Winter Snowflake Mani with China Glaze Snow Globe

As I sit here starting to type up this post, it's starting to snow! It's so pretty! I have been seeing such beautiful snowflake mani's out lately, and I wanted to do one for myself!

 

 

To do this mani I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and one coat of China Glaze Snow Globe. I think that glitter is perfect for this type of wintry mani! I did a comparison post of Snow Globe and China Glaze Make a Spectacle where you can see it over black if you'd like.

 

 

Then I used a Bundle Monster Plate BM14, using the snowflake design 2 to 4 times on each nail, stamping with China Glaze Deviantly Daring. I wore this polish before, and mentioned that I thought it would be good for stamping. It didn't disappoint! I then put a coat of Seche Vite on top to seal it in. Thanks for looking!

 





 

Christmas Needle Marble

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it! I hope it's a wonderful one! Today I wanted to share with you my Christmas mani!

 

I did a Halloween needle marble a few months back, and loved how it turned out, so I thought I would try one using Christmas colors! If you are unfamiliar with this technique, I did a tutorial here. To do this mani I used two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and used my nail art stripers for the rest. I used alternating stripes of Color Club Striper in Red, Color Club Striper in Solid Silver, and an L.A. Colors Art Deco Striper in Green. My favorite part about this technique is that you can draw on the messiest lines and when you drag the needle across, it always ends up looking nice! My friend told me that these reminded her of Christmas candy, mmmm! Hope you have a great holiday and thanks for reading!

 

 

Christmas Gifts with Butter London Knees Up and Zoya Trixie

It's almost Christmas, so I wanted to share with you some fun gift wrap nails that I did last week! I saw this idea on Pinterest and I really like how it turned out! These little bows were fun to wear.

 

 

For these nails I used two coats of Zoya Trixie on my index, middle and pinky, and two coats of Butter London Knees Up on my ring finger and thumb. Isn't it the most perfect Christmas red? I love it! Then, on my accent nails I used a Two-Way Nail Art Pen and Brush in White, using the long thin brush to draw to lines across my nail, and then I followed it with the Color Club nail art brush in Solid Silver. Then I took a really tiny paint brush and used Zoya Purity and painted on the bow. I had to go over it twice though, it was a bit on the shear side. In the middle I added one silver rhinestone, and sealed it all in with Seche Vite. Thanks for looking!

 

OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons & Sinful Colors All About You

I got today's idea from Pinterest, however it was done in different colors. To do this mani I started with two coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, below.

 

Then, I added one coat of Sinful Colors All About You on top. I love this color! I've had this for a few years, and it looks pretty over whatever I layer it with. I included a close up shot to show the detail in it! It has gold flecks and also a deeper/bronze gold round microglitters. The color difference between the glitters and flecks is more obvious in person. It's very beautiful!

 

 

 

Then I took four different nail art stripers and placed stripes on the top half of my nail in various lengths, adding 3 or 4 of each color until I was satisfied with the look. The stripers that I used were a Kiss Nail Art in Pearl Gold, It's So Easy Stripe Rite Bronze Glitter (no name listed), Sinful Colors Nail Art in My Day and Sinful Colors Nail Art in Sunset. I then topped it with Seche Vite to smooth everything out. Thanks for looking!

 



Dupes? Orly Miss Conduct and OPI DS Extravagance

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was curious to see if Orly Miss Conduct was a dupe of OPI DS Extravagance. So today I have the comparison post for you, and my verdict is that they are not dupes!

 

 

This is two coats of each, with no base coat and no top coat. On my index and ring finger is OPI DS Extravagance and on my middle and pinky is Orly Miss Conduct. Both of these applied nicely and have a subtle scattered holo. One didn't seem to be more holographic than the other. I was surprised at how much darker DS Extravagance was. I was very convinced that these were going to be dupes until I pulled DS Extravagance out of my drawer. I wouldn't say that one is better than the other, I suppose it just depends on which color you prefer! One way you may be swayed is that the OPI is a bit more expensive at about $12.50, and I picked up the Orly for around $6.99 I believe. Hope this was helpful to anyone that was unsure before making a purchase!

 

 Indoor Lighting



Ulta Set The Nude Dotticure

Hello there! Today I have a mani that was inspired by Kayla Shevonne. I really liked the colors she used on her version of this mani, so I tried to use similar ones. It's so different than what I would have picked out myself!

 

To do this one I started with two coats of Ulta Set The Nude, and then I added dots using Zoya Diana (red), Color Club Twiggie (green), and an OPI that is missing a label (olive) *edit* My friend Debby gave this to me and she said it's At Your Quebec and Call! I took the largest dotting tool that I had and on each finger I added one large dot in various spots and various colors. I tried to make each finger look different. My dotting tool wasn't quite large enough to make the dots the size I wanted, so I dotted around in a circle to increase the size... but unfortunately my big dots aren't perfectly round because of this.

 

I then added some medium and smaller dots randomly on the nail to fill it in. When I was done, I took the based color Set The Nude and added dots to the center of most of the bigger dots. I am mostly happy with how this turned out, although I wish my dots were more round. Thanks for looking!

 



Giveaway Winner Announced - Nail-Venturous Floam

Hi there! Today I wanted to announce the winner of my giveaway .... it's Rosemary f! I have e-mailed her, and I am awaiting a response. If I don't hear back within 48 hours, another winner will be drawn. Thank you so much for all who participated!

*edit* Rosemary has responded! Thanks again!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orly Miss Conduct

Hi there! Today I have my second submission for On Wednesday's We Wear Pink! Is this pink? Maybe I fudged it a little for this one, lol. This is two coats of Orly Miss Conduct, with a coat of Seche Vite on top. It's from the Holiday 2012 Collection.

 

Miss Conduct is a very beautiful, subtle scattered holo. It had a really nice formula and applied nicely. The holo is much stronger in person than I was able to capture in these photos. It reminded me of OPI DS Extravagance, so I took some comparison shots that I will post soon. Spoiler alert - they aren't dupes! Okay, so below are a bunch of photos!  Enjoy!

 

Here is an intentionally blurry photo to help show the holo!

 

Indoor Lighting

 

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam! It's open until December 6th!


Dupes? China Glaze Snow Globe & China Glaze Make a Spectacle

Hi there! Sorry this is a little delayed, but when I reviewed the China Glaze Wicked Collection, I mentioned wanting to do a comparison of China Glaze Make a Spectacle (Wicked Collection, Halloween 2012) and China Glaze Snow Globe (Let it Snow Holiday Collection, 2011) because they look so similar in the bottle, see below. On the left is Make a Spectacle, and on the right is Snow Globe.

 

The photos below are over two coats of Zoya Raven. On my index and middle finger is one coat of Make a Spectacle, and on my middle and pinky is one coat of Snow Globe. Both applied really evenly and easily, however putting them over black - you can see just how different they are! The colors in both of these really surprised me. Snow Globe is packed with blue, turquoise, silver, pink? I'm not even sure... but it is surprisingly colorful! Make a Spectacle has an olive-y feel to it. I love the way the glitters shifted from green to gold. It's really interesting to look at!

 

 

The below photos are over two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Same as above, the glitters are one coat of each. On my index and ring finger is Make a Spectacle, and on my middle and pinky is Snow Globe. It's not as obvious how different these two are over white. They both have a really beautiful snowy look, and would be great in any wintry manis! Hope this was helpful, thanks for looking!

 

 

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam! It's open until December 6th!


Nail-Venturous Humblebee

Today I have the beautiful Nail-Venturous Humblebee to share with you! I have been feigning for this polish for quite some time, and thanks to the amazing ladies at Ninja Polish I was lucky enough to get this one for myself when it was in stock. You can visit their site and sign up for e-mail notifications for when your desired polish gets back in stock. They have tons of amazing, hard to find items in their store.



This is three coats of Humblebee with a coat of Seche Vite on top. This polish is packed with neon yellow and black micro glitter, and slightly larger black hex glitters. If it looks sparse in these pictures, it wasn't obvious in person and I never noticed any bare nail showing through. My camera wasn't quite capturing the brightness of this polish, so I snapped a cell phone picture when I was out in the sun. The last photo is much more accurate to real life. It's a really lovely polish and I highly recommend it!

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam! It's open until December 6th!



OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons and Essence Gorgeous Bling Bling

Today I have a simple mani for you, I tried doing accent nails on my index and middle finger this time, can't figure out if I like it or not!

On my index and middle finger are two coats of Essence Gorgeous Bling Bling, and on my ring, pinky and thumb is two coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons all with Seche Vite on top. These are both really lovely colors. I only wore this for 1 day, but I felt like I was staring at my nails the entire time. Don't Pretzel My Buttons is a beautiful creamy nude, and I loved it against my skin tone. The application was really nice and even, perfect in two coats! Gorgeous Bling Bling (what a name - lol!) is another really pretty color. It's a burnt orange packed with flakies. It's a really nice fall color. This one went on really nicely too.

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam! It's open until December 6th!

On Wednesday's We Wear Pink - Orly Flirty Spun Sugar Mani

Hi there! I have been wanting to get involved in a challenge for a while now, and I decided a fun/easy one for me to try out would be On Wednesday's We Wear Pink. If you have ever seen the movie Mean Girls, it's a really cute/funny scene in the movie. To be included in this challenge I added the picture to the side of my blog, and on Wednesday's ... you guessed it... we wear pink! It doesn't have to be every Wednesday, but I thought it would be a great way for me to get through my numerous pink polishes and gradually become involved in challenges.

Okay, so on to the design. I've seen this called a "spun sugar" design in the blog world, and I have been wanting to try this design for a while (here is a great YouTube tutorial to show this technique). Two amazing examples of this are by Chalkboard Nails and Manicurator. To do this, you basically just drop some polish onto a paper plate and as the polish begins to dry and get tacky and stringy, you dip a dotting tool (or something similar), into the polish and the stringy polish that hangs from it gets laid across your nail. It sounds easy, but I struggled with it... it seems like the polish I was using was taking SO long to get tacky. I may be better off finding some older polishes if I try this again.

For this mani I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and the strings are Orly Flirty. The above two photos are without topcoat. I love the dimension of this design, 3D nail art! But, I knew from when I started that I was going to have to put top coat on this bad boy, or it would never dry! So, below are the unfortunate after shots with Seche Vite on top. It just, doesn't look as cool to me...  the pink got all smeary looking and it just ended up looking messy to me. I still got a few compliments on it, and at a distance I guess I don't mind it, just not sure if I'll be trying this technique again. Which way do you prefer, with or without topcoat?

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam! It's open until December 6th!

Zoya Gilty over Sinful Colors Last Chance

Today I have Zoya Gilty to share with you! I couldn't resist this limited edition 18k gold polish! It was a bit of a splurge, but I have wanted a gold top coat for a long time!

 

To do this mani I started with two coats of Sinful Colors Last Chance, a deep green.

 

Then I added one coat of Zoya Gilty. It wasn't as packed with gold leaf as I had hoped, so this coat is a bit on the thick side. It may have been easier to work with if I had done two thinner coats. Either way, it's a beautiful polish and I can't wait to try it over some other colors!

 



PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam! It's open until December 6th!

Thanksgiving Dotticure

I know I'm a day late, but Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrated it! Today I wanted to share my Thanksgiving mani. I just went with some Thanksgiving / fall colors.



To do this mani I started with two coats of China Glaze Desert Sun, with a coat of Seche Vite on top. This one is from the fall 2012 On Safari Collection by China Glaze. It applied really nicely, but I needed both coats. I really enjoy this color, it reminds me of a creamy caramel, yum!

 

After letting it dry a bit, I used a medium sized dotting tool and added dots of China Glaze Exotic Encounters (teal), Finger Paints Catwalk Queen (yellow) and Finger Paints Cordur-Orange (orange). I topped it with another coat of Seche Vite to smooth everything out. Thanks for looking!

 

 

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam! It's open until December 6th!



Nail-Venturous Floam Giveaway!!

Hello my lovely readers! I am super excited that today I going to host my very first giveaway - and what better product than this?! I purchased an extra bottle of Nail-Venturous Floam when I was lucky enough to find it in stock - and was saving it for this very occasion. I just had my One Year Blog-a-versary a few weeks ago, and wanted to thank my amazing readers and followers by doing a giveaway! The blog world is relatively new to me, and it's a learning curve! I apologize in advance if I don't do this perfectly, it's my first time having a giveaway, please be patient with me!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
One winner will be selected to receive one bottle of polish. Giveaway to United States residents only please. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by anyone other than myself. Winner will be contacted by email after the giveaway ends. If the winner doesn't respond within 48 hours, another winner will be drawn. If you have any additional questions - feel free to send me an email or leave a comment below!

I am so excited to host this and I hope you all love it! Thanks for reading my blog, it's a labor of love and knowing you enjoy it makes all the hard work worth it! Hope you enjoy this little thank you.

Thanks again!