Snowy Nails

Dear Nail Diary,

This was supposed to be a Mani Monday but I'm a bit behind.  To make up I'll give you a double feature!

I'll start with my Mom's as I did hers first.  It's based on the design of the Glossybox I received last December.  To recreate it I started off with two coats of Collection 2000 - Buried Treasure over a base coat, as it was the closest shade I owned to the box which is a sort of warm/rose gold colour.

I then sponged China Glaze - White on White onto the tips of her index, middle and little fingers.  On those same fingers I haphazardly dabbed China Glaze - Chillin' With My Snowmies in a kind of snowfall gradient.  I still had to place some of them to keep the biggest glitters away from the bottom of the nail.

On her thumb and ring fingers I simply sponged Nails Inc - Champagne Graffiti to the desired amount, as I still wanted a tiny bit of the rose gold to come through.


My nail design has been influenced by several nail art designs I've been looking at on Pinterest - where you can also find me.
I started with two coats of Ciatè - Morning Dew and added a coat of Seche Vite.  Once it was fully dry I added snowflake vinyls, which are part of Twinkled T's Holiday Vinyl Bundle.  I however got them as part of their Limited Edition Holiday Bundle.  Anyway, I painted over the vinyls with China Glaze - I'd Melt For You and a little of Ciatè - Looking Glass.  I then added a matte topcoat to let the iridescence of the Morning Dew "shine" through in a different way.

For my ring finger, I painted two coats of China Glaze - White on White and then a coat of Butter London - Frilly Knickers and finally a matte top coat.  Once that was fully dry I sponged on Barry M - Silver around the tip and up the side of my nail and then poured on some fine silver glitter and brushed off the excess. On top of this I also dabbed light glitter coats of Essie - A Cut Above and London Girl - 42 and added a thick coat of Seche Vite, careful not to get any on the matte part of my nail.

Unbelievably I've chipped this already, so hopefully later this week I'll be posting a new mani.

>:x

Mani Monday: Candy Cane Lane

Dear Nail Diary,

As promised here is the first of my Holoday Nails, before I do my Mom's and potentially ruin them.  Also if you want to get technical there isn't actually any holo in this design, only iridescence and sparklies.  I was desperate to try my new candy cane stripe vinyls - now they are holo! I started off with a base of Barry M - Lady.  It's a textured polish, but a couple coats of SV sorted that out.  I then applied the vinyls and painted on Nails Inc - St James.  I was just going to leave it there but there seemed to be something missing...

More sparkle!  So I glued on some square rhinestones and added another coat of SV.  However it still wasn't enough...

So lastly I stamped a filigree style design on the tips of my nails using China Glaze - I'd Melt For You and added a final couple of coats of SV.  It's been a couple of days and I'm impressed I haven't lost any rhinestones yet as I've usually lost at least one an hour after I've done my nails.

I'll be back when I've done my Mom's nails as I forgot to take a photo of the design I last did for her.

=:x

Sunshine

Dear Nail Diary,

It may be a teensy bit grey outside my window, but at least my nails look sunshiney.  I told you I felt a yellow phase coming on.

Gold Shards

Dear Nail Diary,

I'm on a matte kick at the moment, everything just seems to look better.  I think it's because the rest of me is so shiny in this heat, I don't want my nails to be too.  Does that make sense?

I randomly picked up the Rimmel Pearly Queen.  I fell in love with it instantly when I bought it, but I had any inspiration to use it recently.  With the matte coat on it looks gold-like, however it's iridescent and changes colour from a pearly white, to a lilac, to a greeny-gold shimmer.  I applied two coats and one coat of the gorgeous China Glaze Luxe & Lush, from the Hunger Games - Capitol Colours Collection.  It looked good as it was, but as I said I've been on a matte kick, so out came the O.P.I. Matte Top Coat.  The finished look is not something I would have picked out for myself.  I was worried that the iridescent shards in the China Glaze would be overkill with the Rimmel, but it's really quite subtle.

=:x