram. Here is Week One and Week Two and Week Three. 

I had a lot of fun doing this challenge and the last 31 days. It pushed me to try something different in my nail art and technique, even though I have done the same challenge in the past. So yes, next year, it will be even more boundary-pushing and that much more exciting! 

If you have never done the challenge or would like more info on it, check out Chalkboard Nails' blog and her FAQ of the challenge.

Day 24: A Book

I read Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun months ago and the cover was a visual that stuck in mind so much I decided to use that as inspiration for the book prompt. I used American Apparel Cotton for my base and the rainbow rays and sun were done with acrylic and then added a layer of matte topcoat. Here is the cover for those who may be able to go through the link: 

Day 25: Fashion

For this prompt I initially was planning on intricate floral design but after browsing Anthropologie's, I decided to go with a big bold floral print, inspired by this dress:

I used Elevation Polish The Vivid Unknown for my base and mixes of a few different creme polishes to get the bright blue and orange coloring just right. Final layer of matte topcoat and that's it. I love how abstract it looks and the colors work really well together. 

Day 26: A Pattern

I went with a dotted mosiac pattern for this prompt. I didn't want something very precise, but a more fluid pattern. American Apparel Hassid for the black base, and older China Glaze polishes for the orange, purple, blue, white, and violet dots. 

Day 27: Artwork

This one turned out to be one of my favorites of the entire challenge. I took a cue from Very Emily and picked a watercolor print from Etsy, specifically this "Stars in Your Eyes" abstract watercolor print from BrownBearStudio. As for my final look, I applied a white polish for my base and using various blue and purple diluted acrylic polishes, I blended the blue sky background. Some white and light blue stars were hand-painted and then a last layer of topcoat. Here is the artwork I used as my inspiration: 

source 

Day 28: A Flag

For this prompt, I wanted to go outside the norm so I went with the LGBT Rainbow Flag! Inclusion for everyone! I used a watercolor technique for this again, diluting various acrylic colors to apply flowing lines of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. It felt like it was missing something so I added white dots and matte topcoat to tie it all together. 

Day 29: The Supernatural 

This is a prompt that has is harder for me to think of unique inspiration. Since October (and Halloween) is coming up, I like to do spooky, creepy nails then. I ended up re-doing what I did last year for the same prompt, which are Dragon Scale nails. I applied Rescue Beauty Recycle for my base, added a layer of Indigo Bananas A Field Trip with Butterflies and then matte topcoat. After it all had dried, I then hand painted the gold and black scales with acrylic. I liked the textured look of the dry paint over the darker green flaked base. 

Day 30: A Tutorial

I have had this tutorial bookmarked since the beginning of this challenge! I love Kelli's (of The Nail Polish Challenge) tutorials. They are fun looks and very easy to follow. The tutorial of hers that I used is this one. I didn't recreate her aqua to purple nail exactly, I decided to do a two one turquoise look using Essie Blossom Dandy and Garden Variety for the gradient. Then I went over the entire nail with dots using Blossom Dandy and one more layer of matte topcoat (again, matte was a theme this week). The result is this cool toned turquoise dot gradient. 

Day 31: Honor Nails You Love

And finally we have reached the end. Throughout this entire month and challenge I have been bouncing ideas off Emily of Very Emily. She is a blogger I admire a whole lot and her nail art is flat out stunning. Don't even get me started on her nail swatches! So it was truly an honor to re-create a look she did earlier in the month, specifically her turquoise stone nails. 

I applied Elevation Polish The Merchant's Son for the turquoise base. Then I used a water-spotted technique and Elevation Polish NYC for the black marbling. A final touch here and there with Elevation Polish The Latin of 4 Languages and Zhenjin and that's it. I didn't apply topcoat for this, to give it textured look. 

That's it, we're done! I hope you enjoyed these looks as much as I enjoyed creating them. I will be posting more nail art look here on my blog in the future, so be on the look out for that!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2015: Week Three Round Up

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Hey everyone! Here is a round up of week three of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge (or #31DC2015) that I have been posting on my Instagram. Here is Week One and Week Two.

If you have never done the challenge or would like more info on it, check out Chalkboard Nails' blog and her FAQ of the challenge.

Disclaimer note: I took photos of my nails as the days came and went so the lighting will be different within the photos depending on the weather on each particular day. 

Day 17: Glitter

I had planned to do some type of glitter placement but I was looking through my collection and saw my bottle of OPI Absolutely Alice, a much loved older OPI, and immediately grabbed that instead. And while Absolutely Alice is a stunning polish by itself, I wanted to add just a little extra something so I painted some white daisies with gold studs. The daisies were inspired by Lindsey of Wondrously Polished.

Day 18: Half Moons

I used this prompt as an opportunity to do a nail art look I have wanted to do for ages, which is an eye look. Polish My Life Stripped and Elevation Polish Cerro Torre 2 are the beige and white and the dots were acrylic paint. I thought about adding eyelashes but I am glad I didn't, I like the simplicity of this final result.

Day 19: Galaxies

I think the last time I did galaxy nail art was last year's 31 Day Challenge and I am not sure why I don't do more. It's a technique that doesn't require you to be precise and the final look is always eye-catching. I won't list all the polishes I used because it numbers more than 10, but also because I don't remember what I used as I am typing this post up. 

Day 20: Water Marble

The dreaded water marble prompt. I was actually looking forward to it this time. I feel like I have come a long way from last year's single accent nail. I may have jinxed myself though, because I ended up having to do three attempts before I found a color combination of polishes that spread well enough. Polish My Life's cremes usually work well for me for water-marbling (should have used those first!), the three I used were Purple Flower Power, Peaches Anyone? and Strawberry Whip & Chill. I also did a light layer of Nina Polish Infinity Gauntlet. 

Day 21: A Color

This prompt is one that takes me while to figure out what I want to do. The prompt itself is just unspecific and broad. So I decided to just do something I have wanted to try, which are these swimming pool blue (which is a color!) nails. The original design I re-created is from @stephstonenails. I used a Saran Wrap technique with Essie Blossom Dandy and Strut Your Stuff. 

Day 22: A Song

I chose one of my favorite Queen songs, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" as my inspiration. The video has Freddie Mercury wearing his signature white tee and black leather, so here are my simple LOVE nails using Different Dimension EVP (a new polish, which I will have a review of next week) and the letters are done in white acrylic.

Day 23: A Movie

Grand Budapest Hotel is a recent movie favorite of mine but then I love all of Wes Anderson's movies. The colors and imagery he uses in his films is something I admire and for this prompt I wanted to use this scene from the film: 

Those colors! I love the slick red lacquered elevator backdrop with the royal purple uniforms. I used Floss Gloss Gangsta Boo, added topcoat, then used Virtuous Polish Humility, which dried to it's matte finish, and added gold dot "buttons".

Thanks for reading! Check back next week for my forth and final round of the challenge. 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2015: Week Two Round Up

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Hi everyone! This is a round up of my nail art looks from week two of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge (or #31DC2015) that I have been posting on my Instagram. 

If you have never done the challenge or would like more info on it, check out Chalkboard Nails' blog and her FAQ of the challenge.

Disclaimer note: I took photos of my nails as the days came and went so the lighting will be different within the photos depending on the weather on each particular day. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 10 Gradient Nails

I actually did a whole other gradient but I hated how it looked so I scrapped that one and ended up doing this simple two tone gradient. I used KBShimmer Alloy Matey and American Apparel Hassid for this gradient and then a light coat of KBShimmer Dust in the Bottle on top. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 11 Polka Dots

I love dot nail art, it's such an easy method and you can really go crazy doing all sorts of looks. I decided to do something simple and did confetti rainbow polka dots. It reminded me of Rainbow Chip cake frosting! American Apparel T-Shirt was my white base and the dots were acrylic paint.

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 12 Stripes

For this prompt I went with negative space horizontal stripes using a lot of striping tape and Indigo Bananas Polish of Unusual Quality, Synonym Bun, and Volcanic Dust. I ended up applying a double layer of topcoat to prevent any gaps made by the negative space and it turned out so glossy! It looked like shiny ribbon candy, yum. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 13 Animal Print

I personally don't really like animal print as a design that much so I played a little fast and loose with this prompt with a fish motif. I used Pahlish Draw Me a Sheep with a light layer of Ninja Polish Infinity Gauntlet and stamped over it with fish and seashell from Moyou London Sailor Collection Plate 07. On my other nails I applied Pahlish Laughter of the Stars and added Seashell studs from Daily Charme. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 14 Flowers

For this prompt, I wanted to go bold with my colors and chose a rose red with violet and pale pink to add some contrast, all hand painted using acrylic pain over a black polish. My floral nail art usually looks wild and full blown, I have yet to master the art of tightly done flowers. Still, I like how this looks, especially over the black base.

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 15 Delicate Print

This prompt has been a challenge for me in the past. It's so open to interpretation! I decided to go with some stamping. I used Cupcake Polish Berry Good Looking, What in Carnation? and Elevation Polish Zhenjin for a triple layered look, the design was from a random Winstonia plate I had. 

31 Day Challenge 2015 Day 16 Geometric

And last but not leas, geometric! I applied dabs of color using KBShimmer cremes (from her Summer 2015 collection) and then stamped a black design from Moyou London Kaleidoscope Collection Plate 04. My photo is a little out of focus, so I apologize for that. 

Check back next week for round up number three!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge 2015: Week One Round Up

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Hi everyone! I have been doing the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge  (or #31DC2015) this year again on my Instagram and I thought that this time I would do a weekly round of all the looks on my blog. If you have never done the challenge or would like more info on it, check out Chalkboard Nails' blog and her FAQ of the challenge.

Side note, I took photos of my nails as the days came and went so the lighting will be different within the photos depending on the weather on each particular day. 

Day One: Red Nails

I used Sinful Colors Energetic Red from the Back to School Class Act Collection with Sinful Colors 24/7 (from the same collection) to do a pink outline. I love pink and red together!

Day Two: Orange Nails

I did a orange on nude geometric look for this day. Elevation Polish Cerro Torre 2 is my go to nude so I used that as my base and various China Glaze oranges I have in my collection. 

Day Three: Yellow Nails

Vertical stripes for this prompt with yellow and white together. 

I was craving lemon meringue pie when I did this so to me, it ended up looking like layers of a lemon meringue pie slice. 

I used Polish My Life Stripped as my base, Polish My Life Good Morningside, and Color Club Almost Famous.

Day Four: Green Nails

Chevron ombre for the green prompt! I used chevron Nail Vinyls, Polish My Life Stripped, and from top to bottom, these greens: Elevation Polish Cuernos del Paine, Elevation Polish Vivid Lichen, Kiko Nail Polish 296 Meadow Green, and Elevation Polish Alpine Heights. 

Day Five: Blue Nails

More stripes! I didn't intend for this but it looks like the unofficial theme for my challenge is stripes. I varied with vertical and horizontal stripes for the blue theme using Polish My Life Stripped, Essie Style Cartel, Kiko Nail Polish 335 Ink Blue, 

Day Six: Violet Nails

Something different for this color prompt. I was going for a syrup clear to color gradient if that makes sense. I used clear topcoat and Darling Diva Polish Have You Ever Mistaken for a Man? as well as a line of gold on top with gold striping tape. 

Day Seven: Black and White Nails

I had grand plans for this prompt, I wanted something dramatic and complex! But time was not on my side so I decided to do a stamped look. I used Polish My Life Stripped, Munda de Unas Black, and three designs from Moyou London's Pro XL Plate #20

Day Eight: Metallic Nails 

For this prompt, I had no real plan in place when I sat down to do my nails. I had my bottle of Elevation Polish Khan of Khans sitting on my desk and thought I wanted to something that looked a tapestry or cloth. I applied Essie Bell Bottom Blues for the base, applied a layer of matte topcoat. Once the base was dry, I used a dry brush technique to brush on Khan of Khans and then very subtly  dabs a bit of Elevation Polish Zenjin.

(Direct Sunlight)

Day Nine: Rainbow Nails

I love doing rainbow nails, they always make me supremely happy. I wanted to have each nail show all seven colors of the (traditional) rainbow, so I did a rainbow dotted gradient. I applied a double layer of a ridge builder base coat so it would cover a bit of my nail staining but you could also still see my natural nail below the dots. For the dots, I reached into my drawer of acrylic paint and used those instead of nail polish. Acrylic paint dries much more quickly then polish (less chance of smearing when I apply topcoat) and it has an even formula for each color. A layer of matte topcoat and a final scatter of silver dots and that's it! 

My favorite look so far was the Rainbow Nail prompt. Check back next week for round up number two!