Month: October 2013

33DC: South America

One of the first things I thought of for this day of the challenge was the Amazon and doing something inspired by the rainforest. I didn’t want to do animals as that was the previous day of the challenge so I decided to go with the plants of the rainforest instead. I found this illustration which has lovely bold leaves and shapes and thought I’d use it as my inspiration.

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out and might come back to doing some simple leaf shapes again in future as I think they’d make a pretty and simple mani on their own.

I used: Hugo Moss – Catrice, Knightsbridge Green – Nails Inc, Don’t Mess with OPI – OPI, Def Defying – China Glaze, Lime Cocktail – Sephora, St . James – Nails Inc, Notting Hill Carnival – Nails Inc, Draycott Place – Nails Inc.

33DC: Animals

I was really stuck for which animal to choose for this day of the challenge. I wanted to do something a bit different but still cute and cartoony. After browsing illustrations of all kinds of creatures I finally settled on snails. No particular reason, I just thought they’d be fun to do and not necessarily the first animal you’d think of for a nail art challenge.

So here are my snail nails:

I used: Take It Mint – Catrice, Miami pINK – Catrice, It’s Rambo No. 5 – Catrice, Mixed Rose – Rituals, Sumner Place – Nails Inc, L’Orange – Catrice, Just Gorgeous – Anny.

33DC: Abstract

I wanted to do something bright and colourful for this day of the challenge and was inspired by this vibrant painting which I thought would work well as nail art.

It gave me a chance to practise my stripes using a striping brush as well and although they’re not as perfect as I’d like them to be I think they’re getting better – plus I really need to keep practising as I’m just way too lazy to do a stripy mani like this with tape – all the waiting for drying time would drive me insane – so I need to get my striping brush technique sorted!

It was nice to have bright colours on my nails and I enjoyed wearing this mani.

I used: Light Blue – Kiko, Blue Collar – Orly, Southwark – Nails Inc, Artificial Sweetener – Orly, Grosvenor Street – Nails Inc, Pomegranate – Barry M, Papaya Punch – China Glaze, Sumner Place – Nails Inc, Hampstead Gardens – Nails inc, My Boyfriend Scales Walls – OPI, black acrylic paint.

33DC: Chinese

I love Chinese koi paintings – I’ve always liked fish (to look at – not to eat!) I desperately wanted an aquarium as a child and knew that scuba diving was something I had to learn to do as an adult. I think it’s the peaceful movement of the fish that attracts me and those Chinese koi paintings as so simple and beautiful and make me feel almost as peaceful as watching real fish!

So I had great inspiration but my art didn’t quite live up to my vision and my fish are not quite as beautiful and peaceful as I’d hoped they’d be. Maybe I was just being a bit too ambitious hoping to recreate the simplicity on such a small scale and still have them look like fish.

I quite like the black fish on my index finger so maybe I was starting to get the hang of it by the time I painted him…

I used: My. Boyfriend Scales Walls – OPI and acrylic paints.

33DC: Based on a pattern in my house

My apartment is in the old part of town and in the hallway of my building the walls are tiled with Andalucian tiles as is traditional in this area. They have a kind of mosaic look to them and I thought they’d be fun and a bit of a challenge for a pattern in my house translated onto my nails.

They were actually easier than I thought they’d be and I enjoyed doing them and trying to create a mosaic effect with a dotting tool. I’m pretty pleased with the result as I thought they had the potential to either look great or be a huge disaster! I hope I’ve gone more towards the great end of the spectrum!

And here are the tiles which inspired the nail art:

I used: French Quarter for. Your Thoughts – OPI, Don’t Mess with OPI, My Boyfriend Scales Walls – OPI, Southwark – Nails Inc, Secret of Love – Anny

33DC: 3D

I’m not that into 3D nails as it find them a bit impractical so you’re never going to see Harajuku style nails dripping with jewels and fimo bits on this blog! Anything 3D that I do is going to be small and relatively simple. My soon to be mother-in-law had bought me a whole load of different colour caviar beads for my birthday (yay for nail art presents!) and I was keen to use them for the 3D day of the challenge.

I’d seen a lot of people use caviar beads to do a studded effect on their nails and thought I’d give it a go. Most of the studded manis I’d seen were black and silver but I thought I’d go for a girly twist on the look and use pink studs on a pastel pink base.

I got lazy by the time I did my right hand and just did simple lines rather than studding the whole thing!

These were probably the most popular nails I’ve done for a while with my younger students who just couldn’t stop touching them!!!

I used Baby Pink – Rituals, dark pink caviar beads.

33DC: Flowers

I have a dress which I love with a grey background and red poppies on it and I wanted to do something inspired by that for the flowers day of the challenge. I did a quick search to see what other people had done with poppies in nail art and liked this design and tutorial by Paulina’s Passions so used it to guide me.

I got a lot of compliments on these nails and really enjoyed wearing them. Flowers are definitely something I should do more often!

I used: Porchester Square – Nails Inc, Revlon Red – Revlon, Lime Cocktail – Sephora, Black Taxi – Nails Inc.

33DC: Indian

The details in this manicure were inspired by the paisley patterns I’ve seen in Indian sari fabric. I decided to do each little paisley swirl full nail size rather than try to get too much detail and pattern onto each nail which I thought might end up looking messy.

This was a fun and fairly simple design to do and I’m quite pleased with the results ( although the blue paisley swirls kind of remind me of little gas flames…)

I used: Stylenomics – Essie, Jacob’s Protection – Essence, Matte Aqua – BYS, Light blue – Kiko, Def Defying – China Glaze, Don’t Mess with OPI – OPI, My Boyfriend scales Walls – OPI.

33DC : Chevrons

I’ve accepted the fact that I’m just going to be late for every day of this challenge – there’s just way too much going on in my life right now. But it’s a great challenge and I’m not giving up on it – I’m just going to do it a few days after everyone else!

I wasn’t sure what to do for chevrons that would be fun and a bit of a challenge so I had a bit of a browse on google images and found this fun chevron mani by My Dainty Nails which I had to have a try at recreating! I love gradients and sponging so I’m always happy to incorporate it into another style or technique.

I think I should have done the colours the other way round (lightest colour at the tip rather than darkest) as the pale yellow seems to get a bit lost next to the white, but it was a fun mani to do and I was pretty pleased with the results.