Tuesday, December 23, 2014

6:00 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 12: Freestyle

     
     It's the last day of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge. I hope you have enjoyed some of my designs as much as I've enjoyed creating them. Today's theme is Freestyle. That means that I could do anything I wanted, recreate a design someone else did, do over a design I wasn't happy with, or create something new.  I opted to create a completely new look for today and try out my hand at leopard spots.
  
     I know what you're probably thinking, what does leopard have to do with Christmas? Well nothing really, but if you use festive colors you end up with a Christmas look. Check it out and see if you feel the same.


    To get this look I started out with a base of Finger Paints Paper Mache and then layered 2 coats of  China Glaze Seeing Red over the top. I wanted a simple manicure, so I left only half of my ring finger white and ready for my spots.

     Once everything dried I took my smallest dotting tool and began adding random splotches of Orly Luxe. Currently, my favorite gold nail polish to use, even though it leaves brush strokes on the nail. To make sure I had control over the outlining I used green acrylic paint as my finishing touch.


     At this point, I debated adding a few leopard spots to another nail to try and tie the whole thing together. But less is more they say so a coat of Seche Vite was the only thing I added. I might go in and add some spots before I take it off just to see how it would look, I haven't decided yet. I don't want to be disappointed that I didn't add them earlier if it turns out to look great. lol

     So now that you have seen my final look, why not check out the other manicure people came up with for today. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!





Sunday, December 21, 2014

6:00 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 11: Presents

     
    Today's theme for the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge is Presents. Hooray, we all love presents! Are you the kind to rip into those brightly wrapped gifts, or do you like to take your time and save the wrapping paper? I myself tend to do whatever the moment calls for.
  
     My manicure today is about the gift when it's wrapped, even though I have opened gifts on the brain these days. Who can blame me with Christmas only 4 days away?


     I started with 2 coats of Lost Without my Blogger. A glitter packed clear based polish with flashes of white, green and, gold. Then I matted it. After that dried, I doodled some ribbons and bows with a gold and white stripers and matted it again.


     There are things I like about this manicure and a few things that I don't. The nails with bows on them turned out how I had wanted. The ones with just the ribbons not so much. I think I should have added a bow or maybe used fewer lines. But I'm ok with the finished results. And now here are a few more present manicures. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!



Saturday, December 20, 2014

12:59 PM

MoYou London - The Zodiac Collection: Capricorn Plate (Press Release)

   
     Available today is the newest plate in the Zodiac collection from MoYou London. Introducing the Capricorn plate.
                   
                           

This is for all the ambitious, humorous, cautious, independent, prudent, patient, reliable, helpful, resourceful, thoughtful, irresistible... CAPRICORN stamping girls!

<< ZODIAC COLLECTION >>

Meet LUNA - She connects with stars* 
This plate is Available TODAY
Have a great day!
The MoYou-London Team


Friday, December 19, 2014

6:42 PM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 10 : Ugly Christmas Sweater

     I was really excited about today's theme when I first saw all the challenge prompts. I've always wanted to do an ugly Christmas sweater manicure. I thought about doing something pretty traditional but then decided to try and get creative.

      I'm posting really late today because the manicure I did late last night for today's prompt turned out to be a huge disaster. Without time to fix it, I had to wait until after work today to try out a different idea. Seriously there was nothing good about my first attempt, instead of ugly sweater it was just ugly. It was supposed to be a textured background with white snowflakes stamped all over and then presents in the middle.


     See what I mean. There was nothing good about this manicure. Except for the base color. I really liked the idea of using a textured polish as my base, since most sweaters have a bit of texture to them. Instead of stamping for my second attempt I tried my hand at a little freehand art and this is what I came up with.

Christmas-Holly-manicure


     Big difference right! Keeping Zoya London as my base color I used acrylic paint and a new nail art brush I just picked up I painted my holly leaves. Why have I been trying to do nail art with only polish for the last 2 years? Seriously Acrylic paint is so much easier to use. Red rhinestones and a few dots of top coat completed my look.


     I'm so sad that because I'm behind in my posting that I have to take this off as soon as I'm done writing this post to work on another manicure. Hopefully, I like it as much as this one. In the meantime why not check out some more ugly sweaters. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!




Thursday, December 18, 2014

6:00 AM

MoYou London - The Geek Collection (Press Release)

     This Friday MoYou London is releasing 4 plates in another completely new collection: The Geek. These plates have images ranging from emoticons to math problems. Get all the details and a first look here.

And here is a brand new collection for you!

Meet Siri, she's not anti-social, she's just not user-friendly...

These 4 plates will be released this Friday the 19th of December.
Have a great day and Merry Christmas!
The MoYou-London Team 


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

11:09 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 9: Glitter

    
      It's one of my favorite days of the Christmas Nail Art Challenge so far, Glitter!! Who doesn't love glitter right? It sparkles, it shines, and it makes you feel pretty. Well, it makes me feel like my nails are pretty.


     My original intention was to do a color block manicure for today using traditional colors. But that turned into a train wreck when I realized that I started out in the wrong direction and was impatient applying my tape.  I've put that design idea on the back burner for now.

     So what did I do for my glitter manicure? In the end, I went with a festive, sparkly chevron manicure. And now I'm wishing I had done both hands because I love the finished look!

Christmas-cevron-nail-art
  
     I started off with a base of Cult Nail Blaze. 2 coats over a thin coat of Orly Luxe gave me a perfect gold base.  Once that dried I carefully applied my chevron decals from KBShimmer. There are actually 2 sizes of chevrons here but they are so close it's hard to tell. So I didn't quite get the complete look I was going for but I still love it.

Holiday-Chevron-maniure
  
     For my accent nail, I used Color Club Perfect Molten, a soft green with silver shimmer. My red is the gorgeous Marilyn from Shimmer Polish. This glitter packed jelly is a great red color for any Christmas nail art, or if you just want to rock some sexy red nails. I topped everything off with 2 generous coats of Out the Door.

     I think this is my favorite manicure of the challenge so far, but I do have a fun idea in mind for the next prompt, ugly Christmas sweater. Fingers crossed I can pull it off. While I go work on that, why don't you check out the other glitter manicures from today and I'll see you back here on Friday. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
 

Monday, December 15, 2014

6:00 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 8: Christmas Ornaments

     
     Monday brings us to the 8th day of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art challenge, with the theme being Christmas Ornaments. This year I went a totally different direction than last year's ornament theme with some water decals from Born Pretty Store. I would have loved to try my hand at free hand ornaments but my nails are kind of short right now and I didn't think I would have enough space to paint them.

     For this manicure, I started out with one coat of Milani White on the Spot as a base for my gradient. I then sponged on Sinful Colors Sugar Rush and Sally Hansen Silver Sweep to create my gradient. When that dried I added a quick coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust for added Sparkle. Christmas Ornaments have to sparkle after all!


     The water decals I used were from a variety of sets that I picked up last year. I used set BLE1755 on my pointer and pinky finger, BLE1754 on my ring finger and BLE1753 on my middle finger. I topped everything off with a generous coat of Out the Door.


     Right now Born Pretty store is running a sale where you can get up to 80% off select items. The same runs through Dec 17th, 2014 and you can use code MERRYXMASB10 for an additional 15% off your order. If you've had your eye on a few items I'd say now is the time to stock up!

     And now I think it's time to take a look at the designs everyone else came up with for today. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!







Saturday, December 13, 2014

6:00 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 7: Red and Green Colors

          
     Today's prompt in the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art challenge is Red and Green colors. This is another one where there are endless options. In fact, there were so many options that it wasn't until I had a nail art brush loaded up with green polish that I knew what I was going to do.

     In an effort to work on my brush control I decided to take on the task of making swirls of red and green look like candy. This ended up being a little harder than I thought but by the end, I had 1 really good nail and a better understanding of brush control.


     I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  Then I hand painted the swirls with Zoya Rekha and Wet~n~Wild Poison Ivy. My middle finger was the last one I painted and I think it turned out the best. It's a bit busy for an entire manicure, but I still like it. Not because it looks great, but because it shows a sort of progression with my brush strokes.



     Poison Ivy turned out to be darker than I remembered and looks almost black in some lighting. Which is kind of a bummer, but when the light hits it just right there's a flash of green shimmer. I almost added a lighter shade of green over the top to lighten it up a bit but didn't want to risk not being able to follow the original lines. I still might try it before I remove this manicure just to see how it looks.

     Now let's check out the looks everyone else came up with. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!




Thursday, December 11, 2014

6:30 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 6: Any line from the "12 Days" Song

     
     We are halfway through the Christmas Nail Art Challenge. I can't believe I've kept up so far. It's been kind of touch and go there for a few days with today being no exception. Today's theme is any line from the 12 Days of Christmas song.

      I knew I could do a pretty decent job at the 5 golden rings but I wanted to challenge myself a bit more. I decided to try the 7 swans a swimming. Let's just say that my time ran out, I put this manicure together in about 7 minutes and I don't like it at all. Because of that, this is going to be a short post.


     I started out with Frost Bite from Cuttin Edge as my base color. Then I went in with a white striper and painted my swan bodies. They actually looked semi-decent until I added the black to their heads. It all went downhill from there. The beaks are droopy and just yuck. I tried to save it with a little silver glitter to add some dimension or detail to the swan bodies but I don't think it really helped.

     On the other 2 fingers, I have some very very subtle stamping with Mentality Touch and image plate BM06 from Bundle Monster. I'm sure if I could have taken a bit more time this would have turned out much better. As it is I'm calling for a mani re-do and calling it a night for now.



     The only reason this is being shared is that I want to do every day in the challenge and I promised myself when I started this blog I would share my fails too.  But enough of this sad manicure attempt, let's take a look at what the other talented ladies came up with. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!





6:00 AM

MoYou London- The Games Collection (Press Release)

    
     This Friday MoYou London is releasing 6 plates in a completely new collection. The Games collection looks to be a mix of traditional themes and Unique patterns. Check them out below and let me know what you think.
                           

It's almost Friday!

Meet Penny, it's all fun and games for her.
Come and play with us this Christmas,
Let the Games begin!


These 6 plates will be released this Friday the 12th of December.
Have a great day and Merry Christmas!
The MoYou-London Team


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

6:00 AM

Holiday manicure ideas with the Pretty Woman Holiday Nail Kit


      As some of you might know on Monday I was given the opportunity to take over the Pretty Woman NYC twitter feed for their virtual holiday party. For 2 hours I shared some nail art, held a few giveaways, and talked about holiday trivia. It was kind of fun, but not very interactive. I think the time slot I had may have had something to do with that, though. (Middle of the day and just after lunch.)

    For the party I came up with 4 nail art looks using the 4 nail polishes that come in the Holiday Nail kit. I wanted to do designs that even a beginner could easily replicate, and I wanted them to have a holiday feel. Something you might wear for Christmas or New Years without being a traditional design.  These are the looks I came up with.

Argyle-Manicure

     I started out with an Argyle manicure using Just Peachy, Snake Charmer, and Gold Dust. This was actually a lot harder to do than I thought. An Argyle manicure has been on my to-do list for a few months and I was determined to get it right. It took me 3 different attempts to get the triangles looking decent, but in the end, it was worth it.

     I tried freehand painting them and that was a disaster. I used stripping tape, but the lines ended up being off. In the end, I used scotch tape and some creative placement to get the look I wanted. I did end up free handing the gold and that worked out much better than the triangles. After taking the pictures I didn't want to take this one off.

Half-moon-manicure-in-red-and-gold

      The next look I tried was a half-moon using Shirley Temple and Gold Dust. I thought this would be a more classic holiday look that would appeal to a wider audience. Specifically, people who aren't into wearing wild or intricate nail art. Oh and get this, that's one coat of Shirley temple on my nails. I couldn't believe I found a one coat red! 

     I actually freehanded this entire look and think it turned out pretty good. Especially considering I did the half-moon part with a dotting tool. In hindsight, I probably should have used some guides to get a more rounded look. But hey this is nail art looks for beginners so perfection was not required right?

New-years-eve-nail-art

     For this look, I had New Year's Eve in mind when I created it. Something a little more sophisticated and some bling. Using Snake Charmer and Gold Dust I recreated a look I did earlier this year with Mentality Tempest, this time with a twist. I chose a different finger to use as the accent and made that the plain nail keeping the focus on the negative space stripes.

     This is a really easy look to do, but it does require some patience. Something I usually don't have when it comes to nail art. But I knew if I wanted my stripes to work I had to wait for each layer to dry. It took a lot of sitting still and catching up on a few TV shows but I found my patience, and my stripes are good.  Ahh, the things we do for nail art, it's a tough job but somebody has to do it.

Holiday-Manicure-ideas

    For my final look, I wanted to go a bit more playful. Originally I wanted to do plaid nails. Something with a warm and comfy feeling to it for the cold winter days but this looks a bit more like presents to me. I used Just Peachy, Shirley Temple, and Gold Dust to create this look. And I'm proud to say that I freehand painted those stripes and they look pretty darn good.

     This was a fun little challenge for me. Coming up with holiday nail looks using only these colors, making it something I could be proud of and, something others could replicate without a lot of experience. It really made me focus on my techniques and helped tune a few nail art skills. I hope you enjoyed these looks, Id love to know which one was your favorite. If you'd like to purchase a kit for yourself or a gift they are available at PrettyWomanUSA.com.  The kits cost $7.99 and you have the option to have them gift wrapped. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!



Tuesday, December 9, 2014

6:00 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 5: Ice Blue and White Colors

     
     I'm back with the 5th day of the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge. Today's theme is Ice Blue and White colors. There's a lot of freedom with a prompt like this, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I saw it.

     As many of you know Frozen was the big winter movie last year. Let's be honest it was more than a big hit, it went viral times 3. My daughter still sings the songs on a daily basis, some days my boys even join in. What you might not know is that Cuttin' Edge polish released a polish trio based on the movie. I snatched them up and then never used them... That got me thinking, what better polish to use for this theme than one inspired by the ice princess herself! And with a little stretch of the imagination, my waterfall technique turns into icicles.

 
      My base color is called Let it Go and is a beautiful medium blue linear holographic polish that has sat unloved for too long in my collection. 2 easy coats was all I needed for full coverage. True color is slightly lighter than shown here. With a much appreciated steady hand, I painted the icicles with 2 KISS stripers in White and Silver Glitter. Let's hope that steady hand sticks around for the rest of the challenge.

 
      I really like the way this turned out. Especially on the ring finger. The waterfall technique is one I've wanted to try for a while, and now I can scratch it off my manicure to-do list! What would you have done with this prompt? Let's see what the other ladies have come up with below. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!


Monday, December 8, 2014

6:00 AM

Shimmer Polish - Jennifer

     Today I'm taking a break from the Christmas nail art challenge to bring you a post on Jennifer, a glitter nail polish from Shimmer Polish. The Christmas nail art is fun and all but sometimes you need a break in order to get your creative juices flowing.

     Jennifer is a clear based polish with soft blue, pink, periwinkle and holographic glitters in multiple shapes. I used 3 coats on my ring finger over China Glaze Capacity to See Beyond for full coverage. I tried my hand at a glitter gradient on the other fingers.

Jennifer-Glitter-Nail-Polish-from-Shimmer-Polish
  
     I've come across several manicures on Pinterest and Facebook showing similar color combinations and I knew I wanted to try it out for myself. It just seems like a winning combination to me. And I love the look of glitter gradients but have a bit of a heavy hand with them so I could use the practice. I just can't seem to get the glitter to fade nicely.

Jennifer-Shimmer-Polish

     Jennifer has easy glitter application with no fishing required. The glitters aren't as dense as some polishes out there but I think that's a good thing. Not everyone wants full coverage every time they use a glitter polish. And I don't think 3 coats is all that bad to get full coverage from a glitter polish at all. I've used some that take almost twice that. That's a lot of layers on your nails!

     I don't see myself wearing this polish alone as a full manicure unless I stamped over it. I'm not a full glitter polish wearing kind of gal. But I do see it as a great accent to a variety of polishes. And I do love a good accent nail, especially when it's a pretty glitter!

     Jennifer is still available for purchase at shimmer polish if you'd like to get your own bottle. I'll be back tomorrow with another post in the Christmas nail art challenge. Until then, thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
    


Sunday, December 7, 2014

6:00 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 4: Santa/Elves

   
      I'm breaking my regular posting schedule to bring you my manicure for the 4th day of the Christmas Nail Art Challenge. Today's theme is Santa and or his Elves.

     After discovering that many of my striping polishes have dried up beyond repair I decided to throw my original idea out the window and focus on Santa. I also decided that I need to go shopping for new striping polishes. ;)

    
     I used Zoya Rekha as my base color for 4 of my nails. On my ring finger, I used a variety of striping polishes and regular polishes to make my Santa. The entire face was done with dotting tools, except for the hat. That I was able to actually use a striping polish for and paint it on. I even tried to give him rosy cheeks with a sheet tint pink polish. As you can see I didn't wait long enough before adding my top coat and the red streaked a little bit. Well ok, I'll be honest, it streaked a lot!


     The streaking really made me sad because up until then my Santa looked pretty cute and jolly.  So lesson learned, wait more than 20 minutes to apply top coat when working with red and white polish.  Although I still think he looks kind of cute.

     Now let's see what the others have come up with for today. As always thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!




Friday, December 5, 2014

6:00 AM

The 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Snowmen

     Welcome to Friday and the third day of the Christmas Nail art Challenge. Today's theme is Snowmen.  For last year's snowman theme I did a traditional manicure and this time around I wanted to shake things up. Unfortunately, I was really stretched for time so while this isn't your typical snowman manicure, it didn't exactly test my nail art skills either.


      Trying to stick with my nontraditional color scheme for this challenge I started off with 2 coats of Carpe Noctem Literary Lady plus top coat. While that dried I tried to come up with the kind of snowman design I wanted to do and which colors I wanted to do it in. That's where I got stuck. Nothing I pulled out of my helmers seemed like the right polish to use and I was running out of time.


     And then I remembered I had these cute little snowmen decals that I picked up from Sally's last year on clearance. If you're looking for cute seasonal decals and stickers at a cheap price always go after the holiday has passed. You might not get the best selection, but the prices are pretty darn good! I don't know about you but I am all about saving those pennies.

     So there you have it my quick and easy snowman manicure for today's prompt. I'll see you back here on Sunday with my Santa/elves manicure but in the meantime make sure to check out the other snowmen manicures from today. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!



Thursday, December 4, 2014

7:00 AM

MoYou London - The Festive Collection (Press Release)

     
     This Friday MoYou London is releasing 2 more plates for their Festive Collection.  Check out all the details below and let me know which plates might go on your wish list.
HO HO HO!

 ❊ ❉  Christmas is just a few weeks away now!  ❉ ❊ 

We know how you love your Festive plates!

So here you are, 2 NEW FESTIVE PLATES

<< FESTIVE COLLECTION >>


These 2 plates will be released this Friday the 5th of December.
Have a great day and Merry Christmas!
The MoYou-London Team 

     I actually like the look of both these plates. I'm in love with all the little ornaments. I like the idea of the words on the plate, but I'm worried that the fonts will be hard to read once stamped on the nail. Hopefully, MoYou will give us a few sneak peeks at some manicures done with that plate to help me make up my mind. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

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