30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 19 - Galaxy

 Well, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to recreate my previous post of galaxy nails, so I tried to do it in different colors and I'm pretty happy with this! I did a black base coat and then cut a skinny piece off a makeup sponge to sponge on purple and light purple... Then sponged on a black with silver glitter in the dark spots. For the stars, I used 2-3 holo dot cut outs (the eyes that punched out of my playboy heads, I saved in this little jar). Then the pointy side of an orange stick for medium stars, and the pointy side of a sewing needle for the tiny stars.

For some reason, it doesn't look glossy despite my efforts with 3 coats of Beauty Secrets Top Coat!! Maybe its the color combo?? I'm going to add a few more coats tonight, so maybe I'll switch out the pictures if it works... :-/

30 Day Nail Challenge-Day16- Tribal

Personally I don't get this trend, I'm just trying to get through this challenge, so I can do my nails the way I want. :)

30 Day Nail Challenge - Days 14 & 15 - Flowers and Delicate Print

I'm so behind! Here is Day 14: Flowers, I used Jesse's Girl "Baby Cakes" to sponge on the tips and then white a blue flowers just like in my purple post.

And here's my delicate print - I was on the phone so I got this idea from Erin but did a poop job- and I used Mink Muffs by Essie to load on a thick basecoat and while it was still wet, I pressed on little lace pieces I cut out. It probably would have looked better with topcoat, but I was kinda in a rush - just like I am right now because I'm still on the phone! Peace!

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 13 - Animal Print - Fish Scales

 I attempted to try something new for "Animal Print"  day because I love animal prints, and I've done it all. Zebra, leopard, cheetah, giraffe, tiger, and snakeskin from the "Metallic" day challenge. So this time (inspired my a mermaid/siren chalkboard drawing at starbucks) I wanted to attempt FISH SCALES. I used the same technique from the snakeskin nails: I tighty held a piece of lace on my nail and sponged on the top color. I used Nicole by OPI "Repect the World" for the French, and NYC "Big Money Frost" and a silver striper to sponge over the lace. Sometimes it looks like fish scales, sometimes it just looks frosty and unkempt. But I wanted to try something new as it is a challenge. Maybe someone else can do it better! I'd like to see another attempt at fish scale nail art. Lemme know if you see some!

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 11 - Polka Dots

I don't know if this counts as polka dots, but there certainly are a lot of dots here. I used Chrissy and my Franken "Ashy Wang" to make clean French tips, then added large dots of black, white, and Jessie's Girl "Baby Cakes" (hot pink). Then a couple of tiny dots coming off the cluster. I super enjoyed this design and will def be trying it again in different colors!

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 10 - Gradient

Day 10 of the 30 day challenge is gradient. I am through with the full-nail polish application, but luckily, with this design I gave myself a little space in my pink french to do a corner fading to black. I used NYC Charming Rose Creme for the pink and sponged on black in the corners. Those little black specks you see is actually a sprinkling of jet black glitter from Martha Stewart.  I thought it gave the effect of spray paint splatter coming from the corner.

On to Day 11- I'm a day behind posting!

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 9 - Rainbow

So I did a pastel rainbow gradient over my whole nail. Covered up any sponge seams using Wet N Wild Hallucinate glitter topcoat. You can't really see the colors that well, I tried to take an inside picture and an outside picture but it was dark and gloomy out since it is raining today !!
I used these colors, all mixed with white to make them pastels:

I sponged them onto a white base diagonally, and then added one coat of Hallucinate with another coat of Beauty Secrets Hardening Top Coat.

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 8 - Metallic

I totally skipped a day and did rainbow nails so I had to snap a pic of them for tomorrow and redo them to be metallic! So I did a really fast job/experiment on snakeskin nails. I painted on 2 coats of NYC "Big Money Frost" a metallic light green. Then I used a small piece of lace trim from my fabric stash to wrap around the tip of each finger. I held each one tightly against my nail and used a makeup sponge to dab on black lightly in some spots and darker in others to give it a kind of animal-in-the-wild feel. I suppose I could have done this later in the challenge for animal print day but I love animal print, so that day won't be much of a challenge.

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 7 - Black and White

Black and white... such a challenging challenge. I've been meaning to try to paint brass knuckles so I thought this would be a good time to try it. It didn't come out perfect, but for the first try, I'm happy with it. Also it seemed kinda plain so I junked it up with chunky circle and square rhinestones (for Chrissy who loves azn junk nails). I had tons of fun doing this mani and it will be a shame to take it off for tomorrow's rainbow challenge (grumble)......

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 6 - Purple/Violet

Ahhh dreaded purple day. It's funny because I never paint my nails purple! I'm more green, pink, blue, black... but this design actually turned out nice. I would tell you which colors I used but unfortunately the two purples were given as a gift to me and I have discarded the box; the polishes are unbranded!! Clearly I used white Sinful Colors polish for the white flowers, as shown. 

I painted on light purple tips and used a dotting tool to drag dots into these cute little flowers ! I actually love this design so much I'm keeping it on until my next challenge for tomorrow. I definitely am going to try this again in other colors!

30 Day Nail Challenege - Day 5 - Blue

I have revived a super old polish from the dead! I haven't used "The Real Teal" Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in over a year; in fact, I had forgotten about it until Audrey came over to paint her nails and she picked this one out of the bunch. I added a few drops of thinner to make it new again and painted tips on all  my fingers except my ring which has China Glazes "For Audrey". I used white, For Audrey, and The Real Teal to then stripe on some random stripes that intersect each other. I can't wait to get out of these color challenges! Like I said, just given a color, I'm feeling pretty uninspired.

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 4 - Green

Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Hard As Nails in "Green With Envy". I painted neon orange and black tiger-esque stripes on the side. I'm feeling really uninspired by this challenge so far. Maybe I'll get more creative when I get past the initial first 10 days which are just "color" challenges.

Topped with 2 coats of Beauty Secrets Hardening Top Coat.

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 3 - Yellow

Yellow. Martha Stewart Heart Glitter in Lemon Drop. Nuff said.

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 2 - Orange

DAY 2 - Orange. I used Sunny Side Up by Wet N Wild as the base for my French tip, sponged on a little bit of Mellow Yellow by Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in the corners of 3 of my nails. Then striped on these dainty little flowers in black and added these mini silver flatback dots that I found in my craft box. My inspiration for this design is based off of these little flowers from this artwork my brother painted and gave me for (our) birthday. We're twins :).  Here's the painting:

30 Day Nail Challenge - Day 1 - Red + 2 Quick Reviews

I've started the 30 Day Nail Challenge and day 1's category is RED. That's all it says. I actually hate red nail polish because it's my least favorite color, and even if I use a basecoat it stains my acrylics. I only have like 2 reds anyways and THIS ONE I actually bought for 4th of July 2010! (Wet N Wild - "Red Red") It was super thick but with a few drops of Beauty Secrets Nail Polish Thinner, I brought it back to life.

Quick Review on B.S. Polish Thinner: Works great, smells awful (duh), you get a lot for a few bucks, comes with a spout on the cap but you really need an eyedropper to be precise. Also I (stupidly) stored it on it's side inside my drawer and it leaked out and melted the rubber no-slip mat!!!

OK so what I've done here was a quick swipe across the tip in Red Red not completing a French smile line on one side. I completed the smile line with 3 black glittery stripes that intersect at the other side of the nail. Then I placed black holographic cut out stars and the punched out centers around the nails randomly and topped with a few coats of Beauty Secrets Hardening Top Coat.

My Quick Review on B.S. Hardening Top Coat: high gloss but needs at least 2 coats, takes a while to dry (at least 10 minutes for each coat), super fun huge ball-like bottle and about $2 cheaper than Seche Vite Dry Fast + it's a bigger bottle. I would buy this again if I when run out Seche Vite is not on sale. (This is why I decided to try it in the first place.)

And one more thing, readers: I still cannot comment on anyone's posts! When I write my comment it asks me to sign in again and repeats this over and over. If anyone knows what's going on, please help me! I really want to tell you all how much I love all your posts!!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Starting Tomorrow

I've been neglecting my blog (super UNinspired lately) and I thought this 31 Day Nail Challenge would be the perfect way to jumpstart my blog! I am so blog-lazy that I'm not even starting tonight (as I have dishes and chores still to do). But I'm posting it anyways to share with anyone who hasn't seen this list.

Also, if there is another 30 day nail art challenge list out there, I'd appreciate it if someone could comment me a link so I could compare. Starting tomorrow. Swearsies.

I've missed you all and I'm going to make my rounds commenting on all your recent posts now while I watch Bill Maher. Peace out, hipsters.