Neutral Snowflake Nail Art with Zoya Kennedy

I told you I was going to have some nail art with these snowflake stamping plates coming up! I wore this design for a long time and absolutely loved it. I like to mix in up in the winter and wear neutrals to balance out all the dark shades I wear and Zoya Kennedy is my all time favorite neutral.

I started with two easy coats of Kennedy and used China Glaze I'd Melt for You and Konad Special White polish to stamp snowflakes from Born Pretty plates QA57 and QA58. I did large snowflakes on my thumb and ring nails and topped them off with a silver rhinestone. Definitely give this look a try if you're looking for a work-appropriate winter mani!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 12: Wishing You a Wild Christmas with Leopard Print Nail Art!

Yeah, I went there! I love hand drawn leopard print, so I figured why not give it a festive touch?? You know you love it! By the way, Merry Christmas everyone! Let's get to the nails, shall we?

I started out with a base of Zoya Taylor instead of my go-to OPI My Vampire Is Buff because I wanted a slightly deeper tan. I used China Glaze Jolly Holly and Cranberry Splash (shocker!!) to dot the random leopard spots on each nail and then outlined them with plain black polish. I'm so in love with this look! I haven't done leopard print in ages and it's just so cute with the red and green.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, and wild Christmas! :-*

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 11: Glittery Reindeer Nail Art

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you have all of your affairs in order and are all having a wonderful day. I'm working until 1 o'clock and then heading over to our annual family Christmas Eve party later tonight and I can't wait! This is my absolute favorite time of the year. Anyway, these nails were inspired by my obsession with glittery reindeer this season. I know it's weird, but I can't help it! I'm hoping to pick up a couple on sale after Christmas. ;)

I used Zoya Godiva on my pointer and ring nails and plain black on my pinky and middle nails. I wish Godiva had photographed the way it looks in real life; it's so sparkly but it doesn't translate at all in the photos! I used Godiva to paint my little reindeer as well and finished him off with a China Glaze Just BeClaws nose. I also did some Just BeClaws dots on the rest of my nails to tie the look together.

See you tomorrow for the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas nail art series!!

China Glaze Twinkle Collection Swatches & Review

Good morning! I have an absolutely lovely winter collection to share with you today, the Twinkle collection from China Glaze. Winter collections are often hit or miss for me and I'm glad to report that this one is a hit!

I'd Melt for You is a beautiful silver chrome. Be careful with brush strokes on this one, but two coats covers well if you're careful. This is also great for stamping!

Tip Your Hat is a bright festive red. I'm wearing two coats.

Chillin' With My Snow-mies has different sizes of white hexagon glitter in a clear base. Too much base, not enough glitter. I love how this looks but I had to pretty much dig out each of these glitters and place it on the nails. I'm wearing it over Tip Your Hat.

A December to Remember is a turquoise-leaning blue metallic with pink micro glitter. This is two coats.

Define Good... is a rich red shimmer with a hint of pink. I know I normally hate reds, but I do love this type. It just glows! This is two coats.

Dancing & Prancing is a beautiful confetti glitter. I'm wearing one coat over Define Good... and I love this combination.

Out Like a Light is a muted deep teal. I absolutely love this shade! This is two coats and the formula was great.

De-Light is a golden glitter topper with silver bar glitter. This is two coat over Out Like a Light.

Feeling Twinkly is an icy blue glitter topper. I'm wearing two coats with no base; this would probably cover pretty well in three or four coats.

Meet Me Under the Stars is so stunning! This is a super dark blackish blue with tons of glitter. I'm wearing two coats.

Pine-ing for Glitter is a glitter topper in a unique green shade. This is two coats over no base.

No Peeking! is a silvery purple almost metallic shade. I had a little bit of an issue with brush strokes here, so be careful. This is two coats.

There's a lot of winners in this group, but I have to say my favorites are Meet Me Under the Stars and Define Good... How about you? Are any of these shades on your wish list? You can get yourself this collection anywhere that China Glaze is sold.

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 10: Winter Berries Nail Art

It's the week of Christmas! Yay!! Today I have some simple nail art inspired by the bright red berries that grow around here in the winter. They are such a vivid pop of color against a bland winter landscape and I thought they would be perfect for nail art.

I started with two coats of China Glaze Don't Honk Your Thorn for my base and used Zoya Louise to paint the branches across each nail. I dotted the berries on using China Glaze With Love and topped it all off with top coat! Easy!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 9: Festive Negative Space Nail Art

I've seen this "negative space" nail art popping up a lot recently and thought I would give it a try with a holiday twist. I wasn't sure how I felt about them before I tried one, but it turns out that I really love them! I might even wind up wearing this as my actual Christmas manicure.

To create this design, I applied one coat of KBShimmer Basic Training base coat and let it dry completely. Once that was done, I used KBShimmer straight nail vinyls to block off the parts where I wanted my natural nail to show through and painted Zoya Ziv near the cuticles, China Glaze Jolly Holly in the center, and China Glaze Cranberry Splash near the tips (can you tell that those are my absolute favorite holiday polish shades?).

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 8: Silver Sideways Snowflake French

Good morning! We're going a little less festive and a little more wintery for today's nail design. I love the snowflake stamping plate that I got from Born Pretty Store so much that I've been using it all the time! You'll definitely be seeing more nail art with it after the Twelve Days of Christmas series is over.

I started out with two coats of OPI Don't Burst My Bubble (my favorite sheer pink ever). I used hole reinforcers to block off part of my nail and painted China Glaze I'd Melt for You to create the sideways french shape. I stamped the snowflakes using Born Pretty plates QA57 and QA58 and Konad special white stamping and finished the look off with silver rhinestones in the center of each snowflake.

I can't believe in a week it will be Christmas Eve! I can't wait!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 7: Festive Dotted Nail Art

Good morning and happy Monday everyone! Today's design is a super easy but seriously pretty dotted manicure. I love this one because they remind me of festive ornaments!

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff (my favorite neutral, in case you didn't notice!). I used China Glaze Cranberry Splash, Jolly Holly, and Zoya Ziv to create the dots. I did the large size first and then filled in the space with the smaller dots.

Make sure you tag me if you recreate these! I love seeing your work!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 6: Christmas Star Nail Art

You guys know I love obnoxiously festive Christmas nail art, but I also really love low-key designs too! This star design is one of my favorites because it's so pretty and holiday-esque, but totally wearable for every day.

I used two coats of Zoya Jacqueline as my base and then used Zoya Ziv to paint the star shapes on each nail. I also used Ziv to create some dots to fill in the spaces on the nails too. I finished the look with a couple of rhinestones and top coat!

Are all your presents bought? I'm waiting on a couple more things but have every thing else wrapped so far! :)

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 5: Snowy Forest Nail Art

Good morning! I'm so happy with these nails and I'm dying to share them with you! Last week, I came across a repost of Nails By Jema's wintery forest nails on Instagram and I knew I had to try to recreate them.

I started with two coats of Rescue Beauty Lounge Bella for my base and then "watermarbled" with KBShimmer White Here, White Now (this technique was borrowed from MadamLuck). You just let a little drop of polish fall into the water and spread and stick your nail in and it creates a lovely snowy look! Once that was done, I used Zoya Evvie and SquareHue Na Prikope to create the pine trees and some plain white polish for the snow on the trees.

They're so pretty and wintery without being obnoxiously festive. But you could add some garland and ornaments to the trees if you were feeling obnoxiously festive! What do you think?

The Nail Network Decks the Halls: A Look at My DIY Christmas Decorations

Most of you know that Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday and that I get really into decorating for it (sometimes in the middle of November...). Last year, I got really crafty and made a couple fun decorations for my house and this year, I continued the streak. I love crafting and it's so nice to save a few bucks by making something yourself instead of buying it in a store. Plus, you get to brag that you made it when people ask you about it! ;) Today I'm going to give you a quick little tour of my Christmas decorations and give a couple short little tutorials about a few of my favorite crafts.

Nail Polish Ornaments
Of course you've already seen the nail polish ornaments that I made last year! The tutorial on that is here if you missed it. These are so simple and inexpensive but turn out stunning. I've been putting polishes aside throughout the year that I think will look great as ornaments and I can't wait to start making some again now that I've dug my leftover clear ornaments out of storage!

Mason Jar Snow Globes
I also made a whole bunch of these adorable mason jar snow globes last year. I have three or four of them in my house, plus I made a bunch for gifts too and they were a hit! You need spray paint, candlesticks, mason jars with lids, snow-like glitter, E-6000 craft glue, and little trees. I bought a package of the trees from Amazon for a pretty good price. To get started, glue the lid of the jar to the candlestick using the E-6000 glue (if you use hot glue on glass candlesticks, it'll just peel off). Let it dry for a few minutes and then take it outside and spray paint the whole thing white (or any other color you want). Once the spray paint is completely dry, you can bring the bases in and glue the trees to the inside of the lid. To finish it up, fill the mason jar with glitter (I went about 1/4 full for mine), screw the lid on to the jar, and then flip it over to see the finished product!

Ornament Wreath 
This ornament wreath is a new addition to our house for this Christmas season. I've seen these in stores but they are always so expensive, so I've been hunting in thrift stores and dollar stores for cheap ornaments to make my own. You need a ton of ornaments and a wreath base to make this, plus hot glue to hold it together obviously. Take all the tops off of the ornaments and glue them around the inside and outside of the wreath base with the open top all facing up. Then, flip the base around and start filling in the spaces! This works best if you have a bunch of different sized ornaments to fill in all the little holes and leave as little of the base showing as possible.

Salt Dough Ornaments
I also attempted to make salt dough because I wanted to make dog paw ornaments for my pups and I wound up having a lot of fun experimenting with different things to make the ornaments. I made the paw print ones and one with the print of the key from our house, but my favorites were like the one pictured below. To make them, I rolled the dough out, pressed a piece of a pine branch into it and then used the cookie cutter to cut out the tree shape. I also tried some with rubber stamps that turned out really great! The salt dough is super to easy to make too; all you need is one cup of salt, one cup of water, and two cups of flour. The recipe makes a lot of dough, so I ended up using the ornaments as gift tags for all my gifts too!

 

 Did you DIY anything fun for the holidays this year? 

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 4: Fair Isle Snowflake Pattern Nail Art

Every year since I can remember, my mom has either made or bought special Christmas pajamas that my siblings and I got to open on Christmas Eve. When I moved out, Joe and I decided to keep the tradition and he got me these awesome gray and white fair isle fleece pajama bottoms from Old Navy last year. I was thrilled to find a matching pattern on one of my new stamping plates!

I started with a base of two coats of Zoya Carey and then stamped over that using one of the patterns from stamping plate QA57 and Konad special white polish. I can't even tell you how many times I had to re-stamp these because I couldn't get them straight! It was so frustrating but they turned out okay in the end.

Do you do the Christmas Eve pajama tradition with your family? I love it!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 3: Red & Green Snowflake Gradient Nail Art

Hello hello and happy Friday! I'm so excited that it's almost the weekend! I've got a lot of relaxing and crocheting to do the next few days. ;) Anyway, for today's nail art I decided I wanted to try some stamped snowflakes over a gradient. I debated a bit on the colors for the gradient but ultimately went with red and green to keep it festive instead of just wintery. I'll probably do some winter gradient snowflakes at some point, so don't fret.

I used Zoya Evvie, Hunter and China Glaze Jolly Holly for the green gradient, although Hunter doesn't show up that well as the middle color. I used OPI Coca Cola Red and China Glaze Tip Your Hat and Cranberry Splash for the red gradient. Once those were all done and dry, I stamped over each gradient using snowflakes from Born Pretty plates QA57 and QA58 and Konad special white stamping polish.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out but I wish the three colors in the gradients would have stood out more. I just don't have that many shade options in green and red!

SquareHue December Box Review & Swatches

This month's SquareHue box was inspired by the Finnish town of Rovaniemi, which is supposedly the hometown of Santa Claus. Not surprisingly, the three shades in this box are Christmas-themed!

Joulupukin Pajakyla is a beautiful ruby red with a stunning red shimmer. Great formula and coverage in two easy coats.

Sampokeskus is a textured straw gold with glitter. It dries more matte than textured, but still very pretty. This first picture is two coats with no top coat and the second is with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Revontuli is my favorite color in the trio, but had the worst formula. It dries to a pretty suede finish, but the formula is thick and doesn't even itself out. I like it best with top coat, as seen in the second photo. It has so much dimension when it's shiny! This is two coats.

Are you digging these shades? I have to say that I love them even though the formula was a bit lacking this month.  You can sign up for your own SquareHue box by visiting their website, www.squarehue.com!

The products in this post were provided for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 2: Candy Cane Nail Art

I did candy cane nails two or three years ago and remember being so disappointed in how they turned out, so I decided to revisit them this year! I'm happy to say that I'm much more pleased with how these turned out! I decided to stamp them instead of trying to use tape and I'm way, way happier with them.

I used China Glaze With Love as my base color and stamped over it using a wavy stripe pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-207 and Konad Special White polish. I topped everything with a coat of Zoya Sparkle Gloss and KBShimmer Clearly on Top and called it a day! I'm always surprised at how vividly the Konad white polish stamps over colors, but I guess that's what it was made for.

Are you all decorated for the holidays? We have our annual ugly sweater party coming up next weekend so I've been decorating for a while trying to get the house perfect!

TDOCNAS 2014: Day 1: Half Moon Wreath Nail Art

I'm so excited that it's finally time for the Twelve Days of Christmas nail art series (TDOCNAS for short :P)! I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I look forward to doing Christmas/holiday nail art all year long; this is my favorite time of year and I love having festive nails! The caveat is that each year it gets harder to come up with unique designs, but I have some pretty fun ones in store for you guys.

I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff. Then, I used a dotting tool to create the wreath shape with China Glaze Glittering Garland and I also dotted some China Glaze Running in Circles over the darker green to give it a little more dimension. The hardest part of this design was creating the bows; I drew them first with white polish and then repainted them with red so that the red would stand out over the green. I'm not totally thrilled with them but they look adorable from regular viewing distance, so I'll call it a win!

Make sure to stop back on Wednesday for Day 2! :)