12 Days of Christmas: Day Eleven - Christmas Trees

    Womp, womp, womp. This is not my best work. Actually, this is terrible. It looked so much better in my mind.

     I used tape to create the trees, a striper for the string of lights, and a dotting tool for the star. I wish I had more time to do these over again. Unfortunately, I'm too tired from work this week. After the fact, I thought about a dotticure tree. I think it would have looked worlds better.

     I can't wait to get a new camera. I wish I could have captured the holo glitter in the green polish. 

     We're almost done with the challenge! I wonder what else is in store. :)

12 Days of Christmas: Day Ten - Holiday Song

     Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was always my favorite Christmas song. Every child loves singing it with the funny interjections, right? This is my favorite manicure of the whole set! I'll try to top it with the remaining two days, but I know it won't be possible. I'm pretty proud of my little reindeer.

     Look at these little holo cuties! Adorable, right? Don't worry, they weren't hard to create. I started with a base coat, and then painted on the brown base using Nubar Gem. I've never had a reason to wear this brown holo, but this was perfect! I used dotting tools for all the details. Super, super simple.

         So, what's your favorite holiday song? I'm pretty partial to the Hanson Christmas album, but that's just the teen in me.

12 Days of Christmas: Day Eight - Favorite Holiday Character

   This was a tough one to narrow down. A few characters came to mind, but one stuck out from my childhood. The Abominable Snowman! What can I say? I have a thing for big furry guys. ;)

     This was super simple. I used a white base, a coat of Seche Vite, and cotton balls. The face is a base of RBL Faraway. I used dotting tools and stripers. While this isn't practical, it was fun for a minute! 

     Who's your favorite holiday character?

12 Days of Christmas: Day Six Water Marble

     We're half way through the challenge! Can you believe it? Christmas is right around the corner and I'm not even near ready for the holiday.

     For today's water marble challenge, I used sugar plum fairies as my inspiration. I would have used red, white, and green if the next challenge hadn't been candy canes. I had to mix it up a bit.

     For this look, I used WNW White Creme as a base. For the marbling, I used OPI Rumple's Wiggin', Essie Play Date, OPI Funky Dunky, and WNW White Creme. I absolutely love this purple marble! 

     I couldn't stop staring at my nails after doing this. I've not tried water marble very many times. This is probably my 4th or 5th attempt. I think I should do this more often. 

     Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. I added OPI Servin' Up Sparkle on top.

     Glitter makes everything better, right? Sugar plum fairies dance and twirl and sparkle. I think this is a perfect representation of that.

     What do you think? 

12 Days of Christmas: Day Five Snow

   
     Snow. What an ugly word! I hate snow. If I could have autumn all year round, I would never complain about the weather. Luckily, Pittsburgh hasn't been hit with the white fluffy stuff yet. The weather has been great lately, but enough about that. On to the polish!

     This was a simple look. With how much I've been working, I had to take an easy day. I used a few of my favorite pastels for this look: Illamasqua Nomad, Illamasqua Jo'Mina, and Essie Where's My Chauffeur. I was getting tired of the red and green polish already. I had to mix it up.

  I used a Bundle Monster plate and Zoya Trixie to create the snowflakes. I love how simple and clean this looks. To fill in some of the empty space, I used a small dotting tool. I finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite.

     This is definitely a fun, simple, and refreshing holiday manicure. I love pastels in the winter. 

     Is anyone else hoping the snow holds off?

12 Days of Christmas: Day Four Inspired by a Holiday Movie

      I'm not sure about you, but Elf is one of my favorite holiday movies. I really wanted to use Gremlins as an inspiration. Unfortunately, I failed miserably when trying to paint Gizmo on my nails. It was a hot mess. I opted for a bit of an easier task.

     Aside from the penguins that were featured a few days ago, I've never free handed nail art before. This was quite a learning experience for me. I used my dotting tools and a striping brush to create the elf body. For the lettering, I just used a dotting tool. the body took me a good 15 minutes to paint. I removed it and did it over several times before I was happy with it. 

       For my thumb, I wanted to make swirly twirlies, but it didn't turn out quite like I had anticipated. I used a Bundle Monster stamping plate for the image. It didn't turn out very well and I thought glitter might help it out. Wrong. It was just a hot mess.

     See what I mean? The glitter just didn't work out well. Maybe it's before I'm just not a fan of gold tones on me. I feel that I'm far too pale for it. However, I think the letter nails would have looked better with a full coat of the gold. I guess I'll know better next time.

     This was a lot a fun to do. I never would have imagined that it would turn out how it did. I'm pretty proud of myself. My boyfriend loved it; he told me not to remove it. I'll probably duplicate this for Christmas with the family. 

     What's your favorite holiday movie?

12 Days of Christmas: Day One Red and Green Only

     Ho, ho ho! It's the first day of my nail art challenge. I'm not very well versed in nail art so this whole challenge is going to be a learning experience. For today's challenge, I decided to start off easy with a dotticure of red and green.

     I used two coats of OPI Here Today Aragon Tomorrow Suede and two coats of Zoya Posh on my index and pinky as an accent. The application on both was a breeze. As with most matte polishes, the dry time was great.

    This look didn't take long at all. I used dotting tools I purchased on eBay for a few dollars. They're super simple to use and easy to work with. 

     Just for fun, I wanted to see how this would look with a top coat. I'm so glad I added Seche Vite to this. I think it looks even more stunning! 

     For the matte look, the red base was my favorite, but the top coat completely changed it up. I love the green with red dots! 

12 Days of Nail Art

     Who wants in on a nail art challenge? I'm hosting my very first one in December! I'm hoping to get a few others involved with this. 

     This is really going to push me to try something new. I'm usually just one to paint my nails, do an accent or two, and move on. The lovely Jaclyn helped put this together with me. Feel free to join in. :)