Christmas Ornament Nails

The inspiration for today's holiday nails came from a DIY project from YouTube's Ingrid Nilsen (aka Missglamorazzi). She's been doing a #DIYDecember series, with a new project everyday. One of her first projects of the month was DIY holiday cards. Both of her two card designs were adorable...

... and immediately needed to be on my nails. So! Here's my version of her Christmas ornaments design, using my nails as a canvas:

For colors I used China Glaze's Goldie But Goodie, Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, NYC's High Line Green (a birthday present from my sister - thanks Mal!), and Milani's Ruby Jewels:

Yes, that's a Sharpie.

Goldie But Goodie was actually one of the polishes in my swag bag at the #blogvancity event back in September, and it's a bit embarrassing for me to admit not trying it before now. Geez - what was I waiting for? This polish is gorgeous!

Ruby Jewels takes a few coats to be opaque, but it's totally worth it because that color is one of my favorites in my whole collection. (And for the amount of polish I own, I think that says a lot.) If you love sparkly red polishes for the holiday season, I highly recommend Ruby Jewels.

Drawing those black Sharpie lines wasn't that easy, as you can probably tell... but I kind of like the hand-drawn/imperfect look of it in the end.

I can't wait to use Goldie But Goodie again - what a gem that turned out to be. The fact that it was given to me for free is pretty cool, too. 

Do you have any fun holiday-related plans this weekend? I'm hoping to see some Christmas lights, drink some hot chocolate, and maybe go buy some snowshoes for the mini pre-Christmas vacation to Whistler that we're taking on Monday!

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{Linking up with The Nail Files and What I'm Loving Fridays}

Personality Style Challenge with Brilliant Earth

Last week I received an email from the beautiful people over at Brilliant Earth, inviting me to participate in a Personality Style Challenge! It was my first time being asked to participate in something like this, so I was all, "MMHMM, COUNT ME IN." So they did. And here we are!

So - first things first - who/what is Brilliant Earth? They're a company that specializes in ethically sourced fine jewelry, and their forte is conflict-free diamonds and engagement rings.  Their mission is to acquire conflict-free diamonds from ethical sources and to donate 5% of profits to help communities harmed by the jewelry industry build a brighter future. 

For this Personality Style Challenge, a crop of selected bloggers were provided with background information on several different “personality styles,” along with corresponding Brilliant Earth accessories for each personality. We were to pick our favorite category and create a fashion style board or mood board surrounding our theme. They gave us full creative freedom for this style/mood board, and they'll select their three favorites to feature on their Brilliant Earth Pinterest page later this week.

Personality styles included:

• blue jeans and tee shirt kind of girl

• floral, feminine styles and patterns

• glamorous like stilettos and glitter

• minimalist, no-nonsense elegant style

• vintage dresses and thrift store stopping

• cutting edge

I chose the "blue jeans and tee shirt kind of girl" because... that's pretty much me. This personality style type came with three jewelry items, all of which you can see within my style/mood board below - the Silver Amethyst Twist Pendant, the 18K White Gold Fairmined 2mm Comfort Fit Wedding Ring, and the 18K White Gold Round Diamond Stud Earrings.

 {mint sweater / clutch / hat / jeans / vest / boots / gloves}

Incidentally, I happened to have just purchased that pair of boots a couple of weeks ago from Oasap.com, which is a site I only recently discovered through someone else's blog. The quality of the boots is pretty poor, but I loooove the way they look and they only cost me $35 (with free shipping - all the way from freaking China). The lining inside of these boots is super soft and cozy and the rubber sole is nice and thick too, but the polyester material of the upper is just basically like cardboard. Super cheap. No rain for those guys! #DryWeatherStyle.

This style board includes some of my favorite style items - rolled up dark jeans, a totally swagged out pair of taupe-colored boots, and a minty sweater - preferably with pretty crocheted details on it like this one. I also love a warm winter hat with character, and this multi-colored one is so fun. Loving the fact that the colors in the hat are all accents throughout the rest of the outfit.  This vest from H&M is right up my alley - I love anything taupe/beige, and I'm a sucker for a puffy vest. I searched high and low for the "right" pair of purple-toned fingerless gloves, and these Michael Kors ones seemed just right to me! To round out the style board, I included Essie's Mint Apple nail polish and a glittery Pure Ice polish called Don't You Wish, to top off the mint with a subtle snowy sparkle. The Mac lipstick is in the shade Candy Yum Yum, and the creamy pinky lace clutch is from an Etsy shop.

I had so much fun putting together this style board - what a great creative project! I can totally see how some people go crazy making mood and style boards all the time... this might be a new hobby for me! What do you think?

Have you ever made a style board? I wasn't really sure how to make one, but it looks like there's not really any right or wrong way to do it, thankfully.

Thank you to Brilliant Earth for inviting me to participate in this Personality Style Challenge!

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{Linking up with Monday Must Haves, Style Sessions, WIWW,
Random Wednesday, What I Wore, What I'm Loving Fridays, and I Feel Pretty}  

This is not a sponsored post, but Brilliant Earth invited me to participate in this fun challenge and will select a few bloggers to feature on their Pinterest page. All opinions are my own!

Christmas Chevron & Dot Nails

Oh hey, Friday. What up girl? I took off today from work so I could head down to Washington state to finish up my Christmas shopping and then mail out gifts to my family in Massachusetts. It's cheaper/faster to mail from the US, so screw you Canada. Just kidding, you're ok.

I squeezed in some time last night to paint my nails with a holiday color scheme, inspired by this pin. Since I don't have a ton of time this morning to write this, I hope you'll excuse the brevity!

For this mani I used Essie's Case Study as my base color, Essie's A List for the red and Sinful Colors' Envy for the green. I also used my Quo dotting tool and my chevron nail decals from Inspired Nails.

Envy was a bit gloopy, so I had a bit of fisticuffs with that polish when pulling up my chevron nail decals. There was some string-age... and if you are familiar with how gloopy polishes behave, then you will know what I mean by that.

I've been lying in bed at night thinking about different holiday nail designs, so... hope that's not weird to you.

Did you see my round up of my 2012 holiday/winter nails? I posted it yesterday - check it out here!

Love polka dot nails? More of those here.

If chevrons are your thing (you sicko!!), here are a few chevron nail looks.

What are you rocking on your nails today? Have you started on any holiday nails yet?

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{Linking up with The Nail Files, Friday's Fab Favorites, and What I'm Loving Fridays} 

#TBT: Last Year's Winter & Holiday Nails!

I supppppose it's about that time to break out the holiday nails and splash some cheer onto our digits, eh ladies? And that was an American "eh" - not a Canadian one, by the way. Don't get those two confused.

To gain some inspiration for my holiday nails this year I've been taking a peek back at all of my holiday looks from last year. That's one of the best parts about keeping a blog - the ability to look back and remember what you've done!

Check out last year's holiday and wintery nails, and then stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for this year's nails!

Gettin' Festive:

Christmas Lights:

Quick and Easy Snowfall Nails:

Little Santa Suit:

Winter Bling Nails:

New Year's Eve: Getting Buckwild, Throwin' Confetti:

New Year's Eve Pop Champagne Nails:

Now that we've gotten that out of our system, I'll be turning my attention to holiday/winter 2013. Have you seen any holiday nails this year that have tickled your fancy? I'm trying to think outside the box... Stay tuned!

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Holiday Dresses for Different Occasions!

A couple of months ago my good friends Abigail and Geoff asked me to be a part of their summer 2014 wedding. They're juuuust a couple of my all-time favorite people, who have been together for over 10 years now, so I was #SRSLY bursting with joy at the prospect of being part of their nuptials.

What does that thrilling news have to do with holiday dresses? WELL, thanks for asking. Abby's got a super exciting concept for her bridesmaids' dresses (which I won't divulge here, only because it's not my news to spill!), so I've been having a freaking BLAST scouring different websites for dresses with her theme in mind. As a bi-product of that bridesmaid dress search, I've been coming across some other amaaaaaazing dresses lately. It inspired me to put together this round-up of dresses that would be great for upcoming holiday parties.

Whether you're heading to an office party, a family party, or just a fun 'n fancy dress-up party with your homegirls/boys, I hope these dresses give you some inspiration for your holiday looks!

PLAYING FANCY WITH YA FRIENDS

Ruffle the Deck (Modcloth)

Silver Belle of the Ball (Modcloth)

(It's currently out of stock, BUT Modcloth will bring it back if it's in-demand... so demand it!)

Eye Catching Excitement Dress (Modcloth) 

(available soon - and you can sign up to be notified!)

OFFICE HOLIDAY PARTY

Classical Beauty Dress (Modcloth)

Lady Love Song in Emerald Velvet (Modcloth) 

Chic Side Peplum Dress (Forever21)

FAMILY HOLIDAY PARTY 

Too Much Fun in Emerald Satin (Modcloth)

.  this one is my favorite!  .

Luxe Sheath Dress (Forever21)

And for all you girls who love to be super literal with your holiday attire... (Modcloth)

.  be the peppermint queen, if that's yo thannnnnnnggg!  .

NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY

Line & Dot Classic Lace Dress (DailyLook)

Rhinestoned Fit & Flare Dress (Forever21)

Glam Hour Beaded Drop Waist Dress (Forever21)

Do any of these dresses make you wanna shoop, baby?
Are there any fun holiday parties in your near future?
What is your favorite website for finding dresses? I'd love to hear your suggestions!

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{Linking up with The Style Sessions, Totally Posted Tuesday,
WIWW, Monday Bloom, Must Haves}   

Silver Leopard Nails

Let's just get this out of the way: When I typed the title of this blog post, I immediately thought of Brian Fontana's Sex Panther cologne in Anchorman. Don't really know why - leopards and panthers are not the same thing.  OR ARE THEY?

Actually they are - did you know that an Asian black panther is really just a black leopard? And an American black panther is a black jaguar. I hope you've learned something here today.

ANYCRAP. On to more pressing issues: nail polish. Silver leopard nail polish, more specifically.

The inspiration for these nails came from Dulce Candy's recent Black Friday video, where she was wearing a silvery/grey leopard print scarf that I thought was pretty:

Leopard nails are fun to do, so I'm always happy to realize new color combinations for the look. And I thooooought that I had some great colors in my nail polish stash to choose from:

.  stiletto by revlon, beware by pure ice, grey by love & beauty  .

Look familiar? I used the exact same trio two weeks ago. #Reeeeeepeeeeeeeeeat!  (I said that in the voice of the "REEEEEEEEMIXXXXXXX" line from all the hip hop songs... But if you were my friend, you'd have already known that.)

After applying a base coat, I used 3 coats of Beware on all of my nails. Then I used the tip of the grey polish's brush to dab a few dots of grey around my nails.  Once those had dried, I put a few drops of Stiletto onto a piece of scrap paper and used a toothpick to draw the small black C's and brackets around the black spots. The last step is to add some small black spots to the empty areas of each nail. 

If you're the kind of gal who's been afraid to even attempt leopard print on your nails - like maybe you think you aren't good enough at "doing nails" to do this - well, if I could reach through this computer screen and give you a good solid shake, I would. The BEST part about leopard print nails is that even if you're an amateur and don't do it "perfectly" (whatever the heck that even means), it still looks BOSS. 

Seriously. You CAN do it. And I'm only saying this because there've been a solid number of people who have commented on my other leopard print nail posts, saying things like, "I could never do this, I'm terrible at nails." If you can find a toothpick (you can), and you feel like putting in about 20 minutes to paint your nails, then you can do leopard print on your nails. It's dots and C's, guys. Just dots and C's. And we've been dealing with both of those things since at least kindergarten, #AMIRIGHT?

But I digress.

The dark grey spots weren't as dark and "stand-outy" as I had envisioned them being. Actually, if I hold my hand away from me I can barely even see the dark grey. It looks more like just a matte version of Beware. (Which now has me interested in doing a full mani of Beware with a matte top coat, just to see what it looks like. Hmm...)

Want to see more leopard print nails? You got it, dude:

• here are some patriotic ones
• here are some glittery, disco ones
• here's one that'll bring all the boys to the yard
• and here are some for your 16-year-old little sister

Want to see ALL of my nail polish posts? Follow me on bloglovin' or add me on GFC (link in the sidebar)!

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{Linking up with The Nail Files, Pinned It and Did It, and What I'm Loving Fridays}  

Chevrons: Round 2!

So I attempted a chevron trick on my nails last week and it was a demi-fail, but I wanted to redeem myself by trying again. The good news is that Chevrons: Round 2 was a success!

And there's no bad news! So that's cool, right? No one needs bad news the day after Thanksgiving. 

I was trying to choose which 3 colors to use for this chevron mani, and was having a tough time deciding. Trying to go for something autumnal, I grabbed my Revlon bottle of Raisin Rage, which is a shimmer-free, raisiny burgundy shade. That's when I said, "Oh day-um. There's a color scheme right there!"

See?

So I decided to use the Revlon bottle of polish as my inspiration, and gathered a gold and a black polish too:

I followed the exact same steps that I took last week, except this time I gave the base color (gold) more time to dry before applying the chevron nail decals. I also did some de-sticking of the decals before placing them on my nails - meaning that I first stuck the decal strip to the back of my hand a couple of times to remove some of the stickiness. This gave me a better chance of not ripping up my base color when I went to remove the decal from my nails.

The gold polish that I used - Big Spender by Nina Ultra Pro - isn't the same "yellow-gold" as the gold on the bottle of Revlon polish, so it's a slightly different look. But I don't actually own any yellow-gold polishes - guess it's not my favorite color.

And speaking of Big Spender, I'm OBSESSED with the brush that comes with this polish.  It's like it was MADE for my fingernails. See here for diagrams and illustrations of exactly what I mean.

If you want to order some of your own chevron nail decals, I ordered mine from Inspired Nails. (Not an affiliate link... what do I look like? Some sort of professional??)

I am satisfied with how these came out, and they made a fine addition to my Thanksgiving outfit. 

What did you rock on your nails for the holiday? I'd love to see! And now that Thanksgiving is out of the way, we can officially move on to Christmasy nails without shame. I'ma deck the shit out of my halls nails. WHO IS WITH ME?

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{Linking up with The Nail Files and What I Learned Wednesday}