Half Wreath Moonicure!

So the big lesson I have learned from this manicure is that it's dumb to remove it after taking pictures but before checking that the pictures are any good. It's a good lesson.

I used Finger Paints Sketch n Etch as a base, and covered it with Nailtini Millionaire, which I got in my ipsy haul last month. It looked kind of fuzzy and festive, like I think a wreath should look. I used my hole reinforcers (you know why they cut them in half in tutorials? It's not because they're cheap -- hole reinforcers cost about a half a penny apiece -- it's because they bend up if you use the whole thing. Now you know!) to make a moonicure, and painted over the whole thing in Sinful Colors' Black on Black. Which is still my favorite black, even if it's cheap. It covered glitter smoothly in one coat. Dang. After I pulled off the reinforcers, I freehanded some bows in Orly Monroe's Red. The whole result was cute as a button.

So I snapped a few pictures (light box will likely come after Christmas, if I ever have money ever again) and they looked okay on my phone, so I removed the polish. I wanted to get a head start on the weekend manicures -- I have six church services to attend or perform in between Sunday and Monday, plus wrapping gifts, plus making food, plus not going insane, so being a few days ahead seemed like a good idea.

Yay for lessons! Sorry the pictures stink. I'll figure it out someday, I swear.

In the meantime, go see what everyone else did! I bet they have better photos!

Abstractly Ornamental

My original plan (is it just me, or do most of my posts seem to start this way? Maybe it's just me) was to do one beautiful ornament on each nail and detail it and ... maybe that will work next year. My original manicure was a mess and I wanted to actually show a success for the first time in a few attempts, so I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:

I started with a couple of coats of white (I'm almost out! Time to try a new white!) and overlaid many, many (like....5 or 6 or 8 or 12....but probably 5) coats of OPI Fresh Frog of Bel Air to have a glittery tree backdrop. I dotted on big dots of OPI Into the Night, Orly On the List and Monroe's Red, and Sally Girl Dumped. It looks like ornaments on a tree to me, and that's what counts, right? Right? :)

Also, when I was at Sally, I bought "acetone nail polish remover" instead of straight acetone, and while it smells pretty good, it doesn't work as well for cleaning up around my cuticles. I think I have to go back to acetone, at least for clean-up.

My fellow challengers did beautiful things! Go look!

Gifts

I'm having a hard time writing today. I planned to attempt to put bows on, but I ran out of steam.

I also managed to delete the notes I took on what colors are where. They include Orly Dazzle, Naughty Or Nice, and Shining Star, OPI Goldeneye and Live and Let Die, and China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

Hopefully the other challengers have more scintillating conversation: