31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 21: Inspired by a Color

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry for the late post again! It's going to take me a while to get back into my schedule because I have so many events to go to these next few weeks. Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and so much more!

But here I have for you the next post for the 31DC! Today's post is "Inspired by a Color" and I kept thinking of way too many things for various colors. So instead, I decided to be "inspired by" the name of one of my polishes. I ended up getting inspired by two of them: Revlon Kiss Me Coral and Revlon Plum Seduction.. The two polish names just work so well together that I decided to use them both for my mani. However, the combined colors made it extremely difficult to get a good picture so I apologize for the horrible pictures.

To get this look:

• I started off by applying my base coat and then applied three coats of Revlon Kiss Me Coral. 
• To make the kisses, I used a dotting tool and Revlon Plum Seduction and dotted on the kisses.
• The kisses needed to look like they were put there by someone kissing the area, so to get that look, I used a striping brush and striped on some of the Revlon Kiss Me Coral. I think that's the reason the plum polish didn't pop out as much. Before the striping, the kisses were more noticeable.
• I ended the mani with my favorite top coat.

Even though the pictures didn't turn out so great, I think the mani looks great in real life. The plum kisses are more noticeable than the pictures show so you can definitely see them; they don't blend in with the background.

Let me know what you think of this and if you think my interpretation of the challenge was alright. I hope you all like it!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 20: Water Marble

Hi everyone!!

I'm back!!! Got back last week but there have been so many events that I have had to go to and things to catch up on so I haven't been able to post on here. I promise I will catch up soon!

I'll put up a few pictures of my trip as soon as I can (hopefully this week).

Anyways, back to the point of the post! Last week's challenge was water marbling. It took a long time for me to decide on what color theme I wanted but I eventually went with blue; something that looks like water. Take a look at my attempt and tell me what you think about it!

To get this look:

• After putting on my base coat, I put on one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White to use as my base polish.
• For the water marbling, I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Revlon Plunge Pool, Revlon Midnight Haze, and Revlon Downtown. I used a toothpick to swirl the patterns for each nail.
• I sealed the deal with my trusty top coat.

  

I absolutely love how my middle finger turned out! And of course that was the first nail that I did so obviously I couldn't recreate something even close to that for the other nails...womp womp. But I do like how all of them turned out! There wasn't a single nail that I had to redo because of being disappointed with it or it just messing up completely. Yay!

 I hope you all like it!! I sure do :) But still, I would love to hear what you think of my water marbling! Let me know in the comments section below. Or if there is a color scheme you would like for me to try out or some type of...well, anything! Just let me know below. I try to respond back to everyone.

As I said above, I will try to get a few pictures up from my vacation (although picking a few is going to be very hard because I have over 1000 pictures). But I'll try! I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 19: Galaxies

Hi everyone!

I have the next 31DC post for you and I was able to make this one because I had to do something with my nails for my trip anyways! And what a better mani to have for a cruise to Alaska! I thought that the galaxies mani could somewhat represent the northern lights as well, so it sort of goes, right?

Anyways, this is going to be a quick post because I need to head out to the airport soon! Take a look at my attempt.

To get this look:

• After applying a trusty base coat, I applied one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White because I don't like applying black polish directly to my nails. 
• I followed the white with two coats of Sinful Colors Black On Black.
• Then I used a sponge to sponge on blue polish (Revlon Plunge Pool), lavender polish (Revlon Enchanting), bright pink polish (Revlon Colorstay Wild Strawberry), and yellow polish (Revlon Sunshine Sparkle). After all of that, I went back and added a little bit more of the blue polish.
• I also sponged on some Orly Space Cadet because, well, it has the word "space" in it. I had to use it! Plus the multichrome glitter particles went with the whole look perfectly.
• I also added some silver glitter by applying one coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Ice Queen.
• I sealed everything with a top coat.

This was super easy to create and I love how it turned out! I even did the galaxies on my big toes so I'm totally galaxy-fied!

I've seen other bloggers add white dots to this type of mani too and I tried that out on my toes (I did my toes before my fingers) and I didn't like how it looked on me. Maybe I should have tried to use a light grey instead of white? Who knows. But I like the effect the glitter brings to this look.

Well, there you have it! What do you all think of this? Let me know!! This is my very first attempt at galaxy nails. I've tried sponging in a similar way before but the mani wasn't actually a galaxy mani. So hopefully you all think my first attempt was alright!

I hope you all have an amazing couple of weeks and I'll see you all once I get back!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 18: Half Moons

Hey guys!

This post is going to be pretty short because it's super late, I just got back from my brother's high school graduation, and I'm too tired to function! I have the next post in the 31 Day Challenge for you: half moons! My original idea was completely different but I didn't have enough time to create it since I had to go to my brother's graduation today. So, I opted for something much simpler.

To get this look:

• After applying a base coat, I put hole reinforcements stickers on my nail (on the lunula) and then applied two coats of Revlon Teak Rose.
• When that was dry, I peeled off the stickers and then filled in the half moons with Revlon Colorstay Bare Bones using a small brush.
• Using a striping brush, I created the three lines with Revlon Totally Toffee.
• To finish off the look, I used a dotting tool to add dots with Revlon Colorstay Bare Bones and Revlon Totally Toffee.
• I ended it all with my trusted top coat.

I liked the end result. It was simple enough but still cute! Also, it is a little sloppy because I was in such a rush to get it done. I hope you all still liked it! And now I am off to bed!! Check back tomorrow because I will have some updates about my blog for you all!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 17: Glitter

Hi guys!

Today, I have for you the next post in the 31 Day Challenge: Glitter manicure! I had a hard time thinking of something to do for this one so I decided to go find some inspiration. Kayla from Nails by Kayla Shevonne is my absolute favorite nail blogger so I went through her blog and found this! The whole manicure looked like so much fun so I knew that I had to try it out! My challenge mani for today is inspired by her Mish Mash Mint Mani.

To get this look:

• After applying a base coat, I applied two coats of Sinful Colors Timbleberry to use as my base polish color on all of my nails. It's such a pretty coral!
• Pointer: I used a dotting tool and Sinful Colors In The Spotlight to apply glitter dots randomly on my nail. I then used a small detail brush to outline the dots with Sinful Colors Black On Black.
• Middle: Using a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black, I made a drippy outline. Then I filled in the drips with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight using my detail brush.
• Ring: I used my detail brush to add a rectangular section of glitter to the side of my nail with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight. Then, using my small detail brush, I added the black outline and random black lines to the non-glitter area.
• Pinky: With Sinful Colors Black On Black and a small detail brush, I painted a triangle and the triangular lines. Then I filled in the gaps with Sinful Colors In The Spotlight using a detail brush.
• I smoothed everything out by applying my favorite top coat.

I think my drippy nail would have better if I made the drips using the glitter first and then outlining it. But what's done is done! I also don't like my pinky nail. Oh well. Out of all the nails, I think the pointer finger nail turned out the best with the leopard print!

However, all together, I do like this mani! I think it's fun and it's definitely something that would be fun to wear over the summer. What do you think?

I think the glitter went well with the coral polish as well. So that's always a plus!

Let me know what you think of this! I would love to get some feedback/tips form you.

Make sure you check out my friend's 31DC mani at My Life In Turquoise.

I have several great ideas for next week's 31DC mani so make sure you tune in next Monday! But before that, I have the 3rd post for you for May's Tri-Polish Challenge tomorrow. There's a cool technique that I saw that I want to try out for it.

That's 17 down and 14 more to go!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 16: Tribal Print

Hi guys!

I have the next manicure for the 31 Day Challenge for you. I think it looks fun and well...my brother said that it reminded him of the rugs that were in our hotel in Guatemala because of the print that I used. He's a little...odd? But in reality, they really do resemble them!

Anyways, let's get to the good stuff! This manicure was super fun to create and I now know that I love tribal print!

To get this look:

• I used Revlon Colorstay Bare Bones as the base polish on all of my nails and then decided to create the print over it.
• I used a small detail brush, thinnest striping brush, and dotting tools in various sizes, along with Revlon Lagoon Afternoon, Maybelline Color Show Orange Fix, and Sinful Colors Black On Black to create the various prints that you see.
• I sealed everything with my favorite top coat!

Coincidentally, my manicure ended up matching my outfit because I wore a nude colored dress. I love when things work out like that, don't you?

I hope you all liked my attempt at a tribal print manicure. This was my first real attempt at a tribal manicure (I had doodled on my nails in India and it ended up having a tribal-esque feel to it and my 2nd manicure for April's Tri-Polish Challenge mani had a tribal-esque quality to it). What do you think of it? I know that I need some work to make things a bit more even and cleaner, but I'm still happy considering it is my first attempt.

If you have any tips or suggestions, please let me know in the comments section below!

And as always, check out my friend's mani at My Life In Turquoise.

Now, that's 16 down and 15 more to go!! We're more than half way through this. No turning back now!

A quick word: My thoughts and prayers are with all of the families affected by the tornado in Oklahoma. It's devastating news but the heroic actions of the first response team lessened the blow. Stay strong, Oklahoma!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 15: Delicate Print

Hi guys!!

Today's post might be a bit blah just because I had a hard time with this challenge. I have a stamping plate so I automatically knew that I would be using it to create today's delicate print mani. However, I had never used my stamping plate before! I thought it would be easy, but after trying it out, I realized I need a little practice with it; my print wasn't coming off the stamper cleanly.

Anyways, here's what that attempt ended up looking like:

"To get this look":

• I started off by applying Revlon Sunshine Sparkle as my base polish.
• I then used Revlon Midnight Haze and my B25 stamping plate to add the flowers, but as you can see, it didn't really work

I would have liked to spend the day practicing stamping, but as you can see from the picture above, the nails match my saree (Indian dress) that I had to wear for a wedding yesterday. I couldn't keep practicing because I had to go to the wedding in the morning and the reception in the evening! I ended up taking this all off and created a different mani.

This was my second, very quick, mani. I totally know that I'm cheating by using nail stickers, but I only had about 15 minutes left to do my nails before I had to start getting ready and leave for the day. It still satisfied the whole delicate print challenge for this day.

"To get this look":

• I used Revlon Silver Screen as my base polish.
• Then, I used some tweezers to put the CINA nail stickers on my nails after the base polish was mostly dry. I finished it all off with a top coat. 

To end result still matched my outfit and that's why I went with the colors and stickers that I used.

I am definitely going to keep practicing using a stamping plate and hopefully you'll be seeing me use them in some manicures in the future!! I love how stamping plates end up looking on manicures so I will be using them soon.

Make sure to check out my friend's post at My Life In Turquoise.

15 down, 16 more to go! We're basically half way done now!! So exciting :) Hopefully next week's challenge goes a lot better for me. 

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 14: Flowers

Hello hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We're back today with the new challenge mani for the 31 Day Challenge! I'm starting right off the bat by saying that I was disappointed with my mani but I didn't have time to fix it or create a new one. So I'm stuck with this one for this post. Womp womp :(

My favorite flower is the white calla lily so I really wanted to do something with it. I'm just not going to say anything more than that because I really am upset with the end result.

A lot of polishes were used to create this so bare with me again!

To get this look:
 Lily

•  I started by working on the lily. I needed an undie so I used Orly Country Club Khaki. It actually ended up being the perfect base for my accent nail!
• To create the green background for the accent nail, I sponged on Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lickety-Split Lime and Revlon Colorstay Spanish Moss in random spots. 
• For the actual calla lily, I used a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Snow Me White to create the heart shaped petal. Then I used my smallest detail brush and Revlon Colorstay Bonsai to create the shadow/hole where the center piece comes out.
• I needed to add some shadows to the calla lily because it looked too fake to me so I mixed together Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Revlon Downtown to create a light blue because I don't own the right shade to use as the shadow color. I added some of that custom blue to the left side of the petal and to create the shadow from the center piece.
• I didn't have the correct shade for the center piece either. The polishes that I have are either too yellow or too orange, nothing in between. So I mixed together Revlon Sunshine Sparkle and Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet to create a light orange. I used my small detail brush to create the carrot-shaped piece.
• I add some darkness/shadow under the calla lily, I used Zoya Yara and the sponge to dab a little of that polish under the petal on bottom right and left sides of the accent nail.

Other nails

• I used Zoya Pixie Dust Vespa on the other nails.  

I'm actually proud of my calla lily but it's the Pixie Dust that, I think, ruined my mani. I haven't used it before so I thought it would be a darker color and would just add some sparkle. But this was about 3 coats (1 nail was 2 coats) and the color was still a lot lighter than what the bottle shows. I do love the polish, just not with this mani. I also think I ended up crapping out on the shading because the lighting was bad in my room. It looked good in that light but ended up looking completely different in natural light and you could see the the stark difference in the shading. But what's done is done! Hopefully I'll be more happy with my next challenge mani.

** Just in case someone wants a reference to the flower, here's a picture**

http://pphotography-blog.blogspot.com/2012/01/calla-lily-flower.html

I hope you all at least like my attempt at creating the calla lily! Be sure to check out my friend's flower post at My Life In Turquoise!

Now that's 14 done, and 17 more to go!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print Nails

Hi everyone!!

I'm super excited to show you the challenge mani that I created for today! It's simple and I think that it doesn't have too much going on, which I believe is the case for the most part with animal print manis. I decided on doing french tips with the animal prints overflowing onto my bare nail (on top of the base coat, of course). So check it out below and let me know what you think! Welcome to The Polish Zoo!!

 I used several different polishes so bare with me! And everything was used after applying a base coat.

To get this look: 

• Thumb (zebra print): French tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the zebra print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Pointer (leopard print): French tip was made using Piggy Polish Stand At The Edge. The leopard print was made using Revlon Top Speed Varnished and Sinful Colors Black on Black and a medium sized detail brush and small dotting tool
• Middle (cow print): The french tip was made using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the spots were made using a medium sized detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black
• Ring (giraffe print):  The french tip was made using Orly Country Club Khaki and the print was made using a medium sized detail brush and Revlon Totally Toffee
• Pinky (tiger print): The french tip was made using Sally Hansen Insta Dri Snappy Sorbet and the print was made using Sinful Colors Black On Black and my smallest sized striping brush

 

This mani was quite fun to create and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I didn't want an overpowering animal print mani this week so I opted for the french tips instead The entire look was not time consuming either because I just made quick french tips and didn't have to worry about them being super clean since I was going to put the print over it anyways. Also, animal print is never PERFECT. There are always some imperfections so it allowed me to just go with flow in creating the different prints.

My inspirations! 

What did you all think about my mani? I really like love it!! Let me know your thoughts on this one or if you have any suggestions/tips/ideas to help me next time I decide to do an animal print mani.

Make sure to check out my friend's post today at My Life In Turquoise!

13 down, and 18 to go!! Check back next Monday for the flower challenge mani!!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 12: Stripe Nails

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend, I know I did! I definitely think today's challenge mani is one of my all time favorite manis. Originally, I had planned to just have nude nails with some black stripes over it because I couldn't think of anything special to create with stripes. But then, I found my inspiration! I stumbled upon (yes, literally using stumble upon) a home decoration website and voila! found my mani. To add a little more to my inspiration, I realized that one of the vases we have with random pieces in it would fit into the mani perfectly and I opted for the feather accent.

http://www.arthouse.com/product/opera-fun-super-stripe-black-and-pink-125

I took the pink and black stripes and decided to have a feather as my accent. Also, even though the picture with the striped wallpaper has a silver lamp, I thought gold would do a better job standing out. The great part about my mani was that it matched the outfit that I wore on Saturday! I had to go to my friend's engagement party and the outfit was white and pink so it fit perfectly. Here's what my attempt looks like:

To get this look:

• After putting on my favorite base coat, Essie 3-Way Glaze, I used Revlon Top Speed Pink Lingerie as my colored base coat. It's a lovely soft pink! 
• Then using my thinnest striping brush, I added stripes to all of my nails, except my ring fingers, with Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Sinful Colors Black On Black, and Revlon Copper Penny (shown in the picture above)
• For my accent ring finger, I used my wide, feathery striping brush and Sinful Colors Black on Black to create a feather and then finished it off with a little Revlon Copper Penny dot at the base of the feather
• I sealed the entire mani with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat so that I can enjoy it for a couple of days!

Although I absolutely LOVE this mani, I was in a bit of a dilemma after I had finished creating it. I liked the stripes that I made on my right hand better, but I liked the feather from my left hand better. Hence, I have pictures of both hands above, hah. But I do love how the stripes turned out. I love how I was able to get them to stay thin! I also love how I was able to keep the feather looking plush and full the same way the inspiration feather really is.

I really hope you all like this mani as much as I do! And definitely let me know if you agree with me about which hand has the better stripes and feather. I'm curious to see what you all think looks better! So, as always, feel free to leave me comments in the section below! And if there is anything that you would like me to try out or want to see, please, let me know!

Can you believe it? 12 down, and only 19 more to go! These challenges are getting more exciting now!

Have a great Monday, everyone!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dot Nails

Hi guys!

This post probably won't be too long because I somehow sprained my back and shoulders so keeping my arms in this position is actually killing me right now :(

To start off the second third of the challenge, I chose to do a very simple pattern with a lot of dots but it didn't quite turn out the way I had imagined it, which is probably because I had planned out the design to go on long nails but I ended up cutting mine over the weekend. I'm trying squoval nails for the first time!!

The base polish is Piggy Polish The Right To Bare Feet and it's such a pretty orange/coral color! The dots were made using Sinful Colors Black On Black and a small sized dotting tool. Originally, I was going to put a bouillon bead at the base but I can't seem to find my stash, so I opted for three tiny, silver caviar beads instead.

I like how it turned out but I do wish that I had kept my nails longer. The design would have turned out much better and cleaner. With these short nails, you can't really really tell what the design with the dots is supposed to be. No matter! It'll be better next time.

  

I hope you all liked it and I'm super excited to show you all the stripes challenge mani next week! I've been waiting to try it out for a while now! 

11 down, 20 more to go!!! The half way mark is coming up!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 10: Gradient Nails

Happy Monday everyone!

Today is such an amazing day in Chicago! The weather is finally awesome (even though the wind is trying to knock me off my feet) and it's definitely getting me out of the winter blues!

The challenge mani for today had to have some type of gradient. I have never created a gradient before so I was a bit worried as to how it would turn out or if I would even be able to make one. I saw a lot of tutorials on the best way to create a gradient and my first attempt failed miserably. I couldn't figure out why because I waited for the base color to dry completely, put the polish on the sponge, used the up and down motion, but the polish just did not want to cooperate. I then noticed that the sponges in all of the tutorials had openings, or "pores", that were quite visible and then saw that I couldn't see the "pores" in the sponge that I was using. So I ran out to Walmart and found makeup sponges that some pores in them and tried those out. They worked!!! I'm super super happy with this mani and I will be definitely be using gradients a lot more because they look awesome!

So here I have a tropical, warm weather inspired gradient mani for you all!

The light base polish that I started off with was Sinful Colors Island Coral (even the polish color is from the tropics!!). I then created the gradient using the Island Coral along with Sinful Colors Timbleberry and Sinful Colors Amethyst. The palm trees were created using a small detail brush and Sinful Colors Black On Black. I guess it was a Sinful Colors kind of day for me!

Seriously, I am so in love with this mani and so happy with my first attempt! It's also making me miss the super warm weather and beaches and everyone fun about the summer. I can't wait for it to be nice enough to go to the beach!!

I hope you all liked my attempt at the gradient! If you have any suggestions or ideas on what else I can do with a gradient, feel free to email me or leave a comment in the comments section below!

As always, be sure to check out my friend Hetal's gradient mani at My Life In Turquoise!

So that's the end of the first 3rd of the 31 Day Challenge!! 
10 down and only 21 more to go!

Have a lovely Monday, everyone!

31 Day (Week) Challenge - Day 9: Rainbow Nails

Hey guys!!

I'm super excited to show you all my challenge mani for today. Originally, I was going to have one balloon on each finger but then I realized that I would have to lose one color since there are only five fingers. So I decided to have two balloons on each finger so that I could fit in that extra color.

I'm also dedicating this party inspired mani to my boyfriend's nephew because his 1st birthday just passed!!

A lot of polishes went into creating this challenge mani. I wanted to have a base color because I didn't want to have the balloons and confetti on my bare nail and I didn't want to have a white background either. So for my base polish color, I used one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Platinum because I still wanted to have a VNL. The red balloons and confetti were made using Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Perfect Cherry. All of the orange was created by Sinful Colors Courtney Orange. I used Revlong Sunshine Sparkle for the yellow but it was too light so I ended up going over it with Wet n Wild Fast Dry The Wonder Yellows. The green I used was Sinful Colors Irish Green. The blue was made using Rimmel London Marine Blue. And last but not least, the purple came from Nicole by OPI Prized Possession Purple. Now for the detail work. For the balloon strings, I used Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen Black. To make the "shine" streaks on the balloons, I used Nubar Nail Art Pen Basic White. Of course, none of this would have been possible without my handy dandy small detail brush!

Even though there were a lot of nail polishes involved in making this mani, it would super easy because of the detail brush. I worked with one color at a time so that I didn't have to keep cleaning the brush after every single use. But I'm not going to lie, as easy as this mani was, it was highly time consuming because of all of the small detail work.

This is such a fun mani and it makes me so happy every time I see it! It just reminds me of parties and all the fun that goes along with it. I really hope you all love this mani as much as I do!

Be sure to check out the challenge mani by My Life In Turquoise!

That's 9 down and 22 more to go!