31 Day Challenge, Part 2!: Day 19, Galaxies

I love the way galaxy nails look. I've only done them one time on myself during the 31 Day Challenge in August, but I already knew I wanted to do something different for today.  I saw this pin which lead me to this mani on Tumblr and knew I wanted to do something like it.

I especially knew I wanted to do a Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis mani because I've been lucky enough to see them once several years ago while in college. Because I was farther south, the only color visible was green, and it was pretty dim at that.  I decided to Google some images and was inspired by the ones with green.

Source: Aurora Borealis Photo Gallery

Source: The Guardian

This mani took several different steps. First I painted on two coats of Revlon Royal.  Next I sponged on Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner to give a base and to ensure the brightness of the other colors.  To create the lights, I sponged on China Glaze I'm With the Lifeguard (green), Sally Hansen Green with Envy, O.P.I. Don't Mess with OPI (green), Sinful Colors Dream On (neon purple), Sinful Colors Amethyst (purple) and Revlon Royal. Whew!

I topped with INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat "Silver" (very suiting for this mani!). I created the trees with a small brush and Rimmel Black Satin. Finally, I finished the design with stars in Rimmel French White Nail Tip Liner.

The result turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself! The husband even gave it his seal of approval!

Check out other far-out galaxy manis below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 31, Re-create Your Favorite Challenge

Today's theme is Re-create Your Favorite Challenge.

Today is the final day of the challenge! I'm so excited that I was able to complete every challenge on time. I'm looking forward to being able to keep a mani on for a few days too. It was sad to have to take off some of them :(

Today I really wanted to do a water marble again and I loved the blues that Sally from Nail Pron used in her water marble so I went from there.

I started with a base coat of 1 coat of Revlon Blue Lagoon. For my water marble colors, I used Revlon Royal, OPI Fly, and Zoya Skylar. Skylar probably wasn't the best choice since it didn't spread out well, but I managed to get it to work. I topped everything with INM Northern Lights Silver.

Check out other re-create challenges 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 7, Black and White

Today's challenge is Black and White.

I knew exactly what I was going to do for this challenge. I decided to use by O.P.I. Spotted that an awesome friend from France got for me. O.P.I. Spotted was released as part of the Spiderman collection in France instead of the normal teal crackle. I think it was also released in other countries, but I can't be sure.

I used a super thin layer of Spotted over 3 coats of FingerPaints Paper Mache. I followed it up with INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat in Silver.

You can see some varying effects here. On my index finger, I used a bit thicker coat than on the others. I used the thinnest coats of my middle and ring fingers. I think I like the pinkie the best though.

Check out some other black and white manis below:

Monday Mani: Ombre/Gradient

At Polish-aholics Anonymous this week's Monday Mani theme is Ombre/Gradient.
I was going to do an Ombre manicure but decided to try a gradient one again.

Meh, not my super favorite. I think I'm much better at glitter gradient mani's than ones with plain colors.

Just in case your curious, the base color is Zoya Dove then I added on Rimmel Grey Matter and Wet n Wild Black Creme. I topped everything off with INM Northern Lights Holographic Top Coat Silver.

Monday Mani: Crackle

At Polish-aholics Anonymous this week's Monday Mani is Crackle. A lot of the girls over there wanted to bring it back since they have so many crackles. Personally, I wasn't really into polish big time until after the trend so I'm not over it yet!

I've seen this idea several places and really wanted to try it so I thought now would be the perfect time!

This look is fairly easy and actually took less time that I thought! I simply painted rainbow stripes using my polish choices and a small paintbrush, let it dry, put on my crackle,. and tada! I choose to do the whole rainbow from my cuticle and use horizontal stripes, but you could pick just a few colors or do vertical stripes. What's even better is that you don't have to be perfect with the lines. The crackle covers it up!

You could use any colors you want, but in case you are wondering here are the ones I used:

Pure Ice Siren (red), Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up (orange), Maybelline Sunshine (yellow), OPI Don't Mess with OPI (green), Sinful Colors Why Not (blue), and Rimmel Wild Orchid (purple).The crackle is Pure Ice Black Crackle, and I added some glitter on top using INM Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat Silver.

What about you all? Are you tired of the crackle trend yet, or do you still love it?