Oh Christmas Tree

Hello nail friends. How are your holiday preparations going? We finished the last of our shopping yesterday (you know, getting it done early this year). It seems harder to get in the Christmas spirit every year. It's just always so busy with work and baking and seeing five different sides of the family it's easy for me to get burned out. I've been wondering what are your favorite Christmas traditions or things that help you get in the holiday mood? 

My favorite tradition from childhood is St Nick putting candy in your shoe every Sunday morning in December before Christmas. But only if you leave you shoe by the front door cause St Nick ain't got time to go looking for your shoe all over the house. We also learned that it doesn't do any good to try to trick him by leaving two different shoes. St Nick is smarter than he looks. I tried this tradition with my husband last year, but he kept putting away all the shoes! I guess St Nick also doesn't buy my excuses about why shoes need to be left out instead of going into the closet where they "belong."

I've got on two coats of Orly Jealous, Much? as my base. For the trees I taped off triangles and then sponged on the darker green, Revlon Colorstay Rain Forest. I used a small brush and Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold for the stars and garland detail. The ornaments are glequins from Born Pretty. These were really easy to do if you're looking for a last minute nail idea.

Frosty Fingers

I've been saving this polish for the appropriate time of year and I think it's finally arrived. This is one of the Kelly polishes I got in Thailand and it's a very frosty blue foil. It's gorgeous.. and I hate it. There's nothing wrong with the polish at all. The formula was good and it had nice coverage in two coats with minimal brush strokes but I almost always dislike pastel polishes on my own nails (they look great on everyone else). I also really don't like the color blue. As far as colors go it's my 4th least favorite. Teal, turquoise, robin's egg, navy- great! But if it's a pale, pastel or medium blue then I don't want anything to do with it. I'm also really curious why colors that look great to some people look awful to others. The human brain is a complex and mysterious thing!

Here I added a coat of a gorgeous franken that I won from a giveaway from Franken Femme a while back. It's some kind of amazing holo flakie concoction that I really love. I think it adds to the frosty effect. I'll definitely be showing more of this polish later.

Annnd stamping. This is Bundle Monster plate 323 and LA Colors white. I got a new XL squishy stamper and I love how it wraps around the nail completely but I'm still having trouble figuring out which polishes work with it. I have several white polishes that the stamper refuses to pick up. I'm disappointed that this one isn't very bright against the background, but my thicker whites weren't working. More experimenting is definitely in order.

Badass Birthday Nails

My birthday is this week and I'm taking a break from Christmas nails to do something that's more "me." I'm not sure exactly what side of me this is because I would normally paint something like a unicorn puking glitter, but this feels right too. I've found myself oddly drawn to the look of stiletto nails lately, but not so much that I can actually see myself filing down my own. I think I'll just fake it every now and then by painting on pointy tips.

When I envisioned these in my mind they were matte, but as usual I can never leave well enough alone so I also have a shiny version. Which ones do you like better?

I love that the black rhinestones look like tiny buttons on my fingers. Random fact #582- I absolutely love buttons and sometimes can't resist buying jars full at antique stores. I've got on two coats of Spoiled, Only in Creams. I used the brush from the bottle of LA Colors, Black to freehand the tips. I'm pretty impressed they came out as straight as they did. I added black rhinestones from Born Pretty and finished it off with NYC Matte Me Crazy and then later Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

And of course there was birthday cake. I call this Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake. I combined a couple different recipes I liked to make one super mega extra delicious cake.

Sugar & Spice: Christmas Nails

Words go here right? This work week has officially turned my brain to jelly and it's not even over yet. It's finals week at the university where I work so the stress level is higher than usual and I'm not even the one taking the tests. My deepest sympathies to those of you who are in the middle of all that fun. I graduated about seven and a half years ago now and the amount of times I've missed being in school is exactly zero. 

I've got another set of Christmas nails for you today. I wanted something extra glitzy this time like lights and ornaments all smushed together. I really love how these came out. The glitter catches the light when I move my hands and they feel so festive.

I started out with two coats of Finger Paints, Romanticism Ruby which is a nice red jelly packed with red micro glitter. Next I dabbled on a generous coat of Milani Jewel FX in Red for some larger glitter. The Milanis have some great coverage for being such a chunky glitter, but it's never enough so I also added individual pieces of loose glitter that I got from Born Pretty to the barer spots. At this point I should have done top coat to even it out because the texture of all that glitter was bumpier than I anticipated. Next time right? I used the brush from the bottle of Maybelline Color Show, Bold Gold to paint the tips and a striping brush to add the chevrons on top. It's all finished off with a coat of Sally Hansen, Dries Instantly.

Candy Cane French Tips

I'm finally starting to get in the Christmas spirit as much as possible for someone whose soul has been crushed by too many years in retail. I wanted to do something fun and simple since the holidays are such a busy time. I haven't had nearly enough time to paint the elaborate designs I'd like to do. These were fast to paint and came out really cute.

I hand painted the french tips in white using the brush from my bottle of LA Colors white polish. Next I used a tiny paint brush to add the red stripes and then top coat. What's this? Only three steps? Well, four if you count base coat. This may be the easiest thing I've done in months.

Bacon Nails

Mmmm... bacon. Some friends of mine have started a new tradition. The Saturday after Thanksgiving is now (and hopefully forever) Meatsgiving. This new holiday involves getting together with all your friends for a huge potluck dinner. Bacon is highly encouraged in every dish. Some highlights this year were Hog Log (a sausage & cranberry mixture inside of a woven bacon wrapping- surprisingly delicious), bacon chipotle hummus, twice baked bacon potatoes and maple bacon cheesecake. I felt like a holiday this good needed some recognition in the form of bacon nails.

Ingredients for bacon nails:

2 coats Wet n Wild, Haze of Love

1 bit of plastic/foil/whatever you like to mix polish on

1 small nail art brush

1 drop Finger Paints, Don't Make A Scene mixed with 1 drop Haze of Love 

to make the pink meaty bits

LA Colors, Whipped painted in random lines to make the fatty bits

Mix it all together in random vertical lines to resemble bacon, 

add top coat and let dry several minutes

What do you think about Meatsgiving? Is this a holiday you could get on board with?

(S)he Picks My Polish: November Edition

It's still November right? No? I don't know how it became December all of a sudden today. I had really good intentions of getting this post up two weeks ago when I actually painted these, but you know what they say about good intentions. They apparently don't help with blog posts. For the November "He Picks My Polish" challenge we decided to change things up a bit and have a female choose the polishes instead. My mom helped all the way from Thailand.  Since she's so far away I had her choose three colors and numbers and I used the corresponding polishes. I have to say, she did a surprisingly good job with her random unseen picks.

She picked a grey a purple and a glitter:

Nina Ultra Pro- Inkling- such a nice inky grey

Zoya- Julieanne- the sparkliest purple

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- In the Spotlight- beautiful holographic bar glitter

I started with Inkling as my base and used scotch tape to tape off the triangles and filled them in with Julieanne. I used one coat of In the Spotlight on my index finger (under the triangle) and two coats on my pinkie. I thought I'd need more coats of the glitter but with careful dabbing I was able to get the coverage I wanted in just two. My mom knows me well and she picked my two favorite colors so of course I absolutely love how this came out.

Rainbows.. mmmm.