Holiday Catch Up

Ahhh…  That was a nice break.  I didn’t intend to take a few days off.  It just sort of happened.  What a busy time of year!  I had a fantastic Christmas and am looking forward to getting back in to my regular routine.Right before Christmas I saw this post pinned on Pinterest.  I was amazed at the simplicity of it.  As many times as I’ve seen and done Jane’s cloud manis, I’d never paid attention to the negative space left at the cuticle.  It totally makes the perfect holly leaf!

I had been looking for quick to do for my holiday mani and this is what I chose.  I used Kleancolor Green Grass for my leaf and China Glaze Starboard for the veining in the leaf.  My berries are OPI DS Indulgence.  The purple is OPI DS Extravagance which I LOVE!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will be safely celebrating the New Year. I will probably sit on the couch reading my book, peek at the TV at midnight, then go to bed. I’m a party animal, what can I say. 😉

Twinsie Tuesday: Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!  I hope Santa made it to your homes and that you’re all safe and happy celebrating with loved ones.  That’s what I will be spending my day doing.  I didn’t go crazy with my Christmas manis this year.  I kept them simple and a little more grown up.  I guess I was feeling more sophisticated this year. 🙂

I really like this gold mistletoe.  I could just hold my hand up over my head and get all sorts of kisses from the hubs and our little one.  I didn’t really try that, but I bet it would have worked.

My base polish was Revlon Rain Forest.  This is the first time I’ve used it.  It’s a deep, almost black base with green glitters in it.  Very pretty.  My mistletoe leaves and berries were acrylic.  I’m loving gold lately.  I need to find me a good gold polish with good coverage.  Maybe a foil.  Any recommendations for a gold foil polish?  I love the coverage I get out of OPI DS Radiance which is a silver foil.  I’d like something like that in gold.

Merry Christmas again everyone!  Or Happy Holidays if you celebrate the season in a different way.

Be sure the check out all the other manis today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anna of Going to the Showing
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Brandi of The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
ChiChi of I’m Just Me…ChiChi
Cordia of Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth of Did My Nails
Jamie of Polish, Please!
Jenn of All That is Gorgeous
Jenna of I’m Still Thinking
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Maribeth of Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Tara of Polishy of Truth

Christmas Floral

Happy Christmas eve everyone!! I hope you’re all ready for Christmas tomorrow, as you’re pretty much out of time. I’m super excited!

I was so happy to see Mr. Candiipants “grown up floral” tutorial video.  I have always loved designs like this, but was too scared to try my hand at them.  Her tutorial really helped.I practiced a bit on paper first. I have to say I’m pretty impressed with myself.

I used acrylics for these because I new polish would dry up too fast. This was fairly slow going for me as it was a new design. I love it though and am already thinking of different color combination to try it in.

What do you think of this grown up floral? Do you think you’ll try it?

Ruffle-ish Christmas

I really have a hard time figuring out what to call designs sometimes. This looks kinda ruffly right?I had the idea to do the sort of ruffles, but when I got done with them, it didn’t look Christmasy. It reminded me of the Mexican flag. Which is fine and dandy, except that that’s not at all what I was shooting for. The addition of the polka dots added the festive touch I was looking for.

I did this with my left hand so it doesn’t quite line up as well as I’d like it to, but I’m still happy with it.  I used China Glaze White on White, Color Club Reddy or Not and Kleancolor Green Grass for this design and topped it off with Chill Zone top coat.

Peppermint Candy

Mmm… I love peppermint.  Come Christmas time, Bob’s Sweet Stripes soft mints are the bane of my existence.  I never buy them myself, but my mom and sister do and I simply cannot help eat them by the tons.  I was at my sister’s house a few weeks ago.  She had a big container of them and I literally filled my pockets before I left.  So pathetic.  I you like peppermint candies and haven’t tried these, you need to track some down.  Sooo yummy.I did some peppermint nails last year and loved them.  I water marbled them.  It took me a few tries before I got it right and they were so simple that I could have easily done it by hand.  I actually wasted a lot of polish insisting that they were water marbled.  At least they looked cool.  I had seen many peppermint swirl nails going around this year and wanted to take another crack at them.
I took a shot at them a day or two ago and failed miserably. I didn’t even finish completely and took them off. Then I was out of time and couldn’t try again. This time, I drew them out first to practice my technique. Much easier and much more successful this time around. This year they are completely freehanded, but I still feel like I cheated because I used acrylics for the red and green. I don’t know why I see that as cheating. For some designs acrylics are simply the smarter way to go. The clean up is easier, they don’t dry out as quickly or get all stringy and they’re more opaque.

What’s your take?  Is it cheating to use acrylic paints for nail art?  Does it bother you at all?  I honestly don’t think I’m bothered when others do it, but for some reason I feel like I’m doing something sneaky when I use acrylics.