Christmas 2013 Nail Art Ideas: Simple and Not So Simple!

I must be the only nail art blogger whom has made it to half way through December without posting Christmas nail art. There is a reason for that.... I have been saving up all my Christmas manis for a big Christmas Nail Art extravaganza! 

First up I have a stamping manicure done with a Mo You London plate: Suki 07. I didn't buy any Christmas stamping plates (which I'm now regretting) but I think this design is quite Christmasy in the right colours. To centre the design on the red nails I actually made stamping decals using this tutorial and placed them in the exact centre of my nails. The red metalic polish is Revitanail "Ruby Rich", the white on my ring finger is OPI alpine snow and the white use for stamping is the white konad stamping polish.

 I really really enjoyed wearing this mani :) If you also like it please vote for me in the MoYou competition by liking and repinning this image on their board here.
I hate asking for votes, but some of the big nail art blogs have done the same and seeing as they have thousands of followers are smashing it!

 The next is the most simple Christmas nails I have to show you. Just a plain white with golden accent nail. The white polish is Essie Marshmellow which is much like OPI Funny Bunny, another favourite of mine. This is a white jelly which becomes opaque in just 2 coats (maybe 3 on some nails). I find this is a much easier polish to apply than the creme white polishes such as OPI Alpine snow and looks really clean. The gold polish is one that I created myself. It made up of small gold and larger square gold glitters and also white square glitters which are much more apparent in real life!
 

 

 I went further with this mani and free handed a Christmas tree on on middle finger, stripes on the ring finger and dots on the pointer finger (with hand placed gold glitter too). The star on the Christmas tree is a rhinestone purchased from ebay. 

My favorite nail is the pointer finger with the dots! 

The red polish used is Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine (red....I don't have the label) and the green is Essie Going Incognito (pointer, middle, ring). On the pinky I used a metallic green polish: Sally Hansen Emerald City from the Xtreme wear range. The red hearts are also a glitter.

 

 I did the same Christmas tree on this manicure as I had accidentally created recently on another triangle mix and match nail art design. I prefer the original actually- what about you?

 Next up is some simple snowflake nail art. 

Snowflakes tend to look very complicated but really all they are is a few lines (ie do a cross and then 2 more lines to create an 8 sided star. The add 1 or 2 small dashes to the lines. You can put a dot in the centre of the snowflake with your background polish to mix it up). I used acrylic paint to paint the snowflakes and the blue polish is one I made myself, which I'm calling Midnight Snow. I absolutely love it!!

Next is another nail stamping design created with MoYou London plates- this one Pro Plate 01. I stamped in red with the Sally hansen metallic red which I have no name for (sorry!!!!) and then painted the green lines in Sally Hansen Emerald city. I did this over a base coat of Essie Marshmellow. Again I did this with the stamping decal technique although after I realized that I could have probably done it straight onto the nail.I have also entered this on in the MoYou competition. To vote please like and repin the image here. Thanks!!! xx

The next is a very subtle look inspired by Christmas sweaters ...although nobody here in Australia would ever be wearing a sweater at Christmas time- its often 40 degrees Celsius at this time of the year (over 100 f) !!!

I painted my nails with a nude polish- Essie Jazz which looks absolutely awful with my skin tone apparently!!! My fingers look grey haha. The design was handpainted with a gold polish- Essie Good as Gold. The ring finger is the same gold polish made by yours truly as previously :)

 I think I like the thumb the best!

Update* And here is another Christmas nail design. See the whole post here :)

This last one is not strictly Christmas Nail art.....but I think anything in red and white adds a bit of Christmassy cheer to your nails! The full post with allll the details can be found here :)

Thanks so much for visiting. Merry Christmas!!

Picture Polish Starry Night And Big SDP-J Stamping

I have about five different nail art designs that I haven't posted yet because I wasn't super excited for them. I've decided that I will post them between the good stuff! 

Not that I think there is anything wrong with these black and lilac nails below. In fact it's hard to go wrong with  Picture Polish's Starry Night, a suspension of holographic specks and small white glitters in a black jelly. I applied it over 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx.

I think it looks like the nights sky when viewed from somewhere far out in the wilderness, free from city lights and pollution :)

The lilac feature nail was painted with OPI- Do you Lilac it? This is such a beautiful colour and forumla- I might actually be able to stop buying pastel purple polishes now that I own it.

The stamp is from Big SDP-J. These stamping plates are available from Dashica Beauty.

I took silver glitters from color club- platinum record and placed them in the centres of the designs to  match the metallic finish of starry night.

Keep posted as tomorrow I will be posting special nails for Remembrance day (working on them now). 

Thanks for visiting :)

Purple and Gold 'Skittles' Nail Art

A few days ago I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do to my plain old purple nails to jazz them up a bit... and ended up trying a bunch of different things....5 in fact :)

 I think most people are calling this kind of 5 nail mix and match 'skittles nails'.

 I went with a purple and gold theme using gold glitter, striping tape and polish, and two other purple polishes (in addition to the one I was already wearing)

 The background purple is OPI Casino Royal, a favourite of mine. 

 The pinkie was done by first putting a streak of top coat down the middle of the nail and hand-placing (or more accurately tweezer-placing) square glitter down the centre of the nail. I thought it needed something else so painted the tip with a golden glitter polish (home-made).

 The ring finger was kind of a lucky fail of watercolour nails. I tried doing it with polish I had thinned with a polish thinner rather than just using an acetone soaked brush as I have done previously. So instead of being washed out it was just really watery and prone to dribbling into my cuticles....which as it turned out was a good thing!

It's hard explain without pictures...I think I’ll make a tutorial once I get bored of these nails..... Anyway I was very happy with how they turned out. I think it looks a bit like a camouflage pattern.

 The gold is Sally Hansen Xtreme wear 'Golden-I', the dark metallic purple is Revlon 'No Shrinking Violet' and the pastel purple is China Glaze 'Sweet Hook'.

 The middle finger was done by using scotch tape to tape off a triangle at the tip of the nail (starting about half way down the nail) and painting this tip with the Golden-I. I then used tweezers to carefully place gold striping tape. After the gold polish had dried completely I used more striping tape to tape of the small purple tip, and painted it with OPI Casino Royal. (And then removed that striping tape) 

 For the pointer finger I just dabbed on the gold glitter polish (more at the base of the nail, and less at the top to create a gradient) 

 For the thumb I scotch taped off the bottom half of the nail and stamped an image from Xl-D with China Glaze 'Sweet Hook'. I then removed the tape and painted a thin line with Revlon 'No Shrinking Violet', and pressed gold circular glitter into the polish. 

 The only problem with skittles nails is having to write a description of every nail!

The reason I took so long to post these, is that I was determined to make a light box on the weekend.... which I achieved today! Yay!

I made it out of a cardboard box and baking paper. I think my pictures look way better than usual!.... I'm getting there slowly. Unfortunately the awesome light I'm using is only on loan from my Fiancé’s Dad who is an electrician, so I need to find a replacement. It’s an LED and is worth about 100$ apparently so I'll have to find an alternative!

He said he could get me a pretty good one for an affordable price though so I'm still very happy!

So here they are: I think its my best cuticle clean up ever!

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed creating this nail art :)