31 of 31: Recreate a Favorite Manicure

Howdy, all!  Well, it's finally the end.  The 31st day of the 31 Day Nail Challenge has arrived.  I'm a little sad that it's over, but mostly I'm just relieved (and a little proud) that I made it all the way through!  Today's challenge was to recreate a favorite manicure.  I have lots of favorite manicures done by other bloggers.  There are so many great ones out there.  I knew I wanted to try my hand at stamping some more and I knew I wanted something simple.  Let's face it, I'm exhausted after doing all these manis every day!  So I chose a sweet stamped manicure from pshiiit.com's blog.  I'll include a photo of her's at the end.  I'm unable to find the original post for this manicure, every time I try to link back through Pinterest it just takes me to her home page.  Here's my version:

I started with one coat of China Glaze in First Mate and then used  Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in French White Creme to stamp a swirly heart design on top.  This set of stamping plates worked a lot better for me, so I'm finding that not all plates are created equal. I did have some trouble with my top coat on this one.  My bottle of Seche Vite needs to be swapped as it's getting kind of gloppy.  Here's another view:

And here's the original:

As you can see, my stamp is not exactly the same as her's but I still think it turned out pretty well.  I had a lot of fun with this challenge and I'm glad I followed through with the whole month.  I'm not in a rush to do it again though lol  However, I will be participating in a Halloween Challenge for the month of October.  Check back for more info on that soon.  Thanks so much for reading!

27 of 31: Nails Inspired by Artwork

Howdy, everyone!  Only 4 days left in the 31 Day Challenge!  Pretty crazy, huh?  Today's challenge was to be inspired by artwork.  My friend, Joe, went to Spain a couple of weeks ago and got to check out the Salvador Dali museum there.  Knowing my interest in jewelry, he brought me back a catalog of Dali's Jewels, a series of sculptures made out of precious metals and stones.  I hesitate to call them all jewelry as some of them aren't really meant to be worn, but they're all lovely.  While the photos in the catalog are spectacular, some day, I hope I'll get to see them in person.

I chose a particular piece from this collection as my inspiration.  The Royal Heart is a small gold heart with a miniature crown.  The center of the heart, a vertical rectangle has been cut out and in the space, an anatomical heart shaped out of rubies has been set.  The most amazing thing about this piece is that the ruby heart actually beats.  It's breath-taking to watch, almost creepy in a way.  I've tried to attach a video at the end of this post, so we'll see if it goes.  There's also a link, which I urge you to click so you can see the heart beat for yourself.  Here's my interpretation along with a picture of The Royal Heart:

Stunning, yes? (The Heart, not my manicure lol)  I started with a coat of Orly's Luxe topped with 2 coats of Oscar by Julep.  While that dried, I created some nail decals by placing dots of color on top of some saran wrap and left it to dry.  I made rectangle stencils with blue painter's tape and used a deep maroon O.P.I. whose name I don't know (obviously part of a mini set to which I don't have the packaging) to paint in the rectangles.  Once the decals dried, I cut them to fit the rectangles and fixed them to my nails with a coat of Seche Vite.  I added some yellow heart "jewels" in the center of each nail for some extra bling.

This challenge has been so fun (and exhausting) and I'll be a little sad when it's over (but not too sad).  I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I am.   Please tune in tomorrow to see some flag-inspired nail art!  Thanks so much for reading!

This *should* be the video of The Royal Heart beating.  Here's the link just in case this doesn't load the way I hope it will.  

Purple Hearts

Hello, everyone!  I hope the weekend has treated you well.  I worked all weekend so there wasn't much of a break for me.  Today was the Pride parade here in Chicago, which is fun to go to if you enjoy big crowds and lots of fluorescent colors :)  I had a heck of a time getting home from work, the train was packed!  The highlight of the day, however, was the person I saw wearing a t-shirt that said, "Vaginas are Gorges"...wouldn't you proofread before you had a shirt printed?  Oh well, I got a giggle out of it lol

A quick and easy manicure today.  I was in the mood for something colorful and sweet and I think I accomplished it.

Here I started with 2 coats of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails in No Hard Feelings, a lovely lilac creme.  I actually think this color would look better on someone with a darker skin tone than mine, but I do so love my purples, I can't give them up!  On top of that, I added a coat of Nicole by O.P.I. in Step 2 the Beat of My Heart.  It's chock full of large pink and purple iridescent heart-shaped glitter in a clear base with little iridescent flakies in it.  I had a hard time applying this because the little hearts did not want to come out of the bottle.  I did quite a bit of fishing to get enough out to cover my nail.  I wanted a bit more of an iridescent finish so I added a coat of Confetti's Ice Ice Baby, which is a fun effects polish; tiny icy blue-green iridescent glitter in a clear base.

I like this manicure, but it's a little too sweet to wear for too long.  It fit the mood at the time, but it'll be coming of just about as soon as I post this lol  I seriously have polish commitment issues!  Of course, that's part of what makes nail polish so much fun :)

Thanks for stopping by!