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 30, Inspired by a Tutorial

Today's theme is Inspired by a Tutorial.

For today's challenge, I spent a ton of time on YouTube and Pinterest browsing ideas. I have a ton I'm saving for later, but I kept coming back to this one.

I used this tutorial to create this marble-y nails. I tried the method she used, but it just didn't work for me. So I changed it and used the plastic wrap to sort of sponge on the gold polish. I like this technique, and I need to experiment with it more.

The base color is 1 coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme and the gold is Revlon Gold Coin.

Check out some other manis inspired by tutorials.

31 Day Challenge: Day 29, Inspired by the Supernatural

Today's theme is Inspired By The Supernatural.

I started off with a base coat of Misa Toxic Seduction. I used two coats for this mani.  Toxic Seduction is a beautiful dark green with hints of teal with tons of shimmer.

I was just going to stamp on some ghosts, but the name Toxic Seduction inspired me to do this slime manicure. I used Sally Hansen Green With Envy for the slime.

This mani would be totally awesome for Halloween.

This last photo is a slightly awkward pose, but it shows the shimmer in Toxic Seduction nicely.

Check out some other manis inspired by the supernatural below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 28, Inspired by a flag

Today's theme is Inspired By a Flag.

For today's theme, I thought about just doing an American flag on my nails especially since I've never done one before! However, yesterday's theme got me thinking about my international travels, and I realized I have been to 5 different countries so I'll put the flags from all 5 on my nails!

They are in chronological order too!

Pinky: Germany where I went to visit my husband (then fiancee) for 10 days during his study abroad semester. Colors used are Rimmel Black Statin, Zoya Sooki (red), and OPI The "It" Color (gold).

Ring: Italy where I lived for 3 1/2 months during a semester aboard (I lived in Florence). Colors used are OPI Don't Mess With OPI (green), Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and Zoya Sooki.

Middle: Costa Rica where my husband I went for almost 2 weeks for our honeymoon. Colors used are Revlon Royal (blue), Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and Zoya Sooki.

Index: Bahamas where we sailed to on a 2 day cruise from Florida. Colors used are Rimmel Black Satin, OPI The "It" Color, and OPI Fly.

Thumb: Peru where I spent 6 weeks studying Spanish. Colors used are Zoya Sooki and Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.

Whew!

Check out other manis inspired by flags below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 27, Inspired by Artwork.

Today's theme is Inspired By Artwork.

This was one of the harder themes to get my inspiration for.  Finally, I decided to comb through the pictures I took when I spent a semester abroad in Florence, Italy about 6 years ago (Holy cow, was it that long ago? It was amazing, by the way).  These two photos stood out to me.

On the left is the Duomo (cathedral) in Sienna.  On the right is the Baptistery in Florence right outside of the Duomo there. I used to walk by the cathedral and baptistery in Florence every day.  I noticed when flipping through my pictures that both buildings have a striped design on them. The Sienna Duomo is made from white and black marbles while the Baptistery in Florence has white and dark green marble used in its pilasters.

Using these two examples of architectural artwork as my inspiration for today, I set out to do my mani.  I started with a base of 2 coats of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White. It didn't give me full coverage, but I wasn't looking for that. After I sponged on some Zoya Dove to make the white marble look dirty from the centuries of pollution.  Finally, I taped off some stripes and used Rimmel Black Satin for that.

I definitely need some practice using tape in my manis as my lines aren't super crisp. I took the tape off right after I painted the lines, and they still look like these.

Check out these other manis inspired by artwork below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 26, Inspired by a Pattern

Today's theme is Inspired By A Pattern.

I wasn't sure what to do for this challenge, so I went to the ever wonderful Google, typed in pattern into images, and scrolled until I found this one that I liked.

I used a base of Nubar Indigo Illusion. I used 3 coats to make sure of the coverage. Then I used Rimmel Wild Orchid to freehand the arcs.

Check out some other manis inspired by patterns below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 25, Inspired by fashion

Today's theme is Inspired By Fashion.

I am by no means a person who is into fashion. My usual "style" is jeans and a t-shirt, usually from somewhere like Threadless. So when I was browsing, I find a few people doing this needle-drag tie-dye pattern and decided to use that at my inspiration for today.

To do this mani, you need to paint thick stripes of the colors you want to use. Do this fast! As soon as you finish the last color, use a toothpick/needle/fine point of an orange stick/anything pointy and gently drag through all the layers. This is a messy mani to do. Since I painted on the colors so quickly/thickly, I got quite a bit on my skin and cuticles. The blue and red were stubborn in coming off even with scrubbing with a nail brush so I have some staining.

I will try this again, but I think with less colors so I don't have to move as fast.

Here are the colors I used in case you are interested.

Red: Zoya Sooki

Orange: Zoya Arizona

Yellow: OPI The "It" Color

Green: OPI Don't Mess With OPI

Blue: Sinful Colors Why Not?

(I didn't have room to put on the purple).

Check out some other manis inspired by fashion below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 24, Inspired by a book

Today's theme is Inspired By A Book.

Today inspiration comes from the Harry Potter book series, mostly because I wanted to use this awesome polish.  I used Dollish Polish Expecto Patronum for this mani.  First I applied one thin coat to lay down then foundation and then used 2 slightly thicker coats to build up color.  I LOVE the polish. I'm sad I have to take it off :(

I know I have featured quite a few Dollish Polish here during this challenge, but she does make amazing polishes. The formula is wonderful and the colors are unique. If you don't have any of her polishes, I recommend you get some.

Check out some other manis inspired by books below.

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 22, Inspired by a song

Today's theme is Inspired By A Song.

My favorite ever Disney movie is The Little Mermaid. For today's challenge, I was inspired by the song Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid. I think that I'm decent at nail art, but not super good so I decided to go with some cutesy under the sea critters on each of my nails.

I started with a base of A-England Galahad and then added 1 coat of Wet n Wild Cost Is No Issue. Then I added a crab, whale, octopus (well, quadpus), and a fish to my nails. I love the way the crab and the whale turned out the best.

Check out some other manis inspired by songs below.

31 Day Challenge: Day 21, Inspired by a color

Today's theme is Inspired By A Color.

I love green polish. I don't wear a lot of green in real life, but I love it on my fingers. So of course for today's challenge I had to use a green polish. I kept it simple today.

I used my new Dollish Polish Zombie Flesh. I used 2 coats of it plus a normal top coat (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri to be exact). The polish dries fairly quickly and isn't gritty.

Check out other manis from today's challenge 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 17, Glitter

Today's theme is Glitter.

Sorry this post is a bit late. It was a busy morning/early afternoon, and I still have a busy late afternoon/evening so this will be a quick post.

For today's challenge, I used 2 coats of Pretty and Polished Party on My Yacht. It's such a pretty polish that I let it stand on its own today.

Check out some other glitter manis below.