Before & After: What happens when Rudolf drinks too much...

Hello!!

So I'm part two holiday challenges this month, and I'm already behind on two of them. But it's for a good reason--I'm made some really good progress on my book and should have a complete first draft in a week or two. Woo hoo!

Today's theme, which is for The Twelve Days Of Christmas Nail Art Challenge, is festive colors/glitter.

I started with Jessica Touch it, a gold-silver blend textured polish with glitter for extra glimmer:

Jessica Touch It 

Next I added a layer of Shirley Ann Nail Lacquer Rudolph Ralphed, which I just got in her Black Friday sale; it's a mix of gold, red and green glitters in hex and square shapes. Inspired by the name, I decided to add the little Rudolph who had just ralphed it all over my fingers--I figure, he must have been drinking too much at the annual North Pole Christmas party:

I stamped the reindeer with Konad Black, and China Glaze Passion and Brownstone (I layered them to get the shadaowed effect), and Bundle Monster plate H01. I added a red stud for the nose and two black rhinestones for the eyes.

Look at that little dickens! Cute as a button! Well, at least he looks a little bit sheepish about getting glitter everywhere...sigh...;)

Hugs and love, and don't forget to check out the other manis below! :)

M.

Before & After: K is for Kiss

Hello!

Today it's time for the next installment of Llama Nails alphabet challenge; we're up to 'K'. I know what you're thinking--wait, what do you mean you're not doing 'K is for Kitten'?? Hey, I can't go with the expected, I'm not gonna let expectations hold me down! That's just how I roll--if you zig left, I'm gonna zag right! HA!

Sorry, I got a little silly there. I'm better now.

Honestly, I had planned on doing 'kitten', but I did want to try something a bit different, and had been playing around with some new red polishes, so I decided to go with 'K is for Kiss'. :)

I started out with this base of China Glaze Igniting Love, from the Cirque Du Soleil collection:

China Glaze Igniting Love

I thought I'd play around with glitters on top of this a bit, so I put Jessica Glitterati on my ring finger and Jesica Hot Hot Hot on the other nails. These both look soooo pretty in the bottle, but I was a little disappointed with how they looked over this polish. So, I continued with just playing, and threw a coat of A Rhyming Dictionary Polish's Tolly-diggle (Indie alert!!!) over it--and the magic happened. Tolly-diggle is an amazingly unique polish consisting of gold and pewter-blue flakies: 

Ooo...aaaahhh...ooohhhh...

The bottom picture shows more accurately what this looks like to the naked eye, but it's hard to get the complexity of Tolly-diggle on camera. Add to that the red glitter peeking out on the main nails, and the metallic glitters poking out on the accent nail, and my camera nearly threw its hands up and quit on me, lol. The final picture below actually shows the overall layered glitter effect best.

When I saw this combination, I knew I had to do something cool with it, but I wasn't sure what. And then I thought...red and pretty metallic colors...perfect for a bunch of pouty smoochie kisses! Here is the final SWAK product:

Ack! Dog hair on mah nail!

In this bottom picture, despite the stamping, you can see the layered glitter effect better than in the pictures without the stamping. I think maybe because the stamping gives the camera something to latch on to? I don't know...but I'm glad that it came out and shows you the true effect, because I personally think this layering combination is really nice. :)

For the stamping, I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. For the accent nail, I used the new Red Angel plates...I'll review these soon after I do more testing with them. The other lips on the other nails are from Bundle Monster plate BM-02.

Thanks for taking a look! Please check out the other 'K' manicures, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After (&After): Fall glittery swirl

Hello!!!

I think it's okay now if I share with you the manicure I used for my guest post yesterday, (you can see the original post on The Manicured Monkey by clicking here)so here it is:



I'm very excited about doing this guest post for Kristin; I've been admiring her art for quite some time, and getting to know her in Adventures in stamping. Thank you Kristin for this opportunity!

Kristin gave me full choice with respect to what sort of manicure I wanted to do, so I chose a fall manicure to share with you. I started with a base of Jessica Gingersnap, from the new fall collection; it's an incredible glass-fleck finish polish with a range of gold and bronze flecks:

Jessica Gingersnap in indirect light

Jessica Gingersnap in the shade

 Next, I did a gentle gradient of glitter at the tip, to play on the neutral fall base, but add in some more fall colors. I used Hit Polish Autumn Harvest, which has shades of orange, gold, green and brown hex glitter in a clear base:

Jessica Gingersnap vs. Hit Polish Autumn Harvest

Gingersnap + Autumn Harvest

 Finally, to finish the look, I stamped over each nail using the flourish image from Bundle Monster plate BM02 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Jumping Jade:

I love how this came out, but for some people, it may be a lot of look! I think two cool variations that would make it a little more subtle would be to put the glitter and the flourish both only on the accent nail, or to put the glitter on all the nails, but the stamped flourish on the accent nail only.

Thanks so much for reading this post, and thanks again to Kristin for giving me the chance to do a guest post for her!

Xoxox,
M.

Guest post for Manicured Monkey!

Hello!!!

I'm very excited that today I've been asked to do a guest post for Kristin at The Manicured Monkey! This is the first time I've done a guest post, and I'm nervous and excited and happy and scared all at once. :) The Manicured Monkey is a really cool blog (I don't have to tell you that) and I feel very honored. :)

I did a fall manicure using a Jessica Gingersnap as the base...please go check it out if you have a moment! You can see my post and the full manicure by clicking here. :) 

To give you a teaser, here is the base polish...to see the artwork, you'll have to pop over there. :P

Jessica Gingersnap indirect light

Jessica Gingersnap in the shade

Later today I'll be posting some of my favorite nail art from the end of summer. I used to do this every month, but with the beginning of school and then the Halloween challenges, it got left by the side of the road. I'm not sure if people like them or not--let me know what your feeling is.

As always, thanks for reading, and thanks for checking out my guest post over at The Manicured Monkey. :)

Xoxox,
M.