Happy Christmas To All

Hello lovelies! Welcome to another very simple mani idea for Christmas.

I've said it before but OPI The Spy Who Loved Me is perfect for Christmas manis. However, if you don't have this you can use a really any shimmery red or even just a plain creme red. I believe my go-to polish last year was Orly Star Spangled. It's a little bit of a darker red from what I remember, but is just as, if not more, shimmery!

So, super simple! Two coats of OPI The Spy Who Loved Me and three coats of my own polish, Spellbound Nails Happy Christmas To All as an accent nail.

This mani looks so much better in person because you can really see the sparkle and shift of the glitter and this does seem to trick the eye into thinking Happy Christmas To All really does look like a Christmas tree especially with that star at the top of my nail. I admit I started this mani with a different design in mind; a bit of a tape mani to create a tree shape on the accent nail with a carefully placed star glitter, but once the star came out of the bottle (without my permissions lol) and refused to budge it all came together so much better in my opinion!

I plan to have at least another one or two designs before Christmas so keep an eye out for those.

Until next time,
- Ashley

Night Sky

I fell asleep the other night looking up at the night sky and an idea for a mani hit me full force. What if I tried something somewhat like a galaxy nail but based around a night sky instead?

This is what I managed to come up with. It's not exactly what I had in mind. Honestly, I'm not really pleased with the end product. I'm by no means an astrologist or even a constellation enthusiast. I know the very basic constellations and nothing more, but I do love to gaze up at the night sky and admire the stars. With near to no knowledge of constellations, I wish I had taken the extra few minutes and mapped out the constellations I used a bit better. I think the only recognizable one is Cassiopeia on my middle finger.


That said, the actual night sky turned out surprisingly well. I used China Glaze First Mate, China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le, and an unnamed black polish much as I would with a galaxy nail. Then I added a coat of a thin glitter and the constellations themselves. I might have to try these nails again just to see how they would look with a few tiny dots of white scattered around for stars instead of trying to form constellations with larger stars. I think they would look much better this way.

4th of July

Wait! What do you mean it's not the 4th of July yet?? Yep, that's right. I'm early (for once)!! My holiday nails are usually done quickly and posted the day of the holiday. So I'm really happy to be posting these nails early. I may be a bit biased, but I adore the US flag. There are a few other flags I like but never as much.

This is three coats of white which I then taped over the bottom half of before painting the blue. I added red stripes to the bottom half and white stars to the top half. I free handed the stars this time. I think it was easier than trying to trace around star shaped gems. Now I just have to focus on drawing them smaller for other designs.

I wanted to try something different with my picture this time. I love how some bloggers have large pieces of jewelry or hold coffee cups or any number of things besides a nail polish bottle or going claw. So, I decided to try a flower this time until I can browse my local shops for something else. :)

Memorial Day

Hello girlies. Tomorrow is Memorial Day in America, a day to honor the men and women who died while serving in the Armed Forces. In national cemeteries, many volunteers place American flags on each grave as a way to honor them. These nails are my way of honoring the fallen.

I was hit with inspiration Friday night while looking through some tape manis. What if I used the elements of an American flag and put them on a nail? A red and white striped nail showing through outlines of stars. It could be just like a tape mani if I used stickers.  It was brilliant. I just needed some star stickers in various sizes.

It was amazingly hard to find the sizes of stars I wanted ... or to find any star stickers at all! I thought of nothing beyond the sizes I needed. Silly of me! Anyone else seeing the problem? Yes, they are stars in various sizes. Yes, they are stickers. Why yes, that does says adhesive gems!! Instead of putting star stickers on my nails and painting over them like tape I had to put these hard gems on my nails and carefully trace around each one since they didn't conform to my nails like a true sticker would. Then I had to fill in the entire nail around the star outlines. It went from being such a simple mani idea to an all night and all morning job. I got one hand done before I was too tired to see straight and had to do the other hand first thing in the morning.

Some of the stars turned out amazing, nearly perfect, while others were a bit deformed.

Still, my original idea came through pretty well I think.

Here is a look at what is under all that blue which is China Glaze First Mate if you were wondering. I started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow and drew in a few messy stripes with China Glaze Poinsettia. I just wanted to show you that, for a design like this, the stripes don't have to be perfect because you'll be seeing only a very small portion of each one. Looking at the finished nails you would never think something this messy was under each one! :)