Inspired By: Birthdays: Cupcakes! It's my birthday!

Today is my birthday! Well, not JUST my birthday. I'm a triplet. I have two brothers. We were born in 1981 when triplets were totally a rare thing. My mom carried us for 38 weeks. We were all full term and BIG for triplets (Brother A was born at 9:59 am at 6 pounds 4 oz., Brother B was born at 10:00 am at 5 pounds 9 oz and I was born at 10:01 at 5 pounds 1 oz).  No NICU time for us! We all came home with my mother at 2 days old. Crazy business.  At any rate--it's cupcake day! Hot diggity! I made some super fun Shirley Temple cupcakes to eat AND got my nails did with the same theme!

Happy Birthday to ME!

This was a lot of fun and super easy with a dotting tool! I love it! I kind of wish I hadn't added the flecked topcoat (Sally Hansen Glass Slipper) but who can resist it!?

Pure Ice Love and Super Star!, Revlon Cherries in the Snow, Milani no name, Wet N Wild Everybody Loves redmond and Art Deco Hot Pink. No pictured: Glass Slipper (SH) topcoat.

Inspired By: converse Shoes

This manicure was a lot of fun and surprisingly easy with nail art pens. It would have been better if my nails had rounder tips, but it's all good.

Inspired by Converse Shoes

Cute, huh? It took a lot of different nail polish but it was fast and easy. Just take it step by step.

Wet N Wild Everybody Loves Redmond, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Crushed, Pure Ice Excuse Me, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, Wet N Wild Wild Shine Eggplant Frost, Pure Ice Super Star, Sally Hansen art pens

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 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.

Inspired By: Tiffany & Co.

I promise, I'm not brand loyal or usually swayed by advertising. But, Tiffany and Company has had my heart for a long, long time. ONE day, I shall have some sweet little treasure wrapped in Tiffany Blue. One day. Not only do I have fantastic taste in jewelry, I also have fantastic taste in friends. One especially lovely friend, Rox, sent me some amazing China Glaze nail polishes. She was so sweet to send me For Audrey, a China Glaze crackle and an awesome China Glaze Purple Panic. I'd never used China Glaze until today--and can I just say, love them?! LOVE THEM! Rox and I share a love for Tiffany's so she went on the hunt to find China Glaze Just Audrey (a dead ringer for Tiffany's blue boxes).

China Glaze For Audrey, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen

 I've been wanting to do some kind of Christmas-y manicures since it IS the season and all--so I declare this one "All I Want For Christmas". Or, Inspired By: Tiffany and Company. I've terribly sorry this was a janky job--I was SO excited to have this color I did my nails while waiting in my car for my five year old to get out of school! Thank you so much, Rox!