Last two holiday manicures.

I'm so behind on blogging! Lots going on here. We are moving to a new house in the next couple weeks so I won't be doing manicures with all the packing! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and happy new year!

It's been a week since I blogged?

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

Let it snow!

Tis the season!

For holiday nails!

I had gotten this red glitter polish, Finger Paints Santa Kisses, awhile back at Sally's. It's a great glitter but it took a lot to get a thick coat because I didn't use a base coat.

Then, using a toothpick that I had cut to make a flat end, I dotted on some white polish to make the puffy cotton parts and voila! A Santa hat. Very festive.

Nails for the Marine Corps ball

I experimented a few times with some fancy looking nails for the ball but, ultimately, I ended up pretty simple. I knew I wanted to go with silver to match my shoes and dress. My shoes were silver glitter and my dress had silver stones on it.

I had grabbed this silver glitter polish when we were in San Diego last time. It's OPI Crown Me Already and it's great for glittery manicures.

I also did my friend's nails. Her dress was chocolate brown with gold detailing so she decided on this pretty bronze color and a gold accent nail with a tiny gold rhinestone.

Glitter tips.

I had to run to Target for something the other day and I wanted to check out eye shadow while I was there. This Milani brand polish was on the bottom of the aisle but it truly spoke to me. Especially for $2.99! I've been looking for a true big glitter in gold and silver and this fit the bill nicely. I was disappointed to not be able to find silver.

I thought this manicure was awesome. I loved the uniqueness of the big gold glittery pieces as a French in lieu of polish. I didn't end up keeping this on as I was working on something specific but it will definitely be in the rotation in the future!

Nail Inc.

I ordered this combo from Sephora a couple weeks ago when I needed to get some makeup. It was expensive so I was wary of wasting money on it. Imagine my surprise when the polish turned out awesome! I absolutely love this polish. I don't know how the top polish will look on any other brand polish but I will be trying it out.

A couple of stars from the OPI Muppets Collection.

When we were in San Diego, my friend Trish asked me to paint her nails for her ball. We headed to Ulta to find some polish and they had the new OPI Muppets Collection at the front of the store. Trish and I both fell in love with the glitter!

I picked up Divine Swine which is the manicure that looks pink/purple and Trish grabbed Rainbow Connection which is a mix of glitter colors. Both polishes were awesome and I layered them both over a silver base.

For the ball?

The Marine Corps ball is coming up and I have been trying to decide what to do with my nails for the night. My dress is royal purple (although it looks blue in pictures!) and silver so I'm thinking some sort of silver polish and design. I did this one night, just messing around. I wanted the glitter to look more curved but it's still a decent mani. But I'm thinking maybe it's a little too subtle. I'm just not sure.

Holiday polishes.

In Target the other week, I came upon this pair of holiday colors by Nicole. The red is Brrr Brrr Burgundry and the glittery one is Come in from the Coal'd. The Sally Hansen is Bronze Ablaze.

I wanted to use the glittery polish so I started with two coats of black and then topped it with the new polish. I really liked the outcome. The Nicole polish is very glittery. It was even a little tough to remove with all the glitter but the manicure was so cute I didn't mind the clean up.

I have a couple upcoming manicures with the two other polishes, plus, I just went crazy at Sally's this week and grabbed a few more to add to the collection.

Halloween idea #1.

Since Halloween is coming up, I've been experimenting with Halloween inspired manis. This one is simple and easy.


I started with a base coat and two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl followed by Sech Vite. Once that dried, I topped it with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Pumpkin Spice which is a fun polish with orange glitter.

This was a basic manicure that didn't require much work. I have a couple other manis that I've done that I'll post between now and Halloween.

Floral half moon.

I had so much fun with my last half moon than I decided to go ahead and do another one. I opted for more contrasting colors this time with an accent nail.

For the base, I used two coats of Sinful Color Easy Going. I loved this polish! Even on it's own, it's a pretty great mani. I had no top show through and that's surprising when you realize how light pink this polish is.


After the base coat and a coat of Seche Vite, I taped off all but my ring finger with the round reinforcers so I could make the half moons. I painted a coat of Orly Liquid Vinyl on top. I waited a few minutes and then pulled off the stickers and using the Kiss silver glitter, I highlighted the half moon.

I really liked this manicure as is. I could have painted my ring finger the same and still liked it but I was feeling the accent nail that day so I went with a simple black flower. To make it, I used the flat end of a toothpick to make the dots and then used the pointy end to kind of drag a line from the center of the dot to the middle of the flower.

Since I was on the flower kick, I decided it should extend to my toes. It's hard to tell, but there are darker pink flowers along with the light ones. I really should have chosen a better pink that would have shown up more on the black but I liked the concept. There are three flowers on my big toe and then a partial flower on each of the rest.

I'm pretty proud of this manicure/pedicure. It turned out better than I had hoped and I will be using this Sinful Colors again in some more designs.

Breast Cancer Awareness month

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and pink is it's signature color, I decided to go with a pink/zebra stripe mani. I used Sinful Color Snow Me White, Sally Hansen HD Byte, Kiss Nail Art silver glitter and a black nail pen.


I was worried the pink would be too pale so I did white as the base coat. I did not tape this manicure, just did a strip of pink diagonally down the middle of the white. I lined the pink with the silver glitter and then topped it all with Seche Vite.

After that dried, I used the black nail pen to draw random Vs and lines to make the zebra pattern.

I think this manicure turned out really cute. I need to work some more on the actual zebra print but it's not bad for my first time. I will definitely repeat this in different colors.

On another note, I finally received my first order of Konad along with my Monster bundle pack. I did a couple manis with the stamps today. Some I liked, some I didn't. I really need to see what polishes are best for the design. But I know I'll have fun practicing!

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!

Party like a rock star!

For this manicure, I used OPI Significant Other Color and then topped it with Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in Rock Star.

I used a base coast and two coats of the OPI. The color is way too sheer for my taste. I'm not a fan of my nail tips showing through polish. Although this polish would be good for a quick mani that wouldn't noticeably chip because of the light color.

I topped the OPI with a coat of Seche vite and then a coat of the Sally Hansen for some texture. It's a pink-purple based glitter polish. Definitely see some blues and greens in there as well.

Overall, it was a decent manicure. Not my favorite and I definitely thought it was too light and pink to make me feel like a rock star. This was a manicure I removed immediately after the picture and started another one.