Day 24: Inspired By A Book

 This was another tough one for me. I couldn't decide on a book. Some of my favorites I just couldn't figure out how to make them translate to the nail. I ended up choosing this book mainly because the cover and theme gave me something that I could work with :)

So with that said, the book I took my inspiration from is:"The Eye Of Horus" by Carol Thurston

Anyone that knows me, knows I look all things Ancient Egyptian.  I even have a few Egyptian based tattoos. but anyways on to the nails :)

 I wasn't totally sure what I was going to do from the beginning. I kinda just grabbed a bunch of colors that I thought would work well with what I had in my head. Pretty much I was just winging it lol I started with my glue base and after that dried I applied 3 coats of Pure Ice "Bite Me!" I love the name of the polish and the actually polish is pretty good too

 Since I had no sense of where I was going I decided to let the polishes led me on my way to a finished product.

( As I write omrhing it soing ok, e caff) <---- I was falling asleep when I started this post lol. No clue what that is suppose to mean. Anyways, I added a coat of Sally Hansen "Gilded Lily' which is pretty much just a gold glitter. But it's not an over powering glitter.

So here is a picture of all the polishes I used.

Pure Ice "Bite Me", Essence "Date With The Night", Sally Hansen "Gilded Lily", Milani "3D", OPI  "Alpine Snow" - Which was used for the stamping, and the white nail art pen I used for my hieroglyphs.

So after I used 3 coats of "Bite Me!" and 1 coat of "Gilded Lily" I used "Date With The Night" and used the saran wrap technique. I wanted to make a kinda old gold ancient look. After the saran wrap I felt it was a bit too dark so I added another coat of "Gilded Lily" and saran wrapped on some "3D" for a little depth. I was finally happy with what I had so Then I added some freehand hieroglyphs, and a couple stamped images.

Left Hand

Right Hand

I've been wanted to use the ankh image for a while so I knew it would be perfect for this mani and I needed the eye of Horus :) Using the nail are pen, I took some of the hieroglyphs from the cover of the book and tried to recreate them on my nails. Some were easier than others.

All in all I am happy with how this turned out. Cleanup could have been better but I was getting tired and I need to get the pictures up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. The book is great by the way, and I think I'm going to start re-reading it :) Day 25 is "Inspired By Fashion" and I don't really follow fashion so this is going to be another pain in the butt I think, but we will see. Thanks for reading and make sure to check out the other ladies below :)

Day 23: Inspired By A Movie

 I couldn't decide what movie to use for today's mani. I went back an forth and finally chose "Dawn of the Dead" I really wanted to do a blood splatter so I knew I had to pick a zombie movie :) I really like the re-make because it takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which is where I live lol. Plus I like the fact that the zombies can run. Ok well here is my mani...

 

 I started out with a glue base coat. I've been using it recently since I've been changing my polish everyday and it just seems to make things easier for me. I've also notice that my nails haven't been peeling like they use to. I'm not sure if it has to do with the glue or something else but... yeah lol so over the glue I used 3 coats of OPI "Skull & Glossbones" on all my nails except my ring fingers.

 

 On my ring fingers I also used the glue base coat, and then I used 3 coats of Wet N Wild "Once Upon A Time" I just got this polish a few days ago and I hadn't tried it yet. This polish looks to be a dupe of Spoiled "Ants In My Pants" but I think the red glitter is more dense in this one. I'll have to do a comparison ones of these days.

 

 For the splatter  used L'Oreal "Caught Red-Handed"

 

 I love splatters because no 2 nails are ever the same. I've been wanting to do this again since I did it last halloween (I think that's the last time I did it lol)

 

 Left Hand

 

 Right Hand

 

I guess I could have been a bit more creative but I've been having horrible migraines this whole weekend, so I'm glad I was able to do anything lol.

 

Well tomorrow is "Inspired By A Book" I'm not sure what book to choose, but I'm sure I'll figure it out while I'm at work tomorrow lol. Thanks for reading and make sure to check out the other ladies in the challenge below...

 

 

 

Day 22: Inspired By A Song

 Today is "Inspired By A Song" day. I have a couple different songs that I've been loving right now, and not many of them I could come up with a mani idea for. The song I ended up picking is "Nothing But The Water" by Grace Potter and The Nocturnals.

I couldn't find a music video for this song, but I was about to find the song on YouTube:

 

I love this song!!! Ok on to my mani... Obviously I was going for a water theme.

 

I know, I know, I broke my promise. I said I wasn't going to do another gradient for the rest of this challenge, but I felt that a gradient was the only way to go about accomplishing what I pictured in my head. I started out with 2 coats of Piggy Polish "It's All About Blue" and also used it for the gradient along with...

 

Orly "Skinny Dip" and...

 

China Glaze "Splish Splash"

 

I think these polishes worked perfect together and created the perfect water look.

 

The gradient is very subtle but noticeable. I also found it very calming :)

 

I used OPI "My Boyfriend Scales Walls" and a nail art brush to create the sea foam from the waves, and I even included a couple birds in the sky :) This is the only polish that wasn't an untried.

 

Since I always have to add a little sparkle I sponged on a little Layla Hologram Effects "Ocean Rush" on the tips of my nails.

 

They didn't turn out exactly as I had pictured in my head but I still really like how they turned out. I love them and I really feel like I'm looking into the water.

 

I think the Layla polish is what really made it as great as it is. My nails look so much better in person, these pictures couldn't capture all of the awesomeness of them.

 

Now I have to think about what I'm going to do tomorrow for my movie nails.... totally not sure yet. Oh and just for your enjoyment this is how I had to edit all of my pictures:

My younger pup Stitch just "had" to lay on me. I just jumped up and made himself comfortable. I didn't have the heart to move him lol. He's lucky he's cute :)

 

Well thanks for reading, and check back tomorrow for my movie nails. And don't forget to check out the other ladies' blogs below:

 

Day 21: Inspired By A Color

 In theory "Inspired By A Color" sounds good.... yeah not so much. Once I sat down and started thinking about it, I thought "What the hell does that mean?" I'm sure each person is going to interpret their own way. I took it as a mani inspired by a certain polish. After I got that down I had a vision in my head..... and I fell flat on my face :( Unfortunately!

 

I hate when I get so caught up in what I'm doing that I forget to take picture :( So I don't have a picture of the first polish alone.

 

 I started out with 2 coats of Revlon "Haunted Heart" When I put my first coat down I was really surprised. I don't know why, but I expected this to be a sheer jelly like polish, but it wasn't. It is a very opaque polish and not jelly-like at all. So it kinda threw off my whole plan from the start but, I stuck with it. I love this polish either way! It is a gorgeous orange with a multi color gold shimmer to it. It translates very well on the to nail, but not so much in pictures.

 

 All of the polishes I used for this mani are untrieds.

 

 I was trying to use Jordana "Funky Gold Town" to bring out more of the gold in the polish. It's just a basic hex gold glitter.

 

Now this is where I had to take a detour from my original plan. Because I thought "Haunted Heart" was going to be a jelly polish I was going add another layer over the glitter. But it was too opaque for that, So I chose another polish.

 

 I used 1 layer of Revlon  "Spooky Skull" but it ended up muting out the orange, so it wasn't what I had planned.

 

 

I guess it wasn''t too bad since I did get a few compliments about my nails.

 

Well that's it for today. Check back tomorrow for "Inspired By A Song" I have my song picked out and I can't wait to get started with that mani. Thanks for reading and don't forget to show some love to the blogs below! Thanks!!

Day 20: Water Marble

 Ugh.... I've been dreading this day since the start of this challenge. I can never get it to work. And by the off chance I get a decent design something goes wrong lol.... I must say I am proud of myself. I did a decent job... It took me hours (Really hours) but I got something worth showing. I only did one hand, because 1.) I was exhausted by the time I got on a roll, 2.) I felt like I had wasted a lot of polish with all my fails, and 3.) I just couldn't justify more of that hell to only wear it one day. So here is my result...

 

 I started out with 2 coats of OPI "My Boyfriend Scales Walls" which is one of my favorite underwear polishes.

 

 See, not so bad huh? Well the polishes I used were Finger Paints "Sexy Sundress"

 

 Finger Paints"Flip Flop Fuchsia"

 

 Finger Paints "Beach Bound"

 

 and Nina Ultra Pro "Anaconda Liked It" Which I think is a really weird name for this polish... but whatever lol.

All in all I think it was a win. I still need to work on it. My main problem is getting the polish to spread and not just sit where it is dropped. I've tried different containers, different water, different polish, and even different temperatures. Nothing seems to do the trick. Oh well we can't all be good at everything.

 

Tomorrow starts the "Inspired by" part of the challenge. We are now 2/3of the way through this. I'm proud that I've stuck it out this long. thanks for reading and encouraging me throughout this challenge with your comments. Check back for tomorrow's mani and remember to check out the other blogs below!!