Christmas Tree

Our church has a Christmas carols event every year and my a Capella group was performing in it. Our uniform was black dresses for the girls with Christmas accessories.

Since I didn't have anything too Christmassy, I did my nails. One of the themes for a facebook group that I follow was Christmas tree and my nails reminded me of a zoomed in Christmas tree. At first the green glitter looked sort of brown just on my nails. But then I figured out that if I did a thin layer of green underneath, it became a beautiful Christmas tree green.


I started off trying to do one thing, which ended up failing. I'm happy that happened, though, because I absolutely LOVE these. Although the tip wear after less than a day is pretty sad!

 This is just a random treat that I got at the Carols event. I thought it was adorable!

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Holiday Haul

The holidays were good for my nail polish collection! Here's the nail polish I got while I was away.

Sephora just opened its flagship store in Sydney early in December. I was super excited because I heard that Formula X was a good brand, but I only had a chance to try their base coat and remover before I moved to Australia. But since they just opened, they didn't have gift cards yet. My parents-in-law gave me $50 to spend at Sephora on nail polish. Sephora originally promised that they would match US prices, but they didn't at launch. I was very excited to go there and find out that the prices had been reduced from over $20 a bottle to just $14! That meant I could get four and just go slightly over budget.

The colours I got are Continuum, Brazen, Gray Matter, and Desire.

 This one wasn't a present, but I didn't have a quick dry top coat. I just had one from Nicole by OPI and it took FOREVER to dry and usually resulted in me messing up my nails. I kind of feel like my life has now been changed.

The next two pictures were my Santa presents. Santa is funny when he sees my in-laws because he likes to wrap everything individually. Yes, that means that the sponges that you see in front of the polishes were wrapped individually. He goes through a lot of wrapping paper.

The polishes here are Pastel Punk by Revlon, Brilliant Blue by L.A. Girl, My Dogsled is a Hybrid by OPI, Amazon Amaz-off by OPI, and Gargantuan Green Grape by OPI.

I was really excited to get this travel set. My mom got me the full mini set when it first came out. I've always been a collector of Coca-Cola things, so I was hesitant to open it up and use it. Now I can just use these ones!

I got this polish from my sister-in-law. It's an OPI sheer tint called I Can Teal that You Like Me.

These were from my Christmas Cracker that my husband's grandma made. Every year she makes us personalized Christmas Crackers. I'm not sure if I'll use the studs or the fake nails, but the white and black are definitely useful!

These three were from when I went shopping with my mother-in-law and father-in-law. I went into a cosmetics store to "just look" at the pretties as I usually do and they sat on a bench right outside. I saw a display of OPIs that were on sale. OPI is usually around $20 in Australia, but these were 3 for $20! I'm still on my no buying until I get a job thing, so I came out of the store looking really sad.

My mother-in-law then asked if I saw something that I really wanted and so I told her. She's awesome and let me get three and help her pick out three for my sister-in-law as late Santa presents.

The colours I got had perfect names for me. The first is Diva of Geneva, which is great because Geneva is the headquarters of the WHO and I have my degree in public health. The other two, I Don't Give a Rotterdam and Dutch Ya Just Love OPI, are perfect because I grew up in a city called Holland. It has a strong Dutch heritage, which I say makes me honorary Dutch even if I don't have any Dutch in my bloodline.

The next two pictures are from a purchase when I was going stir crazy. I was bouncing off the walls, so my in-laws took me shopping. The parents went to get coffee while my sister-in-law and I looked at nail polish. We were going to go to Priceline, but sadly that one had closed. Luckily there was a chemist across the street. They had the polishes in the first picture on sale, 5 for $10. My sister-in-law bought me one and I bought the other one, but since it was able to be paid with a single coin, I don't count it as buying for the sake of my no-buy. The one on the left is Gaga for Glitter and the one on the right didn't have it's name sticker and was the only one of that colour left. So sad since the names are half the fun of nail polish!

This was sort of a cheat for my no-buying rules. I blame my sister-in-law. We're bad influences on each other. The reason it's sort of a cheat was because it's a quick dry top coat, which I put in the category of things that I need to keep doing nails. That category is things like base coat, files, etc. However I didn't really NEED it because I just got the other quick dry top coat. Buuuuut, it came with a free full size bottle of nail polish, Red my Fortune Cookie. I couldn't pass that up!

Then one last nail polish arrived in the mail today. My mom sent my husband and I some Christmas presents. I was just able to pick the package up from the post office today and I found another bottle of polish. It's my first bottle of Sugar Shimmer, so I'm interested in using it. It's Mint Tint from Sally Hansen.

More Christmas Nails!

One of the best parts of this holiday season was that I spent it with my in-laws and I could do my sister-in-law's nails.

She's not the most decisive with what she wanted, but she did come up with snowflakes for her first manicure. I looked at an InLinkz that I'm a part of and showed her the snowflake manicures. She picked this one from Manicured and Marvelous, so I did my own interpretation.

Her next manicure was based on trees. I made a tree on the accent nail with different shades of green.

I did another look for my nails right before we left to go up to Sydney for Christmas. I decided to go with holly, since I hadn't done it yet, and got my inspiration from this manicure I found online.

When I was trying to decide what to do for my nails at Christmas, I was torn between polar bears and Olaf, from Frozen. Then I realised that I had to do my sister-in-law's nails, too, so I could do both! I gave her the polar bears inspired by this manicure.

Then I did Olaf on my nails. It ended up being a very Olaf Christmas for me! I also went to the store with my husband to find a onesie, I get cold even in summer here because everyone blasts the air con. It took us a lot of venturing through two different malls with 5/6 floors each, but we found a pop up store with onesies. They even had an Olaf one! Then my husband gave me an Olaf figurine and my mother-in-law got me an Olaf plushie! I'm a happy snowman!

Christmas freestyle

I had some difficulty coming up with a concept for this. I had sketched out some idea that I really didn't like. My eyes were wandering around the apartment trying to think of something when I landed on the DVD of my mom's favourite Christmas classic movie, The Year without a Santa Claus. She loves it! I really only like one song from it, which is the one between the Heat Miser and Snow Miser. I decided that paying homage to that song would be perfect!

I had one hand hot and one hand cold. My left was hot since the hot water is always turning the faucet to the left.

I started my left hand with a fire gradient. I painted the nails with white and did a gradient of yellow, orange, and red. The middle finger was his face, so I started with a neutral on that nail. The colours from before are added for the hair. My index finger is the hat that his minions wear during the song. My ring finger is a thermometer exploding stating that it's 101. And the sun on my pinkie should be obvious.

Snow Miser started out with a gradient between white, light blue, and blue. His face was the light blue. I  included his hat on my index finger and the -10 thermometer on my ring finger. It also says -10, but the angle makes it harder to see.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Presents

The night before I painted these nails I had the great idea to use nail art tape and make it into a bow. I am most definitely being sarcastic when I say great because it was so HARD! But I was rather determined and I ended up making a few bows that I was happy with. I only needed one, though because I decided to have the present be my accent nail. (And I painted my other hand with another theme so I had time to do all the prompts)

I decided to do my other nails with French tips, but instead of white I wanted Christmas colours.

The neutral is Canberra't without You by OPI, the red is Scarlet by Ulta 3, and the green is Envious by Kmart. I also used Snow Me White by Sinful Colors under the red for the present to make the colour more vibrant.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas sweater

I originally wanted to do a fun ugly Christmas sweater, but then I realised that it would be hard to fit one of those designs on my nails. Instead I went for a more traditional Christmas sweater look. I just adapted a sweater that I thought was festive that I found on google images.

I used Scarlet by Ulta3 and Snow Me White by Sinful Colors. For the red background, I put white down first so that the red would be more vibrant.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Glitter

This was a hard one for me to decide what to do. I played around with a few ideas in my head, but I wasn't happy with any of them. Then I just did a google image search for Christmas glitter and got an idea to do a gradient. I have two micro glitters, as glitter polish isn't really my thing. They were perfect holiday colours, though. They are Winter Holly by China Glaze and a silver glitter that came with Pretty in Plum from Nicole by OPI.

I was going to do a gradient, so I started off with painting my nails with Con-fused? by China Glaze magnetix. I used a sponge to make the gradient and it was my first time using a glitter polish on a sponge. The polish absorbs into the sponge, but the glitter doesn't. That means that the glitter covers the nail right away instead of the multiple applications of other nail polishes using a sponge.

Glitter is often hard to photograph because of how the light hits it and sometimes it looks blurry. So to best show them off, I included a few pictures of them.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Decorations- The Nativity!

I performed Christmas carols with my Christian a cappella group, Rushing Waters, twice over the weekend. Because we're a Christian group, I wanted a manicure that reflected the true meaning of Christmas. I was happy when I saw that today's prompt was for Christmas decorations because it meant that I had just the thing for my nails this weekend.

Every year, my mom puts up a nativity scene. After her mother died, we were given a beautiful nativity scene that my grandma painted. I didn't have the picture of my mom's nativity scene when I was painting my nails, but I made sure to get it after so that I could include it in my blog.

I realised when I was about to paint them that it wasn't going to be the correct way when I show someone my nails, but that's alright. The lined up correctly when I looked at them!

My left hand was the manger scene. I painted all of my nails first with Radiant Violet by Three Beauties. The star on my thumb is Bananarama by Kmart. Most of Joseph's clothes as well as the manger is made out of A-piers to be Tan by OPI. The details of Joseph's clothes are made out of Tiramisu by Sephora. The hay in the manger is a mix of Bananarama and A-piers to be Tan. Mary's veil is made from No Room for the Blues by OPI and her dress is Shark Attack by Sephora. Their faces/hands are a mix of Coach Ella by Fresh Paint and A-piers to be Tan. Jesus' cloths are made from Lily White by Ulta3 and Blackest Black by Designer Brands. That's also what I used for the sheep and the grey parts are a mixture of it.

The angel is made from A-piers to be Tan for the hair, her wings are Lily White, her skin is Coach Ella, her dress is Summer Rose by BOE, and her halo is Gold Fusion by China Glaze magnetix. She is outlined with Blackest Black. My middle finger is just a path to signify the long journey that they wise men had to take to see Jesus. The wise men's skin are made with Coach Ella. Their crowns are made of Gold Fusion. The colours of their outfits are Con-fused? by China Glaze magnetix, Plugged-in Plum by OPI, and Dangerous by Sephora.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Red and Green- Candy Canes!

I thought about what I could do for red and green and candy canes immediately came to my mind!

I started off this manicure by painting my nails white. I then used two of my brushes that I've never used before. It was a thicker one for the red and a thinner striping brush for the green. I've always used ones with short bristles or a dotting tool, because I just didn't know how the longer bristles would work. Turns out they look great!

The colours are Lily White by Ulta3, Scarlet by Ulta3, and Envious by Kmart.

I really like this manicure, especially how the stripes line up which wasn't intentional! It's a shame that I need to keep changing them so frequently, but that's what happens when it's the Christmas season and you have so many designs you want to do!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

12 Days of Christmas

While this is a "12 Days of Christmas" theme, most people don't realise that the 12 days of Christmas are actually the twelve following Christmas leading up to the epiphany, which is the day celebrating the arrival of the wise men.

But for this prompt, we were supposed to pick a line from the song and create nail art based off of it. I decided to google some images and found this beautiful drawing of the partridge in a pear tree.

http://www.windstarembroidery.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=4199

I decided that I'd use that as my inspiration and created this nail art.

The background colour is Lily White by Ulta 3. For the branch, I used A-piers to be Tan by OPI. The bird is made from a mix of Tiramisu by Sephora and Coach Ella by Fresh Paint. The wing is A-piers to be Tan and the eye is Coach Ella. The pears are a mix of Envious by Kmart, Lily White, and A-piers to be Tan.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

It's Santa!

I had the idea to make my nails have Santa on one hand and an elf on the other. I decided to do images for each one, so a hat, their face, shirt, and legs. The thumbs are just solid colours.

The green was Envious by Kmart and the red is Scarlet by Ulta3. For the red that was on top of the green, I had to put down white before the red. The red is a bit translucent. The white is Snow Me White by Sinful Colours. The black is Blackest Black by Designer Brands. The elf belt was made with mixing green and black. The belt buckles and bell on the elf hat are Gold Fusion by China Glaze Magnetix. The elf and Santa skin were painted with Coach Ella by Fresh Paint. The rosy cheeks are Strawberry Sundae from Ulta3. The elf's hair is A-piers to be Tan by OPI and his inner ears and painted with a mix of Coach Ella and Strawberry Sundae.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas Tree

Through my surfing of nail art on the internet, I found some nail art with strings of Christmas lights. I thought they were beautiful and fun, so I added them with a french twist on my fingers with the actual Christmas tree as an accent nail.

I knew exactly what polish I wanted to do for my Christmas tree. It's one that I think is beautiful, but I haven't had a chance to wear it since last Christmas! It's called Winter Holly by China Glaze. It's a green microglitter with flecks of other Christmas colours of glitter. It's perfect for a tree. I added the two pictures to try and show the dimension to the glitter, but they don't really do it justice.

I painted the tree by doing a tape manicure. I first painted the tree shape with Metallica by Wet n Wild and then I added small tape strips. For the tree, I first painted with a coat of Con-fused? by China Glaze magnetix and then a coat of Winter Holly because that has a clear base and I wanted the tree to be fully coloured.

I used Coach Ella by Fresh Paint for the base colour of my nails and Snow Me White by Sinful Colours for the French tips. The string of lights was Blackest Black by Designer Brands. The lights were Shark Attack by Sephora, Envious by Kmart, Bananarama by Kmart, and Scarlet by Ulta3.

An InLinkz Link-up

Snowflakes

The Challenge Your Nail Art group on facebook has a 12 days of Christmas challenge. Instead of following the song, it's 12 prompts, one every other day, until Christmas. The first one was yesterday, but I was having a rough day from lack of sleep, due to road construction at night and neighbours hammering in the morning, so I wasn't able to finish up some nail art. Luckily I live in Australia and so it's still yesterday in America! (Also I'm double dipping this for the NAIL linkup!)

The first prompt was snowflakes. It's pretty funny considering that in Australia it was the first day of summer! But since I'm from Michigan, I do associate snow with Christmas.

I decided that I wanted to do a snowflake as an accent nail and then do something like falling snowflakes as a modified French manicure. It ended up even better than I expected! I was just going to do some random cascading shapes with a sponge. What happened was that I used the corner and it made it look like icicles on my nails! I did the snowflake on my middle finger using a small dotting tool.

The polishes that I used were Radiant Violet from Three Beauties and Snow Me White by Sinful Colors.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up