NEW 31 Day Challenge: Recreate Someone Else's Mani!

The final day, day 31! I'm a bit sad to see the end of this challenge, but also a bit relieved! I'm so behind on my review work, and my creativity began to suffer a bit toward the end there! I do still have two posts to do to catch up- I was sick last weekend, so I'll post my Childhood and Country manis this upcoming weekend.

Before I get down to the LAST mani of the challenge, I want to express my thanks. First of all: Crumpet! This challenge was SO much fun, and really pushed my boundaries several times. Thank you for coming up with the whole thing! Second: to every single participant: every single one of your manicures was wonderful. Thank you so much for your creativity, your time, and the peek into your lives. And finally: to my readers! This challenge was much longer than any I've done previously, and was daily, so my regular posting style did change dramatically. Thanks for sticking with me! So, without further ado: here is my copy cat mani for today!

The mani I chose to recreate can be seen here. It is from the Merge or Melt day, by Dressed Up Digits. I loved this mani so much that I considered buying the polishes that she originally used! But I'm not a huge fan of magnetics, so I went with what I had on hand. I started with a base of Sinful Colors Midnight Blue, then sponged on a gradient with the same and Sinful Colors San Francisco. My peacock stamp didn't want to cooperate, so I ended up with this swoopy design. I think it's from RA-107. I stamped first with Sinful Colors Black on Black, then again off center with Essie Penny Talk.

Thoughts? What was your favorite mani from this challenge? It was so hard to pick just one- I considered doing one massive post with about 10 that I wanted to recreate . . . be sure to check out the rest of the recreations in the links below!

New 31DC: Color Opposites

Today's nail art was super quick and simple, and overall quite striking! The prompt was Color Opposites, and I went with a simple gradient (I always forget how much I love the gradient effect, especially in smooth creme colors!) in pink and green. 

I started with a base of creme white. I own about 10 of them, and I don't really like any of them, so I don't usually keep track of which one I use :(

I used China Glaze Surreal Appeal and Def Defying (my two picks from the Cirque du Soleil Collection), along with the white creme to help them blend in the middle. 

Here's my sponge: Thin stripe of Def Defying, thin stripe of white, slightly larger stripe of Surreal Appeal. I sponged this on over the white, and it took about 3 layers to get a color saturation that I was happy with. Though Def Defying still shows as yellowish on the nail. I actually did this mani a few days ago, and just looking at the photos makes me want to put it right back on! I think I'll have to brainstorm to include gradients in some of the rest of the challenges :)

Be sure to check out the rest of the "clashing" colors in the links below!

Top 12 Nail Art of 2012

I was only planning to do MY favorites and YOUR favorites Top 12 of 2012 lists, but as I was going through my posts, picking out your favorites based on view count, I noticed that some of my nail art posts have gotten a considerable amount of views! So I decided to throw together a post of your favorite nail art looks, based on post views, and here are the top 12! Click on the title of the picture to be taken to the original post. 

12. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Watermarble. Tied for 12th place with 35 views. My first attempt at a watermarble, and I was pretty pleased with it!

12.5. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Holiday Movie. Tied for last place with my watermarble- 35 views. This was a rather lazy attempt at showing the Griswold Family Christmas lights, and my first attempt at a glequin manicure. 

11. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Christmas Trees. 36 Views. I really like this one, as it has more of a cohesive feel than many of my arty manis do.

10. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Holiday Song. 38 views. Was TOTALLY at a loss for this one, so generic music symbols it is.

9. 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge: Candy Canes. 51 Views. My second ever watermarble. I've only ever done two of them, and they're both on this list- I must be doing something right, right?

8. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Zombies. 58 Views. This was a bit of an abstract mani, but I loved it, and wore it for days, even though I hate the feeling of matte polish. 

7. The Zombicure! 64 views. The only true nail art I've shown that wasn't part of a challenge, and I still love it :)

6. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Bats. 67 views. I love the shimmery white base on this one, and repeated it for one of my holiday manis. 

5. Back to School Waterslide Decals by Designer Piggies.  79 views. Also not part of a nail art challenge, but I didn't actually do the art on this one :) I loved these decals, but need more work on placing full coverage waterslides.

4. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Gradient. 81 views. The only true gradient I've done. Not Halloween specific either!

3. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Horror Movie. 84 views. I was, and still am, SO proud of the burnt flesh look I created on my Freddy Kreuger mani!

2. This Is Halloween Nail Art Challenge: Ghosts. 94 views. It's odd- I participated in 2 Halloween nail art challenges, but every one of the top nail art posts was from this challenge. Must have been more fellow challengers in this one :)

1. Easiest Nail Art Ever by Long Changed.  Your number one favorite, with 97 views. So easy vinyl nail art decals. Stick on and go!

Were any of these YOUR personal favorites? Is there a favorite of yours that didn't make the list? 

I've gotten behind this week, so you'll get a post-a-palooza over the next two days! Stay tuned for New Year's Eve mani ideas, your top 12 favorite polish and MY top 12 favorite polishes of the year!

TIHNAC: Gradient

I'm baack! And I have another basic tecnique which I have never tried: gradient. At least, I've never done them properly, with a sponge and everything. I have done some fail-gradients by just sponging on with a Qtip, but this was was quicker and easier!

Excuse my horrible cleanup- this red was stubborn as hell!

I started with a base coat of Sally Hansen Ton of Bricks, then using a cosmetic sponge, dabbed on (top to bottom) Ton of Bricks, Sinful Colors Inkwell and Sinful Colors Black on Black. This isn't super strictly Halloweenish, but if I were ever a devil for Halloween, I would definitely come back to this look!

Then, in keeping with my indies, I added a coat of Darling Diva Polish's Diabla over the whole thing. This had the double benefit of an extra layer of devilishness, plus it made my color lines blend together a bit better! I'm overall pretty happy with the way this turned out, and I'm getting scarily into this whole nail art thing! 

Be sure to check out all the lovely other participants!

Cheers,

-Liz-

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