New Year's Eve Mani!

Well, another year is coming to a close. I can hardly believe it - it feels like time is just flying by! A lot has changed this past year. Some changes were good and others were difficult and sad, but we made it through and I have a good feeling about 2014. Here is a quick recap of my year - it seems like many of these things just happened recently, too.

• I graduated from college - woo!
• I just bought my first brand-new car!
• My husband and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary!
• My best friend finally got hitched! ;)
• My sister-in-law got married, too!
• I traveled from the east coast to the west coast within a month of eachother
• I got a melmer and filled it...I may need to buy another!
• I reached 100 followers on my blog and hosted my first giveaway!

I'm sure there are many more things, but that is enough for now. I feel like I accomplished a lot this year and I am looking forward to another year of successes.

 Here is my manicure dedicated to this evening!

This is Zoya Dream for the base and the nail art is done in China Glaze I'm Not Lion. So much fabulous sparkle! I love it! I hope you all have a great night and stay safe!
 

Christmas Winter Challenge Day 6 - Christmas Food

I'm being boring with this one and doing something that lots of people have done before - candy canes. They just look so cute, I had to give it a try myself. I really like the way they turned out, too. I'm making this post short and sweet because I'm really short on time. Take a look.

Thanks for looking, and be sure to check out what everyone else did!

Christmas Winter Challenge Day 5 - Toys!

Good evening! I'm posting this just barely in time. :) There are so many Christmas things to get done, I barely have time to paint my nails! BUT, I am so excited to be doing nail art again, so I had to make the time. Today's challenge was toys, Christmas toys! I just watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, so I immediately thought of the misfit toys and had to do them! Take a look:

I love this movie and I think the misfit toys are just so cute! For my thumb, I painted the pistol that squirts jelly. :)

On my index finger, I have the train with the square wheels on it's caboose.

On my middle finger, I painted the elephant with pink polka-dots. I think he is just too cute!

On my ring finger, is the dolly. I never really understood what made her a misfit, but whatever...she is cute!

On my pinkie, I painted the airplane that cannot fly. I had the hardest time drawing this one...I don't know why haha.

Once again, I am going to list out all the colors I used. The base color is Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-mint, and the glitter is Funky Fingers Up All Night. I will list out the rest below:

Black Poppy: Periwinkle
Essie: Apertif & Meet Me At Sunset
Julep: Clara
Loreal: After Hours
Nicole by O.P.I.: Sealed With a Kris
O.P.I.: Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em
Pure Ice: Black Rage, French Love Affair, & Superstar!
Revlon: First Class

Sally Hansen: Blue Me Away!

Here is Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-mint all by itself.

Thank you so much for visiting! I hope you enjoyed this nail art! Make sure you take a look at what the others did.

Christmas Winter Challenge Day 4 - Christmas Traditions

Yay yay yay! I am so excited to have just completed my first REAL nail art in months! I have missed it sooo badly. I am joining the party with my fellow Nail Tarts a little bit late, but I'm super excited nonetheless. I'm starting in at day 4, which is Christmas Traditions. One tradition that has never ended for me is a certain movie. Every Christmas since I was a kid, I have watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. I have seen every rendition of A Christmas Carol and read the book numerous times, and I have to say that this is my favorite movie version. There is singing and Muppets and, of course, Charles Dickens. What is not to love?! Without further ado, here is my nail art for the challenge. 

Yay! My thumb pictures the Marley brothers. This particular version of the story has two Marleys instead of just one. :) They are awesome.

On my index finger, I drew the ghost of Christmas past. She is a sweet innocent little girl who almost looks like an angel. I like her, but she serves up some tough love to Mr. Scrooge. He needs it.

On my middle finger, I painted the ghost of Christmas present. He is my favorite! I love how happy and jolly he is, and how much he loves Christmas. And I also really like his hair.

On my ring finger, I painted the ghost of Christmas yet to come. He is terrifying. Like the grim reaper. When I was a kid, I watched this whole part through my fingers.

Last, is my pinkie. This is maybe my favorite because it is one of my most favorite parts of the movie. Kermit plays Bob Cratchit, and this is him walking down the street with Tiny Tim. They sing the cutest, happiest song - "Tis the season to be jolly and joyous (falala). With a burst of pleasure we feel it arrive! It's a season when the saints can employ us, (falala) to spread the news about peace and to keep love alive!" LOVE. Love, love, love. Oh the muppets are awesome!!!

In this manicure, I used a ton of polishes, so I will just list them out. If you have a question about a certain color, just comment below. :)

China Glaze: Call of the Wild & Kalahari Kiss
Essie: Meet Me at Sunset
Julep: Clara, Dendrie, Eva, Fiore, Francis, & Sienna
Nicole by O.P.I.: Sealed with a Kris
Nubar: White Polka Dot
Pure Ice: Black Rage, Femme Fatale, Kiss Me Here, Superstar! & Vintage Glam
Sinful Colors: Nirvana
Zoya: Arizona

Ok, so now you have seen one of my Christmas favorites. My family watches it every year and we know every line, and every song and sing along without shame. It's great. :) Creating this manicure made me so excited for Christmas to come. It is exactly what I needed to get in the holiday spirit. Thank you fellow Naill Tarts for letting me join in late!

Make sure you check out what everyone else did, and also don't forget to enter my giveaway. It ends tonight!

Simple Glitter Gradient

This is a manicure that I did earlier in the semester. I hadn't had time for any nail art for a while, but I thought I would show this one off now, since the colors ended up looking quite Christmas-y together. I have a thing for glitter gradients lately if you hadn't noticed. They are super easy - great for when I am too busy to make sure my socks match, let alone do a whole manicure!

I think they turned out pretty sweet. This is butter london Knees Up and KleanKolor Firework. It's funny because this is not intended to be a Christmas color, but with the red background, the teal blue glitters suddenly look very green and Christmas-esque with the red and gold.

Here is butter london Knees Up all by itself.Gorgeous red - perfect for Christmas time!

Thanks for looking! I hope you all have a happy Friday!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already - the odds are still really good!

Nails Inc Fibre Optic & Galaxy Polish Swatches!

Good morning. I have two new polishes to show off from Nails Inc. today! They are both gorgeous and glittery and therefore I automatically love them. :)

I decided to try them both out over top of a plain navy cream - Loreal After Hours. The first one I'll show is Nails Inc. Fibre Optic in Mayfair Mews. This has multiple, tiny blue iridescent and holographic bar glitters in a navy jelly base. The base is extremely thin and would probably take a while to build up, so I wore undies to save time, but it is loaded with glitter, so this is just two coats over top of After Hours.

This next one is equally awesome, and is definitely a good polish for making a galaxy. It is Nails Inc. Galaxy in Trafalgar Crescent. It has small and medium sized hex glitters in an iridescent base. I didn't go all out and do an actually galaxy here because I wanted to show it on it's own. It's pretty good. I'm sure there are lots of girls who would be satisfied with this for their galaxy nails. I liked how the iridescence created different light and dark spaces without any effort!

I'll tell you what, Sephora sucks me in every time with their 'spend $50 get free shipping' promo. You would think I would have learned by now. One of these beauties was purchased specifically to tip me up over the $50 mark. I don't remember which one it was now, but I am sure glad I caved in and bought it!

Here is Loreal After Hours by itself. Try to ignore how streaky it looks. I need a new bottle of topcoat. It's not the polishes fault!

Thanks for checking out these pretty polishes! I have my last paper to write this weekend, but I am graduating from college in 2 weeks, so get ready for some nail art! I am so excited that I will finally have time again!

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway - it ends on 12/15!

Have a great day!