My #31dc2 .. Finale !

Now that I've finished my HK travelogue, I'm free to update on my nails!

I did a small update on my first 10 themes here.

Now on to the next 20! HAHAH.

You can find my nail art gallery on Instagram via the hashtag #jtsmani.

Day 11: Flowers

This style is inspired by one of my favourite nail artists Will Paint Nails for Food, who does quite a lot of floral nail art!

I love her florals, because it has that organic feel, which is probably due to her brushstroke method.

You can take a look at her floral work here

Eh sadly I dont think I've got the method down yet.

Day 12: Intricate

Inspired by.. a pattern on my grandma's pillow.

I love the thumb, ring finger and pinky.

Day 13: Geometric 

Finally had a chance to try handdrawn houndstooth patterns!

I had fun picking out an unconventional color mix for this.

Quite satisfied with the pattern too.

Day 14: Paisley
Eh I'm not very good at this ah. 
Let me make it up by using a gorgeous base okay?

Glam Polish's Tales from the Darkside - a rich purple with glass flecks that appear pink, and give it depth.
It is part of a limited edition collaboration with Mei Mei's Signatures; the Gruesome Movie duo.

Day 15: Galaxies

I used to only utilize shades of blue for galaxies, but I decided to try something new.

Mixed in turquoise and magenta this time :D

I also dotted a bit of white and smudged it before it dried, to give it the 'distant star' effect.

Day 16: Landscape

Decided to do Singapore's city scape!

I actually layered glow in the dark top coat between the sky, and details.

Sadly the effect wasnt strong enough.

Day 17: Favourite Season

I can't decide between autumn and winter!

Used to love winter, and always dreamt of snow.

After my visit to Korea, I decided I loved autumn too! 

Super cooling and windy, plus all the gorgeous almost naked trees.

Day 18: World Culture

I've chosen to show my Chinese heritage

Red is our traditional color for prosperity and fortune, while gold/yellow symbolizes good luck. 

I've also painted a Phoenix - could you tell? - which is one of the sacred creatures of Ancient China.

It is often depicted on traditional wedding costumes, or together with a dragon.

Day 19: Art

Not on my nails, but I've fallen in love with nail polish jewellery. 

The initial idea was to capture a polish you loved into a jewellery piece.

I upped my level this year by doing nail art on the cabochon. 

It's not easy to layer them so that they show up the right way, but it's so fun and I'm addicted. 

Who says nail art is only restricted to nails itself! :D

Day 20: Supernatural

Favourite supernatural creature? Zombies!

Vampires are also loved, but zombie nails are wayyyy more fun to do.

GWARRRRARARARRRNNHHHG. 

Day 21: Holidays

This was done during the Christmas season, so it's gotta be xmas nails. Hahah.

Gorgeous sparkly emerald green holo is Glam Polish's Conjuring! 

Gifted by #buddingyeast Bimb. :D

*yup, I'm a Glam Polish Fan.

Day 22: Glitter

Glitter base and glitter placement!
Enough glitter for you? ;p

Day 23: Indie Polish

I pay tribute to my first indie - Ariel by Sea Lore Polish ! 

Inspired by my favourite Disney Princess, its a glitter bomb.

Filled with iridescent green flakes, and Ariel's signature red, purple and emerald as hex glitters.

For those who don't know, indie polishes are handmade polishes produced by non-mainstream brands. 

Majority of my collection are indies because I love the thought and creativity behind each polish.

Kudos to all the indie brands - for the effort put into the crafting, quality checking and love in each bottle of magic.

Day 24: Half moon / Ruffian. 

For this technique, your base color (mine is forest green) is your curved border color. 

Then apply the block (mint green) in a curved manner. 

No messy tapes needed! 

Hope that helps!

Day 25: Abstraction. 

Stained glass windows !

I hope you can tell its a flower on the middle finger, and a moon on the pinky. :x

I applied a white base, then drew random outlines in black.

Filled in the spaces with colors to get the imagery.

Day 26: Realism

Cracked my head over this prompt, then pok gave me the idea when he was wrestling with my penguins.

Since I've been doing cartoon penguins, how about real ones?

SO ADORABLE RIGHT. 

I love penguins, nuff said.

Day 27: Gradient

I realise this wasn't my best attempt at a gradient, but I wanted to show a fading, monochrome effect.

I do my gradients differently from most people.

Instead of a makeup sponge, I simply dab on straight with the polish brush, 

and use my fingers to tap and blend. :)

Levon (who is also into nail polish, though not as crazy) suggests plastic bags to blend as well! 

Day 28: Studs

Drew these studs by hand! Does it look realistic?

I actually lost my packet of studs which I was planning to use, oops.

I dont usually use embellishments actually.

Too difficult to remove, and has the tendency to accidentally catch on to fabrics.

Day 29: Inspired by a Polish 

Ring finger is the inspiration: a black jelly with rainbow hex glitter. Bought by my pok :D

A darkened rainbow is the result!

I did a rainbow gradient, then applied a thin coat of black over it. 

Smudged it by tapping with my fingers before it was dry. 

Day 30: Tape/Nail Vinyls

Ack not a good job. 

Lines were slightly crooked as I left the tapes on for too long.

Should always remove tape while polish is still wet, not semi-wet.

Day 31: Recreate your favourite challenge!

I would have done Favourite Animal, and featured a cat this time (Pusheen~!), but I didn't have time!

So I did a recap video of my 30 designs.

I enjoyed doing 2014's #31dc2 challenge, 

because it has helped a lot, in terms of providing me inspiration for designs.

I'm glad I challenged myself to think out of the box, yielding some pieces which I really loved!

I look forward to this year's #31dc ! 

Do feel free to comment if you'd like to know what colors I used for any designs.
I'd love to hear some feedback on my techniques as well. (:

My #31dc2 .. so far :D

Have you guys heard of the 31 day nail art challenge? :D

Actually no one really remembers when or where it originated from, 

but this year, two of my favourite nail bloggers were involved in organizing #31dc version 2.0.

It's a classic case of same same but different, but I picked 2.0 because I love the prompts more.

Could imagine some ideas already, heheh.

Here's the two challenges if I've piqued your interest!

Usually the challenge is renewed in the month of September every year.

Version 2.0

Version 1.0

Moving on to the nail art I've done for the challenges!

I always try to think out of the box for my ideas, and I appreciate a good challenge for nail art.

Dont want to be conventional. hahah.

Day 1: Red or Orange.

So I thought around the word Red, and invariably I thought of red hair. :D

Fun fact: I've had red hair since the moment I could dye it.

And who other than Ariel, the little mermaid to represent red hair?

Out of the sea, wish I could be, part of your world ~

Day 2: Yellow or Green

Inspired by my NIVEA moisturiser packaging.

I love the contrast of the bright yellow and cobalt blue. :D

Day 3: Blue or Violet

Wanted to play around with textures!
And its hard to pick either color so I incorporated both.

Day 4: Primary or Secondary

I loved this one! 

The basis of all colors is based on primary colors: blue, red and yellow.

Without them we wouldnt have so many colors, 

so I thought of using this to represent their fundamentality.

I took them as paints on canvas, and I'm pretty proud of the effect.

I used nail polish for this one, and it really worked! 

Its able to blend like paints. 

Day 5: Black and White

Used the saran wrap method for this.

Wanted to create a marblized look, and I was quite happy with the effect!

Goes well with my cardigan right? :D

I have this habit to go matchy with my outfits.

Shopaholic x Nailaholic

Day 6: Monochromatic

Monochrome actually means shades of the same color, not exclusively to B&W.

For example, cotton candy pink, light pink, pink, hot pink, dark pink, etc.

So of course I'd honor my favourite color: Blue!

Love love love this set of nails.

I tried a different method to do roses, and I discovered it worked well for large ones.

Smaller roses, not so much.  

Day 7: Metallic

Now this was a fail.
I'd wanted to literally have metal on my nails, in the form of a embossed design.
I chose the Singapore coins, and tried to come up with my own method of embossed nails.
However, the effect was not obvious enough, and didnt photograph very well too.
I was also kinda rushed for time, lol.

This is the one decent shot.
But le bf says it doesnt really resemble the coins.

So this was my submission, which I felt a bit meh about.
Maybe I'll try the metallic embossing technique again next time.

Day 8: Dotticure

Dots are one of the most basic decorations on nails, almost a classic.

I however, didnt want classic.

I used to take freehand drawing as a module during poly,

and one of the lessons was the use of dots as a shading method.

I re-created one of my drawings on my nails. :D

Close-up views of the dotticure and the actual drawing.

Thought I'd also share this ! 

Same concept but shading with spaced stripes.

Day 9: Stripes

Another one where I felt the concept was better than the final product.
Functional Stripes, aka Barcodes!
I need to work more on the spacing and width of the lines,
but hey, I did this on my right hand so I think it was not bad already. :B

And um my colleague asked me why I didnt try scanning them with our scanners. LOL.

Day 10: Animal

OF COURSE I'D DO PENGUIN NAILS. LIKE NO DOUBT.

I've already done a few kinds of penguin nails, 

so I decided to increase difficulty level.

These penguins are from Maplestory, and I really do own xiiaowaddles as a pet in game!

Good times.

/xiiaowaddles poop

and hungry xiiaowaddles!

Just for reminescence's sake I'm showing my past penguin nails

End of nail art updates for now!
Cant wait for the next 21 designs, heheh.