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

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

"This Is Halloween" - Trick or Treat!

After a spooky and adventurous month of October, the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge comes to an end. I'm proud of taking on this challenge and fulfilling it to (almost) completion! Got lots of praises for the crazy designs! :-)

I would like to thank Bec from Lacquer Dreams for coming up with the prompts and for keeping us all connected throughout the challenge. Well done!!

But wait, 'Trick or Treat!' is not the last day of the challenge! Yeah, I know. As noted before, I'm anal and will only publish on Tuesdays and Fridays. I'm already late enough with this prompt, it makes no sense posting Halloween stuff the second week of November. Plus, there's no better way of ending this challenge than with lots of sweets! ;-)

OK, enough babbling and onto the treats!

What a better way to start than with a blank canvas? Two coats of Pétala Branca (Colorama) prepped all my nails to the sugary work ahead! When I first started thinking about this challenge, two things came to mind: Candy Corn and Jawbreaker. But I didn't wanna do just that. I wanted to represent different Halloween candies, or even candies in general.

What do we give out when trick or treaters knock on our door? M&M's!! A dotting tool placed Orange (028 - Milano), Red (Sample Sale - Sephora by O.P.I.), Brown (Café - Colorama), Green (High Line Green - New York Color), Yellow (Lexington Yellow - NYC), and Blue (Water Street Blue - NYC) chocolate coated candies on my nail, and Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) branded them with their famous m! :-)

Taking it a step further, my all-time favourite M&M's are the Premium Mint Thrills. But they are quite hard to find, so I make do with the regular Mint ones, which are a bit easier to get my hands on, although they seem to be a limited edition. High Line Green (NYC) was once again used for the darker green, then mixed with Mint Dream (Pure Ice) for the lighter shade of green. Miss Minty (Gosh) mixed with Mint Dream (Pure Ice) achieved the minty candy coating.

One of Patty's favourite candies are Skittles, which used the same Orange, Red, Green, and Yellow polishes, plus a mix of Açaí and Eterno (both from Colorama) for the Purple candy. These were also branded with Snow Me White (Sinful Colors).






Another favourite candy of ours (both little sis', my mom's, and mine) is gum drops! For the white candy, I used Geada (Colorama) and mixed this polish with all other colours before dotting them to the nails. Purple candies were I Don't Bite (Sephora by O.P.I.) and the same Orange, Red, Yellow, and Green polishes were used. A coat of Morgan Le Fay (a england) was used over all gumdrops, giving that shimmery and sugary look.

Two coats of Jawbreaker (Pretty & Polished) conferred the perfect jawbreaker look on the thumb.

Sponging the Candy Corn was a nightmare!! I got the technique right on Patty, but after 4 failed attempts, I gave up and just free-handed a striped candy-corn-inspired nail. Polishes were the same Yellow and Orange as used before, and same White as the base colour.

As noted by the Mint M&M's, I LOVE anything minty! Therefore, my candy manicure couldn't miss starlight mints! I drew both red stripped and green stripped mints, using the same Red as before, and the same mixture of Green and Mint, with a higher percentage of mint this time around. Striped were made with a striping brush.

The Gummy Bear was inspired by those giant colourful ones, rather than the small one-coloured candies. I followed I Have a Cupcake's tutorial, using the same Orange, Red, Green, and Yellow polishes as before. We didn't have Gummy Bears growing up, so both my sister and I are making up for the lost time as adults! ;-)





Hubby couldn't be left out of this, could he? Although he's not a candy fan, one of his favourite candy bars are (frozen) Twix. He did ask me to draw a bitten Twix, showing the layers of chocolate, cookie, and caramel, but I didn't have a cookie or a caramel colour (see? I need more polish!! :-p). I recently received my old version of Holy Grail (a england) and the candy bar wrapping was the perfect opportunity to wear it! The chocolate itself was a bottom layer of Café (Colorama) as used before for the M&M's, topped by a layer of Cop an Attitude (Finger Paints), a magnetic polish. The magnet gave the wavy effect of the top of the candy bar. I was happy with the results!

This was probably the challenge I had the most fun with. Not only when doing the nails, but when taking the pictures, and eating the props!!

Thanks for joining me in this adventure! There might be another one soon, you never know! ;-)


xoxo

PRIS




PS: I know this is incredibly late, but I'm backdating the post to follow the original date it should've been posted. Remember, I'm anal! :-p

"This Is Halloween" - Graveyard

We're geting close to the end of the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

As I post twice a week (on Tuesdays and Fridays), my Monday entries have gone live on Tuesdays throughout this Challenge. This means that today's post should've been "Trick or Treat!" (which I'll publish on Friday), but I'm still on yesterday's prompt "Graveyard". (Yeah, I'm anal like that... :-p)

This theme has a bit of sentimental value (polish days?), even though some people may find it weird. Little sis likes cemeteries. Patty likes strolling along the tombstones, reading the inscriptions, admiring the crypts. During family vacations, we've joined her in this sightseeing more than once. It's definitely interesting!

OK, I know there's a difference between cemeteries and graveyards. But Patty likes them both the same, so I couldn't do tombstones on my nails without thinking of her! ;-)

Base colour is two coats of Date in the Moonlight (Essence). It could be a one coater, but I preferred dealing with thinner coats and doing it twice. This polish dries SO quickly!! There's a nice blue shimmer to it, but hubby couldn't see it at all and kept saying it was just a dark grey... 

We didn't do a good job in capturing that shimmer, but I found a great picture by Lola in the Nail Polish Forum, and an awesome post by Les Ongles de Chamallow.

The tombstones were Carbonite (Revlon), which is a great one-coater, and black details were with my go-to black, Black Expressionism (Finger Paints). The sparkly round silver moon was Bring on the Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I), and the grass growing over the tombstones was High Line Green (New York Colors). 

The grass-like look was achieved mixing two different shades of green flocking powder I bought in a 4-pack at Michaels. I'd already attempted plush nails before, and failed miserably, but I thought that trying it small could work better. And it did!! :-D

The sparkly glittery addition was Glitter Goblin (China Glaze). I loved the colours on this one, such a Halloweenie combination!!

Have you seen the spooky graveyards the other ladies in the challenge came up with?

xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Witches

Onto the 8th day of the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

I had this idea in mind, but it didn't turn out quite as I expected. Stickers made their appearance to reinforce the "Witches" theme...



Red polish is Sample Sale (Sephora by O.P.I.) the 'black widow' is Viúva Negra (Risqué). Striping tape helped with the straight lines. Lots of top coat to make it smooth, as Viúva Negra is kinda gritty...


Guess I wasn't that inspired for this one. Hopefully next post will be more interesting!


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Gradient

Here I am, cheating once again... :p

For the 'Gradient' edition of Bec's "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge, I'm showing a mani I made on Patty, my 'little' sister. She has really beautiful nails, by the way!

It all began when she posted an ombré nails tutorial on my facebook wall, saying I should make one of those. I'd already tried it before (twice!), and wasn't successful. But I said she could be my guinea pig this time around!



She asked for a blue gradient, but with the challenge in mind I said it had to be Halloween-ie colours. I wanted black and orange, but all she'd let me do was a purple-ish nail art. Coming from a person who doesn't like flashy, different, it was good enough!

I used the sponging technique, without any base colour, just the base coat. The lightest lilac, which barely shows on most nails, was a Milano with no name, only a number (007). Another of the Italian polishes my grandma sent me from Paris... The darker lilac was Audrey (Impala), followed by a grey-ish violet, Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué), and completed by a dark starry night Chão de Estrelas (Risqué).

When Patty accepted the purple gradient, she had an agenda! As an exchange student at Bishop's University, she was showing some school pride by wearing a purple mani! :-)

Purple and school pride have really made her dive deep into the bright and colourful world of nail polish. I'm dragging her to the dark side!! ;-)


As I'm posting a day late, I've already seen some of the other ladies' designs. Amazing!! :-)


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Bats

The theme now is Bats, for the "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

I didn't really think I could pull that off, so when I saw Halloween nail stickers at Dollarama, I picked up the package with the most little bats.

Then, ashamed of taking the easy way out, I started looking for tutorials online, and came across two good ones on youtube: Cute Bats from Dying 4 Chocolate and Spooky Bat Nails from Cute Polish.

Because it's Halloween, and I had just bought a new orange shade (and somewhat inspired by Cute Polish's design), the base colour was Gorgeous Bling Bling (Essence). One coat might've done it, but I ended up using two. For the bats, my usual suspects: Black Expressionism (Finger Paints) and Snow Me White (Sinful Colors). No nail art pen this time around, just dotting tools of mani different sizes.

I loved the cute little bats!! And I thought they were fairly easy to make, specially the Dying 4 Chocolate ones.

Are there gonna be more bats or batmans for this challenge? ;-)


xoxo

PRIS