31 Inspired Days of Nail Art Archives

Category: 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art

Of Life and Lacquer > 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 31: Recreate Your Favorite Mani

Posted on 7 December, 2012 by Cynthia

Well, here we are completing the very last challenge so I just want to thank Nicole for inviting me to participate in this challenge when it started–30 years ago. I Have to admit that in the beginning, I hated it because I was struggling so much trying to figure out what to do, but now I am soooo happy that I participated because I think I gained some confidence along the way. A big thank you to all of you who stopped and commented on our manicures because it made the whole process even more fun!

The day that we were supposed to create a manicure inspired by a video game, I got so frustrated with my attempts that I ended up not posting anything. I was completely in love with Nicole’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle nails so I told myself that I would use that as my inspiration for today’s final nails. Let’s look at my final mani for the challenge:

Read below to see how I created this mani.

I started out with 2 coats of China Glaze White Out because I work better when I have a completely white canvas. Additionally, the white makes other colors seem brighter. I used a mixture of China Glaze Westside Warrior and Sunshine Pop for their green skin.

I then used black polish to do the outline of the characters with a tiny dotting tool and a thin stripping brush. With those same tools, I filled in some of the details like their colored bandanas and eyes.

Here are some final pics of my mani.

To remind you, these are Nicole’s TMNT nails. I am so glad she did this because it served as such great inspiration!

I don’t know about you, but I can still remember watching TMNT every morning before going to school. I would become so entranced in the cartoon that it would take me like 20 minutes just to get dressed. Of course my mom was yelling at me the whole time because I was late for school, but I didn’t care because I loved my morning cartoons.

Thank you so much for seeing us through this challenge. While I’m not itching to do another 31 day challenge, I will definitely continue to experiment with nail art. Now that I know I can do it, I’m going to have to invest in some awesome nail art brushes. Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s final mani over at Polish Me, Please!

Thanks for the visit and talk to you later.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 30: Tutorial Inspired Nails

Posted on 5 December, 2012 by Cynthia

I know I always start out these challenge posts by exclaiming that we are almost done. YES!!!!!!!!!!! We are almost done!!!!! Friday is the last day of the challenge and Nicole and I will be recreating one of each other’s challenge manis. I am going to have to figure out which one to do since she did so many awesome ones. I had a hell of a time deciding what to do for today’s challenge. There are so many great tutorials out there but one thing about me is that a tutorial inevitably dooms me to failure. I don’t know why, but even when I see step by step instructions, I find a way to mess everything up. Because of this, I always try out a tutorial on a nail wheel. Well, the first one I chose to recreate was disastrous. I am not kidding. So I went back and prayed to the Google Gods to help me find something cute but simple. Well, thank you GG because you did help me. I decided to recreate the Santa Nails tutorial that I found over at Mini Nail Blog. After I used her tutorial, I went and looked through her other posts and oh my gah, she has some exquisite free hand designs. You should definitely check out her blog.

Want to see my finished mani?

Read below to see how I created these nails!

These are all the items I used to create my Santa nails: Wet N Wild polishes in Red Red, Tickled Pink, French White Creme and Black Creme. I also used a dotting tool, a nail art brush, a sponge and some Seche Vite to finish it all off. One thing about me is that I love a bargain. I am not a polish snob and Wet N Wild polishes are some of my favorite bargain buys. You do not need expensive stuff to create fun manis!

I used Wet N Wild Tickled Pink as my base color. As you can see, it is very thin and streaky since I only applied one coat but it didn’t matter because I was going to cover most of it up anyway. Then I applied Wet N Wild Red Red to a third of my nail for the hat.

I then used Wet N Wild French White Creme and sponged it at the bottom for Santa’s beard. I then used a dotting tool to apply the white trim on Santa’s hat and also made a little mustache using a small brush with the white polish. Using the same dotting tool, I then dotted on Santa’s nose with the red polish.

And lastly, I used Wet N Wild Black Creme and a dotting tool to apply Santa’s eyes. Tadaaaaaaa!

What do you think of my finished Santa mani? Since I am really feeling excited about Christmas (how unlike me!), I love having little Santas on my nails. Unfortunately, he told me I have been a very naughty girl (I think someone showed him my late night tweets) so I’m expecting a lump of coal.

Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s challenge nails over at Polish Me, Please! Also, stay tuned for our last challenge on Friday where we will recreate one of each other’s manicures. Thanks for the visit and talk to you soon.

P.S. Did you enter my most awesome and spectacular giveaway? No? WHAT?! GO NOW! 🙂

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 29: Art Inspired Nails

Posted on 3 December, 2012 by Cynthia

Today was kind of a fun day for me when it came to deciding what to do for this challenge. I am a huge lover of art in general–painting, sculpture, architecture. I have a soft spot for the Renaissance which explains why Florence is probably my favorite city in the world–it’s like a love song to the Renaissance. One of my favorite paintings resides at the Uffizi Galleries: La Nascita di Venere by Botticelli.

I wish I had more time today because I might have attempted to recreate parts of this painting…that would have been awesome. Anyway, I was searching some of my favorite painters such as Picasso, Magritte, Dali, Renoir and Da Vinci for some inspiration. I don’t know how I ended up settling on Jackson Pollock, but I’m glad I did because I do like how my nails turned out.

Read below to see how I created this manicure.

I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Let me tell you that I love this polish because it’s just such an interesting color. It’s obviously not a pure white which I really like. I had heard so many positive things about this polish so I am glad that it did not disappoint. I had to apply 3 thin coats, but I think it would be ok with 2 thickish coats.

I really wanted to try the traditional splatter technique with a straw or brush, but I just didn’t have enough time this morning so I went ahead and used the splatter design from Konad plate M70.

I used all the different colors and stamped them all over each other on my nails. Doesn’t this remind you of a Jackson Pollock painting?

Well, there are only 2 more challenges left so thanks for sticking with us through this loooooonnnnngggg process. 🙂 Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s nails over at Polish Me, Please!

Aaaaaaannnnndddd…don’t forget to check out my blog sale. I am going to add more polishes tonight so take advantage of the 20% off sale. 🙂 Talk to you later!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 28: Pattern Inspired Nails

Posted on 1 December, 2012 by Cynthia

I can see the finish line…I can see it! After today’s challenge, there are only 3 more challenges left, and then we are done! I am pretty sure this is my first AND last challenge…not that I didn’t enjoy it for the most part but it was just to much and way too long. While I wondered that the heck to do for the pattern inspiration, I saw this really cute paisley pattern dress in my closet so I decided to just use my paisley stamp and not worry too much about it.

Want to know how I created this mani? Read below….

I freaking love Jungle Queen. It’s one of my favorite–if not my favorite–polish from the On Safari collection. This is two smooth coats.

And this is Jungle Queen with one coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire which I am now calling Jungle Queen On Crack.

I used Essie Nothing Else Metals to stamp the paisley design from Bundle Monster plate BM 315.

I’m not feeling too talky today…I am not feeling well at all. I had some pizza and it somehow started a lot of bad stuff in my stomach. lol Let’s leave it at that. hahaha Let me know what you think of this mani and don’t forget to check out Nicole’s IKAT nails over at Polish Me, Please!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 27: Movie Inspired Nails

Posted on 29 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Ok my nail peeps, after my previous royal screw up which ended up with me not even posting any challenge nails, I had promised that I would post my manicure no matter what. I am still on the fence about my mani but let me tell you a little bit about why I chose the movie I did. Some of my fondest childhood movie/book memories revolve around Dr. Seuss. Even as an adult, my love for his work has not diminished. In fact, I credit Dr. Seuss for getting me my first Au Pair job when I was in France. My first interview was with a family with two little girls and after my interview with the parents, I was introduced to the 2 young girls. I talked to them and one of them demanded that I read a book to her so I looked at her little collection and zeroed in on The Lorax. I new I had them. Once I opened up the book, I remembered how much fun I had reading that book so I shared that with them..even singing some of the song from the movie version. Of course they loved me and I got the job. So while I racked my brain to figure out what to do for today’s movie inspired nails challenge, I knew I had to find a way to use How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Hey, it’s nearly December, and I just bought my Christmas tree today. I was telling Nicole that I got a tiny tree and that it was still $30. $30 for a sad little Charlie Brown tree!!!! I don’t care how tiny it is. What counts is that it’s mine and that I’m going to have fun decorating it.

So without further ado, here is my How The Grinch Stole Christmas manicure:

Do you want to know how I created this manicure and what products I used? Read on…

All the polishes I used are from China Glaze: White Out, Emerald Fitzgerald,Westside Warrior, Sunshine Pop, Adventure Red-y and Liquid Leather. I found that Westside Warrior was a little too dark so I lightened up the color a bit with Sunshine Pop. The only other tools I used were dotting tools and a very thin nail art brush. I can honestly tell you that doing free-hand nail art is getting a tiny bit easier and I am so glad to have participated in this challenge because it pushes me to try things I normally wouldn’t. I’m totally not happy with the clean up on this mani, but I was tired and just wanted to get them done already!

So what do you think of my Grinch nails? Do you have any fond Dr. Seuss memories?

Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s nails–they are super cute. Thanks for stopping by and catching up with me.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 26: Video Game Inspired Nails –FAIL!

Posted on 27 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I feel like a total failure today because I don’t have a manicure to share with you. I’m sorry, Nicole! First, I want to say that I was not short on ideas, but they turned into nightmares once I tried to execute them. I did three, yes three!!!, separate manicures that all looked completely disasterous. My first attempt was inspired by the Neo-Geo game Bust-a-move which I used to play with my brother all the time. How does one mess up bubbles/circles? Ugh! Then I tried my hand at doing a manicure inspired by Chrono Trigger which is my favorite RPG of all time. Huge mistake. This turned out worse than my Bust-a-move manicure. And lastly I tried to do some Tetris nails. Oh dear Fish Jesus, how could I even mess that up? I think today was just not a good nail day for me so I decided to just stop there. However, Nicole more than made up for my lack of inspiration with her awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle nails.

Aren’t these adorable? Click on the picture or click here to see her post about these nails and how she created the look.

Today I went to my dusties because I was on the hunt for a few polishes for some lovely ladies whose birthdays are coming up. Well, I scored! Unfortunately, I also scored like 10 polishes for me. I am a failure all around today. I really hope that I don’t completely mess up on the next challenge. No matter what I come up with–disaster or not, I will post it. I may regret this statement.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 25: Celebrity Inspired Nails

Posted on 25 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Can it be that we only have 6 more challenges to go after this?! Wow! We are sooooooooooo close to the finish line, and I am actually feeling pretty proud of myself. I only missed a few challenges but Nicole has done EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Let’s take a look at my celebrity inspired nails, shall we?

It may seem funny to people who know me, but I am actually a huge Katy Perry fan. I just find her so cute and quirky and her music is beyond catchy. These nails are inspired by the sugar overload images from her California Gurls video. I thought about adding a joint somewhere in there for Snoop Dogg, but I thought better of it.

I’m going to keep it short today because I am running late. I’m supposed to run some errands, do my laundry, go buy a Christmas tree and get all the decorations out. Eeeek! How has your weekend been going?

Before I forget, let me remind you of two things:

1) Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a $25 Amazon.com gift card

2) Did you already check out the new items on my blog sale? You know you want to.

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check out Nicole’s celebrity nails over at Polish Me, Please!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 24: Nautical Inspired Nails

Posted on 23 November, 2012 by Cynthia

The closer we get to finishing this challenge, the less “inspired” I feel. After yesterday’s gluttonfest, I haven’t eaten anything besides toast today. I guess I am still kind of full. I still have a nice piece of tri tip so I will probably have some of that for dinner. I’ll just have to come up with some interesting side dishes later. So maybe I’m still feeling blah from eating so much junk and that’s why I lagged on doing my nails for today’s nautical inspired nails challenge. Let’s get to it, shall we?

I started out with China Glaze White Out as my base.

I don’t usually paint my nails all white, so it’s really nice to have a nice and opaque white polish to use. This is three very thin coats.

For the nautical part I used a combination of stripping tape and stamping.

I used cheeky plate CH 49 for the wheel design with Adventure Red-y as the stamping polish. It is not a perfect stamping polish so I had to go over the design with a dotting tool and brush when needed which accounts for some of the mess-ups. Still, I don’t think I did too poorly with it.

How is everything with you after your thanksgiving feasting? Did you end up going shopping? I’m happy to report that I have avoided the stores so far and probably will for the rest of the week. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest nail disaster. Our next challenge will be inspired by a celebrity…oh boy! Don’t for get to check out Nicole’s nautical nails over at Polish Me, Please! Talk to you soon.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 23: Nails Inspired By Nature

Posted on 21 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I had absolutely no idea what to do for today’s challenge. I mean, nails inspired by nature? I am a city girl through and through and the closest I get to “nature” is the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. Nicole and I were talking about this challenge yesterday and she mentioned that she thought of not painting her nails at all and showing us her “natural” nails and calling that her interpretation of nature. hahaha! I got so annoyed with today’s challenge that I waited until the last possible second to do them. Unfortunately, my nails ended up looking craptastic for various reasons. First of all, let me show you the polish I used as my base color:

Jessica Brown Sugar is from their Spicy Dream Fall Collection. It’s a red-based brown with a very distinct shimmer. I don’t really wear these types of browns because I don’t think they look to good on my skin tone, but I do like this polish because it’s just so different!

Then I decided to do some stamping and that is when it all went downhill.

First of all, I should have used a different polish to do the stamping because Essie The Cove Copper does not show up too well. I think this is a pretty old discontinued polish because the label looks different and it definitely smells different as well. I placed some red microbeads where the leaves appeared to have little bead shapes, but it just ended up looking weird. I was so annoyed with this overall mani that I took it off right away.

Now, in order to make up for such an atrocious manicure, I am sharing with you something that I made for our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow….

These are not just your ordinary deviled eggs; they are BACON CHEDDAR deviled eggs. These are so delicious that I defy anyone to have one and not have a foodgasm. They are basically traditional deviled eggs with some crumbled bacon and shredded sharp cheddar blended into the egg yolk/mayo mix. Whenever I make these, they literally disappear instantly. Yes, they are that good. I can’t wait until tomorrow so I can eat some of these babies up.The recipe is pretty standard but I know someone who hasn’t made deviled eggs would want to know. To tell you the truth, I eyeball all of the amounts so this is an approximation.

12 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 bacon strips- cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

After you cook the eggs and peel them, cut them lengthwise and remove the yolks. Place all the yolks in a bowl and mash them up. Add the mayo and mustard until the mixture is creamy and well blended. Then mix in the cheese, crumbled bacon and black pepper. After this, I usually use a pastry bag to pipe the mixture back into the egg whites. If you don’t have a pastry bag, you an always just use a plastic bag and cut off a corner to make a small hole. Lastly, sprinkle the deviled eggs with paprika and bask in the glory of rave reviews that your dish will get.

Can we please just ignore my nails and focus on the food? That would make me happy. Do you have any special Thanksgiving plans for tomorrow?

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 22: Galaxy Nails

Posted on 19 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Here we go again: another challenge I was not looking forward to. Last night I tried to recreate some amazing nebula nails that I had seen on Diane’s blog, Turbomagik, but they ended up looking like a hot mess so I had to regroup today and try something else. Well, they didn’t come out the way I imagined them but any time sponging is involved, I tend to find a way to mess it up. I started with Wet N’ Wild Blue Moon as my full nail color:

I love Blue Moon, but it is a little thin as you can tell from a few bald spots. I think that with three coats it would be fine but I stopped at 2 because I was going to sponge over it anyway.

I’m not wild about them, but they’re definitely not the worst thing I’ve ever done. Just take a look at some of my older posts and this will be a Renoir to you. haha! I used a little planet stamp from Cheeky plate CH 45 but otherwise, I just used polish, a dotting tool and a sponge.

I am not that much of a fan of galaxy nails s0 I probably won’t be in a hurry to try this again any time soon. Before I forget, I have a funny story for you. Well, it’s funny to me anyway. Ever since I started my blog sale, I have been going to the post office a lot. I was there today to drop off a few orders, and I was waiting in line. One of the post office employees is really nice but there are 3 others that are total grumps. He was helping a guy who had to fill out a customs form so I thought he wasn’t going to take me until the guy was done. Then he looks at me and says: “I’m waiting for you.” I walk over to the counter and this was the conversation that ensued:

Me: “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know that you were ready to take someone new.”

Him: “I looked right at you and you just looked away…trying to play hard to get.”

Me: “Yeah, I just wanted someone different because you’re the meanest one here.”

Him: “Oh yeah? Sometimes people like it mean.”

Me: “Oh?”

Him: “Yeah. Some people like it mean. Some people like it rough.”

Me: “Ok…”

If you follow me on twitter, you know that I am in no way a prude, but his comments kind of shocked me especially because the other male customer who was filling out the form was still there and he was snickering and said: “Oh yeah!” hahaha Well, that’s my inappropriate story for the day.

What do you think of my galaxy nails? I’d love to hear what you think. Also, don’t forget to check out Nicole’s galaxy nails over at Polish Me, Please!