Quicky with Zoya "Aurora" & "Storm"

I've been super-busy with the Holiday craziness and our impending move.  I cleaned off my Christmas nails and did a simple mani with a couple of my new Zoyas, but haven't had a chance to show you till today:

This is "Storm" and "Aurora" at about 2 days old, and after tons of packing.  And they are much more beautiful IRL.  I <3 Zoya!!

I can't wait till I'm settled in the new place and can finally do my nails!

Lacquistry's "Wonderland of Sand"

I've had this mani on the entire work week since December 17, but just realized I haven't posted about it.  Anyway, I got an awesome bunch of Lacquistry polishes from her Winter/Holiday collection, and "Wonderland of Sand" seems to the the perfectly quintessential Christmas-y glitter polish.

I also used Zoya's "Sarah" (red) and "Ivanka" (green).  It was super-pretty all week at work, and it wore like iron!  It's much more sparkly in real life.  I used 2 coats of WLOS, topped with a coat of Gelous, and finished with Seche Vite.  BTW, I do have a layer of glue under that accent nail, so removal should be a breeze!  Christmas perfection!

If you've never tried a Lacquistry, GO NOW!!  At the time of this posting, she still has polishes stocked in her Etsy shop HERE.  Check out swatches on her FB Page, too.  Jenna's the BEST when it comes to gorgeous glitter bombs!  

White Flag

I'm disappointed to say that I am officially admitting defeat, and withdrawing from Iced Lacquer's 12 days of Christmas Challenge.  My mom was just diagnosed with skin cancer (although her prognosis is very good), my moving-in date was moved up by 3 weeks, and all the Christmas shopping and festivities are just not leaving much time for challenge mani's.

I feel really bad, but I just had to take the pressure of these timelines off my plate.  I will definitely still be doing holiday-themed mani's, although just not at the challenge's pace.

Well, that's it for now.  I've cut down my nails, and I'll need to do something for the up-coming week.  Keep on admiring the other participants' creations, though! :-)

XOXO Alexis Leigh

Purple Castle

It's All About the Polish

A Ginger's Nail

The Polished Mommy

Robyn Loves Nails

Teen Polish Junkie

Mari522 (on Instagram)

Day 5 - 12 Days of Christmas: Holly/Wreaths

My Day 5 post is only 1 day behind!  Here's Iced Lacquer's 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge:

 

I decided to do holly nails inspired by THIS CUTE POLISH VIDEO.  You'll see I changed it a bit, and did red gems instead of dots for berries.  

Who knew holly leaves were such a biotch to paint?!?  I had to re-do these leaves 3 times!  I was trying to use a small paintbrush, but I ended up using a good ol' toothpick to finally get the job done ;-)

I used China Glaze "Merry Berry" and Sinful Colors "Last Chance" & "Snow Me White".  I like  how this manicure came out, and I think it's pretty festive! :-)

Check out the other challenge peeps and our hostess Iced Lacquer!

XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Mari522 (on Instagram)

Day 4: 12 Days of Christmas: Candy Canes!

OK, this challenge is kicking my rear!! I just found out our escrow will close sooner than I had thought, so now we'll be moving next month, which means that packing & planning is in over-drive around here!  I'm going to have to nub the nails pretty soon to protect them from becoming victims of some painful misfortune with all of the manual labor ahead :-/

But in the meantime, here are Day 4's nails:

Candy canes made with stripers.  I'm not so impressed with my green striper because the polish was pretty thin, but the red was awesome!  I still need practice with my striping, but I always think I'm getting better :-)

OK, gotta go and get Day 5 done! :-)

Day 3, 12 Days of Christmas: Snowflakes!

Yesterday was my birthday, and my super-crazy family took me out for a really fun dinner after work, so now I'm a day behind on my challenge...but it was totally worth it! ;-)

For this challenge, I went ahead and scoured my stamping plates and found 3 plates with snowflake designs on it.  I busted out Zoya "Song" and "Raven", and stamped it with my go-to stamping polish, Pure Ice "Silver Mercedes".  

"Song" is sooo amazing!  It's such a gorgeous blue, and it's so shimmery!  Get it.  So proud of myself for not getting behind on my challenge! ;-)

Check out the other challenge peeps and our hostess Iced Lacquer!

XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Mari522 (on Instagram)

Day 2: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Green

Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge is "Green".  I wanted to do a glitter, so I looked through my Indie stash, and found one by my absolute FAVORITE Indie Lacquistry with green glitter in it.  I really wanted to use red nails as the undies, but Day 1 was red, so I figured I could use silver as a base color again.

I LOVE the red nail!!  The glitter makes it look super Christmas-y, and now I regret not doing the undies red, or at least green!   And just what is this mystery Lacquistry polish?

It's one of her Halloween polishes "Witches Warts"!  I think it's got the potential for a very festive life after Halloween, don't you?

Check out the other cool peeps doing the challenge with me, and be sure to visit our hostess with the mostest, Iced Lacquer!

XOXO Alexis Leigh
Purple Castle
It's All About the Polish
A Ginger's Nail
The Polished Mommy
Robyn Loves Nails
Teen Polish Junkie
Mari522 (on Instagram)

Day 1: 12 Days of Christmas Challenge

OK, so I did pretty well on my first nail art challenge with the Halloween Challenge in October, but it got kinda hairy towards the end.  So when I saw a 12 Days of Christmas Nail Art Challenge posted by Iced Lacquer, I was intrigued.  It's not an every-day challenge, but it's more structured than the last challenge I did, which is helpful for a procrastinator like me :-).

So, I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to this challenge, but I remembered that the last challenge really, well, challenged my creativity, and I even tried out some new techniques.  It's good to kinda get forced outside of my comfort zone :-)

Day 1 is "Red".  Easy enough.  But it's for the holidays, so what's a girl to do?  Stamp!!

With flash:

This is Zoya "Trixie" (silver), "Sarah" (red), and "Raven" (black - duh!).  I used a Bundle Monster stamp that I think looks like poinsettias.  This is my first time using "Sarah", and she is beautiful!  Very sparkly in real life, which you can't see in the pics.  I was nervous about doing the french tips on top of the pattern, since I couldn't use acetone to clean up any wonky edges, but I think it turned out pretty good! :-D

Check out the other participants too!

XOXOAlexisLeigh

Purple Castle

It's All About the Polish

A Ginger's Nail

Robyn Loves Nails

The Polished Momy

Teen Polish Junkie

Ninja Polish Real Gold Top Coats

I did a pretty simple Zoya mani at the beginning of the work week.  Just "Kelly" grey with a "Raven" black accent nail.  After 4 days, it had held up so well throughout the week that I wanted to extend it for just a little longer.  So I added my new Ninja Polish REAL gold top coats to spice them up:

On Kelly, I added "He Went to Jarred", a 12K White Gold Flake topcoat.  On Raven, I added "The Midas Touch", a 24K Yellow Gold Flake topcoat.  These top coats are also a great bargain at $15 per bottle, as opposed to the $30 price tag I've seen on some other brands' gold flake top coat.  So I basically got 2 for one! And I LOVE white gold!

Very cool, Ninja Polish, very cool!