Last Day of OMD Rather Awesome Challenge!

I cannot believe it’s the last day of the challenge. I feel like I have definitely challenged myself during this month of nails, and I want to thank Jacqui, Brijit, and eeeek for putting this challenge together! THANK YOU LADIES!

This last day of the challenge we’re supposed to pick our favorite manicure (that someone else has done) from the entire 30 days. Gah! That is so hard! I’m going to list some of my favorites that I chose from:

• Glitteratzi’s Stripes
• Flight of Whimsy’s Braided Tips
• K’s Nail Art’s Dots
• Crafty Nails’ Warm Brown Dotticure
• Dizzy Little Digits’ Stars
• The Polish Playground’s Flowers
• Flight of Whimsy’s Seaside Ombre
• Vic & Her Nails’ Gradient
• Flight of Whimsy’s Quilted & Colorful
• Kim’s Glitter
• Colorful Cupcake Cat’s tiger stripes
• Seize the Nail’s animal mix & match print
• Eeeek’s Bear Print
• Miss Tea Sue’s tutorial inspired
• Cambridge Nails’ tutorial inspired
• Polish Playground’s tutorial inspired
• Seize the Nail’s Blue Explosion
• Brijit’s purple nails
• Eeeek’s black & white
• Vic & Her Nails’ Neon
• Seize the Nail’s Neon

And these are the narrowed down manicures! Besides these, there were some just great manicures I know I could never live up to, so I didn’t even think of trying to re-create them. I then narrowed down to 6: Glitteratzi’s Stripes, FoW Braided Tips, PP’s Flowers, FoW Quilted,  eeeek’s b&w studs, and Seize the Nail’s Neon. So I kept looking and looking at these, and I just couldn’t decide. So I just decided to pick one, and then re-create the rest after the challenge is over – simply because I loved these 6 so much! I decided, for the challenge, to do Flight of Whimsy’s Braided Tips – I just always circled back to this manicure, over and over again.

I’ve got to tell you that this is the first manicure that I’ve used this many polishes! Here are the polishes I’ve used:

From left to right: Sinful Colors Anemone, Clementine, Orange Cream, Skylark

From left to right: OPI Senorita Rose-alita, OPI Sparrow Me the Drama, OPI Pedal Faster Suzi, Sinful Colors Easygoing

From left to right: Sinful Colors blue (no tag), OPI Swimsuit…Nailed It, Sinful Colors Burning Bright, OPI What’s With the Cattitude?

From left to right: Sinful Colors Inkwell, SOPI Seriously It’s a Naan-Issue, SOPI What Film Noir You In, OPI Planks a Lot

From left to right: Sinful Colors Calypso, OPI Jade is the New Black, Julie G Under Mistletoe, OPI Mermaids Tears

Phew! Okay, now the nails. I started off with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls as a base, then used each color in turn on each nail.

I totally messed up a couple of times because I didn’t let one color dry before I put tape down for the next color. AND my angles are all wrong as well – on a couple of nails, they are a bit too steep. But I still love this! Thank you so much to Flight of Whimsy for the inspiration! Be sure you check out the last day of everyone’s nails by clicking here.

I have had so much fun doing this – and I hope you have too! Later today, I’m going to have some butter LONDON nails, so be sure to come back then….

OMD Rather Awesome Challenge: Day 30 Favorite Comic Book

Good morning! I have to admit that I am cheating a bit with today’s challenge. I’ve used a book that was turned into a graphic novel (aka comic form): The Dark Tower by Stephen King. This is one of my favorite book series of all time, and so of course was my first choice for this challenge.

I won’t get into the series much, only to say that the main character, Roland, is on a sort of “quest” to reach the Dark Tower – which stands at the nexus of all time & space, holding it together. At the base of the Dark Tower is a field of roses, which at first glance looks like a field of blood. That’s my inspiration for my nails – both hands today! Here are some inspiration shots from the graphic novel:

Here are the polishes I’ve used:

From left to right: OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, OPI Midnight in Moscow, OPI Alpine Snow, Sinful Colors Black on Black, OPI Buy Buy Tokyo, OPI Innie Minnie Mightie Bow

For my left hand, after two coats of Alpine Snow, I did a sunset gradient first using the top picture of nail polishes. I honestly don’t know the names of the minis. The NailTini is Mai Tai (received in July’s ipsy bag). Let’s see how the gradient turned out:

I then used Sinful Colors Black on Black to make the tower, and mixed BoB with Alpine Snow for shading. I also used Just Spotted the Lizard to make the “ka” symbol on my thumb.

On my right hand, I have what I feel is a bit of fail, unfortunately. I started with Black on Black, then wanted to do a bunch of roses. Well, with the fact that I’m painting with my non-dominant hand, my roses didn’t turn out so great. I used a combination of Innie Minnie Mightie Bow, Alpine Snow, Midnight in Moscow, and Buy Buy Tokyo for the roses.

That’s definitely not my best work! LOL. What do you think of the whole manicure? Overall, I like it. Make sure you check out the other fascinating manicures for today by clicking here. Tomorrow is the last day, and I’m still trying to decide which manicure to re-create! Be sure to be back tomorrow!!

OMD Rather Awesome Challenge: Day 29 Fashion

Good morning lovelies! I have a fashion inspired manicure for you today. Honestly, this was one of the easiest/hardest ones for me to do; easiest because I always have fashion inspired magazines around, hardest because it was hard to narrow down my choices!

This is what I decided on:

Yes, I know, it’s laying on its side. Sorry! I just didn’t have time to rotate it correctly. Here are the polishes I’ve used for today:

From left to right: OPI Alpine Snow, OPI yellow (don’t know the name), and SOPI OPening Night.

I started with a base of Alpine Snow, then did stripes with Opening Night, and lastly banded those stripes with yellow stripes.

What do you think? I think I needed a different yellow – which is hard to do since I think I have 3 yellow polishes out of my stash of over 400. LOL 😛 Check out the other manicures for today by clicking here. Tomorrow is inspired by a comic book and I’m super excited to show you that! Until the next time,

OMD Rather Awesome Challenge: Day 28 TV Show

Hello Hello everyone! I’m so excited about today’s manicure. I really am proud of myself for what I’ve created today! 🙂 So today’s manicure is to be inspired by a tv show. I have so many favorite tv shows, honestly, so this was hard for me to narrow down. But, I finally did narrow it down to a show that’s not even on tv anymore! 😛 The show was called “Dead Like Me” and it aired for 2 seasons. It was hilarious, and moving, and irreverent. If you’d like to watch 10 minutes of the first episode, here ya go (language warning):

I decided to riff off on the cover of the DVD case I have:

Really, this sums up the show – death in a irreverent way.

I used so many polishes for this manicure! Here they are:

I lied – that’s not all of them. I mixed 4 other ones up for part of the manicure. For the sky, I started off with a base of Tidal Wave, then using a makeup sponge, I did a gradient of Sail La Vie, Tidal Wave, and Snow Me White:

Then using Cool Gray and a striping brush, I made the outline of the scythe. Blending a bit of Black on Black with Cool Gray, I added a bit of depth to the scythe. Then mixing about 4 different colors (to be honest, I couldn’t remember what they are now), I made brown for the staff of the scythe; I then lightened it up a bit with Snow Me White for shading. For the Reaper, I used Black on Black (obviously) for the majority of it, for the shading I mixed black with white and gray. FINALLY (lol) for the bubblegum bubble, I used Heartfelt; for shading I mixed Heartfelt with Snow Me White.

Okay, after all that, you ready for this mani?! Here it is:

Comparison to DVD cover:

Close-up:

I have to admit, I love the ISH out of this manicure, and feel it’s my best work I’ve ever done. I would love to know what you think about it!

Be sure to check out the other manicures for today by clicking here. We’re winding down and only have a few days left. I need to go through and pick some of my favorites and see which one to do for the last day of the challenge! Until tomorrow,

OMD Rather Awesome Challenge: Day 27 Jewelry

Good morning! It’s so hard to believe that we’re getting close to the end of this 31 Day Challenge. To be honest, I can’t believe that I’ve stuck with it this long! 🙂 Today’s challenge is to be inspired by jewelry. Here’s my inspiration:

Close-up:

Here are the polishes I’ve used:

From left to right: Wet N Wild Blank Canvas, Sinful Colors Sunburst, LA Splash Blowfish, Sinful Colors Black on Black

I first started out with a base of Wet N Wild Blank Canvas (from the Pop Art Craze collection). I’m pleasantly surprised with the application of this polish! This is 2 coats; first coat was a bit thin and streaky, second coat went on much better.

Then I applied LA Splash Blowfish (from Lip Factory’s July box) in two coats. Application on this was also surprisingly good for a yellow!

After this, I used my thin striping brush with Sinful Colors Sunburst to make a thin line all around the nail, and to make the design in the center. Lastly, I filled in around the center design with Sinful Colors Black on Black and topped with HK Girl Fast Dry Top Coat.

What do you think? I like this funky design! Check out the rest of today’s designs by clicking here. Have a wonderful afternoon, and until tomorrow,

OMD Rather Awesome Challenge: Day 26 Vacation

Good morning! I woke up to no cereal or milk in the house 😦 So it was hot cereal for me this morning – and that’s not something I usually enjoy in the summertime. Oh well, it was better than having to go to the store right out of bed!

Today’s nails were to be inspired by a holiday or a vacation. I decided to do a fairly simple manicure based on a vacation I took 5 years ago. For my 30th birthday, my husband, our almost-2 year old (at the time), and I decided to go to Glacier National Park. (All following photos of GNP are my own and not stolen from the internet!)

We stayed at an absolutely gorgeous bed & breakfast just outside the city of Kalispell, Montana called Emerald Sunrise B&B. It was in the middle of a forest, right on the edge of a dark green lake (Ashley Lake). I remember so many beautiful things about that trip, but the beauty of the forest and the lake was one of them.

My manicure today is based on the lake and the forest. (Perhaps another time I will attempt to capture the beauty of Glacier National Park!) I’ve used Sinful Colors Calypso and Nail Junkie. I started off with 2 coats of Calypso:

I then followed up with Nail Junkie in a gradient (sort of). Then I topped with Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, and since I liked it so much like that, I left it.

What do you think? Be sure to check out the rest of the manicures by clicking here. I’ll have a review of 4 of Mentality polishes up later today, until then,

Bonus shot of Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald:

OMD Rather Awesome Challenge: Day 25 Movie Inspired

Good morning! I am dragging this morning…I think it was all the biking and swimming with my kiddos yesterday. So this morning, I kind of don’t want to do anything. LOL 😉 Alright, onto the nails! Today’s challenge was to be inspired by a movie and I’ll be honest, I just looked through my stack of DVDs to see what looked cool to do. I decided on doing Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet. First, I love the soundtrack to this movie (I have probably worn out at least 3 cds of it) and second, I love that this movie made Romeo & Juliet come alive for me (cheesy, I know).

Here are the polishes I’ve used:

From left to right: OPI Planks a Lot, OPI Steady as She Rose, butterLONDON Chimney Sweep, bL Slapper, OPI What’s With the Cattitude, Sephora by OPI Ocean Love Potion

Because I didn’t have a blue-ish green that I wanted, I mixed Slapper, WWtC, and Ocean Love Potion together, then I painted that on my nails. I used Steady as She Rose with my dotting tool to make flowers, then used Planks a Lot as the center of the flowers and outlined the flowers. Finally I used Chimney Sweep to make the “R” “+” and “J” on my nails. Let’s see how it turned out!

Comparison to my inspiration:

What do you think? In case you don’t remember, the cover is Romeo’s shirt that he wears for the latter half of the movie. 🙂 I really like how this came out! Be sure to look at the other manicures for today by clicking here.

Don’t forget that later today I will have the last July Tri-Polish challenge up. If you want to check out the soundtrack to the movie you can click here. Until later today,