O Christmas Tree

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! I regrettably did not do a turkey day mani, but I do have another holiday project for you today.  

I thought I'd start with the basics, so here is my first ever Christmas tree manicure.  To achieve this look I first put down a base coat of white polish (Sally Hansen Whirlwind White).  I was planning to use tape to outline the trees, but ended up (due to impatience) using a small nail art brush to paint in the green triangles (Sinful Colors HD Nails).  I then went in with a bamboo skewer and put on gold (China Glaze Champagne Bubbles), red (Nicole by OPI Stolen Kisses), silver (China Glaze Icicle), and sparkle (OPI Rainbow Connection) dots for the ornaments.

Good luck getting back to work tomorrow, and keep checking in for more holiday projects!

China Glaze Holiday Polka-dots

First, an update on the Milani glitter from last time.  

This:

Became this:

IN ONE DAY!?!  The glitter was such a great color, but the day after I put it on it started to peel up in huge pieces.  It didn't help that I had cut my finger.  I was super bummed because I was really pleased with how the two colors worked together.  

Anyway, here's what I've been working on tonight:

I used a base of Sally Hansen's Whirlwind White and dotted on China Glaze in Icicle (silver) and Champagne Bubbles (gold).  I used the bottom end of a bamboo skewer to do the larger, gold dots, and the tip to do the silver dots.  This manicure has gotten me excited for many more holiday projects to come!  

Check back later in the week for some Thanksgiving themed posts!!!

Milani One Coat Glitter - Purple Gleam

I didn't have a ton of time for a manicure today, so I decided to just try out a new polish.  Milani's Purple Gleam is a gray/purple jelly with small purple and fuchsia glitter.  I was skeptical of the "one coat" name, but truth be told it covered pretty darn well the first time around.  I accented the glitter with Urban Outfitters' Binge (no joke - legit name). 

I ended up doing 2 coats of each color and 2 coats of Seche Vite on top.  The glitter dried surprisingly matte, so the extra top coat was necessary. 

Have a fantastic rest of your week everyone!

storm clouds

A gray day has led me to create a stormy manicure.  I got the inspiration from Nailside. The author, Jane, does a lot of fun and unique nail art, and I just loved how simple and cute her cloud idea was.  To create this look you put down a base coat and then apply two (or more) colors on top.  The clouds are formed by making three brush strokes with each accent color. For my interpretation I used Ebony Loves Chris by Wet n' Wild (black), Power Clutch by Essie (dark gray), Icicle by China Glaze (silver), and gave it a finishing coat of Matte About You by Essie.  

Enjoy!

Robin's Egg Blue

I found a perfect light blue today and thought I would try a manicure based loosely on a Robin's egg.

I started by gathering Seche Base and Top coats, Matte About You (matte top coat) by Essie, Ebony Hates Chris (black) by Wet n' Wild, Whirlwind White by Sally Hansen, Ballet Slippers (light pink) and Case Study (brown) by Essie, and Sky by Sally Hansen (light blue).  There's also a Revlon color in there that I didn't end up using.

I put on three coats of Sky and then used bamboo skewers and a dotting tool to apply dots of varying sizes using the other colors.  Two coats of Seche top coat and one of Matte About You and here you go:

A little nest of eggs on my fingers!

Green with Envy

Hello friends! Here's a fun Monday manicure for your enjoyment:

I started out with 2 coats of Sinful Colors' HD Nails (iridescent green) and then used a bobby pin to dot on Sinful Colors' Call You Later (olive green and gold glitter).

I put a few drops of the glitter polish onto a piece of wax paper and used the head of the bobby pin like a dotting tool.

I really like how evenly the dots came out. I'm thinking that this technique would be a cool way to apply a matte top coat over a dark base color too.  

That's all for now, but keep checking back and let me know what you think. Feel free to comment with any ideas you'd like to see me try!

día de los muertos

I know I've been slacking on posts, but below are a few pics (rather out of focus ones) of today's manicure.

I wanted to do some sugar skull nail art in honor of the Day of the Dead.  Thanks to Pixie Polish and the following video for help executing my idea!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwszO2N6M3M