Red, White and Blue

Happy Fourth of July, fellow Americans! Here is my holiday manicure. Have a safe and fun day!

I used the following colors:
China Glaze White on White, Frostbite and Seas the Day.

Cracking Up

It's time for my Easter manicure. I swear golden eggs were al the rage this year in Easter Egg dying. Since I don't dye eggs, I thought I'd make my own golden egg manicure. It was a bit of a hard concept to execute, but I think I like the results.  Anyway, hope those of you who are celebrating with family and friends are having a wonderful day!

I used Zoya Kerry for my base, two coats. I then sponged with several colors from China Glaze's Flourish Collection: Spring In My Step, Lotus Begin, Grass Is Lime Greener, Metro Pollen-Tin, Strike  A Rose. And then Factory Girl from Color Club. I sealed it with one coat of Seche Vite. Once fully dried I used tape that I had jagged cut on opposing sides, traced the edges with China Glaze Liquid Leather and then sponged the open "cracked egg" with China Glaze White on White.  I peeled the tape while still wet and it was done. I tried to mattify the golden part of the egg, but for whatever reason, my gold was impervious to matting. Probably used too many clear coats during the finishing process. Oh well.  Done.

Sprinkles of Spring

Minnesota has officially had the coldest winter in our USofA. We had 135 days of below freezing weather (and too many of those were below zero days). Not to mention we were pelted with a whole bunch of snow this year. Now, I don't mind winter. I don't mind snow. But I am so glad that today is marking the first day of Spring. The sun came out today and it gave me hope that some day this year I will be warm again in Minnesota. So this manicure is in honor of that. I love spring. I love when the brown grass quickly turns back to green. I love unearthing the stems of my flowers that are peeking out of the ground after being covered by leaves and snow for an entire winter. I love hearing the sounds of the birds returning and singing outside. So, snow be warned: your time is limited. Spring is here and the sprinkles of the season are creeping in.

I don't have the specs of all of the colors I used for this manicure (I am still on hibernation mode after all). However, my "spring sprinkles" are from China Glaze's most recent collection City Flourish. Colors in particular, that inspired this manicure in the first place, are as follows: Metro Pollen-Tin, Grass is Lime Greener, Lotus Begin, and Strike A Rose. 

To Fresh Starts and New Beginnings in 2014

I had a nice 2013, but I did a terrible job blogging via nails about it.  I'm OK with that, but I do still wish there were more hours in a day and more motivation, on my part, to edit photos in order to continue higher volume content on this blog. Alas, that was not the case for 2013. I don't even feel I have enough photos of 2013 to do my top ten!  But no more excuses or time for regret.....it's 2014! I don't really believe in resolutions, but I do think that new year beginnings are a great time to reflect and plan and dream about what things can be accomplished or come to pass in the upcoming year. My friends have been coining 2014 as the year of fresh starts and new beginnings. This manicure reflects that thought. I have now been painting my nails with art, embellishments, glitter, decals, gemstones, decals and the like for around five years now. I've not had a traditional, one color on ten nails manicure in all that time. It's fun (yet at times creatively exhausting) trying to come up with new ideas, new combinations, perfecting form, learning new techniques, use of new mediums, watching nail polish trends and buying polish to add to my rather large collection. Painting nails continues to be one of my funnest hobbies and I continue to be very passionate about it. I think it is so great that there are so many fantastic artists out there for more inspiration. With all that said, I am a sucker for bright, bold, wild, glittery, shiny manicures. I can forget sometimes that simple is great. Bare is beautiful. Thus, I'm letting it all show. My hang nails, my cuticles, my dents, divots, peeling, discolored, natural nails are on display in my first manicure of 2014. This manicure is my allegory for my hope for us and new beginnings, fresh starts and a bit of hope that you see good things are possible in the new year. Cheers to you!  Thanks for sticking with me.

The silver accents are from Zoya Trixie. I also used Zoya Armor as my top coat (two coats)

Christmas Bling

This is my actual Christmas manicure. Super full of bling and sparkles, which is what I wish for you and yours this Christmas. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

My manicure notes:
I bought these CinaPro Dial-A-Gem wheels for the holidays. I bought one last year, but I was drawn to these 3D nail art pieces that were featured in this year's wheels. I knew I was going to have a bit of a trouble fastening these to my nails. I looked up a few tips and tricks and landed on using my leftover acrylic from my Halloween Claw manicure to adhere them to my nails (I'm dreading taking them off, but I'll have to manage). It seemed to work pretty well, but boy do I hate working with Acrylic. It is so smelly. But thanks CinaPro for giving me some inspiration for Christmas!

Christmas Trees and Snow

I didn't do very many Christmas themed manicures this year.  Here's a collage for the few I did. I guess trees and snow were the theme this year. We sure are getting a decent amount of snow here in Minnesota this winter.

Just a few manicure notes: Blue snow and trees are featuring Essie Lots of Lux a textured polish. I started to experiment with foil.  It's a fun idea, but I wish the application would yield more perfect results. My decals on both the "tree" manicures were from CinaPro Holiday "Dial-a-gem" wheels

All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween everyone. Before the night ends, I thought I'd leave you with some treats!  Here are my holiday manicures. I'm in love with the ghosts (water marble) and glowing eyes.  They were so fun to do!