Red + Gold glitter + accent nail

Used the following for this mani, forgot to get bottle pics:

• ELF: Cherry Bomb
• Orly: Sashay my Way

Also Konad's special white stamping polish for the accent nail. I was originally going to stamp all my nails but suddenly got lazy. I actually wasn't going to post this because I ended up being lazy on cleaning up and making the edges look nice. Some of the glitters had gotten near my cuticle and made it awkward to clean up. Oh well. ELF polishes are generally also difficult to get to smooth out properly and look nice around the edges.

White with flakies and green snowflake accent - snowflake tutorial

I used several different flakies for this! (Read: A lot.) I sorta collect flakies. And was mostly playing around with making a snowflake tutorial; I didn't expect to compliment the snowflake middle finger with white. I love how subtle the flakies are over white, it really goes with the snowflake.

I also cut my thumb nails they were starting to bend when I went to bed and as I slept. :/

But anyway! On to the tutorial!

Here are the polishes I used... there was a few fingers where I put a similar polish on top because the effect wasn't as strong as I wanted it. (IE: I combined the some what crappy ELF flakie with the Color Club Snow Flakes.)

• Pure Ice white
• Thumb: Studio M: Covered in Diamonds
• Pointer: Novelty snowman flakie
• Midde: CQ'sCobalt again with China Glaze SnowGlobe and random white striping brush
• Ring: ELF flakie with Color Club snow flakes on top (much better with CC)
• Pinky: Candie's White Noise

Maan. This is going to be ~fun~ to remove! Haha. I did use a striping brush entirely for the snowflake, which is why the polish looks kinda thick-ish.

The only polishes you need for the snowflake alone are a white striping brush, a holographic glitter, and a green base if that's the route you want to take. I'm including the other polishes since I put a ton of flakies on the others.

1. Start by removing old polish, letting dry, and applying your base coat. I use Orly's Bonder. Then apply one or two coats of your base color. I'm using CQ - Cobalt which is a dark-ish green. It needed 2 coats to not be streaky.

2. Let dry a bit. I usually apply a top coat after a few minutes, just for extra insurance on chipping and such. Not to mention, at this point I usually forget I had to pee and i go do that after it's mostly dry. After that, put on two layers of the glitter you want to use. I used China Glaze's Snow Globe. Any glitter that's not too large and not TOO distracting will work. You still want the snowflake to show up. :) (I contemplated using Finger Paint's Santa's Magic but it's wayyy too much, I think, not to mention it's silver--white wouldn't show up as well!)

3. Glitters usually dry relatively fast so no need for top coat, just wait a few minutes. Next, take your white striping brush and apply three lines like so.

4. Ok. Next... you're wanting to make V shapes coming really near the top. You still want to leave a portion of the top poking out. I've seen designs of snowflakes with multiple "V"'s on each "branch" if you will, but I messed it up multiple times trying that. :/ Maybe it's because my striping brush polish is a bit on the thick side. (All of them are -_-)

5. Finish the V's on all 3 branches. Take your striping brush and make a circle (half circle actually) on the bottom of the branches. Fill it in with the polish.With the striping polish, because it's thick, give it a few minutes to make sure it dries properly before applying top coat or you'll smudge it. ALSO. On the original photo I posted, I made little dots at the very top of the branches. It's another way to design snowflakes, but I didn't like it. Would have turned out better if I had a finer tipped brush, I think. Top coat usually smooths it out, too and makes the snowflake white not look as thick and bumpy.

Clean it up and bam, relatively easy snowflake tutorial! :)

And just because I hate to make a second post on the same mani, here is what I did with the rest of it (I was originally just going to do one finger.)

CURSED HAIR!!!! *FLAIL*
1. Novelty snowman
2. CQ Cobalt, China Glaze Snowglobe, striping polish in white
3. ELF polish below Color Club SnowFlakes
4. Candie's White Noise

This is Studio M Covered in Diamonds.

Studio M - Kalidascope swatch over Orly's Elsabeth's Rose

Yet another one of my Studio M polishes. :) I wasn't sure what the outcome of this one would be. At all. It goes opaque with three coats, but I prefer the one layer that's on my thumb. I lightened the bottle pics a little so you could see it better.

This polish looks like a few others I swatched from this brand, the Rainbow Connection dupes. Only it has a lot of gray/silver in it obviously. Mostly really fine silver micro glitters in with the rainbow circle glitters that are found in OPI's Rainbow Connection, as well as all the dupes of that. You can find my swatches of Studio M's Funfetti and Poparazzi here if you're interested.

I don't love it, I don't hate it. Props for originality though, and props for using the same glitter in multiple different polishes. I can't help but wonder what this would look like over black.

I used the pink Orly I got for $1 at Big Lots. as a base. :)

Three layers here. Little pre clean up-ish, sorry.

Ended up doing a funky french with it, too.

I think it looks best with one layer, and used as a layering polish.
Three coats doesn't look terrible though.

Three coats, pretty opaque really. I need
better lighting, I wish the pics came out better.

One coat over Orly's Elsabeth's Rose
 (sorry for the dry cuticles I used pure acetone last time-I moisturized
with 3 different things and it still drys me out.)

First attempt at Watermelon nails

So I tried watermelon nails. I HATE my black polish, it's so goopy. So some of the black seeds ended up with very minor strings coming off of them. I decided to sponge on the contrasting color instead of paint, and I liked how it turned out I'm just going to do a few things differently next time. (Perhaps get a better white and black polish for starters--the white is so thin and crap it took on the green under it, and what is SUPPOSED to be white is more of a lime green-ish yellow. Bah.) I didn't hate it though, but it has a lot of potential for next time. Practice makes perfect, right?

I used the same colors, but did an accent nail on both hands for my ring finger. I also wish I made less black seeds, maybe 3 tops would have made it more realistically watermelon like. Next time I'm going to try using a second darker green as well and attempt to make the green rind look better.

Surprisingly my non dominant hand looked best.

Princess nails (with accents)

Just realized I never got around to posting these from May. So here ya go! :) I actually fell in love with this fairly quickly, and I don't consider myself a girly girl at all. The pink Color Club I used was SUPER freaking streaky. Thankfully the top coat evened it out a little, even with 3 coats.

I absolutely ADORE Sinful Colors - Pinky. Which is the glitter I used on top. It's so subtle and pretty.

Cat scratch on my middle finger, ow.