31DC2013, Day 13: Animal Print

October is almost at its end and I haven't even reached the middle of the 31 Day Challenge. At this pace I'll be probably creating manis for this challenge in January :D

I have a fantastic spring-green silk scarf with zebras on it. It's such a fun accessory, I really love it. So the idea for the animal print nails was there even before I really started to think about it. I'm not totally into the resulting style, but it was a good mani training:

The colors, the pattern -  it was too much for me, so I added the matte finish to make the look more calm:

Base color: Essie's Shake Your $$ Makers
Gradient: black China Glaze Liquid Leather
Stamping: Zebra print from Konad plate m57 stamped with A-England Camelot
Matte Top Coat: Cult Nails Wax That

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31DC2013: Day 12, Stripes

Admitted, my next mani for the 31 day challenge doesn't have many stripes, but I really like it. The original design comes from this blog post by Young Wild And Polished (thank you!). I loved this elegant look and recreated it with matching China Glaze colors:

Base Color: CG Dress Me Up and CG Foie Gras, stripes done with striping tape.
Studs: my thumbs are pimped with golden 3mm studs bought on ebay.





I tried another design on my thumbs. The color combination and the simplicity of this style is just to my taste. This look was a huge favorite with my friends, so I will definitely re-create this style as a full mani some day to get more compliments ;)

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31DC2013: Day 11, Polka Dots

I'm still determined to go through the September's nail art challenge. Unfortunately I can just do 2 or 3 manis a week - so I'm proceeding at snail's paste ;)
I only remembered the "dots" as the next topic, so I've made a dotticure, but not one with polka dots... So what, I decided - dots are dots! ;)

Base color: 2 coats of Essie's Midnight Cami
Dots: A-England Holy Grail
Glitter: Northern Lights Top Coat

The Northern Light top coat has some beautiful holographic glitters. But it is not so dense to overpower the design you've made. It just adds some sparkle to your mani. Love it!

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31DC2013: Day 10, Gradient Nails

I wanted to try some unusual color combination for the gradient day of the challenge, so I went for rust color + dark green gradient. I like this autumn mani. Would a lighter version of the same green have been better? Probably... But I like it anyway :)

Gradient: Sponged Essence Deep Sea, Baby(dark green) and Barielle Rusty Vintage Boots (rust colored) over 2 coats of Barielle polish
Stripes: stamped stripes pattern from an OB-Nail XXL E stamping plate bought on ebay, with the same Essence green polish (yeehaa, another regular polish, which is great for stamping!) Read More......

Girls Night out: Dirty Deeds by Darling Diva

Friday night was our Girls Night Out.  Four girls, Cosmopolitans and dancing! As a preparation I decided to take a temporary leave from the challenge and do something edgy. So I happily removed the rainbow and went for black. Rock'n'Roll!!!
I have this magnificent glitter indie polish by Darling Diva, which was PERFECT for clubbing:

It's a black based jelly polish packed with violet glitters in different forms and sizes.

I used one coat of black polish as a base (Cult Nails Fetish) and added two easy coats of the Dirty Deeds. So cool!


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31DC2013: Day 09, Rainbow Nails

The 31 Day Challenge was for September, so I'm officially late now. But it is so much fun and I'm learning a lot. So I'm still following it through. But man, have I struggled with the next topic...
I rather like simplicity and clear lines, so rainbow colors all at once are just a bit too much for my taste. But challenge is a challenge, so here I we go:

Cloudy nails  have been present in many blogs last summer, so I wanted to try it out. It's VERY easy to do,  so I'd probably recreate the sky-only-mani next summer.

Base color: white - Cult Nails Tempest
Sky: randomly sponged blue CG Towel Boy Toy and used white polish and a dotting tool to create clouds.
Rainbow: I used most of my China Glaze Neons for the rainbow, thinned with nail polish thinner. I went over the lines several times to create the desired opacity.

 Red - I didn't have a matching shade, so I mixed CG Pool Party(hot pink) and a drop of OPI Big Apple Red
Orange - CG Japanese Koi (my favorite color for pedicure - hot neon orange)
Yellow - CG Sun Worshiper
Green - CG I'm With The Lifeguard
Blue - Towel Boy Toy (light sparkling blue)
Dark Blue - Essie's Midnight Cami
There is CG Fairy Dust as a sparkle over the rainbow.


Well, I probably wouldn't wear another rainbow again, but it was good to learn how nail polish thinner can be used to add the watercolor-y consistence to a nail polish.... ;)

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31DC2013: Day 08, Metallic Nails

I got a fantastic Barielle set of 6 nail polishes for just EUR 9,99 at an outlet store. Barielle is not common in Germany, so I was really happy to get the set, which included this pale gold goddess color.

Base color: Barielle Gold Digger
Stamping: patterns from Cheeky plate A stamped with A-England Dorian Grey (dark grey)
Studs: golden studs bought on ebay Read More......