SMYTC Challenge Day 12: The Night before Christmas

SMYTC Challenge Day 12: The Night before Christmas

This is the last day of the Show Me Your Top Coats-challenge. It’s been fun, and it’s almost sad to see the end of it.

Before I say goodbye to the challenge for good, there's one last mani. The Night before Christmas.

I thought that if it’s true what Bing Crosby sang, like, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas – just like the ones I used to know”, then this is pretty much what you want the night before Christmas to look like:

Night sky with snowflakes and tiny little stars on it. So pretty.

Here’s how I achieved the look:

First I applied one coat of Isadora’s “Night Flight”. I’ve used that before, so if you want to see more of this, it’s right here.

Then I sponged Catrice’s “Pool Party at Night” on the tips. I used an eyeshadow applicator for this step:

Time for some sparkles. I used H&M’s “Snow White”, which is officially my favourite white! I used the same applicator to sponge with as I did before.

Now it’s time to put all this together. I applied one layer of Catrice’s topper “Return of the Space Cowboys”, which is  a beautiful duochromatic shimmer.

Last thing up is the snowflakes. I used OPI’s “Pirouette my Whistle”, which is the OPI I’ve used the most times by far. Amazing white glitter, and perfect for this purpose!

One layer of NYC Fast drying top coat completed my mani:

Here’s a shot from another angle:

The bottle shot: 

I have to say that I’m glad to finish this challenge with such a pretty mani! I’m very satisfied with it myself. What do you think? Is it a win? :)

Please check out what the rest of the girls made, I am sure they made some really pretty Nights before Christmasses to finish this challenge with. Thanks for now, and see you over there!

  

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SMYTC Challenge Day 11: Santa

SMYTC Challenge Day 11: Santa

I knew I wanted my Santa to be a special one, it just took me a little while to figure out how I wanted him to be different.

I used this image as inspiration:

I started out with two coats of Miss Sporty #131, which is a shimmery dark green. I got it in a grab bag, and I was glad to receive it. It looks new (but I don’t think it is). The polish is thick and gloopy and really difficult to work with. I’m going to have to try and thin it a little, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll only use it for nail art in future!

Here’s how it looks anyway:

I want my Santa glittery. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you one bit! I used one coat of Color Club’s “Object of Envy”, which is from the Glitter Vixen collection from autumn 2008. It’s a really beautiful green, which I guess would take 3 or 4 coats to be opaque on its own.

Here’s that step:

I used my dotting tool to make my Santa. I dotted the black belt with Essence’s “Black is back”, and made the yellow dots on it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Lightening”. The last step was to make the white border, which I dotted on with Models Own “Snow White”.

I also just dotted the star onto my nail.

One layer of Seche Vite top coat completed my mani:

Here are the polishes I used:

I like my little Santas. Do you?

Please check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made some really cool santas. See you over there!  

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SMYTC Challenge Day 10: Gifts

SMYTC Challenge Day 10: Gifts

I love gifts! I love buying them for others, and I most certainly love to receive them!

So here’s my simple take on a gift mani:

I started out with two coats of Color Club’s “Magic Attraction”. It’s from the Glitter Vixen collection from autumn 2008. It’s chunky holographic glitter, and this, sweet girls and guys, is not a topper. It’s almost opaque after the first coat, and two coats make it perfect!

Here’s what Magic Attraction looks like without top coat:

I thought about drawing bows on my nails, making each of them looking like a Christmas present. But I don’t believe that much in my freehand skills, or lack thereof… So I took the easier way around and stamped my presents on. I had two different present designs on my XL stamping plate K with holiday designs on it.

I used two different Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes for the stamping: Rapid Red and Jumpin’ Jade.

Here’s what that ended up looking like:

I would have double stamping on the nails, but I do apparently have rather small nails, so I figured that there wouldn’t be space enough there for more than one stamp :D

I love my Insta-Dri polishes. I don’t use them much as actual polishes, but they are perfect for stamping! I got most of them in blog sales, since Danish shops discontinued these years ago, for some reason I don’t know and definitely don’t understand either.

  

Here are the polishes:

The top coat is Seche Vite, by the way!

Please check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made some really fancy gifts. See you over there!  

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SMYTC Challenge Day 9: Holly

SMYTC Challenge Day 9: Holly

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la!

I like holly; I think it’s really pretty. Red and green together in perfect harmony.

I went for the green first. I used Sinful Color’s “Kissy”, which is dark green, and very shimmery. The formula is no less than perfect, and I was satisfied with the opaqueness after two coats. And girl, does this baby shine!

Here’s a pic of what two coats, and no top coat look like:

Look at all the shiny glass flecks, they’re so pretty. It’s almost a shame to not leave them alone. I said almost!

For my berries I used a glitter from Amour called “Good Luck”. It’s a clear base with red glitters, and a sparse number of holographic glitters, along with red microglitter and red microbars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen microbars before, but here you have it.

I dotted three berries on each nail, and waited for a long while before adding a generous coat of Seche Vite topcoat. It was quite difficult to make the glitter look like berries, but I ended up being pleased with my work:

These two polishes go really well together in my opinion.

So let’s deck the halls with boughs of holly!

Please check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made something really pretty! See you over there!  

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SMYTC Challenge Day 8: Inspired by a Holiday Movie

SMYTC Challenge Day 8: Inspired by a Holiday Movie

It took me a while to figure out how to manage this challenge. I don’t know that many holiday movies, to be honest. And those I know were too difficult to transfer onto the nails; at least to me. But once I got the movie right, it was actually pretty easy to come up with a cool mani.

I chose “The Nightmare before Christmas”, and I let this picture inspire me:

 

I started out by painting two nails black and three nails red. I used two coats of Sinful Colors’ “Sugar Sugar” and two coats of Essence “Black is Back”. I figured that red and black would be a great base for something creative.

I made white stripes on the black ring finger nail. I used my Claire’s two way nail art pen for it. The ring finger represents Jack Skellington’s stripy jacket.

Then I dabbed some purple onto the red. I used Nubar’s “Pasadena Purple” and an eye make up applicator. I dabbed a bit randomly here and there.

Here’s that step:

Then I took out my stamping gear. I used my XL stamping plate “K – Holiday Designs”, that has both a stamp with Jack and also with the ice flowers, that I wanted to add. I used a white no name stamping polish for all the designs.

I stamped Jack on my middle finger, and ice flowers on the rest of my nails. I used two different ice flower designs from the same plate.

When I had stamped, I sealed it up with a generous layer of Poshé top coat, and I was done:

A minute after I applied my top coat, the ice flowers turned pink. It’s so odd when it happens, and usually it annoys me; but not today. I actually think it’s some pretty sweet ice flowers! :)

Here are the polishes I used:

Have you seen The Nightmare before Christmas? If yes, did you like it? I think it was a pretty cool movie, and I hope you like the way I tried to convert all that coolness onto my nails :D

You should also check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made something really cute! 

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SMYTC Challenge Day 7: Snowman

SMYTC Challenge Day 7: Snowman

This year’s winter seems to be a snowy one here in Denmark. It’s possibly nice and pretty if you live in the countryside, but I don’t. I live in the middle of a big city, and the pretty white quickly transforms into a mushy brown slush. I don’t like that much. I do however, like snowmen. I think they’re adorable.

My base colour is Nubar’s “Indigo Illusion”. It’s a multichrome, shifting between at least green, purple, blue and golden. I don’t see any indigo though, perhaps that explains the illusion part of the name.

The formula is perfect, like with all my other Nubars. It covered in one easy coat. I gave it two anyway, but it didn’t make that much of a difference, so one would have been enough. Drying time is great. I don’t have anything bad to say about this polish!

Here’s what two coats look like, without top coat:

Here’s a pic from another angle, where you can see the amazing colour shift.

Then I sponged on a bit of snow. I used Icing’s “Call me Glitzy”, which is an iridescent glitter. The formula is really thick – I don’t think I could have made it drip if I wanted to. But it didn’t matter today, because I sponged it on anyway.

It showed itself from its blue side, possibly because of the tone in Indigo Illusion. But it’s OK – I quite like the result! There’s still no top coat involved, btw.

Then I made the snowman. I used H&M’s “Snow White” and a big dotting tool, and then I dotted three snowballs on top of each other. When that was dry, I used the smallest dotting tool I’ve got and Essence’s “Black is Back” and dotted on the eyes, the mouth, the buttons and the little arms.

I topped it all with a layer of Poshé top coat, and my snowman mani was done:

And from a slightly different angle to show the colour shift again:

The bottle shot: 

That’s it! I don’t know if I’ll be making a snowman this year. Will you?

 

You should also check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made something really cute! 

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SMYTC Challenge Day 6: Christmas Tree

SMYTC Challenge Day 6: Christmas Tree

I love Christmas trees. They’re so pretty, and they smell so good. Mmmm!!

I started out with two coats of Dare to Wear’s High Heel Heaven, which is a silver shimmer. It applies very easily and it covers perfectly in those two coats. Drying time is on the fast side. This polish wears fantastically, and the only downside I can come up with is that it’s a complete PITA to remove.

Two coats, no top coat:

It’s amazingly shimmery!

I taped my nails with masking tape, and painted the triangle green. I used Zoya’s “Logan” from their Ornate Collection, from Christmas 2012. It’s a dark forest green packed with golden shimmer. Perfect for Christmas, really! I just applied one coat for my little Christmas trees.

Then I dotted the stars in the top of the trees on. I used Essence’s “A Piece of Forever” from their Breaking Dawn II collection from this winter.

And finally I dotted on my little ornaments. I used Zoya’s “Aurora”, also from their Ornate Collection. It’s a red/purple jelly with lots of holographic microglitters. I can’t wait to wear Aurora on its own!

After sealing it all up with a layer of Poshé top coat, I was done.

The mandatory bottle shot: 

 I must admit that I’m quite pleased with my little Christmas trees. It’s nice to make something that goes as planned without having to stamp to make it look like something people would recognize :D

So – what’s the verdict, please?

You should also check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made something really cute! 

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SMYTC Challenge Day 5: Reindeer

SMYTC Challenge Day 5: Reindeer

Okay, I’ve seen quite a lot of cute reindeer nails recently, but I’m not sure my freehand skills are good enough to master any of them, so I decided to take a different road.

I started out with a polish I got in a swap with sweet Anastasia from Little World of Coloured Nails. It’s Pupa #136, a lovely deep burgundy with shimmer. It turned out to be a one coater! The formula is fantastic, the polish was almost self-applying. I need to write more Pupa polishes on my wish list!

Here is what one coat of Pupa #136 looks like, without top coat:

It leans more towards purple on the nails, which is an amusing colour shift. It’s very pretty, so I don’t mind that it doesn’t turn out to be the same colour as it looks like in the bottle.

First I did some layering, using some of my untrieds. On my pinkie I applied a layer of Nubar’s White Polka Dot. I’ve used that before, but it was a long time ago. On my middle finger I applied one coat of Eva Fashion Colour, it’s either called Mosaic or #061; I’m not quite sure. It’s a lovely blue/purple duochrome, and I also got that from the swap with Anastasia. On my index finger I applied one coat of Sephora’s flakie “Purple Jewelry”.

I decided to stamp on a reindeer on my ring finger. I used XL stamping plate H and a white no name stamping polish.

I sealed it all up with a layer of top coat:

The stars on my middle finger are from the same XL stamping plate: 

So there’s my reindeer. Perhaps I feel skilful enough to draw one of my own next year :D

Here’s the mandatory bottle shot:

 

You should also check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made something really cute! 

 

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