New Years

Burgers and nails

One of my favorite nail blogs is Burgers and Nails, which is exactly what it sounds like.  I took this photo today and plan on sending it over to them.  Hopefully my burger and nails will make it onto their blog!

UPDATE:  My burger and nails made it onto the site!

Stamping

I'm getting really into holographic nail polishes

Outdoor with natural light

Indoors with artificial light.  What a difference!

Possibly my favorite lacquer of 2011

I think my favorite nail polish of the year is Nicole by OPI - Come In From the Coal'd.  There is so much glitter packed into this bottle; the look above only required two coats.  It's bundled in a holiday kit from Nicole by OPI called Merry Must Haves Kit - Pewter/Red, which you can buy at Target for a mere $10.  Since a typical bottle of Nicole by OPI is in the $7 range, this set is a deal at $5 per bottle.  This set won't be around for much longer, get yours soon or else you'll have to borrow my bottle.

I hope you and yours have a delightful holiday weekend.

My kind of holiday manicure

Come Christmas, I'm not one to paint snowmen and Christmas trees onto my nails.  I'd rather just embrace the holiday color palette and try different manicures with red, white and green (and gold! you can never have too much gold!).

Simple red manicure with a gold glitter gradient

I have about a billion red nail polishes, but right now I'm really feeling Sinful Colors - Gogo Girls. It's the red on my nails now. I used China Glaze - Cleopatra for the glitter gradient because the glitter is small and subtle. It's easier to achieve a gradient with it.

Originally I was going to use Sephora by OPI - Only Gold For Me. After one try on my thumb it turned out that it's just too chunky a glitter for the effect I was going for. Hope everyone's having a smooth week!

Marbleized

Marbleizing sans water.  I'll try to write a tutorial on how to do this.  This is my favorite manicure so far. 

My right hand is easier to work with because I'm left-handed. 

One of the rare occasions you'll see my left hand.  I'm so bad with my right hand, that I can't even keep the camera from shaking.  Anyway, I'm still really into how my left hand turned out.

In the thick of it.

Gold and black

Holiday mani

Black and white snowflakes on glittery gold.

Black stripes

Red nails with white checkers

How to ruin an awesome nail design in one quick step

I spent so much time creating a patchwork mani with chartreuse, silver, emerald blue and black, only to ruin it by one single coat of silver glitter polish.  Total bummer!

Candid

Aluminum spikes and an octopus

Why I'm super bummed about Yves Saint Laurnet's Duo Terriblement Noir Manicure Couture

A set of polishes I was really looking forward to purchasing were Yves Saint Laurnet's Duo Terriblement Noir Manicure Couture, because I love black polish and especially a good matte black polish.  I should also point out that YSL's packaging is superb, so I was very excited to get these in the mail.

The polishes were modeled after the refinement of a tuxedo, and are meant to be used for a matte/glossy french manicure.  In short, it's a glossy black polish and a matte black polish.  An incredible and in-depth review of the product is available at Fashion Polish, which is an excellent nail polish and nail art blog.  Fashion Polish really liked the black matte, I, however, hated it. 

The matte was not matte, it was satin.  So I decided to stamp a white french manicure onto it to achieve that french maid look.  It didn't work out too well.  But seriously, how tiny is that bottle?  Sheeeeesh.

A few things:

- it should be noted that each polish is 0.2 fluid ounces.  An average bottle of polish (OPI, China Glaze, etc) is 0.5.  These are tiny.  And at $30 a pop for the set, that's a pricey polish.

- The brush is angled, which can be intimidating if you're a creature of habit and are used to a round, even ended brush.  I didn't like it.

-  I'm a busy woman, so I don't have a lot of time to wait around for a polish to dry.  My usual fast drying top coat couldn't be used on the matte polish because it's glossy.  The matte polish took a long time to dry.

- Once dry, it seemed more satin than matte.  That was a major bummer.  I want to shine a high beam on it and not see any reflection.  I did with YSL's matte black.  Very disappointed.

These polishes were a let down.  I will stick to using my favorite glossy black and Essie's Matte About You Matte Finisher if I want to achieve a nice matte black.  Super bummed!

· Yves Saint Laurent Duo Terriblement Noir Swatches and Review [Fashion Polish]

Laquers I'm feeling this week

In order: Revlon - Beach; Sephora by OPI - Under My Trench Coat; ORLY - Cosmic FX Space Cadet; China Glaze - Awaken; Nicole by OPI - Come In From the Coal'd; China Glaze - Trendsetter

Too girly

Silver triangles

It's possible that China Glaze's Awaken is my favorite polish of all time.

Stripes and spikes

I wanted the red to be semi transparent. Now I'm not so sure. I think it would better if it were opaque and not as deep of a shade.

Detailed shot

One hour later...

Green, silver and white triangles

Prism bursts

Metal zebra

My index finger nail broke.  Now the whole hand's uneven.  Super bummed!

Inspired by Chanel

Inspired by Chanel's temporary tattoo bracelets.

Click photo for larger version

Diamonds on every finger

It's our anniversary

Kapow!

Moons

We'll call this "patience required"

Baroque

Chunky

Thanksgiving is right around the corner

Detailed black frenchie

Click photo to see details

Blue/green/gold shimmer with navy overlay

Not my favorite

Neon beams

Shark tooth