31DC2013 Challenge Recap!

Nothing is sweeter than finally completing a 31 Day Nail Challenge. Granted it took me more than 2 years to finally complete it and some people have completed two of these in that time, but I'm going to celebrate anyway! It is actually fun for me to go back and recall all the early manicures that I created in 2013 before loosing steam on the last third of the challenge. Let's take a look, shall we?

31DC2013 Day 31 - Honor Nails You Love

Today is the final day of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The challenge for today is to honor nail you love. I chose to create a manicure inspired by Christina of Let Them Have Polish. It was a while back that she posted a photo of her thumb nail on Instagram with this design. It reminded me of bubble chocolate and I knew that I would have to recreate it some day...

31DC2013 Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

Turns out today is 2 for 1 day because I'm really wanting to finish up the 31 Day Nail Challenge. Day 30 of the challenge calls to create a manicure inspired by a tutorial. I chose to try my hand at a quatrefoil print by Christabell Nails. I first saw her tutorial on Instagram, but she does have an extended version on YouTube as well which is what I would suggest you check out. It is so simple to create this look using just two shades of polish, a dotting tool and a small brush. Who could have imagined...

31DC2013 Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

I've got only a few days left to complete in the 31 Day Nail Challenge and I couldn't be more excited. Day 29 of the challenge called for a manicure inspired by the supernatural. Since Halloween is just around the corner, all things ghost and goblin came to mind. I've been wanting to try this particular technique for creating sheer ghosts for a while. I'm not sure who originally came up with the idea, but I see it done a lot these days...

31DC2013 Day 28 - Inspired by a Flag

Hi Lovelies! Today I'm forging ahead to Day 28 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The theme for today is a manicure inspired by a flag. I had a tough time deciding on a design for this one mainly because I was pretty set against recreating a country flag. I started racking my brain for other creative flag ideas and I was coming up blank. It wasn't until I saw the Messy Mansion stamping plate innocently hanging out on my table waving it's little pirate flag that inspiration hit!

31DC2013 Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

Hi Lovelies! Up next in the 31 Day Nail Challenge is Day 27, Inspired by Artwork. I'm always drawn to Asian inspired art featuring bamboo so after a quick search online (this is literally the 3rd image that comes up in Google when I search for "bamboo art"), I knew what I wanted to do.

31DC2013 Day 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

Hi All! I'm continuing today with Day 26 of the 31 day challenge. The task for today was to create a manicure inspired by a pattern. I have long been wanting to stamp the houndstooth pattern, but somehow don't seem to get around to actually following through. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and finally make it happen. Polished by KPT Fall-O-You for me is a perfect shade for the task. It reminds me of a great Fall jacket and I think the houndstooth pattern suits it well. Now if I could actually find a jacket that goes from charcoal gray a the top and gently transitions to and army or olive green at the bottom, I'd be sold...

31DC2013 Day 25 - Inspired by Fashion

Shame on me. I just resumed the 31 Day Challenge and here I am 2 (+365?) days behind already. Have no fear though, I'm still determined to catch up or at the very least complete the rest of the challenges. Day 25 is possibly one of my favorites with a challenge to create a fashion inspired manicure. I have drawn inspiration from fashion many times and lately in particular I'm drawn to shoes. This pair of shoes has been in my 'inspiration' folder for quite some time and this was the perfect opportunity to bring it to life...

31DC2013 Day 24 - Inspired by a Book

Today I would like to show you my manicure for Day 24 of the 31 Day Challenge. Now some of you might be thinking "Day 24? What happened to Days 1-23?" so let me explain. Days 1-23 are way back in September of last year when I started this challenge. I lost steam after the first three weeks and at the time thought I would finish up "soon". Well somehow "soon" turned into a full year and probably would have been even longer if a whole bunch of talented nail art bloggers and fanatics weren't in the midst of doing this challenge AGAIN! I thought for me this would be the perfect time for me to pick up where I left off and post my challenges along with them. Hopefully that will keep me motivated to complete the challenge and get that nagging voice out of my head that keeps reminding me that I left something unfinished.

The challenge for Day 24 is to create a manicure inspired by a book. I chose a fun little book titled, Everything Men Know About Women. As you can see, I was inspired by the cover because (SPOILER ALERT) all the pages in this book are blank and somehow plain white nails didn't seem like much of a challenge...

31DC2013 Day 21 - Inspired by a Color

In an attempt to catch up with the challenge I would like to show you a second manicure today. This is my manicure for Day 21 of the 31 Day Nail Challenge. The challenge is to be inspired by a color. I was inspired by the name of this beautiful blue Tawdry Terrier Howling at the Moon lacquer. I instantly knew that I wanted to try adding a howling wolf to it...

31DC2013 Day 8 - Metallic

Today is Day 8 of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge with the theme of Metallic nails. What could be more metallic than nail foils? I have not gotten to play with nail foils to much, but I recently got the Best Glue Ever (yup, that's what it is called) and I'm so in love. I'm sure you'll be seeing more foiled manis in the future, but here is one for today...

31DC2013 Day 7 - Black and White

As this post goes live, I'm heading on vacation, but have no fear, I worked my little tushy off to keep up with the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge and have scheduled posts to entertain you. The theme for challenge Day 7 is Black & White. I have been wanting to try the water spotted technique for a while now and finally got an excuse to make time...

31 Day Challenge Recap!

Wow, I can't believe the challenge is officially over! Crazy to think that I started it back in August and finished it just now. A 30 day challenge in a little over 3 months! :)

I hope that this goes to show that you don't have to commit to doing a challenge every day to participate. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I can see a definite improvement in my skills (both in nail art and photographing it) from when I started.

Click on any of these to be taken to the original post with photos and details on the manicure!


It is so fun to see them all together! Which one (if any) stood out to you?

I honestly don't know who the credit goes to for creating this challenge, but I am glad I stumbled on at Here Comes the Sun back in August. Here it is if you choose to accept it! :)

Let me know if you have done this challenge or will be trying it. I love to see everyone's take on it!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 31 - Recreate Your Favorite Challenge

It is finally the last day of the challenge and the challenge today was to re-create a favorite challenge. I have seen a lot of bloggers choose to recreate the manicure of someone who was doing challenge along with them. Since I did mine at a snail's pace that no one except for me could follow, I didn't have that option. Instead I recreated the animal print challenge from Day 13 for my cousin Lana. She is a big fan of animal print and asked me to do a tutorial for the manicure after I posted it back in September.

Since the tutorial is still on my list of things to do and I have been bad at complying with her request, she received a personal manicure instead. I think it was more fun for both of us and a great way to spend time together...

Here is to more fun manicure girl times!!

Have you done manicures for friends or family?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

The challenge to be inspired by a tutorial was the easiest, but also the hardest. There are sooo many talented people out there that I didn't know which one to start with. I finally settled on a tutorial from Nail Art by Tartofraises that I have been wanting to try for a while now. If you have never seen this blog, then go now, you will be amazed. The blog is in French, but I think you don't need to understand the text to be inspired by her gorgeous manicures (plus that's what the translate features are for ;)). She also has videos tutorials with English subtitles for of most of her manicures on YouTube.

I used Zoya Lucy as the base and Wet 'n Wild French White Creme for the white. Here is my attempt at her manicure and I'm thrilled with the result. I love french tips and this just puts such a lovely spin on it...

And look, I do have two hands... I know you were starting to doubt only seeing the left one all the time ;)

Here is the gorgeous inspiration! It looks amazing on her long nails, but I would never be able to function with nails like that so I had to settle for translating the manicure to my shorter nails. For more photos check out her blog and great video tutorial.

I cannot wait to try more of her tutorials...

Let me know what you think! Is there a person or people that inspire you to try new manicures?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Day 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

Quite honestly I wasn't feeling very inspired by the supernatural for today's challenge. There are lots of ways this could have gone, but I was not in the mood for anything loud and crazy so I decided to keep it simple. Plus, I wanted something that I would be able to wear in public :). I chose to do another take on galaxy nails and throw in a few UFOs for the supernatural effect. Yes, those little silver blips at the top of the nails and one that landed on the tip of my index finger are supposed to be UFOs.

It may not be the best take on the challenge, but I do like the manicure and I hope you do to...

The polishes used for this manicure:
- Borghese - Mezzanotte Blue (base)
- LA Colors - No name metallic blue
- Rimmel - Violet Metal
- Essie - Braziliant
- Wet 'n Wild - Silvivor

I'd love to know what you think. Are you sick of galaxy nails yet or still loving them?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)