Day 31 - Recreate a Manicure You Love

OPI Russian Navy, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI I Lily Love You, Hare Polish Midsummer's Midnight

Take that, 31 Day Challenge! 396 days after I started the 31 Day Challenge it's finally finished. I have so much admiration for bloggers who actually do it in 31 days. Crazy kids!

Day 31 for the 2012 31 Day Challenge was 'Recreate a Manicure You Love'. I absolutely loved this manicure by Rose from Every Little Polish. I've been wanting to attempt it for a while and this seemed to be the perfect time to do it. 

My version didn't come out anywhere near as sophisticated as Rose's but I still liked it. Bigger dots and an overlaying polish that was a little too sheer were the failing points compared to Rose's mani. Next time I'll have to plan the colours more and try to track down my missing dotter (I used the end of a nail art brush for this one which is why the dots were so huge). 

Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

OPI My Vampire is Buff, Kester Black Poppy, Kester black Peony, Kester Black Fairy Floss, Kester Black Buttercream, OPI The "It" Colour, Essence Nude It, China Glaze Street Chic, OPI Mermaid's Tears

Oh, Mr Candiipants, you sure know how to make a fab tutorial. I was tossing up between a few tutorials for this manicure when this video tutorial popped up on my tumblr dashboard and well, that was that. 

This mani is deceptively easy and looks super impressive. Candice did it on a black background for the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere, but here in the southern hemisphere, spring had just begun, so I did it on a lighter background and stuck with pink flowers. 

Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

Kester Black Starflower, Milani Hi-Res, Milani Cyberspace

I guess this isn't really supernatural inspired, more space robot inspired, but this is what I ended up with! It's been such a long time since I've worn holo nail polish. It was so sparkly!

Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Charged Up Cherry

I was quite uninspired by this day's challenge. I tried to find a flag that wasn't for a country, that was a little more interesting or exciting but I ended up going with the good ol' Union Jack pattern. It felt a little weird to have flag nails for no particular reason so I switched the colours up a little. 

Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

MUD Santorini Sea, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Dutch Tulips, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Orly Glitz

Inspired by Artwork. Geez, it took me a while to decide what to be inspired by with this one! I was almost going to do Mark Rothko inspired nails with some kind of colour block type manicure but I ended up going for something a little more "nail arty". Joan Miró has always been one of my favourite artists. I saw my favourite Miró, Woman and Bird in the Moonlight a few years ago and it was incredible, but definitely outside of my skill level for nail art! 

These nails are inspired by Dancer which was perfect for nail art.

Day 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

China Glaze A Grape Fit, OPI Dating A Royal, OPI My Vampire is Buff, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI What's With The Cattitude, Kester Black Poppy, Kester Black Peony, OPI Dutch Tulips, Essence Nude It China Glaze For Audrey

I have been painting up a storm over the past few days to try and get through the last days of the 31 Day Challenge. I started it on the 5th of September last year and I'm determined to finish it within a year! There may be some double posts.

Day 26 was inspired by this pattern. I love patterns. 

This one came from a design pattern book and I knew that it'd be great for nail art. It was also a great excuse to practice my freehand painting skills. 

Day 25 - Inspired by Fashion

Kester Black Buttercream, Kester Black Blue Raspberry, Kester Black Paradise Punch, Kester Black Tutti Fruity, Ulta3 Citrus, Orly Liquid Vinyl

It's 31 Day Challenge time again and I figure I should attempt to actually finish my 31 day challenge from last year. Day 26 is fashion. I love clothes but I'm not that much of a fashion buff. Honestly, my favourite fashion website is Go Fug Yourself. It's hilarious. One outfit which caught my attention recently was this one worn by AnnaSophia Robb, on the set of The Carrie Diaries.

Neon colours? Check! Crazy triangles? Check! Sheer checkerboard? Check! Perfect for nail art. A little later than scheduled, on day 358, I painted these crazy nails.

Day 23 - Inspired by a Movie

Orly Androgynie, piCture pOlish Heavy Metal, Spectraflair Topcoat

Finally, day 23! Posted 242 days after day one, but let's not dwell on how long this thing is taking me (to be honest, I kind of forgot about it for a while). Fingers crossed I'll get all 31 days done within a year! 

Day 23 is Inspired by a Movie. Saturday was May the 4th, also known as Star Wars Day. I originally attempted a mani with a Stormtrooper, R2-D2 and C-3PO, but it was a giant fail and I gave up half way through. I settled for painting my nails with Orly's Androgynie, which is the most space/galaxy looking polish I own, and then later in the day I added some piCture pOlish Heavy Metal and spectraflair sparkles! 

Day 24 - Inspired by a Book

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Don't Touch My Tutu, OPI Dutch Tulips, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, Essie Coral Reef, China Glaze For Audrey, Seed Lemon

I'm being naughty and skipping over Day 23, which is inspired by a movie to jump right into Day 24, inspired by a book.

I've only really started caring about make up in the past two years. Before that, I just wore mascara, some tinted moisturiser and kind of hoped for the best. My housemate swears by Zoë Foster's Amazing Face and I've been reading it recently. Zoë is one hilarious lass and her make up and skincare tips are fabulous!

Amazing Face was sitting on my desk while I was painting my nails the other day and I thought the colours and patterns would be perfect for nail art! The mani ended up looking nothing like the cover but it did alert me to the fact that I need more deep reddish purple nail polish.

Day 22 - Inspired by a Song / Hottest 100 Day Nails!

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Jade Is The New Black, Essie Coral Reef, OPI Panda-monium Pink, Orly Liquid Vinyl

Happy Hottest 100 Day everyone (and Happy Australia Day too!). If you guys were around here last year, you'll know I love the Hottest 100. I thought I'd start a bit of a Australia Day tradition and have another Hottest 100 themed manicure. This year, it also coincided with my inspired by a song post of the 31 day challenge. This manicure is inspired by the amazing Aussie band Alpine and their album art, designed by Tim Royall. I used nail art tape and sponged on the colour with a makeup sponge. 

One of the songs I voted for was Gasoline which I'm hoping will place really high in the countdown. I'm also seeing Alpine next weekend at Laneway. So excited! I might have to recreate these nails for the day!

Day 21 - Inspired by a Colour

OPI A Grape Fit, China Glaze Grape Pop, OPI The Man With The Golden Gun, Essie As Gold As It Gets

I love gradients and I haven't done one in what feels like forever. I knew that I wanted my 'inspired by a colour' day of the 31 day challenge to be a single colour gradient and when I sat down to paint my nails I couldn't go past purple. I love these purples together and they both have 'grape' in their names. They're perfect for each other! 

My friend Julia gave me Essie As Gold As It Gets for my birthday earlier this week and I can't stop using it! It's so gorgeous! I also added a light coat of TMWTGG to make my mani extra golden.  

Day 20 - Water Marbled

China Glaze Kinetic Candy, Topshop AWOL, Essie Coral Reef

Guys, water marbles are hard! I usually avoid them at all costs. They're messy, only seem to work half the time and usually end up with me angrily painting my nails just one plain colour. 

But, they are day 20 of the challenge, and though I may be taking my sweet time working through the 31 day challenge, I fully intend of completing it. So... this is my water marble. The thought of doing more than four nails scared me, so I complemented them with some spots and stripes! 

Does anyone actually like doing water marbling  I love the look of it, but the effort and failure rate (well, my high failure rate) is normally enough to send me running! Does anyone have any tips?

Day 19 - Galaxies

Orly Liquid Vinyl, Ozotic 903, Ozotic 908, Ozotic 534, China Glaze Snow Globe, Milani Jewel FX Silver, Sinful Colors Queen Of Beauty

Gosh there are a lot of different polishes in this mani! I was quite excited about Galaxy day, but I think it's a mani that I'll definitely have to try again. I did like how these turned out, and they were a lot sparklier in real life, but after doing them, I think that less would've been more.

Day 18 - Half Moons

Orly Glitz, OPI Dutch Tulips, Essence Make It Golden, Essie Matte About You

I'll admit I kind of cheated on this whole half moon thing. I know they're meant to be done with little circular stickers over your cuticles, but every time I attempt it that way they just look really bizarre on my hands (and weirdly not anything at all like everyone else's  Perhaps my stickers are too big?) and I have to change my mani straight away! So, for Half Moon day I decided to go for the skinnier moon and rock it ruffian style. It's still moon shaped so I say it still counts.

I was quite happy with this mani before I added the glitter, but some days you just can't help but add glitter and I couldn't resist! And who doesn't love mattified glitter?

Day 17 - Glitter

China Glaze Riveting,  Glimmer by Erica Muy Caliente 

I am a huge fan of glitter. Glitter nail polish, and just glitter in general. To give you an idea of my love, I currently have a 250g tub of glitter sitting on my desk. It's just my general, everyday use glitter. 

For Glitter day I couldn't resist Muy Caliente. It's super sparkly and amazingly bright and summery! I layered it over China Glaze Riveting, which is also a sparkle fest. These were just the most epic glitter overload nails. They were awesome!

Day 16 - Tribal Print

China Glaze Riveting, Inglot 204, Topshop AWOL

I have a soft spot for these patterns. Tribal print manis were an early favourite of mine when I started to get into nail art and I haven't done one in what seems like forever! My original intention was to keep it a simple two colour pattern, but I added Inglot 204 to Riveting because I just can't help myself with that combination and it ended up being quite blingy with the flakies and the sparkle and the blue pattern on the top!

Day 15 - Delicate Print

Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Lapis of Luxury, Essie Coral Reef

In the end, this mani didn't really end up being the most delicate looking thing, but they're dainty little spots and stripes so I'm going to say it's a delicate print. A few months ago I bought a new little set of drawers for my nail polishes, and these three Essies were sitting nicely in a row in their drawer and I couldn't resist using them together!

Day 14 - Flowers

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Dutch Tulips, BYS Black Striper, OPI Jade is the New Black

I felt like doing something a little different for flower day and I ended up with these odd looking blobby poppies hanging out on my nails. They were deceptively easy to do; I just used a big dotter to make some red petals on the top half of my nails, used a striper brush to give them a stem each and make the base of the flower, then I used a nail art brush to add a bit of random grass.

I actually did this manicure over a week ago, but I thought that today would be an appropriate day to post a poppy manicure because it's Remembrance Day here in Australia.

Day 13 - Animal Print

OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service, OPI Mermaid's Tears

On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the one and only polish I bought from OPI's Skyfall collection. I restrained myself and have not yet purchased The Man With The Golden Gun (although I did carry it around the beauty department of David Jones for a good 10 minutes, gently stroking its shiny gold packaging and generally looking like a loon, before putting it back on the shelf). OHMSS is such an amazing polish, and one of those ones that you can never seem to get a good photo of! It's infinitely more amazing in real life than in these photos. 

Day 13 was animal print, and originally I was going to do another mermaid mani, but I thought it was a tad insulting to merpeople to imply that they're animals, so I did these scale things instead and I'm calling this a fish manicure.

Day 12 - Stripes

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, China Glaze First Mate

I had a little nail mail package arrive recently and the polish I was most excited for was OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I seem to constantly be searching for that perfect, elusive, "wearable white". I had hoped that MBSW might have been it, but on its own it makes me look like I have zombie girl nails. As an alternative to Alpine Snow for a white nail art base colour it's pretty awesome! 

To get rid of my dead zombie nails, I added some sailor stripes!