31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 31

Day 31

And this is it, the final day of the challenge. And it's not even a challenge today, just a recap! 

I have to say I enjoyed this nail challenge immensely. Whilst I am the first to admit that I still need plenty of practice in the nail art department I do feel that this challenge has allowed me to experiment a bit more with nail art and I'm really looking forward to doing even more experimenting with it. 

Another bonus with this challenge is that you really go through your nail varnish collection and root out varnish you otherwise may not have used! That being said I did end up using OPI's Alpine Snow and 17's Nightshade quite frequently! 

Another thing I loved about this challenge was blogging every day. I thought I might struggle a bit with it but aside from having to schedule a few posts due to being away, I really didn't find it that bad. I'm looking forward to blogging more frequently in the future but I don't know if I'll do it on a daily basis or not. I want to but I don't know if readers like it? People might not have the time to read a post every day by every blogger they follow. What do ye think? Would ye like to see a blog a day?   

I can't have the final post of the challenge without a picture so I'm going to include a few pictures of my favourite designs throughout the challenge:) 

Day 11

Day 10

Day 19

Day 20

Day 26

Day 27

Let me know if you decide to do the challenge!

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 30

                                                                            Day 30

Today is going to be my last nail post! I can't believe that we are at the end of the month already and that it is Halloween tomorrow! I have enjoyed doing this challenge so much but I'll expand on that in tomorrow's recap post!

So for today, the final challenge was to be inspired by a tutorial. I decided to use a tutorial given by one of my all-time favourite nail bloggers, Kayla. She first started off as a general beauty blogger but recently changed her domain name to acknowledge that her main focus is now on nails. This girl does epic nail art (and epic hauls and swatches!) so I was delighted when she started doing step by step tutorials of some of her nail art designs. 

The one I chose was of course a Halloween themed one. This is her 'Mummies' nail art design and I love it! Check out her tutorial of it here. 

 

I used

OPI Alpine Snow (Base and Eyes)

Revlon Grey Suede (Sponged over base)

Revlon No Name Gold (Sponged over Grey Suede)

17 Nightshade (Stripes and Eyes)

So that's the last design in the challenge:( But check tomorrows post for the recap and my thoughts on the challenge!

And go check out Kayla! Seriously you won't regret it!

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 29

Day 29

The weekend again! And it's Halloween this weekend,I don't even know what I'm doing for it yet!

I can't believe that this is the second last day of the challenges! (Day 31 is a kind of recap) 

The challenge for today is Inspired by the Supernatural. I couldn't have chosen a better weekend for this challenge to fall on. 

I couldn't really decide on one solid theme for this so I decided to use a few different things. Apologies for the desperate photos, my camera was not in a co-operative mood. 

Little finger is supposed to be a blood stain

Ring finger is fangs

Middle finger is a broomstick

Index finger is a witches hat

 

I think I'm starting to wane and lose imagination at this stage:/ This is certainly not my best look!

 

I used:

China Glaze Pelican Grey

OPI My private Jet

OPI Decades of Shades

OPI Rising Star

OPI Alpine Snow

Rimmel Desire

Don't forget to turn the clocks back tonight!

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 28

Day 28

Today's nail challenge is to be Inspired by a Flag. I searched google images for flags and what I initially decided to do was the South African flag but then this one jumped out at me! The Olympics flag! Seeing as the 2012 Olympics are being held in neighboring London next year, I thought it would be a good flag to do.

 

It should have been simple, but this is me haha! Ah it turned out fairly acceptable. It looks decentish from afar and even close-up it's okay albeit the circles are a little bit wonky!

 

I used

OPI Alpine Snow

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

GOSH Yellow Doll

17 Nightshade

OPI Jade is the New Black

Rimmel Hot Gossip

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 27

Day 27

Today's post is Inspired by Artwork. I decided to use this painting by Van Gogh as my inspiration.
                             
                                

And this is how mine turned out. Obviously it was never going to be a carbon copy and mine is a bit more.....blobby. Despite this, I quite like this manicure!

 

 I used:

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui (Base)

Barry M Navy (Sponged over base)

17 Nightshade

GOSH Yellow Doll

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 26

Day 26

Today's nail challenge was to be inspired by a pattern. This is what I came across when looking for a fashion design for yesterday but I felt it was more suited to today. 

My inspirational pattern is from tartan (or plaid, is there a difference other than name?) 

Tartan/Plaid

My take on it.

 

I used 

Rimmel Hot Gossip

OPI Jade is the New Black

Catrice Sand Francisco 

I was way happier with today's design than yesterday's. I could definitely improve it more and I'm really looking forward to wearing it on my nails again! Especially around Christmas:) 

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 25

Day 25

Today's theme is inspired by fashion.

I tried a few of different things, including one which I feel is better suited to tomorrows theme, but none of them were right. So I decided to go with something very simple, the iconic symbol of Chanel. To me on hearing Chanel, it evokes images of elegance and grace. Unfortunately, my nails did not turn out like either!
I was getting very tired and frustrated when I was doing these I just could not get them right. The pictures are my second attempt after my first ones turned out completely buthchered.

The only plus side is that they kind of remind me of bones. Bones can be Halloween themed, right?

 

I used:

OPI Alpine Snow

17 Nightshade

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 24

Day 24

It's the start of another new week:) I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend, as some of ye know I was away for the weekend visiting friends and I had a brilliant time:)

  

This is the last week of the challenge! It's the 31st next Monday, it's hard to believe that the month is nearly over, it has flown! 

This is the 3rd of the Inspired days and today it is inspired by a book. I decided to stick with a Halloween theme today so I chose a book by Stephen King, probably the top horror novelist there is. The book cover that I chose 'Cell' aptly has orange and black as the colours of the cover, perfect for Halloween.

The book cover and the polishes I used - Kiko 112, Rimmel Black Pearl and OPI Alpine Snow.

 

I took my inspiration from both the colours of the cover and the little phone on the cover. It's a cute design, I think and not the hardest.

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 23

Day 23

Today's theme is Inspired by a Movie. The movie that I used for inspiration for this is The Devil Wears Prada. I absolutely love this film!

I took inspiration from the movie promo picture and decided to use that in the mani. It's a devil's pitchfork and I think it turned out okay. I love the way that the red polish I used wasn't completely opaque as I feel it gives kind of a streaky blood effect. Blood and devil's pitchforks - very appropriate this month I feel!

 

I used:

OPI's Alpine Snow

No7 Salsa 

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 22

Day 22

Today's inspiration challenge is Inspired By A Song. I've had this mani in mind for so long. The day after I found this challenge I heard Warm by The Coronas (an Irish band :D) and thought of fire and instantly was like, I can use this in the 31 Day Challenge! 

When I set about actually doing the manicure, I initially planned on doing very precise lines to differentiate between the colours. But at this stage ye know all about me an my wonky lines so I ended up kind of merging the colours together. 

I used:
GOSH Yellow Doll (all over base)
China Glaze Papaya Punch
China Glaze Orange Marmalade
OPI Big Hair Big Nails
Ciaté Mistress

Personally I think it resembles fire, some may disagree. Not my finest manicure but certainly not my worst! 

And seeing as my chosen inspiration song doesn't include 'fire' in the title here's a few that do! 

The Saturdays - All Fired Up

Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire 

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers (Jimi Hendrix cover) - Fire 

Adele - Set Fire to the Rain

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 21

Day 21

It's Friday already! I'm so excited for this weekend, going up to visit friends in Dublin:)

Only 10 more days left to go in the challenge! Today marks the first day of the inspired challenges.

First up we have Inspired By A Colour. I took this to mean the colour of anything you want. I decided to take my inspiration from one of my favourite earrings.
I've had these for years and not only do I adore the colour of them but I love how elegant the earrings are. They are a stunning teal colour and when I first decided to use them as my inspiration, I didn't know if I had a nail varnish that would match them. But I do! It's Wet n Wild's Caribbean Frost, a polish I fell in love with as soon as I saw it in the store.

I added the dots of gold (Revlon, a no namer) onto the nails as the earrings have gold accents and it was a way to jazz the mani up a bit:)

Have a good weekend everyone! Although I'm away for the weekend, I have the next two days nail posts ready to go! 

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 20

Day 20

Today is water-marbling day! I was really looking forward to this....but kind of nervous at the same time. My one and only attempt at water-marbling so far did not yield very satisfactory results!
Also what has stopped me from trying water-marbling since, is just the amount of time it takes to do. Even today I under-estimated the time and I ended up having to go to work with only one water-marbled hand. Meh I made it cool.

A picture of my first ever attempt, pretty bad, right?

Firstly I used Sea Spray as my base coat. It's a very light blue filled with grey tones. I think this is where I went wrong with my first attempt - I just tried to water-marble on bare nails.

After taking this picture, I sellotaped around my nails to help protect the skin form getting covered in polish.
Then I used Catrice I Sea You, OPI Cuckoo For This Colour and China Glaze First Mate for the actual water-marbling.

• I put drop of I Sea You into the bowl of water, then a drop of CFTC within that first drop (which had dispersed out into a ring) then a drop of First Mate and then started the cycle again. All in all I used 3 drops of each colour. 
• Then I lightly dragged a toothpick through the water to help create a pattern. 
• And then I dipped my nail into the water, in the middle of the pattern.
• I found that I could use 2 nails per each concoction of varnish before having to clear the water and start over.

And this is how it turned out! So so much better than my first attempt! The sellotape worked quite well around my nails, these pictures are pre-cleanup just to show how much the sellotape really does work in protecting the skin around your nails.

 I dipped my little finger in way too far and ended up with the design there as well!

 The Aftermath

I love how the sellotape looks!

Have you tried water-marbling? What do you think of it?