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

Witchicure

I have been looking for an excuse to do a green and purple combination nail art design and when I was looking over my new Halloween image plate from bornprettystore.com and noticed the little witch, I thought what better theme than a witch theme manicure. So I created these witch skittles using a variety of techniques…

Materials
Base and top coat
Purple, 2 shades of green, & gray polish
Black nail art stripper
Stripping brush
Sponge
Image plate and stamp
Nail Vinyls
Glow in the dark polish (optional)

Witches Cauldron

On my thumb I painted a bubbling witches cauldron. For my base color I used China Glaze 'All Aboard' (from the All Aboard collection). I then topped that with two coats of Sinful Colors 'Glow in the Dark'.

Using a black nail art stripper I drew a half circle at the tip and filled it in.

Then using a green cream polish, in this case Zoya 'Tilda' (from the Tickled collection), and a stripping brush, I filled in a small portion of the black cauldron. The shape is almost and lens shape.

To make the witches brew bubble I used a dotting tool and dotted Zoya 'Tilda' above the brew and Zoya 'Stassi' (from the Bubbly collection) in the brew to give it texture.

Witches Hat

On my pointer I painted a very simple witches hat. I started out with my purple base color again and again topped it with my glow in the dark polish.

I then used my black nail art stripper and drew a very narrow (close to the tip) curved line and filled it in to the tip to create the brim of the hat.

Using the same nail art stripper I then drew a triangle atop the brim.

Then using my green cream polish and a stripping brush I drew a stripe along the brim and the base of the hat.

Witch Face Silhouette

On my mid finger I hand drew the silhouette of a witches face. I started with a base color of Zoya 'Stassi' and topped with my glow in the dark polish.

Then using a thin stripping brush and black polish I drew three lines somewhat horizontally from the side of my nail. These will be the brim of the witches hat, her nose, and her chin.

I then very carefully filled in that side of the nail, and created the contour of her face complete with a wart on the crook of her nose and her chin.

Witch Flying Across the Moon

On my ring finger I decided to use my stamped image of a witch flying on her broom stick. I started with a gray base color, China Glaze 'Five Rules' (from the Giver collection). I gave the moon a very slight amount of texture by taking a very small piece of sponge and dabbing a very small bit of a dark metallic purple over the surface. For my metallic purple I used China Glaze 'Choo-Choo Choose You' (also from the All Aboard collection). I then topped this with my glow in the dark polish.

I created the outline of the moon by using a thin stripping brush and my purple polish used on my thumb and pointer and traced the edge of my nail. Because my tips are squovals I had to curve the lower corners a bit more than the uppers, to create the round moon shape.

I then applied my witch stamp using bornprettystore.com image plate QA26 item #5689 and their black stamping polish item #1381 . Remember if you purchase from bornprettystore.com use coupon code: CREATEX31 for 10% off your purchase.

Witch Stockings

For my pinkie I did a simple stripe design representing witch stockings. I started with my sparkly Zoya 'Stassi' and topped with my glow in the dark polish and a coat of quick drying top coat.

After waiting for my base polish(es) to dry I applied to straight nail vinyls from nailvinyls.com horizontally across my nail. I cannot stress enough how important it is to wait for the polish to dry before applying vinyls or tape. Also keep in mind that the more layers of polish you have the longer it takes for it to dry even with a quick drying top coat.

With my vinyls in place I painted my purple polish over top and then quickly removed my vinyls.

I topped all my nails with a quick drying top coat once I was complete with the designs. I really love this spooky design and the purple and green combination. I'm particularly fond of the witch on her broom flying across the moon, especially in the dark when it glows.

I hope you enjoyed these witchy skittles, thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Fall Skittles Manicure

I love fall it is my favorite season of the year! Everything about it is wonderful, the colors, the weather, the festivals, the holidays, you name it I love it. When I first started this manicure I didn't really have a plan. Most of the nail art designs I do I either have a design or a color scheme or something that I have in mind, but not this one. I just wanted to create a manicure that was purely fall inspired, and this is what I came up with…

Each finger is something that to meet represents or reminds me of fall. On my thumb I painted an autumnal tree, with falling leave.

On my pointer I painted a falling leaves with swirls. The swirls represents fall breezes that blow leaves around.

On my mid-­‐finger I painted a plaid design. I think of plaid patterns when I think of fall.  I'm not sure if it is because of school uniforms or what but plaid comes to mind.

On my ring finger I painted a pumpkin because what is fall without pumpkins. One of my favorite things to do in the fall is to visit the pumpkin patch and pick out the biggest pumpkin I can find.

On my pinky I painted a simple chevron. I think of chevrons when I think of autumn because of Charlie Brown. Of course, I used different colors but that's because I wanted it to coordinate with the rest of this manicure. I did use nail vinyls to create this chevron design.

I used several different polishes and strippers to create this manicure:

• Essie's 'Partner in Crime' and 'Take it Outside' from the Dress to Kilt Collection
• Color Club's 'Off Duty' and 'Apple of My Eye' from the Made in NY Collection (swatches and review coming soon)
• Orly 'Lavish Bash'
• Strippers in green, black, and white

I am so proud of this manicure, I feel that I accurately caught the feeling of fall with these designs. I'm also really excited about how my freehand abilities are coming along. I will not be taking this manicure off anytime soon. I hope you enjoy fall and this manicure as much as me. Thank you for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,