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!

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.

Dotty horizontal gradient in green!

I was plopped in front of the computer (which only requires a head-tilt to see the TV) with my kids on Friday night, watching Toy Story 2, while doing my nails. I didn't really have much of a plan, but I remembered that I'd bought a six-pack of green polish at ROSS for $4, and I should do something greenish.

How's that for a hilarious hand position?

So I used a base of Finger Paints' Sketch N Etch, and then dotted each nail with a bit of each of my Kleancolor greens -- green grass, jazz olive, melon grass, mystic grass, and TLC, going from blue-est to yellow-est. And then I added a row of dots on each side to make the gradient more gradient-y. Which is a word. Swear. Then I threw on a coat of starry meteor, which was the star of the show. It's a beautiful holo top coat with duochrome bar glitter. And it wasn't a huge pain to take off!

There was no good way to photograph this. But it was cute! Three different retail workers complimented it over the weekend while I wore it. They weren't even the kind of retail workers you're expected to tip!