Day 20: WATER MARBLED

I scheduled this post because I'm off in Minnesota visiting my family for Christmas.  I didn't do much in the way of Christmas, or any other holiday, manicures this year but I thought it would be cute to do a red white a green water marble combination for Day 20 of the 31 Day Challenge.

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Whirlwind White as a base for the marbling, then alternating drops of Zoya Sooki, Zoya Snow White, and Orly Lucky Duck for the swirls.  I used a white base because when I tried dipping naked nails Lucky Duck was very sheer and I had major VNL.  I topped everything with two coats of Wet'n'Wild Wild Shine Kaleidoscope, a color I received earlier this year as part of my Polish-aholics Anonymous Secret Santa (thank you Amanda!).  A final coat of Seche Vite holds everything in place and gives a nice shiny finish.

(If you'd like, you can now follow my blog with Bloglovin since Google has announced the end to Google Friend Connect.)

Day 19: GALAXIES

Galaxy nails for Day 19 of the 31 Day Challenge is another one I could be less than thrilled about.  I used Cutepolish's Easy Galaxy Nail Art YouTube video to guide me in this process.  When Cutepolish says to stipple the white dots along the nebula...well...my stippling ability needs some work.  Large stars!

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, China Glaze Fifth Avenue, and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper.

Can you see the flakes from Glass Slipper?  I had a hard time seeing them while I was wearing it.  Maybe I'll try galaxy nails again.  Maybe.

Day 18: HALF MOONS

I'm excited for half-moon day, heh. It's Day 18 of the Longest 31 Day Challenge and I'm very excited to share today's look with you.

I've paired Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out with Butter London's No More Waity Katie.  I originally saw this combination on Pinterest, and that led me back to Okay Joy Now's blog post where she did this same design for her day 18.  I love the way this looks!

Ruby Pumps

I've previously confessed that I don't typically wear red colors, or warm colors even, on any sort of a regular basis.  It was on a whim the other day that I picked up China Glaze's Ruby Pumps while I was at Sally's because I've heard so many people raving about the color.  The red looks so dark in bottle I was actually hesitant to try it out.

Ruby Pumps is such a glorious red.  It's like a Macintosh apple red that absolutely glows from within.  The red glitter suspended in a red base reminds me of glowing embers in a campfire.

My only complaint about this polish is that it is so hard to clean up off of flooded cuticles.  You can still see around the edges of some of my nails that I still have polish visible.

Even if red is not your favorite color, China Glaze Ruby Pumps is a must have.

Day 17: GLITTER

Day 17 of the 31 Day Challenge calls for glitter and this day I went for a very simple glitter: Butter London's Victoriana.  This has been one of my untried polishes since I picked it up in October and I was really irked to find out that there was polish all over the inside of the cap and around the lid of the bottle.  Like someone swatched it in the store.  Seriously guys?  Ugh.  Okay, enough of that, on to the polish!

I love the microglitters suspended in the polish!  Not too much glitter to be in your face but enough to sparkle.  A deep blue, practically teal color that manages to still look very soft.

Day 16: TRIBAL PRINT

It's Day 16 on the 31 Day Challenge.  I wasn't looking forward to this day.  Tribal print, just like animal print, isn't my thing.  Since I've been taking my time with this challenge I've been able to plan more in advance for the designs I'd like to do each day.  So when I pinned this on Pinterest the other day I knew I would be doing a Norwegian setesdalsgens design.  Norwegian tribal print - perfect!  31 Day Challenge meets Christmas.

Only this?

Source: Never Too Much Glitter via Kristen on Pinterest

This is ridiculously hard for me to freehand.  I tried.  Twice.  So I turned to my trusty friend Google and found this YouTube video by So Long Kitty Nail Art.  Now this is more my style!

This is what I wound up with:

I used Zoya Sooki (I've added an 'e' to the end of Sooki every time I've typed it - does anyone else have this problem?) as the based and then stamped Konad Special Polish in White on top using Bundle Monster plate BM-214, and Konad plates m71 and m59.  I think it looks convincingly sweater-ish.  My reindeer looks decidedly...special. Oh poor reindeer.

Despite this being a stamping based manicure, it still took me at least two hours to complete (an episode of Bones and one-and-a-half episodes of Glee).  Quite the time sink.

And here's a shot of Zoya Sooki by itself.

Can you spot my camera in the reflection on my nails?  Sooki is more red than orange in real life, is more sheer than I'd like, but it perfect for stamping over.

Are sweater tribal print nails something you'd try?

Day 15: DELICATE PRINT

Welcome to Day 15, delicate print day, on the 31 Day Challenge.

For my delicate print manicure I used Avon Amethyst Shimmer as my base with China Glaze Platinum Silver stamped on top using Bundle Monster plate BM02.  I've had Avon Amethyst Shimmer for at least 15 years now and I'm surprised that the formula has held up so well!

Faye's Plum the Word

I've been loving dark colors lately, especially purples and greens.  This is a gradient/accent nail manicure I did a few weeks back.

For the base I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Plum's the Word, then sponged Zoya Faye at the base.  When my ring finger chipped away before I could snag a picture in daylight, I painted the whole nail with Zoya Faye.

Please excuse the cut on my middle finger.  I'm not sure what I did to cause it, but I probably snagged it on a steel tank at work.

What I liked about this manicure was the contrast of colors between Plum's the Word and Faye. What I didn't like about this manicure is that I couldn't see purple tones in Faye after I sponged it on my nails - everything looked gold to me.

Warm & Fozzie

I picked up OPI's Warm & Fozzie a couple weekend's back and I am loving how sparkly it is.  A gold base with specks of green and pink glitter.  I used Seche Vite as my top coat and I wound up with shrinkage at the tips, ugh.  At least it's not noticeable from normal nail viewing distance!

Can you see my pink PowerShot reflected on my nails in the photo above?

Earlier in December I replaced my old desk lamp with a sun lamp and I am loving the amount of light this lamp emits compared to my old lamp.  These photos were the first photos I took with my sun lamp and I'm pleased that the color is quite accurate.  I'm thinking of stamping something on top of this color but I haven't decided what yet.  I think Warm & Fozzie will make a great back drop for a holiday manicure.  Presents?  Reindeer?  Holly?  What do you think I should use?

Day 14: Flowers

Day 14 of the 31 Day Challenge calls for flowers but I needed something more subtle for work.  For this version of subtle I chose to do a simple french manicure with an accent nail flower for this day.  You may be surprised to hear that I've never done a french manicure on my real nails.  It's true!  They've never been long enough for me to want to draw attention to the tips before.

Confession?  The white part of my ring finger and middle finger chipped while I was at work and I tried to "fix it" so it looks a bit funky in this photo.  This being my first attempt at french tips I'm pretty pleased at how it turned out. This is definitely something I'd like to try again in the future!

I used two coats of Essie Petal Pink as the base, SoEasy Stripe Rite in White for the tips, then I stamped Zoya Areej on my ring finger as an accent using Bundle Monster plate BM14.

Snowflakes

My favorite shade of blue is sapphire, and this nail polish from Orly is definately what I would call sapphire.  Sapphire foil with with silver that glitters, glimmers, and catches all the light.

Orly's Sweet Peacock is a lovely, lovely color.  The blue and silver here reminds me of chilly winter days, so what better to spice up this manicure with than some snowflakes?  This my first winter-themed manicure of hopefully many.

To create the snowflakes I stamped Konad Special Polish in White on with Bundle Monster plate BM-213.  I love how this looks!  I think it's very pretty and very appropriate for December.

Day 13: ANIMAL PRINT

I love how this manicure for Day 13 of the 31 Day Challenge turned out.  I'm not an animal print person.  I have no clothes or accessories that have animal prints on them.  I've just never felt like it's me.  But this?  This I love and I feel it is super cute.  

It's Zoya Marley for the base, then M.A.S.H. plate m57 stamped on top with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Black Out.  To add some spice I added a few dots of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Pink I Can to the center of a few of the spots.  This is much more intense than the last spotted manicure I did and I think it turned out a lot better.

Are We There Yet?

I don't usually buy OPI polish.  I'd never owned an OPI color until September when I found one on clearance at a grocery store (a very random find) and to this day it's still an untried.  But when I was researching colors for my Wear to Work series I came across the descriptions for their Fall 2011 Touring America Collection and knew I had to have Are We There Yet?.  Why?  They've based the color on the city where I live - Milwaukee, WI.

The description for Are We There Yet? says:

Leather, lipstick and a touch of elegance... "biker chic" never looked so good.  The next time you're Touring America, make a pit stop at Milwaukee's Oktoberfest (the oldest Oktoberfest in the USA). You've never seen so many babes, bikes (and beer!) in one place.  

It totally makes sense that this is an orange color, not just because the color orange is often-times associated with October, but because Harley-Davidson is an iconic symbol of Milwaukee and its colors are orange and black.  I'm not much of a color-naming person (I would simply call this orange-pink), so I'm going to quote Scrangie when she says that it is "a really light salmony-coral orange with a hint of shiny pink/gold duochrome shimmer."  That sounds so much nicer when she says it!

Sadly my photos make this color appear very orange, when it reality it is much more coral and pink.  I love corals and this color is no exception.  I should also remark on the formula; it's exquisite.  I can totally understand why there are so many OPI fans out there!

Day 12: STRIPES

Welcome back to the longest 31 Day Challenge in the history of all 31 Day Challenges! Ha. My apologies for not getting back on this challenge faster.  Day 12 of the challenge is stripes and for this design I went for a straight-forward solid color of polish plus stripe stamp.

I used Zoya Pasha as my base color, then stamped Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Black Out on top using Konad plate m60.