Epic fail!

Warning: word-heavy post.

So, I'm attempting the 31 Day Challenge, doing it in order but at my own pace. I'm not sure if it's one of the rules, but I want to come up with original designs for each challenge to stretch my creative skills a bit. Originality is NOT my strong point.  My original plan for Day 1: Red Nails was a base coat of China Glaze Rare & Radient with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet over it, then pulled off in patches with plastic wrap (one of the two "Saran wrap mani" techniques, the other being applying the top color with plastic wrap). Thankfully, I tested this on my plastic palette first, because the Red Carpet was more like magenta. Hmm... So I tried my old sal-free Grace Advantage Rodeo Drive Red (creme), which worked, but I ended up looking like I'd just butchered...something.

In an attempt to salvage this gory mani, I decided to apply apple slice fimo slices.  OK, can I just say I hate those little suckers?! Maybe it's because my nail bed is curved, but I can't get those darn things to stay flat or stay stuck, even with nail glue and pressing each one down for about 3 minutes! So, I peeled them off. Yeah, and bald patches appeared where the polish went with them. I knew it would, but I didn't want to have to redo everything (foreshadowing...). I tried to patch the baldies, and then cover/blend with a homemade franken. Lesson learned the hard way: I just suck at frankening. And if I can't do something well, I don't so much want to do it any more. 

So, now I had blotchy, bloody, murky, glittery nails. Um, nasty. Should have taken pics to prove how truly disgusting this mani was. Skipped that step and did another reverse plastic wrap mani with Finger Paints Hue Rang? as the base, the Rodeo Drive Red applied and dabbed with cling wrap, and it was still a little bloodier than I wanted, but I was too tired to care at this point:

 So, the next day I realized this might not even count as red nails for the challenge. Decided to add a no-name coat of red glitter polish (#803) that I got for $1.50 from The Supply Source. Ya know, to make it more RED. I was worried the glitter would blur the cling wrap design. Oddly, no, the glitter barely shows up, and it ain't just the crappy picture.

So, all in all, I busted my rear to end up with a mani that might not even qualify for the specified challenge color and that doesn't excite me even an iota. I did get one compliment on my nails...from an old lady working at my son's allergist's office, whose signature polish is anything frosted.  Eek!