Ice Ice Baby

The problem with putting off writing a blog post about a manicure is that you forget what was in your mind when you actually did it. I wrote the post subject when I saved the pictures and the polish names, but I have no clue what I intended for it to mean. I'm sure I had something witty to put here, but alas, you shall have to go without.

I started with a base of Sinful Shine Break Away, and covered it with Blackheart Royally Screwed. I used Sally Hansen Celeb City and a striping brush to draw a few stripes, and a small dotting tool to add some dots in places. I really enjoyed having this pretty glitter combo on my nails. The blue was so bright and the glitter kept catching my attention!

Winter Whimsies

I did this manicure about a week after Christmas, just before coming back to work after the winter break. It wasn't snowing when I painted these, though it started later that day, and I didn't realize until I woke up the next morning that suddenly what had been just pretty swirls and dots had turned into blowing wind and snow!

I started with two coats of Broadway O! Jessica and used Milani Whitest White to sponge on a gradient from the tips. I then mixed a bit of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You with some Milani Whitest White on my palette and used the pale lavender to draw the swirls and dots. My inspiration was the gorgeous manicure by Bottle of Happiness which can be found here.

As usual, since I'm right-handed, my right hand is never as crisp or precise as my left, but I still think it came out pretty nicely for this manicure!

Follow the...Pink...Brick Road?

This was the first manicure I did after all of the winter Yule/Christmas celebrations. I was a little tired of reds and greens (though I really was loathe to take those beautiful poinsettias off until they started chipping!) and I got a few polishes for Christmas as stocking stuffers (some I bought for myself, and some my BFF put in there to surprise me) so of course I have to use them! Untrieds do not stay that way for long at my desk.

V gave me my first Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polish, in I Lilac You, and that's the base of this manicure. Funny enough, I also have a Rimmel London polish by the same name! I know it's touted as not needing any base coat or top coat, but I just can't bring myself to go there, so base coat definitely went on under this. The other two polishes she snuck in my stocking were Sinful Colors Bali Mist and Pinky Glitter. I added my own stocking stuffer of Broadway O! Jessica and used Sinful Shine Dark Room for the brick outlines.

Bali Mist is sheer enough that the bricks that look purple are a thin coat of Bali Mist over O! Jessica. I also put Pinky Glitter over some O! Jessica bricks and some Bali Mist bricks, giving me a total of five "colors" for the bricks.

As always, I like to show pictures of my right hand as well, to show that yes, it does look a bit worse than my left hand, but with practice, you can get decent looking nail art on your dominant hand, too! You just have to go a fair bit slower on that hand...not that I always practice what I preach, of course. :P

I had to add a blurry picture to show how gorgeous the Pinky Glitter looks over the O! Jessica! Isn't that gorgeous?

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.

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. :(

From the Archive Files: Independence Day Nails

Yeah, I've been skipping around on manicures getting the to the blog. It's sad, I know. But here are the nails I did way back for the fourth of July!

I used Revlon Moon Candy Galactic, Milani Whitest White, and Sally Hansen Celeb City, but I don't remember what I used for the red stripes. The glitter is Wet N Wild Hollywood Walk of Fame, and it is such a dense mass of star glitters that I hardly had to position the stars at all to get this coverage.

Look at this *sparkle*!

From the File Drawer - 52-Week Challenge: 5/27 - Inspired by a Pattern

Here's another one of those manicures that I did on time but didn't post. The 52-week challenge that I'm not slavishly following, but occasionally use for inspiration, had "inspired by a pattern" for the week of 5/27. Given my love affair with my dotting tools, I chose polka dots!

I started with a base of Sinful Shine Dark Room, followed by a lovely coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire, and then dotted in two sizes with Sally Hansen Celeb City, my go-to silver!

Honestly, this came out even better than I pictured in my head! I absolutely loved wearing this and my only regret is not being able to capture in my pictures just how much the fantasy fire made this manicure flash.

And today you get a bonus mani, two for one deal! Actually, I just did my friend V's nails again, and this manicure was pretty enough that it just had to be shared. I don't remember what the occasion was, but she was going to some function at work that she needed a little extra classy for, so we did some pretty sparkle and flowers. I thought they came out pretty well, myself.

52-Week Challenge: 4/1 - Grey

I will freely admit that I took this manicure off my nails within hours after doing it. It looked good in my head, but I hated it on my nails. I'm not a big fan of grey, I guess, but I gave it a try because that was the week's theme.

It's a base of China glaze Stone Cold, with a thin tip of Elephant Walk, and then designs with Elephant Walk dotted and drawn on, then another thin stripe across the tip with Sally Hansen Celeb City as well as smaller dots on top of the Elephant Walk.