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 :)

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.

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 :(

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!

Adventures in Stamping: Can't Wait for Fall

Usually we stamp on Sundays, but I'm bringing you a late installment. I've been super busy the past two days coordinating Welcome Week for my student organization so I didn't have time to write up the post (or take photos of it at its best). I wasn't really feeling fall colors but since it was Welcome Week and the start of the fall semester, I used my school colors! 

For this mani I used Blackheart Amsterdam, Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, L.A. Colors Circuits, Sally Hansen Wet Cement, Spoiled Shuffle the Deck, Lush Lacquer Midnight Affair, Jade Magia Negra and Jade Vermelho Surreal. I used Bundle Monster plates BM322, and BM301, and Mash plates Mash 47, Mash 45, and Mash 49.

Blogger Friends Forever: Music

For once, I was going to do today's challenge mani the night before I had to. And then tragedy struck! 

I was too mad to be inspired to do anything. I've since trimmed them all down to nubbins :( Then I could not come up with anything I wanted to do. In the shower this morning Barbed Wire and Roses by Pin Monkey got stuck in my head and I remembered Bundle Monster plate BM 323.

I started with two coats of Orly It's Not Rocket Science, which is more gorgeous than I expected. Then I stamped with Sally Hansen Rapid Red and China Glaze Passion. I didn't think these colors would work super well together, but I think it turned out awesome!

My black and white mani is sloppy, so I'll be redoing it tomorrow :)

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

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

Summer Challenge: Olympic Medals

This mani was all done and ready this morning, but I was too busy watching Team USA win at least one of each of these :) After a disappointing day yesterday, I think we've more than made up for it. For those of you that only watch the prime time airings, get ready for an awesome night. So proud of Team USA!!!! Any time they show an athlete cry, I lose it. And sometimes I'm just so happy for them I cry even though they aren't haha. 

I went simple for this. I stamped the "O" from Konad M18 with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, China Glaze Passion and Sally Hansen Bronze Ablaze. Then I googled the 2012 medals and realized the gold was bigger (Duh!) and had to add on to it. The ribbons for the medals are Pure Ice No Means No. I free-handed the flag with Pure Ice French Kiss and China Glaze Salsa. 

I used the same stamp to make the rings and then free-handed 2012. So how are y'all enjoying the Olympics?

Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet

Danielle at Little Book of Beauty

Neivys at Maquiclub Girl

Jo at Northern Nails

Arlene at Nails and Vanities

Helena at Nail Wish

Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les

Katee at A Girl and Her Polish

Sarah at Y Nails...Why Not?

Bec at Lacquer Dreams

Misha at Enigmatic Rambles

Sharon at What Color Is My Coat

Melissa at (Mis)adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Laurie at Dressed Up Digits

Lucie at Lucy's Stash

Emma at  Manicurity

Caitlin at Caitlin's Creative Corner

Jane at Absolute Varnish

Amber at Never Naked Nails

Vic at Glowstars

Jackie at Mema's Manis

Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails

Stella at My Wet Nails

Missy at Missy's Manis

Kim at A Polished Addiction

Christine at Lost in My Reverie

Angie at Our Painted World

Bazzia at Polish My Mind

Missy at The Manicured Maniac

Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her

Nikki at Lil Green Heart

Elizabeth at Nail Polish is My Crack

Ana Cris at Esta Cerrada la Drogueria

Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year

Dina at Secretary's Nail Art

Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity

Karen at Nails by Kaybel

Summer Challenge: Olympic Opening Ceremony

As I've mentioned before, I really love the Olympics. I'm so pumped to watch the Opening Ceremony and start watching some Americans win medals! The prompt was Opening Ceremony/Flag so I did the good ole stars and stripes. I know this is practically the same as my 4th of July mani, but I really liked it. 

What I love most about the Olympics is the whole nation uniting to cheers for our athletes. Usually, everyone has all sorts of crazy rivalries and get in ridiculous arguments over sports, but once every four year (if we pretend Winter Olympics don't exist) we're all on the same side and can watch sports in harmony :) And even though we're rooting for different teams, the world unites to watch one event. It's amazing.

P.S. Are the Olympic-themed commercials making anyone else cry? Like this one:

Tears. Lots of tears.

And I even broke out a new hand pose to show USA with the linear flag. Materials used: Pure Ice French Kiss, China Glaze Salsa, Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, Sally Hansen Rapid Red (for stamping), Cheeky plate CH 4, Konad plates M17 and M18.

Make sure you check out the other awesome blogs participating in the challenge! Click the image above if you'd like to join us!

Debbie at The Crumpet

Danielle at Little Book of Beauty

Neivys at Maquiclub Girl

Jo at Northern Nails

Arlene at Nails and Vanities

Helena at Nail Wish

Róisín at Cuti-Clue-Les

Katee at A Girl and Her Polish

Sarah at Y Nails...Why Not?

Bec at Lacquer Dreams

Misha at Enigmatic Rambles

Sharon at What Color Is My Coat

Melissa at (Mis)adventures of a Wanna Be Martha

Laurie at Dressed Up Digits

Lucie at Lucy's Stash

Emma at  Manicurity

Caitlin at Caitlin's Creative Corner

Jane at Absolute Varnish

Amber at Never Naked Nails

Vic at Glowstars

Jackie at Mema's Manis

Rychelle at Colorsplash Nails

Stella at My Wet Nails

Missy at Missy's Manis

Kim at A Polished Addiction

Christine at Lost in My Reverie

Angie at Our Painted World

Bazzia at Polish My Mind

Missy at The Manicured Maniac

Michelle at Lacquer or Leave Her

Nikki at Lil Green Heart

Elizabeth at Nail Polish is My Crack

Ana Cris at Esta Cerrada la Drogueria

Shayleen at Simply Handy All Year

Dina at Secretary's Nail Art

Nayade at Toxic Vanity Toxic Vanity

Karen at Nails by Kaybel

Blogger Friends Forever: Book Cover

I was so excited for today's challenge! I wanted to do a book cover for so long and finally had an excuse to! I chose The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly because I love love love this cover. I saw it at Hastings and knew I had to add this book to my buy list.

I read this book two summers ago, so I can't remember exactly what it's about. I do remember that I thoroughly enjoyed it and that it has a lot of fairy tale elements to it. I'm definitely going to start rereading it after this :)

I started with four coats of Deborah Lippmann Footloose. I was not a happy camper. A polish has to be pretty special for me to be willing to do three coats, and damn near magical for four. This was neither. And then I got shrinkage! I tried to use a stamp to mimic the vines, but either my stamp or my stamping polish wouldn't work :( I finally gave up and freehanded with acrylic paint and a dotting tool. I also used plate LO01 for the keys. Since my stamping polish wasn't opaque enough, I went over it with acrylic paint and my dotting tool. I did the index nail first before I really knew what I was doing. I eventually got better and the ring and middle are my favorites. Despite all the issues I had, I'm still pretty satisfied with the end result :)

Here are the fabulous bloggers participating in this challenge:
Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Caitlin of Caitlin's Creative Corner

Emma of Manicurity

Sally Of Nail Pron

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

Indie Swatches: Fanservice Nails

I've gotten a lot of indies recently. Usually as soon as they come in I wear them and take pics, but I haven't posted most of them yet. I'm going to try to clear them out this week. First up is the rest of my Fanservice Nails polishes. First up is Clownfish Driving a Sports Car.

Orange shimmer with opalescent glitter. This polish was not the easiest to apply, but wasn't awful. Anything with glitter makes hard clean up, and that was the case here. I still really like this polish. Next time I wear it, I'd like to put it over a red to bring out more red it. I think it'd look even better. This was two coats.

Next up is Gwen Cooper:

Gwen Cooper is a dark red scattered holo polish. It is absolutely gorgeous. It's like a England St. George's red sister. Applied like butter. I think this was only one coat.

blurry for holo goodness showcasing

And now we have Owen Harper:

Owen Harper is a white shimmer polish with red, yellow, green, blue, purple and silver glitter and larger purple hex glitter. White with glitter is really popular in the indie world right now and I love it. I love white polish and glitter, so I'm all for it :) This one applied really well. I got the purple hexes onto the nail without having to do any fishing.

Fanservice Nails polishes are available here for $11 each or 3 for $28. Ships super fast too :)

Adventures in Stamping: Precious Stones

On the docket for today's stamping challenge: Precious Stone. I decided to use polish names that were stones and then dress it up all classy like with some gold stamping. 

I used China Glaze Emerald Sparkled and Savvy Ruby Slippers. It came out more Christmas-y than I hoped lol. I saw Emerald Sparkled on a blog last week and decided I needed it. It is gorgeous! If you don't have it, seriously, go on eBay and find it now. You need it!

Then I stamped with China Glaze Passion and Bundle Monster plate BM 312. I couldn't get it perfectly centered and straight, but I'm still pretty proud of it. If you need a good gold for stamping, get Passion. Go add it to your Emerald Sparkled order on eBay. You're welcome. (<-- reference to Awkward.. Not being rude ;) )

If you'd like to join in on Stamping Sundays, click the Adventures in Stamping Badge at the top of the page and join the Facebook group :)

Independence Day!

Here's my mani for today's holiday! I used to have a t-shirt from Old Navy with a glitter American flag on it, so I used that for my inspiration.

The blue is China Glaze Dorothy Who, the red is Barry M Red Glitter and the stamping is Cheeky plate CH 4 with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. 

This stamp and polish combination worked so well! I didn't even have to start over on any nails!

Every time I look at my nails I get Stars and Stripes forever stuck in my head haha.

Also I keep wiggling my fingertips to make it look like it's waving in the wind. It entertains me to no end.

Now I'm off to help work a fireworks stand and then go see Magic Mike! Have a happy (and safe!) Independence Day!