Christmas Water Marble

I am a bit late posting this, but I have been enjoying my time off from work.  I have come to the conclusion that there is a very fine line between being a perfectionist and being insane.  I keep trying this water marble thing because it just looks so cool.  Too bad it is so hard to accomplish!  I usually end up with a gobbly-gook mess.  I worked hard on this one and it is pretty acceptable.  I might just try it again.  LOL!

To start, I used these:

• Pure Ice Lost In Vegas
• Pure Ice Platinum
• Pure Ice Not Now
• China Glaze Fairy Dust

I wish I could tell you how many drops I used for my bullseye or the pattern I drew in there, but in all honesty, I was just trying to get it to work!  The polish dries fast, it is hard to draw a pattern and my aim is just awful!  Excuse my dry cuticles...I forgot to moisturize before taking photos.  We just moved my light box and I was eager to try it out.

Maybe I should just stop trying to get it to be perfect and enjoy what ever comes out of it.  LOL!  I am not giving up just yet.

I used one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for some sparkle.  I hope you will give it a try...it really can be beautiful.  :)

On another note, I am working on a new blog look for 2014...so it may be a while before I post again.

Gift Wrapped Nails

I love pretty packages!  I am not a very good wrapper though.  I actually suck at it.  LOL!  I am very well known for gift bags.  Anyway, I saw a photo on Pinterest that really struck my fancy.  Take a look!  I also took inspiration from a photo on Facebook from another nail art enthusiast (Andrea aka Plasmaspeedo) that showed her Christmas tree with lovely, color coordinated packages underneath (here).  With all of that inspiration check out what I came up with...

Starting with the polish choices:

• Ulta Snow White
• Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada
• Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl

I started with 2 coats of the Ulta Snow White.  This was my first time using this polish (in case you didn't already know, I am trying to show all of my polishes some love and affection and use them all in some nail art) and I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed with the coverage.  Even after 2 coats, it wasn't level coverage enough to wear by itself.  Fortunately, I was doing more so I left it as is.  I then added 2 coats of the glitter polish Pinata-Yada-Yada.  This went on much better!  The glitter spread easily and I didn't need to worry too much about coverage as I wanted it to be fairly sparse.  Once that was dry, I added one very thin coat of the Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl to mattify the glitter a bit, but keep the white look.

I topped all of that off with my trusty Seche Vite and let it thoroughly dry.  Once dry, I began adding the striping tape.  I used a gold color as I just wanted it pretty and not overly Christmas-y.  Once the tape was all in place, I added one little gem to each nail.  I use a cheap clear polish to do this because I go over everything with Seche Vite again - and again.

I just love this!  I have done the majority of my Christmas shopping already, thankfully.  I did pretty much everything online this year.  We don't have a tree up but there is more than enough snow on the ground to make it feel like Christmas.  Oh, and by the way, I had everything gift wrapped from the merchant.  LOL!

December Holiday Party Look

Today, we had our annual holiday gathering at work.  It is only the 10th and we are forcing ourselves into the Christmas spirit.  We had a little lunch and the fun secret Santa gift exchange.  Can you guess what I got?  Yep!  Polish!!!

For my nail look, I sported some green and red!

• Neutral: Sinful Colors Social Ladder
• Green: Ulta Envy
• Red: China Glaze Just Be-Claws

I wanted a half-moon look but needed to leave room for my gem.  I started with 2 coats of Social Ladder.  Using reinforcements, I taped off my half-moon region and alternated the red and green on all of my nails (2 coats each).  

I used the opposite colored gem on each nail and adhered it with a little clear polish.  I topped everything off with a coat of Seche Vite.

This look actually reminds me a little of some gross fruit cake with green and red maraschino cherries.  But, Envy and Just Be-Claws are perfect Christmas colors!

Happy Holidays!!

It IS still Fall!

OK, it IS still technically Fall.  I didn't manage to do a single Fall inspired manicure before the snow flew here so this is my homage!  I will walk you through my thought process on this one...I went to my untried brown swatches and dug through them until I found this combo:

Which Translates to:

• Sinful Colors Leather Loose
• China Glaze Delight
• Milani Sassy Brassy
• Milani Tricky Treat
• Zoya Parveen

I went for the Ombre look:

I started out with just this but knew that a stamp would really make this shine!  I dug through my untried gold stash and found China Glaze Passion that would be perfect!  

I used Bundle Monster Holiday (BM-H11) collection for these wonderful leaves!  I singled out one leaf for the pinkie and a few leaves for the ring and index fingers.  I used Sinful Colors Leather Loose to stamp my ring finger.  This polish dries extremely fast and it was hard to move quick enough to get the pattern.  This took several tries but it was worth it in the end.  I used the full image on my middle finger and thumb.

I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite and I love the result!