31 Days Challenge #18 - Half Moons

Now here's something I'd never done before and I'm not even sure I like this type of manicure, but I still wore it for a couple of days! It doesn't look perfect, I can see some flaws in it, but it still looked nice and I was happy with my colour choices.

This is Kiko #387 and Up Colors Verde 360º.

That's it for today, I'll leave you with a bonus photo of that night (not colour accurate)! :P

31 Days Challenge #17 - Glitter

Before I resume the challenge, I need to apologize to my readers and the girls I was doing this with, as I disappeared without saying a word. You see, I was trying to do my best not to fall behind, to always have a post up every day, but I just couldn't do it...

When I signed up for this, I thought I would have a nice, peaceful summer at my parents house, with lots of time to do my nails, post and, occasionally, have some fun with my friends. Boy...was I wrong! There was always stuff to do here at the house, my mom loves having her dinner parties and needs my help with getting everything ready and on time, friends always want to go out and do stuff and when I'm home with some time, there's always someone asking, "Raquel, can you do my nails?"...Other than that, I still had to find time to do other things I like (reading, playing, chating with my friend Leticia, who suffered with all this too, since I had so little computer time), and still spend some time with my boyfriend. It was all too much for me, something had to give, and that was my own nails and blog. I had every mani ready, up until day 24, but couldn't bring myself to just post it, and after that, I completely quit! Also, my nails got so weak from all the painting and removing that they started to break...So, I filled my nails down, as short as I could, and went nail polish free until yesterday.

I will be posting the challenge again, 1 mani a day, and hopefully, when I'm done with the photos I have ready, my nails will be back in good shape and lenght. Now, let's move on with the subject.

For day 17, I went with a sloppy glitter gradient, this mani suffered from my lack of time. xD Apart from the sloppy gradient, I did an awful clean up job, sorry about that.

The polishes used are China Glaze Make Some Noise and Essence Make It Golden.

PS - I haven't been saying much about the nail polishes I have been using, as these challenge post aren't meant to be reviews, but if I have some trouble with the formula or application I will say so in the post, if not, assume it all went well. xD

31 Days Challenge #11 - #16

I'm still alive!

Sorry for not posting since last friday, but it has been a crazy week since then! On saturday we had a party at night and I had to do my mom's make-up and nails, my make-up and nails and another friend's nails, no time left for posting...then on sunday I had to help that same friend, as she was in the process of moving. So, my nails have been bare since last sunday. I don't even remember the last time they were naked for so long! xD

As you can imagine, I had a lot to catch up to, and today was literally nails day!

This will be a looooong post, so get ready and don't say I didn't warn you.

#11 Polka Dots

For this I used China Glaze L8R G8R (that I got from Anna's blogsale) and Nubar Reclaim.

#12 Stripes

This was done with Gosh Forest Green, Gosh Early Green and some striping tape.

#13 Animal Print

Uh oh...leopard print again! But this time it was all hand made, no stamping involved. For this, I used Orly Nite Owl, Leticia Well #146 and Kiss Nail Art in black.

#14 Flowers

Flowers aren't really my thing, but I guess I did ok on these. I used Kiko 339 for the base colour, Gosh Bubble Gum and Risqué Pink Fluor for the flowers, and Gosh Forest Floor and Gosh Early Green for the leaves.

#15 Delicate Print

Boy, this one was tough...I didn't really know what to do and this was my 3rd try at this, as I wasn't happy with the other 2. Here I used Essence Modern Romance stamped with Essence Stampy Polish in silver and my DRK-B.

#16 Tribal Print

My favourite ones from today! I had never done any tribal nails, but these were so simple and fun to do and I love the final result.
I used a nude, once again (must be on a nude kind of day), this time it was Essence Hazelnut Cream Pie. The blue stripe is China Glaze For Audrey and the white was all done with Kiss Nail Art in white, obviously. :P

 

Ufff, finally over! It's really a bad idea to fall behind on these challenges, I know I wont be doing it again.  :P

31 Days Challege #10 - Gradient

Hah, another easy one! I've told myself lots of times, that for my next gradient I would have to try and replicate the most beautiful gradient I've ever seen! This one...

I tried...it doesn't look exactly the same, I used different polishes, but it does look alike (to my eyes at least xD)!

I started this with 2 coats of O.P.I Fly, placed some striping tape on all of my nails, and then did the gradient using Fly and Essence Grumpy, from the Snow White LE. After that, I applied 1 coat of Hits Valsa and this is the final result:

None of my photos show how awesome this looks in real life and I'm really sad that I need to take this off tonight...but what can I do? The challenge must go on!

Tomorrow we have polka dots and I still have no idea of what to do... :S

31 Days Challenge #9 - Rainbow

This one was easy, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

I started with 2 coats of Purple Professional #32, then, on my accent nail, I placed some striping tape and then painted each remaining space with the rainbow colours. For this I used Kiko 334 (2 stripes), Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Good to Grape, O.P.I Fly, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Limewire, Sally Hansen  Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, Basic #291 and Andreia #40 (2 stripes).

Some stripes don't look perfect, but I'm happy with this, I think it looks cute! xD

31 Days Challenge #8 - Metallic

I don't own many metallic polishes, but I do own quite a few duochrome nail polishes and they look metallic to me, so that's what you'll get today! xD

Here's 1 coat of Hits Dreamer, from the Marimoon collection, over 1 coat of black, I couldn't do anything on top of it, some nail polishes are just awesome and don't need any nail art to make them look better.

There's really not much to say about it, I love duochromes and this one is really perfect, but I still layer it over black because I don't want to waste it all in a couple of manicures, the bottle only has 6ml...:S

31 Days Challenge #7 - Black & White

I had no idea of what to do with this one and when I finally decided what I wanted to do, I wasn't happy with it...I mean, I like it, but my stamping sucked, so I'm considering it a fail.

I started this one with 2 coats of Purple Professional #32, it's not a perfect, easy white, but it's not bad either, I managed to get a good coverage, with no streak marks with only 2 coats.  After that, I added some french tips in black, using Kiss Nail Art Black, and then stamped with the same polish and my DRK-B (are you tired of my plate already? xD).

I do like this look in general, but I'm really sad with my stamping...I don't really know what I did wrong, I guess I need to keep practicing. Oh well, not everything turns out how we want, better luck next time!

Any tips on how to improve my stamping skills?