Champagne Bubbles for New Year's Eve

The New Year is almost here. To prepare for the various celebrations in the next couple of days, here is a shiny, sparkly manicure!

For my Champagne bubbles nails, I used Boots No 7 Just Black on my middle finger and thumb. I stamped with Essie Good as Gold, the champagne bubbles image from the Messy Mansion image plate, MM02. The accent finger is painted with Nails Inc. Luminous Red Metallic. The bubbly glasses are from the MoYou London image plate 05 from the Festive Collection.

The pointer and little fingers are painted with OPI My Favourite Ornament from the Mariah Carey Holiday Collection 2013.

Hope you all have a great New Year's Eve!

Reindeers, Snowflakes and Snowmen

My last Christmas manicure of the year today.

For this manicure, I used the Deborah Lippmann polish, Lady Sings the Blues - a dark blue glitter polish. Its highly pigmented and even one coat would do, though I used two.

The snowflake images, which I love, are from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection, stamped with Essie Blue Rhapsody. The reindeers on the pointer finger are from the same plate, stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome. The snowmen are from the image plate GA33 from the Gals Fairy Set also stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holidays!

Festive Food!

Food is an important part of any festive celebration - and the prompt for my Christmas Nail Art Challenge. And Christmas has so many foods that are eaten specially at this time of the year. This manicure celebrates some of these yummy treats - Christmas Pudding, mince pies, gingerbread men and sparkling wine!

The base polish is Revlon Hot for Chocolate. The little finger is stamped with gingerbread men from the image plate GA41 from the Gals Fairy Set with Essie Good as Gold. The mince pies on the pointer are also stamped from an image plate from the same set, GA47. The bubbly on the ring finger is from the Messy Mansion plate, MM02. The middle finger and thumb have a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top of the brown polish. The Christmas pudding is painted free hand with OPI Alpine Snow, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick and Jumpin Jade. I finished everything off with top coat.

Russian Dolls

I have to apologise for my erratic posting lately - life has just been a bit busier than usual.
The prompt for my Christmas Challenge was Toys. And although I did think of a few ideas for proper toy themed manicures - I wanted a very adult manicure with plenty of bling! Which is why I chose this particular image and colour for the nails.

The gorgeous nail polish I have used here is Deborah Lippmann Good Girl Gone Bad. The stamped image is from the plate KD28. The stamping polish is Essie No Place Like Chrome.

It may be a very broad interpretation of the prompt and maybe its not particularly festive - but it would be a great look for all the parties, this festive season!

Christmas Traditions

There were many Christmas traditions to choose from, for my nail art today. So I picked Holly, because I love the beautifully shaped leaves with the red berries. And since a lot of the festivities revolve around the little ones in the family, I couldn't leave out all the excitement in hanging up those Christmas stockings and finding lovely little presents in them and under the tree!

For this manicure, I used a base of Revlon Gold Coin. I love these shiny, glittery polishes but really struggle with the clean up. I can't seem to get rid of some of the glittery particles - if anyone has any tips, I would love to hear them!
I stamped images from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection. The stamping polishes are Sally Hansen Insta Dri Quick Brick and Jumpin Jade.

Red and Gold Festive Nails

More festive nails today ...

For these nails, I used Nails Inc in Luminous Red Metallic. I did a glitter gradient on three of the nails with Butter London West End Wonderland and Revlon Sequins. For the glitter gradient, I painted on a thin layer of Butter London West End Wonderland starting at three-fourths of the way up the nail. Once dry, a second layer of the same polish halfway down the nail and a third coat just at the tips. When this was dry, I painted on the big glitter in Revlon Sequins on the glitter part of the nail. 

On the other two nails, I stamped an image from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection with Essie Good as Gold. 

Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread man on my nails today!

For this manicure, I used the polish, China Glaze Fast Track. I love this polish - its a natural beige but has a lovely sparkle to it. I stamped these three nails with the Gingerbread men image in Konad Black from the GA41 image plate from the Gals Fairy Set. The other two nails are painted with Revlon Hot for Chocolate. I painted the Gingerbread Man on the ring finger and thumb freehand with OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh? The hand painted gingerbread man is decorated with chocolate buttons!

Woods in the snow and a snowman

The manicure today is my attempt at winter nature. I painted the snowman freehand. The trees are stamped and I dotted on the snow. The trees in the snow looked better in my head, I have to say! But I guess, you can still make out what I was going for!
For this manicure, I used a base of OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam. I stamped the trees with Revlon Hot for Chocolate from the MoYou London image plate 04 from the Mother Nature Collection. I dotted on the snow with Barry M Matt White and finished with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust. The snowman is painted on with a nail art brush in Barry M Matt White.

Winter Lights and snowflakes

Some more festive nail art! For this manicure I used Barry M Gelly in Blueberry on three nails. On two of my nails I used OPI Don't Touch My Tutu with two coats of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top. The images are stamped from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection. The snowflakes are stamped with Essie Bohemian Rhapsody and the Christmas lights with Konad Black. Lastly, I used red and green polishes to dot on the lights before finishing with top coat.

The OPI Don't Touch My Tutu is a white jelly. I got it because I really liked swatches that I saw on other blogs. But even after three coats, you can still see the nail line and it does  not really go completely white. I am just wondering if it might be better to use it with a base coat of opaque white polish. I would love to hear comments from anyone else who has used this polish or similar.
I was planning to do the Christmas lights free hand but this image looked so cute, I had to try it first! I love the blue on blue snowflakes. I can't get enough of these snowflake images - you might see a lot more of these on the blog in the next couple of months!

Edited to add one more photo when I noticed how the nails shone with the China Glaze Fairy Dust in indoor light!

Candy Cane Nails

I think its time for some Christmas Nail art! Here are my candy cane nails ...

For this manicure, I used a textured nail polish, Essence Sparkle Sand Effect in me & my lover. The polish is definitely textured though not quite as much as the OPI Liquid Sands. Its a lovely sparkly colour, specially for the holiday season.
The candy canes are stamped from the MoYou London image plate 03 from the Festive Collection, with Essie No place Like Chrome. I debated between using a white or a silver polish for the stamping. In the end, I decided, silver was better to add some extra sparkle - it is a festive manicure, after all!