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Of Life and Lacquer > 31 Inspired Days of Nail Art

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 21: Tribal Print Nails

Posted on 17 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Much like Nicole, I was not really looking forward to doing tribal print nails mostly because I never really liked the way they look. I guess I’ve just always found the patterns too busy for my liking, but I have definitely seen some really amazing manis from talented ladies. I was super duper tempted to just do a skittle mani and use a stamp for the print, but I decided to finally do some kind of free-hand design attempt. Oh boy do I need practice! I started out with 2 coats of essence Nude It!

Nude It! is one of my favorite–if not my favorite–nude color. I like wearing nude colors on their own because my short sausage fingers look longer.

These are all the polishes and tools that I used for the design that follows: essence Let’s Get Lost and Break Through for the color accents, my nail art polishes in black and white and a dotting tool.

Are you ready for my interpretation of tribal print?

To tell you the truth, I am surprised that these came out somewhat decent. While I don’t see myself doing this type of design again any time soon, I am glad that I am finally trying some free-hand stuff. Practice makes perfect, right?

What do you think about tribal print nail designs? What do you think about my first free-hand attempt? (Be nice!) Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s tribal print nails over at Polish Me, Please! Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to check back for our next challenge: Galaxy Nails!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 20: Delicate Print Nails

Posted on 15 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Delicate. Nothing is “delicate” about me so I had to really think about what I wanted to do with my nails today. I looked through polish stash, and I zeroed in on China Glaze Who’s Wearing What. As far as I can tell from various internet sources, Who’s Wearing What comes form the 2004 Creme Couture Collection. I can honestly say that this is my absolute favorite greyed dusty purple EVER. I am not kidding. It’s the absolute most perfect dusty purple/grey for my skin tone. In fact, I love it so much that I’m going to have to get a back up or two since I sold recently sold my extra bottle in my blog sale. (Shameless plug: go check out my blog sale–I am adding tons of new stuff every day.)

Didn’t I tell you this was a gorgeous color? For those of you who like to go dusty hunting, this is one to put on your list if you don’t own it yet. Since it’s close to 10 years old, it is not big 3-free in case that is a major concern for you. The formula is nice and definitely needs two coats. It is super important to apply thin coats because it does tend to get a little streaky as you can tell from my pics. Still…I adore it.

And here is my idea of delicate print:

I decided to use Essie Nothing Else Metals again and used a design from Bundle Monster plate BM 310. What an awesome polish for stamping! In fact, all of the Essie Mirror Metallics rock for stamping.

And in the “I eat like a pig” food chronicles, here is my dinner:

Tacos al pastor…I love you. That’s all I have to say about that.

What do you think about my delicate print nails? Did I achieve a delicate look? Don’t forget to check out Nicole’s delicate print nails over at Polish Me, Please!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 19: Floral Print Nails

Posted on 12 November, 201212 November, 2012 by Cynthia

I was at a loss today. I didn’t want to do any dotting tool flowers but knew I couldn’t really freehand any flowers unless I wanted my nails to look messy and silly. Stamping to the rescue! As much as I try to stay away from stamping during these challenges, I know that I am just NOT good enough to whip out my nail art brushes and come up with something amazing. Well, let me tell you that stamping didn’t help me much today anyway. I actually did two looks today and I am not really happy with either. I’ll show you the one I settled on first and then I will show you the one that made me try again.

First, I started with OPI We’ll Always Have Paris.

We’ll Always Have Paris is one of my favorite dark polishes from one of my favorite collections: La Collection De France. This polish is just so pretty, super pigmented and shiny.

I used Bundle Monster stamp BM 323 for this rose design and alternated white roses and metallic roses (using Essie Nothing Else Metals.) Why did I do that? I have no idea. I was just kind of irritated and frustrated with my first design. Are you ready to see it?

Ehhhh….I don’t know what to say about these either. I wish I had just stuck with my simple mani of We’ll Always Have Paris and stopped there. As I’ve said before…not every mani is going to be a winner and clearly these are way at the bottom of the totem pole. The next challenge calls for delicate print…what the heck am I gonna do then?? At least I have a few days to think about it.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 17: Animal Print Nails

Posted on 9 November, 2012 by Cynthia

As usual, here I am posting super late. I am such a spaz. I was pretty busy today so at least I have an excuse. Since I was short on time and lacking any really creative ideas, I decided to resort to stamping. I know, I know…I kind of cheated. But hey, at least I got the right challange design unlike other people. *cough* Nicole *cough* hehe.

I decided to finally use one of the glitters that so many people raved about when the China Glaze On Safari Collection came out. Now, which one to use? I Herd That or I’m Not Lion? I decided to give I Herd That a Whirl…

This glitter is absolute perfection. I am not kidding. It’s easy to apply, it covers nicely with only 2 coats and it just SPARKLES like a mofo. I love it and can’t believe that I have waited so long to use it.

I used Konad plate M57 for this design along with Konad’s Black special polish. I think it came out pretty well. I am definitely happy with the simplicity of this mani. I Herd that is definitely the star here, and I can’t wait to use I’m Not Lion!!!

Since I have you here, don’t forget to check out my blog sale. I am doing a huge purge of polish. Most of my polishes have only been swatched once, and I really want to find a new home for them since I know I won’t use them much. You can see all the polishes I have for sale here.

Don’t forget to check out the other animal print manis for today’s challenge…or a floral mani if you’re Nicole. Let me know what you think and talk to you later!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 17: Striped Nails

Posted on 6 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Ahhh…election day is here! I’m not one to lecture people so I won’t get all soapbox-y on everyone. For me, voting is a privilege, a right and a responsibility. There are so many people in other areas of the world who are not allowed to vote so I’m not about to piss on election day. I don’t care about your politics–just make your voice count. To think that less than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to vote makes me wonder why so many women don’t vote.

Anyway, enough politics talk. Today is day 17 of our 31 day challenge so we are a little over half-way through. I think that the fact that we have spaced it out has made it seem like it is just draaaaaaaaaaaaaging, but at the same time I like the fact that I have a few days in between to do other things. The challenge calls for striped nails today and as usual, I had no idea what to do. I took out my Nubar Jeans trio and told myself I had to use these three for whatever look I settled on. In case you’re not familiar with Nubar, this is the trio I am talking about:

Faded Jeans – Boyfriend Jeans – Dark Wash Jeans

This trio is supposed to be a dupe for the Les Jeans de Chanel Collection, but I don’t know how similar they are since I don’t own any Chanel. I’ve seen a few swatches and they do seem to be pretty similar, but I can’t assert that they are 100% dupes. I started out with a full manicure of Faded Jeans.

This polish is pretty, but I found the application kind of weird. It was opaque at two coats but when I looked closely, it had some streaky bald patches so I had to apply a third coat. Luckily, the other two polishes did not have this problem.

I then left a little area at the bottom and polished the rest of my nail with Boyfriend Jeans and let that dry a bit. I then left another small strip of the Boyfriend Jeans color and polished the rest of my nail with Dark Wash Jeans. Don’t worry if the lines look a little crooked because the stripping tape will make it all look neat. (Can you tell I’m not good at tutorials? hahaha)

So there is the finished look. What do you think? I had a hard time photographing these colors because my skin would turn so red in the pics. I tried to color correct as much as I could without affecting the polish colors, but since I am a big edit fail, it didn’t turn out so well. My hands are in a terrible state right now because I decided that I didn’t need no stinkin’ gloves to clean with bleach. Yeah…moron.

Don’t forget to check out the other striped manis for today’s challenge. Talk to you soon.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 16: Polka Dot Nails

Posted on 3 November, 2012 by Cynthia

After the short break, we are back to the 31 Day Challenge! Are you excited too? No? Well, alright…

I finally got to use one of my new Illamasqua babies! Yayyyyy! Charisma is one of the two polishes from their Generation Q Fall 2012 collection, and as usual I would like to report that I love this polish for so many reasons. Look at it.

Illamasqua calls this a “deep raspberry pink” but this is actually darker than I imagined when I first saw some swatches. Nonetheless, this is a perfect call color. It’s dark but vibrant and glowy. As usual, the formula was perfect and opaque at two coats.

Since the challenge calls for polka dots, I was just going to use my dotting tool to apply dots on my nails but I decided to use some loose gold hex glitter.

I am feeling a lot more comfortable with using loose glitter now so I’m proud of myself for actually getting this mani done. While this may not be difficult for some people, I usually fail big time at anything that isn’t a simple manicure with some stamping. Doesn’t this just look like Christmas exploded on my nails?

So, what do you think of my polka dot manicure? Let me know what you think of this polish. Are you a fan of Illamasqua? Don’t forget to check out the other challenge polka dot manis below. Talk to you later.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 15: Jelly Sandwich

Posted on 22 October, 20125 November, 2012 by Cynthia

Once again I had intentions of doing my nails early today but instead I went to see Paranormal Activity 4. I tend to watch every horror/paranormal movie that is released so I was kind of looking forward to watching it, but it turned out to be horribly boring. It actually pissed me off because I kept waiting for something–anything–interesting to happen but nothing ever did. What a waste of an hour and a half! Anyway, today’s challenge calls for a jelly sandwich manicure. I’ve never really done a jelly sandwich manicure because I don’t have too many jellies so I had to improvise. I actually ended up making everything way more complicated than it needed to be so let me show you what I did.

I started with Butter London Slapper.

I got a bunch of Butter Londons recently and this is one that I still hadn’t tried. I love this colors! It is gorgeous, buttery and glossy.

I then added a coat of OPI The Living Daylights from the new Skyfall holiday collection.

And lastly I slapped on two coats of Revlon Whimsical.

I think that this ended up looking a little like the Nails Inc. Sprinkles polishes. I kinda like how muted the base color looks, but overall, I did not like all the polish layers–my nails felt super thick. So what do you think about my first jelly sandwich manicure attempt? Can you recommend some really awesome jelly polishes? I really want to get a few more jellies so I can experiment with them.Our next challenge will be on November 3rd as we are taking a little break for Halloween. I am going to take a break from doing my nails until then. Don’t forget to check back with me since I will be doing non-nail related posts until 11/3.

Take a minute to check out the other jelly sandwich manicures below from Nicole, Jessica, Ave and Alaina. Thanks for stopping by.

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 14 : Saran Wrap Manicure

Posted on 19 October, 2012 by Cynthia

As usual, I am waiting until the last possible second to complete my manicure for today’s challenge. I had good intentions of getting it done very early, but I completely forgot that I was getting some windows replaced in my place so I got wrapped up in moving stuff. In fact, I had to move my bed which weighs about a ton. The mattress alone weighs more than a hippo so I am glad my brother helped me. While the guys were replacing the windows in both bedrooms–and walking around my cream colored carpet with their dirty shoes!!–I started watching The Walking Dead on Netflix. Wowsa that show is good! Anyway, in the middle of all that the mailman came and I got some awesome polish.

Aren’t these amazing?!?!?! Thank you, Sabrina! Since I was having a hard time deciding what polishes to use for my saran wrap manicure, I immediately zeroed in on two Kikos.

For my base color, I used Kiko Periwinkle Violet #337.

This polish is perfection in a bottle. It is creamy, opaque in 2 coats and dries SUPER CRAZY shinny. I really like the Kiko brush so I had very minor clean up to do.

For the saran wrap part, I was a little scared because I have never tried this method before and I didn’t want to ruin my beautiful mani with a crappy saran wrap job. lol Well, I headed over to Nicole‘s blog and copied her tutorial.

I used Kiko Cerulean Blue #295 and a ball of saran wrap to apply the color over Periwinkle Violet. I absolutely adore how this turned out because it is super subtle, and I love how the two colors compliment each other.

So what do you think of my saran wrap manicure? Have you tried this before? I have seen two methods: one where you pick up the color with the saran wrap and them apply it on your nails and the other where you apply the second color directly on the nail and use the saran wrap ball to pick up some of the wet polish. I wonder if one works better than the other. If you have tried both, let me know which method you prefer.

Thanks for visiting today and don’t forget to check out the manicures created by the other challenge participants.

Nicole – Polish Me, Please!

Jessica – Once Upon A Polish

Ave – Polish Pixelle

Alaina – The Little Canvas

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 13: Tape Manicure

Posted on 16 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I literally just finished my tape manicure…just a little late. I have been late with everything lately which is super annoying. I’ve been lacking a lot of inspiration when it comes to my manicures or anything in general, actually. I hope it’s just temporary! So anyway, here is my tape manicure for today’s challenge:

I don’t think that I have used You Belong To Me since the first time I swatched it, and my only question is: WHAT WAS I WAITING FOR??? I really love this color especially because it has this really beautiful hidden shimmer. These pictures make the color look more blue when in real life it has more of a green tone to it. The formula was ok–a little thick but nothing a few drops of thinner can’t fix.

I hope that the following qualifies as a tape manicure? I mean, I did use stripping tape…

I used a sponge to apply Choose Me! over You Belong To Me and the stripping tape I applied in a crisscross pattern.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. This song was huge when I was in 6th/7th grade and I remember everyone wearing their jeans and sweatshirts backwards. I tried to join in on this fad until my mom made me change and told me to stop acting like a fool. Ahhh…I love my mom. hahaha.

So back to the final mani: I still hate my sponging but I do like the colors. Again, the pictures make everything look more blue than green. Choose Me! is such a pretty polish which is a dupe of OPI Catch Me In Your Net/Zoya Charla/Orly Halley’s Comet/WNW Teal Of Fortune/Sinful Colors Kissy so it is definitely more green than these pictures makes it out to be. The beautiful shimmery flecks make this polish a favorite of mine…along with the other dupes as well.

So, let me know what you think of my tape manicure. Don’t forget to check out the other challenge submissions below as well. Thanks for stopping by–catch up with you later!

31 Inspired Days of Nail Art – Day 12 : Chevron Nails

Posted on 13 October, 2012 by Cynthia

I was feeling completely uninspired about doing today’s challenge. I love chevrons on my nails, but I don’t think that chevrons would look good on my rounded super short nails so I decided to to inverted chevrons.

Sation Rock-a-guy Blue is a great blue that I recently purchased. It’s my favorite color from the Little Horse On The Prairie Collection.

I then used Sation Blue Sky’s The Limit for the inverted chevron tips. I am so annoyed that I didn’t see a couple of fibers on my nails and now I can’t do anything about it. Grrrrrr!

I don’t know why I decided to stamp over this, but I did…

I used the paisley print from Bundle Monster plate BM 315 and Wet N Wild’s I Can’t Stand Up Straight. This is so subtle that I can barely tell the stamping is there in indirect light. I’m totally not feeling this stamp on these base colors–can’t win them all.

I need to go cook dinner so forgive me if I’m not particularly talkative throughout this post. Today is a crappy day–just feeling a little down in the dumps so hopefully I’ll feel better once I eat something. Food: always the answer! 🙂

Don’t forget to check out the other manicures my lovely challenge participants created. Thanks for catching up with me today.