Everyone, today is the day! Today is the last and final post in my 76 31 Week Challenge! I had to recreate my favorite and I chose Week Two Orange because I really liked the design. It was the first gradient that really turned out well for me, the photos looked great, and I got a TON of compliments when I was wearing these nails. Here are my recreations for today:
And if you can't remember the originals, here is the photo from Week Two:
I wanted to recreate the gradient using a less yellow polish since the prompt was orange after all. For my more-orange re-creation I used China Glaze Peachy Keen and OPI Flit A Bit. Ahhh, now to relax. I've finally completed the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge! Yay! For a review of all my posts in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge, click here.
We're almost there everyone! Only one more post after today left in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge!
Today's nails are inspired by this tutorial uploaded by Mod Nails. It's a super cute leopard and black matte design:
If you haven't checked out her videos yet, please do so. I don't think she's posted in a while but her designs are super cute. For my manicure I used a Kleancolor polish (unfortunately the name label fell off but thanks to Ananka's suggestion I think the polish is Mocha) as the base, made the spots with China Glaze Chocodisiac and Orly Liquid Vinyl, and matted out the middle finger and pinky with Essie Matte About You.
I really liked how these turned out but has anyone else been let down by Essie Matte About You? I was really disappointed in the matte lack of matte finish it gave to my nails. I've had the bottle for a couple years so maybe it just wasn't mixed well? Meh. In any event I have to repaint my nails anyway because boyfriend has a work party tonight that we're going to. Free food (and booze)...Yes, please! I guess I should figure out my outfit! Have a great day everyone.
Next up: The last and final one! Recreate Your Favorite
This nail art is sort of a lame cop out for today's prompt in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge. I didn't have any other ideas for the supernatural so I just used stamps of ghosts. What do you think?
I know I know, not very original. You just saw ghosts stamps here on The Files not too long ago in one of my Halloween designs....but I tried to do something a bit different for today. I painted China Glaze Peachy Keen as a base and then stamped the double helix (is that a good way of putting it?) in Zoya Shawn off BundleMonster plate 203. Then I added the ghost BundleMonster stamp in black on the top from BM223. So supernatural, right?!
Today's post is Week 28 of the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge, or Inspired by a Flag. As you may remember from my September First Friday Favorites post, I ADORE the show The Royals on E! Network (about a fictitious British royal family). I am also obsessed with the real British Royal Family (Kate Middleton obsession much?). So when I saw this prompt coming I wanted to do nails inspired by none other than the Union Jack. These were actually painted for LAST Sunday but I held off on posting them so I could keep the challenge in order. Here are my nails inspired by a flag:
Because it was inspired by a flag I did the Union Jack on my ring finger and then stamped two crowns on my index and middle fingers as a nod to The Royals. Then because I can't leave well enough alone I added some more pizzaz on my pinky nail by adding some rhinestones in red, blue, and white.
And just a few more photos. The Royals premiered its second season on November 15th....and for my premiere watching party I created a giant Big Ben and some fruit tartlets for our show watching.
The left most was a delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter tartlet, made of chocolate filling with a peanut butter icing dollop on top. The middle was a Chocolate Covered Strawberry Tartlet, which was strawberry filling topped with three chocolate chips and powdered sugar. The right most was a Cheesecake Tartlet, which was cheesecake filling topped with crushed graham cracker. They were a big hit for everyone that was over here for the premiere party! The cheesecake and graham cracker one was my personal fave. If you want a post on the recipe comment below or email me!
Today's post is another post in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge. We're up to Week 27, or nails inspired by artwork so I used "Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952" by Jackson Pollock as my inspiration and came up with this manicure.
Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952 looks like this:
Jackson Pollock has always fascinated me because his work looks like pure chaos but at the same time I like looking at it. And if Jackson Pollock isn't your style, here's a photo of me with the Mona Lisa that we took at a sculpture garden recently. You could actually go behind the painting and see what the Mona Lisa (whoever she actually is) looked like beyond what you could see in the picture. It was a 3D Monda Lisa!
Next up: Week 28, Inspired By a Flag. We're almost finished everyone!!
Happy Black Friday shopping everyone! I'm hopelessly behind in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge so I'm going to be posting more often than weekly in order to get this challenge finished. This week's prompt had me stumped though. A pattern? I mean, there are so many options! Do I do plaid because plaid is rad? Or maybe polka dot because I love them lots. Or maybe checkered, striped, or chevron?? Either way, there is no shortage of pattern possibilities. I settled on these: Ikat Nails.
Finally moving forward with the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge today. Yes, it's been a while since I started it but I am determined to finish it by the end of this year! This week is Week 25: Inspired By Fashion and I came up with these nails:
For manicure inspiration, I googled fashion trend 2016 and found this article from Harper's Bazaar, which informed me that when something shows up 3 times on a runway it's a trend. So what is a fashion trend for Spring 2016? Tie Dye, apparently. I also used ChalkboardNails as an inspiration for the technique.
Honestly, I don't think this is a new trend though. It seems like everyone already loves their tie dyed stuff:
We've got tie dye yoga pants from Shining Shakti, Christian Louboutin Pigalle Follies Pumps, Neff Backpack, Stance Socks, and even a Kate Spade baby bag!
Next up: Nails inspired by a pattern!
PS On TV tonight is A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving...so check out my Charlie Brown nails from a couple weeks ago.
This is potentially the loooooooooooongest 31 week challenge you have ever seen. I've been at it since, what, December?? Maybe even before that? I'm working on it though. Trust me, we will get through this 31 Week Nail Art Challenge with each manicure being completed eventually. In any event, this week's installment of the challenge is for Week 24 (hey, we're almost done ya'll!). The theme for Week 24 is a manicure inspired by a book. I happen to be scrolling through my TV's guide when I saw that the movie Twilight was on. That's a book! I thought to myself and I sat at my desk to get started. Yep, you guessed it, a manicure inspired by one of the book's cover art. I chose New Moon because I think that was my favorite Twilight movie (but in all honesty I can't remember if I saw them all). I just like this cover because I find it very pretty. I kept the simplicity by making all my other nails plain black and focusing on the flower. This manicure has taught me one thing...I'm still not any good at nail art flowers. Practice makes perfect though! Here are my nails:
Join me in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge and share a link to your post!
It's about that time again folks...a post for the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge. Am I even on schedule with this thing still?? I had left you guys with my Week 22: Inspired By a Song nails giving a nod to Halestorm's "Love Bites (So Do I)" song and now comes Week 23: Inspired By a Film. I couldn't decide on which film I wanted to create nails for so I decided to take inspiration from Zooey Deschanel's Golden Globe nails in 2013 and this tutorial by HelloGiggles. I have created a manicure for this challenge that is truly inspired by a film....a film strip that is! Have a look:
Up next is Week 24: Inspired By a Book....hmmmm, I wonder what I'll do for that one! Check back and see.
Now that we're back on track with the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge and I am posting the one specific week per week (rather than 4 weeks in one post!), I am so excited to be posting these nails. . . because honestly I just think they're incredibly awesome. Is it tacky to think your own nails are awesome?! Hmm. Anyway, for this week of the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge we have Week 22, a manicure Inspired by a Song.
You guys know that I am awful with making decisions -- so choosing one song to inspire a manicure was pretty much impossible for me. Not surprising, right? I listen to a ton of different styles and bands because my music taste swings with my mood BUT I decided to create nails inspired by one of my newest obsessions. Have you ever heard of the band Halestorm? I saw them on September 27, 2014 with my little brother at a music festival in Baltimore. He was supposed to go with a buddy but then the friend wasn't able to make it, so natch I did my big sister duty of standing in when my brother has no one to go somewhere with. Apparently my broski has some good taste in music because I really enjoyed the Halestorm set and I decided to give their music a go when I got back home. Needless to say, I became a fan...hence Halestorm nails for this week! The band is also originally from PA (like I am) and their style is interesting to me because it's rock but it could also be classified as alternative metal (which I'm not really into so much). Moving on, the manicure I painted is in fact inspired by one song in particular: Love Bites (So Do I) from Halestorm's "The Strange Case Of..." record, which I've linked to below the photos. It's the first song on the record so it's the first song on the video if you watch it. I used the whole feel of the record for my inspiration but I added the hearts to the middle finger as a nod to the specific song, Love Bites (So Do I).
Not sure this is copyright legal but whatevs we're gonna roll with it. Their record was kind of all over the place so you will probably find at least one song you like on it! And who knows, you might just become a super fan--or at least one who paints their nails a la Halestorm, like me! Also, they have a new record dropping in April!
I think I'll tweet these to the band's twitter account . . . see what happens! I'll keep you updated.
Up Next: "Inspired by a Film." Hmmm....comment below if you have any ideas?
Welcome to another episode of QUICK-POST-THIS-WEEK'S-CHALLENGE! For this week, we have "Inspired by a Color Nails" which was honestly a somewhat unhelpful prompt to work with. Where do you go with "inspired by a color"?? I checked around on other people's blogs to try and figure out how other people attacked this week's prompt. It turns out that I am not alone here in Question mark Town. Chalkboard Nails called it a tricky prompt and said "cmon, what does that even really mean?" Nails and Noms said it was a vague theme and that the whole first week was basically inspired by a color. I have to agree with both of them! However, there was at least one person, Manicurator, that actually liked this prompt (and did a STUNNING Caribbean colors inspired manicure to boot!)! Anyway, I looked around my apartment to see what color was lacking and I decided on pink. This manicure is what I came up with that is "inspired by pink."
I used OPI I Eat Maine-ly Lobster for the base and then stamped Butter London La Moss (which I got in an Ipsy bag one month last year) with BundleMonster plate BM-207. I always forget how beautiful and simple stamping can be. Might have to start working in more stamping on this blog!
If you're doing this challenge, leave a link below so I can check your nails out!
Today's post catches me up to where I'm supposed to be in my 31 Week Nail Art Challenge so that I can do Week 21 on tomorrow! I decided to do one nail for each week's challenge manicure and then just have one shot (the previous post was picture heavy!). So for today's challenge I have Weeks 17-20: Glitter, Half Moon, Galaxies, and Water Marbled:
Phew, now that I was able to restart my blogging after quite a long hiatus....it's time to catch up on my 31 Week Nail Art Challenge!! As you may remember, I had left off my 31 Week Nail Art Challenge back on Week 10 (Gradient). That means I have to catch all the way up to where I'm supposed to be....which is Week 21 Inspired by a Color. Yikes! That's 12 manicures but I'm going to include a bunch in each post for a bit in order to catch up ASAP. Starting us off with this post, which includes Weeks 11 through 16.
First is Week 11: Polka Dot. You know how often I do polka dots in my designs. They're quick and easy and they always look nice. I decided to do a minimalist polka dot design and it turned out like this. Yes, because I'm obsessed with the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel line I used both of the new polishes, B Girl and Hydro Electric. They go together really well and I had them on my desk. Easy peasy!
Next, is Week 12: Stripes. Not a huge fan of this because I kind of feel like it's boring. Again, I used Sally Hansen Miracle Gel in B Girl and Hydro Electric. What can I say? They were on my desk and I'm lazy! I also used a few stripers that I had from Color Club Art Club to add just a tiny but more blue. Obviously the manicure needed more blue right?
For Week 13: Animal Print, I'm not quite sure if I really pulled it off. I wanted to try to recreate one of my favorite designs from last year where I used a pale purple base with a purple holo animal print but this one just kind of came out BLEH. Does is look animal print-y to you?
Week 14: Flowers gave me a run for my money. Who knew flowers could be hard. I wanted to use a bunch of different colors because I hadn't used many colors for my previous manicures and flowers are typically not monochromatic....at least not usually. This is what I came up with for Flowers week:
Week 15: Delicate. I had no idea what exactly "delicate" means for a manicure. Lace? French? Pale colors? Pastels? I'm going to go with this manicure that I found in my files from November.
Week 16: Tribal. I'm also reusing a manicure from the vault that fit this too perfectly. I don't think I could have topped this tribal manicure even if I tried!
Today's post isn't particularly motivating. I just feel like I have to post it because I can't outright skip a week in the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge! If you've been a blog visitor for a while then you know that I am 100% awful at gradient nails. It's so disappointing because I see them all over the blog and they're gorgeous but every time I try one it's just.....bleh. So here's my try:
We can now forget about this one, mmmkay? Next up Week 11 - Polka Dots! (MY FAVORITE) Be sure to go check NailsNoob out to see what Ghila has come up with for the gradient week!
Also, some super exciting news!! Andrew comes home in 9 days!!
For today's post I have Week Nine of the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge for all you! I am actually pulling out a photographed nail look that I uncovered while going through my phone's photos a few weeks ago. There were a few manicures that I had taken pictures of but never uploaded to use on my blog in a timely fashion. I wanted to share them anyway, and the photo fit perfectly with Week 9, so here is my rainbow manicure (from the vault) for Week 9 of the 31 Week Challenge:
I know it's very simple but I just like how colorful it is. Especially when the weather is cool and winter is coming I like the idea of having summery, colorful nails (when I'm not working) to keep me reminded that warm weather is coming back eventually!
Be sure to check what Ghila over on NailsNoob has come up with for this week of the challenge!
Up next, week 10 - Gradient nails. Oh boy...you all know how I am terrible at gradients so this coming week should be fun!
Here we go with another week's post toward the 31 Week Nail Art Challenge! This week's challenge is Week 8, or Metallic Nail Art. I started to panic at first because I didn't think I had any metallic polishes whatsoever other than the blue magnet one (Magnetic Force by Color Club in Electro-midnight) that I had already posted on here. So I couldn't reuse that...obvi! Then it dawned on me that I have an old polish pair from a few Halloweens ago that was called Mirror Image from Maybelline. If you want more information on the polish itself, check this video out:
I've had this mirror image duo for a really long time and I know I've used it before but oddly enough none of the designs have made it onto this blog (so weird) or onto my camera (even weirder). I think this polish is really cool though and, although it doesn't look like a mirror (like the woman says in her video), it definitely qualifies as a metallic in my mind. To add some pizzazz to it, I added some stamping with BundleMonster Plate 222 in Zoya Mira. I wish I would have used black to stamp with or a thicker stamp design because the purple doesn't really show up that much and isn't really doing it for me. Eh, well maybe I like that the purple is just a hint of color that adds to but doesn't overshadow the metallic. The metallic is the focus of this week's challenge anyway! Here are my nails:
I think the Mirror Image polish is really cool. I know in the video I included in this post the lady doesn't end up being pleased with it because it's not a mirror. I never really expected it to dry and look like a mirror. I expected it to be a really shiny metallic, which is exactly what you get so I like it.
And the stamping I added to just bedazzle it a little bit:
Be sure to pop over to NailsNoob and see what Ghila has come up with for her metallic design!
Up next, Week 9 - Rainbow!
