Snow Flurries with China Glaze Cracked Nail Polish

Hi again! :D So lets face it, living in sunny southern California means we don't really get the good old white Christmas weather. Which is really nice 9 times out of 10 but, sometimes I just want to experience the magic of the first snow fall too! And since I'm way too busy to indulge myself and drive up to the mountains here is a quick fix for my cold weather craving.

Snowy Manicure!

This can double as a Chanukah manicure as well, since the color combo inadvertently turned out to match. :D Woohoo ~ bonus points. Its a two-in-one deal.

I used two new lacquers by China Glaze for this mani. The base is China Glaze – Blue Year's Eve and the cracked polish is their Oxidized Aqua. I picked up these polishes from Ulta, since they were having a buy 2 get one free deal and was dying to try them out.

Blue Year's Eve is such a lovely, sparkly colbalt blue color. Its not too dark and reminds me a lot of my Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear in Blue it.

Oxidized Aqua, which looks more silvery than blue when juxtaposed with this sapphire color, is also super gorgeous!!! I'm so picky about these crackled polishes it is kinda ridiculous. I love they way they look but, only a few actually crackle to my liking and this is definitely one of them. <3 Super easy to put on with a great crackle effect :D

Finally, since I'm such a spazz I had to try stamping some snowflakes on to get the full effect. They're a little hard to see but are sneakily there on my thumb and ring fingertips. :P I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind white, the best white to stamp with IMO, with Konad plate m59.

So whether the weather be snowy, sunny or whirlwinds hope this brought you a little more season spirits!

Posh Gold Konad Plaid Manicure

First off, Happy Turkeyday to everyone!!! I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with family, fun and most importantly food ~ That's really my favorite reason for this time of year *g* the FEAST!

But lets get down to the meat and potatoes of this all and move on to the mani!

So to go with all the comfort food and festivities I wanted to do a manicure to match the mood of the holidays.

*Ta-dah* This is what I came up with ^_^ It's a little bit of glam while still being cozy, they're like posh flannel pjs made of gold :P

I painted Sally Hansen Guilty Pleasure as the base coat and then stamped with my tried and true black, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Night Flight. I used Konad M60 for the plaid pattern and then the french plate, M19 for the tips.

I saw a gold and black mani a few months back and remembered loving the color combo. I thought it looked so classy and am glad I finally got a chance to try it out!!!

Reminds me a little of Burberry no?

Well hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!!! Food coma today, shop-a-holic tomorrow!

Magnetic Nail Polish – Nail Inc. Houses of Parliament

Magnetic Nail polish GET!!!

I was so excited when I first heard about these new magnetic nail polishes and now one is finally mine! *mwahahahhaaa*

See how victorious that picture looks? My prize held high and juxtaposed against the dramatic sky ~

This is what the final product looks like. Pretty awesome right? ^_^ It has this smooth airbrushed look to it and seems way more professional than it really is :P

This nifty, new lacquer invention contains little magnetic particles mixed into the polish. When you hold the cap (which has a built in magnet) over your wet nail polish the particles are drawn together and form whatever pattern is printed into the cap.

Kinda confused? Its okay! Because I took lots of pictures! :D

The top has a special magnet embedded into it along with a little plastic ridge which makes it easier to align your nail with the magnet.

On the side of the cap is a picture of the design this specific magnet will produce. I also tried holding the magnet next to the nail polish bottle and it is strong enough to produce the pattern through the glass! :O So there is a close up of the design included too!

As for color, the stuff in the bottle is a medium range of what you will get after the magnet magic. As you can see here, there are some little flecks of pink and silver mixed in which becomes super defined after the nail polish settles into the design.

Since purple is my favorite color Houses of Parliament was the obvious color pick for me. But the Silvery-chrome of Traflagar Square and luscious lagoon of Whitehall Teal where both pretty hard to pass up. However, at $16 a pop from Sephora I had to resist :<

I know LCN also has their own line of magnetic lacquers which includes: 8 Colors and 2 different pattern designs ( I want the starburst one so bad!!! ). These run about $10 per bottle and $20 per magnet on their site so I think overall its a comparable price.

Have any of you tried these fun polishes out yet? I'd love to know how the LCN ones look and even the other Nail Inc colors. ^_^

PS. Heres a little bonus of my pup trying to help out with the photoshoot :P

Mutt and Meow Manicure

I have kinda been in a manicure rut lately but, after doing the nail party post I was feeling pretty inspired by my friend's panda nail pictures. So I thought, why not give cute animals a shot too.

Also, since we had our holiday meeting at work coming up and I wanted to get into the spirit of things I thought what better way than to use our very own store mascots! A Haute Dog and Cool Cat duo.

Store mascots

Nails.

I think my doggie doesn't look too bad, but the kitty was really difficult for me to get exactly. >_<

I won't lie, since this was all hand painted by yours truly this manicure took me the better part of two pain staking hours of fume inhalation until I deemed it perfect. And really that judgment is mostly reserved for my left hand since I am not incredibly ambidextrous.

Left hand glory *g*

Right hand meh. >_>;;;

I did alternating colors on each hand; starting with the cute doggy on my left thumb and then the kitty on my right. Followed up with the classic paw prints in the corresponding colors and then finished with some polka dot fun on the pinky nails.

And here is my polish list. If I had planned this out better I would've looked for the corresponding colors but it was kinda a last minute decision so I ended up using what I had on hand.

Sinful colors – Mint Apple: Previously featured at this post here.

OPI for Sephora – A-Ha! Moment: My go to white nail polish for frenchies

OPI for Sephora – Never Enough Shoes: A gorgeous black with the tiniest hint of sparkle flecks to it.

Essie – Tart Deco: A lovely coral color. I can't tell you how long I spent looking for the perfect coral nail polish but when I found it, this was it!

Thanks for reading.

Sail Away with Panda Nails

There are actually two manicures in this post :P Since I had a nail party with a couple of the girls a few weeks back and wanted to share the pictures with you all.

I did a Sailor theme for one of my gals per her request. (This was actually at the tail end of summer just as the Nautical trend was on its last legs).

Base color is Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear – Blue it. I then stamped Konad and Bundle Monster plates with Insta-Dri – Whirlwind White and some China Glaze Gold in Passion.

Finally added some sparkle with Milani Jewel FX in Gold; which I nabbed from Target for like four bucks. These are big hexagon shaped glitters suspended in a clear base.

I've seen some swatches where people take the time to layer the gold glitter to canvas the whole nail and it is GORGEOUS!!! *g* I'm excited to try that look out too ~ Always Love me some glitters ^_^

My other girl did her own nails and they turned out adorable so I had to snap a few pictures to share.

Its Paws and Pandas!!! I love the one on her middle finger because he looks like he has a little mustache. XD

A close up of the “cute” one on her thumb.

She used Sally Hansen's Whirlwind White polish and a really old bottle of Wet n' Wild – Black Fog. Her main weapon of choice was a toothpick! I mean c'mon I need to use like five different dotting tools to be happy and she can whip this out with a toothpick? I'm telling ya this girl is amazing. She also does a really cute strawberry manicure I want to try sometime.

Well Til next time mateys! Argh ~ !