Santa Claus is Coming to Town

I can't believe I just used that as a post title. They've been playing that song twice an hour at work, and it makes me want to hurt someone now. Still, it's pretty apt for today's manicure:
 

I can't claim the idea for the Santa hats. Another nail blogger did them last week, and I thought I'd saved the image to Pinterest, but evidently I've been lax in my pinning. I only have one holiday manicure up.

I used Pure Ice "Siren," Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure "Ivory Skull," and a nail art pen for the black details. Since I used a Halloween polish on a Christmas manicure, does that make this the Nightmare before Christmas?

 

I'm so excited because all of my photos before now were taken in artificial light. But, with our new place we have so many more windows all over the house, and there's even a nice big yard, so I could use natural sunlight for the first time! Now if only our dryer would stop tripping the breaker, everything would be dandy. :)

Polish & Skully

I've got another Halloween manicure for you today:

Colors used:
Black--Pure Ice "Touch Me Here"
White--Maybelline Color Show "Porcelain Party"
Details--Claire's nail art pen in black
Topcoat--Seche Vite

Enjoy your Wednesday!

I'm melllting....

It's time for the first Halloween manicure of the season:

For this I used Brash "Green Machine," and freehanded the conical hats with a Claire's nail art pen.

I love the way it turned out, and Green Machine is the perfect Oz-y witch color.

Urk.

I have been a lazy, lazy blogger this week, wearing the same chipped manicure for the past three or four days. I've been either too tired, too busy, or some combination for the two to put together a decent mani. I know the design I want to do next, but I also know that there's a bit of time that will have to be invested in it and I just haven't had it to spare. So in the mean time, here is a quick and easy one I did last week that I got a ton of compliments on:

Colors used:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Lightening"
Maybelline Color Show "Porcelain Party"
Claire's Nail Art Pen in black

This was super simple to do. I used tape to mask of the white area after doing the yellow base, and freehanded the rest. It was very attention getting and everyone loved it. I wore it to a car show to the delight of all.

Happy Monday and hopefully on Wednesday I'll be back with something a little newer.

Summer Fun: Sea Creatures

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do for this one, since I'm not much for sea life (partially because I live in Ohio). But, as a cancer, I have an affinity for the crab.

Colors used:
Blue: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Blue By"
White: Maybelline Color Show "Porcelain Party"
Orange: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear "Sun Kissed"
Brown: S•X•Y "Dreamy Cocoa"
Green: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Just in Lime"
Black: Claire's Nail Art Pen
Red: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Diamonds and Rubies"
Topcoat: Seche Vite

For the background, I sponged on a 3/1 mix of the white and blue. The rest is all bottle colors. I used a toothpick to add the bubbles. Everything else is freehand. Start to finish, this took about an hour and a half, mainly because my base color was a quickdry, and that saved a lot of time.

Unfortunately, the weather is pretty crummy today, which is throwing off my lighting. I had to tweak some of these shots a little just to get the details to show up. The crabs are much easier to see in real life.

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Are you looking for something to do after the Summer Fun Challenge is over? Why not join me in the first ever Girl on a Shoestring Challenge?


Week 1: Comics and Animation
My Little Pony? Naruto? Batman? What tickles your geeky bone?

Week 2: Television and Movies
From the Lord of the Rings to Big Bang Theory, celebrate the nerdy side of Hollywood.

Week 3: Games and Gaming
It doesn't matter if you prefer Alice or D&D, or if Trivial Pursuit is more your speed. It's all about having fun!

Week 4: Ultimate Geek
We all have things we love--books, movies, games--but what is it that makes you a geek? Are you a math nerd? A science geek? Or are you just a fan of other geeks? (P.S. Nail polish is chemistry. Chemistry is science. It totally counts for geekdom!)

Since each week has a theme, you can post one manicure on Monday (or Friday, or whenever is convenient) or, if you're like me and having trouble choosing just one thing, you can post seven manicures (one every day!) if that floats your boat.

If you'd like to take part, please leave a comment below with a way I can contact you with the InLinks link.

I'm excited, how about you?

Heroes vs Villains #2: The Rogue and the Celtic Sun

The X-Men cartoon premiered in 1992, when I was five years old. Searching for reference shots for this week's challenge, I started watching it again on Netflix, and oh my god. This explains so much about me. The propensity for quoting things, the "accept everyone" attitude--and my love of strong female heroines, leather jackets, multi-color hair, hip belts that have better things to do than hold up your pants, and knee high boots.

It's that later bit that inspired this manicure: Rogue.

(I'm so glad my nails aren't magnified like that in real life. They look so much neater when they aren't two inches from your face.)

For this one, I used three coats of China Glaze "Celtic Sun" for a base (more on that in a minute), and Sinful Colors Professional in #946 Happy Ending (x2) for the green stripes. For the black accents I used my black Claire's Nail Art Pen. For the accent nail, I used Pure Ice "Siren" with a streak of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in #300 White On. I topped it all off with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat, and can I just say, it's my new favorite top coat?

I think Rogue and Mystique make great foils for this challenge, since Mystique was once Rogue's foster mother (at least in the mythology of the original cartoon. With all of the revamps that have happened in the last twenty years, I don't know if this is still true).

This was my first real introduction to comics, and I really feel that the X-Men story is one that we need right now--the message that no matter what our differences are, we can still live together in peace, and that a little tolerance can go a long way.

This was my first time trying anything by China Glaze. Here you can see my nails before I added the accents:


That's two coats of Siren and three of Celtic Sun. My camera doesn't like bright things very much, so it really doesn't show that this is a highlighter yellow. It's also very sheer, even with three layers, and I had some trouble applying it. It was difficult to get an even coat, and when the brush passed over a previously painted area there was an issue of balding. I'm glad I used it as a base, since covering it with the green made the unevenness less noticeable. I think this is another color that would benefit from having a white basecoat.

I also had some issues with the brush. One of the strands hadn't been cut, so I had to do that myself.

I know that everyone else really seems to love these summer florescent, but so far I'm not crazy about them. I guess I'm more into the dark, iridescent colors, and those are the textures I tend to go for.