31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 30: Inspired By A Tutorial

Hello loves! Happy Thursday! It is getting pretty cold out here in the desert and I'm actually using the heater now. I love cold weather and the Holiday Season, but man! It is wreaking havoc on my skin and cuticles already! Time to break out the big guns, right?

Today's Challenge is Inspired By A Tutorial. I really dig this challenge prompt. There are so many awesome nail art tutorials out there - it was very hard to choose. In the end I chose something that I had never really thought of until very recently.

Have you ever busted out your nail art brushes and wondered "What in the heck am I supposed to do with this fan brush?!?!"? Me too. A few weeks ago, I ended up googling it and found some really cool nail art using the fan brush. Let me show you what I used mine for!

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lickety-Split Lime (I regretted this choice since the formula was a nightmare! Thick, goopy, and even stringy! Yuck!!!). Then I grabbed my fan brush and used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue, Orly Charged Up, and Lickety-Split Lime to create the pattern. I actually repeated the colors twice to get the effect I was looking for.

I really like this look! My mani didn't come out nearly as well as the video, but I still love it. I really want to try this with all sorts of different colors and finishes. I also can't wait to try out some other types of fan brush nail art. If I had only googled this sooner!

Here is the tutorial I used for this look:

Isn't that a great idea for using a fan brush? Love, love, love it! One of the things that I really dig about this particular technique is that you can change the look of the mani just by changing how you pull the polish across the nail. Light strokes in a single sweep leaves stripes like in the video. One stroke to place the polish and a few "dry" strokes over the stripes blends the polish creating a tie-dyed look. So cool!

What do you think of this mani? Will you be trying some Fan Brush Nail Art?

Be sure to check out all the tutorial based nails the Varnished Vixens have created today!

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check back Sunday for the final Challenge!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge, Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

Hi guys! I don't have a whole lot of time to post tonight, so I'll get right to the mani!

I chose a design by Erika of Chloe's Nails for this challenge, since he is the queen of all Tape Mani's and I just love her nails! I had wanted to use this color combo for awhile as well, and I couldn't think of a better way to combine them than by doing one of her awesome tape manis. This is the mini tutorial I chose, and this is my final product:

In sunlight:

And Indoors in Natural Light:

For this mani I used Sinful Colors What's Your Name as my base, and Pixel Blu Ray. I love this particular teal and have been dying to wear it. However, the formula on Blu Ray is just a huge mess! It works better as an accent than as a base. I may try thinning it a bit and see if that helps.

Despite Blu Ray's thick and gloppy application, I love love love how this turned out! It's been awhile since I have done a tape mani, and I think this challenge has rekindled my love for them.  It has also helped me get into the habit of posting daily, instead of just taking pics of all my manis and posting occasionally. I can't guarantee I'll still post daily, but I'm sure I'll post at least every other day. Daily has been tough since I have two kiddos and own a business - life happens sometimes. But I'm going to strive for at least one post every 36 hours or so.

My last challenge is to re-create my favorite challenge, and I'm torn between 2 of them. I may just have to flip a coin. The end of the 31 day challenge is bittersweet since I have learned so much and stepped outside of my comfort zone in such a big way that it makes me a little sad to go back to picking and choosing on my own. On the other hand, I have a ton of ideas and so many polishes that I have been dying to use! I have been dying to test out my Gelous system, as well as a bunch of glitter and wintery polishes.  I'm sure you guys will be seeing more stamping, tape manis, and freehand work after all of this. :)

Happy polishing!
-Kimber