Tinsel (plus, I'm melting!)

I finished both the 11th and 12th challenge on time, but didn't post since I was kinda booked with church and family and presents and children.

My tinsel mani was really cute when I finished it. A few hours later, my thumb paint seemed to buckle. Weird.

The base is a couple of coats of Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar, which is a really nice deep shimmery red. Then I put on a coat of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat. It didn't feel smooth enough, so I put a couple of coats of SV on top. I assume that's why it buckled on my thumb.

As always, pics aren't great. I liked the sparkleflashmess though, so I left it in.

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!

Candy Cane Lane

Because I believe in torturing myself, I keep finding more reasons to water marble. Since the chances of me figuring out the striping tape or making a shape that looked more like a candy cane than a sick worm were, let's just say, limited, I figured the water marble was my best shot at recognizable candy cane-itude. And then I realized that my shirt today is sorta candy-cane-esque, though it totally doesn't match reds.

The base is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On. I used Finger Paints Sketch n Etch and China Glaze Ruby Pumps, with more white between the dots. I'm getting better at this, but the only finger that really looks candy cane-y is the middle. By the way, double dipping leads to interesting, but not really pretty results, as is evidenced by my index finger. I also figured out how to get two fingers out of each marble, which feels less wasteful.

I did tape the heck out of my fingers, but oh, there was still a ton of clean-up. Here's my right hand, after tape removal, before acetone.

Go see what awesome candy canes my fellow challengers came up with!

Santa Claus is Comin' To Town

This one may be a ways towards the abominable side of the spectrum. I had a grand idea, and...well, it was executed. I'm so not good at straight lines.

For the 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, the song I couldn't get out of my head was the Fred Astaire version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

You're very welcome.

So I started with a base of Finger Paints Cerulean Seascape with a couple of coats of Darling Diva Ringer (it's a lot like Fantasy Fire! Lovely!) that I'd been wearing for a couple of days. It looked suitably wintry-night-ish. On my thumb, I overlaid a few coats of Sally Hansen CSM Runway Red-y and made a belt out of Sinful Colors Black on Black and the weird Style Essentials Gold. On my index, ring, and pinkie, I made houses out of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, L'oreal Park Ave Luncheon, and Sinful Colors' Savage, respectively. I added roofs in the gold, and dotted on windows and doors in black. My middle finger is supposedly Santa's beard -- it's a coat of Commander in Chic with White On saran-wrapped on top.

Does it look like a town? Like a beard? I think I have Santa's belly under control (though if it were black, it might look more like a pilgrim hat than a belted torso!)

It's a learning experience, and I'm having a ton of fun trying new things. I sometimes wish the actual results had any connection to what I'm picturing in my head, though!

Go see what the awesome things my fellow challengers did!

O Tannenbaum!

I joined a really neat 12 Manicures of Christmas challenge, and here is my attempt at the first challenge: Christmas Trees.

I started with a couple of coats of Sally Girl Epic, and added a top coat of Different Dimensions Inner Goddess to give all of my nails that blue snow-globe look. Next, I painted a brown tree trunk about 3/4 up my accent nail and let that dry, and threw on a triangle shape of tape.

Next, using the spun sugar technique, I added random strands of Kleancolor Jazz Olive, Mystic Grass, and TLC, and then put on Finger Paints Sketch N Etch for the dominant top color. I fished a star out of my Kawaii Nail Lacquer Sparkler for the top of the tree.

The overall effect seemed pretty organic to me, though it was impossible to photograph well. Here is the second-best photo I got of it:

I love the holo flakies in Inner Goddess, but it was a pain to remove -- I really needed the foil method or a PVA basecoat. I'll remember that in the future! All-in-all, it worked out okay. Go check out other challenge members' attempts!

Turkey Marble!

Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you who are celebrating today. I think it's wonderful that we take time to expressly put gratitude into the world, whether we do it every day, or just today.

So this is my second shot at a water marble. I started with a coat of Sally Hansen CSM Haute Chocolate, then marbled a mix of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, L'Oreal Downtown Chic, Finger Paints Sketch n Etch, and Sally Girl Amped. It started out rough, but I got better at it with each finger, so my right hand worked better than my left.

I dotted on each individual color in the barer spots, and I really like it. I think I've got more of the hang of water marbling. It's still a huge pain and messy as heck.

Time for me to make some green bean casseroles and give thanks with my loved ones.

Baby's first watermarble

I tried watermarbling about four months ago, before I started taking pictures of manicures, with dollar store polish. It ... didn't work. At all. The polish immediately sank to the bottom of the cup or seemed to instantly dry on the surface of the water, and couldn't be manipulated in any way.

I'm older and wiser, now. I was sure I could do it. I've read every tutorial, seen every YouTube video, have a dramatically better stash...

But for some feeble-minded reason, I didn't use my awesome polishes. I tried with two Style Essentials unnamed polishes (I got a set of four at ROSS for $4) and one Finger Paints lacquer, Cerulean Seascape.

Guess what? It was a mess. While I used filtered room temperature water, the Style Essentials polishes didn't spread AT ALL, so even when I had a pretty design in the water, they were super thick and gloppy. I'm only really happy with my index finger.

On the good side, while this dried before my topcoat, I spent a while seeing what various polishes did in the water and I think I have a chance of a good result on my next effort. The Sally Girl stuff and Sally Hansen polishes seemed to behave well, the OPI cremes did okay, but the shimmers didn't spread at all. The L'oreal stuff seemed to play along nicely, too. I didn't try with any glitters or indies because it seems like a waste.

If you have any tips for a good watermarble, I'm all ears! I shall overcome the dread watermarble! And we will all rejoice! Someday.

Sparkly French Blue-ness

I'm working on a light box, as budget and time allow. And then I'll be like a REAL blogger. Me and Pinocchio, with our senses of inadequacy, make a great pair.

Anyway, I knew when I got Dandy Nails' Caught in the Crowd that I was in love and wanted to use it really soon, but I thought it needed to be over a deep blue for true perfection in manicuration. I hereby declare manicuration a word. Work with me. The deep blue came in the form of Finger Paints' Cerulean Seascape, which went on like a dream.

My original plan was to have "Caught in the Crowd" as a gradient going from bottom to top of the nail. It turned out to have a thicker base than I expected, and I didn't have sponges handy to do a gradient that way, so I ended up painting my thumbnails and then dabbing on french-ish tips on the rest of the nails. I really loved the effect.

A couple of things about Caught in the Crowd. It's got aqua and silver microglitter and small aqua hexes. It feels REALLY smooth to the touch, almost like a creme. I don't know how that was possible, but it was really lovely. I want more; it feels that good on the nail! Also, it wore like a champ. I painted my nails Friday night and took the pictures this afternoon. No chips, no tipwear, and I type for a living. No clean-up, either, and I know you can tell. I'll do better, I promise.

I'm trying to think of more ways to use Caught in the Crowd. And more ways to budget lots more Dandy Nails' polishes. Lovely.