31DC2013, Day 25: Inspired by fashion

Yee-haw! Day 25 of the 31 Day Challenge 2013! Never thought I'd need half a year for a one-month-challenge... But mark my words, I am going to finish it!!! :)
It was fun to scan the net for inspiring fashion pictures. I almost settled on Valentino Spring/Summer 2014 collection (awesome ethnic designs!) and than I saw the Alexandre Vauthier S/S 2014 collection. I thought it is PERFECT as a mani inspiration and set to work.

Source: Alexandre Vauthier

I'm so in love with this design! I think this is my favourite mani so far. It was pretty easy to do, although it requires a little patience.
The copper lines are acrylic paint, glitter and brown are nail polishes. I discovered, that I have to work much faster if I want to use nail polish for my nail art. It's just not possible to draw a thin line with a drying, gooey polish. But the glitter was worth it! (My accent nails are more sparkly in person).

I used a toothpick to create small dots and a very thin nail art brush for the lines. In the beginning I used tape to create a crisp outline. Once I've drawn a couple lines, I removed the tape and could stay within the "borders" without problems.

Base color: Cult Nail Tempest
Accent nails: stripes and dots with p2 Next Exit Party(pale gold), A-England Briarwood (shimmery brown), China Glaze I Herd That (gold-orangy glitter)
Studs: golden 2mm studs bought on Ebay


I can imagine, that this style would also look great in different color combinations. Imagine white base and 1) silver and blue; 2) silver, grey and black; 3) grey and Shrek-green; 4) rosé and gold ...
Would work, right? What  do you think?

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Valentine's Day mani

Being a romantic at heart I had to do a Valentine's day mani :). I wanted to so something special, but not the typical pink roses / red hearts stuff. Thank god, there are such fantastic nail art bloggers like Meghan of Will Paint Nails For Food. I saw her stained glass Valentine's mani and loved it instantly. I was determined to re-create it and here it is:

I was over-eager with all the stained glass fragments, but I still like the result! I wondered, how it would look with matte top coat and tried it out:

With matte finish the gold fragments look duller and the shimmery particles in my pink polishes stay hidden, but the pattern looks more defined. Hmm, I still cannot decide, which finish I like more :)

Glossy

Matte

Do you like the glossy or matte version more?

Base coat: very cute white based indie polish with matte pink glitter called Theoretical Girlfriend by Vivid Lacquer bought on Etsy
Stained glass: A-England Rosebower, Kleancolor Pastel Pink, Picture Polish Electric Dream, OPI Elephantastic Pink, p2 gold Next Exit Party
Matte Top Coat from Born Pretty Store

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31DC2013, Day 24: Inspired by a book

Back to the 31 Day Challenge 2013, which I plan to finish this year :D
Let me tell you, "Inspired by a book" was not an easy topic for me. Every mani for a book except maybe"1984" would require helluva free-hand skills, which I simply don't possess...
Nevertheless, I decided to create a manicure based on Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories". It is actually a children's book and I didn't expect to like it so much. But it has so many amazing ideas, I just loved it!. For example, the idea of the Sea of Stories - this is where all the stories in the world come from. Strings of different stories are constantly moving, intervene with each other, change. Whenever someone tells a story, it is one of these strings, which is being unwound.

I thought abstract waves would be perfect for the Sea and remembered an awesome mani I've seen on Tips and Topcoat. I searched and searched through months of Lou's posts to find this beautiful mani. She is so talented and such a motivation for me to get better!
I adopted the idea to my skill level  - and here it is, my Sea of Stories.

To do this mani was very relaxing, but it took ages - so I'm not re-creating it any time soon :) Maybe one day, when I'm better with free-hand painting...
Base color: OPI Don't Touch My Tutu
Sea: acrylic paint
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Free hand practice or how to pimp your Briarwood

I bought A-Englands Briarwood ages ago. Bought, admired and forgot for months. I decided it's time to wear this beautiful polish. I wore it on its own for a day, but felt my mani was missing something. Apparently I just cannot wear a polish without nail art anymore :D
Surprisingly, on my nails Briarwood looked more brown then dark red. Nail art with brown?!? Ok, let's practice free-hand painting!

Indoors the golden shimmer and scattered holo particles are very subtle. The magic of this rich deep-red-brown color truly reveals itself in direct sunlight. The problem is, you don't see that much of it in February in Northern Europe... ;)

See what I mean with more red then brown? It looks more dark rosé in a bottle, doesn't it?

I'm still a beginner with acrylic paints. My hand shakes like crazy and when I try to create lines, they are neither thin nor straight ;)  Clear case here: practice free-handing!
I've always liked the delicate swirly pattern on a Bundle Monster BM-314 plate, so I decided to do some swirls on my Brairwood canvas.

I thought maybe a thinner brush would help with finer lines. I cut a small nail art brush as shown in this tutorial and hey! Look at my lines! Almost all of them are thin!!!

Do you have any tips and tricks for free-hand painting? Read More......