It's been a week since I blogged?

Oops! I better post these last few Christmas nails before Christmas is over!

Let it snow!

Rainbows and butterflies...

Minus the butterflies. I'll paint those later!


I decided to do a rainbow manicure after my last striping one. I liked the different colors and I figured I could add a couple more and just make it as close to a rainbow as I could get with only five colors.

I went with the colors shown - red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. I could have gotten a purple in there, too, but I like the different nails changing into the rainbow so I didn't have anywhere to add the purple.

This manicure turned out cute. I had a hard time getting equal sections of colors on my thumb, as you can see, but it didn't really ruin the rainbow effect for me. I still liked it!

Stripes on stripes

I've seen variations of this manicure several time and I always find it so cute so I had to try it out. It would really work with any color polishes and any striping pattern that you wanted. So fun!

Ulta brand.

First off, here is a shot of my current polish collection. Well, current as of the day I took that picture. I know I've bought at least two more polishes since then. I really need to figure out a good way to organize them.

I accidentally posted these two pictures backwards. Sorry about that.

I picked up the Ulta denim collection while we were in San Diego. Mainly I wanted the light blue to do a specific manicure but I couldn't pass up the five small bottles for $9.95 versus $6.00 or $7.00 for one bottle of that one color. And since I can never leave anything alone, I added a bright royal blue on top.

These are great polishes. I wasn't sure about them since I'd never tried them out before but I was very pleased. I picked up these five bottles and then four others. The regular polishes were buy one get one free. I love a good sale!

Blue and white half moons.

I did this manicure before heading to San Diego for Veteran's Day weekend. I really like this blue and wanted to do something "wintery". For some reason, the blue and white together remind me of winter. Maybe next time I'll put a snowflake in the design. Even though I don't like cold at all.

Stripes!

I wanted a quick and easy manicure to wear for a couple days. I started with OPI Blue My Mind (still my favorite blue so far!) and then free handed some white diagonal stripes. Topped with some Seche Vite and off I went!

God bless Texas!

I'm heading to Houston for the weekend to visit two of my friends I met while we were living in Japan. In honor of going to the Lone Star State, I decided I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a Texas themed manicure.

I started out with a base coat and two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme White On followed by a coat of Seche Vite.

I did all this manicure free handed so I didn't have to wait for dry nails to tape them off. After the white, I added OPI Blue My Mind on a little less than half of my nail.



After the blue, I took Sally Hansen No Chip in Resilient Red in the bottom half of the white. I added a coat of Seche Vite.

After that dried, I used Kiss Nail Art Paint in white for the stars. The Texas flag is fairly simple and I experimented with the star a few times before I found the easiest way to make it.

I couldn't take pictures while doing the stars because I didn't want the polish to dry too fast in case I needed to manipulate it so I did a how to on an envelope.

The brush in the white is long and skinny so I started with a small dash straight up and down. The made one to the upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left. When the paint is wet, it's much easier to fix any place you don't like.



Overall, I like the manicure. It turned out better than I hoped especially since I wasn't using tape. With the white base coat, it was easy to add any additional white to correct any mistakes with the nail art brush.

Seeing stars.

I bought this bottle of Sinful Color Let's Talk at Target because it looked to be a lovely shade of purple. When I painted my nails, it still appeared purple but when I took a picture, it kept looking blue. I even had Chris look at my nails and then the pictures to be sure I hadn't been inhaling too much acetone fumes lately.

I Googled it to see if anyone else had had the same problem and it seemed fairly common. One blogger suggested photographing the polish under bathroom light and it did seem to help. The first nail picture is in the kitchen and the second was in the bathroom.


I still liked the polish, regardless, but the blue looks very similar to the OPI blue I used in my last manicure and I don't need dupes in my inventory just yet.

After a base coat, two coats of the Sinful Color and a coat of Seche Vite, I added some sparkle with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rock Star. After another coat of Seche Vite, I wanted to add something extra to my nails. So I grabbed some gold stars (just like the ones you got in kindergarten for taking a nap - I would SO ace that now!) and put them near the sides or bottom of my nails. Then I followed with a coat of Orly Liquid Vinyl and a top coat.

I liked this manicure but I didn't LIKE like it. We didn't stay together long but are definitely going to still be friends. The stars didn't stick as well as I had hoped and the end product wasn't as clean as I prefer but it was still fun to do and I will probably attempt something else with the stars in the future. Just because we broke up doesn't mean we can't still hang out!

This definitely Blue My Mind!

For this manicure, I used the base color of OPI Blue My Mind and Orly Liquid Vinyl for the tips and V. I've really been drawn to blue lately which is completely out of the norm for me. Before the past few weeks you would have only found shades of reds, a few pinks and dark purples and white in my stash. But this blue was exactly what I hoped.

I started with a base coats, two coats of the OPI and then a coat of Seche Vite. I LOVE this blue. Love it. I can't say that enough. I'm definitely not into one color manicures right now but I would do one with this polish.

I taped off my tips and the V on my ring finger and painted a coat of the Orly on top. You can tell I didn't tape very well as I had some bleed through. I wasn't too concerned since I knew I was going to be highlighting with silver anyway.

I did like the finished manicure. I liked the colors together. I even kept this manicure on for a whole day. I would do it again and change up the colors a bit. It kind of reminds me of the Dallas Cowboys with the blue and silver. Some people may see that as a negative thing but I do not!