31 Day Challenge / Mani Marathon 2014 (#31DC2014)

[Monika1]

Colour #4... Green:

This is a base of Zoya Hunter and accent nail Color Club This Is Tree-mendous with some stamping from the Pueen 52 plate with Konad Pop Green and Coral Blue. Tree-mendous is my favourite aspect of this, I think.

 

[Christa W]

Colour #4... Green:

This is a base of Zoya Hunter and accent nail Color Club This Is Tree-mendous with some stamping from the Pueen 52 plate with Konad Pop Green and Coral Blue. Tree-mendous is my favourite aspect of this, I think.

Hunter geom ltx.jpg

Stamped Hunter rtx.jpg

I love Hunter very much.  I love the choice of stamping colors.  It looks very cool.

 

[Christa W]

I got lazy and haven't posted my last few mani's.  I've done them all so far and on the day of so I am happy with my progress.

Here are the ones I have done



Half moons.  Used L'Oreal stickers.  They curved and got all icky so I blurred the pic.(on IG not here unfortunately you can see how bad it was)



Galaxies were Guardians of the Galaxy complete with Awesome Mix Vol 1 and Star Lord mask.  I used Rainbow Honey Asteroid B over Zoya Payton for the galaxy design.  Asteroid B is pretty much a galaxy in a bottle I love it.  I used acrylic paints for the mask and the stamping didn't exactly work out what was in my mind but again I did these all on the day I was supposed to have posted so I ran out of time.



Watermarble using some Essie.  I wish I would have just used the blue and green.  Of course to try and salvage it I used China Glaze Fairy Dust



Based on a color... I did a coloring book and crayons



Favorite nails of the challenge so far it's inspired by a song... Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis "Thrift Shop"

 

[allen john]

 I used all 4 OPI Sheer Tints and the L'Oreal Miss Candy collection from last year.  (there was too many to list!!)  I really don't like how the OPI sheer tints get gummy and stringy.  The L'Oreal polishes do not. 

 

[Monika1]

I love Hunter very much.  I love the choice of stamping colors.  It looks very cool.

Thanks! I like seeing Hunter in the photo; it seems really flattering. But when I wore it hubby thought it was black and didn't like it. I have to wear more really deep colours this fall so he gets accustomed to them or something... but I guess in a way they don't totally suit my personality, so I understand that part. I think they completely work for me when I've stamped or varied them in some way, but I do have the sense that a really deep colour unadorned on me is more 'edgy' than I am. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Oh, and I tried doing a bit of a duo-colour on my thumb... it sort of worked, but looks a bit inadvertent. I have to try that again.

 

[Monika1]

I got lazy and haven't posted my last few mani's.  I've done them all so far and on the day of so I am happy with my progress.

Here are the ones I have done

31DC2014Day18.jpg

Half moons.  Used L'Oreal stickers.  They curved and got all icky so I blurred the pic.(on IG not here unfortunately you can see how bad it was)

31DC2014Day19.jpg

Galaxies were Guardians of the Galaxy complete with Awesome Mix Vol 1 and Star Lord mask.  I used Rainbow Honey Asteroid B over Zoya Payton for the galaxy design.  Asteroid B is pretty much a galaxy in a bottle I love it.  I used acrylic paints for the mask and the stamping didn't exactly work out what was in my mind but again I did these all on the day I was supposed to have posted so I ran out of time.

31DC2014Day20.jpg

Watermarble using some Essie.  I wish I would have just used the blue and green.  Of course to try and salvage it I used China Glaze Fairy Dust

31DC2014Day21.jpg

Based on a color... I did a coloring book and crayons

31DC2014Day22.jpg

Favorite nails of the challenge so far it's inspired by a song... Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis "Thrift Shop"

They're all so impressive; it's amazing the amount of detail you can get with the hand-painting! I really love the crayon/colouring book mani with the wrapper and crayon end colours so wonderfully matched! I like the water marble mani with the colours as they are, though I would likely enjoy it with two colours too. And the half moon stickers - they look so sharp! I don't find the wee wrinkles very distracting.

 

[Monika1]

Colour #5... Blue:

This is my blue (dusky turquoise?). I used Cult Nails Let Me Fly, a brush with Zoya Flynn, and Jenna Hipp Flair Your Affair just using the brush in the bottle. This platinum glitter showed more than it appears on the camera, so I'm showing a slightly fuzzy shot too to try to show the effect a bit more. This was a really nice mani to wear, though the gel base needed changing. So it's gone and I did that - I wore a very sheer pink-nude out in public just now as I didn't have time to do anything more than put on the new gel mani!

 

[Monika1]

Colour #6... Violet:

I did my lavendar/purple nails with Zoya Stevie PixieDust and haven't topped it as I enjoy the rough matte texture, though it doesn't photograph as well for nail art. I stamped it with Zoya Carly and the LilyAnna LA#15 image plate (row 2, column 6). Carly - wow! Amazing for stamping; the plate - also wow! It was my first use of the plate, and you can use it over and over without cleaning out the polish as the engraving is deep enough for that, and you actually get a more solid image if the plate has been used a few times ('clogged' with a bit of polish), hence the bolder stamps on the left hand, which I did second. A bit of growing pains on the first one too... I also used a squishy stamper instead of my Konad stamper for the first time, and a plastic scraper instead of my typical metal one and it worked nicely for this combination.

 

[Christa W]

I finished the challenge and it feels incredible.  I managed to do each one every day.  Here are the ones I didn't post yet.

Inspired by a movie.  I did the Veggie Tales Jonah.  I promised my mom I would do the pirates who don't do anything.



Inspired by a book nails were by the upcoming Sophie Kinsella novel Shopaholic to the Stars.



Inspired by fashion I used my purse.



Inspired by a pattern. I did chevron stamping.  This one was on an existing mani.



Inspired by artwork  I chose Marsden Hartley Portrait of a German Officer.



My last year attempt at the same design.



My 2014 updated version.



Inspired by a flag used the city flag for Chicago.



Supernatural is when pigs fly.



Tutorial.  I wasn't inspired by any tutorial so I did my own.



And finally nails that you love.  I recreated the nails Meghan Trainor had on in the video for All About the Base.  I used the Nicole by OPI Rougles to do it.

 

[Monika1]

I finished the challenge and it feels incredible.  I managed to do each one every day.  Here are the ones I didn't post yet.

Inspired by a movie.  I did the Veggie Tales Jonah.  I promised my mom I would do the pirates who don't do anything.

Inspired by a book nails were by the upcoming Sophie Kinsella novel Shopaholic to the Stars.

Inspired by fashion I used my purse.

31DC2014Day25.jpg

Inspired by a pattern. I did chevron stamping.  This one was on an existing mani.

Inspired by artwork  I chose Marsden Hartley Portrait of a German Officer.

Inspired by a flag used the city flag for Chicago.

Supernatural is when pigs fly.

Tutorial.  I wasn't inspired by any tutorial so I did my own.

31Dc2014Day30.jpg

And finally nails that you love.  I recreated the nails Meghan Trainor had on in the video for All About the Base.  I used the Nicole by OPI Rougles to do it.

bassnails.jpg

Yay! Congratulations; that is really impressive! I love your tutorial, /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> fashion inspired by your purse, and nails you love Roughles manis especially! I'm still slowly plugging along on this - I'll have to post a few soon. But it's fun to have a specific reason to use certain polishes.

 

[Christa W]

Yay! Congratulations; that is really impressive! I love your tutorial, /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> fashion inspired by your purse, and nails you love Roughles manis especially! I'm still slowly plugging along on this - I'll have to post a few soon. But it's fun to have a specific reason to use certain polishes.

I'm proud of myself for trying to use different polishes each time too.  I didn't always work that way but I have been on a no buy for like 2 months and it was nice having a reason to use a lot of untrieds and polishes I may have only used once or twice before.

 

[Monika1]

I'm proud of myself for trying to use different polishes each time too.  I didn't always work that way but I have been on a no buy for like 2 months and it was nice having a reason to use a lot of untrieds and polishes I may have only used once or twice before.

That is great! I am impressed with your self-control on the no-buy; you're doing fantastically with that, and shopping from your own stash is great! The new collections are always so tempting; but the general reality is that you'll (I'll/many of us will) have something fairly similar most of the time. I should make it a goal to use the untrieds in the rest of this challenge. Sometimes I end up using polishes I've used many times before only because I think of them since I have experience with what they look like; they come to mind when I'm sorting through ideas for the theme. I also have not created swatches for my polishes - I'd have to consult the list, sort through the box, or look them up online.

 

[Monika1]

Colour #7... Black & White:

For this one I started with a mix of the 'colours': grey. I wore Zoya London matte for a while and then, as the tips were wearing, fixed it with the charcoal Dahlia on the tips and in a quick gradient. As I created it using a sponge only with Dahlia, it's not as smooth a gradient as I could achieve with both colours on the sponge, but it fixed the tips, quickly. I stamped it with the left gear system on the Messy Mansion MM #43 plate. I found that the fine large gear at the bottom was very hard to get, though I did a few times. I think it would be better if it was engraved a bit deeper; but as it is possible to get, kinda sorta, occasionally, do we call it user error? I was using Konad White, which should work fairly well, with the Konad two-ended stamper, which is fairly reliable for me, but I'm not a pro at this. Suggestions are welcome. I enjoyed the result with or without... but the gears make much more sense with.

 

[Monika1]

Thanks Christa!

 

[Monika1]

Colour #8... Metallic:

For this one I used metallic colours but then stamped them with things that often contain metal or are constructed with metal. Many colours and many stamps, but I'm absolutely loving Essie Hors D'Oeuvres, the super bright glittery silver.

 

[Monika1]

Colour #9... Rainbow:

The fun thing is that this mani could arguably be 9 - rainbow, 10 - gradient ('left' to 'right'), 11 - polka dot, and 12 - stripes (of polka dots). Of course that defeats the purpose of having a list of 31 manis. I did do a bit of clean-up despite wear on the tips, so here they are.

 

[Monika1]

Colours #10... Gradient:

I feel I haven't used my browns to full effect this autumn, so I decided to use them for this gradient and then had a really hard time deciding which ones to use. I have another combination in mind that I'm quite excited to see too. This is Nubar Edgy Umber, Cult Nails Tulum, and LynBDesigns Fishing With No Bait. Though I seem to recall it might be better to use the lightest colour first to paint the whole nail and then sponge on the other colours, I did the opposite. I wore Edgy Umber alone first. A handy short-cut I like to use on the gradient is to paint (messy) bands on the nail in advance of painting them on the sponge and dabbing a few layers, drying in between, to create the gradient. That way I got away with the darkest colour base without having to do more sponged layers to get the lighter colours to show.

 

[Monika1]

Style #11... Polka Dots:

I was inspired when I saw Zoya Hazel worn by @@JC327 with some nail art on thread lately. It looked so gorgeous I wanted to be sure to wear it soon. That was September; I guess soon is all relative. I also really like the Frozen-inspired one by @jessrose18. It's purely coincidental we both used Over The Moon with it; I guess they're made to be together! Here Zoya Hazel is the base; the first blue dots are OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I used Color Club Over The Moon for the other 'first dots'.



Then I played around some more with a dotting tool and did double-dots with black and white.

 

[Monika1]

Style #12... Lines:

Well, lines never insist on being straight, so I stamped on some wavy, squiggly chevron-like lines instead. Thjs is Zoya Odette base and a Zoya Kissy accent nail with lines using Mundo de Unas Copper and Old Pink, and the CZ07 image plate.

 

[JC327]

Style #11... Polka Dots:

I was inspired when I saw Zoya Hazel worn by @@JC327 with some nail art on thread lately. It looked so gorgeous I wanted to be sure to wear it soon. That was September; I guess soon is all relative. I also really like the Frozen-inspired one by @jessrose18. It's purely coincidental we both used Over The Moon with it; I guess they're made to be together! Here Zoya Hazel is the base; the first blue dots are OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I used Color Club Over The Moon for the other 'first dots'.

Hazel w OPI dots rt1*.jpg

Hazel dots lt2*.jpg

Then I played around some more with a dotting tool and did double-dots with black and white.

Hazel ddots rtA*.jpg

Hazel ddot ltA*.jpg

In love with that mani those dots are perfection! Glad I was able to inspire you.