Iced Lacquer's 12 Days of Christmas - Santa

Hello again.  Today I am wearing another polish from Darling Diva on most of my nails.  This is 'Sheer Poetry' which is from her holiday collection.  It's an awesome yellowish-green linear holo with scattered red square glitter.  I have it here layered over 2 coats of Zoya Shawn to give it a deeper green color.  Unfortunately I have no natural light to photograph with today so you can not really see the awesome holo nature but trust me it is there!

And, since today is a challenge day I have an accent nail done as Santa's coat.  The red glitter base is a Sally Girl unnamed red glitter in the little snowman bottle.  The white is My Boyfriend Scales Walls and the black and silver are Stripe Rite.  And ugh, it is smudged - my goofy dog ran into me before my Seche set.  Sigh.

And don't forget to check out the other participating blogs!

Iced Lacquer

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

A Perfect Christmas Glitter

Hello!  Today I am wearing what I think is an absolutely perfect Christmas glitter from the very talented Darling Diva Polish.  It's called 'A Christmas Story', inspired by the movie of the same name and is just gorgeous.  It's a fantastic mix of red and green micro holo glitter and is so, so eye-catching.  I can't stop looking at it.

This is 3 thin coats with no underwear other than my normal base coat.  I'm sure layering it over a dark red base would give it yet another dimension.

No More Nubbins!! Plus Cult Nails Coveted.

What's this?  3 posts in one day...holy cow.

Hooray, I no longer have a mutant nail. :D  In my earlier post today about Seduction I mentioned I was thinking of doing Gellish nails over tips to deal with my broken nail...I couldn't stand it anymore so off to Sally I went this afternoon and I'm so, so glad I did!  Again, thanks to The Polished Mommy for the awesome tutorial that gave me the courage to try it.  Who knows, maybe one day I'll work up the courage to try doing inverted molds as well.

Over my gel nails I used a most awesome, gorgeous green jelly with glitter from Cult Nails called Coveted.  It's so, so pretty.  I suck though because in my excitement I may have dented and smudged it (the lacquer not the gel).  Oh well, I'm just glad to have normal looking nails again and to be wearing something so very pretty on them.

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

12 Days of Christmas, Day 4 - Candy Canes

Hello everyone!  I am back after a very, very hectic week and am sooo glad that all seems to be getting back to normal so I can focus on the more fun things in life...like my nails. :)

Today's nails are inspired by the ever yummy candy canes.  I have to admit, though, I prefer the cherry canes to the minty ones but really it's all good.

For today's nails I used a base of 2 coats of China Glaze Glistening Snow - this is so pretty with it's holographic glitters.  One day I will learn to take a blurry photo so I can show that off.  I then did freehand stripes using China Glaze Ruby Pumps for the red and a green glitter from Stripe Rite.  I usually don't do stripes freehand but I just got a huge set of nail art brushes in the mail and wanted to put them to good use.  On my stubby nail (which is growing!) I did stripes in rhinestones.  I picked up a cool tool at Sally Beauty the other day that makes placing rhinestones so, so easy.

I love these nails and they really shine and sparkle in a blinding way in the right light.  I just wish I would have been able to get my camera to pick it up.

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

12 Days of Christmas, Day 2 - Green

Hello all!  Today is Day 2 of The 12 Days of Christmas Challenge and the theme is Green.  I didn't have a lot of time today since it's my first day back at work in about a month and a half.

Today I did a simple glitter gradient using a base color of China Glaze Running in Circles and the glitter is China Glaze Glistening Snow.

31 Day Challenge, Day 13 - Fun and Funky Kitty

Day 13 is Animal Print.  I have to admit that this is not what I was originally planning on doing.

A little over a week ago I had rescued a super cute Great Dane pup and was going to do a mani based on paw prints and his awesome merle pattern.  Sadly he became quite ill a few days after I brought him home and we discovered he had several serious health issues.  We did everything we could but unfortunately his little body was just too compromised and we lost him earlier this week.  I am heartbroken that we couldn't save him.  I will do my originally planned mani at some point, I just can't right now.

Instead I have a fun, funky, bright leopard print.  It's wholly season inappropriate but the bright colors make me happy right now and that is exactly what I need.

For this I did a base of 2 coats of China Glaze Gaga for Green then a light coat of...wait for it...Fairy Dust (man, I love that stuff) because I wanted a little glitz but not too much.  For the inside of the spots I used China Glaze Escaping Reality and outlined them with Liquid Leather.  It's all topped off with a very healthy coat of SV.

Darling Diva - Ringer

Hello everyone.  I've been away for a few days dealing with a tragedy in the family but I need to get back to doing things that make me happy.  So on that note I am taking a short break from the challenge and doing my nails however the heck I want to do them.

Today I am wearing an indie polish from Darling Diva called Ringer, named after the short-lived but excellent, I thought, TV show of the same name.  Ringer is gorgeous and is a pretty close match to Maxx Factor Fantasy Fire (much easier to procure and comes in a 15ml bottle).  It's a super sheer purple jelly base with an amazing red/green shift.

I'm wearing 2 coats of it over 2 coats of Revlon Royal.  I hope my pictures show enough of its color shift and beautiful shimmer.

31 Day Challenge, Day 9: Rainbow Harlequin with China Glaze Cirque Du Soleil

Whew, today's nails took me a lot longer than expected and they're still not all they could be.  But, I love the new Cirque Du Soleil collection from China Glaze.  The colors are just amazing.  So bright and vibrant, just beautiful.

Colors Used:

China Glaze: White on White
China Glaze:  Surreal Appeal
China Glaze:  Escaping Reality
China Glaze:  Igniting Love
China Glaze:  Hanging in the Balance
China Glaze:  Def Defying
China Glaze:  Creative Fantasy
China Glaze:  Fairy Dust

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

31 Day Challenge, Day 4 - Green...and My First Needle Marble

Today is green.  I have a fair number of untried greens and in keeping with the push to do some new to me technique I used 2 of my untrieds and did a needle marble.  The needle marbling, while not as irritating and hard for me as water marbling, was harder than I thought it would be.  It didn't quite turn out like how I wanted, there are a couple of spots that are sort of baldish, but overall I like the effect.  If I do this again I will definitely turn off my ceiling fan - I think the airflow contributed to the polishes drying faster than I had wanted.

Day 3 - Yellow With Flowers and My First Fishtail

Ok, I have even less yellow polish than I do orange so once again today was difficult.  I don't like yellow all that much and wasn't about to run out and buy new polish just for this.  I know, usually any excuse for more polish will do but it seems silly to buy something that I'm just not going to wear.

I had picked up a Sally Hansen Happy Manicure mini set a little while ago which contained a decent yellow so I built this manicure around that.

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.

My Own Take On Camouflage

A friend of mine suggested that I do camo nails the other day.  I thought it would be fun to do so I started looking at different camo patterns and comparing the color schemes with my polish collection (going through the polishes is not an easy feat, I tell ya).  I eventually decided on a woodland camouflage based on this image:

The colors I used were:

Essie - Miss Fancy Pants
OPI - A-Taupe the Space Needle
OPI - Uh-Oh Roll Down the Windows
OPI - Get in the Espresso Lane
Fingerpaints - Black Expressionism
NYC - Matte Me Crazy

I painted a base coat of Uh-Oh Roll Down the Windows on all my nails then using a small (but not the smallest) dotting tool I started drawing on the pattern.  I began with A-Taupe the Space Needle then moved to Get in the Expresso Lane, added a few blobs of Miss Fancy Pants then did some accent with Black Expressionism.  When all that was done and somewhat dry I covered it with a thin coat of Out the Door topcoat then did a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy.  Honestly the matte made this design - it just didn't look right all shiny.