Category Archives: 31 Day Challenge 2014

Day 11: Polka Dots (31dc2014)

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I like to do apple nails in September.  I mean, here in PA, fresh local apples are all over the place.  For the next 6 weeks, you could pretty much go to an apple festival every weekend around here.  Apple cider and dumplings are starting to show up all over the place.  I was feeling a little like I had missed my opportunity to do apple nails this month since I didn’t do them on red or green day.

Then I started to think hard about what I wanted to do for polka dot day, and I really was having trouble coming up with something that seemed original.  Then it hit me: I can make apples out of polka dots!

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The base is my frankenpolish, and the rest is just acrylic craft paint.  As far as craft paint goes, I don’t own a ton of colors.  I have a little set of neon paints, but apart from that I just have the basics: primary colors and black and white.  I really like just taking a little blob of red, blue, yellow, black, and white on a plate and mixing them to make whatever colors I need.  That’s exactly what I did for this mani and also for my Fairy Godmother mani.

Thanks for reading and following along with me this month!  And thank you to all of my new followers both here and on instagram!  You make me feel warm and fuzzy!  See you tomorrow with some stripy nails!

Day 10: Gradient Nails (31dc2014)

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This past Sunday evening, we had a great sunset here in central PA.  The sky went from a deep blue-purple down to a bright orange at the horizon with lots of neon pink and purple clouds in between.  Just beautiful.  We were on a drive home through the countryside at the time, and the sky combined with the rolling hills and silhouettes of tree and farms is what inspired today’s manicure.  Unfortunately, the nails only turned out to be “meh”.  Here they are:

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The lump on my ring finger is supposed to be a farm and the other blotches are supposed to be trees.  Yeah, not my best work.  I do like the sky colors, though.  They’re pretty close to the real thing.  Overall though, I guess I should leave the sunset making to God.

See you tomorrow with some polka dots!

 

Day 9: Rainbow Nails (31dc2014)

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Like most days so far, it took me a little while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do.  I didn’t want to just paint rainbow colored stripes down my nails, and I didn’t want to take the easy way out and just paint each nail a different color.  For a little while I thought about painting a rainbow that followed the half-moon curve, but I wasn’t completely sold on that idea.  Finally I settled on the idea of just doing rainbow colored tips.  I was going to do the negative space thing, but I got suckered in by some pretty iridescent glitter that was on my nail polish shelf.

Here’s the end result:

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I’m pretty happy with these!  They are pretty fun in the sunlight with all of the iridescent glitter.  More is more, I always say.  See you tomorrow with some gradient nails.  I’ve got an idea that I think is pretty awesome in my head.  Lets just hope my idea actually translates to the nail.

Day 8: Metallic Nails (31dc2014)

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It took me a little while to find some inspiration for these nails.  I was a little tempted just to slather gold polish on my nails and call it a day.  This 31 Day Challenge is definitely fun, but sometimes I feel like all my free time and mental energy is being used to paint my nails.  I’m glad it’s only 31 days and I’m glad that I’m 1/4 of the way there!

Sunday evening the hubby and I were at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, which is where we are most weekends from August to October.   On the ride home, I finally got hit with some inspiration to paint some royal nails.  Here they are:

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Yep, my cuticles are stained a lovely purple color. 

The gold polish is from Wet n Wild’s Fergie line and it’s called Gold Album.  Every time I use it I’m amazed and how pretty it is. 

The purple is Orly – Velvet Rope.  I got the mini size of this for $.49 in the clearance section at Ulta this weekend!  I think I’ll be wearing this quite a bit in the colder months.

The “jewels” are just glitters that I fished out of Funky Fingers – Unicorn Farts.  I used a dotting tool to pick them up and place them where I wanted them. 

That’s all for today.  See you again tomorrow!

 

 

Day 7: Black & White Nails (31dc2014)

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The hubby gets credit for these nails.  Not for actually painting them, but for coming up with the idea.  The conversation went like this:

Me: I need to do black and white nails tomorrow.  What stuff is black and white?…

Him: Piano keys are black and white.

Heck yes, they are, so that’s what I went with.  Here’s the finished product:

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Please don’t count how many notes are in my octaves.  Also, I took the easy way out for my right hand.  I still made it black and white, but I didn’t do piano keys.  Here’s what I did:

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And a bonus picture of my cute nephew being all limp while he sleeps:

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I guess I shouldn’t have cut my sister’s head out of the picture.  I was just so focused on my cute little nephew.   See you tomorrow with some metallic nails!

Day 6: Violet Nails (31dc2014)

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I’ve been wanting to try this particular technique for a while.  I’m not sure if it has a real name or not.  Some people just call it a pond manicure.  It’s when you do a layer of jelly polish, then some sort of design like a flower, then another layer of jelly polish, then add more flowers, then another layer of jelly polish,…  The end result looks like your design is suspended at different levels within the polish.  Here’s how mine turned out:

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I used Wet n Wild – Deception from a limited edition collection back in the spring.

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Here’s a final look:

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I am really happy with how they turned out, and I’m sad that it’s time to take them off so that I can do my Day 7 nails.  See you tomorrow!

Day 5: Blue Nails (31cd2014)

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I am no artist.  I watch videos of people like Robin Moses who can effortlessly paint these beautifully details designs on people’s nails with a little bit of envy and a whole lot of admiration.  I’m not gonna lie, these blue nails took a bit of time.  I probably spent close to 2 hours on them last night while the hubby controlled the remote.  He was flipping between baseball and tennis, both of which interest me very little, so I was happy to stare at my nails instead.

I started with Sinful Colors – Cinderella.

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This is a baby blue cream with a pink micro-shimmer.  It’s SO pretty!  It’s pretty sheer, so I did use 4 thin coats to get it opaque. 

After that was done, I started on my thumb and first finger.  After a long time, I ended up with this:

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And here’s the finished look!

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I’m going to be pretty sad when I have to take her off my nails tonight.  I think I’ll go with something a little simpler for tomorrow!  Come check out the 31 Day Challenge on instagram!  Use #31dc2014 and find me @polishmesnazzy !

 

Day 4: Green Nails (31dc2014)

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I just recently got NYC – High Line Green, this really pretty “ugly green” color, so I really wanted to use it for Day 4.  Here it is before I started adding stuff to it:

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At first I thought I might go with a frog design, but I had already done cutesy ladybugs and bees, so I figured I should get off of the cute animal train before.  I opted for camo!

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Now, in real life, I don’t really like any activities that require the wearing of camouflage, but I really liked the idea of a camo print that was glammed up with a little pink and gold. This design was super easy, too!  It requires very little skill and no tools.  I just used the brush in the bottle to dab on little patches of color until I was happy with the design.  Then I used a nice thick quick-dry top coat to smooth it all out. 

Check out my instagram @polishmesnazzy.com for more pics of the 31 day challenge all month!  See you tomorrow with some blue nails!

 

Day 3: Yellow Nails (31dc2014)

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Yellow nails.  Meh.  I love yellow in general.  Is there a happier color?  I submit that there is not, but yellow anywhere next to my paleness, even at my tannest, is just never good.  After wading through lots of great suggestions on my facebook page, I opted for bumblebee nails.  Here’s what I ended up with:

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Sigh.  I just don’t love them, and I feel like they aren’t very original at all.  I mean, the bee look pretty much just like the ladybugs I did on Day 1, only not as cute.  I guess they’re not terrible, but I’m just not feeling them.  Tomorrow is another day and another challenge, though.

Day 2: Orange Nails (31dc2014)

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Today is orange nails day.  In regular life, I rarely paint my nails orange because I think it just looks bad with my light skin.  I was suckered into buying Orly – Tropical Pop a few weeks ago, though, because it’s just such a pretty, fun shade of orange. Kind of a light neon orange.  That’s the color I used for my base, with a traffic cone orange for the dots and the orange slices.

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I’ve been loving these nails more and more as the day goes on and I’m definitely sad that I have to take them off to get ready for tomorrow…  And I was sad yesterday when I had to take my ladybugs off… I guess I’m going to be sad every day for the next 29 days, unless one of these days is a real nail art fail.  Actually, I’m pretty sure the day I have to do water marble is going to be a major fail.  That’s not until Day 20, so I guess I have 18 more days until I really have to worry about being humiliated online in front of all the other nail bloggers.

One of the most fun things for the past 2 days has been checking out everybody’s nails on instagram.  Seriously, check out all of the awesome nails from people undertaking the 31 Day Challenge on instagram with #31dc2014.  See you tomorrow with some yellow nails!