Bauble Bounty

Another Christmas, another festive nail art. This year, I felt a strong pull towards red which I ordinarily never wear. I've recently enjoyed sporting both OPI The Impossible from the first Mariah Carey collection and OPI The Spy Who Loved Me from the James Bond Skyfall collection, which I purchased as part of The Bondettes Mini Nail Lacquers set. I came across these Christmas nail designs from Amy and was particularly drawn to the Christmas tree. I've attempted my own take on it, of course with ridiculous amounts of bling.

To achieve my look, I first started with a base of OPI The Spy Who Loved Me, a bright, juicy red with subtle gold shimmer. I then stuck two pieces of sticky tape diagonally to either side of the nail to create a triangle shape in the middle. Inside that area outlined by the sticky tape, I painted Sinful Colors Envy (960) to form my tree. After two coats of the dark green polish, I carefully and slowly peeled off the sticky tape to reveal clean, straight edges for the tree. I then painted a small dot at the apex of the tree (right in the middle just below the the tip of my nail) with the spectacular OPI GoldenEye to make my star.

Next comes the labour-intensive, patience-testing part of 'decorating' the tree. Essentially I used two glitter polishes in a clear base, OPI The Living Daylights and OPI Polka.com, and fished out the glitter pieces in each with a toothpick. I then dotted them onto the green section of the nail as evenly as possible to mimic the look of shiny baubles hung from the tree. I probably was a touch overenthusiastic with the glitter and ended up with a higher density of glitter than ideal, in effect obscuring much of the green background of the tree. But whatever, it's Christmas. Excess is all part and parcel of the holiday season.

As if that wasn't enough razzle dazzle, I then painted a layer of the gold flake topper Essie As Gold As It Gets for that extra touch of luxe. To finish, I applied a generous coat of my favourite top coat ever, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, to smooth things over, lock everything in place and impart an ultra-glossy finish.

I normally don't go for anything this elaborate but I figured when else but Christmas. I've received numerous compliments (from girls) and some teasing for evidently having too much time on my hands (from a guy). As I mentioned last year, my family isn't big on Christmas and we've certainly never had a Christmas tree in our home, so I'll have to be content with these ones on my nails. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas with your nearest and dearest!

Wonky Snowmen

Merry Christmas! To mark the occasion, I attempted some festive nail art following this tutorial by Jen from From Head to Toe. It seemed simple enough and I had all the colours she used. I had fun trying to replicate the design and the end result surprisingly wasn't a total disaster. I already was wearing Sinful Colours Cinderella (now available at Priceline for $4.95!) so I left it on rather than taking it off and painting a periwinkle base as Jen did. My nails are short at the moment, so I only had space for two white dots to make up the snowman's body. I used Chi Chi Wednesday for my black dots and hat, Rimmel Tangerine Queen for the nose and Ulta3 Mermaid Green for the scarf. Top coat was OPI Pirouette My Whistle which I thought perfectly emulated snow falling. Instead of a dotting tool, I just used a toothpick.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. My family isn't really huge on Christmas and we don't really adhere to any traditions, but it's always a memorable and special time of the year. There's more goodwill and cheer in the air, a sense of excitement and festivity, gift giving, an abundance of chocolate, and much needed time off (even if it's just two days, as it is for me). Happy holidays!