Merry and Bright Christmas Nails

Hello Lovelies!  Sometimes it can be difficult to find new and interesting designs, especially when you want to do something themed, say for the Holidays.  Lately, I have been in a bit of a slump because I feel like so many Holiday nail art designs are over done, and I just don't want to keep doing what everyone else is doing.  Don't get me wrong, I love what I am seeing on others' blogs and Instagram feeds, but I also like to be different, even if only a little.  I decided to look to my Christmas tree to get some inspiration, and one particular bauble kept grabbing my attention.  So, I decided to use it as my inspiration for this nail art design...

Materials I used:
Basecoat - SuperChic Lacquer "Bring it On!"
White base polish - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "White On"
Holo polishes - Glisten & Glow "Midori Sour," "Hpnotiq Hurricane," and "Sloe Gin Fizz"
Lou it Yourself Candy Swirl Vinyls
Small brush
Pueen image plate 10, 21, & 22
Fab Ur Nails XL stamper and scraper
Topcoat - Glisten & Glow "HK Girl"

I began with a clean white base polish.

On my pointer and my pinky, I created candy swirls using vinyls from Lou it Yourself (link above).  I purchased these vinyls a bit ago, but this is the perfect time of year to use them.  I was a little reluctant to use these vinyls because I have seen many other similar vinyls and they typically leave a blank space in the middle.  Most people use a gem or a dot to fill in this weird blank center.  These vinyls meet in the middle perfectly, leaving you with a near seamless candy swirl pattern, so if you want perfect candy swirls I highly recommend these vinyls.

To use these vinyls apply a quick drying topcoat over your base polish and allow to dry.  Place the vinyl, and trim slits in vinyl between the candy stripes (not pictured, sorry).  Fill in the candy stripes with desired polish, I used three colors so I filled in stripes across from one another to make this work properly.  To prevent pulling I removed parts of the vinyls as I filled in the stripes.  I plan to post a quick video to my Instagram account later today, that will help understand what I did a bit better.

On all my other fingers I randomly stamped a present, reindeer, and wreath in the same colors that I used in the candy swirls.  The holo polishes didn't stamp as well as I had hoped, and before I applied the topcoat, the images didn't appear holographic at all.  I would not recommend using these polishes for stamping to a stamping beginner, however, if you have some experience you may not have so many problems.

After a bit of clean up with some gentle acetone and a brush, I applied a quick drying glossy topcoat.  Applying the topcoat really helped the holo show in the stamped images.

In all honesty,  this didn't turn out exactly as I had imaged, primarily because the stamping isn't opaque as I was hoping.  I do, however, really like the color combo and the unique aspect for a Christmas design.  Plus, they match my Christmas bauble quite well, don't you think?

I hope you enjoyed this merry and bright Christmas nail art design.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Retro Snowflakes

Hello Lovelies! It's officially December, the beginning of the winter and holiday season. I've decided to participate in this months Weekly Nail Art Challenge (#wnac2015) from Instagram. The first prompt is snowflakes, a staple nail art design of the season. I have seen some gorgeous snowflake manis recently, but I wanted to do something a little different. This is what I came up with for my snowflake design...

Materials I used:

Basecoat - SuperChic Lacquer "Bring it On!"

Polishes - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Black Out," Revlon Top Speed "Metallic," China Glaze "Thistle Do Nicely," & "Capacity to See Beyond"

Makeup sponge

Small brush

Dotting tools

Topcoat - SuperChic Lacquer "Marvel"

I began with a solid black base.

I then used a small piece of a makeup sponge to sponge silver over some areas of my nails. 

Using a small brush, I painted the prongs of my snowflake. Using a medium dotting tool, and dotted the ends of the prongs. Switching to a slightly smaller dotting tool I dotted black in the center of each previous dot. I repeated this in a second color. Lastly, using a very small dotting tool and both colors I filled in the voids around the flakes.

As usual, I performed a bit of cleanup with acetone and a brush and applied a layer of glossy topcoat.

Many of you know I love retro styles so it's safe to say I love this design. The bright colors really pop against the black.

I'm hoping to complete many Christmas and winter themed manis this season but it this the season. I should be able to finish the WNAC in the very least. I do feel like I'm off to a good start. I hope you enjoyed this nail art design, thanks for stopping by, see you next time. 

Your Fellow Plebe,

Polar Express Inspired Nails Recreated

Hello Lovelies! I know its still a bit early to get into Christmas nail art designs but this past Friday we had a Polar Express movie viewing party. I used this as an excuse to recreate the Polar Express Inspired nails that I created last year.   I love to do recreations because it is a great way to see what kind of progress I've made and what techniques I've improved upon.  This is what I created this time...

I started with a gradient base using China Glaze "New Birth," "Capacity to See Beyond," & "Well Trained."

I sponged a little bit of Sinful Colors "24 Karat" across the center of all my nails.

Using my favorite calligraphy pen and silver ink I scribed "Believe" across my pointer, mid, and ring finger.

I layered white ink over the silver so that the silver created a shadow affect.

To create the jingle bell on my pinky, I used China Glaze "Swing Baby" and a large dotting tool. I then used my calligraphy pen and black ink to add detail to the bell. I added a bit of red ribbon using an Art Club Duo pen.

I used image plate QA57 from bornprettystore.com and silver stamping polish from Mundo De Unas to stamp a small snowflake over the "I".

I also randomly stamped snowflakes on my Cindy hand.

I did my usual clean up with gentle acetone and a brush, and topped it all off with a glossy topcoat.

Here is a comparison of the recreation and the original...

I prefer the gradient in the newer version of this design. In fact, I love this gradient. I also prefer using the calligraphy pen and ink. I have better control with the pen, and the calligraphy ink is similar to acrylic paint in that if you make a mistake you can scratch it away when it dries and start fresh.

It is really nice to see progress when doing these recreations. I am pleased with what my practice has produced. I hope you enjoyed this nail art recreation. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Glittery Stars

I was having a hard time deciding what to do for the 11th NPQ Christmas Challenge, the theme is Glitterbombs.  I was going to just create a manicure using red and green glitter, but wanted to do something a little different since I've done a lot of red and green lately.  I happen to be listening to some Christmas music and Elvis' version of 'O'Holy Night' came on.  This gave me an idea!  So this manicure is inspired by that song, specifically the lyrics, 'O' Holy Night, the stars were brightly shining...'

I started off with one coat of China Glaze 'One Track Mind', this is a one coat application.  I love this rich dark blue.  I also applied a quick drying top coat, to speed up the drying time.

When the polish was dry I applied a star vinyl from nailvinyls.com.  I then applied a gold polish to my stars.  I then sprinkled loose gold glitter over my gold polish while it was still wet with the nail vinyl still in place.  I pressed the glitter slightly, then tapped off the excess, and then carefully removed the vinyl.  I recommend using a polish the same color as your glitter in case any of the glitter falls off.

I used the same process (apply gold polish and sprinkle loose glitter) with hand painted half moon shape on my other fingers.  I've heard this referred to as a floating french.

I did a little cleanup by using a soft brush to brush the loose glitter slightly to make sure it was all stuck.  I then applied another thick top coat to seal in all the glitter.

There you have a slightly different Christmas song inspired manicure, that isn't red and green for a change for the 2nd day of Christmas Nail Polish Queens' Challenge.  I hope you liked this glittery nail art design.  Christmas is a few days away and I have a few more challenges to finish up so stay tuned.  Thanks for stopping by, see you soon.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Silver and Gold Nail Art

I love Christmas music and one of my favorite song is Burl Ives 'Silver and Gold.' So for the Christmas song/Carol/Movie Winter Nail Art Challenge Facebook Group.  I created these silver and gold nails inspired by my favorite Christmas song.

To create this look I started with a silver, a gold, and a glitter polish.  The silver is Revlon 'Metallic,' the gold is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Go for Gold,' and the glitter is OPI 'My Voice is a Little Norse.'  I topped it all off with a quick drying top coat.

Once the base polish was dry, I applied two stripes of tape at near the tip of my nail.  Using a makeup sponge I applied a slight gradient.  Over the silver I applied silver to the top of the nail and the gold near the tip.  So, when the tape is removed two silver stripes are visible through the gold gradient.

I did the same process over the gold but reversed the colors so that the silver gradient is on the tip and the gold shows through.

For my accent finger I laid out striping tape horizontally over the entire nail.  I then alternated silver and gold and filled in each space.  Removing the tape leave glitter stripes between each colored stripe.

After a little cleanup and a shiny top coat, you're left with a neat silver and gold nail art design.

This is an interesting holiday look without being super Christmas-y.  I also really like the stripping tape gradient affect.  I think this would be really striking if you use a bold color combo, for instance a black and gold might be really interesting.

Don't forget to checkout all the other lovely nail art design in the Winter Nail Art Challenge (links below).  I hope you enjoyed my Silver and Gold Christmas Song inspired nails.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

An InLinkz Link-up