The Soft Glow of Electric Sex Gleaming in the Window

Ok, so I don't have a Leg Lamp but I kind of really wish I did. :)  Instead I have this lovely polish called Electric Sex from Darling Diva Polishes.  It's part of her 'A Christmas Story' themed holiday collection.  Electric Sex is a lovely black jelly with gold bar, hex, square and micro glitters.  It can totally be worn on its own but I've layered 1 coat of it over 1 coat of Cult Nails In a Trance - I think the golden olive tone of In a Trance brings out the gold glitter more.

31 Day Challenge, Day 17 - Glitter

Yes, yes I have been seriously slacking on this and yes, I skipped Tribal (I'll come back to it later).

I did today's nails really quick-like and it shows...I just wanted to get something out.

I used Fingerpaints Purple Palette as my base color. It's super sheer and I ended up doing 4 coats to get to this opacity because I chose to not use any 'underwear'. Then I did some drippy tips with Orly Halo. It looks much better in person than in the pictures but if I did it over again I'd use a creme for the drips...much easier to work with.

Don't mind my skin owie - I got too zealous with my file.

12 Days of Christmas, Day 5

Ever have one of those days where nothing you do comes out right and you change your polish 8 times and you curse your hands for not doing what your brain sees?  For today's challenge I had a definite idea of what I wanted to do but polish gods conspired against me - I couldn't even get stamping right today. :P

I ended up doing 2 coats of Fingerpaints Merry Mistletoe followed by a reverse glitter gradient using Julep Colbie.  In my frustration I slapped on some Cina holly decals that don't even really look like holly but by the end of the night I had ceased caring lol.

Am I happy with it?  No, it's already gone and replaced by some lovely Cult Nails polish which I will show later. :)

Be sure to check out the other bloggers taking part in Iced Lacquer's Challenge!

XOXO Alexis Leigh

Purple Castle

It's All About the Polish

A Ginger's Nail

The Polished Mommy

Teen Polish Junkie

Fancy Schmancy Nails

Mari552

Fairytale Charm

nailzbyroro

50th Post! Elegant Snowflakes for Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge

Hello everyone!  Wow, I can't believe I'm already at 50 posts.  How did that happen?  Oh yeah, I obsessively do my nails almost every day. ;)

For today's challenge the prompt was Snowflakes.  Since I did blue/white/silver snowflakes last month I wanted to do something a little different with sort of non-traditional colors.  So I started with a base of 2 coats of OPI DS Mystery which is a pretty black cherry with super fine gold glitter.  I stamped over that with Zoya Ziv and plate BM-323.  Over that I put a very, very light coat of Orly Shining Star.

I really like the way this turned out.

12 Days Of Christmas, Day1 - Red

Today I am taking a break from the 31 Day Challenge to participate in Iced Lacquer's 12 Days of Christmas challenge.

Today's theme is red so I did a simple tape manicure with a glequin accent on my broken nail.  Hey, just because it's broken doesn't mean it can't still look good!

All the colors I used today are from the Zoya Ornate collection.  I used Blaze for my base then Ziv and Storm for the design.  I don't have much to say about this one other than it sure is sparkly!

31 Day Challenge, Day 10 - Gradient with Fall Colors

I'm such a dork - I totally forgot to post this last week.  This is my gradient for Day 10 of the challenge.  It's kind of a cop-out since I did something similar back in October.

Ugh, my poor nail - I hate looking at it.  Must hide it in pictures from now on.

China Glaze - Riveting
Color Club - Berry & Bright
Nina Ultra Pro - Maple Syrup
China Glaze - Fairy Dust
Ulta - Inline for the Crown

31 Day Challenge, Day 8 - Metallic in Jewel Tones

So technically maybe today's manicure isn't truly metallic but I figured I could fudge it since it does include a gold polish and gold striping tape.

I don't know about you but I find metallic polishes kind of difficult to deal with.  For me, no matter how I apply them, they come out streaky looking.  Maybe there's a trick to it that I'm missing or maybe I am just destined to suck at using them.  For today's nails the only real metallic polish is the gold polish and you can tell that it looks different than the other colors.  It's great for stamping though!

I love, love color block manicures.  Sadly I rarely have the patience to actually do them on myself.  I want to tape and paint and stuff way before I should and end up making a huge mess.  BUT, today I forced myself to have the patience necessary and this is the result.

Colors used are:

OPI: Unfor-Greta-Bly Blue
Nicole By OPI:  Keeping Up With Santa
China Glaze:  Agro
Ulta Professional:  Inline For The Crown

Mother/Daughter Monday Manicures

Even though I technically live in a suburb of the same city my mom lives in I rarely see her due to distance.  It's about 110 miles and just over 2 hours round-trip and with 3 children and a full-time job (usually) it's hard to make the drive out there.  With being unemployed and the kids out of school today I managed to make the drive over and even did her nails!  It was a good excuse to use some of my recently acquired OPI Skyfall polishes.  Man, are those just gorgeous colors!

On mom's hands I did a base of Ulta Professional Inline for the Crown.  I've used this before, many times - it's an awesome gold metallic, great for stamping, great on its own.  I then put down a coat of The Spy Who Loved Me, leaving the half-moons gold.  And because she's awesome and I love her I put on a coat of The Man with the Golden Gun.  This was the first time I've used and can I just say, "Wow!!".  So decadent and pretty.

On my own hands I did essentially the same thing, replacing The Spy Who Loved Me with Live and Let Die.  By the way, this is now my new favorite dark green.

Here's a look at both the our hands together.

And the pretty polish bottles.

A First Try at Leopard

I'm starting to gain a little more confidence when it comes to doing my nails so I am trying to make myself take on designs that I find intimidating and leopard print, for all its simplicity, is one of those.  For this I used 2 coats of Inline for the Crown as my base, the center of the rosettes is Call the Coppers (a super pretty copper glitter) and the outlines are Black Expressionism.  I used a small dotting tool to do the spots and outlines.

Despite the bubbles in the gold base which I am going to pretend don't exist I think it came out pretty decent for a first attempt.  I definitely need more practice but in general I am pleased with this.

What do you think?

Colors Used:
Ulta Professional - Inline for the Crown
Nina Ultra Pro - Call the Coppers
Fingerpaints - Black Expressionism

Fall nails

We don't really have fall here and I miss it. So I decided to do my nails to give me that fall feeling. I did 2 coats of Nina Ultra Pro in Maple Syrup then did the tips in Pumpkin Spice by Sinful Colors. I love the way they sparkle in the sunlight.