12 Days of Christmas: Santa Claus

Merry Christmas, dears! I hope your days is truly joyous, and that you get to spend time with loved ones, fawn over gifts given and received, and eat tons of yummy holiday foods! And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then happy Tuesday to you, and I hope that you have a wonderful day as well :)

This is, of course, the final prompt in the 12 Days of Christmas challenge, but I've had so much fun, and met/followed so many new and wonderful people, that I'm already planning my next challenge, beginning January 1st! I want to give a huge thanks to Kristine at Pink & Polished and Lorene at Over Polished for setting this up, and also to every single person who participated! Enough gushiness, and onto my Santas!

I will not take credit for this idea, as I've seen variations of it in several places, but I didn't use a specific manicure as a "tutorial" or thing to copy, so I won't credit a specific person either. Thinking about it now, Santa's Suit doesn't have a red stripe in the MIDDLE Of the white, and that was really a lack of thinking on my part :) But I love the overall turnout of this!

I started with a base of Volcano Burst by Free Hippie, a gorgeous, easy to work with red packed full of gold shimmer. I used the largest dotting tool I had to dot/swirl on the white with Sinful Colors Snow Me White, then used the same dot/swirl method to draw on the belts with Sinful Colors Black on Black. The buttons were dotted on with Black on Black and a smaller dotting tool. 

Once again, to all of you, thank you so much, and Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas: Tinsel

Merry Christmas Eve, ladies (and gentleman!)- I hope it's lovely, and that you get to spend time with your loved ones, and that you get some great polish-y gifts from someone out there who understands your obsession :)

I almost wanted to skip out of this prompt, as the post I have is a fail on so many levels. But in the spirit of completeness, here is what I have for you.

I could not come up with a Single. Idea. that was actual nail art, and related to tinsel. So I resorted to polish. I used a base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I, then topped it with Paparazzi by Custom Nail Art (an amazing gold holo bar glitter dotted with pinky-lilac hexes). My accent nail is topped with Sally Hansen Gem Crush Big Money. I loved the mani itself, and it was blingy to the point of distraction! But, alas, my camera batteries gave out on my after two photos, and it slipped my mind to take any more before switching my polish :(

Closeup to show the amazing bling of Paparazzi.

Be sure to check out the other tinsel manis in the links below- and have a very Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas: Elves!

So today's prompt is Elves, and I wasn't too excited about this one. I knew I couldn't pull off little elf faces, so I was at a loss. Then inspiration struck, and I decided to go abstract again!

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Last Chance with an accent nail in Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby. I taped off my middle finger to do the "elf tights" in Ruby Ruby, then added the dots in Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Golden-I. The dots on my index are Ruby Ruby, pinkie are Golden-I, both done with dotting tools.

There is a much better view of my accent nail here, and I kind of love it! I used French tip guides at a cockeyed angle to create my elf shoe in Last Chance, then dotted on the jingle bell tip in Golden-I. I was worried about how this would turn out, but I wish I had done the shoes on all my fingers! 

To fulfill my indie requirement, I used Slippery When Wet (unscented) top coat by Wonder Beauty Products.

Be sure to check out the other elves below, and come back tomorrow for tinsel!

12 Days of Christmas: Wreaths

12 Days of Christmas Challenge day 9! Only three more to go! 

Today's prompt is another one I thought I would have a difficult time with, but I'm actually very pleased with how this one came out! 

I started with a base of China Glaze Near Dark, then used dotting tools to do my wreath with China Glaze. I then dotted on Chirality Kale on top, to give it some holo sparkle. The holly berries and bow were drawn/dotted on with a very small dotting tool and Sally Hansen Ton of Bricks. 

Overall, I love this mani! It came out looking like wreaths! I tried to do a layered stamping thing, which wasn't working out at ALL, and I'm glad I switched, because I love these! 

I don't think that I've ever actually had a wreath for Christmas- how about you?

Be sure to check out the other challengers below!

12 Days of Christmas: Ornaments

Hello, dah-lings! Time for a Christmas nail art post again! Only 4 left, after today? And how am I going to put elves on my nails!?

Today's prompt, ornaments, is inspired by my favorite tree at my mother's house (she literally has one in every downstairs room in her home, including the bathroom!)

This is the tree in the parlor/computer/sitting room. The whole thing is decorated in gold and bronze with white lights, and I love the cohesive feel to it. It's so beautiful, and while it's not the tree that we put gifts under, it is my favorite tree in the house! This photo is taken with flash, to get the best idea of the colors . . .

 . . . while THIS photo was taken without flash, to give you the feel of sitting in a dark room, lit only by the Christmas tree lights, and just looking at the beauty of the tree, feeling the holiday spirit.

And here it is on my nails. I used a base of Sinful Colors Exotic Green topped with 365 Days of Color's Trimming the Tree, which even SMELLS like a Christmas tree! (But not mine, as mine is artificial.) The ornaments were stamped on with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lightening, then gone over with Sinful Colors This Is It and a liner brush to give it some twinkle. The stamps are all from the Salon Express stamping kit. 

And here's a blurry, flash photo to show the glitz on the ornaments.

How is your tree decorated? Do you prefer a monochromatic, elegant look or a hodge-podge mess of heirloom ornaments? 

Be sure to check out the other challengers below!

Trimming the Tree by 365 Days of Color

Ready for another Christmas polish? It's another 365 Days of Color! (Check out Santa Baby here.) While it's a bit late to be ordering Christmas colors for this year, there's always next! Plus, this color is just gorgeous, even if it does SCREAM Christmas :)

Trimming the tree is opaque enough to be worn on its own in a few coats, but as I was silly and only ordered a mini, I wanted to conserve as much as possible! Swatches shown, L-R: three coats of Trimming the Tree alone, and one coat over Sinful Colors Exotic Green, Fingerpaints Tough Art to Follow and Sinful Colors HD Nails.

I finally settled on two coats of Trimming the Tree over Sinful Colors Exotic Green. Topped with Seche Vite, photos taken indoors under a "natural" light bulb.

Sunny from 365 Days of Color says that "Trimming the Tree is the perfect green crelly. It is a jelly at first but can be built up to a cream opaque color! Trimming the Tree is packed with small tan and sand colored square glitter along with small and medium green hex glitter. It really gives me the feeling of a Christmas tree and the fact that it smells JUST LIKE PINE makes it even better!"

Love love love it! The green plus gold and brown, not to mention the PINE scent, definitely make this a specifically Christmas polish, and I don't think I'll pull it out at any other time of year, but that means that it will last me for years to come, right? 

The polish applied perfectly, and would look stunning alone. I have zero complaints about application!The scent is definitely pine, and is a bit strong. If you're extremely sensitive to scents, or are just not a fan of pine scent, this is not the polish for you. I say extremely sensitive, as I tend to be sensitive to scent as well, and while the pine scent was strong at first, it didn't give me any issues with headaches or nausea, as some scents can do. The scent is still evident through topcoat, and lasted all day without being overpowering. 

Have you tried any 365 Days of Color products yet? They can be purchased here, and in addition to the amazing polish, Sunny also sells hand made cuticle oils and balms, as well as a brand new hand creme! Be sure to stop by and Like Sunny's Facebook page (she does Mystery Grab Bags, sales, and other fun things All. The. Time!) and her blog (she's just a fantastic blogger!). 

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Candy Canes

It's December 7th, which  means today's nail art prompt is Candy Canes! This is easily the prompt that I was most excited about, and I knew right off the bat what I was going to do!

I didn't want to go with the traditional red and white candy canes, so I softened up it with pastel pink and green with white! This is only my second attempt at watermarbling, and while my first attempt wasn't stellar, it wasn't half bad! I thought that watermarbling would create the perfect candy cane swirl look, so I gave it a go.

I started off with bases of Sinful Colors Pink Forever (thumb, middle, pinkie), Sinful Colors Exotic Green (index) and Sinful Colors Snow Me White (ring- and I don't know why I picked this white polish- I hate it!) I painted a coat of Merry Christmas, Baby from my own Holiday collection over all nails. Then . . . the dreaded watermarble! I used Revlon Minted (middle and pinkie) and Wet N Wild Tickled Pink (remaining fingers) swirled in the water with Gelous. Why Gelous? Because, somehow, I don't own a single clear polish that is NOT fast drying! As watermarbling already requires a certain amount of speed, there's no way Seche Vite or Out the Door would stay pliable long enough for me to swirl it in the water. But I'm happy to report that, in a pinch, Gelous watermarbles just fine.

And there's my thumb! The light pink doesn't show up great over the only slightly darker pink, but I think my thumb is my favorite! Or my middle finger, I like that one too :)

So what do you think? Peppermint-y, even though it's not classic candy cane? Be sure to check out all the other challengers' links below!

I'm Back! With a Nail Art Challenge!

Oh, my darlings, you have no idea how glad I am to be back! And it only took me a week longer than I hoped . . . I had planned to take off for about a week and a half to prepare my Lab area for Black Friday sales, and then to get all of those sales packed up and shipped out. And then I got lazy. And then I got sick! But I am finally back, my untried box is overflowing, I have TONS of gorgeous indies to show off, and I'm participating in the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge hosted by Pink & Polished and Over Polished! 

I am a day late in posing the first prompt (I hate hate HATE being late, but come on- the "being sick" comes into play), but I promise I will be on time for the rest! As with both Halloween challenges I did, I will also challenge myself to use at least one indie polish in each of my nail art designs. So without further ado . . . here are my Christmas trees!

Sorry for the blurry quality of this photo, but it was the best picture that my thumb made it into. Since I actually took the time to add a design to the thumb, I wanted it to get a little time to shine :)

I started off with Chirality Katydid on all nails. On my middle and ring finger, I taped off a deep V and painted it with Chirality Kale, then topped it with 365 Days of Color Trimming the Tree (reviews on all 3 to come soon!). Trees having been made, I used dotting tools to do all the decorations. The "stars" are Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lightening, the red dots are Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby and the garland is Sinful Colors Last Chance. On my index, I stamped the star on with Lightening and a random plate that came with my Salon Express stamper. I used a striping brush and last chance to do the tree needles, plus a few more dots of Ruby Ruby. Pinkie is a base coat of Katydid, topped with Trimming the Tree, and my thumb is Katydid with dots in Last Chance. 

I was super happy with these trees overall, even more so because they actually SMELLED like Christmas trees! (Thanks, 365 Days of Color!) What do you think- Christmas-y goodness? 

Be sure to keep coming back, because I have tons of good stuff lined up for you!

Check out the rest of the amazing Christmas Tree nail art below!

Sugar Plum Fairies: Berry Shimmer by The Polish Bar

Bit of a late post today, as I had to batch several bottles of polish to ship out! But here I am, and with a post that is rather more picture heavy than usual. I'm sure you don't mind :)

Today's polish is Berry Shimmer by The Polish Bar, and it is from the brand new Holiday 2012 Collection, just released today! It is a clear based polish with "holographic purple shreds and hexes, purple shreds, small lavender hexes and a splash of berry shreds in a clear base." This polish screamed "Sugar Plums" to me, so I wanted to pair it with something to fit that theme. On nail wheel, L-R: Two coats over Sinful Colors Amethyst, NYC Battery Park Purple, Sinful Colors Pink Forever, Cream Pink and Dream On, then three coats alone. 

I chose to layer it over Sinful Colors Amethyst, but I'm not really sure why. Looking back at that nail wheel now, I really should have gone with Battery Park Purple. Maybe I'll look for a fun plummy-pinky base color just to try this one out again!

Two coats of Berry Shimmer over Sinful Colors Amethyst, topped with Seche Vite. Photos taken in natural sunlight.

This has got to be the first time anyone has ever said: There is just too much glitter in this polish! The sun was giving me such a hard time trying to take photos!

Here we go in the shade.

And another shade shot- the glitter shows up much better without the sun glinting off of it!

And my favorite shot of all! Other than issues with photography, this polish went on perfectly. No dragging or clumping or fishing. The shreds lay completely flat without extra manipulation. Berry Shimmer is such a gorgeous and unique polish, and I don't think I'm really showing it here to its full potential. This on definitely rates a revisit, but I wanted to make sure you got to see this beauty on release day!

The Polish Bar (available on Etsy) returned from vacation mode today, with all of the Holiday 2012 polishes! Yay! BUT: if you see a polish you really must have, make sure to snap it up quick, as Janice goes back on vacation Thursday, 11.8 at midnight. Be sure to like The Polish Bar on Facebook for shop announcements (like a return date! which is expected in late November) and tons of gorgeous swatches. 

(What do you think of the new signature? I love it!)

*This polish was provided to me for an honest review.

Meet Me Under the: Merry Mistletoe by Twenty Seven Polish

I am so beyond excited to start showing off Christmas polishes! I love Halloween, and the two holidays are pretty close to tied for my favorites, but I think Christmas may just win. By a VERY tight margin! Twinkling lights, fresh baked cookies, beautiful dustings of snow on the trees in my backyard (as long as I don't have to go out in it!), plus I LOVE shopping for my loved ones. And for me, the holiday season pretty much starts November 1st!

The first Christmas polish that I have to showcase this season is Merry Mistletoe by Twenty Seven Polish. Lisa from Twenty Seven describes this as "a clear base that is mixed with snowy white matte hexes and bars, green matte hexes, and shreds of very merry red." The main Etsy photo for this polish has it shown over a lime green, which I wish I'd thought of, because I love it!

The look I DID go for, however, is two coats of Merry Mistletoe over Sinful Colors Nirvana. Topped with NYC Matte Me Crazy, photos taken in natural sunlight. I wanted this polish to look like sprinkles on a Christmas cookie, and damn if I didn't succeed! To me these nails look just like a gingerbread cookie, coated with jimmies and nonpariels!

See what I mean? Now I want gingerbread . . . I'm the only one in my family who eats it, so I usually don't make any :( 

Merry Mistletoe applied very well. The glitter was well mixed, and came out evenly and without issue. It is a little sparse, which means that you can customize the amount of glitter you want on your nails, which I love. I actually like the bars in this (and I'm not usually a fan of bars), because it made it a bit more dintinctive. They also didn't give me any trouble at all, which helped. This combo looked great shiny, of course, but I had to matte it, so that it looked more like a cookie!

I've reviewed a few Twenty Seven polishes before, of course: Space Cadet and Fake ID. I've been sitting on this one, because I really wanted to wait until I felt Christmas-y to show it off, which is sad, because it's such a fun combo! I want to pick up a slightly shimmery beige-y kind of color to try a sugar cookie look next!

Twenty Seven Polish can be purchased on Etsy, where full sized bottles run $7 and minis are $3. This is the only Christmas polish I see yet, but there are plenty of other fun glitter toppers, plus a few color+glitter polishes listed. Lisa has also just released a color change polish! Go here to like Twenty Seven on Facebook.

Support your indies, ladies!

Cheers,

-Liz-

*This polish was provided to me for an honest review.