31 Day Challenge Recap

Yay I finished the challenge!!! So I'm just going to do a complete recap of the whole challenge :D

Red Nails - Red Converse

Orange Nails - Tigger 

Yellow Nails - Sunset Palm Trees

Green Nails - Mint Chocolate Leopard Print

Blue Nails - Essie Turquoise and Caicos

Purple Nails - Butterfly Wings

Black and White Nails - Ninjas 

Metallic Nails - Robots and Gears

Gradient Nails - Ocean and Sky

Rainbow Nails - Rainbow Glitter

Polka Dots - Minnie Mouse 

Stripes - Nautical Stripes

Animal Print - Cow Print

Flowers - Vintage Roses

Delicate Print  - Ramdom Floral Print

Tribal Nails

Glitter - OPI Excuse Moi!

Half Moons - Peter Pan Collars

Galaxies

Water Marbled

Inspired by a colour - Essie Tart Deco

Inspired by a song - Anchor by Mindy Gledhill

Inspired by a movie - Pokemon

Inspired by a book - Lettuce by Mandy Stanley

Inspired by fashion - Tuxedos 

Inspired by a pattern - Cherries

Inspired by art - Pop art

Inspired by a flag - Great Britain

Inspired by the supernatural - Boos

Inspired by a tutorial - Penguins

Recreate your favourite challenge - Winnie the Pooh

So that's my whole challenge :) I mentioned my favourites yesterday but unexpected favourites for me were Day 8 (Robot nails), Day 16 (Tribal print), Day 19 (Galaxies) and Day 25 (Tuxedo nails). But there were SO many manicures from the challenge that I loved.

31 Day Challenge - Day 31 - Recreate your favourite challenge

Honestly I've had so many favourite challenges. So picking one wasn't easy. I think it was tied between Day 2 (Tigger nails), Day 14 (Vintage Roses) and Day 23 (Pokemon). But there were so many others that I loved so it was tough picking. I think the thing that swayed me was that my aunt kindly got me a mustard yellow...

                 (I couldn't help it, I had to cut my nails, and I like this length a lot better)

Winnie the Pooh!!! I recreated the Tigger nails, and by recreating, I created another character on my nails :) It is SO simple compared to the Tigger ones, but something simple can be just as nice. The red for Pooh's t-shirt, I don't normally like the look of eg second and middle finger one colour and the ring and pinky another (do you understand what I''m saying?? :L). But for this I think it works.

Close up of the thumb of my left hand, I'm proud of that, harder than it looks. You have to be very careful with the black pen (or whatever tool you're using). I used white as the base again for the mustard yellow to come out better.

(I don't understand how the colours are so different from one hand to the next, I used the same lighting :/)

And not forgetting my right hand which I am also very proud of. Definitely more difficult but it still looks neat :) (I swear it's just my thumb cuticle that's messed up).

Colours used:

Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Mustard Yellow: Topshop - Naked
White: Natural Collection - White and Sally Hansen - French White Tip
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black

Equipment used:
Toothpick

So that's it, the challenge is over. I actually painted my nails everyday for most of it. That probably won't be happening too often anymore. I really enjoyed the challenge, just trying different looks and techniques was SO. MUCH. FUN. (maybe I wasn't that enthusiastic :P). But I think the challenge is a really good thing to try and it does help for manicure ideas ;) This was a fun experiment!! :D

31 Day Challenge - Day 30 - Inspired by a tutorial

Also bonus challenge for myself, use the new polishes I got :) In June I told myself I wouldn't buy more nail polish til my birthday in November (I have been bad and have bought quite a lot, no a lot.).  But I had an exception, if I found any polishes on my wishlist, then the 1st rule is forgotten. Obviously I found some colours on my list :L ;)

Weirdly I think I actually had the hardest time coming up with a design for this theme. My mind kept changing and there were virtually no tutorials I wanted to do. Also ones that fit my colour scheme. Really the theme was "Anything you want" and I still was stuck.

But finally I decided on this, and I really like it.

                                        (My nails are too long, being cut after the challenge :))

Funky pink penguins :P I copied a picture as there are so many tutorials for penguin nails. I really like the fuchsia, I got a couple of colours that weren't on my wishlist (I'm bad at this ban :() but they were really inexpensive (£1.45 from The Face Shop and the quality is so so good)!!!! And 20% off if you bought 4, which I had to do. One was my perfect colour so it was totally justified, more on that another time ;) I thought the pink and blue could work for a penguin and they actually did which was the best part.

I was thinking of a design for the plain nails, but the glitter alone sufficed and of course it did. I thought it kind of look like falling snow, which isn't exactly for summer, but the other colours are so bright. It's China Glaze Luxe and Lush from the Hunger Games collection, this has been on my wishlist for a while. I'm a Hunger Games fan (like everyone else) so when I heard there was nail polish for it, I was there. Luxe and Lush automatically appealed to me, so it was that or China Glaze Snow Globe (which is also SO pretty), honestly I was leaning more towards Snow Globe. Since China Glaze is pretty difficult to find in the UK and pretty much impossible where I live, I didn't get it. I didn't want to get it from eBay because eBay frustrates me and in a sense I had given up on this polish. Thank goodness I didn't. It would probably go well on any colour but on the pale blue, it is truly beautiful :3  Full manicure to be done of that. I used 5 coats on my nails. Yes I know 5 coats is ridiculous, but it's very thin and I wanted a decent amount of flakes (or flakies, I'm not used to using that term). I love flakies, I know some people don't like them but I am not in the same party.

Anyway back to the penguins, they're a cute bunch. the bow ties really complete it, out of the penguin designs I thought this was one of the cutest :3

Colours used:

Fuchsia: The Face Shop - PK105
Blue: The Face Shop - BL601
Orange Coral: Essie - Tart Deco
Flaky Glitter: China Glaze - Luxe and Lush
Hot Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry (not pictured, whoopsies)
White: Natural Collection - White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)

Equipment used:
Toothpicks

31 Day Challenge - Day 29 - Inspired by the supernatural

Aw the challenge is almost over :(

Well being the Nintendo fan-girl (and geek :P) that I am, Boo nails were obviously a must ;) Like all Mario enemies Boos are super cute (maybe not the cutest though).

                               (Sorry my pictures are so blurry, I didn't realize until I was editing :L)

I started with a base of Barry M Indigo (which I love for layering!!!), and for both hands I used something different on top. I was excited to used Indian Ocean on Indigo, but when I first put it on I thought it looked really really strange, but slowly it went from "It looks weird" to "This is pretty to cool" to "This actually looks really nice!!!". It grew on me, but it does look pretty awesome. It's like a cool shade of purple, and I really like it. In general I don't like purple nail polish, so this must be something special!!! :P I'm not sure about the Boo on my 4th finger, it looks a bit messed up. But it was better than my first attempt on that finger was it was just super out of proportion.

This is my favourite nail, thumb on my right hand. I learnt my mistakes from my left hand, it's all about proportioning it correction so the eyebrows aren't to high and are in a "w" shape and making sure the arms are aligned (sounds simple in theory but not so simple in practice). It's just this Boo looks the best.
 

I layered the silver glitter on top for my left hand, I like both combinations. Some of my favourite layering combinations are with Indigo, it just goes with pretty much everything!! :) Though in the bottle it looks like a bright dark blue. It's not, it's more a navy going into dark purple, but it's still pretty :)

                                          (Awk they look like they're going to hug!!! ^_^)

All the pictures of my right hand I've had to edit out a cut, which was just swell. My cuticles have not been in the best shape, but I'm working on it!!

Colours used:

Dark Blue: Barry M - Indigo
Glitter: Barry M - Silver Glitter
Purple Shimmer: Models Own - Indian Ocean
White: Natural Collection - White (no name) and Sally Hansen - French White Tip
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)

Equipment used:
Toothpicks

31 Day Challenge - Day 28 - Inspired by a flag

With the 4th of July and Canada day happening, nails inspired by both occasions would be suitable. But since I am from the United Kingdom and the Queens Jubilee (even though it happened a month ago) the flag this would be inspired would obviously be the UK flag.

                      (Yes my cuticles are a total mess, only happens when I take photos -_-)

I'm not too proud of my efforts, it was rushed and not executed very well. The shade of blue is incorrect, but I didn't bring it (Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream would've been perfect) so I made do. Also if my white nail polish hadn't been really gloopy (standard) and if I had a red striper, things would've been much smoother.

Colours used:

Blue: Revlon - Dreamer
White: Sally Hansen - French White Tip
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips

Equipment used:
Toothpick

31 Day Challenge - Day 27 - Inspired by artwork

Also inspired by my need to use OPI Charged Up Cherry, it's pretty new and it's so pretty I had to try it. I love hot pink. Charged Up Cherry keeps making me think of "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People. "All the other kids with their um charged up cherries, you better berry, better berry, outrun my cherry" :L These things come to my head. I thought about using standard comic book colours like red, yellow and blue but I thought pink would look just as cute :)

This is inspired by pop art, specifically pop art in comic books. I love how it's so cool and cute. It's just SO funky. Also I love Charged Up Cherry, I put it on and automatically it became one of my favourites. It's bright and pretty. I'm proud of how neatly I wrote the words with my left hand (I'm right handed). It did take utmost care and precision though. 

(The pink didn't really show up true to colour, I tried all different kinds of lighting but it always looked too orange, so I left it)

This is my left hand, I preferred it on my right hand as the dots just looked better, my white nail polishes were really "stringy". If you know what I mean. When the little strings of nail polish drag everywhere. But that doesn't mean I don't like it on my left hand. I do :)

Colours used:

Hot Pink: OPI - Charged Up Cherry
White: Natural Collection - White (no name), Sally Hansen - French White Tip and No7 - Snowflake
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)

Equipment used:
Bobby pins
Toothpicks

31 Day Challenge - Day 26 - Inspired by a pattern

I'm not sure if this counts as a pattern, but recently I've felt the need to do these nails.

Hello cherry nails, if you couldn't tell :P These did not turn out right, it's all just messed up. This is my 3rd attempt at these and they never seem to get any better. Ever. I don't know maybe cherry nails are my weakness. The positioning was plain awful, I'm envious of all you people who can do perfect cherry nails. Also the white dots should've made it look better, but nope. Still a big messy fail. They looked nice from a distance though :)

I liked my thumb though :) (I always seem to like the thumb nail :))

Colours used:

White: Natural Collection - White and No7 - Snowflake
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Green: Rimmel - Misty Jade

Equipment used:
Bobby pin
Toothpicks