31DC2013 Day 31: Honor Nails You Love

Hey all!

Today has been a lazy day for me. I caught up a little on one of the animes that I'm watching and then I fell asleep. It doesn't help that it's been raining for the past couple of days so the sleepiness just came to me lol.
I realized when I woke up that I hadn't posted my nails for today yet, I had them done and everything! Oh well, lazy me. 

This is the last day of the challenge for me. Originally, I was so hesitant in doing the challenge. I remember posting the challenge list on Instagram and then just being like, "What did I get myself into for this month?". But I really liked doing the challenge and coming up with all these designs and learning new techniques. A lot of the nails that I did, some of them were my first attempts! I'm really proud of myself and these designs. I think I improved a lot from before the challenge. So for that, I'm really glad that I did it. I'll be honest, it'll be awhile until I do another one though lol.

Today's prompt is honor nails you love. One of my favorite nail bloggers is MrCandiipants. Her designs are really unique. She always has something different with each of her designs. I watched one of her Youtube videos on how to do these easy watercolor nails with polka dots and I wanted to recreate that look today.

Colors Used:
Sinful Colors Sweet Nothing
Color Club's Take Me to Your Chateau
Sinful Colors Why Not
Sinful Colors Cinderella 
Sinful Colors Endless Blue

These nails were really simple to do! I first painted my nails one coat of Color Club's Take Me to Your Chateau as the base color. With a makeup sponge, I brushed on Sinful Colors Why Not, Sinful Colors Sweet Nothing, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Sinful Colors Endless Blue, and Color Club's Take Me to Your Chateau onto a makeup sponge. 

I dabbed the sponge a couple times on a scrap piece of paper and then sponged it on my nails. Once that dried, I added polka dots with Take Me to Your Chateau using my detail brush.

I really like these nails. Originally she did the design with orange and yellows, but I think the blue looks really pretty too. I love how these are so simple to do.

Wow, so that's the end of the challenge! I hope you all enjoyed my designs for this challenge. Next week, I'll be going back to doing swatches and nail art. I have some really cute nail art ideas in mind and will be making a post to see what you all want to see if you have any requests or anything. In the meanwhile, I need to give my nails a break!

What do you think of this design? What would you all like to see on the blog in the near future?

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Hey everyone!

I was so busy trying to change the layout of my blog that I didn't get a chance to do both of the nails that I said that I was going to do for today. I wasn't even planning on changing everything; it kind of just happened! I think the new layout looks cleaner now, which is what I was trying to go for in the beginning. What do you all think of the new layout?

Today's prompt is inspired by a tutorial! I love watching nail tutorials on Youtube and I was inspired to do a tutorial from one of my favorite Youtuber's: CreativeNailArt. I really love her tutorials and designs. They're simple, short, and very easy to follow. For today's nails, I followed her tutorial on these cute strawberry nails! I'll be putting a link to the video at the end of the post.

Colors Used:
Sinful Colors Energetic Red
Sinful Colors Pistache
Sinful Colors Let's Meet

I absolutely love these nails. They're so adorable! It doesn't help that my favorite fruit is strawberries either. These were also so simple to do. I remember trying strawberry nails a while ago and I wasn't successful. Now I know that I can do them!

What do you think of these strawberry nails? Tomorrow is honor nails that you love!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 29: Supernatural Nails

Hey all!

I only have two more prompts left until I finally complete the 31 Day Challenge! I think tomorrow I will just do the rest of the prompts to finish it off. I really want to get back to swatching since I have some new colors to show everyone and nail art. I have a bunch of ideas for nail art now that I got some inspiration from the challenge. So look out for that tomorrow!

Anyways, for supernatural nails I did ghosts. I've never seen a ghost before but I like hearing ghost stories, reading about them, and I believe in ghosts. It's pretty interesting to me. 

For this design, I did frame nails with ghosts around the nail. I'm giving you a warning because my nails are pretty yellow from doing my nails everyday with the challenge, so I apologize for my yellow nails in advance lol.

Colors Used:
Sinful Colors Black on Black
Wet n Wild's French White Creme

For my supernatural nails, I first made the "frame" using Sinful Colors Black on Black. I used my detail brush for this. I basically just outlined the nail with the brush. You don't want to make the frame too thick, but not too thin either or you won't be able to see where the frame is.

The ghosts were made with dotting tools. With Wet n Wild's French White Creme, I first made a teardrop shape with the dotting tool. At the tip of the drop, I made a slight curve to finish off the ghost. Another way is to just make the tip a little longer if you don't want to do the curve. Finally, I finished it off with a top coat. You can also put glow in the dark polish on the ghosts to make them glow to add to it. 

I really like these nails. They came out exactly how I wanted them to, even if my nails are so yellow. This is the first time that I've successfully done frame nails as well. I will be doing more frame nails in the future with different colors. It looks really cool.

What do you think of this design? Do you believe in ghosts? Tomorrow is a tutorial and honor nails you love! Almost done with the challenge!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

Hey all!

For today's prompt, I was inspired by the Japanese flag. I would love to visit Japan one day. I love the culture, fashion, food, music, language, everything about it! 

For these nails, I did an accent nail of the flag. For the rest of the nails, I created cherry blossoms, which is the official flower for Japan. 

Colors Used:
Sinful Colors Energetic Red
Sinful Colors Black on Black
Wet n Wild's French White Creme

For these nails, I first started with the accent nail. First, I painted two coats of WnW's French White Creme. With a detail brush, I created a circle in the middle of the the nail with Sinful Colors Energetic Red.

To create the cherry blossoms, I used a long striper brush for the branches using SC's Black on Black. I made long lines for the main branches and shorter lines for the smaller ones. They don't have to be perfect because the blossoms will be covering them up. Next, with a dotting tool, I made 4-5 dots to make the blossom. Finally, I made small dots in the middle of the flowers using SC's Energetic Red.

I wasn't going to add anything to the red originally, but I'm really glad that I added in the cherry blossoms. They give the design an extra touch. Plus, I couldn't stand to see the other nails so plain like that lol.

What do you think of this design? Tomorrow is supernatural nails!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 27: Inspired by Artwork

Hello everyone!

For today's prompt, I was inspired by this triangle geometric mountain design from a poster that I found on Etsy. 

I really like geometric artwork because it's simple but complicated at the same time. I find it interesting how the artists can come up with all the different patterns and shapes in the artwork. I also like doing that when I do nail art because it always makes for unique art.

Colors Used:
NYC's Chinatown
Wet n Wild's French White Creme

This design was actually pretty simple to do. I first painted two coats of NYC's Chinatown onto my nails. Using a detail brush, I made an outline of the mountain using Wet n Wild's French White Creme. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you want it to resemble a mountain. Next, I made small triangles inside the outline with the detail brush. To make the stars, I used the detail brush again and made small dots with the point of the brush.

I really like how these came out! I can't stop looking at them, they're so pretty.

What do you think of this design? Tomorrow is inspired by a flag!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

Hey again everyone!

For day 26, I made a pattern using crosses. I told you it was a recurring theme. These nails were actually my first idea for the fashion prompt, but I decided that it suited the pattern prompt a little better. These were very simple to do; you can do these with basically any colors.

Colors Used
Wet n Wild's French White Creme
Sinful Colors Black on Black

For these nails, I painted two coats of Wet n Wild's French White Creme onto my nails. With a detail brush, I made small crosses randomly on the nails using Sinful Colors Black on Black.

I wish I had made the crosses a little bit smaller, but I'm pleased with them. I'm definitely going to try these again though.

What do you think of this design? Tomorrow I'll be doing inspired by artwork!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Hello everyone, I'm back!

Sorry I was away for so long. Life kind of caught up to me, plus I was worrying about the blog way too much. I was stressing and worrying way too much about small things. I think I just needed a break from it is all. I'm back and ready to finish this challenge!

For inspired by fashion, I was inspired by cross t-shirts. I actually really like the trend and need to get myself some more of them. I'm actually wearing one of them right now!

Colors Used: 
Sinful Colors Candy Coated
Sinful Colors Black on Black
China Glaze's Fairy Dust

I was mainly inspired by the pastel goth cross shirts. I think they're really cute;I'd like one of those as well. For this design, I painted two coats of Sinful Colors Candy Coated. With a detail brush, I created a big cross on the nail using Sinful Colors Black on Black. Finally, I finished it off with China Glaze's Fairy Dust.

I think these are really cute and very simple to do. I hope there's a shirt out there that looks like this in real life. I want to buy it!

What do you think of this design? Do you like the cross shirt trend?

Coming up is inspired by a pattern! Hint: it's a recurring theme!

31DC2013 Day 24: Inspired by a Book

Hello everyone! Today's post is going to be kind of short because my tendinitis is acting up real bad.

Instead of an "actual" book, I was inspired by a manga!

For those who don't know what a manga is, a manga is a Japanese comic book. I love reading them. The artwork and storylines always draw me in. I haven't read any mangas recently though, I should probably get on that! Anyone else read manga?

I was inspired by Ouran High School Host Club, which is one of my favorite mangas! I also based them on my favorite character, Honey!

Colors Used:
Sinful Colors Starfish
Sinful Colors Candy Coated
Sinful Colors Lavender
Sinful Colors Black on Black
Sinful Colors Nude
Wet n Wild's French White Creme
Sinful Colors Pink Forever
Sinful Colors Energetic Red
Wet n Wild's Tickled Pink

For these nails, I used my detail brush and dotting tools for the designs. For the pointer, I did a cake because of Honey's obsession with cake and sweets. The middle finger I drew Usa-chan, Honey's rabbit plushie. The ring finger is the Ouran High School school uniform. The pinky represents the rose petals that magically appear whenever Honey and the rest of the club enter a room. I think these nails are so cute, just like Honey! The cake is my favorite because I'm obsessed with sweets as well.

What do you think of this design? Do you have a favorite manga? Tomorrow is inspired by fashion!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 23: Inspired by a Movie

Hey everyone!

I'm really excited for these nails because it's inspired by one of my favorite movies: Kill Bill. I think I've seen the movie like 100 times already. In my sophomore year of college, I even did a monologue of Elle Driver's speech when she was killing Bud in the second movie. Needless to say, this is one of my favorite movies of all time. I based my nails on one of the movie posters for the first movie. I've actually never seen this one before, but this is an official movie poster for the film. It's pretty cool and basically sums up the movie, so I thought it would be perfect to do a design around it. Now onto the design!


Colors Used:

Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow

O.P.I's A-Piers to be Tan

Sinful Colors Energetic Red

Sinful Colors Black on Black

Sinful Colors Slate

Wet n Wild's French White Creme

China Glaze Fairy Dust

For the pinky, I based it on The Bride's signature yellow tracksuit. I used one coat of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow as the base color. With a detail brush, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black to make a thick black line near the end of the nail.

The ring finger is based on the background of the poster. I used one coat of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow and then with a piece of a makeup sponge, I sponged on Sinful Colors Energetic Red on half of the nail. With my detail brush, I wrote "Kill Bill" on the nail.

The middle finger is the Hanzo sword (or my attempt at the Hanzo sword haha). I used one coat of Mellow Yellow. With my detail brush, I made the sword's base using Sinful Colors Black on Black. The golden part of the sword I made a small square using O.P.I's A-Piers to be Tan. Finally, I made the sword blade with Sinful Colors Slate and made a thin white line as a highlight with Wet n Wild's French White Creme.

The pointer represents blood splatter. I used a coat of Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow. For the splatter, I used a cut up straw. I dipped one of the ends with Sinful Colors Energetic Red. Next, I blew into the straw to create the blood splatter.

The thumb represents The Bride's sleeve from her dress. With a very thin striper brush, I made a criss-cross pattern to resemble lace. Finally, I topped it off with China Glaze's Fairy Dust. 

I'm really proud of these nails and love how they came out! I'm still getting used to doing letters with my brush, but I think I'm getting better at it.

What do you think of this design? What's your favorite movie? Tomorrow is inspired by a book!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 22: Inspired by a Song

Hey everyone!

Today's prompt is inspired by a song! I love K-pop, so I decided to do a K-pop song. It was really hard to choose one for today.

I was inspired by Akdong Musician's MV for their song "I Love You". It's a really cute song and I actually already planned to do this design a few months back, so today was perfect to try it out.

Colors Used:
Wet n Wild's French White Creme
Sinful Colors Rainstorm
Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow
Sinful Colors Lavender
Wet n Wild's I Need a Refresh-mint
Sinful Colors Pink Forever
Sinful Colors Starfish
NYC's Big Apple Red Creme
Sinful Colors Nude

Each nail represents something in the MV.

The pinky represents the hearts floating in the air. I did a freehand heart with Sinful Colors Starfish. Then, I made smaller hearts with a dotting tool with Sinful Colors Lavender, Starfish, and Wet n Wild's I Need a Refresh-mint.

The ring finger represents the red dress that Soo-hyun wears. I painted two coats of NYC's Big Apple Red Creme. With my detail brush, I painted the word "I Love You". 

The middle finger represents Chan-hyuk's bowtie. I painted one coat of Sinful Colors Rainstorm. With a dotting tool, I made polka dots on the nail with Sally Hansen's Mellow Yellow. With my detail brush, I made the petals to the flowers with Wet n Wild's French White Creme.

The pointer represents Soo-hyun's collar on her shirt. I painted two coats of Mellow Yellow on my nail. With a dotting tool, I created dots with Sinful Colors Lavender. 

The thumb represents one of the cookies that they eat. I painted one thick coat of French White Creme onto my nail. Then, I free-handed a heart with Sinful Colors Nude. With a dotting tool, I made smaller hearts as the sprinkles of the cookies with Sinful Colors Pink Forever and Big Apple Red Creme.

Closeup of the thumb

I really like how these came out. I need to work on my freehand hearts though haha. A link to the video will be on the bottom if anyone wants to hear the song!

What do you think of this design?  Tomorrow is inspired by a movie!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 21: Inspired by a Color

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the late post, but my girlfriend came over today and we hung out for the day at my place. I showed her all the nail tricks haha. She was so amazed when I was showing her things, it was cute.

For today's prompt, it kind of confused me for a little bit. How can you be inspired by a color? I had a hard time with it to say the least.

I wanted to use one of my newer polishes that I bought for my birthday. I've been wanting to do a autumn manicure for a few days, and today was the opportunity to do it.

Colors Used:
O.P.I's Schnapps Out of It
Sinful Colors All About You
Sinful Colors Black on Black

For this design, I painted my nails one coat of O.P.I's Schnapps Out of It. Next, I made thin lines with Sinful Colors Black on Black with my detail/striper brush. Finally, I topped the design off with Sinful Colors All About You for a nice golden sparkle to give it that autumn feel to it.

We're almost to the home stretch with the 31 Day Challenge! I hope I can finish out strong because I'm sort of running out of ideas haha.

How's everyone doing with the challenge? Tomorrow is inspired by a song!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 20: Watermarble

Hey everyone!

Day 20 is watermarble nails. I think everyone who does their nails fear the dreaded watermarble manicure at one point or another. I was totally dreading doing these before I even started the challenge. Today, I think I might have broken my fear of watermarbling because they turned out AMAZING! I don't know if I just got lucky or what, but these are awesome and I'm really proud of them. 

Colors Used:
Wet n Wild's French White Creme
Color Club's Eternal Beauty
Color Club's Over the Moon

For these watermarble nails, you'll need some tape, a dotting tool or toothpick, and some room temperature water. I used bottled water for mine, but you can use distilled water and room temperature tap water as well. It's best to get out all your materials first so you're not getting them all together while doing your nails.

First, I painted my nails one coat of Wet n Wild's French White Creme. Once the base color dried, I poured some water in a cup (an old cup or container will do). 

Next, I put tape around my nails to make it easier to clean up. You can use Vaseline as well if you don't have tape. Once the nail is taped up, I put a drop of each color into the water. It'll make a bullseye pattern when you're finished. 

With a small dotting tool (preferably the smallest one as it has a point to it), I lightly dragged it across the polish. 

Next, I dipped my finger into the polish. To make it easier, I curved my finger a little so I could get the polish right on the nail. To get rid of the excess polish, I used an old pencil (you can use a toothpick as well) and twirled it around so that the polish would get on the pencil.

Finally, I took my finger out of the water, took the tape off, and cleaned up around the nail using some Q-tips or a cleanup brush dipped in nail polish remover. You can add a top coat as well, but mine started to bubble and ate up the polish a bit as you can see in the photos. It might be my top coat, but I'm not too sure.

These Color Club Halo Hues polishes were great to work with for the watermarble. I'm not sure if all the Color Club polishes are like this when it comes to watermarbling, but these were great. I'm definitely not afraid of doing watermarble nails now. They take a lot of work, but I can do them. This is my third attempt at them, so I guess third times a charm! 

What do you think of this design? Tomorrow is inspired by a color!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 19: Galaxy

Hello everyone!

Today's prompt is galaxy nails. This is actually my first time ever doing them, and I'm very pleased with the results! I think it looks awesome. Although, I had to literally write down the color order for the colors used in this design and what order to do them in. It got complicated for a minute haha. 

The first time that I did it on the nail, I messed up completely and forgot what order I did the colors in. The second time I got it down. Here are the results!

Colors Used:
Zoya's Shivon (base color)
Sinful Colors Starfish
Wet n Wild's Tickled Pink
Color Club's Take Me to Your Chateau
Sinful Colors Let's Meet
NYC's Mulberry Street
Wet n Wild's French White Creme (dots and stars)
China Glaze's Fairy Dust

Natural light

For these galaxy nails, I first painted one coat of Zoya's Shivon as my base color. Once that dried, I ripped up pieces of a makeup sponge. If you don't want to rip up a new one, grab an old one that you've used before (for gradients or if you use it for your makeup) and rip that up. That way you're saving up on your materials and not wasting up a new one. 

Next, I put a couple drops of polish onto a scrap piece of paper. Then, I grabbed a piece of the makeup sponge with some tweezers (you can do this by hand as well) and dip it into the polish. Lightly dab the color onto the nail. Dabbing it on too heavily will mess it up and leave you with blobs of polish on the nail. To avoid this, dab the sponge a few times on the scrap piece of paper. Repeat with all the colors. If needed, you can go over again with the colors on certain spots.

Natural light

After you've dabbed all the colors onto the nail, with a dotting tool or detail brush, make small dots onto the nail. For the stars, I made dots into a cross and connected them to make the stars. If you want the stars to have that point, use a detail/striper brush and make the points. Finally, I added China Glaze's Fairy Dust for some sparkle and to give it more of the galaxy look. If you want, you can add a top coat for some extra shine.

With flash

Natural light

I think these turned out great for my first time! I'll definitely be doing more galaxy nails in the future. I might try out a darker version.

What do you think of this design? Tomorrow is water marble (oh boy!) I'm nervous for those!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 18: Half Moons

Hey everyone!

Today is half moons! This one was kind of hard because I went through a couple ideas and they didn't look very good when I did them. I almost trashed this one, but I'm actually feeling it at the moment.

I've only done half moons a couple of times, but I like doing the traditional one where the nail is bare underneath. The two times that I did it before when I was in the process of coming up with ideas, I did the one with two colors. I don't know why, but those never come out good for me. I should probably practice those. Anyways, onto the half moons!

Colors Used:
Sinful Colors Starfish
Wet n Wild's French White Creme
China Glaze's Fairy Dust

For these half moon nails, you're going to need reinforcements. If you don't have those, you can always do it freehand as well. After I put on my base coat, I placed the reinforcements on my nails. You want to place them near the bottom of your nails. To make it a little easier on myself, I cut the reinforcements in half. You don't have to do this if you don't want to.

Next, I painted Sinful Colors Starfish onto the nail. With this design, you want to get a color that's opaque in one coat to make it easier. Once you paint all the nails, wait a minute and then peel off the reinforcements.

Once the polish is dry, you can either leave it or add to it. I decided to add to it because it brings it out more. For the stripes, I used my detail/striper brush. With the brush, I made thin white lines to cover the pink. Finally, I painted one coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust for some sparkle and then a top coat to finish it off.

 These are kind of girly, but I really like them! The stripes really bring out this design. I will definitely try this out again soon. 

What do you think of this design? Tomorrow is galaxy nails!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 17: Glitter

Afternoon everyone!

Day 17 is glitter and I have a swatch of Funky Fingers Jawbreaker for you today. I got this polish as a early birthday gift from my girlfriend, but Funky Fingers nail polish can be purchased at Five Below. This polish costs $3, and is a part of their 3 polishes for $5 special that they usually have.

Without flash

 Jawbreaker is a mix of different sized multi-colored glitters in a milky white base. This is three coats with a top coat, but two coats would have been better.

From what I can see, there's red, teal, yellow, blue, and purple glitters in the polish. There's a good variety of glitters in this polish. The application was very good. I didn't really have to do the dabbing method with this polish. Also, the drying time between coats is very fast, which is one of the things that I like most about this polish. 

Another thing that I like is that it's basically a jelly sandwich in a bottle! I guess it's the lazy way to a jelly sandwich, but that's okay to me. 

With flash

Overall, I'm really liking this polish and it's a great deal for the price of it! I don't know how much I will be using it because it's so much glitter and could be a pain to take off, but I can see myself going to this polish when I want a quick glitter fix.

Without flash

What do you think of this polish? Tomorrow is half moons!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 16: Tribal Print

Whew! I'm finally all caught up now.

Today's prompt is tribal print. I've done a tribal print in one of my earlier posts, but I've never done one where there's a mix match of different designs on it. It was actually quite simple to do, although I think I should have used a black polish instead of white for the designs. But for my first try with this kind of tribal print, I think I did okay.

Colors Used:
Color Club's Over the Moon
Wet n Wild's French White Creme

For this design, I first painted one coat of Color Club's Over the Moon (this is turning out to be one of my favorite polishes right now). Then, with a detail brush, I painted different designs using lines, dots, and zig zag patterns. You can basically do whatever design you want for these tribal print nails. Finally, I finished my design with a top coat.

I wish I had used a black polish, but I think they turned out fine. I would definitely try this kind of tribal print design again.

What do you think of the design? I'm all caught up now, tomorrow is glitter nails!

Until next time!

31DC2013 Day 15: Delicate Print

I'm almost caught up for the challenge! This day was a challenge in itself, but I'm having fun though.

For day 15's prompt, I didn't exactly do a nail art design. I couldn't really come up with a delicate print, but I think that this will count for it.

Colors Used:
China Glaze's Fairy Dust
Sinful Colors Social Ladder

I absolutely love this combination! It's so light and delicate. I'm really glad that I picked up China Glaze's Fairy Dust as one of my birthday polishes. This has been on my wish list for a while. It was the last one at the beauty store that I go to to get polishes as well. I will be swatching this one as well after the challenge.

For this look, I painted one coat of Sinful Colors Social Ladder. If you don't want your nail showing underneath, you can paint more coats until it's opaque. Finally, I painted 2-3 coats of Fairy Dust for some extra sparkle.It's so pretty in these photos!

What do you think of this look? Next up is tribal print!