31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 12, Stripes

I've had a lot of fun doing this challenge, but sometimes it been a bit rough with a two month old to find time. So I've been trying to figure out quick manis to do for some of the days. I also wanted to have some fun with my matte polishes (which I love!) and so I came up with today's mani.

I started with a base of China Glaze Stone Cold. I used two coats just to make sure of coverage. I love the shimmer in this grey/black polish.

Next, I drew a line down the middle with Zoya Phoebe, a neon blue matte polish. On either side of that line, I used ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly to add two lines. Those are a bit hard to notice since they are grey like Stone Cold.

Finally I finished off the design by adding two horizontal stripes with ManGlaze Santorum. Santorum is a dark brown but reads black here.

The whole design reminds me of plaid. The best part about this mani? Since I used all matte polishes, it took me 5 minutes total. 5 minutes! That includes dry time and clean up (which was very minimal).

Enjoy the close-up where you can see the great shimmer in Stone Cold

Check out some other great stripe manis below.

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 11, Polka Dots

For today's polka dot mani, I wanted to go with something super bright since it's been fairly gloomy out :/ I think I succeeded!

I started the mani with a base of Wet N Wild Black Creme. In order to make these neon polishes stand out against the black, first I created the pattern using white. I really liked the way that it looked so I was almost tempted to leave it just black and white!

The colors that I used were China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard (green), Sinful Colors Dream On (purple), and Cosmo Wild Thing (pink).

Check out some other awesome polka dot manis below!

31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 6: Violet Nails

For today's mani, I was inspired by Nail Nerd. I decided to use only 2 purples instead of multiple ones.

My base coat is O.P.I. Parlez-vous OPI? As I was putting it on, I went "Ooooo!" I forgot how much I LOVE Parlez-vous and how great it looks on me!

The other purple I used is China Glaze Cowgirl Up. I love the contrast between the creme and metallic polishes.

To create this look, I only used the brushes in my polish bottle. No special brushes or tools, and this mani came together quickly! I feel like it makes my nails look longer too. Can't wait to try this again with different colors.

Enjoy some other violet manis featured below.

Naild'It Snow Flake Cake

I was given Naild'It Snow Flake Cake a while ago by a friend but was waiting for the appropriate time to wear it. Since it's winter now, I think it's time!

I knew I wanted to layer this polish, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to use as the undies so I broke out a nail wheel and a bunch of polishes.

From left to right, we have Zoya Isla, Zoya Arizona, Sinful Colors Amethyst, FingerPaints Art You Blue?, Nicole by OPI Khloe Had a Lam-Lam, China Glaze Exotic Encounters, Sinful Color Leap Flog, Rimmel Black Satin, Sally Hansen Gunmetal, Sinful Colors Slate, and 2 coats and 1 coat of Snow Flake Cake on it's own.

Here's the combo I finally chose to do on my nails.

It was a bit difficult to photograph, but you can see all the awesome glitters in the bottle shot below.

This last one is a bit blurry, but you can see the great holographic glitter that way.

My base color was Sinful Colors Slate which you can on its own below.

Bloody nails

I decided it would be kinda fun to do some bloody nails. I haven't tried the drip method before so this would be a good way to try that too.

I started with a base coats of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss.  I needed 2 coats.

For the knife, I used Sinful Colors Slate for the blade and an accent of Wet n Wild Metallica to add a bit of depth. The handle is done with Rimmel Black Satin.

For the blood, I missed Zoya Sooki with Zoya Isla to give a bit of depth. When I painted on the blood, I wasn't too worried about being precise either since blood dripping isn't going to be perfect (not that I would know! Lol!). I really like how the texture of the blood turned out.

I love this mani! It's super perfect for Halloween. The cashier at McDonalds even noticed and said they were pretty o.O

China Glaze Cling On

I can't believe it's been 5 days since I posted! I meant to do it on Wednesday, but things are just so crazy around here lately. We have tons of stuff going on in these last 2 weeks of September (dentist appointments, OB appointments, pediatrician interviews, birthing class, weddings, etc.). I'm also trying to optimize the time my husband is home so he can help me with the big stuff for getting ready for the baby.

For today's mani, I have China Glaze Cling On. It's a magnentic polish. I didn't buy the China Glaze magnet because I already have one attached to a a bottle of Nails Inc. so I used that magnet for this polish. It worked well.

Sorry for the dark pictures. We've had a few stormy/blistery days (not that I'm complaining, I love them!) I did try to lighten them up a bit in Photoshop.

31 Day Challenge: Day 23, Inspired by a movie

Today's theme is Inspired By A Movie.

I went simple on this mani and used China Glaze Stone Cold, taking my inspiration from The Hunger Games movie. My husband and I are actually going to rent the movie today, so this works out really well!

Stone Cold is a matte black with tons of micro glitter. I debated buying this one, but it's resist matte or glitter for me! It went on very smoothly. I used 2 coats to cover everything and get this dark black here.

Check out other manis inspired by movies below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 20, Water Marbled

Today's Theme is Water Marbled.

Water marbling is another nail trend that I haven't tried yet. I've been meaning too, but I always find it so intimidating.  I was at a friend's BBQ on Thursday and discovered that she is a a beginning polish person (addict?) and told me how easy it was.....so I went for it!

Since this was my very first time water marbling, I'm posting exactly what my nails looked like when they were all finished. There was no going back and redoing it. I wanted to be honest with my first attempt.  I love the way my middle finger turned out the best. My index finger is an epic fail. Not only did I mess up the marbling, I smudged the nail too.  I cannot wait to try this again with every color I own, lol!

I applied a base of OPI Stranger Tides first. Then I used Stranger Tides, OPI Parlez-Vous OPI?, and Chia Glaze Exotic Encounters to marble with.  I finished off my first water marble with a coat of INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat in Silver

Check out some other water marble manis below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 19, Galaxies

Today's theme is Galaxies.

I really, really, really love how this one turned out. I have never done galaxy nails before, and now I love them.

The base coat for this mani is China Glaze Wagon Trail. After that, I used a bunch of different colors.

Enjoy the pictures!

Check out out galaxy manis below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 18, Half Moons

Today's theme is Half Moons.

I am not a big fan of half moons. I've done them twice on myself and didn't like them. I've seen some pretty nice ones by other bloggers, but they are still just not my favorite. In fact, I took these off as soon as I finished doing them that's how much I don't like half moons.

For this mani, I started with a base coat of China Glaze Cowgirl Up. I used 2 coats. Then I put on page reinforcement stickers to block off my half moon and painted on a thick coat of China Glaze Atlantis.  Atlantis is in a blue/teal jelly base, but over the purple it changed colors. I kinda like the effect that happened instead of just sticking it over a blue. While I don't like the half moons I did, I'm definitely going to have to play with Atlantis over different colors.

Sorry for the pictures with flash, but I once again had a cloudy day when I took these pictures. The second color is a bit blurry, but it shows the color more accurately especially for Cowgirl Up.

Check out some other half moon manis below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 16, Tribal Print

Today's theme is Tribal Nails.

I was a bit nervous about today's challenge since I've never done tribal nails before, but I think it turned out great!  While I've been doing this challenge, I have also been working through my untrieds (2 challenges in 1!) so I knew the 2 colors I hadn't tried yet from the China Glaze Safari Collection would be perfect to use for today.

I started with a base coat of China Glaze Exotic Encounters. It's practically I one coater. I only used a second coat to hide the massive bubbling I got in the first (which I'm totally blaming on the weather and not at all on this polish).

Next, I added details using China Glaze I Herd That, Rimmel Black Satin, and Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.

This pictures had to be taken using flash because it's raining today and shows no sign of stopping.

Check out some other tribal print manis below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 14, Flowers

Today's theme is Flowers.

I am really excited for today's theme because there is a ton you can do with flowers! You can stamp, freehand, or use stickers. You can make them realistic or abstract, romantic or funky.

For today, I started with a base coat of 2 coats of China Glaze Light As Air and 1 coat of Dollish Polish Hylian Princess from the Legend of Zelda Duo.

The rest was freehanded. First I added the leaves which were done with OPI Don't Mess With OPI and highlighted with OPI Stranger Tides. Then I made a circle with the main flower color, Sinful Colors Amethyst. Finally, I highlighted the flowers with Rimmel Wild Orchid and then Rimmel Wild Orchid mixed with white.

Check out some other flower manis below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 5, Blue

Today's challenge is Blue.

I started off this mani with 2 coats of Illamasqua Phallic. I've had this polish on my wishlist for a while and was lucky enough to get it from a friend in my birthday group! It's a super dark blue with tons of blue shimmer that shows up well in the sunlight.

I also added 1 coat China Glaze I'm Not Lion to my accent fingers. In the sun pictures you can see the awesome holographic effect.

Finally, I finished up this mani with some stamping.  My pinkie finger I used BM 301 with Barry M Gold Foil, my middle finger I used Mash 22 with Barry M Silver Foil, and I used Born Pretty M71 with Color Club Lumni-icecent for my index finger.

 In these two sunlight pictures, you can see the shimmer from Phallic and as well as the holographic effect from I'm Not Lion.

Check out some other blue manis using Inlinkz below.