13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge: Something You've Never Done Before (A Few Days Late!)

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Good evening! Who else is thrilled that another Monday is over with? I know I'm not the only one! (I would really hate to be Monday though. How sad must Monday be? No wonder it hates us back!) Anyway, I have a post for you today that I should have posted Friday, but the last few days have been crazy so here it is.

The final prompt in the 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge is "something you've never done before." Well, I had never done a negative space mani before because I'm not a huge fan of them. I like a few that I have seen but mostly they aren't my thing. Plus my nails are pretty stained so the only space I felt comfortable "exposing" my nails was at the base. I'm also not typically a fan of half moon manis on myself (though I do love them on other people), but I figured I'd give them another shot.

I apologize for the quality of the photo (phone pic). I didn't intend on leaving them like this and just snapped this pic quickly to show a friend. I freehanded the half moons and I am pretty proud of how those turned out! I did attempt to add some art on top but it just didn't turn out well so I decided to stick with these instead. Sometimes clean and simple is the best! And I actually enjoyed wearing these. Half moons and negative space - I sure didn't expect to like it but I ended up wearing them all weekend. The red I used is SinfulSHINE Devious. 

I hope you enjoyed this nail art challenge, even if I did post late for most of it! LOL

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Thanks for reading and happy polishing!

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13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge - Recreate One of Your Old Manis

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Good evening! Yesterday's prompt for the 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge was to recreate one of our old manis. I was a bit under the weather yesterday so I'm posting a day late.

I decided to recreate my most-viewed (and most pinned on Pinterest) manicure that I created about 2 1/2 years ago. It positively makes me cringe when I look at it because I see every flaw in it. But I am so glad I chose to recreate it because it has shown me just how far I've come.

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13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge: Rainbow

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Happy Hump Day! Today's prompt in the 13 Days of Nail Art Challenge is rainbow! I've been craving some neons lately so I thought I'd use one of my favorite collections and have some fun with neons!

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13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge: Artwork

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Good evening! I missed two days of the 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge last week (during Digit-al Dozen Week), but I plan on playing catch up! In the meantime, today's prompt is "artwork." I had no problem choosing the artist I was going to draw inspiration from. I chose my favorite artist, who also happens to be one of my very favorite people, my bestie! 

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Digit-al Dozen Does Fairytales, Day Five: Brave

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Hello and happy start of the weekend! Today is the last day of Digit-al Dozen week which means I have officially survived! I'll admit, this week kicked my butt! But I had so much fun creating the nail art and thinking outside the box. This theme was not an easy one to start with but I'm glad I got to participate, it really pushed me to try things I wouldn't have otherwise! Today's mani is also serving as my "green base" manicure for today's (err... yesterday? LOL) prompt in the 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge. I am behind a couple of manicures in that but I'll catch up!

I have been wanting to do a manicure for the Disney movie Brave for quite some time, but I never knew how to translate it into nail art. I've had it in the back of my mind all week but just kept pondering over it. I finally came up with something and I am really happy with how it turned out!

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13 Days Of January Nail Art Challenge, Day 4: Monochromatic

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Hello lovelies! Today, errr... yesterday in most parts of the world,  is "monochromatic" day in the 13 Days of Nail Art Challenge. I've been craving some browns lately so I decided to use browns for this prompt!

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13 Days Of January Nail Art Challenge, Day 3: Half and Half

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Good evening! I'm back with a late post for the 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge! Today's prompt is "half and half" and I am pretty happy with my mani despite doing it quickly and at the last minute!

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13 Days Of January Nail Art Challenge, Day 2: Happiness

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It's late in the day, but it is still Monday so I am not too late for the 13 Days of January Challenge! Today's theme is "happiness." I was originally going to do a dog-themed mani because my dogs make me happy, but I knew of 2 friends who were doing that today so I decided I'd do something else. Friends and family and other things that make me happy were hard to translate to nail art so I decided to go with something that always makes me happy - rain!

Yes, you heard correctly. I LOVE the rain! Any rainy, or even just cloudy and overcast, makes me a happy gal. It doesn't rain often here in the Arizona desert so I thoroughly enjoy it every time it does.

This manicure looks so much better in person. I took about a million pictures in every lighting situation and my pictures just wouldn't turn out for some reason. It really has so much depth in person. All of the polishes I used are from the upcoming Elevation Polish A Journey Told Through Music Collection that I will have swatches of tomorrow! 

Make sure to check out the other manis below!

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Thanks for reading and happy polishing!

13 Days Of January Nail Art Challenge, Day 1: Follow A Tutorial

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Happy Friday! For my first post of 2015 I am kicking off a new nail art series for the month of January! The 13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge is one I am doing with some friends. It is a spin-off of Crumpet's 31 Day Challenge. There's a lot happening this month and we didn't feel we could commit to all 31 days, so this will be a less stressful challenge! 

Day 1's Prompt is "Follow a Tutorial" and I decided to try my hand at freehand houndstooth! I had been wanting to try this for a while so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I followed this tutorial from Pointless Cafe. She made it super easy to follow! Unfortunately I am having issues with all of my nail art brushes and it was very hard for me to get clean lines. I was planning on doing more than one nail but I had to re-do this one several times and I was so frustrated by the time I got it done that I didn't even want to think about doing more. I have a new brush due to arrive tomorrow so hopefully it's a good one!

The base of this mani is Cacique Give Me Grey, which I picked up at a Lane Bryant store a few months ago.  This was my first time trying this brand. I quite like the color, it's a nice cool grey with blue undertones. The formula was a bit iffy but not overly problematic. I used 3 thin coats to help it apply evenly as it didn't self-level very well. The bottles and caps are square and the cap does not lift off so once you screw it back on, it's all caddywhompus, which bothers me greatly. I did like the brush though, it was flat and a nice width. The design was done with acrylic paint. After I used a regular top coat I added a coat of Wet 'n Wild Matte Top Coat.

Don't forget to check out all of the other manis below!

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Thanks for reading and happy polishing! 

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