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

Super Simple Christmas Tree Design

Today's nails are for the Facebook Group: Winter Nail Art Challenge.  Today's challenge is: Christmas trees.  I decided to do a very simple design that is quick and easy.  I decided to use slightly unconventional colors, since I've been doing a lot of Christmas nail art lately and am kind of tired of typical red and green.

I started with Lucky Lacquer 'Bells of Ireland' and a quick drying top coat.

I then used lightning vinyls from Nailvinyls.com and placed them on an angle.

Using Lucky Lacquer 'Mint Daisy' I filled in one side of the nail and of course, removed the vinyl.  Leaving the outline of one half of a Christmas tree.

I then used various other polishes from Lucky Lacquer Fleur Collection and dotted Christmas baubles on my trees.

I really love Lucky Lacquer Fleur collection, if you haven't checked it out yet, you should.  Her website is: http://luckylacquer.storenvy.com/.  In addition, to these beautiful cremes, she has many different glitter prototypes and she's adding new stuff to her store all the time.  If you make a purchase use code: Crystal to get 10% off (some restrictions apply).

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season so far.  There's about nine days till Christmas left, so stay tuned for more Christmas nail art designs.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Spirit Nail Art

Today's challenge is for the Facebook Winter Nail Art Challenge group.  The theme is Lucia or Christmas Where You Live.  Since, I don't celebrate Lucia I decided to go with the latter of the two.

After some deliberation I decided that I would do a festive skittle manicure.  For me nothing brings about the Christmas spirit like the decorations do.  I have a difficult time feeling the holiday spirit until the tree is up and the lights are hung, then it's on!  Luckily this year we got our tree up early, so I have been in a festive mood for a few weeks now.  Here is the nail art design I created:

I used three different polishes along with a glitter topper to create this look.  The green is Revlon Colorstay 'Rain Forest,' the red is China Glaze 'Seeing Red,' the gold is Zoya 'Brooklyn.'

Over the red I applied my glitter topper, Formula X 'Voltage.'  This is a red jelly based topper with gold glitter,  This is the first time I have ever used it.  I then applied a quick drying top coat and let dry completely.  I then used my chevron nail vinyls from nailvinyls.com and applied my green polish.  Nothing says Christmas like red and green together.

For my mid finger I was inspired by Instagramer @SharingVu and drew some Christmas ornaments.  Using my gold I started by drawing two round bulbs, I used a dotting tool to do this.  I then added a string with a small bow on top.  Lastly, using my glitter topper and a very small dotting tool (you could also use a toothpick,) I applied a little stripe across the ball.

And what's Christmas without a Christmas tree?!  For my ring finger I started with my gold and applied a quick drying top coat.  I then used scotch tape to outline a triangular tree shape and applied my glitter polish.  I applied another coat of quick drying top coat and let dry again.  Once dry, I replaced my scotch tape in line with the previous lines and then applied a few criss-crossing pieces of stripping tape and then applied my green over top.  Finally, I removed all the tape and applied a gem for my star and some pieces of loose glitter for decoration.

I went ahead and left my thumb and pinkie plain green, though I don't consider this green to be very plain.  This Revlon 'Rain Forest' is an incredible dark green sparkly polish that my camera does no justice for, it's really beautiful in person.

I love the tree and how the chevrons turn out, what do you think?  I hope you enjoyed yet another Christmas nail art design, stay tuned for more.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

An InLinkz Link-up

Vampy Candy Cane Stripe Nails

nail art is actually for tomorrow's Winter Nail Art Challenge group on Facebook.  The challenge is for Christmas Candies.  I actually had a lot of trouble with this challenge after failing at a watermarble and a drag marble design. I finally gave up and reached for my stripping tape.

I ended up doing a traditional candy cane design with a slight color twist.

Materials

Base and top coat

Black, white, red, and silver polishes

Strippers or stripping brush

Stripping tape

I started this look off with Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White' and Revlon 'Black Star' on my ring finger.  I applied a quick drying top coat to the white to speed up the drying so that I could use my tape with confidence.

On my accent finger I used a white Art Club stripper and drew candy cane shapes.  I then used a red Art Club stripper and stripped the candy canes.  I then used a silver stripper and filled in the more barren areas with little silver dots.

For all of my other fingers I laid out my stripping tapes and used my three colors, black, red, and silver to fill in the stripes.  The red I used is Formula X 'Atom + Eve'. 

After a little clean up, a bit of touch up on my stripes, and an application of a quick drying top coat.  I ended up with some relax eye catching candy cane nails.

I am really enjoying the two nail art challenges that I am participating and loving all the Christmas nail art designs that I have been seeing.  If you are enjoying these designs, stay tuned because there are many more to come.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

An InLinkz Link-up

Glittery Snowflakes

This is my second nail art for the Facebook Winter Nail Art Challenge.  This challenge was for snow or snowflakes so I tried to create something that gave the impression of both.

Materials
Base and top coat
Light blue polish
Snowflake stamping plate
White stamping polish
Medium white glitter
Fine white glitter

I started this design off with my favorite indie light neon blue 'Forget Me Not' by Lucky Lacquer.  If you haven't checked out her polishes yet you should, the ones I have tried are awesome.  If you missed my review you can check it out here.

I stamped a variety of snowflake images from bornprettystore.com stamping image plate QA57 with white polish.  I was out of town when I created this manicure and did not have stamping polish with me but the white I used worked okay.

I then applied a top coat and applied medium white iridescent glitter pieces randomly and strategically.  I placed some piece in the center of a few of the snowflakes to make them sparkle.

I finished off this look by brushing fine white glitter at the tips of my nails to give the impression of fresh powder snow.

This is the first truly successful stamped manicure that I have done.  I love the way it turned out, though I do dread taking the glitter off later.  I love this Lucky Lacquer polish, check out her store for great holiday specials and gift sets.  You can also use coupon code: Crystal for 10% off your Lucky Lacquer purchase, but some limitations do apply.

If you'd like to make a purchase from bornprettystore.com you can use coupon code: CREATEX31 for 10% off as well.

I'm really proud that I have managed to complete two of the Winter Nail Art Challenges so far.  I have a difficult time sticking to these kinds of self commitment.  If you are interested in joining along in the holiday nail art fun, checkout it out here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/703773993017224/.  I hope you enjoyed this glittery snowflake nail art design, thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

An InLinkz Link-up