31 day challenge - animal print

I mixed things up from my usual stamping by using some water decals today. I got them some months ago from Born Pretty Store and have been saving them specifically for this prompt. Peacocks! 

The decals are very colourful and were easy to use - unlike some other decals I've used, these ones were pretty tough and stood up to being shifted around on the nail. The only downside was that the pattern, annoyingly, is not coordinated across the nails. And that offset peacock in the middle? Far too subtle on the nail IMO because it gets lost on the side of your nail.. I like how this mani turned out but I feel that the decal design could be better. Still, I'm happy with them.

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Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day, so I've done a themed manicure using poppy water decals from Born Pretty Store. 

Lest We Forget.

31 Day Challenge - inspired by art

A while back I saw some very cool manuscript nail art from Break Rules Not Nails. I wanted to try something similar for this challenge. A while back, I'd stumbled on an article about a popular and charmingly odd medieval manuscript theme: knights fighting against snails. I found an image I thought I could fit on my nails from an article about knights and snails called Snail Jousting. The article talks a bit about the role of knights fighting snails, and the blog Hunting For Snails has more images and more information if you're keen to learn more.

Here's the image I chose:

Knight jousts snail, Frontispiece to Le livre des enseignments des visces et des vertus France, N.(Picardy)(From the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts)

I started by painting my nails white, as the decals are a bit transparent. I took the water decal I'd printed earlier of the illustration, cut it to fit on each nail, and then topcoated it to stick them on. I finished with OPI's matte topcoat to match the pages of a book.

Because my nails are so curved the image is not a smooth from one nail to the next as I'd hoped. Still, medieval knight vs. snail art on my nails = sweet.

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31 Day Challenge - inspired by a movie

Earlier this year I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road, and I absolutely loved it. So I knew exactly which movie I wanted to do for this prompt!

I made a water decal using a promo pic of the two main characters, Imperator Furiosa and Mad Max, then painted the other nails black and stamped a chrome mechanical pattern using Born Pretty plate BPL-022.

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31 Day Challenge - inspired by a song

I've been looking forward to this prompt! I chose to do a mani inspired by the Box Tops song "The Letter":

Give me a ticket for an aeroplane,

Ain't got time to take a fast train.

Lonely days are gone, I'm a-going home,

My baby just wrote me a letter.

I painted my nails with Ciate's Sugar Plum, then stamped using plates:

Winstonia "On The Road" (aeroplane and tickets)

Cici and Sisi 01 (the clock)

Born Pretty Store BPL-021 (the couple)

Winstonia W102 (the love letter).

The train was a water decal which I made myself, and the heart on the letter was coloured in with Kleancolor Be Wild With Class.

I love having the colours of the stamping decal but I struggle with getting the topcoat thick enough to peel the decal off without getting too thick - i got some bubbles with this, frustratingly.

and here's a YouTube video of the song.

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31 Day Challenge - Geometric

I got a nice water decal sheet from Born Pretty Store (QJ-247) which I've been waiting to use, and this challenge is the perfect time.

To prep for the transparent decals, I painted my nails white with Essence Wild White Ways, which I bought after Gelic recommended it - it's amazing, I only had to use one coat! And so cheap! :D

I then used Revlon's Black Magic for the other nails.

An InLinkz Link-up