Midnight Sky Nail Art with JINsoon Nocturne - nails-4u

Midnight Sky Nail Art with JINsoon Nocturne || The challenge theme for today is "inspired by a color," and like I've done in many years past, I've decided to do a nail art interpretation of a nail polish's name. The nail art that I ended up with is stylistically simple, especially compared to the galaxy nails that I just posted, but I think it's more wearable and a little more mystical.

My base color is the polish I was inspired by: JINsoon "Nocturne." It's a rich, smoky black with a slight metallic sheen to it. It looks like satin, but dries to a glossy finish, and covers perfectly in two coats. You do have to be a little attentive towards brushstrokes when applying, but it wasn't too difficult.

I then added small white stars and a crescent moon using Formula X White Matter and my small nail art brush.

Check out my "inspired by a color" looks from past years:

• OPI Skull and Glossbones
• China Glaze Kalahari Kiss
• Color Club Wild Cactus
• China Glaze Lug Your Designer Baggage

Electric Carnival Half Moons

Half moon day! I love half moons and every year during the challenge, I say that I'm going to wear them more often and then I never do. So here's my look for this year -- it started out in a different place than it ended up, which is some kind of mix of "electric carnival," "60s mod," and "old wallpaper." I dig it, but had one main issue, which we'll talk about below.

The base of this manicure is LVX Midori, this gorgeous yellow-green shade that I adore. Like, ADORE it.

However.

Midori has this tendency to seep through and discolor any other shades that are used on top of it (even if there's a coat of topcoat between them). It's worse with light colors, but Midori even altered the deep cobalt blue that I used in my stripes. I didn't remember this when I reached for it, and by the time I realized, it was too late. In this case it was okay, because the color palette ended up looking kinda cool and retro, but this was not originally what I had in mind.

The process for these is pretty easy. I put down two coats of Midori plus a coat of quick dry topcoat. Once it was set, I used half moon nail vinyls to block off the moon area, then painted freehand stripes with JINsoon Cool Blue and Deborah Lippmann Whip It. As you can see, Midori turned Cool Blue into "Cool Teal" and Whip It into coral. Oh well!

Next, I removed the vinyls, and added the arcing stripes in the open moon space. The final step, of course, is to finish with topcoat. Carnival chic!

Here are my half moon manis from the past four years of the challenge:

• Sweet and girly leopard half moons
• Retro striped half moons
• Delicate lace half moons
• Autumnal gilded half moon stamping

National Flags of Avatar: The Last Airbender

Today's 31 Day Challenge prompt is "inspired by a flag," a prompt that no one seems to really care for. It's not my favorite either, but it does often get me thinking outside of the box!

I chose to do nail art inspired by one of my favorite cartoons, Avatar: The Last Airbender. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, there are four nations in the Avatar world: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. I represented each nation's flag on my nails, and put the flag of the Order of the White Lotus on my thumb.

Nail polishes used:
Misa Blueberry Blast
JINsoon Cool Blue
OPI Jade is the New Black
LVX Midori
OPI All I Want for Christmas (Is OPI)
American Apparel Hassid
Misa Great Grape
Polish My Life Stripped

All elements of this manicure were painted freehand. I have the Water Tribes symbol on my pointer, the Earth Kingdom symbol on my middle finger, the Fire Nation flag on my ring, and the Air Nomad insignia on my pinky.

I needed a fifth finger design, and the Order of the White Lotus seemed like a perfect choice! They transcend the four nations, and are good guys in the series. And um, hello, who doesn't love Iroh?

If you are a fan of the Avatar universe, be sure to check back in tomorrow! I've done some Legend of Korra nail art for "inspired by the supernatural." Consider it a double feature!

Previous "inspired by a flag" manicures:

• Racing checkered flag
• Arizona state flag nail art
• Textured American flag nail art

Handpainted Geometric Gradient Facets

One difficult thing about the 31 Day Challenge, for me, is that even if you have extenuating circumstances (like, say, you fall asleep watching Monday Night Football), you still have to get the next day's manicure done. When I woke up on the couch at 1:30am this morning and realized I had geometric nail art to do, it was pretty tough to drag my ass over to my nail table. BUT I DID IT! Because that's how I roll.

Nail polishes used:
Misa Dusty Magnolia (nude)
LVX Orchid (pink)
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (purple)
JINSoon Cool Blue (blue)

The technique for this nail art is pretty simple to break down. I painted my nails nude, and then began adding geometric facets with a small nail art brush and pink polish. About a third of the way down the nail, I started doing the facets with purple. Two thirds of the way down, I did the facets in blue.

The last step was to blend the gradient. I created custom blends of pink/purple and purple/blue, and painted them in the areas where the colors met. It looks pretty seamless, especially at arm's length.

This year, I've changed the "tribal print" prompt to geometric in an effort to be more culturally sensitive. Here are the manicures I've done in the past:

• Peach and yellow patterned
• Stenciled hand cave paintings
• Navajo blanket weaving

Marbled Blue Swimming Pool Stripes

I like stripes. I do them quite a bit, often freehand (a girl's gotta practice), but today's 31 Day Challenge nail art required the use of nail vinyls. I combined them with the saran wrap marble technique for a blocked, marbled look that reminds me of a swimming pool. Steph Stone did a swimming pool nail art tutorial recently that used the same technique for the aquatic effect. Let's dive in!

Nail polishes used:
LVX Cashmere
JINSoon Cool Blue
Straight nail vinyls

I painted my nails with two coats of Cashmere and added a layer of quick dry topcoat to speed up the drying process. Once the base was dry, I applied both Nail Vinyls brand straight vinyls and KBShimmer straight vinyls with random spacing. The reason I used two different brands was they each had different sizes I wanted to use -- the smallest stripes are from Nail Vinyls while the medium and large blocks are from KBShimmer.

I painted one thicker coat of Cool Blue over the top, and then dabbed wadded up pieces of saran wrap over the wet, freshly painted polish. This removed some of the blue and left it with a cool tie-dye marble effect! The only thing left to do was remove the vinyls and finish with topcoat.

Stripes all day:

• Dusty green tape stripes
• Rainbow blocked stripes
• Green ombre vertical stripes