31 Day Challenge - Day 16: Tribal

As I stated in a previous post, I tend to directly copy other people's manicures. I don't personally see any problem with this, so I don't think it strange, like other people do. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, y'know.

So anyway, when I saw these nails on Instagram, I thought they were really interesting and original. I wasn't super enthusiastic about doing traditional tribal print, and wanted to do something a bit different.

(I didn't have a light gray, so I used nude)

I love these! I think they turned out pretty well, for my first complicated free-hand design! (:

My mom pointed out that they're not necessarily "tribal" but I think it's close enough. It's vaguely tribal looking. 

Polishes used:

Red: Essie Olé Caliente

Black: OPI Black Onyx

Nude: OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons

White: Orly White Out

Blue: Sephora by OPI Natural Environ-mint

Yellow: Sally Hansen Lightening

I used Revlon Colorstay Basecoat, as usual, and topped it all off with a coat of Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

Detail brushes from Urban Outfitters.

Thanks for reading!
xx

31 Day Challenge - Day 15: Delicate

When I see a manicure that I like, I tend to not only draw inspiration from the original photo, but copy the whole manicure entirely. So the other day, I found this wonderful girl who does Once Upon A Time inspired manicures. OUAT is one of my favorite TV shows and I plan on copying a lot of her manicures in the future. Anyway, I had just been looking for inspiration for these nails when I stumbled across her blog, and her Mary Margaret inspired nails just fit the prompt perfectly. I had been wanting to do something with nude or light pink and a sort of lacy design, so I just decided to recreate her nails, using polish instead of doilies.

This is the photo I went off of (I cropped it a bit), and a reference shot of Mary Margaret from the show.

 And this is my interpretation!

I'm currently trying to reshape my square nails into a more oval shape, which is why they look a bit weird.

The nude color is Sephora by OPI Don't Feed The Hand Models, and the white is Orly White Out, freehanded with a tiny brush.

I personally really like how it turned out! Very girly and delicate.

Thanks for reading

xx

31 Day Challenge - Day 14: Floral

So these nails were directly inspired by this picture I saw on Instagram

I don't have the original source, I'm really sorry. If you recognize these nails, please let me know whose photo it is so I can give credit! 

I was going back and forth between this and some other inspiration pictures that I got off Instagram, but I finally decided on these. 

Roses aren't as hard as they look, actually. I just mixed the flower color together with the white base color to make a lighter shade, and swirled that and the original flower color together so it looked like a rose. I think it turned out really well. 

I used the fantastic Urban Outfitters Virgin as my base color, and Essie Navigate Her for the leaves. The blue roses are Sephora by OPI Natural Environ-mint, and the pink ones are Sephora by OPI Access 24/7.

I used my new nail art brushes for this, and I was really impressed with how well they worked. My sister got them for me for Christmas, and you can still get them here.

thumb shot

After wearing these nails for a few days, I was given the American Apparel matte topcoat, and I had to try it, so I mattified these nails and it was so gorgeous. Sorry for the bad pic quality, it was taken with my new phone, but you get the gist. I love my matte topcoat. I'm going to use it on everything. 

Well, that concludes this post.

Until next time!

xx

31 Day Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print

I am not a huge fan of animal print nails, and so I interpreted this prompt quite literally.

Penguin nails!

I'm not going to write a lot, because I think these pictures speak for themselves, and also I have a lot of stuff to do today.

I'm sure I've seen a tutorial or something on these nails, but I just did them from memory, so I'm sorry that I'm not really giving credit to whoever first did these.

So I just startd with two coats of a plain black, and then just used the nail polish brush to make the white oval shape at the bottom. I used dotting tools for the eyes and my new teensy tiny nail art brush for the beak and feet. 

I think they're just so freaking adorable. I love penguins.

I especially like the ones on my index and pinkie fingers. 

Polishes used:

-1 coat Revlon Colorstay Base Coat

-2 Coats OPI Black Onyx

-Orly White for details

-Sally Hansen Sun Kissed for details

-Sally Hansen Instadry Top Coat

Hope you all have a wonderful new year!