Christmas Stamping

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday! Christmas is getting closer and closer. And the stress is getting worse and worse. But at least my nails are cute. :)

I used only three polishes for my base and stamping. Ulta The Jungle Look (green), Color Club Gingerbread Man (gold), and Love My Nails New Love (red). For my stamped images, I used BM-316 (gift with bow), BM-320 (ornament), BM-321 (tree), and BM14 (bells).

Color Club Gingerbread Man & Holly

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday! I recently got a new camera. I have been playing around with it and trying to see if it is what I want. Obviously, macro shots (close up photography) is a large part of my camera use. I have not perfected taking manicure shots with this camera yet, but decided I needed to start posting them. If anything, seeing them on my blog will hopefully help me figure out tricks to make the pictures better. I purchased a Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR. The camera is amazing. I am just having trouble getting macro shots in my light box without casting a shadow with the long lens. Also, getting my skin to turn out the right color. If you have any advice, please let me know, whether by comment or email.

Enough of my camera rambling, onto the pictures!

Color Club Gingerbread Man is a light gold foil. The application is perfection and opaque in one coat. It may appear like your basic gold foil, but it does have something special about it. Its scented! It smells like a frosted gingerbread cookie. The scent is very light. Nothing overpowering.

I wanted to make this manicure into something even more Christmas like than gingerbread, so added hollies. Three berries and three leaves. I used stamping plate BM14 and Ulta The Jungle Look. I attempted to stamp red and green on my thumb, but the delicate design dried too much before I could stamp it. So I decided to do green and add the red afterward. I went back with a small dotting tool and Love My Nails New Love to make the holly berries red. I personally love this. Its simple and very easy.

Celebration with Cupcakes

Its Stamping Sunday! This particular Sunday we are all doing designs to help Beth's (Debbie's daughter) birthday. I decided to do a cupcake, polka dot, and stripes design.

Rightie is making an appearance because I like the chocolate cupcake. I started with a base of Sinful Colors Easy Going, a very light pink creme. On my index fingers, I stamped cupcakes using Cosmetic Arts Sky High, China Glaze Mahogany Magic, and plate BM14. On my ring fingers, I stamped polka dots using Sky High, Konad Yellow, Sally Hansen Raspberry Race, Wet n Wild Lavender Creme, and plate BM19. For my pinky, I stamped stripes using the same polishes as the polka dots and plate BM20. To add the finishing touch, I layered a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over each nail.

Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). China Glaze retails for $5-10 a bottle at Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta, and various other stores/sites (Fairy Dust is Core collection, while Mahogany Magic is from the Colors from the Capitol Collection). Konad Special Polish (for stamping) retails for $6.80 on their website. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri retails for $3-5 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store.

Orly Androgynie with Stars

I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday! Today, I'm combining Stamping Sunday over on Adventures In Stamping and the Monday Nail Art Challenge on Polish-aholics Anonymous. The themes were "A Plate Ending in 4" and "Sun/Moon/Stars" respectively.

I wish so much that Orly Androgynie could be as pretty on the nail as it is in the bottle. The glitter sinks to the bottom or gets stuck on the sides. Its rather disappointing. I heard that if you turn the bottle upside down, you get more glitters on the brush. I tried that for a few hours before using it. More glitter did make it to the brush for the first layer on my thumb, but sunk right back to the bottom. I'm going to experiment and swatch again in the near future. With all that being said, the application was good. It was opaque in two coats.

Using Konad Special Polish Yellow and plate BM14, I stamped yellow stars on each of my nails. I had a little trouble getting the whole image every time. But I'm by no means a stamping pro, so I'm hoping its just that I need more practice.

Orly Androgynie is part of the Holiday Soireé Collection. Some stores may have stock left (it will be on clearance), if not, it retails for $6-8 various places online. Konad Special Polish (for stamping) retails for $6.80 on their website.

Snowflakes!

'Tis the season for snowflakes! Not here in Louisiana, but certainly on my nails.

I started off with two coats of Ulta Mint Condition. The application was good and it went on very smooth. Please excuse the little imperfections. I did this mani Monday and that night was crazy.

Next I layered Body Luxury Cream Shimmer over top. I wanted some subtle shimmer with my background. I got this polish in a set. All of them are nice. Not the best, but nice for layering. I found them at Burlington in a set of six for five dollars.

Finally I stamped on snowflakes with the BM14 plate using Love My Nails Angel. The effect is very subtle, though more noticeable in person. I really liked wearing these snowflakes. 

There is a little wear and tear on this polish already in the pictures. As I mentioned before Monday was crazy. Before adding the snowflakes, I had to go move boxes, so my damp polish got pushed slightly away from the tips.