Christmas nails: Frosty the Snowman

Hey guys. Merry Christmas... in 4 weeks hehe! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We're having turkey leftovers and they are delicious! Here are some Christmas nails I did last year (I think).

It was very simple because I was attempting nail art on my right hand (as you can tell from the pictures). Here you go:

All I used for this nail design was China Glaze - Frostbite, Love & Beauty - Confetti Sprinkles, China Glaze - Salsa, a white nail art pen and some black nail polish. I layered Confetti Sprinkles over Frostbite and for my thumb nail, I used the nail art pen to draw the snow and snowman. I dotted on the scarf, eyes and hat. And that's it!

Here's a very simple nail design I did for my sister:

  

 Haha, as you can see there's not much to it. I used China Glaze - Exotic Encounters as the base and used a white nail art pen to draw the snowflakes and VERY minimalistic tree. I liked how they turned out.

Let me know what you think. What Christmas nails have you done or are you about to do?

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Raine

Black and gold glitter gradient nails

Hey everyone! It's been two weeks since the New Year but since I haven't blogged since last year, I'm just going to go ahead and say Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you've been doing well. I'm sorry for not blogging (or scheduling posts ahead). I hope to get back to blogging here soon.

I'm going to show you some nails that are super easy to do and perfect for a fancy event. I've done these nails quite a few times for fancy dinners when I don't have time because this look is really easy to achieve and looks pretty darned good.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

What you need: a creme polish, a glitter polish, a base coat and a top coat.

What I used: Sally Hansen - 4 in 1 Complete Care base coat, Orly - Liquid Vinyl, Love & Beauty - gold glitter and Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat.

First, use a base coat (especially if you're going to be wearing a dark nail polish because you really don't want to have unsightly stained nails). Then paint two coats of creme polish. Using your gold glitter polish, scrape off most of the polish then dab the tip of your nail with the polish. What you want to achieve is sparse glitter distribution that will build up with the next coat. Repeat the dabbing until you get the look that you want. Use a top coat and you're good to go.

Gradient nails are super fun and easy. You can make them funky or fancy. I didn't use the sponge gradient method here because glitter doesn't really dab on that well.

I hope you like these nails and give them a go.

Thanks for reading and sticking around! :)

Christmas nails: Fairy Dust and Xmas tree

Hi everyone! I've got more Christmas nail art for you. I'm really big on the red-and-white theme this year. And minimalism is another main theme for my Christmas nails. No idea why but I think it's fun to switch things up. Last year I was all for fun prints and complex designs and multiple colors.

You could do this nail design if you don't have much time to spend on drawing details or if you just want a simple accent nail.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Here are the polishes I used:
China Glaze - Salsa
China Glaze - Fairy Dust
A white nail art pen

Easy enough, right? First I used two coats of China Glaze - Salsa for the base. I'm sure you'll agree with me that China Glaze - Salsa is such a pretty red. Every time I reach for a red polish, I end up picking China Glaze - Salsa. I might have to get myself a spare bottle at the rate I'm using it.

Next I used one coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust. Fairy Dust adds such a magical glow. It sparkles and I swear you can almost picture Tinkerbell from Peter Pan showering all her pixie dust onto your nails. ;)

For the accent nail, I just used my white nail art pen to draw the tree. I didn't spend much time perfecting it which is why it turned out a bit wonky but hey, snow on trees aren't perfectly balanced, are they?

What do you think of this easy Christmas nail art design? What part of Christmas inspires your nail art? What color theme are you loving for Christmas this year? Tell me all about it in the comments section. Run out and get a glitter polish now. ;)

Thanks for reading! <3

Orly - Charged Up with Glitter

Hey guys! If you saw my post on Orly - Charged Up, you'd know that this is my first and favorite jelly polish so far. Isn't the color just mind-blowing?

Well today I've jazzed them up so they look x10 mind-blowing. See for yourself:

Taken with flash

Sorry for flooding my cuticles. My cuticles still aren't in the best shape but we're getting there :D I hope.

Taken with flash

Now comes the fun part. Check that glitter razz out! I heart my China Glaze - Fairy Dust - the name couldn't be more apt!

Here's what the glitter that I layered over the 2 coats of Orly - Charged Up:

• Thumb and ring finger:
• 2 coats of Love & Beauty - Confetti Sprinkle
• Middle finger:
• 2 coats each of Love & Beauty - gold glass flecks and Love & Beauty - gold glitter
• Little finger:
• 1 coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust

Sealed all the glitter in with Sally Hansen - Insta Dri Top Coat. Let me be the first to tell you that Love & Beauty - Confetti Sprinkle consists of chunky, irregularly-shaped glitter and some of the glitter does curl up so I'd advise pressing them down a little then sealing with top coat.

Taken in the shade

Taken with flash

This is not Orly - Charged Up. This is actually Essie - The Girls Are Out from the Essie Summer Collection 2013 which is a GORGEOUS fuchsia. If you love this color as much as I do, don't worry. I'll show you more pictures in an upcoming post.

So how do you like all that glitter on Orly - Charged Up? Or do you prefer your polishes plain? Or was there not enough glitter for your liking?! I'm a sucker for adding designs and unnecessary glitter; you can admit that you like your nails busy and fancy. :)

Thank you for reading!! :)

Mad mix of glitter skittle nails

Hi everyone! I've got a couple of Christmas nail posts coming soon but for now let me show you a couple of new nail colors and fabulous glitter toppers that I tried at a beauty store the other day.

Remember that time I layered glitter over Essie - Play Date and it was all like shazzam confetti in yo faces?! Okay, a tad bit of exaggeration there but who cares, right? Anyway, today I've got a couple of the same glitters but also moreee!

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Keep in mind that I tried these at the store so I don't know the names of the polishes I tried. I didn't buy any of these polishes because one, according to everyone I ask, I have enough nail polish and two, I really shouldn't spend any more on nail polish. Sad.

On my right hand (pictures above):
Thumb: Sky blue + a combination of circle, bar and micro glitter.
Index: Light green + big and small hexagon glitters in pink, red, green, blue and white.
Middle: Navy blue + black and white square, bar, circle and hexagonal glitter.
Ring: Red orange + multi-colored circle, hexagonal and bar glitter.
Little: Yellow + multi-colored circle, hexagonal and bar glitter.

The color combination of the glitter on my ring and little finger is different so don't mistake them as the same. As you can see, the glitter on my little finger is much more sparse and doesn't spread well.

I really love the glitter on my index finger and that shade of green. So unique!

Taken with flash

On my left hand here, I initially did a floral and stripe nail design which I have yet to post but don't worry, it's coming. I had no intention of layering glitter over the stripes but decided at the last minute that I was going to remove the design on the same day so I would just mess around with the glitter.

Yeah, I know, the glitter looks weird layered over the stripe design but let's just ignore that for now and appreciate how dense the glitter layers are.

As you can see, the glitter on my index finger has bar glitters while my ring finger doesn't. That's because I layered the bar glitter over the first layer of the glitter you see on my ring finger. What a mess, haha!

I also dabbed on gold hexagons randomly onto the my other nails beside the flowers. I'm not sure how I like them but I guess they don't look that bad.

What do you think? Which is your favorite glitter? What glitter polish have you used recently?

Thanks for reading! And in case I forget to post, happy Thanksgiving!!

Glitter gradient nails with Purr-fect Plum and Salsa

Hi, friends!

I've got gradient nails to show you today. They're really easy and the best part is having fun with different color combinations.

I did these gradient nails on a whim and look at how pretty they turned out. If you're going to an event and have no time or no idea what nail design to do, I'd definitely recommend glitter gradient nails. I didn't use the sponging method. Read on to find out how I did the gradient effect.

Taken with flash

On my left hand, I used China Glaze - Purr-fect Plum and The Face Shop - purple glitter (sorry, I can't find the code on their site). For the accent nail I used China Glaze - First Mate and some glitter polish but I can't remember the exact polish I used. I think it might be China Glaze - Fairy Dust but since it's not holographic, I might be wrong.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

On my right hand, I used China Glaze - Salsa and did the gradient with China Glaze - Ruby Pumps. The red glitter really blended with Salsa which is a creme polish so it came out really pretty. For the accent nail, again I used China Glaze - First Mate and that unknown glitter.

How I did these gradient nails:

1. First I put on 2 coats of the creme polish and let that dry.
2. Then I scraped off the excess glitter polish from the brush on the inside of the bottle, allowing only the slightest polish on the brush.
3. Then I dabbed on the glitter from the middle of my nail to the tip, making sure there is more concentration of glitter near the tip to create the gradient effect.
4. I repeated step 2 and 3 until I was satisfied with my gradient.
5. I sealed my design with Sally Hansen - Insta Dri top coat.

I hope you try this design out! Gradient glitter really does step your nails up a class so it'd be perfect to wear to a wedding or a Christmas party.

Let me know what you think of these nails in the comment box. Are they too flashy? Do you like them? Have you tried gradient nails with glitter polish before? What color combinations would you use?

Thanks for reading!

Glittery fall leaves nail art

Hey everyone!

It's November and I've got awesome fall nail art for you today!! This nail art idea came from a random google search for fall nail art ideas. I really wasn't feeling most of them but then I saw a leaf design, which I'll show at the bottom of this post, and really liked it.

I hope you'll like it as much as I do, especially the eggshell base color which I LOVE. Okay, the glittery leaves are also really pretty but I just love the base color. I haven't used it since last Christmas and I'm surprised it wasn't as gunky as I thought it would be when I broke it out to use.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken indoors under yellow lighting

This wonderful eggshell-colored polish is simply known as Eggshell. Cute name, right? That's the only thing written on the label on the bottom of the bottle ><

Taken indoors under  yellow lighting

Taken indoors under yellow lighting

I used my handy nail art brush to draw the leaves and the tree. Don't you love how the tree turned out with all its eye-catching glitter leaves?

The polish I used for the tree and leaves are:
China Glaze - Ruby Pumps
Random glitter green polish
Random gold polish
The Face Shop - BR601

Haha, yes, I'm aware that I've got quite a few nameless polishes. I sealed the design in with Sally Hansen - Insta Dri Top Coat.

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight

These are the nails I was inspired by. Clearly the white on the leaves are less obvious and look better that way but my nail art pen was spilling so I couldn't quite control the flow.

Inspired by these nails

What do you think of my spin on the fall leaves nail art? To me, they turned out really pretty and I'm really glad I used glitter polishes for the leaves. Glitter is always fun and in designs like this, very festive.

Show me some pictures of the fall foliage where you live! I'd love to see them. If you did nails based on fall foliage, send me the link!

Thank you for reading!

P.S: I apologize for not having time to check out my usual must-read blogs (that's yours!). I've been busy and I don't think things are slowing down anytime soon. When they do, expect me to be back on your blogs and commenting :)

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

Today's red glitter polish is yet another FAVORITE of mine. I mean, look at this baby. Doesn't she just glow?!

Ladies and gentlemen (do I have any guy readers?), I present to you China Glaze - Ruby Pumps. She is absolutely delectable and I would go so far as to say one of a kind.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken in indirect sunlight

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps is a crelly red glitter polish. Crelly? Yes, you read that right. I would say jelly but somehow it doesn't really look all that jelly to me. What do you think?  Ruby Pumps doesn't dry gritty like other glitters. This polish dries smooth and shiny and the glitter is suspended in all that lovely red polish. I used two coats here - one coat is a bit thin - and the formula was really good.

Ruby Pumps is a really subtle glitter polish and perfect for Halloween if you're going for a vampy or Dorothy-esque look. I would definitely use this red glitter for a Christmas nail design though.

What do you think of China Glaze - Ruby Pumps? Love it? Hate it? Is red your color or do you stay away from it?

Thank you for reading!

Easy saran wrap Halloween nail art

Hi guys.

I know. The posts are coming slowly and I haven't replied to comments and I haven't been joining hops all week long but it's been busy here and I haven't felt like posting anything much.

I do, however, need to get these Halloween nail art posts out before it's actually Halloween but the good thing about nail art is that you can get it done even the day before an occasion. That is, if you have time and you don't mess it up. Yeah, I mess up quite a bit so I've learned not to be too frustrated if my nail art doesn't turn out as well as I expect.

Anyway, I digress and you just probably want to see what nail art I'm sporting. Well, here you go - some easy saran wrap Halloween nail art.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

The colors I used: China Glaze - Salsa (the red) and The Face Shop - Papaya. I used two coats of each polish over one layer of base coat.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Then I did the saran wrap method (which I did once before) and I adore how they turned out. I should have painted the black polish and dabbed it onto the nail like I did on my thumb rather than painting a coat of black polish over the nail and dabbing it off with saran wrap. You can see that the latter way resulted in 'borders'. Ah well, at least next time I know.

I used one layer of Love&Beauty - Confetti Sprinkle over my middle nail just for a pop of glitter. I'm sad that the glitter is getting gunky but I'll try to thin it and add clear polish.

Taken in indirect sunlight

Taken in indirect sunlight

How do you like these Halloween saran wrap nail art? Easy or what? I'm not exactly sure what I was going for with this look but I thought they looked Halloween-y with the red and black.
You can do this with any color combination you like but I would say pick two contrasting colors otherwise they'll just blend and people won't get to see how awesomely 'complex' this method is.

Would you try this? Let me know in the comment section.

Thanks for sticking around and continuing to read my blog. I'll try to get back to my regular posting schedule when things ease up. Until then, have a laid-back Sunday!

Party glitter all over Essie - Play Date

Hey everyone, today I have some really cute glitter toppers to show you. Sadly I do not own any of them but I got to try them on my nails and that was good enough for me.

I don't have the names of any of these glitters :( I walked into a store randomly and they had a nail polish testing section (awesome!) so I layered them over my nails that were painted with Essie - Play Date and they turned out brilliant.

Taken in sunlight

Taken with flash

• Little finger: a black and white glitter mix (bar, square, circle and hexagonal glitter)
• Ring finger: red and purple bar glitter
• Middle finger: a mix of glitter in multiple shapes and colors (red, blue, purple, silver, turquoise, white in squares, circles, bars and hexagons)
• Index finger: a mix of red, dark and light blue, purple bar glitter and a rare gold hexagon.

I love them all; I can't seem to pick just one! Also, isn't Essie - Play Date the best color to layer glitter over?

Which is your favorite glitter mix?

Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Bloglovin!

Mystical saran wrap nail art

Here's my first attempt at saran wrap nails. Yup, I've been attempting lots of different nail art so lots of firsts for me.

I actually saw this design months ago but forgot about it until recently when I came across this video and liked how doable it was. I also saw Jen from ThePolishaholic's submission for the Picture Polish contest after I did these nails and I really loved her saran wrap mani color combo. I might try it next time.

I was fascinated by the fact that there was something readily available in the kitchen that could be used for nail art. Needless to say, I got the cling wrap and tore off a huge piece and happily trotted to my desk where I began to work on this super easy and fun design.

Taken in natural sunlight

Taken in natural sunlight

This design is so easy to achieve - almost effortless and if you dab off too much polish, you can always go over with another coat. How to achieve this look: paint your base color, let it dry, paint over with another color, quickly scrunch up a ball of saran wrap and dab lightly over the wet polish. Or of course if you prefer to see how it's done, you can always watch the video.

I used The Face Shop - GR501 (light blue) as the base for my thumb, index, middle and little finger and The Face Shop - PP402 (pink) as the base for my ring finger. Then I used the pink on top of the four fingers and blue for the middle finger.

I did use Essie - The Girls Are Out to layer over my thumb. I really liked the shimmer!! But I thought it was too dark and I didn't want to waste the polish by dabbing most of it away so I switched and used the other pink.

Taken in natural sunlight

Here I used Essie - Play Date as the base and The Face Shop - PP402 (pink) as the base for the ring finger. Then I used Orly - Charged Up to layer over Play Date and Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint over the pink polish.

I'm not too sure I liked the accent nail since it was a lot darker than I expected and didn't quite complement the purple nails.

I asked my sister whether I should layer glitter over my nails and her reply was: I will always choose glitter over non-glitter. That was that. I layered China Glaze - Fairy Dust over my nails.

Do you like these saran wrap nails with glitter or without? Would you try saran wrap nails?

Thanks for reading!

Random Gray and Snowcone Glitter Nails

I was bored so I decided to jazz up my nails with glitter.

Taken with flash

Here I'm wearing 2 coats of Maybelline Color Show - Impeccable Greys on every nail. I used Love & Beauty's Confetti Sprinkle on the middle finger, China Glaze - Fairy Dust on the ring finger and Milani - Hot Pink on the little finger. The pointer isn't layered with any glitter.

Taken with flash

I really have to start taking better pictures with flash. But until then, here's Orly - Snowcone and the same glitter polishes layered over it except my pointer is layered with a coat of Fairy Dust.

Thank you for reading! :D

Red jelly glitter sandwich, anyone?

Today's post is going to be short. I did these nails a while back... before I bothered cleaning up the excess polish on my skin completely.

Okay, so it's not exactly a jelly sandwich... It's more like crelly but... You be the judge.

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

Taken with flash

I used a red polish from The Face Shop (argh, can't remember the name/number off the top of my head) and Love & Beauty - Red (the pointer and ring finger) which I'm quite sure is a crelly (creme and jelly finish) and I was fascinated by that so I slathered on a micro-glitter topper and gold glass fleck glitter.

I really liked this glitter jelly/crelly sandwich and I plan on doing this again sometime when I don't feel like doing nail art.

Are you into red nail polish?

Thanks for reading!