Pinstripe and Damask Nail Art Inspired by Tory Burch

Ladies that are also attempting the challenge with me... Are you getting tired of this yet? I've hit my yearly breaking point, but as always, I will push through and prevail. Today's prompt is "inspired by fashion," and I've drawn inspiration from a Tory Burch look that was just shown off at New York Fashion Week.

View image | gettyimages.com

I love these patterns and colors together, they're very textile-meets-Hamptons. Bold meets soft. Rigid meets organic.

I used Polish My Life - Saint as the base, and then mixed together Formula X - Glorious and LVX - Paraiso for the pinstripe color. I added the floral designs on with Formula X - Push the Limits and finished with topcoat.

Previously, on "Inspired by Fashion" day:

• Max Azria spring look
• Betsey Johnson bright gradient with "silly string"
• McQueen textured skull scarf
• Donna Karan inky negative space

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

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