Where in the World Challenge: Romania

And last, but not least, drum-roll please.......#25 ROMANIA: Of course, being a SyFy geek & lover of all fantastical creatures & such, I immediately think of Transylvania & Dracula!

My favorite Dracula was played by Gerard Butler in "Dracula 2000", can you say YUM!?! I also have to mention Gary Oldman's take in Bram Stoker's "Dracula", otherwise I won't hear the end of it from my friend who swears he's the best, lets just call him 'vintage sexy'! So I've put pictures of both up for your viewing pleasure. (I do not own these pictures I found them in a Google search)

All this to say... "I did vampire nails" Whoohoo!

And this marks the end of our journey around the world. I hope you have enjoyed my portrayal of these 25 Countries, I sure had fun creating them. Bring on the next challenge!-Adieu 

Where in the World Challenge: Brazil

#24 BRAZIL: Oh I have been waiting for this one! For those of you who do not know I will share a little of my history with this Country. My parents are very American, they both come for Minneapolis, MN, but in their 20's they starting doing volunteer work abroad. I was born in Italy & at the age of 5 moved to Brazil. In total I've spent about 15-16 years in Brazil, I refer to it as my hometown as it is a huge part of who I am today. The fact that I was not born there, do not have Brazilian parents, do not have a passport or even a "green card" in Brazil is not the point, I am & will always be part American & part Brazilian!

For today I designed, to the best of my abilities, my interpretation of the love I have for this country...my Brazilian heartbeat!

Where in the World Challenge: Madagascar

#23 Madagascar: There's only one thing that pops into my head when I hear the word "Madagascar".....PENGUINS!!! Am I right? The fact that in real life penguins do not exist in Madagascar is beside the point, these characters have become synonymous with Madagascar non the less.

So here are my little penguin nails:

Where in the World Challenge: China

#22 China: One of my favorite things about China is that they have Panda's! The Panda is my second favorite bear (#1 is Koala bears) I would love to be able to visit a panda reserve one day & get as close as I can to these cute & cuddly looking animals!

Anyways, here it is, quite simple actually my little panda nail:

Where in the World Challenge: Japan

#21 Japan: I was actually more excited about this than I thought I would be, for today's theme I chose Harajuku style to draw my inspiration from. Now this manicure is highly unpractical, but it was really fun to just escape the world of "grown ups" for about 30min & just go crazy with glitter,hearts, flowers, bows, pearls, sugar & spice & everything nice! Don't ask what polishes I used, I couldn't tell you, but I used a white base & some blue, pink & purple glitters, then started piling on the little pearls, bows, hearts & flowers to make this mega girlie manicure:

Where in the World Challenge: Colombia

#20 Colombia: There are 2 things that stand out to me about Colombia: for one, they have the legend of El Dorado & secondly they are know for being responsible for more than 60% of the World's Emeralds. Why do I love this? Well, I'm born in the month of May so emerald is my birthstone & El Dorado? well, who doesn't love a legend about a city of gold, what an awesome treasure hunt that would be!

So I thought a combination of gold & emerald would make a beautiful mani, what do you think?

I used OPI's Goldeneye & Nubar Greener to get this very simple but very gorgeous color combo look:

Where in the World Challenge: Korea

#19 Korea: so today might not be my best, had quite a bit going on this weekend & so for the first time in this challenge I will refer to the country flag. Now even though the Korean flag is somewhat simple, the message is quite lovely, I found this picture for reference:

Where in the World Challenge: Ukraine

#18 Ukraine: More Googling was required for this one, another country I have never been to & needed inspirational help. I found the traditional clothing to be very pretty & full of potential so I chose to go with that.

Inspiration

I used OPI My boyfriend scales walls as my base & the rest is acrylic paint.

Where in the World Challenge: Singapore

#17 Singapore: One of the largest bird parks is in Singapore, Jurong Bird Park, so my manicure today is inspired by one of my favorite birds...PEACOCKS!

I used W7 Metallic Venus, which is one in a beautiful collection of duo-chrome polishes, the color changes from purple to blue in different lighting, very pretty & perfect for a peacock mani. As usual, acrylic paints were used for the detail.

Where in the World Challenge: Finland

#16 FINLAND: I gotta say, I struggled with this one a bit, Googled my butt off trying to find some inspiration. First I was thinking I'd do something related to the landscape, but all the pictures I pulled up were pretty much snowy, which is quite lovely but doesn't really give much to work with except white & blue...oh hey, I guess that's why the flag is white & blue, interesting! But no, I wanted something a little more colorful, so I started looking for famous Finnish artist & found Lauri Ahlgrén who is a graphic artist/painter famous for colorful abstract lithographs. You can find some of his art here & a little bit about him on this blog (it's in Finnish but you can translate) Anyhow, I found his art to be very inspirational & picked one to design my nails after.

Inspiration: "Lady of Rank"

I used Zoya Blu, China Glaze For Audrey, OPI My Boyfriend scales walls & CND Anchor Blue as my base   colors & acrylic paint for the stripes.

Where in the World Challenge: Germany

#15 Germany: Today we travel to Germany & I found out some pretty cool things in this article called 15 Things you Didn't know were German. Found out the song "Here Come's the Bride" & "The Wedding March" were both written by German composers. Here's a quote from the article: First known as the “Treulich geführt”, the song that is forever linked to women in white gowns, was composed in 1850 by Richard Wagner for his opera, Lohengrin. Although the song is now traditionally played as the bride makes her way down the aisle, it was sung (yes, it even has original words to go along) in the Opera after the ceremony by the members of the bridal party. Oh – and by the way, the OTHER wedding song (the recessional) is also by a German: Felix Mendelssohn – it is called the Wedding March and it is from A Midsummer Night’s Dream 

So I decided to base my design off my own wedding day & the orange/yellow roses from the bouquets. I'll always hold that day dear to my heart, it was one of my happiest memories! Here are a few pictures:

And now the nails...

Where in the World Challenge: France

#14 France: Ooo lala, I've been waiting for this, there are so many beautiful & romantic things about France that make you close your eyes, tilt your head & sigh. Paris was the last stop my husband & I had on our 2 week honeymoon in 2007 & it was just as lovely as I thought it would be. The food, the wine, the architecture all contributed in creating a sort of romantic nostalgia I'll never forget.

I used one coat of Zoya Pandora, then did the newspaper effect on all my nails. I created the details of the Eiffel Tower & script "Je t'aime" on my thumb & ring finger using acrylic paint. I used an aging film on all the photo's to give it that nostalgic look.

Here I am in 2007 in the "City of Love"

Where in the World Challenge: Netherlands

#13. Netherlands: I am actually part Dutch, on my Dad's side, his last name is van Blarcom. Although I have yet to make it to Holland & explore my roots, I knew what I wanted to do on my nails for this challenge. No, it's nothing original, pretty much every one of the ladies did it, TULIPS!

I used a polish from the Betsey Johnson Sephora by OPI, called Son of a Gun, for my base. It's a sorta gray metal with green undertones, in the pictures it came out looking quite green actually, but it's very subtle in person. As usual, acrylic paints were used for the detail, and I also had fun with photoshop filters for some added romance:

Where in the World Challenge: South Africa

#12. South Africa: I was nervous about this one cause I knew I wanted to do something tribal & I've seen many tribal designs out there in the Nail Art world & they all look so pretty, but it's really out of my comfort zone. But I do love a challenge & so I set about looking for inspiration.

Inspiration (found on Google, I do not own this picture)

I used several colors for my base & acrylic paints for the detail:

Played with Picasa photoshop a little here:)