30 Day Challenge: Half Moons

Okay, so a small disclaimer: I cheated for today's challenge. I only have two technical half moons as accent nails and I suppose they're a bit too large to actually be considered half moons, but awww look at the pumpkins!

As I mentioned previously, I told my roommate Ashley that I would give her a pumpkin manicure sometime this week. It was my first time ever painting pumpkins, but thankfully Ashley has such large, lovely nails that I had plenty of space to work with and was able to put in some nice detail.

Just to give you an idea of what great nails she has, the pumpkins are about the same size as one of my full fingernails. Crazy!

Fun fact: I won first place at the regional elementary school art contest in 3rd grade for a chalk pumpkin drawing I made. When I was younger I was an avid drawer and my grandfather, who is an incredible artist, was teaching me how to paint. I was actually quite good at both but for some reason stopped practicing freehand arts in high school, so I've lost a lot of my technique. I think that's why I enjoy nail art so much-it's helping me recover my natural love of paint.

Pictured: my incredibly oversized half moon pumpkin

I actually come from a long line of artists. As I mentioned, my grandfather is a painter, as well as two of my great uncles on both sides of my family, and my dad makes and paints model airplanes and he's amazing at it. The amount of detail and precision he has makes my nail art look like a toddler's drawing.

Still, I'm very happy with how these turned out. I had to mix two of my polishes to get the right orange, which actually gives it some natural shading which I really like.

So yes, I kind of cheated for today, but it was worth it. I love these nails, even though it took almost 3 hours to do prep, paint, and clean up (the glue as a cuticle protector did not work so well on Ashley's skin. It was a pain to try to get it off). Now that I've done them, I think I'll be able to cut the time in half whenever I do these next (and I will, because you cannot deny that these are cute and worth repeating).

Polishes used:
Sally Hansen Double Duty (base)
Sinful Colors Snow Me White
China Glaze Lemon Fizz
China Glaze Sun Worshiper
NYC Times Square Tangerine Cream
Double Art yellow striping/dotting pen
Sinful Colors Exotic Green
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety-Split Lime
China Glaze Street Chic
Seche Vite (top coat)


Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Tribal

My roommate Ashley has been wanting me to paint her nails for a while, so last night I asked her if she wanted a tribal print. She said she though that would look cool on her feet, so I let her pick out the colors she liked, and this is what I came up with:

This was my second time ever trying out the tribal print. It's a lot harder than you'd think to try to get so many details on little toes. Actually, Ashley has really nice toes to work with.

I'll have to practice the tribal print more when the challenge is finished since I really like the designs I've seen for them so far. 

I'm starting to run out of both my regular polish remover and my pure acetone, so I'm trying to use as little of it as possible since I really can't afford more at the moment, which means I may fall behind a bit on the rest of the challenge. But, I did promise Ashley I'd give her a pumpkin manicure sometime soon, so I'm thinking that may end up being what I do for the half moons challenge.

Tomorrow is supposed to be glitter, and that makes me very sad. I don't want to waste a pedicure on glitter. Can someone please convince me that glitter designs can be something other than gaudy and girly?

Polishes used:

NYC Quick Dry Sidewalkers

Finger Paints White Striper

China Glaze Holly-Day

Happy Painting!

30 Day Challenge: Flowers

My good friend and recent roommate Kelly is visiting for the weekend. I noticed that she has lovely large nail beds and she was happy to let me paint her nails.

I had been browsing google for pictures of flowers to use as inspiration, I showed Kelly a few options and we both really liked this colorful dot design. It literally looks just like this. I think it turned out quite well!

I have to say, I think this might be my favorite or second favorite design of the challenge so far. It was pretty easy, since all I needed was a dotter, but it was time consuming. I think it took around an hour since there were a lot of colors and a lot of waiting around for colors to dry. 

Kelly seems to really like the end result as well. I like this so much that I think I may have to use it for myself after the challenge is over. Or maybe for the recreate a design day- that's the last day I think, right? I think the only thing I'd need to change is to apply a second coat of the base brown. 

Kelly is also trying to convince me to start a little business painting nails and doing makeup and other beauty related things. I'm pretty sure I can't do any of those things fast enough to be really successful, and I'm a bit sloppy yet, but it's something to consider. Getting paid to do something you love is the best, right?

Colors used:

China Glaze Street Chic

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

China Glaze Bahamain Escape

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lickety-Split Lime

OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips

Seche Vite Top Coat

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this manicure. 

Happy Painting!