Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Guuuuys I have 201 followers now! I love ya so much. I'll work on getting another contest/giveaway put together as soon as I can because you deserve it!

OMG, it's the last day of the challenge! Fiiiinally! *angels sing* I did produce a lot of cool stuff and it definitely helped me hone my nail art skills, but it was exhausting! I've been wanting to try the cool vintage-rose nail art but I wasn't sure how to go about it, so I figured today would be a good day to find a tutorial and try it.

Here's the tutorial I used (the girl's voice is kind of creepily calm, but it's a good tutorial):

And here's how it worked out for me:

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I'm very happy with how this turned out! It was really easy and I love the way it looks. I used Scotch Naturals Leprechaun Lynch as the base, Essie Your Hut or Mine for the base pink of the roses, Revlon Cherry for the little swoopies, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green for the leaves.

Now, I have amassed a few *ahem* polishes during this challenge, so you might be seeing just swatches for a while. Tomorrow I'll post the grand haul since haul posts were one of the things requested in my contest, and I think the day after that I'll do a base/top coat post and maybe even a nail care post for a breather from all this nail art. 

I hope you enjoyed this month-long adventure!

Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

Are you ready to be amazed? Seriously.

I have outdone myself. Really, I'm so proud. This is going to slap you in the face and while you're flailing on the floor it's going to slap your mom. And then maybe it'll slap your cousin's wife's cat while we're at it.

Are you ready for this?

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Prepare yourselves. Because here's my inspiration for today:

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UNICOOOOOOOOORN

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Am I awesome or what? I drew a freaking UNICORN on my hand. Yes. I didn't do a step-by step thing for this since it really wasn't that difficult, but here's the breakdown:

• thumb: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Away with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Ice Queen
• index finger: Milani Bolting Blue stamped with Milani Gold Lamé
• middle finger: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Co-Bolt Blue with China Glaze Skyscraper, unicorn body is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White, its horn is Milani Gold Lamé, its eye and nostril are Wet n Wild Black Creme, and its mane is Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Tough Taupe
• ring finger (in rainbow order): Revlon Top Speed Cherry, CG Boundless Color Candy Corn, Sinful Colors Unicorn (how could I not use this?), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Co-Bolt Blue, and American Apparel African Violet
• pinky: OPI Roadhouse Blues with Jesse's Girl Firefly. The horn is Milani Gold Lamé and the stripes are Wet n Wild Black Creme

Phew! So yeah, it really wasn't too difficult, I just did all the base colors first and then painted the designs on with my teeny paintbrush. Since I absolutely cannot paint with my left hand, I did my entire right hand in OPI Roadhouse Blues plus Jesse's Girl Firefly. It is a gooorgeous combination.

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So yeah, I'm very proud of this! Dare I say it, but I think I'm developing a knack for nail art! I've never been good at drawing, maybe I should try painting again? Hmm...

Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

Inspired by a flag? WTH? Someone was running low on ideas when they were making up this challenge... Anyway, I'll give you one guess about what I did.

If you guessed, "googled 'flags' and scrolled through them all until she found one that had colors she wanted to use," you'd be correct. So I chose the flag of Ukraine.

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I started with Sinful Colors Unicorn

And then I tried to freehand half of my nail with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Away although the SH brush is curved at the bottom so that was pretty hard to do.

And then because that wasn't enough, I dotted down the middle with Wet n Wild Black Creme

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Not very fancy, but I really like these colors together! It kind of reminds me of pop art. I like it. But, if all goes as planned, tomorrow's nails should really knock you on your butt so throw down some pillows and get ready!

Day 27: Inspired by Artwork

So, today I had to do something inspired by artwork. I've seen some cool splatter paint manis floating around and I decided to go for it. And who is better known for splatter paint than Jackson Pollock?



I started with two coats of OPI I Vant to be A-Lone Star.



So basically what you do is you take a straw, and you dip it into the polish bottle so it gets a film on the end, like a bubble wand when you're blowing bubbles. Then you blow into the other end of the straw and loosely aim for your nails. You will definitely want something behind your nails because it is just as messy as it sounds.

See? This is a giant mess of Ulta Blue Streak

Then I did the same thing with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Co-Bolt Blue (agh the hyphennns! O Sally Hansen, why dost thou torture me so?) and cleaned up the best I could but it took a loooot of acetone.

Out in the sun! Sorry for the awkward chips, this was after wearing it for a day.

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My station after I was done. I guess it actually doesn't look too bad, most of the mess ends up on your hands!

So I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I wasn't sure if the whole use-the-straw-like-it's-a-blow-dart thing would work, but it did (for the most part). Yes, this does waste a whole lot of polish, lol. If you think water marbling is wasteful you will DEFINITELY not want to try this. But the way I see it, I have so much polish that I really don't need to worry about using it up too fast, lol.

Are you excited that the 31-day thing is almost over? It was quite the undertaking! I'm getting a bit worn out but it's been interesting. Have you been enjoying it?

Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

Yadda yadda yadda I'm not funny today please don't hate me blah blah blah I'm just busy right now etc. etc. etc. FORGIVE ME THIS 31-DAY CHALLENGE IS KIND OF WEARING ME OUT!

Yeah so I tried to do the houndstooth print from some plate that I'm too lazy to go look at right now. Do you even really care which specific polishes I used? They're black and white. I mean really. Typing "Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White" is only fun for the first NEVER times and it just gets worse after that.

Sorry if I sound grouchy... I'm tired and hungry. But tomorrow's nails will be cool so I'll make up for it then!

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Oh! And you need to see my inspiration:

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Sometimes Lady Gaga's ridiculously over-the-top outfits annoy me but I won't rant about her since this post has already been grumpy enough. I like this one. I like houndstooth.

All right... now tell me to snap out of it and stop being in such a bad mood!