Christmas Tree nail art

Today I have a fun Christmas look using a non traditional Christmas colour. The base colour is Essie She's Picture Perfect and the adorable glitter is Nubar Hyacinth Sparkle. I made the Christmas tree using a design by Nailside, with just a little difference in lines. It's a really simple tutorial to follow and the results are amazing. I just love the Christmas tree.

Yay the weekend's here, though it does mean Christmas is creeping closer. Have a great weekend, Tx 

butter London - Poole flowers

Today I have a simple but cute nail art. The green is butter London Poole and white is Nubar White tip. Flowers are easily made with a dotting tool and I added Zoya Trixie for a silver pop. It is really easy to do and it looks great!

Original idea seen on Instagram @sparkleandpolish

Have a great Saturday! Tx

Aussie Nails Monday - candy/lollies

My tongue in cheek attempt at Chocolate freckles :) Not sure if they are a worldwide chocolate lolly or just in Australia so I have added a photo just below. They are round buttons of milk chocolate dipped into what we call 100's and 1000's. I used Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme as the base and added real 100's and 1000's onto my nails. I didn't top coat as I'm pretty sure the colours would have run off the balls. It was lots of fun and why not try something different? :)

Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Ten Little Nubs -

Nail Gun XS -

Marie’s Manicure Madhouse 

Shatter Me Claire

A Polished Prance

Shades of Phoenix

The Epitome of Superficiality 

Lacquer Dreams 

NananaisNails

Enamoured With Enamel

Adelle1985

Kelly's Kolors

Polished Peripherals

Every Little Polish

Mel My Issta

Walk In My Eyeshadow

JennLojko

Erinzi’s Nails

Lovessweetas

Jas’ Blingtastic Nails

Mckfresh

Maedaynails

Lili_Bete

The Reluctant Femme

Lacquer and Leather

Messy Mansion

Nailovelogy

adnoronda

It's All About The Polish

Pretty Polish Please

polished_off

jennersx

thepolishedclaw

Julzperrinails

Caylah

Tash

Nails In Oz

Nailed By Jasmine 

lilyandjinks

Eternal Dreamer

Oh My Gosh Polish

staceymeldrum

radjecca

shannen_arrowsmith

Lily Loves Louise

Tracy

Kate

Drama Queen Nails

     

Chevron nails

I decided to have a go at Chevron nails and I'm pleased with how they turned out. I used Opi - Do you Lilac It? as the base, Nubar - Lavender for the tips and Essie - Beyond Cozy for the Chevron.

Beyond Cozy is stunning, it's a mix of gold and silver and looks great on it's own or in any nail art mix. The chevron turned out trickier than I thought as I though the chevron guides I'd purchased would make it a breeze. Unfortunately they didn't stick well and caused bleeding so I ended up using good old scotch tape.

I really like this look and am slowly getting through some of my untrieds. However of course Zoya and Opi have released new gorgeous collections and with a new love of Nubar - I have quite a few parcels on their way to me :).

Thank God it's Friday! - Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

reindeer - Holiday Winter Challenge

The reindeer were a lot of fun to do and while technically I missed the sleigh out I just had to attempt these reindeer. I followed the tutorial by Simply Rins and made a couple of adjustments to suit me better.

The base colour is Milky Ways by Lime Crime - I still love this brand for their rich colours and ease of use. I used e.l.f Innocent for the reindeer heads, e.l.f smoky brown for their antlers, their cheeks are dots of Opi mod about you and Rudolph's nose is Sally Hansen ruby stilettos.

I think they are so very cute and am super grateful Rina did the amazing tutorial for them.

 Then... I thought they were looking lonely so decided to add an attempt at Santa and an Elf. I like how they both turned out but wish I had done the elf's face a different colour as his ears don't stand out as well as I'd hoped.

Santa used - Essie First dance for his hat, one coat of Zoya Grace over Orly white out for his face, Orly white out then Essence sparkling water lily dotted over for his hat trim and painted on his beard to add texture. Elf used - Opi - mod about you for his face, Nubar Reef green for his hat and then I used a red nail art pen for the trim but I am disappointed that that came out more brown looking.

I do love them though and love the super Christmas buzz I get from looking at my nails :)

Have a safe weekend.

Please visit the other wonderful bloggers taking part in this challenge.

Christmas ornaments - winter holiday challenge

This challenge was a lot of fun! I love everything Christmas, but am seriously addicted to baubles :). Not sure why but I love them and don't believe you can ever have too many on your tree. So in choosing ornaments for this challenge I couldn't go past baubles.

I started with a bade of Nubar faded putty with two coats, I then added one coat of Essence - Sparkling water lily. The baubles are done in fuchsia Essie - Bossa Super Nova, blue- Zoya - Robyn and Butter London Scallywag and the purple is Opi - Purple with a purpose. I used a gold nail art pen for the hooks and decoration.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Trees always look better when surrounded with gifts :)

Holiday challenge - Wreaths

I'm in a bit of a nail funk at the moment and am not completely happy with these. I love the colours as they are our Christmas colours, as you can see by our tree below. The whole design though - meh!

I decided to do the wreaths with the dotting tool and lined up some purples and blues with a splash of Orly Tiara (love that polish!). The shimmery blue is OPI See I told you! and it is a gorgeous colour!, the middle finger is Nubar, violet sparkles and the pinkie is Butter London Scallywag. I've added a few Nubar polishes to my collection lately and I really like them, they apply well and last quite awhile.

I stamped using plate mm 01 and use Essie No Place Like Chrome. The metallics collection from Essie work quite well for stamping.

My tree again because I love it :)

Hopefully I can get my mojo back before tomorrow's challenge!

Have a happy Tuesday

Please visit the other bloggers taking part in this challenge!

XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
Iced Laquer
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
Fairytale Charm
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)

Candy cane nails - Day 4 Christmas Challenge

I really love the traditional candy cane manicure. I was going to do different colours again but I couldn't resist the traditional colours. It looks so Christmasy (if that's a word lol).

I used striping tape which is an absolute pain to use but worked to give me the desired look. The most difficult thing about this mani was finding the right top coat to not make the stripes bleed. I had to do a couple of attempts and even with an hours drying time on this one there is still a small amount of bleeding. I'll explain below a few tips I learnt while doing this mani.

For the white base I first used two coats of Nubar faded putty - this is a just off white with a hint of beige.

I then used one coast of Essence to go - Sparkling Water Lily. I used one coat of top coat and gave it half hour to dry. I then used striping tape placed like photo below.

Once I made sure all tape was stuck well and had pressed the sides in with a cuticle stick I added one coat of Sally Hansen Ruby Stilettos.

I first did this look with Essie After Sex and Leading Lady but they bled a lot. With SH ruby stilettos I found wiping my brush dry two times and applying a thin coat worked well, I then waited 1 minute 20 seconds before carefully removing the tape. It helped to pull the tape slowly and carefully not in the whip off manner I have used previously. The end result was worth it and the bleeds you see in the photos are not noticeable in real life, the camera truly does magnify everything!

UPDATE As Robyn noted I forgot to say about top coats. I tried both HK girl and Orly sec'n'dry and both made the polish bleed badly. This may not have been their fault as I could have waited longer, though with Orly it was 30 minutes. I eventually used my fav seche vite, it only bled a small amount, so much so that I didn't know it had until I saw the photos. This was added one hour after the last red nail polish.

Please visit the other bloggers taking part in this challenge!

XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
Iced Laquer
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Fancy Schmancy Nails
Mari522 (on Instagram)
Fairytale Charm
nailzbyroro (on Instagram)