Iced Lacquer's 12 Days of Christmas - Ornaments

So, these aren't really ornaments...it's more of a suggestion of ornaments lol.  I really wasn't feeling lights and am not all that great with freehand stuff (trying to do more and more but you know, small canvas is hard mmmkay).  So this is what I came up with.  I hope you like it.

Base color is 1 coat of Julep Sharon - a rich, deep cranberry red shimmer that just screams holiday to me.  The glitter polish is O Canada!, also by Julep.  And my 'ornaments' were done in Essie Beyond Cozy and China Glaze Running in Circles.

Please be sure to check out all the other blogs taking part in this challenge!!

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.

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, 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

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, 11: Polka Dots

I love dots and my dotting tools.  I love them so much that I'd probably do a dotticure  times out of 10 if I didn't force myself to try other things.

Today I have a retro-inspired manicure using all China Glaze polishes.  The base is Kalahari Kiss and the dots are done in Exotic Encounters, Seduce Me and Call of the Wild.  I really love how this turned out.

Sadly, as I mentioned earlier, I had a serious nail accident a few days ago.  I tried so hard to save my poor nail but today I lost it, nail bandage and all.  I can't bring myself to file down the rest of my nails just yet so I apologize for how my hands appear.

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

Challenges, Stripers, Art Fail

I decided I was going to try my hand at the 31 Day Challenge, starting today.   I likely won't do a prompt each day, every other day or every 3 days seems more reasonable to me.  Why am I doing this?  Well, I tend to get stuck in a rut with things and I figured this would force me to step out of my comfort zone and do new things (new to me, at least).

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.

Bloody Kisses

When I saw that Black Cat Lacquer had a polish named after one of my favorite albums I had to buy it...and I'm now in love with it.  The red glitters are so very pretty in the black jelly base.

Cling wrap marble

I've never tried this technique before but dig the results when other people do it so I thought I'd give it a go.  This is the method where you dab color on with the plastic wrap - I tried the method of removing polish with the plastic and couldn't get it to turn out right.

For this I used Zoya Elisa, a gorgeous red, and Wet 'n Wild Creme Black with a healthy coat of SV.

Blood

I'm starting to get in the mood for Halloween, it's my favorite holiday. So yesterday I did the blood splatter nails...really, really should have taped my fingers. Such a mess but it was fun to do. Added bonus - they glow in the dark. For this I used Piggy Polish Nocture-Nail (for the glow in the dark goodness), Fingerpaints Signed in Wine, Sinful Colors White on White and my current favorite top coat Seche Vite.