Sunday, December 23, 2012

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge: Holiday Song


All of my ideas for a holiday song were sooooo boring. I was looking through my untried polish drawer and found Pahlish Partridge in a Pear Tree. It's named after a song, so it counts, right? Fun fact: the 12 Days of Christmas actually starts on Christmas day! Which works out super since I'm clearly not going to get all these Christmas-themed challenge manis done by Christmas day lol.


This is three coats. Isn't it gorgeous?! It's a nude jelly base with green and burgundy glitter. There's also a gold-ish shimmer in there too! Man, these indie makers are killing me with all their fantastic holiday collections! They're so original, especially compared to the mainstream with a gazillion reds in their holiday collections.


To make it at least a little artsy, I stamped it! I added presents since the song sings about gifts and a stamp with a bird (partridge) and love letters using Sally Hansen Wined Up and OMG Nails plate N55 and Cheeky plate CH53.


Not my best stamping, but I really like these colors together.


Not only was Patridge in a Pear Tree gorgeous, it was sooo easy to apply AND remove! All around fantastic polish!

10 Days of Nail Art: Holiday Treats


This next challenge is Holiday Treats! My favorite is sugar cookies, but I'm already decorating so many real ones that I didn't want to recreate it on my nails. I put on Lush Lacquer Peppermint Kisses and realized it was a great base for this challenge!


After three coats of Peppermint Kisses, I stamped some peppermint stripes using Sally Hansen Rapid Red and Bundle Monster plate BM301.


They worked perfectly together! This turned out better than I thought it would. I absolutely loved this :)


Friday, December 21, 2012

10 Day Nail Art Challenge: Giftwrap (Christmas Chevrons)

Hi! Here's the next installment of the 10 Day Nail Art Challenge!


Today is wrapping paper! I don't actually have any wrapping paper like this, but I got Pure Ice Red Hot Mama in the mail yesterday and it was calling me to do this haha. I'm also using it for the Pure Ice Nail Basel Challenge!


I started with two coats of Pure Ice Magic Basecoat from the Vinyl Remix Duo. It's such a great white. I was almost tempted to not do anything over it because I love white nails so much! I let it dry overnight so I wouldn't chance pulling the polish off with tape.


Then I created my own nail stickers using notebook paper, a Xyron sticker maker and some scrapbook scissors. Then I paintd one coat of Red Hot Mama. It's a a gorgeous, juicy, crelly finish polish! Perfect for Christmas!


I used a small brush to sharpen the chevrons to my liking. Doesn't this remind you of Santa Claus?!


Red Hot Mama provided for review.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

10 Day Nail Art Challenge: Snow

Hey everyone! I've got the next installment of the 10 Day Nail Art Challenge for you today!


I did snowflakes for the last challenge because I didn't look ahead at the next one haha. That's okay because I really like what I did for this one.


I started with two coats of China Glaze Aquadelic for my sky. Then I stamped with Sally Hansen Whirlwind White and Bundle Monster plate BM 301. It was a little faint, so I went over the bottom part with some more white and a make-up sponge.


Then I added some random dots with a dotting tool. I love how frost this looks :) We aren't getting any snow here, so this kinda makes up for it. It's also a nice break from traditional holiday colors.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Striping Tape Christmas Trees

Hi all! The other day Helen from The Nail Newbie posted a gorgeous tape tree mani using holo colors in our birthday group. I decided to try my hand at it.


I started with two coats of Jade Vermelho Surreal. It's a terrific holo, but a little too orange leaning for a Christmas mani.


Then I covered my nail with scotch and striping tape to make trees with tinsel using one of my all-time favorites: Nubar Reclaim. The pinky was supposed to be a tree with random tinsel hanging, but it's hard to tell it's a tree that small lol.


Then I added some glitter hexes I got from a pack at The Dollar Tree. They worked really well, but a couple of the blues bled a little. I still love how they look. So festive!!!


My right hand doesn't have even nails, so I don't show it very often. I made an exception because my trees looked super good and I was proud of them :) I dinged the thumb while working haha. Unfortunately I bumped another nail last night and got a nick :(

Thursday, December 13, 2012

10 Day Nail Art Challenge: Silver & Gold

Today is the first day of a new challenge!


Today's theme is Silver & Gold. I got Zoya Song in the mail the other day and decided I had to wear it immediately. To incorporate the theme, I stamped with silver and gold snowflakes!


I used China Glaze Passion and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes for the stamping. I kinda messed up my ring finger, but overall, I liked the look :)


Zoya Song was a little disappointing. In pictures (even mine) it's looks so much more interesting on the nail. In real life, it's just a really dark blue :( You can barely tell it's a shimmer. It was also tricky to apply and really thick. Luckily it was a one-coater.

For funsies, here's a macro shot of my favorite nail :)


If you'd like to join the challenge, go to the Facebook event here.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

KBShimmer Wrapper's Delight

Hey guys! I'm back with another gorgeous indie Christmas polish! I think this one was the first I bought? I can't remember. It's KBShimmer Wrapper's Delight. I got distracted one night while I was praying thinking about this polish and today I got distracted in church looking at it haha. I snapped a quick pic before Mass started because the lighting in the church makes everything sparkly look soooo pretty.


The rest of the pics were taken back home in my light box. I did one layer of Wrapper's Delight over two coats of China Glaze Holly-Day. Holly-Day was frickin gorgeous and absolutely perfect underwear for this polish. It also had flawless application.


Wrapper's Delight applied pretty well too. Most nails only needed one coat. There was only a nail and a half out of all ten that needed some more dabbing for a better glitter spread. It does need a good shake before applying for that result. I just banged it against my palm a couple of times while holding it upside-down.


And the best thing about this polish? $5 of each polish goes to Toys for Tots! 


And some yummy macro shots:


Wrapper's Delight is available from KBShimmer for $10 here. Check out all of her holiday polishes and get Facebook updates here. They're gorgeous!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Christmas!!!

Hey guys!!! It's officially the start of the Christmas Season! Sorry I've been too busy to blog, but I loooooove Christmas so I'm back especially for this gorgeous mani! Here's a macro of the Christmas polish I used:


It's Lush Lacquer Tree-Mendous. It's got green microglitter, pink, red, orange, yellow, and blue matte/satin glitter and gold stars. It's a Christmas tree in a bottle!


I started with two coats of Pure Ice Femme Fatale. It's a gorgeous hunter green suede with silver shimmer from their new Velour Finish Line. It's the perfect base for a Christmas tree mani, so I'll probably be using it a lot this season.


Then I topped it off with two coats of Tree-Mendous. It applied really well. I had to fish a little for stars (I wanted one on each nail) but it wasn't that frustrating. If you want a whole shower of stars, you might want to store it upside down for a little bit before applying.


This polish is absolutely perfect to get in the Christmas mood! I don't know how I'm going to take it off! IN. LOVE.


Here's a couple of macros of nails on my right hand. The first one looks like a tree with the placement of the star :) The second one is just soooo glittery!!!

So what's everyone's favorite Christmas polishes for this year?

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Teal Tuesday: Mani Swap


This week's theme is Mani Swap! My partner was Natalie from Walk in my Eyeshadow. I love her blog, so check it out! She makes me want to blow all my money at Dollar Nail Art! I took my inspiration from this mani.


I used two coats of Butter London Slapper. It's such a gorgeous polish with great formula! It only took two easy coats. I also forgot I was going to do the accent nail haha. It was too pretty to remove, so I just covered it up with two coats of Butter London West End Wonderland.


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Lacquerhead Polish Cold Shoulder

Ahh I've missed my blog so much! School has been sucking all my time away :( I've been painting my nails on occasion but can't remember that last time I've done any nail art. What a bummer. But I have a super awesome polish to show you today! This is Lacquerhead Cold Shoulder.


I'm a sucker for white-based glitters. This polish has large black hexes, black squares, medium gorgeous blue hexes and blue and black micro glitter. It's so pretty together! 


This is two coats. It applied really well and I didn't have to fish for glitter. And it was perfectly smooth with one coat of top coat.


I apoligize for my sad cuticles. They're not getting the love they deserve. My favorite macro is the top right with the square in it. I love squares! You can buy Lacquerhead Polish here. Cold Shoulder is sold out now but it should be back soon!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Glitter Gradient!!!

Between work, school and extracurriculars I have not had any time for the blog! It's so sad! But now that things have slowed down after the start of year rush, I think I've got a better handle of things. And now I've finally got something to show you!


This is one coat of Zoya Yummy and then a gradient with China Glaze Liquid Crystal. I completed my Prismatic collection when they were on clearance at Sally's. They're so pretty!


And I took the above photos with the Photo Jojo wide angle lens for iPhone. I don't need the wide angle aspect of it, but it just makes my photos clearer! Then it also comes apart to become a macro lens. That's how I took the next pics:


I love seeing glitters so up close and personal! It had a hard time focusing because of the curve of my nail, but it still looks pretty awesome :)

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Blogger Friends Forever: City



For my second challenge day, I chose cities!!! When I came up with it, I though of doing New York City, but then I remembered my favorite city in the world!


When I studied abroad in Rome I didn't like it all that much. Until I went to the Vatican. I absolutely LOVED it! I want to live there. Swiss Guards actually live in the Vatican and their families can too, so my plan is to marry one. This, as well as their requirements for the job make them match up almost perfectly to my list of desired qualities in a spouse. To symbolize Vatican City I painted Pope John Paul II's papal crest (Totus Tuus!), the Vatican flag, a spiral representing the spiral staircase in the Vatican Museum (or any of the many spiral staircases leading up the cupola, and the Swiss Guards' stripes!


I couldn't find a decent key that faced the other way for the gold key :/ Otherwise, I think it turned out pretty well!

Check out these virtural tours to see parts of my favorite city!

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)

Friday, August 24, 2012

Blogger Friends Forever: Movies


It's finally my week! I thought cities was first, so I had it all planned out with no ideas for movie yet, then realized I was wrong haha. So I had to think about what movie I wanted to do since there are tons that I love, but I finally picked one. Can you tell what it is?


It's The Sound of Music! I absolutely love this movie. It makes me happy just thinking about it. The thumb and ring finger go together as one image (shown below). It's the lovely green field Maria spins around in at the beginning with the mountains in the background. The index finger is music notes since music obviously plays a huge part of the movie. The middle finger is an abstract version of raindrops on roses. For the pinky I recreated the curtain outfits the children wear as play clothes. I really love how this came out and how it reminds me of the movie as I wear it :D


Polishes used: China Glaze Kinetic Candy, Elephant Walk, Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, L.A. Colors Circuits, Orly Emberstone, Essence Julia, China Glaze Starboard, Color Club Object of Envy, Zoya Pippa, Sinful Colors Athens. Plates used: Fauxnad M73 and Mash 43.


Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

And here's what we have in store! (My week is August 23-25)