Inspired By: Holiday Braid white/silver/blue

This braid technique is something totally new to me, but lots of fun! The next time I do it I'll try to stick to nice creme colors so the overlapping won't show. I found a fantastic tutorial over at Rebecca Likes Nails.  All of our holiday decorations are blue and silver so I thought I'd try out these colors:

The holiday Braid.

First I started with a base coat of Pure Ice Super Star (white). Then I carefully used my Pure Ice French Kiss (the blue) which is phenomenal. I also used Wet n Wild Fast Dry Silvivor. Fun fun!

Wet N Wild Fast Dry Silvivor, Pure Ice Super Star, Pure Ice French Kiss

Inspired By: Holiday Funky French Freestyle

How's THAT for a name? This is actually an Amanda original! It's fun, different and easy enough for even my left hand.

The Funky French Freestyle

This was a quickie. I started off with 2 coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Red Red. Next, I just eyeballed a funky french with Pure Ice Super Star (white). Normally I would have taped, but I was in a hurry and I knew i would use the glitter to cover up any "whoops". I then added a swoop of Bright Green by Art Deco and then a swipe of Art Deco silver glitter. Quick and fast!

Wild Shine  Red Red, Art Deco in silver glitter and Bright Green and Pure Ice Super Star

Inspired By: Holiday Patchwork

I wasn't thrilled with my first Scotch tape patchwork manicure--but I like this one! It LOOKS complicated, but it's not. There are two tricks to working with tape (I just use a no name brand): 1) Always let your layers dry all the way before taping and 2) always stick the tape on the inside of your hand a few times to get rid of the mega-stickiness.

The Holiday Patchwork Manicure

I did two layers of Wet N' Wild Fast Dry in Everybody Loves Redmond. I love this polish! It goes on so well and not a single brush stroke. Once that was dry I taped off and used the fabulous Super Star white by Pure Ice. Last, I did the bottom of my nails using LA Craze silver glitter. Wet N' Wild Fast Dry can be found at almost any CVS, Dollar General or Walmart for about $2. Pure Ice is $2 at Walmart. LA Craze can be purchased at Family Dollar, Dollar General or even Dollar Tree for $1! Fun!

Wet N Wild Fast Dry in Everybody Loves Redmond, LA Color Craze, Pure Ice Super Star and tape!

Inspired By: Holiday French Glitter

I like the simplicity of this french manicure done with a glitter polish. Simple, but with a punch.

Glitter polish is so tricky. Either it looks well placed or just terrible. This wasn't so bad. I used that same "swamp green" from yesterday's manicure (also known as Confetti's My Favorite Martian). This was about a million coats. I did the base coat and then took my glitter polish and just made sort of a sloppy French manicure style strip on the tip of my nails. I let that dry and then went back very lightly about 3/4 of the way down my nail.  Here's what I used:

LA Color Craze (found at any Dollar store $1)  and Confetti My Favorite Martian (from CVS for $2)

Inspired By: Holiday Half Moon manicure

I hesitated to even post this or not. I bought this nail polish at CVS yesterday on a whim. Big mistake. The application was watery and just funky. I tried my best to work with it, but alas, it was not what I was needing. At any rate, I persevered through this nail polish for you, dear reader. I'm also going to switch around the order of my photos--finished product first and then what products I used second.

Holiday half moon manicure

I kind of wish I had a photo of it before I added the streak of glitter--but eh. I used this tutorial HERE for the half moon manicure (that's so popular!). So easy using the Reinforcement labels (available in any office suppyl section).  I just did a million layers of the green--which my 5 year old referred to as "Shrek Swamp Green". BLAH. I must have done 5 layers to get it that dark. Once dry, I put the reinforcers on and painted over with the red. Again, a majillion layers required. Once that dried I used my LA Colors Deco Art in silver glitter and just did a quick cover up job. Here are the culprits it took to make this look:

Reinforcement labels, Confetti Red Carpet, Confetti My Favorite Martian and Art Deco silver glitter

Inspired By: Holiday snowflakes

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I had a few minutes yesterday to did my nails! Here's what I used:

Pure Ice French Kiss, Pure Ice Oh Baby and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen

This was actually much easier than I had anticipated. First step was just one coat of the amazing Pure Ice French Kiss (a phenomenal creme nail polish!) and then I got to work with my nail art pen. HERE is a tutorial. After drawing on the snowflakes I did a quick coat of Oh Baby to add a little shimmer.