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