31DC2017 - Day 30: Inspired by a tutorial

Whoopsies. I didn't post this yesterday because I unintentionally spent the night at someone else's place even though I was planning to go home and actually do this mani!

I decided to go for a combo of side-swept and dry brush nails. I learned both of these techniques through tutorials :)

Colors used:
- Catrice - Sweet Macaron Sin (caramel/nude)
- essie - in stitches (terracotta)
- essence - love me like you do (pinkish brown)
- essence - i dreamed a dream (muted purple)

31DC2017 - Day 21: Inspired by a color

Yayy, these were so fun to make! They took me way longer than I will admit, but that's also the reason why this post is up so late. I would have put more effort in if I had had more time, but oh well. Oh, and also, I used a new topcoat today and it totally smudged my index finger (and I'm a bit bitter about it tbh).

If you couldn't tell, I chose to be inspired by Fairy Dust by China Glaze, which is a beautiful micro-microglitter topper. The fairy was a bit hard to paint, especially when it came to the face, but I'm fairly happy with her. The glare kind of ruined the pic a bit, but I included two additional pics so you can get a better picture of what the finished product looks like.

I am officially calling her the "autumn fairy", here to bring us rain and plenty of warm beverages. The leaves on the trees are so envious of her wings, so they try their best to become as vibrant as them. Her dress is made of a naturally sparkling fabric, that makes the air smell like cinnamon when she flies past you. (I don't know, I like making up stories :P )

In all honesty, I painted the dess with Orly's Space Cadet, which is stunning! The veins on the wings actually smell like cinnamon!

Colors used:
- essence - my dear reindeer (grey-purple base)
- essie - spin the bottle (nude)
- Catrice - Sweet Macaron Sin (slightly darker pinkish nude)
- essence - do you speak love? (dark red)
- essence - from me to you (red-ish terracotta)
- Catrice - Chilly Orange (cool-toned orange)
- China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
- Revlon - Autumn Spice (sparkly dark brown, smells like spices)
- Orly - Space Cadet (brown-ish green multichrome glassfleck)
- China Glaze - Fairy Dust (microglitter topper)
- black, white

A (Belated) Mickey Mouse Christmas

I am so ridiculously late posting this, I'm really sorry!

Truth be told, I didn't do any festive nail art for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day this year, I actually painted these the night after Christmas Day. It's not that I didn't want to, I just didn't feel inspired enough to actually start anything.

I love the base of these! I started out with 3 coats of Dance Legend - Pied Piper, which I actually got as a Christmas present from my family this year! It's a stunning Christmas tree green with a subtle sprinkling of holographic microglitter.

I then painted Mickey's face on my UberMat (also a present this year) and used it as a decal. I didn't paint them directly on my nails because I hadn't done any kind of pre-sketching or planning, so I didn't have a good enough feel for the proportions and I didn't want to have to re-do the base too.

The pattern on my thumb is just a mix of Mickey Mouse heads and smaller dots, nothing too fancy.

Colors used:
Dance Legend - Pied Piper (green base)
essie - spin the bottle (nude)
essie - forever yummy (red)
black, white

31DC2016 - Day 28: Inspired by a flag

Played it safe today. I'm not the biggest fan of this prompt and since I didn't do a 4th of July mani this year, I'm using that as an excuse for this.

I really wanna call this a deconstructed USA flag, I like the effect of the white bar glitter as the scattered stripes. For the stars, I went for a mixture of stars and dots - randomly assembled on my nails. I think this is an okay mani, I could've done better but I think I hit my yearly breaking point. Luckily, there's only 3 prompts left!

Colors used:
- essie - forever yummy (red)
- Manhattan - 10B (blue) [destashed]
- white

31DC2016 - Day 27: Inspired by artwork

(Sorry for the crummy picture quality today, I need to stop taking pics in low lighting)

So, today's prompt was 'inspired by artwork' and I decided to do something based on an art movement rather than a specific piece. I chose grafitti.

These are super murky and kinda gross, which is actually what I was going for! I wanted to depict a piece of canvas that had been painted over many times, maybe in a rural setting. I am really pleased with how they turned out and it definitely soothes my sudden need for Halloween stuff (I know, I'm a bit early).

Colors used:
- China Glaze - Budding Romance (murky green)
- China Glaze - Trendsetter (beige-y murky green/brown)
- essence - miss captain (muted blue)
- essie - playing koi (sienna)
- KleanColor - Fashionista (murky green to brown)
- KleanColor - Military Green (military green - who would've guessed)
- Maybelline - Faux Green (dusty light green)
- wibo - Nr. 2 (dusty pink) [destashed]

31DC2016 - Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

Not necessarily inspired by a well-known pattern or anything, but based on a picture I found through a quick google search. I wanted something 80s-esque and this is what I picked.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure if I like these or not - they look a bit like a children's birthday party kind of nail art. Maybe that's just me though.

I started off with a white base, then freehanded the zig zag curves with primary colors. I didn't go over them as many times as I probably should have, which probably contributes to me finding these quite childish. Oh well.

In other news: Only 5 designs left! Wow, it seems like yesterday that I did my gradient nails for this challenge. I am really excited for the end though. I think this run of the challenge was quite exhausting for me, balancing freelance work (and a super messed up sleeping pattern) with nail art is quite the task!

Colors used:
- white
- China Glaze - Kiwi Cool-Ada (green)
- essie - forever yummy (red)
- Formula X - Dynamite (yellow)
- Manhattan - It's Complicated (blue)

31DC2016 - Day 22: Inspired by a song

 Happy first day of fall everybody!

In celebration of the change of seasons, I was inspired by Ed Sheeran's Autumn Leaves for today's prompt. The song itself is quite sad, but I like it a lot. If you don't already know, I'm a huge fan of Ed's music and can't wait for his new album to be released.

I started off this mani with two cats of essence's sweet caramel sweets. I had originally planned to use butter LONDON - Tea with the Queen, but I realized I have been using that polish a lot in this challenge. That and the fact that my bottle is almost gone.

I continued by doing a very simple glitter gradient with China Glaze - Golden Enchantment. I love this polish. It's basically the golden version of Fairy Dust. Lastly, I painted on the leaves in various shapes and sizes. I'm pretty sure I ended up inventing shapes by the end of it. Of course, I topped it off with some glossy top coat.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out.

Colors used:
- essence - sweet caramel sweets (tan)
- China Glaze - Golden Enchantment (gold microglitter topper)
- essie - playing koi (sienna)
- essence - do you speak love? (red)
- Formula X - Dynamite (yellow)
- OPI - A-Piers To Be Tan (chocolate milk color)

31DC2016 - Day 19: Galaxies

I don't do galaxy nails nearly enough. It's been a whole year since my last one (also for this challenge)!

I loosely based this mani on this picture.

I started off with a layer of dark blue, then started sponging on all kinds of colors. As soon as that was done, I added all the tiny white stars. I added some glitter in random places, sealed everything in with top coat and it was done!

Galaxy nail art is so simple, I love it.

Colors used:
- MaXFactor - royal blue (navy)
- China Glaze - I Sea The Point (royal/bright blue)
- China Glaze - Bahamian Escape (light blue)
- essie - lapis of luxury (pastel blurple/cornflower blue/etc)
- essie - lilacism (lilac)
- essence - amazed by you (red-toned purple) [destashed]
- wibo - Nr. 4 (duo, here I used the creme side; magenta) [destashed]
- Manhattan - Meow-tyful (bright magenta)
- China Glaze - Fairy Dust (silver microglitter topper)
- white

31DC2016 - Day 18: Half Moons

Ugh. That about describes my opinion on half moon manis. I can't do them and I'm not sure I even like the look. Regardless, it was today's prompt, so I just buckled up and did my best to produce something remotely good. Did I succeed? Kind of.

I went for something very simple. In fact, I might have made it too easy for myself. I started out with one coat of essie's frock n roll. That's right, ONE coat. Amazing. I then created some guidelines with a matte topcoat, just so I had some sort of idea where to put my dots.

I then followed the guidelines and put down dots with Orly's Shine, a gorgeous sparkly silver foil. I topped it off with some glossy topcoat and the guidelines became invisible.

31DC2016 - Day 14: Flowers

Okay, so I might have gone overboard a bit.

Following last year's manicure for this prompt, I decided to do another 'extended' mani. I'm not sure I'm convinced of the day version, but when the lights are off? I can't take my eyes off of these!

31DC2016 - Day 11: Polka Dots

Did some teeny tiny dots for today. I really like how these turned out. Simple but effective.

And isn't the base just stunning? This is two coats of essie - leggy legend. I was all over this when it came out last year and I really wanted to use it again. I still love this!

31DC2016 - Day 9: Rainbow

Ever felt the urge to wear something really bright to cheer up a gloomy rainy day? That was my inspiration for today's nails! I really love the combination of the charcoal grey with the neon drips.

With these, I actually started with the grey base. I was originally going to do it with a lighter grey, but that just didn't work with some colors. I then freehanded the drips with white polish. Lastly, I did the rainbow gradient by hand and topped it all off with some topcoat!

I do love these, but I kind of wish I had made the drips larger.

Colors used:
- white base
- China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk (charcoal grey)
- essence - have a very pink x-mas! (red/pink hybrid) [destashed]
- China Glaze - Lady And The Vamp (orange)
- China Glaze - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (yellow)
- China Glaze - Drink Up Witches (green)
- China Glaze - Sunday Funday (blue)
- essie - all access pass (purple)

31DC2016 - Day 8: Metallic

Today's nails are quite dainty and delicate, not necessarily something I'm going for a lot.
These might look like they are quite easy to do, but they were not! Getting that curve and thickness of the gold/copper to be the same on all nails was really difficult!

Colors used:
- essie - spin the bottle (nude)
- essence - do you hear the jingle bells? (gold-copper)

31DC2016 - Day 5: Blue

I love these so much.

Today's prompt was blue and since I've secretly been planning to do all of this year's design in fall colors, I knew I had to reach for some navy polish.

This design was loosely inpired by this design by Hajin Bae. I took that artwork and altered it and wow. I really am obsessed with these. The stars are unnaturally tiny and were really difficult to paint, but I think I did a decent job.

Colors used:
- MaxFactor - royal blue (navy blue)
- China Glaze - I Sea The Point (bright blue)
- essie - lapis of luxury (blue-purple)
- essence - lean on me (cream - used for the stars)
- MaxFactor - burgundy crush (burgundy)
- essence - blurry up! (white jelly - used for the "orbs")

Purple gradient + triangles

Today is a "raid my drafts" kind of day. I have this manicure and another one to show you. These are manis that I did recently, but either forgot to post or didn't want to write a post for.

This design is a simple white to purple gradient with triangles that glow in the dark.

I sponged on the gradient onto my bare nails, using white, essie's play date and OPI's Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm?. I did this so a potential white base wouldn't alter the OPI polish too much. I then went ahead and mixed Serum No. 5's Highlight with white and painted on the triangles.

It's a simple design, but I really love how it ended up looking.

#PTXWorldTour - Nail art inspired by Pentatonix!

Man, this weekend was crazy!
If you couldn't tell by the title, this design is loosely inspired by the 2 time Grammy winning acapella group Pentatonix.

This weekend, they came to Vienna as part of their world tour. Of course I HAD to go. The whole night was insane! But I won't go into too much detail here.

On to the nails!

The nails were basically inspired by the color scheme of their newest album. I tried to make the colors as accurate as possible.

I started off with a white base, then I did several layers of colors, using the watercolor technique. This particular look was also inspired by Chalkboard Nails. She even has a short text tutorial on her post, check it out!

I used a TON of different colors, basically trying hard to mimic watercolor on paper.

Colors used:
- Monochrome shades:
  - white
  - essence - grey zone (light grey)
  - LOOK - street (medium grey) [destashed]
  - China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk (dark grey)

- Pink shades:
  - China Glaze - Heat Index (neon pink)
  - China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns (darker hot pink)

- Blue shades;
  - China Glaze - Bahamian Escape (light blue)
  - China Glaze - Sunday Funday (light - medium blue)
  - essie - make some noise (medium "neon" blue)**

- Green shades:
  - China Glaze - Drink Up Witches (neon green)
  - China Glaze - Kiwi Cool-Ada (darker neon green)

- Yellow shades:
  - China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (sunshine yellow)
  - Formula X - Dynamite (darker, slightly orange-y yellow)
  - China Glaze - Lady And The Vamp (neon orange) [I added this to Dynamite to give it a bit more dimension]

**This polish actually stains - a lot. I don't recommend this if you don't know how to get rid of stains on fingernails and cuticles (or just don't want that kind of mess).

Neon watercolor - Take 2!

I'm back again with some more seasonally appropriate designs! Well, one.

This idea is one I've already translated onto my nails back in January (for my birthday). However, since we're closer to summer now, I wanted to re-do it. I used some more neon shades - also, this version (sadly) doesn't glow in the dark. (I did use one gitd polish, but it looks a bit odd as a gitd mani)

Chibi Koala

I'm on a roll this month!
Today, I have a really cute koala mani to show you. First things first, I did copy the koala from here. It basically jumped at me when I first saw it!

Soft Spring Gradient

Since it's March now, I figured it was time I did some real spring manis and actually wore them outside the house. I have yet to do that with this one.

This is a very subtle gradient, I used pastel colors. Believe it or not, that middle color is actually supposed to be a pastel blue - to be honest, it just looks white in this mani.

Colors used:
essie - lilacism (lilac)
essence - winter wonderland (pastel blue)
China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer (bright mint)

Neon watercolor - I turned 19 today!

glow in the dark stuff makes me happy:)

I want to apologize for the weird/unusual picture today. I took this at Starbucks and I kind of liked the look of it, so I decided to keep it for this post as well.

Anyway, it's my birthday! I'm now officially 19 years old. These are my nails. They're not super color accurate. They're actually neon. AND, they glow in the dark! As always, my glow in the dark picture is weird and does not do the actual glow any justice.