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! :)

 

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!

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. :(

O Tannenbaum

My friend V had a holiday party for work this past week, and she wanted some appropriately festive nails to go with the celebration. She spent some time googling images for Christmas nail art, and she decided on a Christmas tree made with the tape method.

We started with a base of China Glaze Adventure Red-Y in the standard two coats. One coat is more than sufficient for opacity, but the second allows for a more even color and gets rid of any ornery brush lines, I find. She wanted sparkly red accent nails, so we added a nice layer of China Glaze Ruby Pumps over her thumbnails, and then topped them with Cherimoya Vernis Love Potion #Mine.

Using standard scotch tape to make the tree shape, we added small strips of striping tape across the tree area, and then we painted the trees with Nubar Greener and topped it with Girly Bits Magically Delicious for that added extra sparkle of a Christmas tree. We used Sally Hansen Celeb City and a dotting tool to add ornaments to the tree and a star-shaped glitter for the tree topper.

I included an out-of-focus picture to show just how beautifully sparkly this manicure came out!