Week 2: Winter Nature (or: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas)

Howdy hey buddyo! I've been really excited to do these nails since the moment I ordered A Fresh Evergreen and Very Ornamental, both by I <3 NP, one of the most lovely of all pseudo-mainstream indie nail polish brands. (I also ordered Nostalgia and Princess Diaries in the same shipment. It was a really exciting package to receive, to say the least, and you'll be seeing those other shades pretty soon I'm sure.) Both of these colors are from the special seasonal collection, as indicated by their names, and so I knew that I had to incorporate them into this winter nail challenge.

Winter foliage? Plants? Red and green??? HOLLY. I love holly. It's so bright, it has weird effects on birds, and it's very festive.

Info and more pictures under the cut:

Week 1: Winter Challenge

After an incredibly long night of sleep last night, I spent most of today watching tv, biking, and planning what I wanted to do for today's mani. Aka the perfect weekend. So I sat down with a pot of peppermint tea and spent an ungodly amount of time bringing this mani to life.

Info and more pictures under the cut!

Day 9: Wrath

Hellooooo everyone! So after taking my swatch pictures of Orly Rage, I stamped it with Orly Bus Stop Crimson. I decided to use it for my wrath challenge because I've always had a super rough time stamping really detailed designs. To my delight, BSC stamped beautifully using BM-315. The lace on my ring finger was done with BM-323, and then I added some of the rhinestones I got from Amazon! I'm really excited about them, I got a pack with a ton of different colors.

Day 6: Greed

Hello lovelies! The theme for today was to go all out, so I did!! There's glitter galore on these deep blue mermaid-themed nails, and they look fab! Plus mermaids are known for collecting things, and thats somewhat greedy... right? (Goddamn it Ariel.)

For this mani, I used a base of two coats of OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue!, and topped that with Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale. For my accent nail, I used a coat of I <3 NP's All Gold Everything, which I've been super stoked to use for AGES! (I got it from etsy so it's one of my extra-special babies.) On top of that, I used OPI Fly, and then China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, which I thought gave the nail something of a mermaid-scale look. However, the matte colors looked too plain to me, so I threw another coat of All Gold Everything onto it before topping everything off with two thick coats of SV. If you guys think it looks killer on here, imagine how great it is in person!!

Day 5: Greed

Hello lovelies!! After seeing Lovely in Laquer's beautiful jelly sandwich using Essie's Sugar Daddy, I just had to pick it up myself and try it out. Since I don't have Teenage Dream, I instead used Butter Rosie Lee, a super lovely pink glitter. I was actually also going to use a big flake pink glitter from Sally Beauty on top of it, but I couldn't get the bottle open no matter what I tried. I guess it wasn't in the cards for tonight.

While these aren't my most expensive polishes, they're both ones that I've either wanted for a long time or saving for just the perfect occasion. I really love the subtle shimmer that flashes when I move my hand, plus the color really looks nice with my skin. So basically I picked it for Greed because it's super sparkly and awesome looking. :)

My biggest complaint was that Sugar Daddy took forever to dry. As in, it is still not dry as I type this at least four hours after finishing with the mani. Now I could have waited longer between each coat so it didn't get all sealed in and smudgy by my coat of Seche Vite, but I didn't have that kind of time tonight. So instead I just have to be super careful to not make weird waves in the polish by bumping into basically anything. Regardless, I really love Sugar Daddy, and think that the color and opacity are just right for so many situations. I can tell already that this is going to be the star of a lot of future manis. I can't wait to see what it looks like over some stamping!

Day 1: Lust

Hello lovelies!! I've decided to do my first nail art challenge!! Yesterday I found one put together by One Nail To Rule Them All and Nail Wish based on the seven deadly sins, and I knew I had to do it. So here's day one, Lust!

I started off with Sephora by OPI Just a Little Dangerous, a gorgeous rich purple. (I'll be posting swatches of it later, definitely a deep purple I'd recommend!) Next, I sponged on a gradient of Sephora by OPI Sample Sale, a vivid shimmery red. This set the mood for me as rich and lusty and exciting, and I'm thrilled to bits with how the gradient turned out.

I then pulled out my stamping plates for some fishnets made from BM 310 using Sephora by OPI Keep Me On My Mistletoes, which comes out as a nice pale gold when it's painted on alone, but apparently stamps looking like silver. No matter, I love the way it turned out! I used the same polish with the roses from BM 323 for my ring finger, and topped it all off with a super thick coat of Seche Vite.

I'm really excited to explore the challenge of trying to figure out what to do every day, so keep watch for that!

More pics under the cut, along with the rules for the challenge! (There are a lot of pics because I'm so happy with how this turned out, lol)