31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Happy Halloween!

I made it! Besides being a little late with the last few posts, I did a different nail design for 31 days. This was really fun. If other nail artists are thinking about doing a challenge, I say go for it! 31 days is a long time, but you will really improve at nail art with all of the practice! And after doing this challenge I have SO much more respect for Melissa of The Daily Nail who did an entire YEAR of nail art. Melissa rules!!

My final manicure for this challenge is zombie nails! I think this is actually my third set of zombie nails for this challenge. Zombies RULE!

Oookie! I have a bunch more ideas for Halloween nails, so I guess I will just save them for next year. These matched the costume I am wearing today. 

I started with a lovely pink shade, though it looks more orange in this shot. 

I added red polish in random patches to the tips of each nail. 

Then I used a dark brown acrylic paint to make jagged cracks, and then highlighted the bottoms of each crack with black acrylic paint. 

I did both hands! Hello right hand, long time no see!

So my costume is Miss Zombie Sonoma County! I had fun putting this together. As soon as I had the make up on, the character just came together. So funny!

Grrrr! Arg! Brains! (I photoshopped my eyes in this pic. No money for cool contacts.) Polished used in this manicure: Sally Hansen First Kiss, Revlon Raven Red, Cult Nails Get It On basecoat, and Seche Vite topcoat. 

And I was even inspired enough to make a short video. Meet Miss Zombie Sonoma County!

Hahahahaha! Happy Halloween!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Inspired by a Tutorial

The reason I started this blog is because of one woman: Robin Moses! She is the most incredible nail artist I have seen. Her designs are innovative, fun, and she is brilliant at sharing those designs with the rest of us. Robin's videos are really great to get ideas from, and to learn new techniques. I rarely copy one of her designs directly, instead use techniques or a part of a design to springboard and try a hybrid or something new. The one thing Robin asks is that she is credited if you copy one of her designs. I feel like almost everything I do is connected to Robin, so I guess all of my posts are Inspired by Robin Moses! She is a doll, so please go check out her work. I guarantee you will learn something new. This manicure is Inspired by Robin Moses' Pink and White Zombie French Manicure. (I love how Robin loses it at 5:15 in the video. So hilarious!) I changed it up a bit, and swapped out the sinister zombie face for an equally sinister Hello Kitty zombie face.

Bwahaahahhahaha! Oh this kills me, it is sooo funny! Hello Kitty had her little skull ripped off by zombies, and now she needs to feast on kitty brains. And maybe a Keroppi or two. 

I started with this very pretty base color, which is sort of a mauve-ish brown. Great for BRAINS!

Then I added in a dirty pink color for the twists and turns of the brain. Random shapes are best, with each nail a little different. 

As Robin does in her video, I added a lighter pink to make the brain lobes more 3D, and topped with little bits of white paint to make it look juicy. You see why I love Robin?! She's so macabre! 

Next came a black jagged line, and I topped that with white paint to get the bone fragments up close to the brains. Once that line was in place, I painted white nail polish down the rest of the nail to make the french manicure. Robin's video illustrates this so well. 

Here is why my design veers from Robin's. I decided to go with a Hello Kitty zombie. I added her eyes, nose, and bow. 

Finally, I topped the white in her nose with yellow paint (this helps the yellow color really pop), whiskers, blood in a few areas, and the red of her bow, as well as a little bit of glitter on her bow to make it blingy. Cause even Zombie Hello Kitty needs bling. 

Polished used in this manicure: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Expresso, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White (this color is SOOO gloppy, does anyone have a better white that they like to use? I even tried thinning this with NO luck. Blech!) and China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I also used Cult Nails Get It One basecoat and Seche Vite topcoat. 

Tomorrow is Halloween and the final day of this challenge. The original list says that on Day 31 I am supposed to recreate my favorite challenge. Um, I think I would rather just do another rad Halloween manicure. So that is what I am going to do. I haven't decided what to do yet, and will probably get on it tomorrow morning. Any suggestions?

Thanks to all of my followers and those who are commenting. I love your encouragement and enthusiasm. This has really been a FUN challenge!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Black and White Nails

These nails are inspired by Robin Moses. She did a video tutorial of this design a few weeks ago and I fell totally in love with it. I am a big fan of Japanese culture (check out my bento lunch blog sometime!) and this appealed to me right away for its impact and simplicity. Plus it is freakin' creepy! ZOMBIES a la manga artist Junji Ito. Check it out:

Right?! Amazing, huh??! The zombies turned out great, but part of the manicure that I did not expect to like so much are the other nails that I painted halfway with a really cool Forever 21 polish. We'll get to that in a second...

I started with a coat of LA Colors white polish. My Sally Hansen Insta-Dri white was all goopy, that's why I didn't use Whirlwind White. 

Isn't this the coolest glitter? Click on the picture to get a close look. I picked this up at Forever 21, not really understanding how awesome it was. I actually thought it had a black polish base with some sort of flakies in it, or confetti, not sure. Then when I used it in this manicure, I saw how cool it was. Tiny black glitter and larger round glitter suspended in a clear base. It is so awesome! Of course, it was a b*tch to remove, but that is the price we pay for glitter manis. 

Watching Robin's video, and using a few images I printed of Junji Ito's work on the internet, here are my versions of the zombies. I love this smiling girl. She's a freak!

My right hand turned out great too! (Sorry about the round shape of my thumbnail. I broke it doing housework before my mom and dad showed up for a visit. I will get it grown back out soon.) (Wow, what a boring explanation for a broken nail. I should have said that the zombies ate it! LOL)

Here they are together! I just love this manicure, and if I wasn't doing the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, I would so wear this for a few days. But I can always redo it. It is totally appropriate for the holiday season. Black Friday Zombies, anyone?? 

Polishes used in this manicure: LA Colors 561 White, Love and Beauty Black polish (I HATE how Forever 21 polishes are named. Wow, it's an amazing multi-size black glitter, and the best name they can come up with is "Black"??), Essie All In One Basecoat, and Seche Vite topcoat. 

Tomorrow is metallic nails! They should be fun. And I am trying to pick up a few bottles of Cult Nails Unicorn Puke right now (yes, I am up at 3am to do this) so WISH ME LUCK!