Day 30 & 31-Final Days

So this is it!  I completed the 31 day challenge in 31 days straight! I am quite proud of myself...if that's ok :-) The first time I did the challenge it took me about two months.  I may have fallen a little behind this past week, but I did it! WOOHOO! You can cheer for me if you want, I don't mind.

For day 30 it was Inspired by a Tutorial.  Let me tell you there are some great tutorials out there!  I watched about a million on youtube and just couldn't decide. So much talent out there! In the end, I chose to go with my favorite video tutorial girl Raquel at Love4Nails. She has so many unique, creative, and artistic designs that I think are amazing.  I hope to be as good as her someday.  I chose to recreate one of her flower designs again.  I went with different colors, but the idea is still the same.  They started out ok, but I had a hard time getting the flowers right.  I think I need to remember that my nails aren't nearly as long as hers and I must accommodate for my short nails next time.

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush
Diagonal French-Essie Mojito Madness
Flowers-LA Colors Art Deco Pink striper & Spoiled Correction Tape
Leaves-NYC Big Money Frost

I wonder if I had stuck with her colors they would have looked nicer.  Also, she uses acrylic paints instead of polish.  I have so much polish it seems silly to buy something else to paint with :-P If you want to see her tutorial, check it out here.

Day 31 was to recreate your favorite mani from the challenge.  Someone in the group suggested that we recreate someone else's mani that we liked.  I thought this was such a sweet and kind suggestion! Problem is....which to choose! Such wonderful work was done and it was so hard to pick! After looking over the pictures so many times I kept being drawn to one in particular.  It was a simple but pretty manicure done by Carina Martins at Polish it All.  On Day 5 she did a blue manicure that I fell in love with.  It was a beautiful teal blue base and on one accent nail she made scalloped clouds in one corner.  She did such a nice job! Here is her original one

Go to her post to see more pictures!

I did an ok job recreating this mani.  I couldn't quite get the scallops right, but in the end I thought they looked quite pretty.  I did add a little something because I love using my D & R Apothecary polishes. So I added one called Cloudy Skies over the non-accent nails.  Pretty appropo don't you think!

Base-Spoiled Toadally Amazing
Scallops-Funky Fingers Mrs. Mint & Sinful Colors Rise and Shine
Glitter-D & R Apothecary Cloudy Skies

Well, I can't believe it is over!   I think either the Bollywood or the Violet Day were my favorites.  What would you say was yours? 

I will be starting a few new things over the next weeks or so.  I've got the Princess Bride, a Time Warp contest,  the ABC's, and a possible giveaway!  Make sure to come back tomorrow and you may just find out what some of those things may be!!  

Thank you so much for all of your support and wonderful comments throughout this challenge.  You are more than appreciated! This whole adventure wouldn't be nearly as much fun without my beautiful followers!

Ok, now go check out some other awesome manis!

Day 17-Glitter Glitter Glitter

I love Glitter! I especially love indie polish glitter.  I have been looking forward to this for a while (many of the other patterns mani's don't appeal to me) There really isn't much to say though.  I used another D & R Apothecary polish called Ametrine.  I had no idea what ametrine was so I looked it up.  It is a gemstone that has both purple and yellowish gold tones to it. It's quite beautiful! This makes perfect sense considering the coloring of this polish.  I started with a gold base and then topped it with the Ametrine.  I created some abstract lines on the accent nail using the colors in the ametrine.  When I was done I thought it looked like a a Jackson Pollock painting.  I was almost tempted to save it for 'inspired by art' later on, but then I would have to take this off and I just don't want to :-P

Base-Milani Gold Dust
Glitter-D & R Apothecary Ametrine
Accent Base-Wet N Wild Eggplant Frost
Stripes-It's So Easy Yellow and Gold Stripers

Do you love glittery things as much as I do?  

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the comments!

Don't forget the other ladies manis :-)

Day 12-Stripes, sort of

First of all....what do you think of the new look? I went purple...Holly's favorite color :-)

Ok, so I'm not totally sure if this counts as stripes.  I had an idea and it just wouldn't come to fruition, so I opted for just some crossing lines.  I hope I don't get kicked out or something :-P

I choose another D & R Apothecary (or as she is now calling her nail polish line Hit Polish) for my inspiration to this manicure.  Seriously, if you haven't checked her out yet you really need to do so! Her polishes are just amazing and she keeps making new ones all the time.  It's a gold mine!  I think I own like 13 already. The polish I chose was called Fiesta.  It is a clear base with teal, orange, and yellow glitters.  I especially like the bar glitter in this one. Gave it an extra special touch.  As I was doing this manicure I kept looking at the colors feeling something familiar and I just couldn't figure it out.  Then it hit me! Miami Dolphins!! Their colors are teal and orange. I lived in Ft. Lauderdale for 8 years of my life and although I don't care much for the Dolphins, it brought back good memories <3  Maybe this manicure will make you feel all warm and fuzzy too.  One can only hope....

This is without the lines (although technically since there is bar glitter I could have gotten away with it)

Orange Base-Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up
Teal Base-sinful Colors Rise and Shine (apparently there is a theme here)
Glitter-Hit Polish Fiesta
Stripes-It's so Easy Teal Striper

Tell me that glitter isn't gorgeous! This whole manicure just makes me want to get up and well....fiesta!!

Thanks for stopping by. Come back tomorrow for animal print and I will answer the question where do you get Strawberry Milk from :-P

Check out the other lovely stripe manicures from the ladies below

Day 6-Candied Violets

Two things I am in love with today:

1.  The new shape and equal length of my nails
2.  Another D & R Apothecary polish

It only took me 8 months :-P but i finally was able to get my nails to be pretty much the same length and figured out how to shape them correctly.  It sounds like it would be a simple thing, but it wasn't.  I don't know why, it just wasn't.  I love the rounded square nails, but was never able to get it right.  I finally figured it out.  I may be an idiot for it taking this long, but that's alright.  I think I was afraid to cut my longer nails even though they weren't the shape I wanted them to be.

So, today was day 6-violet.  I love purple.  (Because yes, purple is violet.  Potato, potatoe). It's almost up there with green.  I especially love purple and green together! But today, I stuck with just purple. It's so pretty that I almost want to eat my nails.  I used another D & R Apothecary polish called Candied Violets for my base.  I tried to go with the name of this polish for my inspiration....candy! yum.  I even used a candy stamp on my accent nail, although it is really hard to see. I really love this manicure....almost enough to not want to take it off tomorrow! Naaah

Such a pretty glitter with purples and whites....even some color changing glitters

Base-Sally Hansen Brilliant Blush then D & R Apothecary Candied Violets
Tips- It's So Easy Striper purple
Accent Nail Base-Milani Hi Res
Stamp-BM 306 using Maybeline Color Show Amethyst Ablaze

Here you can actually see the detail of the candy stamp :-)

Thanks again for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed today's mani :-)

As always, check out the other ladies who are participating in the 31 day challenge!

Day 4-Mossy Britches

So yesterday's mani was difficult when it should have been easy.  Today's mani went off without a hitch! I just love the color green.  It is my favorite color....it goes with purple, pink, brown, coppers, black, yellow...you get the picture.  I also love it because it is the color of Ireland, the country of my ancestors. ( A little fact: My maiden name is Kelly Michelle Finn.  Doesn't get much more Irish than that. Well, unless you added O'Connell) Green is the color of trees and grass and nature.  It is a beautifully natural color.  I have A LOT of green nail polish, so it was hard to choose this time.  I decided to go with one I recently purchased by Ultra Pro called Mossy Britches.  Don't you just love that name?  It really is a great mossy color.  I also used another of my D & R Apothecary indie polishes called High Tech.  It is a clear base with black glitter and green, yellow, and black hexagon glitters.  Of course, I also did an accent nail because I can't stop myself.

Base-Ultra Pro Mossy Britches
Glitter-D & R Apothecary High Tech
Accent-Gradient using Essence High Spirits
Stamp-BM210 using Kleancolor Black

I would like to know your opinion on using the accent nail.  This is one of my favorite things to do, but what do you think?  Should I do more with all nails the same? or do you like the accent nail?  

Thanks for stopping by and having a look! I appreciate all of your comments. 

Check out the other lovely ladies participating below :-)

Cala Lily from D & R Apothecary

Have I told you yet how much I love the polishes from D & R Apothecary.  Well, let me tell you.  They are gorgeous! I now own eight of them.....three of which I won from their giveaway! YEAH for giveaways! Because I have been so busy I have only had the chance to try out two of them.  The first one I did was Champagne (which I blogged about a few days ago)  Today's color is called Cala Lily.  It is a shimmery white base with white, yellow, and green glitter flakes.  It really makes you think of spring flowers, Cala Lily's to be exact! It looks just lovely in the bottle and even greater on the nail.  

I've discovered that my favorite type of mani has one accent nail.  I find I have been doing this more and more.  What is your favorite style of mani?

Cala Lily is to the right

Yellow Base-Sinful Colors unicorn
Glitter Base-Kleancolor Holo Green
Indie Glitter-D & R Apothecary Cala Lily
Striping-It's So Easy Green, Yellow, White

I love how some of the white glitter made little flower patterns :-)

Did I mention that I also love the Kleancolor polishes?  I bought a bunch of new ones from Beauty Joint.  They are quite pretty.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate all of your comments!

Guest Post & New Indie Polish

YEAH for my first guest post! and YEAH for it being for someone such a great nail artist as Caitlin @ Caitlin's Creative Corner.  She is always so creative and unique from doing book covers to teal tuesdays.  Thanks Caitlin for letting me post on your blog :-) And have a great vacation!!

My other first is that I got my very first Indie polishes today and was soooo excited to try them out.  I have been drooling over some Indie polishes for a while now and for one reason or another have not bought any.  So, I finally decided to give one a try and they are AWESOME! I came across D & R Apothecary last week while searching through Etsy.  I could not get over all her awesome colors.  She also makes handmade soaps....which she sent me a little sample of :-)

So, I got three shades from D & R.  Rock Star, Champagne, and Bumble Bee.  I am saving the Bumble Bee for my Steelers nails later in September.  Black and Gold!!! I am also saving the Rock Star for later too.  I know I scheduled Rock Star Nails somewhere in my 52 week challenge.  So, I chose to do the Champagne nails.  Take a look at this color! It is so purty, you really want to drink it and get all giddy on bubbly.

I used Decades of Dysfunction as my base coat.  This is the first time I used this color....its quite pretty really. It's an off white with a hint of pink or lavender.  It's hard to tell 

I'm a little bummed that I couldn't get the real color to show up in these pictures.  But it's still pretty.  It is a gold base with purple and gold flecks.  Just gorgeous. It looks coppery in the pictures which it really isn't. Oh well.  It was also real easy to put on.  I love glitter but one of my complaints of most glitters is that you have to blob it on.  This went on in a nice smooth motion.  My hats off to you D & R Apothecary! Thank you for such a job well done!

She is also discontinuing some of her older colors if you want mini bottles for only $2.50.  She needs more room :-)  So go check out her Etsy page here

Thanks for looking! All comments are appreciated!