31-Day Challenge #29: inspired by the supernatural

I didn't have to think too hard about today's challenge. I've been into dragons since I was a tween--I used to draw dragons on people's folders in middle school. I even have a collection of dragon figurines, one of which appears in today's pic:

The base color is Julep Hailee with Color Club Wild Cactus and more Hailee sponged on. I made a darker shade of green by mixing Wild Cactus with Revlon Stiletto, and did the scales and area around the eyes with that (it's unfortunately hard to see in this pic, but quite obvious in real life). I defined the edges with Revlon Stiletto. The eye is Sally Hansen Lightening with a dot of Sinful Colors Snow Me White for the "reflection".

And here's a bonus dragon I found buried in my pictures folder--I drew this in 2002, which means I was probably 16 (don't ask me why he's holding a banner)...

Finally, don't forget to check out today's other supernatural manis!

31-Day Challenge #28: inspired by a flag

Does anyone else find today's prompt oddly specific? Why a flag of all things?

Anyway, I picked the flag of Slovakia, because I have a bit of Slovak ancestry, and I also think it's a nicely designed flag:

The double cross comes originally from the Byzantine Empire, since the Slavs were converted to Orthodox Christianity by Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius (who also invented the ancestor of the Cyrillic alphabet). The blue hills represent three mountain ranges in the region.

My mani isn't very exciting, but I wasn't sure how to spice it up! I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Revlon Red Carpet, and China Glaze Hanging in the Balance.

Here are today's other patriotic manis!

31-Day Challenge #27: inspired by artwork

I was initially nervous about this challenge, because I didn't think I had the talent to reproduce any works of art (except for maybe some really minimalist abstract art). I hope you like the inspiration I eventually came up with...

It's Lascaux Cave art--the original artwork (over 17,000 years old)! I love the style of the animals. Here are the pictures I used for inspiration:

 Here are the polishes I used:

• Julep Otte
• L'Oreal Creme Puffs
• Sephora by OPI Thyme for a Mani
• Revlon Stormy Night
• Revlon Timeless
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• OPI My Vampire is Buff
• Revlon Stiletto
• L'Oreal Spice Things Up
• L'Oreal L'Orange

I sponged several colors on the background to get a "rocky" look. At the end I used Revlon's matte topcoat.

Don't forget to admire today's other artsy manis!

31-Day Challenge #26: inspired by a pattern

I took the easy way out for today's challenge and based my mani on a pattern I see every day: the one on my bedspread (which looks like this). I just switched the color scheme because I feel like I've used a lot of blue lately (even though I adore blue!).

I think this looks pretty cool! I used Julep Abbie and Brit and did the pattern with my smallest dotting tool.

Only five more challenges to go! I'm trying not to get burned out. :-P

Check out today's other challenge manis:

31-Day Challenge #25: inspired by fashion

I had been avoiding thinking about this prompt for a long time, because I had no idea what I was going to do. I've never been interested in fashion in the slightest; 90% of my wardrobe is from GAP, and the rest is mostly funny t-shirts. Eventually it occurred to me that I should just go with what I know. And one thing I have a lot of (from GAP, of course) is argyle.

This mani made me very grouchy. First, I used striping tape to make the diamond shapes, but of course once I removed the tape I had white lines that needed to be filled in, or it wouldn't look right. Since I had to fill in the gaps by hand, it doesn't look as neat as I would like. Then, I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen for the dotted lines--I started with dots, like you see on my socks, but it didn't look good, so I connected some of the dots to make dashes. But I think this pen was too thick for this design. (Do they make super thin nail art pens? Like the size of thin mechanical pencils?) And the pen also stained my skin! Boo.

ANYWAY the colors I used were Essie Lapiz of Luxury, Revlon Timeless and Sinful Colors Snow Me White (plus the turquoise art pen).

I didn't put a topcoat over the turquoise, and it washed off almost completely in the shower, so I took a quick picture of just the diamond pattern:

Here's hoping tomorrow's mani turns out better (even though I have no idea what I'm going to do yet...).

And don't forget to check out everyone else's fashionable manis!

31-Day Challenge #24: inspired by a book

For this challenge I chose one of my favorite books, Tolkien's The Silmarillion. The book covers the history of Middle-Earth before the events of The Lord of the Rings, and is basically full of elves being badass.

I attempted to paint the Two Trees of Valinor, which shone silver and gold. They were killed by a giant spider but before they died, their last flower and fruit were taken and became the sun and moon.

For the silver tree I used Zoya Storm, Julep Harley, L'Oreal Eiffel for You, and Color Club Wild Cactus (unfortunately the picture doesn't show that the trunk and branches are a slightly different color than the silver leaves--I mixed silver with brown); for the gold tree I used L'Oreal Not a Cloud in Sight, Maybelline Bold Gold, Revlon Stormy Night and Revlon Sassy.


Here are today's other literary manis!

31-Day Challenge #23: inspired by a movie

I don't know about you, but my favorite Disney movie of all time is The Lion King. I've watched it probably at least a hundred times, and I've seen the musical twice. I gave myself a very ambitious (for me) goal for this challenge, which was to recreate this scene from "Hakuna Matata":

I was terrified the whole time that I was going to do something horribly wrong and have to start the whole thing over, but miraculously that didn't happen!

OK, Simba's expression looks more doofy than carefree. But all things considered I'm pretty darn pleased with myself. :-D

I used a zillion polishes for this (in many cases I mixed two or more colors together):

• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• Revlon Stiletto
• Julep Otte
• L'Oreal L'Orange
• L'Oreal Spice Things Up
• L'Oreal Caught Red-Handed
• OPI My Vampire is Buff
• L'Oreal Not a Cloud in Sight
• Essie Sand Tropez
• Julep Parker
• Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!

Don't forget to check out today's other movie-themed manis, and remember...ya gotta put your behind in your past!