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

Happy New Year!

Dear Nail Diary,

This is only going to be a quick photo post, which I'll add details to later, but I thought you'd like to see the nails I was rocking last night.

Christmas Nails

Merry Christmas!
I thought I'd show you some of the nail designs I've been doing in the run up to Christmas.

 This is the Gift Wrapped design I did for my mom.
I started out with two coats of China Glaze's Tip Your Hat from the Twinkle Collection.  Using gold sticker stripes and a gold bow, I created the gift design on the middle finger.  On the index and ring fingers I added glitter stars.

Recently I did this Christmas design, inspired by various designs I saw over the internet.

On the thumb, index and baby fingers, I painted two coats of Rimmel's Block Your Green.  Then on the middle and ring fingers I painted a two coat base of China Glaze's White On White.

 On the middle fingers I applied striping tape in a diagonal pattern, painted London Girl's 149 on top and carefully removed the tape to create this candy cane effect.

For the ring fingers, I applied tape in an inverted "V" and began dotting various sizes with the London Girl and the Rimmel to make a tree and placed a star sticker on the top before sealing it with a top coat of Seche Vite.

My own mani was inspired by a candle created by my friend Maryann over at One Stop Pamper. I'm not sure if she still makes it, but it smelt like peppermint.  It had these glitter particles in it, so it not only looked, but smelt like fresh snow.

Two coats of China Glaze's White On White and then a coat of Butter London's Frilly Knickers to create the snow effect.  On my thumb and baby fingers I did a glitter gradient with China Glaze's De-Light from the Twinkle Collection.  On the rest, I painted on Nails Inc's Diamond Arcade and sealed it with Seche Vite.

I may do another mani for Christmas Day, if I do, it will probably posted after the day itself.  It I don't, have an awesome December 25th, whatever you may be doing that day!

=:x

China Glaze Twinkle Collection Review - Part 1

Dear Nail Diary,

This is my first time reviewing a collection.  I'm a complete amateur, so I don't know all the technicalities and whatnot, so this will just be my honest opinion of how I thought they looked on me and how smooth the application was.  Also, I can't wait to get my new camera so my photos will come out clearer and the colours more accurate.  My current camera hates purples and greens. :(

Melting Silver Kisses

Dear Nail Diary,

Another new mani! I was getting bored of the Midnight Leopard - I know, already!  Anyway, Mom got two new polishes the other day as the money went to Macmillan Cancer charity.  One was a deep rich purpley (did I mention I love purple?) colour and the other was a glittery silver with a pink tinge to it.  I thought they'd look brilliant together so I followed the Molten Metal tutorial on Chalkboard Nails, which I've been wanting to do for ages.  Now I have my nail art brush kit from Bundle Monster, I can and I have.

Cool Art Deco - TbT

Dear Nail Diary,

I'm not feeling so good, so I thought I'd take advantage of Throwback Thursday and post an old design.

It's using my favourite design medium - tape.
The design itself is one I adapted to my own tastes from this article.  There are some cool tutorials including the one I used for this, which is the 3rd one down about Chevrons.  I made the lines thinner and changed the colour palette so it had an Art Deco feel to it.
Hopefully I'll feel up to posting something new soon.  My nails are in treatment right now, so they might be in better condition for the next post.

P.S. I think my squovals will be back.

=:x