GuestNails: Christmas Tree Mani

My little DIY Christmas Tree

Christmas Eve is just a few days away and I am sure you are all stressing to be done with all of it before it is over us. When it comes to Christmas I am a very organised person, being a Secretary and all. All the parcels have been mailed out, Christmas Letters written, so all I have to do now is to wait for the big day, and maybe bake some more Christmas cookies.

To go with my Mini Christmas Tree, I have for you a Christmas Tree Mani Tutorial.

How to: Christmas Tree Mani

Start out with a nude polish, I am using Color Club - Barely There, and painted two coat to all the nails Then I took a striper brush and made a triangle with China Glaze - Jolly Holly from 'Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice Collection Winter/Holiday 2010, way back before I even started blogging (!) I still love this nail polish.
Alternatively you could just add some tape to the sides and do it like that, but I was out and about when doing this, and not in the comfort of my home and stash. 

Then I took 'Ard As Nails - Gold Holo and added one coat of it over the entire nail. I think it looks really nice layered over the green and it gave a nice pop to the background.

With a dotting tool I added a couple of drops to represent the baubles on the tree using China Glaze - Ruby Pumps, and finished the look with a tiny star on top of the tree using the tiniest dotting tool i could find and China Glaze - Midnight Kiss.

Christmas Tree Mani, using Color Club - Barely There, China Glaze - Jolly Holly, Ard As Nails - Gold Holo, China Glaze, Ruby Pumps, and China Glaze - Midnight Kiss

Guest Nails: Shattered Glass

I received this product of my own choosing, free of charge for my honest, non-bias review from the Born Pretty Store.

This is the third installation of Guestnails! Sam is such a patience soul, and has allowed me to do her nails again. Last time I did her nails we attempted at pond manicure, and made some decals with a Bundlemonster stamping plate.
I stated in the last post, that we wouldn't do something as elaborate next time. Oh, how wrong I was.

It might have taken almost an hour all in all, which is a lot less than the koi fish pond design took, but it did my head in.

Shattered Glass Nails

We started out with a coat of black polish (Wet n Wild - Black Creme) on all the nails, while that was drying I cut up the foil to the width of her nails and then into shards. I did it this way because I wanted it to look more like actual shattered glass, instead of just shards of reflective paper on some nails.
This way when I added them to the nails, it would leave a thin stripe of black showing between the "glass". Neat and tidy, like the OCD person I can be.

That was more difficult that I imagined.

It looked amazing for a little while, then the shards started poking out of the several layers of topcoat, and by the morning after, at least one shard was missing on each nail.
Think If I do this again, I will try it would with a Gel-like topcoat instead...

If you want to try your hands on some Shattered Glass look, you can get the  Shiny Laser Foils at BornPrettyStore for  $6.08. By applying my code RAMG10 you get 10% off all full priced items.
BornPrettyStore always offer free Worldwide shipping.
Remember that it can get really busy around the holidays, so if you send an order out now, it will most likely not make it in time for Christmas, but rather arrive on the other side of New Years Eve.
It can take about a month before my orders arrive, and I am in the UK.

Shattered Glass Nails

What is your experience with Shattered Glass manicures?


For more Christmas themed nails check out my other designs here.

I received this product of my own choosing, free of charge for my honest, non-bias review from the Born Pretty Store.

GuestNails

We had so much fun last time I did her nails, so we decided to throw ourselves at it again.
This time we swapped the wine, for a non-alcoholic wine spritzer, which meant more stable hands and more intricate work could be done.
This was perhaps the most elaborate mani I have done so far.

I showed her my most recent purchases, and we had a little brain-storming session going.
Minions, smiley-faces, school art... ideas was thrown around.

She works with kids, so we wanted to do something that would be fun for them to look at.
That's when we came up with the idea to try a pond manicure with koi fish. I had just received some nail mail from Bundlemonster, and one of the plates I bought was BM - 725, and it has some lovely koi fishes on it.


For this manicure we used Barry M - Speedy - Supersonic for base manicure, and stamped with BM - 725 in Wet n Wild - Black Creme, filled the koi fishes in with China Glaze - Midnight Kiss, Seventeen - Bronze Shimmer, Kiko - 492 and lastly Kiko - 493. I made the kelp using a striping brush and Kiko - 531, and Kiko - 534. Let the decals dry and cut them up to fit the nails.

Guest-Nail at Secretary's Nail Art

To finish it all off, I added a few drops of Barry M - Speedy - Supersonic to a clear polish and added 2 coats of that over the design, added the waves and the kelp, and then two more coats of the Barry M - Speedy - Supersonic with clear polish mix and one coat of topcoat to seal the design.

Guest-Nail at Secretary's Nail Art

I had so much positive feedback from the last time I was showing Sam's nails here on my blog, so we decided to aim at making this a regular thing. I teach her in the ways of a polish-aholic, and she lend me her time, and nails.

Guest-Nail at Secretary's Nail Art

The kids loved her nails, and she reported to me that they had asked to see them many times. So I would say that these nails where a definite hit.
I do not think we will do something THIS elaborate nex time.

Thank you Sam for your patience!

GuestNails

A lovely couple that I have had the joy to befriend here in Northern Ireland, was having their wedding anniversary. To make it all special I invited them over to do her nails, while her husband played some boardgames with my boyfriend.
After cooking together a lovely meal, and a glass of wine, I took her with me to the spare room, aka The Nail Room. This is where the magic happens.

I filled up another glass, and showed her my collection.
She was curious to see holographics, having heard me rave about them in great lengths I am sure.
There is no doubt that she is a muggle in training, even before she met me. She is not entirely new to nail art either, having done some Super Mario nails after seeing a tutorial on Pinterest.
I am so happy we met.

Having looked at the different holographic nail polishes that I have, both scatter and linear, she choose Natural Collection - Stardust. Stardust is an anniversary polish from the line, and I was quick enough to snatch one before they were all gone.

It took 2 coats for full opacity, and she couldn't stop looking at her nails. We practiced on the posing with and without the bottle, and ended up with these pictures.
I see now that her hands should have been the other way around, to show off her ring.
Maybe next time.

Natural Collection - Stardust

Natural Collection - Stardust

Looking forward to our next Girly-Night already.