The 12 Days of Christmas: Day 9 - Night Snow

This is a variation of some nails I did a while ago, for the first snow.

Night Snow: China Glaze Up All Night with Nubar White Polka Dot

I liked it so much over grey that I had to try White Polka Dot over a navy blue. China Glaze Up All Night is one of my FAVORITE dark blue polishes because it always looks blue and not black, but it's nice and deep and dark. This reminded me of when it snows at night and you can see all the snowflakes against the dark night sky. I prefer it with only one coat of glitter (shown), but two looks nice as well.

I know a lot of nail bloggers are obsessed with black glitter, and I wanted to be too (as it turns out, I don't really like it much... but I love the new charcoal grey glitter from Deborah Lippmann... i think that's what I always WANT black glitter to look like). Instead, I'm so in love with white glitter. All of the white glitter I've seen is a silvery pearl white, and it's SO pretty. This one and Lynnderella's Snow Angel are perfect examples of awesome white glitters!

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 8 - Christmas Glitter

So I decided to go crazy and combine my two favorite Christmas glitters: China Glaze Twinkle Lights and Party Hearty!

China Glaze Twinkle Lights w/ Party Hearty

I LOVE this combination so much. It is SO blingy and blinding! It's not quite as yellow as it shows in the pictures, because they were taken in very low lighting. It's more of a soft gold color in person, and super shiny and sparkly. Needless to say, this was the biggest pain in the butt to take off... glitter EVERYWHERE!

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 7 - Golden Snow

I really wanted to do some type of snowflake nails, and here they are!  I was going to do silver snowflakes right up until the last minute when I switched it to gold.  And I'm glad I did.

Golden Snowflakes - Essie Marshmallow stamped with China Glaze 2030

Heehee, the name is supposed to be somewhat funny - just remember, seriously, to never eat golden (yellow) snow!! Now, I'm not very good at stamping, but I don't even care if the snowflakes didn't come out perfect. I call this a success. It just makes me smile and think of a beautiful winter.

For good measure, here is a picture of Essie Marshmallow on it's own, because this is how I wore it for two days before stamping it (it was taken in low lighting so it's a tiny bit blurry):

Essie - Marshmallow

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 6 - Gold Gradient

This is one of my favorites so far from my 12 Days of Christmas Nails. It's a simple French gradient made with OPI's Bring on the Bling.

10 - Pinky Promise sponged with OPI Bring on the Bling

Bring on the Bling has always been one of my most favorite polishes. It's an awesome gold glitter with tons of multicolor glitter as well, and we all know how I love gold glitter. I feel like I've done this before, but I don't think I have - I've only gone it over red or just straight gold French tips (both shown here).  I actually did put a simple French tip in Orly Luxe underneath the glitter so I didn't have any bald spots, but I don't really know if it was necessary.  However, Liquid Palisade helps ENORMOUSLY on cleanup if you put it on the edges of your finger under the tip (since it's easy to accidentally sponge some glitter there).

So I have a confession. Some of these "12 Days of Christmas Nails" manicures are really only "swatches" (only four of my fingers are actually painted), like the present one yesterday. And I started this one off the same way. When I was sponging on the gold, it looked really dull and not very, so I figured "eh, another dud... I'll just take some pictures then move on to the next thing." Well, in this case I ended up putting on the top coat and my whole opinion changed and I put it on all the rest of my fingers for a full manicure!

Oh, I also wanted to share something with you. I got an email from a skin care company in Canada called ASK Cosmetics that's hosting a huge giveaway (their entire line!). If you want, you can check out all of the details and guidelines for entering on their facebook page here: www.facebook.com/askcosmetics. It runs until Dec 22nd.

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 5 - Presents!

First, a warning: I am NOT good at freehand nail art. But I REALLY wanted presents on my nails, so I bit the bullet and tried it. It actually turned out better than I thought it would, but still not perfect. I think I need to invest in some acrylic paints or something, because nail polish just doesn't work very well with a striping brush.

So here it is, the fifth day of the 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Presents!

I used quite a few polishes in this one because I wanted to give each present a subtle metallic wrapping-paper look. Unfortunately, it was TOO subtle and almost invisible on most nails. Oh well, next time I'll probably just use a simple metallic or creme base under the ribbons.

The base on the pinky is Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm, with China Glaze Little Drummer Boy stamped on top.  The base for the ring finger is CG Urban Night stamped with New York Summer Poppies.  The base for the middle is American Apparel Hunter stamped with CG Gussied Up Green, and the pointer is Essie Berry Hard stamped with Rimmel Lava Red.  All of the ribbons are done with CG 2030.

Although I'd considered doing some present nails from the start, it was Sammy's design that really made me decide on it.  Remember, you can check out all of her designs here if you've missed any.

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 4 - Red and Green Matte

Time for the fourth holiday manicure of the season!  Remember to check out all of Sammy's here - she has more intricate nail art ones than I do, and they are AWESOME!

Some people say the "every other finger" type of manicure is one you'd do only as a kid, but I love the combination of red and green too much and had to try it with my Zoya Matte polishes.

 Zoya Veruschka and Zoya Posh

Simple, but pretty, I think.  I love these two matte colors, and together it's just the epitome of Christmas.  both are really rich and deep, and I think the matte finish tones down the tacky "alternating colors" manicure.

For a twist, I decided to put some shiny French tips on with my Zoya Armour top coat.  It's not quite as shiny as some of my quick dry polishes, so I would probably use one of those next time I tried this.  Also, I would have liked the tips to be skinnier.

Btw, I forgot to mention that the reason I hadn't posted in a week was because I was in Hawaii!  I'd never been there before, and it was a blast!  However, while we were there, it just didn't feel like the Christmas season, so I'm glad to be back and feeling the holidays once more.  Anyway, I'm going to be playing catch-up a little more to get my 12 holiday manicures by Christmas!

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 3 - Spice Drops

This was a manicure I had in mind since Mrs. Claus and Mistletoe Kisses came out last year in China Glaze's holiday collection. I wanted them to look like various flavors of spice drops (you know, the ones you decorate gingerbread houses with?). So here they are!

Spice Drops - CND Sugar Sparkle over various bases

For the bases, I used CG Grape Juice, CG Mistletoe Kisses, CG Mrs. Claus, Ulta Sun-sational, and Revlon Powder Puff, then I topped each with two coats of CND Sugar Sparkle.  This is what I was going for:

I love these candies, but only the ones that are flavored like spices (not fruits).  If you haven't had them, you should try them!  Some of the flavors are anise (purple), spearmint (green), peppermint (white), and cinnamon (red).  I can't remember what the orange and yellow ones are...  ginger might be one?


Do you have any favorite Christmas candies?

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 1 - Christmas Tree Nails

I'm borrowing an idea from Sammy over at The Nailasaurus called "The 12 Days of Christmas Nails" (hopefully she doesn't mind, but I just love it)! The idea is to create 12 different holiday themed manicures between now and Christmas. Since there are 24 days left 'til Christmas, that's about one manicure every other day, which seems pretty reasonable to me!

So here it is! Day 1: Christmas Tree Nails!

Christmas Tree V2.0 - China Glaze Emerald Sparkle and Milani Gems

I actually did a Christmas tree-inspired manicure a year ago (almost to the date!) which you can check out here. I loved that one, but this time I wanted more of a "shiny ornaments" look. I used China Glaze Emerald Sparkle as a base (2 coats), and put one coat of Milani Gems over it. This bottle of Gems has the purple glitter in it (I will actually have a comparison post tomorrow for you on the Milani Jewel FX polishes).

You know what I think would make this even better?  A layer of Zoya Rina to look like pine needles!  Unfortunately, my Rina is at my parents' house right now, so I didn't have it for this.  I DO plan on doing a "snow and pine needles" look with it once I get it back though!