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

Candy Canes and Holly Berries - Holiday Christmas Nail Art

Hello lovelies! Can you believe it's already less than a week until Christmas?? I feel like it was just last week that it was months and months from Christmas. Still, the Christmas spirit seems to have hit me hard ... well, hit me with nail art ideas because my house still isn't decorated and I have done less than no Christmas shopping.

And speaking of nail art ideas ... I think I'm a little obsessed with candy cane stripes. I seriously just want to keep these on until after Christmas; I love them so much!

These are actually really simple to do but there's a lot of waiting involved because the stripes are done with tape and the white polish has to be completely dry before you can start. If you don't wait for it to dry it will dent if you're lucky or ruin all your work at worst.

I think I'm also developing an obsession with OPI The Spy Who Loved Me. It is such a lovely shade of shimmery red and has such wonderful coverage. It also makes perfect candy cane stripes ... and holly berries!

Well, I think that's just about it. I hope you enjoyed yet another of my Christmas manis. :)

Until next time,
- Ashley

*A huge congratulations to Ariel of Lacquer: The Best Medicine for winning my Season of Giving Giveaway!! Her prize is already in the mail. :)

Looking for more holiday manis? Take a look at these!!

Rainbow Gradient

Today is supposed to be my X nail art for the ABC Challenge, but I'm stumped on what to do for this letter. I'll think of something by next challenge ... hopefully. For now, check out the rainbow gradient I wore last weekend.

I hate the claw, but it's pretty much the only position in nails that need to include the thumb. Some of you may remember the sideways rainbow gradient from my NOH8 nails. I wanted to try something different this time so I did them as a normal gradient. I found the lightest rainbow colors from my collection to use for this.

Here are my nails before clean-up. So messy!!! I usually tape around my nails before doing something this messy, but I forget. Isn't that the way things usually go? You only forget something that would speed things up when you're in a hurry!

I took this picture in the car. It was snowing so hard and then a little bit of sunlight peeked through, and I couldn't resist snapping a few pics. It's not up to my usual standard, but there's something I really like about this picture.

I couldn't resist getting a picture of my cotton ball after I removed the gradient. I'm reminded of a clown's wig, lol.

Colors Used: Rimmel English Rose, Sinful Colors Hazard, Sally Hansen Lightening, Sally Hansen Green with Envy, Wet n Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint, Wet n Wild On a Trip

St. Patrick's Day Duo

Hello everyone! I'd like to introduce you to a cute little duo you can now buy in my Etsy shop.

This is the St. Patrick's Day Duo. I missed getting my Valentine's Day polish out so I'm jumping the gun on this collection. :) Meet Fool's Gold and Clover the Rainbow.

Fool's Gold has a clear base filled with small and medium matte green glitter and large gold glitter — all hex.

Here is Fool's Gold over Petites Black. I adore how this looks! Almost like a galaxy nail or a flakey ... maybe a combination of both. :)

I also tried Fool's Gold over CQ Pearls. I thought Fool's Gold would look better over the slightly shimmery, off-white color than it would over regular white.

The second half of this lucky duo is Clover the Rainbow, named by Lyssa over on my Facebook page.  Clover the Rainbow is a green jelly with small matte green hex glitter and rainbow holographic hex glitter.

With three coats over bare nails you might not get full coverage, as is typical with a jelly, but you could certainly wear this out and show your Irish pride!

If you're looking for full coverage, you can wear one coat over white for a minty, lightly glittered nail.

Two coats over white will get you this look in sunlight. Clover the Rainbow is a very versatile polish. Change it up for different looks, wear it alone or with an undie.

Remember to follow and favorite my shop on Etsy to be the first to see new polishes. :)

Candy Coated Collection — Peppermint Pinwheels

I've been reading through the new giveaway entries for the 'what do you want to see on my blog this year' question and there were a few who wanted Valentine's Day nail art and a few who wanted holiday nail art so I decided to tie a V-Day mani into one of my swatches.

Update: This polish and the rest of the collection are now up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Peppermint Pinwheels was inspired by the Peppermint Forests of Candyland and their mesmerizing swirls of red and white.

With its red squares and white hexes, Peppermint Pinwheels is perfect for everyday wear. But, layer it over the right color and it works great for holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day. :)

I layered two very thin coats of Peppermint Pinwheels over Sally Hansen Emerald City for a festive Christmas look (I did actually do this around Christmas). Sadly, I added a layer of top coat over Emerald City too soon and caused some pretty bad streaking.

For a simple Valentine's Day mani, I used a base of Sally Hansen Pink Blink and a thin coat of Peppermint Pinwheels. You may remember Pink Blink from my recent haul. I couldn't ask for a better color. I think this is the most perfect V-Day pink ... actually, I think this is the most perfect pink EVER!! This is definitely the color of pink I think of when I think of my favorite color. :)

Here is a second, thicker coat of Peppermint Pinwheels.

More Valentine's Day manis will be coming soon. There are definitely a few I have sketched up that I want to try. :)

So, what do you gals think of the Candy Coated Collection so far? Have a favorite?

S is for ...

I was really inspired this weekend; I've really missed doing nail art! This is actually a design I sketched up and then realized that it worked perfectly for S in the ABC Challenge.

S is for ... Spring Scene.

You should be expecting this by now, but I used my eyeshadow applicators and Revlon Garden and Sinful Colors Exotic Green to create a leafy texture as a base. The white picket fence came next, hand drawn with a nail art brush, and the flowers were started with a dotting tool and finished with a nail art brush.

With recent temperatures reaching into the single digits, I'm really longing for some flowers!

Be on the lookout tonight for another ABC Challenge mani as I finally get caught up. :)

Tinsel Town — Read My Palm

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great first 2013 weekend. As for me, I've been doing some swatching. I eyed, hemming and hawing, over the Sephora by OPI Tinsel Town Collection for weeks and weeks before I finally broke down and bought it. This collection was actually part of a Christmas gift for myself, and I'm happy to finally be able to start swatching.

I started with the one that caught my eye first, a gorgeous mint named Read My Palm. I love mint polish!!

As far as mint polishes go this is one of the better ones I've found. It went on fairly smoothly, though I did find the formula a smidgen too watery. You can see one coat of Read My Palm here. It's slightly streaky and patchy, but covers well for only one coat.

Two coats fills everything in and leaves behind a nice finish.

Look how smooth and shiny this polish is with two coats and no top coat!

Want to know how Read My Palm holds up to my two favorite mints? Read My Palm is on my index and pinky nail while my middle nail has Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet and my ring nail is painted with Wet n Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint.

Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet is what I think of when I think mint. It reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream and is the perfect mint green in my opinion. Wet n Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint is the complete opposite. It's the perfect cool and refreshing minty blue of wintergreen gum. It's also the color I turn to when I need a sky blue color. As you can see, Read My Palm is leaning heavily on green and is a much darker shade than Mint Sorbet. It's been labeled a light jade green, and I can definitely see that. I think I might just have the perfect ombre shades here.


Color: Mint green with a definite lean towards green. A light jade green.
Finish: Creme
Application: I found the formula slightly watery. One coat went on streaky and patchy but built up nicely with no streaking. The dry time was amazing!
Coats to Opaque: 2
My Rating: 4.5 — if it lost the slightly watery quality it might just have tipped into a 5. I love mint shades and this is the perfect addition to my collection.

Q is for ...

I am a sick, sick woman and, in a totally different way, so is the little guy on my nails today. What could I do for Q in the ABC Challenge? Queen, quilt, or maybe even quiz? Of course not! You know me, I have to think outside the box with this challenge. Brace yourself!

Q is for ... queasy. And I'm getting a little queasy just looking at them.

Yes, that is what it looks like ... 'sick up' splatter using Revlon Garden over Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow.

Are you feeling a little queasy now too?

Christmas Borders

The rush to Christmas is insane! I spent the day baking cookies and there's a full day of shopping to look forward to tomorrow ... and probably Monday too. Yes, I am a world class procrastinator. I've put this all off until the last minute ... again, because this is exactly what I did last year. I don't even have any decorations up yet. So, this is the reason for the cut back in posts if you were wondering, lol.

I had all these wonderful ideas I was going to do, and then I just never seemed to have the time to do them. So, I came up with a few very simple nail designs to share. This is one of them. Dotted border nails. It's something new to me. I've done true border nails before but never dotted borders.

I decided to keep it very Christmas-y with alternating red and green. This is carried over onto my other hand, starting with green on my thumb so it's all very different and interesting. This could totally be worn alone if you don't have much time for dots. Two coats of Sinful Colors Exotic Green and two of Wet n Wild I Red A Good Book, a layer of quick drying top coat and you're out the door looking perfectly festive.

For the dotted border I used my smallest dotting tool. I created the dots and then went over them again to make them brighter when I realized they weren't showing up well. I wish I had started with white dots first before using red and green. This would have made them much more noticeable, but you live and learn.

Overall though, a very simple and Christmas-y mani. Enjoy. :)

China Glaze Holiday Joy — Winter Holly

I'm really sorry about the lack of post yesterday. I was informed that someone on Facebook had stolen some of my nail photos, cut and smudged out my watermark, and was now claiming to have done them. Thank you again, Lacqueerisa, for letting me know! ♥ My photos have now been removed from her page, and I've informed as many other artists as I could of their stolen work. But enough about that!

Today's post is a swatch of Winter Holly from the China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection. Winter Holly is a pretty deep green and gold glitter, very Christmas-y, with flares of holographic glitter mixed in. I also noticed a bit of purple glitter in the pictures but that may just be a trick of the light playing off the holo glitter.

Here is one coat of Winter Holly. Two coats fills in nicely and takes care of all the patchiness so don't worry about how thin this goes on. Winter Holly dries pretty matte and will need a good top coat if you want it to really shine. I found my top coat settled around the glitter in visible dimples and needed two coats.

I'm not sure how I feel about all the really fine glitters of this collection. Such fine glitter wasn't really made for layering so multiple coats are a must. Since I use two thick coats of glue base for glitters, along with my usual base coat, the added two or three coats of these glitters needed to get full coverage really makes my nails feel heavy and awkward. Along with the mentioned two layers of top coat needed to smooth everything ... personally, I think I'll be wearing these matte. All said though, they're so darn pretty that I can't help liking them!!

Color: Dark green and gold with flecks of holo and maybe purple.
Finish: Ultra-fine glitter; dries matte.
Application: Goes on smooth but patchy with one coat. Fills in nicely with two.
Coats to Opaque: 2-3
My Rating (1-5): 4

So, what do ya'all think of the new blog layout? I tried to keep it winter-y with only one or two Christmas touches.

On Safari: Exotic Encounters

I am so excited about this next line of posts!! I made mentions of the new China Glaze On Safari collection and my mom brought home almost the entire collection for me! How great is she?? I'm still missing one of the two new glitters and the bright blue - I Herd That and Manhunt. I'm also missing Prey Tell and Call of the Wild, but I think they are simply too dark for my tastes.

This post focuses on the one polish from this collection, besides the glitters, that I was most looking forward to.



Exotic Encounters is lovely teal green creme. Another blogger called it a kind of dusty teal with blue undertones and I find this to be a near exact description of this shade. However, what I found exceptionally funny while browsing shades of green to compare it to is that this color in some lights takes on a shade Wikipedia describes as 'jungle green'. Oddly poetic.



I know I have problems keeping my coats thin and this polish certainly didn't help with that (not that I consider that anything bad!!). It went on very thick with just one coat, as seen above. If I was in a hurry I could have walked out the door right then. Two coats brought me to the perfect coverage. You may need three if you find you have better control over your coats.



The moment I saw this on my nails I thought this shade would make an absolutely gorgeous base for a tribal mani, and I was right! Exotic Encounters being from the 'On Safari' collection just made it all the more perfect in my eyes. That said, I think it is just as stunning when used alone. I got many a compliment while out the day before I added the tribal print.



In the end, I am very happy to say I own Exotic Encouters and definitely recommend this shade to all of you. :)

Emote Nails

Wow! I didn't realize just how close I am to 100 GFC followers. You guys are amazing!!! So, for being such amazing followers I will let you in on a little secret. I will be having a super awesome giveaway soon. I have an order in for one of the prizes and I am so close to being able to order the other prize. This will be a giveaway with 2 winners and many ways to enter. I'm hoping to have everything together for August, so tell everyone you know! Now, onto the actual post.


Today's (short) post is Emote nails. Emote: to show emotion. I think these nails certainly do that, don't you? :)

They show love, anger, happiness, boredom/tiredness and ...

Sadness on the thumb. I love this little guy. He's just so cute and definitely my favorite.


What do you gals think of emote nails? Are they something you would try? What emotions would you have your nails express? ... How excited are you for a giveaway??

Quidditch is Dirty Work

Today's post is my very first Harry Potter mani. I have dozens of Harry Potter designs sketched in my nail art book, but I've never felt confident enough to complete any. So, when I was completely stumped on what to do with my nails last week I figured it was past time to do something Harry Potter.

I went through all my sketches and realized I didn't want to do any of them. I thought briefly about doing something for each book but there are seven books ... too many for one hand and too few for both. I could have also done something for my favorite parts of the books but ... well, I have too many. :)

I finally settled on Quidditch as my inspiration. When I think of a Quidditch uniform all I can think of is stripes. I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the Hogwarts striped ties. I tend to imagine the house colors as stripes now. And as all the muddy Quidditch training in the books tells us Quidditch is a dirty job! With this in mind I sponged on some deep brown over the uniforms to create a muddy, dirtied look.

Last but not least ... what Quidditch game is complete without the Golden Snitch??


Polish Used
Hufflepuff: Pure Ice Excuse Me & Beauty Concepts unnamed shimmery black
Slytherin: Sally Hansen Emerald City & Sally Hansen Celeb City
Gryffindor: Maybelline Bold Gold & Wet n Wild I Red a Good Book
Ravenclaw: Bon Bon Blue & Petites Bronze Baby
Snitch: Revlon Blue Lagoon, LA Colors White, Maybelline Bold Gold, Wet n Wild Goldmine, Funky Fingers Platinum Record, and a mix of black and white to create the gray used for outlining the wings.


Before beginning this mani I used 2 coats of white polish on all my nails so I could get the brightest colors possible.

A Parliament of Owls

Hello girlies! I don't know about you but I've been seeing owl nails everywhere. Sometimes just colorful owls like SuPa Nails Oh Oh Owls! Sometimes not so colorful like JawsOfKita-LoveHim's Owl Nails. There's also those with one owl like cutepolish's Cute Nail Art tutorial. Or those with designs that incorporate all nails like Chalkboard Nails Valentine's Owl Nail Art or Unhas da *micktuti*'s owl nails.

With all these awesome owl nails I wanted to try some of my own. I saw this design on Pinterest first and just had to recreate it. It's originally from Chalkboard Nails and was then recreated by Let them have Polish as part of a challenge—inspired by a tutorial.

I couldn't have chosen a worse time to do this design though. It was very hot and humid; the kind of heat that nail polish doesn't dry well in. I also had very little time to do my nails before I had to start getting ready for my niece's dance recital. I thought I could do it though. How hard could they be? Well, I'll admit they weren't that hard. I didn't think out the color choices very well. I mostly just reached into my nail drawer and grabbed the closest colors.

The base colors worked well together but once I started lightening it for the chest, dotting on the chest spots, and adding the beak everything just kind of blended together.

The spots and beak look nearly perfect on the mint and purple, shows up slightly less on the pink and red, but really just blends completely on the orange. If I had more time I'm sure I would have tested each color on paper before using them, but I was in a rush.

How much of a rush you ask? So much of a rush that I didn't realize I had scraped the eye off my thumb owl and dented the tip of the middle finger owl until I was in the car and far away from my nail supplies. I told my nieces that the orange owl was evil and attacked the pink owl. *giggle* I'm so mean. :)

I'm actually pretty proud of how well my right hand turned out all told. I'm right handed but through much practice I've gotten my left hand able to do much of the fine detail work. Still, it's never as good as doing nail art with my right hand. However, besides the googly eyes on the red owl I think everything came together very well.


For those who are wondering ... a groups of owls is called a parliament, hence the title. Yeah ... I had to look it up too. ;)


Polish Used

• Revlon - Base Coat
• Wet n Wild - I Red a Good Book
• Wet n Wild - I Need a Refresh-Mint
• Wet n Wild - Club Havana
• Wet n Wild - Bite the Bullet
• Wet n Wild - Tropicalia
• Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow
• Sally Hansen - Sun Kissed
• LA Colors - Black
• LA Colors - White