Winter Holiday Challenge: Festival of Lights

Quick post for the third and bright day of the Winter Holiday Challenge: Festival of Lights!

I chose to keep it simple, but colourful. One coat of Date in the Moonlight (Essence) composed the perfect dark night sky. The silver thread connecting all the lights was striped with Bring On The Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I.).

The colourful bulbs were dotted using several different polishes. Red (011), green (067), and orange (028) were Milano, that my grandma bought me in France. Blue was also Essence: Gleam In Blue. Yellow was a no name neon from Salomé on top of Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama). New Lilac (Pure Ice) was imposed chosen by my sister. Also upon her request were Bronze Sculpture (Finger Paints) and Morgan Le Fay (a england). The last touch of sparkly was Na Mira 3D (Impala).

I loved doing this mani. It was probably the quickest I've done in a long time, and it turned out so cute and cheerful! :-)


xoxo

PRIS

Winter Holiday Challenge: Gingerbread and Candy Canes

Onto the second day of Crumpet's Nail Tarts' Winter Holiday Challenge! And it's such a sweet one! But no matter how sweet, it turned into a disaster. Nothing came out as I expected and I ended up with plan F (fail)... :-p

Last night, I started alternating Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) and Velvet Bow (China Glaze) to get that candy cane-y red-and-white striped look. I went to bed, worked the whole day, and spent most of my evening in the kitchen, making different desserts I've been craving. And, while preparing these amazing meringues with candy cane, I accidentally gave myself a (real) chocolate french tip. Had I actually tried to achieve this look, it wouldn't have been as perfect!!


After cleaning up (both the kitchen, and myself), it was time to finalize this sugary mani. Since stamping worked so well for one of the last challenges, I thought it'd be quick and easy. Oh boy, was I wrong... Maybe it was the polish (I used the same as the above), maybe I wasn't getting the technique right, it just didn't happen for me. I used Bunny Nails Holiday edition plates HD08 and HD10. My candy canes didn't come out that neat, and my gingerbread man is missing a leg. Hubby must've eaten it! ;-)

Time to spice it up, 'cause nothing worked as I'd planned! Bring on the BLING! (yeah, I tend to go back to old challenges...). Pinky fingers received a coat of O Canada! (Julep). Middle fingers were topped with Love Always, Candy Cain (Pretty & Polished), fishing for some of the big glitters. Thumbs closed the bling-y portrait with Ring In The Red (China Glaze).

The glitters cheered me up a bit. Not enough to make me like the results, though...

Hopefully I'll be more satisfied with the next ones.

Can't wait to see the sweet concoctions everybody else came up with! :-D

xoxo

PRIS

Three Challenges, Two Manis

Cheating last time wasn't enough. This time I had to combine three challenges! However, it's two completely different manicures... :-p

First up is #PolishDays #BLINGnails edition! The lady running it all forgave my cheating last time, let's see if she'll accept it this time around. Hopefully the many sources of 'bling' will make up for it! (To read a bit more about Polish Days, check my debut!)

Hannah (aka Polly Polish) asked us to "get our bling on!" inspired by her recent engagement (Congrats, btw!). I started to Gleam in Blue (Essence)! But even before even thinking about the sparkle, the first thing that came to mind was my white gold wedding band. Perfect chance to try on Ninja Polish's He Went to Jarred, a 12K white gold flake top coat.


Onto the next blingy source: jewelry! Most of the jewelry I own were gifts from my grandma. There's this white gold heart with a light blue centre that I love (have I mentioned blue is my favourite colour?).  The pendant was drawn in Bring On The Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I.) with a small brush.

Grandma recently gave me a (silver) bracelet full of pendants, among them an Eiffel Tower (Paris is her favourite place in the world). That transported me directly to the night hubby and I were admiring the sparkly tower. I reproduced it in Na Mira 3D (Impala) over Black Expressionism (Finger Paints), using a striper.


Enough bling!

Next up is the "Winter Holiday" Challenge - Snowflakes and Snowfall. It was represented above as a snow fall of white gold, and with the sOPI polish. Could there be a more appropriate name? ;-)

I'll redeem myself with the last up, which is also acceptable for the previous challenge: "Let It Snow!" Challenge - Snowflakes.

Base colour was Fire (Revlon) and I stamped the snowflakes from Bunny Nails Holiday edition plate HD05, using French White Tip (New York Color). It was the first time I was actually happy with a stamping attempt. Guess I'm finally getting the hang of it, although I'm still far from perfect!

Rounding up, I have a blingy mani (that ended up being sentimental as well), featuring a white gold flake snowfall, and a red wintery snowflake mani. How's that for kickstarting the challenges and the holiday season? :-D

Can't way to see the other ladies' manis in all three challenges!


xoxo

PRIS

Check your balls!

I know, I know, not all of us have balls. Even though my mom swears by mine, sometimes. :-p

This post is to end Movember. The men's health awareness month, when moustaches pop up in the least suspecting faces (including my husband's!) and become an interesting competition of who's the thickest, the fullest, with most body, etc.

Even though Movember focuses specifically on prostate cancer and mental health, my focus here is on testicular cancer. 

First, because it's the most common cancer in males between the age of 15 and 34. Volunteering at Planned Parenthood and working at a university, that's the age group I deal with on a daily basis, specially 18 to 25.

Second, because there's a self exam, equivalent to the strongly advertised self breast exam: touch your balls! Look for lumps, firm masses, nodules. Look for a doctor, if you're in doubt!

Third, because if found early, it's almost a 100% curable! This information came from DreamLoveCure, and you can find tons of websites by googling "touch your balls" or "testicular cancer". 

After a full month of an uneven and sparse pair of "Mo's" and beard ("cause if I'm growing something, I'll grow it all!" hubby said), he was finally about to get rid of it. It was time to celebrate!

And I needed my own Mo' for the photo shoot!

Base was Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) and mo's were Black Expressionism (Finger Paints). I used a dotting tool for the branded one, and a brush for my husband's.

So, are your checking your balls? Are your loved ones checking theirs? ;-)

xoxo

PRIS

AnOther Challenge(s) accepted!!

OK, OK, I know what you're thinking! "You could barely finish the other challenge, then disappear for a month, and now you wanna take on another challenge? Maybe even more??"

Well, Yeah! I loved the motivation to play around with techniques and designs. Stuff that otherwise I'd never had the guts, or the patience, to go through with.

Anyway, after taking a look at many of the challenges that are around for the holidays, I decided to 'accept' two of them. Interestingly enough, both are from Facebook groups that ended up joining because of the challenges.

The "Let It Snow!" Challenge, from The Nail Challenge Collaborative,  appealed to me because it's an at-my-own-pace kinda thing, and it goes on once a week throughout the Winter.

While the "Winter Holiday" Challenge, by Crumpet's Nail Tarts, was chosen for the themes and its twice a week posting, which I might be able to keep up with. However, as my anal self only posts on Tuesdays and Fridays, I'll post the Wednesday posts on Tuesday evenings. Which will already be the Wednesday in Australia (and even in the UK!) anyway... ;-)

There will be some cheating and double posting, as the "Winter Holiday" will use up all my posting days. But hopefully I'll make it worth it! :-p

Thanks for joining me for yet another(s) challenge(s)! :-)


xoxo

PRIS

French Dots

It felt like a teal day to me. But not just a teal day. More like a minty teal. Hippie Chic (Colorama) and Miss Minty (Gosh) alternated for the mixed look.


But a few days went by and I got bored. And decided to alternate a bit more by adding the French tip using the same colours.


Then, a couple of days later, I needed dots. Light dots repeating colour, dark dots adding metallic shades: Mermaid to Order (Sephora by O.P.I.) and Ocean (Revlon). That's when I realized how similar they were and Patty got a new polish. :-)

I was pretty happy with the colours and the additions I made throughout the week. Specially with the first successful French tip!!


xoxo

PRIS

Visit to Larinha!

Paulinha is one of my good Brazilian friends here in Canada. We worked together for quite a while, but we haven't seen each other that often lately. Life gets in the way, plus her new role in life takes up all her time!! :-)

Back in June we had Lara's baby shower, Paula's baby girl who was born late August. This mani was inspired by Larinha's room decor for the event. The violet base was Audrey (Impala). The lilac used for the flower, the rattle, and the light dots was It's Hippo to be Square (Sephora by O.P.I.). For the toes, and the darker purple details, the chosen one was Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué).

I made the flower with a small brush, maybe using some king of one-stroke technique? The rattle and dots were done mainly with a dotting tool.

To match it all, the outfit was a purple dress. It was summer after all! ;-)

Even though the baby shower is long gone, the 20th of November was the day I paid them a longer afternoon visit, and it was the first time I held Larinha! I know I looked clumsy, 'cause Paulinha was worried about her little girl's neck. :-p

Thinking of going again soon!

xoxo

PRIS