52wkCrumpet13: grey (in a candy cane style)

This is week thirteen of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: distressed and grey (either each alone or combined). I chose grey as after all it IS Christmas and I could not think of a festive way that I would want to wear distressed nails. But I had an old fab grey that I decided to use and since we are allowed to also use white and red, I jazzed them up for Christmas.

I started with a one coat base of Layla Silver Galaxy. I love this polish and it is one of my first Laylas, and my first magnetic. In the meantime I have purchased a total of six magnetics from Layla, and a double up of this one!! The polish has a gradient grey with little sparkly bits! You can do one or two coats, I did one today. I probably should have done two; if you look closely at my index finger you can see the blue gel polish shining through. I top coated with Out the Door before moving on.

Armed with my fine line brush I decided to use gel polish and my new knowledge to paint the lines. I used Gelicious Queen of Hearts for the red, and their basic French White for the white. I did the red lines first and then cured the nails. Then I added wisps of white on each side and cured again. I purposely did not want a big band of white next to a band of red. More swirvy is what I was going for.

right hand

My right hand was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Using the gel had the bonus of being able to correct as you go (as long as I didn't cure). A couple got too thick and one white line wisped over the red so I got a flat brush with rubbing alcohol and lightly removed it before curing. Then I top coated.

The nails look really nice and festive but in the macro photos you can see some bleeding. I probably should have waited more before top coating, I guess. In the sun the silver really sparkles! I may have bent the rules a tad, but this will be a great Christmas mani to take me through the weekend.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Frohe Festtage and all the jazz!!! xx

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet12: glitter topper (alright then, Frozen for adults!)

This is week twelve of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: crinkly tape, and glitter topper (either each alone or combined). I chose glitter topper as I had an idea for snowflakes and a Frozen type adult mani. A bit of inspiration again from Queen Robin but also from heaps of other artists out there who are doing snowflake manis. And I really didn't have any ideas for crinkly tape.

I started with a one coat base of OPI Bubble Bath. I purposely did not want a French tip base as that would have been too stark and white. Only from the cuticle edge I swept up a coat of LA Colors Sheer Passion. This is (horrors ick!) a frosty pearly pink white. This gave the Bubble Bath an edge without being too opaque.

Then I added a glitter gradient from the tips inward of OPI Pirouette my Whistle and China Glaze Ray-Diant. Pirouette is a very tender feminine silver and white glitter while Ray-diant is coarser and has aspects of gold and silver. I tread very lightly and just skimmed the surface, going over a couple of times. Then I top coated with Out the Door and let it sit while I got my white paint ready.

right hand

Using one of fine line brushes I painted random snowflakes all over my nails. I tried to concentrate on having one bigger one per nail, then some small ones. The white nail on my right hand is a new white gel I am trialing, so sorry for the unmatchedness! I placed a Swarovski rhinestone in the middle of each larger snowflake just because I felt like it. I almost never wear rhinestones but if not now, then when???

I really like this mani, it is soft but also festive without being a major Xmas tree on your nails (though nothing wrong with that!). I could also see the idea as a bridal mani, maybe with flowers or roses instead of snowflakes - unless you have a winter wedding! And, yes, I am totally aware that this looks like Frozen (the Mr pointed that one out). Man, I need to let that one go.

If I were to do it again, I would add more glitter to the tips to cover up the natural nail colour. Or maybe first apply a very light-touched silver as the base. Ah, live and learn! Happy Holi-Nights!

An InLinkz Link-up

52wkCrumpet11: red and gold

This is week eleven of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: chevrons, and red and gold (either each alone or combined). I chose red and gold as it is Christmas and I feel like I just did chevrons. I took inspiration from the great Robin Moses and painted poinsettias.

Inspiration from Robin

I started with a one coat base of OPI Gwen Stefani's last year's holiday collection: L.A.M.B. (Love.Angel.Music.Baby). This is a beautiful polish, applies very satiny and is 95% opaque in one coat. I did not worry too much about the remaining 5% as I knew I would be painting over the gold.

Although, in the pics, you can't really see it, the poinsettias are painted in two tones of red. I mixed a darker red and a lighter one. I started with the darker petals, then drew the lighter petals on top. I had to go over some of the petals twice. At fault would be the gold base vs a white base. Well, that's my excuse!!

Then I drew the leaves in two tones of green and added some white and black accents here and there. In the middle of each flower I used a dotting tool and dabbed a splotch of China Glaze Electrify (a great holiday red-gold glitter).

right hand

I am getting better at using my non-dominant hand. Key is to hold the brush really far down, at least for me. I find I am having a lot of control now. Top coat brings it all together. I will be adding a gel top coat on this one so that I do not ruin it by removing client polish and for it to last until the next challenge mani.  I wonder if any of the girls will also do holiday stuff???? Cheers all! x

An InLinkz Link-up