Berry Holiday Party Nails

Today I have some festive and fancy holiday party nails for you. I love this manicure because they are so appropriate for this time of year, but I could see myself wearing them at basically any other time.

So I already missed the only non-family Christmas party I was invited to, my husband's work party. Sad face. It was pretty fun last year. There was a casino theme with a ton of different tables. We spent the whole time at the roulette table. The guy manning the table (would you call him the dealer if it's not cards?) used to work in Vegas and he was really friendly. It was fun because we don't gamble, so it was a whole new experience for us learning about all the rules and strategies. I guess this year was supposed to be the same, but I had already scheduled something else for that night. It's a bummer because I wanted to try the blackjack table this time.

I applied two coats of OPI Miami Beet. Then at the tips, I used OPI Golden Eye, tapering it downwards with just one coat. I did the same with the bigger glitter, Sephora by OPI The Golden Age, coming down the nail just a little bit farther.
Glitter gradients are always trickier than they seem, for me. Maybe with a little more practice I'll be able to really get it right where I want it. Luckily it turned out well enough that I still liked it. It just made me sweat a little bit.

What I used:
OPI Miami Beet
OPI Golden Eye
Sephora by OPI The Golden Age

What holiday parties to you have planned this year? Are they the dressy kind, or the ugly-sweater kind of party?

Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer Twilight

Today's mani features Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer Twilight. I had a request to swatch Twilight after using it in my Nude Nail With Two Toned Tips post. I love the color of this polish, which is a mix of pewter and gunmetal with silver shimmer. This is a great Winter shade!

The formula is good and application was smooth. I used two coats, plus top coat. The one complaint about the Ulta Professional polishes is that the square caps are big and bulky. It's annoying trying to find a good way to hold the cap while applying the polish. The polish itself though didn't give me any issues.

Ulta Professional Nail Lacquer retails for $7.50 at Ulta stores or Ulta.com.

Celebrating 100 Posts With 100 Polishes!

To celebrate my 100th post I wanted to do something a little crazy. What's more crazy than a manicure with 100 polishes?! The funny thing is, it doesn't even look like that many polishes. But I promise you, it is! I just know that there are some of you who will actually want to count each one, so I'll explain what I did. I didn't count base coat or top coat. The ombre base colors were made using three polishes. I started with Zoya Flynn on my middle finger. Then I added black polish to Flynn for the darker colors, and white polish for the lighter ones. Then one by one (yes, it did take forever!), I added in little dashes and dots, 97 polishes on top!

When I started this blog I honestly wasn't sure if I would make it this far! It was a huge learning curve at first, and I'm still learning things every day. There have been some memorable moments along the way, and I thought I'd share some of them with you...

My first post was my brave first step in bearing my soul, and my cuticles, to the world. I explained a little about how I came to have the crazy idea to start all this. I didn't have much of an idea of where I was headed with my blog, what I was going to focus on. I'm still experimenting with that, and in the process I've covered a lot of ground.

In September I participated in the 31 Day Challenge which was insane and stressful, and really pushed me to try new things. My most popular mani from the Challenge was my Day 17: Glitter nails. I had way too much fun with that post! Sarah from Chalkboard Nails featured it in her pick of Guest Post of the Week, as part of The Lipstick League. My Glitter mani and my Day 23: Inspired by a Movie Phantom of the Opera nails are my most re-pinned on Pinterest.

The manicure I am most proud of is my Day 27: Inspired by Art Bansky Nails, a true labor of love. It caused a lot of stress, was so much work, and then I basically took them right off! But it was totally worth it! It was recently featured in a BuzzFeed article titled, "The Year 2013 As Told By Nail Art".

I've enjoyed this adventure so much already. I can't wait to see what the next 100 posts bring!

I hoped you enjoyed my brief walk down memory lane. A huge motivation to keep going is all my loyal readers. Thank you so much for sticking with me, and for all your wonderful comments and encouragements! Let me know if there were any posts that were memorable for you!

My Guest Post at Craftynail!

Today's post is super exciting for me. It's my first ever guest post! Jacqui at Craftynail graciously asked me to do a post for her blog, and I would love for you guys to take a look!

Jacqui is super talented and dynamic. If you haven't discovered her blog yet, here are some gems you don't want to miss: her recent Snow Bunny Nails are absolutely adorable, the Size Comparison of Top Stamping Post had all the info I was looking for about different brands of stamping plates, and her Black and White Underside Mani has a cool edge to it that makes want to grow out my nails for that design alone!

So now let's all change into our comfy blue Keds, pull on a warm cozy cardigan, and hop on the trolley to my guest post at Craftynail! >> View the post in its entirety here<<

Formula X for Sephora Wham!

Today I have another Formula X swatch for you. Wham! is from the Xplosive Top Coats category, as is Chaotic, which I swatched here. It is described as "white confetti", and contains multiple sizes of hex glitter along with bar glitter. It applied easily, with just a little coaxing needed to get the bar glitters in the right place.

This polish is certainly eye-catching. I had a number or people ask, "Oo, what is that?", or "How did you do that?"

This is one coat of Wham! shown over two coats of OPI Muir Muir on the Wall. This last photo shows off the color shifts of the OPI polish the best. I'm a fan of Muir Muir because it's so vampy and mysterious. I think the two paired well together.

Formula X for Sephora Wham! retails for $12.50 and can be purchased at Sephora locations or Sephora.com.

Christmas Leopard Print

Well December is finally here. I'm not a crazy-about-Christmas kind of person, but I couldn't resist starting off the month with a wild Christmas leopard print mani. I have a lot more Christmas themed ideas that I really hope turn out! Christmas or not, I am really feeling the winter vibe now. Although I'm not happy about the freezing temperatures, I really enjoy focusing on different colors with the changing seasons.

The base color is two coats of OPI Bagota Blackberry. I have been wanting to buy this polish for years. I seriously don't know what took me so long, but I finally bought it last month! I don't regret it, I think it's gorgeous. For the gold dots, I used OPI Liquid Sand Honey Ryder, and painted the color on straight out of the bottle. Since I used a top coat you don't get to see the texture of the polish in all of its glory, but the color is still so pretty. With a small dotting tool I applied A England Saint George around the gold dots.

I think this looks like velvet. Like a fluffy velvety bathrobe that a flamboyant grandpa would wear.

What I used:
OPI Bagota Blackberry
A England Saint George
OPI Liquid Sand Honey Ryder

What do you think? Too wild, or just enough?