ER31DC Week 31 - Redo!

Well, the last week of the Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge is upon us, and this one was quite difficult. I didn't quite know what to redo.

The other half suggested tribal, but to be honest I nearly wept tears of blood after how long it took to do the first one. Then I was thinking glitter or polka dots... until I remembered I'd not done a gradient mani in an absolute age. I love gradients. Not so massively fond of the cleanup afterwards, but I have a new bottle of pure acetone on my desk that says that isn't going to be a problem any more.

ER31DC Week 30 - Inspired by a Tutorial

I was originally going to do gradients for this, until I realised that that was a bit of a cop out because I love them and they're dead easy. Also I had no inspiration other than "do a gradient". So I went surfing through the great and mighty google to see what I could find in the way of tutorials there.

I found this super easy tutorial on Nail Art Express for corset nails, and I immediately knew what I was doing.

These were done with a base of Rimmel's Princess Pink for a nice nude background, with the corsets themselves done in OPIs Meet Me On The Star Ferry. Meet Me on the Star Ferry was part of my birthday present from Mr Painted Claws and is an absolutely amazing polish - a metallic, muted pink that looks super classy and nice.

ER31DC Week 29 - Inspired by the Supernatural

I did try and do mermaids for this one, but only after I had painstakingly painted my nails with a super sheer polish did I realise that I did not actually own the fish scale stamping image that I thought I did. And then hand drawn scales came out badly.

So I went on to do the obvious... Vampires.

Not the crappy sparkly kind though. I grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with proper vampires in it.

ER31DC Week 28 - Inspired by a Flag

There was absolutely zero hesitation for this one (for once!) as this is my now yearly holiday destination and home country of Mr Painted Claws' mother - Portugal!

ER31DC Week 27 - Inspired by an Artwork

OMG I'm so late with these! I've had these done and photgraphed for about a fortnight to be honest, and for some reason I'd absolutely convinced myself that I'd post them (when I clearly have not!)

Inspired by the artwork of Andy Warhol, or more specifically this print of Marilyn Monroe.

I was never good at appreciating art, I'm not gonna lie.

ER31DC Week 26 - Inspired by a Pattern

Stripes. I love stripes.

ER31DC Week 25 - Inspired by Fashion

I'm terrible at fashion. If its not jeans and a t-shirt, I'm probably not gonna wear it. I did however spot this jumper in the New Look autumn collection and fall in love with it a little. I love jumpers. They protect me from my bitterest enemy - the cold.

I love the colour with the white of the lace on the front, co I went to try and replicate it. Then I realised there is no way I'm that good at freehanding things so I pulled out my Born Pretty Store lace stickers and BAM. Instant pretty.

ER31DC Week 24 - Inspired by a Book

... or a series of books.

My first fandom was Sailormoon. I'm a massive kid when it comes to this anime, I love it to bits!

ER31DC Week 23 - Inspired by a Movie

Apologies for the massive lateness of this post, but I'm off on my holidays on sunday and last minute panic is in full swing in the Painted Claws household. And by that I mean my other half keeps telling me not to worry and I keep writing insane lists and losing things.

This mani was inspired entirely by Rachael over at Racho's Nail Love and one of the mani's she did for a recent challenge - Comic-Con Geek Week Day 3.

I love Stargate. I remember watching the film so many years ago and absolutely adoring it. I even had the video game for the Mega drive back in the mid-90s. I was terrible at it. But the thing that captivated me most and the one thing that ties all of the various versions together is the gate itself.

ER31DC Week 22 - Inspired by a Song

Nothing jumped out at me to do for this one, so I decided to stick my iTunes on and let it decide for me. Thankfully my music collection is varied beyond most people's wildest imagination, and the first song it threw up on shuffle was this beauty...

ER31DC Week 21 - Inspired by a Colour

I love turquoise. Its halfway between my two other favourite colours - green and blue - and is the lighter form my other favourite colour, teal.

I also have far too many turquoise polishes. Can you guess how many I used in this skittle?

ER31DC Week 19 - Galaxy Nails

Oh my word these were a right faff on. Don't even think they've come out that well, but I'm a heinous perfectionist that is unhappy unless I'm absolutely perfect on the first try, so not much to worry about there.

ER31DC Week 18 - Half Moons

Ah, a blissfully easy week in the 31 day week challenge - half moons. Not really much I can say about half moons, except they always come with the biggest problem... what colours??!? I have a terrible habit of wearing colours that are either too similar (green and green, turquoise and teal etc etc) or ones that would sear the eyes out of a normal human being (offensive pink and super orange orange, as work by me to work this week).

For once, I ended up with something vaguely classy.

ER31DC Week 17 - Glitter

I don't do glitter a lot, mainly because the cleanup is the biggest chore on the planet. I know there are solutions to this - PVA basecoats, fancy basecoats designed to make glitter removal easier, soaking in polish remover to get evrything off at once - but I'm lazy and impatient, haha. So sadly, this look didn't linger long on my nails.

Which is kinda a shame, because I quite liked it.

ER31DC Week 16 - Tribal Print

I managed to get the last of the new BarryM summer Gellies last weekend, so I figured what better way to break all five of them in then in a tribal print?

ER31DC Week 15 - Delicate Print

Apologies for the slightly late-ness of these, this mani was ready to go yesterday but I trapped a nerve in my neck and rendered my right arm useless.

Yeah, I'm not big on delicate stuff. All a bit girly for me. So today's challenge of a delicate print was immediately de-girlified by the fact that I chose rather non girly colours.

ER31DC Week 14 - Flowers

Last week's flowery stamping has come in useful - I don't read ahead for this challenge, I just do the weeks as they pop up and thus this is a fabulous coincidence.

My favourite flowers are Cherry Blossoms.

They're so pretty, and delicate. And when they drop from the trees the look like pretty pink snow.

ER31DC Week 13 - Animal Print

I was going to be different and attempt giraffe or some variety of neon zebra print and then I tried leopard print and I fell in love with it.

ER31DC Week 12 - Stripes

I love stripes. I'm actually really surprised that I haven't done more stripey manis on here, but then again I only have one roll of striping tape. I'm preserving it haha.

The base colour for this mani was given to me by my Chief Enabler, Rachael of Racho's Nail Love and is Orly Lola. I have a bit of an odd love for all things "offensively pink" as I like to term it, which is quite amusing as I'm not big on the whole girly thing.

ER31DC Week 11 - Polka Dots

The very first post on this blog was a polka dot mani, many moons ago (Ok, it was only in January, but it feels like ages.). I didn't even have dotting tools back then, I just did the dots freehand with a little paintbrush I pilfered from my Other Half's miniatures painting kit. I love the cute, vaguely retro look of a dotticure.

I decided to use my two newest additions to my stash - A England's St George and Morgan Le Fay, courtesy of Chloe on the Facebook group UK Only Polish & Beauty Swaps (I love this group but its totally tempting to bankrupt me!).

I'm so glad I have dotting tools now, doing this with a paintbrush is so hard, haha.