Attack of the Holiday Manicures

Hello all!

What will all the holiday parties recently I've been doing a lot of at-home manicures. They're all on the simpler side since I've had a bit of a time shortage, but I figured I'd share anyway.

First up is my first foray into the "accent nail" idea. I wanted a deep red manicure, but also wanted some glitter to catch attention. I used OPI's "Malaga Wine", then did my ring fingers in "Midnight Kiss" by China Glaze with a coat of OPI's "Bring on the Bling". I was really happy with the result!

My most recent manicure is for a Christmas party tomorrow night. I'll be wearing an inky-black velvet dress with a gold zipper down the front and wanted my nails to play up the gold theme. I also picked up a great gold rose ring and wanted to tie it all together. I'd seen this manicure a few weeks ago, but unfortunately I can't find it anywhere to link to. I started with two coats of "Midnight Kiss", then did two or three coats of Sephora by OPI's "Traffic-Stopper Copper" on just the tips. The photos aren't great quality but the combination of gold and copper turned out really well!

Marvelous Manicure: Christmas 2011

Hello all!

Now that Remembrance Day (or as I like to call it, Novembrance Day) is behind us, it is officially acceptable to start listening to Christmas carols and decorating for the holidays. One of my favourite parts of the holidays is getting to do themed manicures! Last year I took my inspiration from Starbucks' holiday to-go cups, but this year I wanted to do more of a Christmas tree ornament type of thing. I started with Midnight Kiss by China Glaze, which is a molten gold. I followed by doing a very light coating of OPI's Bring On the Bling on just the tips of the nail in a gradient style. Bring On the Bling is a great glitter from the Burlesque collection, and has gold, green, and red micro-glitter: perfect for the holidays. Finally, I accented two nails on each hand with holly berries and leaves, which I created used some nail pens.

 

While I'm on the holiday theme, I may as well attach last-year's Christmas manicure, which I'll probably repeat this year - I loved it! For it I used OPI's Malaga Wine, a dusting of loose red glitter, a white nail pen, and a touch of sliver glitter for the snowflake centres. (Sorry for the blurriness!) Enjoy!

Marvelous Manicure: Cupcake Confection

Okay, so I have something pretty awesome in the works, but it's taking longer than I thought so I figured I'd post a pic of my newest manicure.  I am head-over-heels in LOVE with this one!  This is the colour breakdown: pinky = 589 Sweet Rose by Gosh; ring finger = Sweetheart by OPI; middle = Van D'Go by Essie; index = Lilac Pastelle by Revlon; thumb = Passion by OPI.  I decided to tie all the colours together by using different patterns with a white nail pen I picked up at the PNE a couple of years ago.  As per usual I finished things off with a top coat of Seche Vite.  Hope you like it!

Marvelous Manicure

Yesterday the local Shoppers Drug Mart had a nail polish sale on, so of course my sister and I swung by to see what there was to be had.  I wound up getting three new polishes: 555 Silver by Gosh, Nicole's Nickel by Nicole, and Iceberg Lotus, also by Nicole.  I was going to wait until closer to my event next week to do a manicure, but the temptation was too much, especially after seeing this manicure by Chloe's Nails.  So, voila!  I used two coats of Nicole's Nickel, which though patchy is sparkle-packed, and then did the tips using Black Onyx by OPI.  Then I finished things off with two coats of Seche Vite.

The Elephant in the Room

So along with all my other interests, I have a passionate relationship with nail polish and nail art.  As such, I'm going to try and regularly post my manicures for those of you looking for some inspiration.  This week's manicure was actually inspired by an elephant bracelet my aunt bought me when traveling in Costa Rica.  I used a white nail pen for the details, and the base is Particulière by Chanel, which I sorely need to wear more often to justify spending like thirty dollars on it last spring*cringe*.

 

Update:

I went digging around on my Blackberry and found some old-ish manicures which I think qualify as cool enough to post.  First up we have my Christmas manicure, inspired by Starbucks' holiday cups.  I used OPI's Malaga Wine, sprinkled ruby red sparkles over it, then used my white nail pen to do the snowflakes and gave them silver sparkle centers.

Up next is a version of a manicure I saw on Emerald Sparkled.  She titled hers Whimsical (I'm too lazy to hunt her version down, but if you do a search on her site you'll find it.  Hers was an interpretation of a manicure she saw on someone else's blog, but I like hers best.  I used Sweet Rose by Gosh, Essie's Van D'Go, Essie's Innocent, and Sparkle Me Happy from Icing by Claire's nail polish line.  The stripes and the bow I did using my white nail pen.

This next manicure was a bit of a convenient mistake.  I wanted to go for a sparkly zebra print, but instead it wound up looking like a view of the galaxy.  I used Lunar and Star by Revlon, then used a stamp to add a silver zebra print.