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!

Another copycat mani

Yes, I lack originality sometimes.  The thing is I'm unemployed right now so I spend a lot of time online just messing around when I'm not actively looking for a new job and that inevitably leads me to evil places like Pinterest where I am flooded with amazing images of nail art and I want to recreate them all!  The other day I ran across a lovely photo of simple and elegant nautical strips - this particular manicure from manicurator.com.  Now, I did mine using only striping tape because even after a couple of hours my painters tape was still sticking and pulling up polish.  I don't recommend blocking off large parts of your nail with striping tape - it's kind of a pain and then you run the risk of bleed through between the pieces no matter how well you stick them down.

I also think I need to go back to buying SV.  I've been using Out the Door which I like over solid colors or gradients but over stripes and dots and other art it just seems to smear more than I'd like it to.

Oh, oh....and I broke a nail while cleaning so I had to file them all down.  I hate breaking nails and this one ended up being one of those unpretty painful ones that you just can't fix due to how far down into the nail bed the tear is.  No, I will not show pics of my sad, sad index finger on my right hand - no one needs to see that, not even me.

For this I used 4 thin coats of Wet n Wild Megalast 205B Sugar Coat.  It's super super sheer so if you want full opacity many coats are necessary - it's great for a sheer classic French though.  The stripes are done in L'Oreal VIP Status.

One of these days I'll buy an actual camera. To date all my photos are cell phone photos and for that I apologize.

Stripes a-plenty

So...after spending a few hours looking at my last mani and being unhappy with the pairing of Glitter Goblin over Bizarre Blurple I decided it had to go.  I was just going to do a plain color, no art, because I still had costumes to finish for my kiddos.  But then I ran into this post from Let Them Have Polish and knew I had to be a super huge copy cat.  I used to play roller derby and have fond memories of wearing lots of stripy socks and tights.

I used 3 shades from Sinful Colors for the base on alternating nails:  Cloud 9 (orange, right hand), Dream On (neon purple, left hand) and Irish Green (both hands).  Then I got down with the striping tape and the Wet 'N Wild Shine Black Creme.

Here are my stripes!  They're not as good as the inspiration but they'll do.  Yes, there is a huge ding on my pinky on my right hand - it was a casualty of last minute costume finishing.

Sort of Halloweenish

Halloween is my favorite holiday but for whatever reason I am having issues getting into it this year.  I bought the China Glaze Wicked polishes a little while back and have yet to use them so I did a little something today.  It's just a simple manicure but I like it.  I used Bizarre Blurple and Glitter Goblin to do simple stripes. I have to say I'm kind of disappointed in Glitter Goblin.  I don't know what it is but to me it just looks dirty and muddy.  I probably would have liked it better if the silver in it was gold instead.

Tape is handy

I usually don't have the patience for tape manicures - I'm constantly ruining them by taping way too early in the drying process.  But, yesterday I managed to contain myself enough to do this.  It's a base of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls with a stripe of Sinful Colors' Out of this World and a strip of L'oreal's The Queen's Ambition.  I was kind of dull looking when I finished so I topped it off with a light coat of Confetti's Ice Ice Baby.