Just a quick post to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope everyone is safe and having fun no matter what you believe about this day!
I used BarryM Lychee as my base (two coats). I then sponged on BarryM Cocoa, BarryM Coconut, and BarryM Foil Effects in Gold. I stamped using BarryM Espresso and the amazing plate by MoYou Festive 17 (it's all Christmas carols!). I topped it all off with HK Girl Top Coat.
I don't have a mani for you today, sorry. But I thought I would leave you with a few amazing videos to bring in the Christmas Spirit!
These are some of my favorite Christmas Songs! 3 serious ones, a classic one, and 3 fun ones! I hope you get a chance to listen to them! They always put me in a good mood! I wish you all a safe and happy holiday!
So today we have a Christmas TGIF: Thank Goodness, Indy Indie Friday! Today we have another awesome polish from Glimmer by Erica called Ho Ho Ho!
As always: (l-r) 4 coats, 3 coats, 2 coats, and 1 coat. I love this polish with it's classic colors of glitter in "gold holographic micro glitter, red holographic hex glitter, white hex glitter, and black hex glitter, all in a clear base". Perfect Santa Claus colors!
Here is one coat of Glimmer by Erica Ho Ho Ho over Milani White on the Spot, China Glaze Starboard, Essie Power Clutch and Catrice Blue Cara Ciao. I chose some classic holiday colors plus others. I love it over all the colors! This polish went on without any problems! Awesome!
Slightly blurry photo that totally captures the holo glitters! Shiny! :)
Please go over to her Facebook page here to be kept up-to date with her news.
And bookmark her etsy page here so that you can buy her polishes! :)
Don't forget to check out my partner in crime Emma's TGIF post over at Manicurity!
So this year I feel very Bah-Humbug about Christmas. So I decided to make a Christmas Bucket List to try and get me into the Christmas spirit.
First I need to watch White Christmas. I didn't watch it last year and I was really sad. I love this movie!
I recently bought this movie because I haven't seen it in years. This is going to change. I need some Griswold's in my life this year!
Need to watch a few of the classic Rankin Bass Christmas Classics! Love these movies. So many memories!
Can't forget to add Jack Frost to the Christmas Classic movie list. Many people do, which is so sad! This is a great movie!
Going to bake some Christmas goodies! For as long as I've known we have always made Spritz (though I didn't always love the one with sprinkles only the ones that get those red-hot cinnamon candies!), Russian Tea Biscuits (that's what we call them. I have also seen them called Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes), and fudge (just the plain yummy stuff on the back of the Jet Puff Marshmallow creme!).
Must also watch Claymation Christmas. We have a really old recording of this that we taped off the TV, but a few years ago I bought it on DVD (one of the best purchases ever!). If you haven't watched this, you need to.
And finally the Garfield Christmas Special is a must in my family! :)
Less than a week to watch all these. Hopefully I can do it! But I think these all create a wonderful recipe for the Christmas Spirit. What about you? What traditions, movies, goodies do you do this time of year?
Here is the The Digit-al Dozen Does Festiveness Round-Up! We had some new faces here this week and everyone seemed to step up the game with the terrific manis!
This is the final day of The Digit-al Dozen Does Festiveness. But it is also TGIF: Thank Goodness, Indy Indie Friday! And today we have Formerly Frosty by Pop Culture Polish. I bought this polish knowing the exact mani that I wanted to do! And I am so happy how it turned out! This mani is based on a song I learned when I was little called "Once There Was A Snowman".
Once there was a snowman, snowman snowman.
Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.
In the snow he melted, melted, melted.
In the snow he melted, small, small, small.
See, my snowman is melting! :)
Here is Pop Culture Formerly Frosty, as always: (l-r) 4 coats, 3 coats, 2 coats, and 1 coat. This polish is a "beautiful clear coat filled with several sizes of white glitters and accenting orange and black glitters". Some of the smaller glitters are iridescent and so catch the light causing a gorgeous glow and sparkle, just like snow! :)
Here it is in more direct light. Love it! I'm assuming you all get the inspiration here. A melted snowman! Black glitters=eyes and orange bars=nose! As you can see, the black glitter and orange bars didn't like to come out of the bottle so much. But other than that I had no issues with this polish. There are many orange and black glitters but I didn't fish them out because I wanted to show you how it really went on.
Here is Formerly Frosty (one coat) over: (l-r) Essence Lime Up!, Orly Nite Owl, Essence Let's Get Lost, and Essence Break Through.
So for my melting snowman I used Essence Romeo as my base color. I made my snowman out of Milani White On The Spot with Pop Culture Polish Formerly Frosty over top. With hat and eyes out of Finger Paints Black Expressionism. His arms are Finger Paints Sketchy Character. And his nose is Nails Inc Hans Place. Expect for my pinky where the eyes and nose are Formerly Frosty.
Today's mani is one of my favorites I have ever done. This is not my original idea. I copied this mani from Messy Mansion (click link to be sent to stamping plate site which also shows the photo). I first saw this picture on Facebook and my jaw dropped. I then ordered the plate and knew I had to re-create this for this week! There was just something magical in the way she designed the mani and I knew I had to do this stamp justice!
I began with two coats of Flormar U08. Gorgeous duochrome.
Here's a bit more of the duochrome shown.
I then sponged on Layla Softouch 02 Golden Touch and applied China Glaze Techno for stars.
I then stamped using Konad Black and Messy Mansion MM01. I then applied HK Girl Top Coat. I just love how this turned out. I just wish that the star was a bit bigger. I had to stamp the land and then the star because my nail and gold was too short. But I still love it! It's super shiny and just lovely.
Please check out Messy Mansion at her store or Facebook (Facebook link is to her photo of this and what she used). It is such a great plate! I can't wait to create another mani using this image!
I love the Three Wise Men. Growing up we used to watch the Claymation Christmas Special and "We Three Kings" was always one of our favorites and to this day we still sing this song like this:
Also love this rendition of the song by Straight No Chaser:
Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their festive manis! :)
Day 3 for The Digit-al Dozen Does Festiveness and today is lights! Sure, I have a new stamp I could have used but I wanted to try free-handing some lights and I love how they turned out! :)
I chose these colors for the lights because these were the colors of the lights we use to have on our house growing up. We would keep them up all year long because they were a pain to put up and take down! :) But we had a basketball hoop up by the garage and so all the lights around the hoop got broken and that always made my dad mad! :)
I used Essence Romeo as my base. Wanted a nice neutral so that the color of the lights would pop!
I then used a small brush and Finger Paints Black Expressionism and drew the wire. I kind of like how it looks just like this! :)
For the lights I used Zoya Sooki, Catrice Blue Cara Ciao, Nails Inc Hans Place, and China Glaze Starboard. And yes, this is the same photo as above. Having issues with my OttLite and the lighting on my manis. Sorry! >_< Hahaha! :)
Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their Festive manis! :)
Today I decided to bring you an easy fun accent nail of Rudolph! I was really happy how these turned out!
I started with three coats of Layla Softouch Effects 02 Golden Touch. Can I just say again how much I love the Softouch collection! Great formula and great durability! I did three coats and you can still see a bit of visible nail line in some lights. But I thought this was a great base as it is very holiday and magical! :) Oh and I am not a big gold person either and I love this!
I then used Layla Softouch Effects 11 Mudhattan (yep I bought this one especially for this mani!) for Rudolph's face. I used OPI Warm & Fozzie for his antlers, China Glaze Ruby Slippers for his nose, Pure Ice Platinum Magic Base Coat and Finger Paints Black Expressionism for his eyes.
Here is a different angle to show the texture of Mudhattan for Rudolph's face. It's sort of leathery! Can't wait to try this polish as a full mani!
A macro of Rudolph. I love OPI Warm & Fozzie for the antlers. I wanted something magical for them and have this polish with the two colors is great! Very shimmery! I think he turned out so cute!
I got my inspiration and help from this great tutorial over at Polish and Pearls (please click the link to see the video!).
Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their festive manis! :)
It's a new month so it's a new weekly challenge for The Digit-al Dozen! This month it is Festiveness! Coming up with original ideas for this topic is kind of hard. So I have pulled inspiration from many bloggers.
Today we have Santa's belt. Finally, I get to really use my China Glaze Ruby Slippers! This polish is more gorgeous than I thought it would be (not a huge red fan here). The more coats you use the deeper red it is! This is two coats. I added Finger Paints Black Expressionism for the belt. For the buckle I first used Sinful Colors Fashionista. This is supposedly for nail art. It says so right on the bottle and it's even a thinner brush.
Uh, nope. Not a good polish for nail art. Not even silver glitter and too much clear base. Just look? Fail on the silver glitter aspect Sinful Colors. Oh and this polish reeks! Eww!
So then I remembered I had this tiny gold polish by Avon called Luxe Life that I have had for years (like 10+ years!). And I applied it right over the failed silver. So this made my buckle a bit bigger but I still like them! :)
I was inspired by two bloggers first Polish2Times who then was inspired by Our Painted World (please click links to be sent to their sites to see originals!)
Don't forget to check out the other ladies and their festive manis! Oh and we have some new members! :)
