Before & After: Golden Ornaments

Hello!

I have an accidental bonus post for today--I meant to post it tomorrow, but that's okay because it means I can review the new Cheeky Fairy Gal plates for you tomorrow...:)

Today's look is very subtle, but still has that holiday spirit. In my opinion, quite fitting for Boxing Day, which for most of us in the US involves going back to work or shopping the after-Christmas sales. If you don't know what Boxing Day is, it originated in the UK, and it was (or so I've been told) the day when the wealthy people boxed up the left-overs from their Christmas feast and gave it to people in need. Even though we don't celebrate it here, I love the spirit of it and try to keep it as part of my holiday plans in some way--to me remembering those who don't have as much to be thankful for in their life as I do is an important part of the holiday season. So I like this mani because it keeps the spirit in that more understated way. :)

I made a glitter sandwich with China Glaze Platinum Gold and Literary Lacquers $1.87 (One Dollar And Eighty-Seven Cents) from her Gift of the Magi Collection (if you missed it, you can see my review of part of the collection by clicking here):

China Glaze Platinum Gold + Literary Lacquers $1.87

Glitter Sammiches for da win!

Then I did a simple stamp over it with China Glaze Passion, and Bunny Nails plate HD07:

Golden Ornaments :)

Closer up

I really love this glitter; it's so versatile. I have a glitter-three-ways post with it coming up soon; stay tuned for that. :)

Hope your Boxing Day is relaxing and filled with great shopping scores. :) Thanks for reading!!

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD: Renaissance Christmas

Hello!!

Today's manicure is one I did this past weekend...In my AIS group, this week's theme was to make a manicure inspired by the colors of your Christmas tree.

Well, this year my Christmas tree is a bit sad...I started this year with three very rambunctious kitties, and was adopted by another one in August. He showed up on my back porch literally half-dead (the vet said another hour or so and he wouldn't have made it) and I nursed him back to health; he's about 6 months now. Then, in October, a puppy adopted me--again it showed up needing a home and love, and when I checked with the shelter nobody was looking for her. So, I kept her, and she's about 5 months now, and also very hyper, as puppies will tend to be.

The point is, with that many young animals trying to destroy anything they can get their hands on, this year my tree is only a tree + lights. So I made a manicure based on the green of the tree and the glow of the lights.

I started with a base of Models Own Golden Green:

Models Own Golden Green 

Then I put on a coat of China Glaze Winter Holly, to give it more of the texture and the color variance of pine:

China Glaze Winter Holly over Models Own Golden Green

Finally I stamped over the base using China Glaze Passion and Cheeky plate GA35:

Renaissance Christmas

I love how this came out...it makes me feel like I'm in a European castle enjoying at a Christmas feast. I love how the glitter in Winter Holly looks a bit like lights in a Christmas tree; just a touch of sparkle and light.

With that, I wish you a Happy Boxing Day! Thanks for taking a look. :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD: Retro Aluminum Tinsel Tree

Hello!!

I've joined a new challenge group that I'm really excited about, the "Let It Snow!" Challenge. This challenge goes through winter into spring and has a weekly theme. It's been going on for a few weeks so far, but this is the first one I'm participating in; the prompt this week is 'Christmas/Holiday'. I thought it was fitting to post mine on Christmas Day.

This manicure involves a 'first' for me--my first jelly sandwich. I'm fairly jelly challenged, I have a horrible time getting them to go on right. But there are so many pretty jellies out there that are meant to layer with glitters, that I figured the time for me to figure it out is now.

I wanted to do a manicure reminiscent of those old aluminum Christmas trees they used to have in the 60s, with the metal 'needles' and the flourescentish colors.

I started with a base of Zoya Frida, then a layer of Wet n Wild In The Spotlight, then another layer of Frida:

Finally I finished off with some bright rhinestones to act as ornaments:

What do you think? At the very least it sort of looks like tinsel on a tree, but I think it captures the kitschy feel of those old fake trees.

I hope everyone has a very, very Merry Christmas. Enjoy you families and count all of your blessings; may your day be filled with love and peace.


Xoxox,
M.

Blogger 1.0 -

NOTD: Santa & Elves

Hello!

Okay, let me just say right up-front, it's not my fault.

See, what had happened was? When I sat down to do this prompt (Santa & Elves), I had just caught up on a 'The Walking Dead' marathon. And what else can you expect when you've just been watching people get ripped apart by zombies, and then you try to switch to thinking about Santa! Of course you're going to wonder what happened when Santa came to deliver presents to the remaining humans on Christmas Eve in the zombie apocalypse. Totally normal, totally predictable, not weird or sick or twisted AT ALL.

Please don't judge me.

What I figure is this. Since Santa and his elves are magical, as soon as the zombies touched them, they'd disappear, right? But the clothes that the zombies were touching would probably get left behind. And of course because they smell like zombie food still, they'd get ripped to shreds. Only logical.  ::nods head vigorously::

So here's what I think the aftermath would look like:

The...HORROR...

Oh, the elfmanity...

Clearly they got Santa's jacket and his belt...and it looks like they got at least one pair of elf shoes, based on those little green shreds...it's madness...it's insanity...heck, I don't even know which way is up!! Thank goodness Santa got away to come and bring presents another day.

Here's how I made it.
1) Two coats of Julep Scarlett as the base color.
2) One coat of Rainbow Polish Festive Fruitcake.
3) Added a square gold stud for Santa's belt buckle.
4) Added small black square glitters for shreds of Santa's belt.

I know it's silly and strange, but I hope it made you smile a little bit. Thanks for looking, and please check out the other participants' takes on the prompt (almost certainly more traditional than mine), linked below. :)

Merry Christmas Eve,
M.

NOTD: Christmas Filigree

Hello!

Are you excited? Christmas is almost here!

My Christmas is very sedate this year. I'm going through some big changes, and am keeping things simple. But, I'm keeping some of my basics--making chocolate for family and friends, planning a nice Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning breakfast. Even with that, I'm still behind and have a lot to catch up on tomorrow.

But you can bet I'll be doing it all with preeeetty nails. :)

Today's manicure is one I just love. A little while back I was walking through my Ulta and saw a display of Layla Ceramic Effects and Softouch Effect beauties. I don't know how it happened, but several of them jumped into my bag when I wasn't looking. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

One of them was  CE53, which, as far as I can tell, is the only name for the polish; it's a beautiful red-based flakie with orange and gold flakes, and I used it as a base for this manicure. On top of it I stamped using Barry M Gold Foil and Cheeky Gals plate GA33 (I'll be reviewing these plates soon). I added a few studs to pull it all together, and here's what I ended up with:

Christmas Filigree

Reminds me of Heat Miser's hair--he's too much!

I love the big, bold flakes in this polish, and I love the filigree image--it kinda reminds me of what the front of Santa's sleigh might look like. Regardless, I think this has style and elegance, with a little bling to make it extra-special. Hope you like it, too.

Back to making chocolate...

Thanks for taking a look!

Xoxox,
M.

Indie-licious Review: Jindie Nails

Hello!!

Today I have a final Christmas Indie polish review for the season. I'll still be doing holiday manicures, of course! But my next Indie review won't be centered around holiday polishes.

I've ordered from Jindie Nails before, and have found the polishes to be of high quality; so when I stopped by to look at her holiday polishes and saw Grinch, I had to have it. I put it in my cart and came back later that day to buy it.

In the meantime, it had sold out completely.

Luckily for me, she had decided to make more, in order to satisfy all the people like me who didn't get it the first time--and she hustled and hustled so we could get it in time for Christmas. And I'm so glad, because Grinch just makes me happy, pure and simple. It captures the fun, whimsical colors and shapes from the classic show, and captures part of the storyline, too--in each bottle there is one black heart and several red hearts, to represent the Grinch's tiny black heart and its transformation to a larger-than-normal loving heart. These are not meant to be a part of every manicure, but are just a fun, thoughtful touch to surprise you one day when you least expect it. However, she will add in extras if you ask her to do so. :)

Grinch has an avocado-green crelly base, with a variety of red and white squares, and white and red bar glitters (and of course, the previously mentioned hearts):

Jindie Nails Grinch indirect light

Jindie Nails Grinch, direct sun

Jindie Nails indirect sun

In these pictures I'm wearing 3 thin coats of Grinch, plus a coat of Seche Vite. The formula is very nice, it applies well, and without having to struggle with the glitters. It didn't require extra topcoat from me; while it is a glitter, it isn't unusually thirsty. I love the contrast of the colors and the play of the shapes, and I can't wait to wear it again. If you missed it, I did some nail art with this polish; you can see it by clicking here.

The second polish I got on a whim...I wanted something with a clear base that I could use to Christmas-up any manicure I was wearing, so I decided to grab Just Elfing Around. JEA is a magical blend of green hexes, red hexes and squares, white hexes and squares, and holographic glitters. Because I'm wearing it over red here, the red glitters don't show up as well in the pictures as they did in real life, but you can still see them:

Jindie Nails Just Elfing Around, direct sunlight

Jindie Nails Just Elfing Around, indirect light

Jindie Nails Just Elfing around, indirect light

Angle shot to show the red glitters a bit better

The choices she made regarding this blend bring the glitters together in a fun, but not overpowering, way. There is enough sparkle and magic due to the silvery holographic glitters to make it blingy, and enough color and texture to make it visually interesting. In these pictures I'm wearing a dabbed gradient over a red holographic that I made by putting Literary Lacquers Greatest Treasures over China Glaze Adventure Red-y, and I love how it looks with the holographic! You know me, I hate to put anything over my holos, but I think this really worked well together, and shows how versatile this glitter is. Without a doubt, it's my go-to Christmas color glitter for nail art and topping. I also did some Christmas skittle nail art with this polish; you can see that manicure by clicking here.

You can find Jen's polishes here in her Etsy shop, although she is on vacation until after Christmas. Also, her polishes will soon be sold through Mei Mei's Signatures, Ninja Polish, and Llarowe, so she's revamping her business a bit right now and I don't want to quote prices for you since they may vary. But she'll be back very soon, and her polishes are definitely worth taking a look at!

Thanks for stopping by today. :)

Xoxox,
M.

(The polishes in this review were purchased with my own money.)

NOTD: Lucky 7

Hello!!

Today is the next installment of my Cheeky Girl Challenge twinpost, where Dina (from Secretary's Nail Art) and I use an image from one plate per week from the Cheeky summer plates. This week we're on Cheeky 39, and we agreed to use the slot machine image:

To make this, I started with a base of Kleancolor Metallic Green on three fingers, and covered them with Spoiled Call You Later, a green & gold glitter. For the ring finger, I used a base of Julep Sophie, but it ended up a bit more muddy than I wanted it to be, so I put a layer of Aphrodite Lacquer Terre over it; this is a milky-gree polish with green glitters in it.

For the stamped image, I stamped with Konad black, and then filled in the images with Sally Hansen Lightning, Lickety-Split Lime, Pure Ice Siren, and China Glaze I Herd That.

This will be the last Cheeky Girl Challenge twinpost for a few weeks, because of holiday plans...but we'll bring it back sometime in January. Don't forget to visit Dina's post to see what she did. :)

Thanks for looking!!

Xoxox,
M.