Poinsettias

It's the quintessential winter/Yule/Christmas manicure. Poinsettias are almost a requirement for winter nail art. It was also the topic for one of my earliest nail art attempts. Look how far I've come from this mani I did back in December two years ago!

How far I have come! And a concrete example of why I blog my nail art in the first place. It's both a record to me of my work, and hopefully encouragement to new nail artists who might come across this and see where I started and how I've progressed with practice. I'm nowhere near artists like Base Coat, Top Coat or 10 Blank Canvases, but I'm very satisfied with where I am and how I've developed with my skills.

Today's manicure started out with a base of Sally Hansen White On. The poinesttias are done in Zoya Karina and Blaze, and detailed with Sinful Shine Dark Room. The leaves were done in OPI Live and Let Die and detail lines were done with OPI Jade is the New Black mixed together with a touch of White On. The center berries were done with dots of Dark Room topped with dots of China Glaze Solar Power, and I used the dotting tool to press down into the wet black lacquer under the yellow to make texture. I wouldn't often dig into the previous coat of paint when doing a manicure, but for the center of flowers it tends to be a nice effect.

I like to show both my left hand and right hand work, to document how good and how bad I can be in one mani. Or more just to be honest in recording my work over the years, honestly. So here's the art on my dominant hand, for all to see just how badly I draw with my left hand.

I really love this manicure, and my Christmas enthusiastic co-worker literally squealed. I have to say, I'm really really happy with my left-hand thumb. I just love the way it came out. That and my middle finger on that hand are my favorites.

 

Presents Under the Tree

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Celeb City. The trees are done in Sinful Shine Amazonian, the stars at the top were fished out of Wet N Wild Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the ornaments are a coat of Blackheart Party Action.Oh, and the garland was done with China Glaze I Herd That. The presents are done in China Glaze Cranberry Splash and Frostbite.

Hot Chocolate Nights

There's a story behind the title of this post. I showed my co-worker this manicure, and she immediately said that it should be called "Hot Chocolate Nights". She explained that when you pull the strings of lights out of their box each year, hot chocolate is required while you sit and untangle them. :)

The base color is A-England Dragon and I used Sinful Shine Dark Room for the wires. Not much else to say except enjoy the pretty pictures! :)

 

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We had a pretty good winter storm a few weeks ago, and I sat down the first evening, watching the snow fall, and did this manicure on my nails. I kept in on for the entire four days I was iced in and a day after so my co-workers could see the pretties once the University opened back up again.

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Silver Belle, then a gradient of Pure Ice Splash across the middle third of the nail, and across the bottom is Pure Ice Strapless. I then used Milani Whitest White and a tiny nail art brush to draw the snowflakes. I'm really the most proud of the one on my index finger, because I managed to make the lines the tiniest I'm capable of, and it looks so delicate and fragile, just like a real snowflake!

I'll even let you see the nails on my dominant hand to show the difference in quality. Blobby snowflakes! As you can see, I didn't bother trying to do them on every nail on this hand, since they were coming out so terrible.

And now for the picture spam of the pretty hand again!

Candy Cane Watermarble

For my first manicure actually done in December, I give you candy canes! As the subject line states, I did these with the watermarble method. I started with a base of Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl and then the watermarble is Tokyo Pearl and China Glaze Cranberry Splash.There's not much else to say about it, so without further ado: pretty pictures!

Bayberry in November

The last of my back-dated manicures, I finally went back to fall colors for one last hurrah. Having found a variety of gorgeous plants and fallen leaves along with some holly springs, I made this pretty little thing for my desk at work:



This picture was taken with my phone, so the colors weren't captured nearly as vibrant as they were in real life. The reds and purples came out nicely, but the yellow and orange were much more vivid and striking than this picture shows. The next day I created this on my nails to go with it!

I used quite a few different polishes for this one! On a base of NYC Fashion Safari, I used Vernis Milk Chocolate and Cappucino to draw some branches, and I added random swipes of Barielle Myrza's Meadow for some green-tinted sparkly goodness. I then used a dotting tool to create leaves with alllll of the following polishes...

(listed in primarily color-spectrum order)

Sinful Colors Beau Brique

Sinful Colors Timbleberry

Wet N Wild The Clock Strikes Orange

Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up

Sally Girl Banana

Sinful Colors Let's Meet

Sinful Colors Innocent

Sinful Colors Happy Ending

That's a lot of polishes, but I always have fun with a dotting tool and I really think the end result was gorgeous.

Holly Jolly in November

Next in my manicures I did back in November but never got around to posting...I still wasn't ready to head back completely to the fall colors, so I decided to do a combination manicure. A nice mottled brown base, with holly for that winter-is-coming touch.

I started with two coats of Elevation Polish Temperance, and then added random splotches of Cascade and Tettegouche, with a final thin coat of Temperance again over the top. Then I used Sinful Shine Devious and a dotting tool to make some red berries, Sinful Shine Amazonian to make leaves, and Sally Hansen Celeb City for some outlining and highlighting. Added some random dots of Devious and Celeb City around the blank brown canvas, and I was very happy with the end result.

Though, if anybody could explain how to do tip-wrapping with jellies, I'd really appreciate it! It's hard enough to wrap the tips of my nails when they're stubbins; doing it with a jelly made no appreciable effect. I had tip wear in just a day rather than my normal 3 days. :(