China Glaze This Is Tree-mendous

Halloween is over, which means Christmas nail polish season has officially begun! A bit ridiculous, I know. But when there are so many fabulous holiday shades available, it's impossible to not want to show them off. China Glaze in particular has a habit of coming out with fantastic holiday collections. This year's Happy Holi-Glaze line is no exception. It's already being stocked at Sally Beauty Supply, so I picked up the two shades I was most interested in.

This Is Tree-mendous is a green and gold microglitter. You could use it for layering, or you could do what I did, which was just slap it on until it was opaque. This is three coats with top coat.

China Glaze This Is Tree-mendous

China Glaze This Is Tree-mendous 

China Glaze This Is Tree-mendous

I love it! It's the perfect shade of evergreen that's glitzy but not over-the-top green. I think there may even be two tones of green glitter, you can see some flecks of vibrant emerald. The application was good, I didn't have a hard time getting three even coats. At first the glitter wasn't very saturated on the brush, but by the third coat it was like butter. It makes me want to  I would love to see this topped with big gold glitter, or gold shatter, or maybe some red gems to look like holly. It really is the perfect Christmas Tree Green glitter and I know I will be wearing it lots this holiday season!

What do you think? Will you be picking up any new holiday colors? Would you wear Christmas nail polish in November?

Dia De Los Muertos Nail Art

Hi everyone! Did you have a nice Halloween? I spent the evening with friends passing out candy and having a great time scaring kids! I mean that's what Halloween is for, right? The next day I took a trip to Sally Beauty Supply and voila, they had the China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze collection! I'd been eyeing two colors after seeing other bloggers' lust-worthy swatches, so I didn't hesitate to pick them up. Since I also had some grand nail art plans up my sleeve I picked up a few extra supplies: gemstones, acetone remover, dotting/marbling tools and two stripers.

Sally Beauty Supply Haul: China Glaze This Is Tree-mendous and There's Snow One Like You, Cina nail art gems, Beauty Secret acetone nailpolish remover, Cina nail art dotting tools, Finger Paints Red-Aissance and So Easy Stripe Rite in black

Now I mentioned some nail art. Downtown we are premiering a symphony for Dia De Los Muertos and it has an animated film that goes with it. All week during rehearsals I've been hearing creepy music and seeing the ghostly cartoons, obviously I wanted to extend the experience onto my nails. Armed with my new toys (and 4 hours worth of Wuthering Heights on Hulu) I spent an afternoon on a Day Of The Dead manicure. Here are the pictures, I really hope you like it!

Dia De Los Muertos Nail Art

 Dia De Los Muertos Manicure, right hand

Dia De Los Muertos Manicure, left hand

I absolutely love how this turned out. The colors are even more pronounced under artificial light.

Dia De Los Muertos Manicure, right hand in artificial light

Dia De Los Muertos Manicure, Left hand in artificial light

The rosary across my left middle, index and pinky fingers is one of my favorite parts. It makes me think of a rosary draped over my fingers and I keep imagining the rest of it is there somewhere.

Dia De Los Muertos rosary nail art

 The skull faces were really fun to create. Each one is different and sketching them out ahead of time really helped. The new dotting tools were absolutely essential. The cross and flowers was the first nail I did so that I could practice using them.

Dia De Los Muertos Skull and Cross Nail Art

 This is my absolute favorite nail, the flaming heart with chains around it.

Dia De Los Muertos Flaming Heart nail art

 A close up of my other thumb. This one was supposed to have a mouth like the others, only I made a false swipe with the striper. Whoops.

Dia De Los Muertos Manicure, skull and cross nail art

Dia De Los Muertos Manicure, skull and rosary nail art

A lot of people have asked me if these are decals- they're not! It's all hand-painted on my natural nails. I used two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White as a base and then a plethora of other colors for the design. Once I got the hang of the faces they were easy enough and I would definitely do something like this again next year. On some nails you can see the colors bled once I applied top coat, so I'll need to remember to wait longer in the future. And I do plan on having more nail art to show you! But not right away. This and my Halloween mani have been great fun but I'll be happy to get back to just a solid wash of color. And speaking of, stay tuned soon for China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze colors!

What do you think? Have you done any nail art? What is your favorite nail art that you've created?

Halloween Nail Art

Happy Halloween! The creative juices were flowing yesterday and I was able to create some over-the-top Halloween nail art. I didn't really think it would be appropriate to dress up for work today, so my costume was on my nails!

Right Hand

Thumb: OPI Chopsticking To My Story with jewel-eyed Jack-o-lantern

Index: CG Ick-a-bod-y over Zoya Shawn

Middle: Deborah Lippmann Funky Chunky

Ring: OPI Take The Stage with polka dots and jewels

Pinky: Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance

 Left Hand

Thumb: CG Zombie Zest over OPI Did It On Em

Index: CG Mummy May I?

Middle: CC Platinum Record between OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?

Ring: Zoya Shawn and OPI Rising Star

Pinky: CC Platinum Record between SC Black on Black

 The Halloween Rainbow

From Left to Right:

China Glaze Mummy May I?

Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance

Deborah Lippmann Funky Chunky

Sinful Colors Black on Black

OPI Take the Stage

OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?

OPI Chopsticking To My Story

OPI Rising Star

China Glaze Ick-a-bod-y

China Glaze Zombie Zest

Zoya Shawn

OPI Did It On Em

Color Club Platinum Record

What do you think? I love how the Jack-o-lantern's eyes glow red like an evil zombie pumpkin. I also love how you can see a little bit of the unique texture of Funky Chunky. I tried to mimic that effect sandwiching silver glitter between layers of sheer polish on my left middle and pinky fingers. My favorite nail though is the polka dots and gems on my right index finger. It's just so fun and I keep rubbing my nail like it's Braille. On a side note: I got to see the tomb of Louis Braille this summer in Paris! He's buried in the catacombs of the Pantheon. Fun fact!

How will you be celebrating Halloween? What will you dress up as, and more importantly, what's on your nails?

Oxblood and Gold Glitter Accent Nail

I'm back! What a busy last two years it has been. I moved cities twice, apartments thrice, spent a summer in Paris, got a kitten, and started a new job! Well same job really, just different orchestra. My dream orchestra. For right now it's a one year position, but I'm hoping to be here for good.

With an iPhone and a lot of time on my hands (no pun intended), it's finally time to start posting again. Expect to see new manicure pictures twice a week. They might be a new polish acquisition, old polishes you may or may not have seen before, or I might create something special inspired by whatever concert we're performing, in which case I'll share some media of my inspiration. Be prepared too for some thrift store finds, baking recipes, shots and stories from Paris, as well as a kitten pic or too. And please feel free to comment about it all!

Today's manicure is China Glaze Naughty and Nice from the Holiday 2010 collection. It's a rich maroon creme that's almost a jelly. I love that it looks opaque but the color depth varies: It's like swishing around a glass of wine. The oxblood color is perfect for fall and sanguine enough for Halloween week.

China Glaze Naughty and Nice

Since I'm lacking any other bling on my left ring finger, I added one accent nail in Color Club Take The Stage. Take the Stage is gold glitter with large silver holographic flakes in a clear base. This is four coats.

China Glaze Naughty And Nice with Color Club Take The Stage

 Warming up backstage I was mesmerized by the accent nail. The oxblood matched our concert folders and the glitter matched my horn! Not intentional, but I was excited about the coincidental coordination.

blinded by bling backstage

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, I appreciate your patience over the past several months and look forward to sharing more fabulous fingernails and fun with you!

OPI Chopsticking To My Story + Shatter

Howdy friends. I had planned to keep my last manicure for a while, but it was a rough morning and I needed something fun and relaxing to do this afternoon. So I put on Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and did my nails.

OPI's Hong Kong collection was one that really drew me into nail polish. It contained so many great colors like Suzi Says Feng Shui and Jade Is The New Black. One that I always had my eye on was Chopsticking To My Story. It's one of those ugly/pretty shades, a burnt orangey brown. Well I held off on buying it until Ulta no longer carried it, but one of my dear friends had it and was willing to part with it! So here it is now finally, on my nails. Well, under a coat of gold shatter, since I've been on a big shatter kick lately.

OPI Chopsticking To My Story, two coats with OPI Gold Shatter

I Looove this color. It complements my skin tone nicely. It seems perfect as part of a Hong Kong themed collection too, reminds me of orange sesame chicken and yes, chopsticks. 

Hope you are all having a wonderful day.

OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue with Turquoise Shatter

Hello y'all. It's a rainy rainy day, and after a great morning rehearsal I was looking forward to some frito pie, Psych, and a new manicure. With all the gloomy weather today, something blue seemed appropriate, so I chose OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue and OPI Turquoise Shatter.

Yoga-ta Get This Blue is a velvety navy with a turquoise shimmer. It's one of my favorite blues and I just have to show you.

OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, two coats

For extra depth, I layered OPI Turquoise Shatter on top.

OPI Turquoise Shatter over OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue, with top coat

OoOoOoOoh! The turquoise shatter looks iridescent and having the navy underneath ads extra drama. The shatter had a cool chrome effect before top coat too, so I could see wearing it both ways. 

What do you think? What colors would you like to see under Turquoise shatter?

Berry Gradient

Howdy friends. It was a wonderful weekend at Lake Travis and now it's back to the daily grind. Pretty light week at the symphony, but my boyfriend's in town and this weekend I'll be busy with an extra gig. So I took advantage of my free time now in between practice sessions to do a quick mani.

I was inspired by my friend, who came to the lake house with a wonderful gradient/skittles mani in shades of coral. She used three colors and then rotated them and I thought the effect was fabulous. So much so, that I want to do the same thing.

Instead of changing hues, I wanted to play with different finishes. I chose three polishes that, in the bottle, looked like they were the same general shade of berry. I chose a creme, a subtle shimmer, and a crazy foil, and then rotated them in that order.

Left to Right: OPI Belize it or Not, Zoya Manon, Zoya Gloria 

Bottom to top: Gloria, Manon, Belize it or Not, Gloria

On the nail, the foil looks a lot lighter. The shimmer in Manon is so subtle that it gets lost and looks almost identical to Belize it or Not. I still like it though, the shades are all very flattering on my skin tone and I think the varied hues are more flattering than just a straight mani.

*I need to make a quick side-note about Belize it or Not. This is a polish I've had SINCE MIDDLE SCHOOL. That means it's ELEVEN years old and still has an absolutely beautiful application. Can we just take a second to appreciate that? Unfortunately it has OPI's older more health-hazardous formula, but seriously, eleven years old and still flows, self-evens and isn't thick! Impressive.

How was your weekend? Do you have anything special coming up this week?