31DC2012 Day 26: Inspired by a Flag

Not much to say about these other than showing off my Maryland pride!!
(and the red and white designs should be flipped....whoops)

Three more "days" left...what?! I'm still going to attempt to finish tomorrow though, hopefully.

31DC2012 Day 25: Inspired by Artwork

So I honestly had no idea what to do for this challenge. I thought of a few artists (Luba Lukova, Milton Glaser) but I was feeling lazy and a little more abstract.

Which brings me to Chuck Close...

Chuck Clost originally did photo realistic portraits but later became a paraplegic and is no longer able to. He now creates large abstract portraits. I think they're amazing.

I tried to translate that look onto the nail and kind of failed. Oh well.

31DC2012 Day 25: Inspired by a Pattern

So I have this bag from Bath & Body Works, and every time I look at it, I think of how great it would look on my nails.

So glad I finally did it, I love it!

Five more "days" left. Finally.

31DC2012 Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

I did these yesterday but my internet access disappeared where I was staying. I'm home now so yayy!

These are weird, I don't know, really. When I googled "NYFW" this photo was the first one to pop up and I thought the dress was pretty awesome.

It kind of translates oddly onto the nail, oh well. I have another post coming in a few seconds to make up for it.

31DC2012 Day 24: Inspired by a Book

It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do, but I've always loved Dr. Seuss and the style of his illustrations.

I really love these (except for my pinky. Let's ignore him, okay? Okay)

31DC2012 Day 22: Inspired by a movie

Two posts in one day, what?! Expect another one later today (unless I get too lazy, or decide to do my homework).

This manicure is based on the movie I Heart Huckabees, which I love. I don't really know how to describe it for those who haven't seen it, but you either love it or you hate it.

This is mostly inspired by this poster. My thumb is my favorite, I may have to do all of my nails like that one day.

31DC2012 Day 22: Inspired by a Song

Hi everyone! I'm here, I promise. School and work is just blah right now. I took the weekend off of work and I'm currently at the beach :)

I really had no idea what to do for this day and my boyfriend suggested "Somebody That I Used To Know." I'm glad he did, I really love this.

I used a whole lot of polishes so if you're curious leave a comment below.

I plan on painting my nails a few more times today because I really want to end this challenge on time.

31DC2012 Day 21: Inspired by a Color

Inspired by a color... does anyone have any idea what that means? I just decided to base the design off of  the name of a polish. Originally I was planning on using Butter London Trout Pout as inspiration but it ended up not working out. I then decided China Glaze Jungle Queen because I figured it would be pretty easy.

I love the leaves, I might have to use them in a design again sometime soon.
For this manicure, I used China Glaze Jungle Queen, China Glaze Champagne Bubbles, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Opi Who The Shreck Are You?, and OPI Jade Is The New Black.

31DC2012 Day 20: Water Marble

Soooo happy because my water marble doesn't actually look all kinds of horrible for once. I mean, they're not amazing or anything, but I felt they were good enough that I felt no need to redo any of my nails.

I used the Peter Som trio to create this, and let me tell you, they worked like a dream. No problems what so ever. I'm just really bad at figuring out where to place my fingernail in the water haha.

I love this color scheme. I wish they had these colors out in the summer, seriously would have worn the crap out of them

Check out others participating!

31DC2012 Day 19: Galaxies

I'm being crazy and did my nails twice today, mostly because I'm trying to catch up. We'll see though. Tomorrow's water marble may or may not make me throw my polish across the room.

Anyway, I'm not sure when I'll do galaxy nails using black as a base. My first galaxy nails were more blue, and these are kind of teal. I do like them a lot, though I wish I could get my stars a bit thinner.

For these I  used Orly Haley's Comet as a base, then sponged on Revlon Royal, China Glaze Four Lear Clover, and a little bit of Orly Jealous, Much? I added a thin coat of Windestine Asbestos on top of that and used China Glaze snow to make the larger stars.

Check out other bloggers takes on galaxy nails!

31DC2012 Day 18: Half Moons

Just one photo for today, even though I really like these, I couldn't get good lighting.

For today, I decided to do a half moon gradients using Zoya Neely and Jacqueline (which are two of the three polishes from the Peter Som NYFW trio).

To create this manicure, I first painted my nails with Jacqueline and let them dry. I then used artist's tape which I cut into semi-circles and used The Nailasaurus gradient technique while wearing the tape. You could totally use some of those reinforcements, but I couldn't find mine so I improvised. When I took off the tape, some places were a little messed up so I used a small brush to fix those areas.

I'm totally playing catch up right now because of school, but I hope to be back on track by the end of the weekend... maybe.

Check out other bloggers participating in the challenge!

31DC2012 Day 17: Glitter

Okay, I had a lot of options for what to do today, but I chose to use Wet 'N Wild Flossy Flossy from the Fergie collection. I actually went to the store hoping to buy Tonights Gonna Be A Good Night, but the fill line was really low and this caught my eye. Unfortunately, I don't think the pictures do this polish any justice, but if you don't have it, you need to buy it.

The large glitters are a mix of rose gold and gold and the small glitters are blue, green, gold, and rose gold. I love me some rose gold, so this is an automatic win. Plus it looks so good over Zoya Natty (let's see how many more times I can use this polish during this challenge). I then decided to put little hearts using OPI Skull and Glossbones because I thought it'd be cute.

Go ahead and check these other blogs out!

31DC2012 Day 16: Tribal Print

These aren't super tribal, but it's kind of ikat-ish...maybe? Honestly, I don't really care,  I just like the colors. Finally, some fall colors.

I'm a big fan of my pointer and ring fingers. I wish I had made my middle and pinky a little neater but ikat is supposed to be messy, right? Right.

For these I used OPI Skull and Glossbones, OPI It Color, and OPI Funky Dunky. (I mixed the last two to create the shades I wanted).

Tomorrow is glitter, which I'm super excited for. I've purchased a bunch of glitter polishes and i'm super excited to finally get to use them!

Check these out:

Liebster Award

Hi all! I was nominated for a Liebster Award by the lovely Gin Shivers from Baroque Fool (and Griele from Nail Alchemy and Anna from Shorty Legs Beauty). This is super exciting! The Liebster Award is given to bloggers who have under 200 followers. I think it's really awesome to have lesser known blogs, who are still amazing, to get some spotlight.

Here's how it works:

1. The recipient must post 11 fun fact about themselves
2. The recipient must also answer 11 questions created by the award giver
3. The recipient must give the award to 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers and post 11 questions for them to answer
4. These 11 bloggers must be told they have been given the award
5. They will in turn pass the award to 11 new bloggers of their choice (no tagging back the award giver.)

Read more after the jump!

31DC2012 Day 15: Delicate Print

Just one photo for today. I'm really not a fan of these. Originally I wanted to do white lace, which I might have liked better, but my white polish was being chunky and uncooperative.

The colors I used were Butter London No More Waity, Katie and China Glaze Liquid Leather.

Tomorrow's design should be much more happy! I'm so excited to do some tribal print!

Check out other blog's posts for today

31DC2012 Day 14: Flowers

Floral print is one of my favorite type of nail designs. They're so easy and they always look awesome! Also, almost halfway done this challenge! Super exciting because balancing this with school is rather difficult.

For this I used Zoya Natty, China Glaze Snow, Butter London Trout Pout, and OPI Mermaid Tears.
Do you have Zoya Natty yet? Because if you don't you need to buy it right now. Go. It is a gorgeous color and the formula is amazeballs. Also, I'm so happy to finally own BL Trout Pout, it has been a lemming of mine for ages.

As always, check out the other amazing ladies doing this challenge.

31DC2012 Day 13: Animal Print

I wanted to do something different than the usual animal print nails. I started looking up photos of lizards and found this guy.

Isn't he pretty?

I used a gradient technique and then a added black spots using a dotting tool. To make it resemble the lizard skin, I added lighter colored dots all over. Make sense? Probably not, I'm terrible at explaining things.

I really love this but it's not fitting my current autumn mood. I used OPI Who the Shreck are You?, OPI Fly, China Glaze Liquid Leather, and China Glaze Snow.

Check out other blogs!