Christmas 2015: Holographic Snowflakes and Candy Cane Swirls + Tutorial

Hey stamp champs,

As ever every year I don't get to do nearly enough Christmas nail art.  I wanted to do so much more this season and look its already the 22th! Gah!  This might be the most productive I've been over the christmas season.  Lots of tutorials - I've shot more than I've released so hopefully I'll be able to get a few more up before the holiday season ends.  However today I'm doing another MoYou London nail art using their Festive plates this time.  Honestly Festive 03 gets a heavy workout from me every season - namely because the patterns on this plate are so freaking classic!  That swirl for the candy cane gets me every time however todays mani is definitely not the classic mint twist you might be expecting.  Please definitely tell me what you think in this alternative take in the comments below!

Sweaters, Swirls and Snoopy Winter Nail Art

Hey lacqueritas,

I/m keeping it chill and cool today.  Lol actually I'm keeping it cool and chill for the rest of the year not that there's much of it left.  Anyway I've been wearing these nails for a couple of days now.  A kind of pink on pink swirling winter nail art.  I wouldn't necessarily classify it as Christmas per say just cozy.  Anyhoo here's what I came up with...

MoYou London 31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 11 Cupcakes

Hey lacquer ladies,

I love a good cupcake!  One might in fact say I'm a cupcake snob after all to score major points iwth me the cake has to be as good as the frosting and vice versa.  This is tougher than it seems for a lot of cupcake makers, and over time I have ultimately realized that French style cupcakes are my favorite.  Ahem in any case with so much interest in cupcakes clearly I was excited and hungry lol for Day 11 and its theme of Cupcakes.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: CND Stickey / Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Topcoat

Gradient: Sinful Colors Baby Blue and Wet N' Wild Teal Slowly and See

Topper: CND Effects Gold Sparkle

Stamping Polish:  Konad Special Polish in Purple and Color Club Eternal Beauty

Stamping plates; MoYou London Pro 01 & 07, Princess 08, and Festive 03

When I poured through my plates for this challenge I realized that I had a LOT of images with cupcakes so for me it wasn't even about finding a plate that had one or two it was about pulling together the cupcakes in a way that added definitive whimsy and sweetness that I think is the appeal of the cupcake anyway.  I decided to also stick with pastels for this one because in my mind cupcakes always seem to head in that direction - doily's, pastels, and little squealing girls.  Lol..seriously you know what I mean.  Recently I've realized that I'm starting to pile up a lot of technique again in my mani's. For instance this mani features gradients, double stamping, and decal method.  I think I will scale back for some of the more difficult challenges i.e. ones that I have trouble creating the concept to make my life easier ;)



What do you think? This was another mani that I was ultimately very happy with.  Even though I didn't plan it it felt like all the elements that remind me of cupcakes came together perfectly in this mani.  So this is day 11 I'm about halfway through the challenge now with real time being day 15. It's definitely feeling a bit more natural, but still draining.  I think the worst part is that I'm getting a bit of burnout.  I wasn't very happy with that TV challenge and in between I decided to do something entirely unrelated to MoYou and it really made all the difference! You'll be seeing that soon.  In any case thanks for reading and see you next post...

MoYou London Candy Cane Nail Art

Happy holidays lacquer ladies,

It's getting to be a bit of tradition that I break out candy cane nail art.  Last year I did it with watermarbles, but this year I have lots of cool plates featuring candy cane-eque imagery that I wanted to try.  If you follow me on instagram you know I just got the other half of my MoYou London stamping plate order from way back in October and it has the Festive Collection plates that I adore.  There are literally candy canes everywhere so I could resist taking some of my holiday plates for a late spin.

Mani-louge

Base coat/Top coat: CND Stickey & Poshe Fast Drying Top coat

Basecolor: Wet N' While A Blank Canvas

Stamping polishes: Konad Special Polish in Red and Personal Accents Hunter

Stamping plate: MoYou London Festive 03

One this I have always loved are the candy canes with the multiple stripes of color that's what I modeled my watermarble last year, but this time I just wanted to stick with traditional swirls and stripes mimicking the classic candy canes that abound around this season!

So thoughts? This mani is pretty easy and straight forward taking me roughly 15 minutes to polish and complete, and because it is so simple I got a lot of compliments on this one.  Winning when you are rushing around during the holiday season!  You can check out the festive plates here.  In all honesty they are worth getting even if you are preparing for next year so you won't be like me rushing to fit in all of the mani's I want to see on my nails before Christmas is gone or until July when I have some fun plans.  In any case thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next post!