It's almost New Year's Eve!

A few days ago I decided to try out another polish I threw together. I didn't realize it until now that it is a fun New Year's Eve mani in the simplest form... glitter over sliver polish. I have something else planned for the night and will be posting that here in a few days.

#4 Let It Snow Challenge: Christmas/Holidays

So here is what I wore on Christmas. It isn't anything super special but I still liked it. It has been a crazy few weeks and I haven't had a lot of time to spend on my nails.

Fruity Pebbles for Breakfast

So I made a polish similar to the China Glaze It's A Trap-Eze polish. It has a white crelly base with lot of glitter. I didn't try to match the glitter in it but the idea is still the same. I had intentions of making one like this for quite a while... even before CG came out with theirs.

#3 Let It Snow Challenge: Ugly Christmas Sweater

So I had the hardest time trying to come up with something for this challenge. I don't recall owning ugly Christmas sweaters. I Googled it and was still undecided. I finally decided to throw something together. I painted both hands. The top is an ugly patterned sweater with a Christmas penguin and bow. The bottom is just ornaments. I think a red sweater with either of these wouldn't be spectacular. Anyways, here they are...

A Little Nail Art Newness by TBD

Here is a pretty cool idea from the ladies at TBD. This is definitely not a new idea but I like how the gold looks on the nails. I especially like how you can fix your mistakes using rubbing alcohol. I don't know how many times I have had to start over from a mistake. Luckily with my stamps I can usually manage to get the stamped polish off without completely destroying the base.

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

A few days ago I was in one of those fun paper stores when I saw the new gold + silver Sharpies. Of course I bought them. Thought I would give them a try on my nails and see if they would stay put when a top coat was added. BOOM. My new favorite nail art tool was discovered. It came out even better than I had imagined. It’s really hard to get a super-reflective gold paint for accenting your nails– particularly one that’s easy to use. This is one of the easiest applications ever because everyone knows how to use a pen. I don’t really love the nail art pens because I find that the polish separates and it can come out “chunky” after a couple uses. So glad I stumbled upon these gems! Here are a couple of things you should know:

• Goes on top of a dry coat of nail polish or on top of gel nails smoothly.
• If you mess up, you can wipe it off gently with rubbing alcohol without smudging your polish– this literally makes your nail kinda like a dry erase board!
• Let the metallic paint dry and then add your top coat. I painted my top coats on pretty quickly and had zero problems with smudging or discoloration.
• The pens come in gold and silver.
• Sharpie also makes “paint pens” and these are NOT those, so make sure you get the one above in the photo. The other ones have a rougher pen tip and don’t work the same.

This is going to come in very handy for remaining holiday/new year nails! By the way, this is NOT a sponsored post in case you were wondering. It’s just a really exciting discovery and wanted to share!! xo


http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/12/mani-monday-new-favorite/

Toni's Half Moons

I've been so busy that I forgot to blog... getting ready for the holidays have consumed my time. I actually didn't even change my mani for 5 days! This is what I wore during that long period. It stayed on without chipping which is awesome since I work with my hands.

December Birchbox

First I would like to send my condolences to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings today. It breaks my heart to see stuff like this happen. 

I did receive my December Birchbox today. I figured that I would post this instead of nails today. 

December Ipsy bag

I received my Ipsy Bag today and it is AWESOME!!! I got mostly full size products. I love everything in the bag and it almost makes a complete look. Just Amazing!

#2 Let It Snow Challenge: Inspired by a Movie/Song/Carol

I was trying to figure out what movie or song I wanted to do and then it hit me... A Charlie Brown Christmas. I have a Snoopy stamp and it would be perfect.

Snow Day quickie

Here are my snow day nails. I thought I would share these before dressing them up for one of my challenges.    

Sat-ART-Day Colour Blocking

Another late posting :(  I'm going to get this all figured out. I am in the process of doing a shift change at work so my sleep n stuff is all messed up. Anyways, I haven't really done any color blocking so this is basically my first attempt. I thought it would look cool to do it using some of the color shifting polishes that I have made. I love how it turned out!

I started out with 2 coats of Zoya Raven. I used some nail striping tape and made blocks of different shapes and sizes. I used 4 of the color shifting polishes.

Another angle to show off some of the color shift.

I love the color shift of this! What do you think?

Magically Delicious!

I haven't posted anything in a couple days so here is a quick something. I was playing with my glitters and threw together a polish. I need to be better at writing down recipes for polishes. I can remember some and know I can get pretty close with the ones I have made so far. I just need to get my work space all organized.

Forget You... Happy Birthday To Me!!

It's my birthday and I was going to do cute balloons but I'm not much of a balloon person anymore. I remembered that I had Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday waiting to be used. I thought adding Deborah Lippmann Forget You to the mix would be nice. So here is what I came up with. 

The Stars In Cynthia's Eyes

I was perusing eBay and stumbled upon Lynnderella The Stars In Her Eyes. The minute I saw it, I knew it had to be mine. If there was any chance I could have made it, I wouldn't have paid $23 for it. I can't get a hold of the little stars. They are so cute.

Let It Snow Challenge: Snowflakes

I love winter! I am so excited for this challenge! The first challenge is snowflakes. After doing my nails, I really want it to snow. Unfortunately, we are enjoying flooding. I haven't had to deal with flooded streets because I have been at home sleeping during high tide when it happened. It was crazy to read about because I drove through some of the flooded area 4 hours later with no signs of flooding anywhere. So weird. Anyways, back to my snow flake nails...

Rainbow Mixed Up

The colorful satin glitter polish reminds me of rainbows. The glitter is a mix from Glitter Unique called All Mixed Up! I didn't add anything extra to the mix. I decided to call it something different... Rainbow Mixed Up. I really like it. I will probably make something similar but with a little extra in it... maybe stars. I will have to look through my glitter to come up with something fun.

Such a Flirt

It's been a few days since I posted something. I have not been feeling very well the past few days. I am wearing another polish I made. I named it Such a Flirt. I love the way it turned out. I had a very hard time taking pictures. I ended up using the wrong lighting and then tried to lighten up the pics. I dunno.

Magical Mahogany Kitty

I bought some flocking about a month or so ago to use. I wanted to see what it was like having velvety nails. I gotta say that it is weird! I took these pics about 15 minutes after gently washing my hands. It really does stay on. When it was wet, it kinda looked like mud.

Fall Into Autumn Challenge! 13- Fall Flair (design of your choice)

Here is a bit of Autumn flair! Every time I hear the word flair, Office space comes to mind. Now this has nothing to do with the movie. I tried to do something kind of fancy looking. What do you think?

My November Birchbox

The theme for this month's Birchbox is Give. Makes sense since this month is all about giving... Thanksgiving! I can't wait to eat turkey, yams, green beans, stuffing, etc. Off track... This box was a bit different when I opened it. The tissue paper was replaced with a re-usable gift envelope.

Waves of Lustrous Blue Violet

I was playing with my pigments, glitter, and nail polish base and made a really pretty blue to purple to fuchsia duochrome top coat. I named it Lustrous Blue Violet. The duochrome is very strong and easy to see. 

Fall Into Autumn Challenge! 12 - Harvest/Thanksgiving/Fall Foods

Challenge 12 is Harvest/Thanksgiving and I decided to do a cute turkey. I actually was going to do indian corn. I think doing the turkey was easier since indian corn would have to be fully hand painted. Hand painting scares me a bit.

Flurried Feifei

I decided to pull out Zoya Feifei and finally use it. I meant to use it when I bought it but got distracted and it got put away and forgotten. 

My November Ipsy bag

I gotta say that this is my favorite bag so far. I like everything in it including the nice little brown bag. The bag even has an Ipsy tag in it. 

Movember!

Movember is responsible for the sprouting of mustaches on thousands of men’s faces around the world. These mustache men raise vital awareness and funds for men's health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.

Since it is Men's Health Awareness month, mustaches would be perfect. I already had a cute set of water decal mustaches. I thought about doing an ombre mani with the mustaches but opted for a nude color instead.

My Veterans Day mani

Here is my Veterans Day mani. Being a veteran myself, I wanted to do something related to the Army. What better than camo and chevrons to signify the Army?

I used all Zoya polishes and dotting tools for the camo. Polishes used are: Raven, Envy, Codie, Yara, and Tracie. Tracie was my base color.

I brushed on my chevrons which are on my ring finger. 

Not my best picture but I don't have many in uniform. I'm 19 in this picture. I was very tired and was caught off guard by a friend.

And a thank you to all of the past and present military vets out there!

Confetti Nails by TBD

When I read this post, I thought it was a super cute and easy idea. Just think about the presents that come full of tissue paper. I just scored some red tissue paper in a present from my parents :) I have to say that I just love the colors used here. I would put my own spin on it since I have a few different shaped hole punches. 

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess post sponsored by Beauty.com

Punch out tissue paper circles. Put about 5-7 pieces on top of each other to get a good solid punch.
Paint the base of the nails with any color you want. We used Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Nail Lacquer in Cruising because clearly metallic gold says party.
Use a pen to pick up the pieces of confetti and lay them down on the wet nail polish. Make a couple pieces overlap and/or cut some of the pieces down so you can lay them against the cuticle as seen in the final photo.
Let some of the confetti pieces hang over the edge and trim them down when you’re done laying them all down.
Once all of the pieces are where you want them, go over the whole nail with a good top coat!

http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/11/confetti-nails/

Honk Your Taxi If You Love OPI

So I have been pretty busy the past few days. I wanted to post something today but didn't have a lot of time to fully change up my polish. I was still wearing Pure Ice Taxi from my No H8 Nov. 8th post. I decided to put some striping tape on and paint on a coat of OPI Honk If You Love OPI.

No H8 on Nov. 8

Bullying is not funny.  It is not cool.  It is not right.  And more importantly, it is not okay!

Fall Into Autumn Challenge! 11 - Autumn Dots

Here are my Autumn dots. I just bought 3 Dior polishes from ACW for really cheap because they are the older style bottles. The polishes are really pretty. I used 2 of them for this look.

Green Scapes

I recently made a BUNCH of polishes to sell. This is one of them. Actually this one is mine and I will make others just like it to sell. I really just do this as a hobby. I think it would be cool to make a little bit of money doing it. I love glitter polishes but some people don't. So I would like to know what kinds of polishes do you like? Glitters, shimmers, duochrome, multichrome, etc.

I think I would sell this for about $7. I would sell most of my polishes for that. My minis would be about $4. My polishes that have spectraflair are a few dollars more more. I've made 2 so far that are really pretty.

Fall Into Autumn Challenge! 10 - Favorite sweater

I don't own too many sweaters. I'm more of a cute top and hoodie or jacket kind of girl. I do have a couple sweaters and my favorite is a silver and black striped long sweater. It is not meant to keep you warm though. I love how long it is. Most cute sweaters end up feeling too short for my taste.

Argyled Rose Spectrum

I decided to really start creating polishes to sell in my mom's booth at New 2 You. It is a consignment shop. I figure that since I love creating different polishes, I might as well make money doing it. While creating polishes, I decided to make a few for myself.

Punk Princess

I wasn't really able to do the Halloween dress up thing but I did do a little something. I Chalked my hair using pink, purple, green, blue, and orange chalk. I gotta say, chalk works great! I wore my hair with a small tiara and a big messy, colorful bun. I matched my nails to my hair :)

The Halloween Challenge: Recreate Your Favorite Manicure

SO this is the last day of our challenge. I have to say that doing 2 challenges at a time really made it go by fast. I decided I didn't want to recreate anything I had already done so I browsed through different manis and was looking for something I hadn't done yet. I knew I hadn't done anything with spiders or bats. My mani is inspired by the Vampire Bat mani Emily  from Macabre Manicures posted for Day 6 - Things That Go Bump In The Night.