Practicing

I was thinking about what I am going to do with my nails next week when I go to Missouri for Christmas.  My Thanksgiving turkey was popular with my family and I want to do something fun for Christmas too.  So I was playing around and came up with a few ideas.  I decided to try them all on one hand.  First, a Christmas tree. 

Next I did a strand of Christmas lights.  I got the idea for this design off a blog somewhere and I tried for 20 mins to find it again so I could link it here but I couldn't find it. 

Next I did a candy cane design.  I think every nail blogger in the world has done this one, so I'm not going to link anyone.  But I really like how this turned out.  The pearly white color is OPI Kyoto Pearl.  Love this color!!  This design is on the short list for the trip home.  I really like it and it was easy to do. 

The next design is one I definately want to try again because I think I could do better.  Just a simple snow man: 

The pinky finger was an epic fail.  It was supposed to be a stocking but it turned out terrible.  So instead of a closeup of that finger, here's a pic of the whole hand.  I had fun with this and will definitely be doing more practice before my trip. 



Holly Day

China Glaze - Holly Day

Orly - Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

Sinful Colors - Red Striper

Essie - Matte About You

Tonight's manicure was a lot of fun and easy to do.  I knew I wanted to use Holly Day, but after I put it on I was kind of bored with it.  So I added a top coat of Matte About You. I love playing with contrasting mattes and shiny finishes.  The only bad thing about the matte top coat is that the tips get dinged very easy, so I knew I wanted to put something else on the tips.

That's when I remembered that I had gotten the Mistletoe color at Sally.  So I threw that on the tips.  It's almost exactly the same color as Holly Day, but it has some glitter in it. I just did those free hand.   But even after that, you couldn't really see the contrast between the two colors as much as I wanted, so that's when I decided to add the red stripe.  I think it makes this mani more Christmasy, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. 

I also thought that in this entry I would share a pic of what it takes to get glitter polish off your nails.  Now, I like glitter polish a lot, but taking it off is a major pain.  And I change my manicures so often that I don't like to wait for glitter polish to come off, so I don't wear it on my full nails that oftenl.  But anyway, when I do decide to wear it, this is how I get it off:

This is what I like to call "The Tin Man Procedure".  I found this trick online several months ago and it's the best way I've found to remove glitter or flakie polish.  Inside each of these aluminum foil pieces is a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover.  After I put these on one hand, I sit and wait for a few mins and then it comes right off.  I've tried to do both hands at once but at one point there was a tragic incident of remover spillage resulting in stains on my favorite jammie pants and since then I just do one hand at a time.  :)

Also, can I just say that I think my fingers look unnaturally long when I take a picture with my hand flat as in the aluminum foil pic above, and that is why I always bend my fingers when I take pics of my manicures. 

And finally, it turns out that TWO people are reading my blog.  Hi Lori!  :)



Work Christmas Party

Our work Christmas party was Friday night.  It was an informal affair, but we have a pretty relaxed dress code every day so I wanted to get a little more dressed up for a change.  I wore a red, black and white top that had sequins on it.  I had actually worn that top to our Christmas party about 3 years ago, but I knew no one would notice.  Most of my co-workers aren't really into fashion or beauty stuff anyway (except Susan, my only blog reader - HI SUSAN!!!)  So I wanted to do something with the same color scheme on my nails.  So here is what I came up with:

Sinful Colors - Black on Black

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

Red Glitter Striper

I'm happy with how it turned out for the most part.  I first did 2 coats of Ruby Pumps and then after that dried I used 2 pieces of tape to make the triangle, then painted on the black.  The tape lines weren't perfect so I decided to go over them with the red glitter striper.  Then I added the rhinestones.  I just used a dot of top coat then dropped the rhinestone on top.  Then I added 2 more coats of top coat to seal it in. 

I did this mani on Thursday night and didn't get started till about 8:30 because I had to wrap some presents and do some other things around the house.  So it was like 10:30 before I was finished.  I was happy because the rhinestones lasted till about 8:00 the night of the party (which started at noon) before they started popping off. 

I took it off on Saturday and replaced it with just straight black.  I plan to do another nail design this afternoon while watching the UNDEFEATED Packers whoop up on the Raiders.  :)

Winter Mani

Orly - Snowcone

Silver Striper

Pure Ice - French Kiss

China Glaze - Fairy Dust

Tonight's mani is more wintery than Christmas-y, but it's still appropriate for this time of year.  I'm extremely thankful that we haven't had any snow here in southeast Wisconsin yet this winter.  Of course, I probably just jinxed it and it will snow 3 feet this weekend!

Anyway, the first coat is the baby blue color - Snowcone.  I love this polish because it only takes one coat to get it opaque and it goes on so smoothe.  Orly's creme polishes are so easy to work with.  After that dried I put on the French Kiss and I did it free-hand, so the lines weren't that straight because I don't have a blue striper.  The silver stripe wasn't originally planned, but after realizing how awful the transition was from one blue to the other (jagged edges!) I decided to put the silver stripe in between them to make it more seamless.

I was also going to do silver tips with some sparkly glitter over them, but after I put the silver stripe I decided that would be too much, and I really liked the way it looked without the tips a different color. I was also planning to put a matte topcoat over the darker blue, but I decideed against it and instead put a coat of Fairy Dust for sparkle over the French Kiss.  I loves me some sparkle!!

I'm happy with the way this turned out, even though it really isn't like the original picture I had in my head when I sat down to do my nails.  One of the things I love about nail art is that there is no right or wrong, and I can do anything I want or think looks good.  To me, this manicure says "snowy winter."  Ironic, because I hate snow, and I hate winter!  :)

First Christmas Mani of 2011

China Glaze - China Rouge

China Glaze - White on White

China Glaze - White Cap

Kiss Nail Art Pen - Silver

I was browsing online today to find inspiration for a Christmas-type mani, and I found this video posted on YouTube by Christina77Star.  Here is a screen shot of the original design she posted.  I think this one is the 4th or 5th one in the slide show.

I did it pretty much as she did except I added the White Cap on top of the white tips.  You can't see it very well in this picture at all, but in normal light you can tell there some shimmery-ness on it.  I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially since I free-handed the white tips and the silver stripe.  As usual, the right hand doesn't look quite as soon since it's my non-dominant hand, but I do think my left-handed skills are definitely improving.

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Last night, I was playing around and decided to try Chloe's Nails Checker Tape Tutorial.  I was using two shades of purple.  The lighter one is  OPI - A Grape Fit and the darker one is a bottle I bought at my local nail salon when I went for a pedicure one time.  The brand is Tic Tac and the color is #251.  I've never seen this brand anywhere else but I wish I could find more of it.  Anyway, here's my attempt:

I knew I was going to do a Christmas mani today, so I didn't bother cleaning up or trying to make it look perfect.  Obviously, it didn't turn out as Chloe's version, but I will continue practicing and I know I'll get better.  I have gotten better at a lot of different techniques in the past few months, including not flooding the cuticles, getting less polish on my skin while painting and doing free-handed stripes.  But anyway I thought this was a really fun tutorial to try and I will definitely be trying it again soon with different colors. 

Well I'm off to watch the Packers game.  Let's go Pack! 

Two Manicures

China Glaze - IDK 

This is a manicure I found on Acetone and Old Lacquer, one of my absolute favorite nail blogs.  I was going to attempt this mani with a substitute for the base coat of IDK, but then I happened to get it from eBay so I decided to try it. 

Here is the post where Bruno shows how she did it.  And next to her version, mine looks like crap, but it was also my first time doing stickers so I don't think it turned out too bad.  Thank you, Bruno, for the inspiration!

As you can tell, I'm not very creative when it comes to nail art.  I've made up a few designs on my own but I prefer to get ideas from other blogs and then try them myself.  Here is a manicure I did tonight, as inspired by Chloe from Chloe's Nails. 

OPI - Panda-Monium Pink & Sally Hansen Blackout



She hasn't updated since October, and it looks like she might not be posting any longer, but here is a link to the post where she talks about how she loves black tips.  As soon as I saw this mani I wanted to try it. 

I am planning to put up my Christmas tree on Saturday.  I will probably start looking for some Christmas nail ideas this weekend too.  I have been thinking of some ideas already and I might actually try some of my own.