My Manicures: December 2011

I had fun this past December with some lovely manicures.  I'd seen lots of festive ideas around to recreate on my own fingers as well as some fairly ordinary designs.


The China Glaze Eye Candy collection was packed full of amazing glitters in Marilyn Monroe inspired names of which I appropriated two for myself: "Some Like it Haute" and "Material Girl".  I used "Some Like it Haute" in this one, my trusty Color Club "Where's the Soiree?" and my new french manicure colour "Innocence" by China Glaze.  I won't be using Innocence again (on me anyway) as it looked too pink against my skin tone in the daylight although it looked okay when I first put it on in artificial light.

  
A week later I was feeling a tad more festive so I decided to try something kitsch with OPI "I'm Not Really a Waitress" and..... Santa Claus!

I was rather enjoying having Santa on my nails (despite the kitsch factor) so I embellished it with a snowflake rather than doing my next plan of snowflakes on all my nails:

It was also time for some babysitting for my best friend, at my place this time so that they could pack to move house, so after some good behaviour a little girl was rewarded with some Xmas nails of her own in Zoya "Holly" and the same OPI I was wearing:

I absolutely adore this song by Sam Sparro (whatever happened to him??) and no wonder, black and gold go together like ramalamalama kadinga kading shoo bop!  Now get that song out of your head and listen to this:

I used "Where's the Soiree?" and China Glaze "Hi Tek" for my black and gold combo. Unfortunately, I fear I have ruined the aforementioned "Hi Tek" due to keeping the bottle half open while dipping a brush in rather than taking a blob out :(  It was a rare find so I'll be sorry if it doesn't recover.

Black and gold had a short shelf life however as I had a friend over for dinner and polish and when I painted a glitter trimmed OPI "Wokka Wokka", I was extremely envious and had to recreate the same in black on myself!  For the glitters I used three: China Glaze's "Nova" and "Millennium" and Funky Fingers "Sand and Stilletos" to create a multidimensional shimmer:

  
A few days later and I had brought out my new Orly artist white water based striper to draw a snowflake (hence the slight tip wear):

Amidst my glitter craze, it was time for a night in Fundee with my cousin for her birthday which always falls on the weekend of a work Xmas night out (incidentally also an early leaving night for yours truly this year) so of course my cousin and her friend got the glitter treatment although I didn't take a photo of my cousin's manicure:

I'm so glad I learned the easy way (I use that word loosely though) to get glitter off my nails.  The first time I wore glitter, I swear that my thumb was about to fall off it was so worn out! But the foil method of allowing remover to soak onto your nail while the foil wrapped on each finger prevents the remover from evaporating works a treat.


For Xmas week, what else was there to wear on my fingers but.....Xmas presents!! I used China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle", Zoya "Demi", CC "Where's the Soiree?" with Northern Lights holographic top coat, CG "Ruby Pumps" and CG "Little Drummer Boy."

I ended the year with my favourite dots for new year and my new job in Color Club "Where's the Soiree?", CG "HI Tek" and OPI "Designer de Better" which of course is that much loved black and gold:

And that was my 2011 folks! 


xxx

My Manicures: September 2011

# Do you remember? Dancing in September! #

Ah yes, September, I remember you well: starting my birthday countdown, having a polishing good time, some babysitting, some cuppitycake with my cousin.... Earth, Wind and Fire not so much haha.  


I got myself some more Zoya, this time treating my fingers to some Lola love.  In honest truth, I get Lola love quite often as my new cat Lola arrived around the time of the royal wedding and gives me lots of love (when she feels like it!) and I think I love her back even though she is a bit annoying with this insistence of making one of my other cat's life a misery and peeing everywhere but her little half Siamese face and teeny body is cuteness itself so I shall forgive her.

The polish version of Lola also deserves more than one picture as flash showed the brightness to her real potential:

I was attempting to recreate a konad design I'd seen but before long I decided to buy some konad and bundle monster plates and try my hand....let's just say I wanted to love stamping but it has never really worked for me for some reason.  I have read blogs and followed tips from konad queens but my stamper won't pick up the polish.  It managed to work once in September and once in October but I have not been successful since and those plates are now gathering dust in my polish parlour.


Here is my September effort; OPI opi yoga-ta get this blue with some Zoya Trixie konad:

My cousin came to visit in September around the time of her birthday, see if you can guess her name from this song:

Although this is not traditionally the song we sing with her name, it is normally this one:

Here is Mona with her manicure on her munched on nails wearing Zoya Jana and a Chanel gold:

The next night I tried on some new China Glaze with First Mate and Zoya Sooki for some nautical nails:

I had heard on the grapevine that grey was good these days so I bought some Zoya Kelly and gave myself a french manicure with Nars pink.  As lilies are my favourite flower and as these days, I can't have lilies in the house for fear of killing my cats with a painful death, my nails would have to do! This lily didn't look like much as I painted it but it came together quite well in the end: 

I had also heard that mattes were marvellous so I got some Essie matte about you to try mattifying my polishes and Zoya Posh which lasted quite well on me given I had no top coat on:

My final manicure of the month was China Glaze Emerald Sparkle that I couldn't resist embellishing a few days after I had her on:

I also babysat my best friend's daughter who is as old as my marriage and she is always promised a manicure by her mother as a bribe for good behaviour (the things you have to do eh?!) I seem to recall having my fingers pointed at quite a few times in desperate attempts for me to hurry up and get my polishes out.  This is what I came up with on the almost three year old in all China Glaze:

Time for bed, gym in the morning at 6am :O


xxx