Color Club Ho Ho Holly & X-mas Dot Mani

Christmas is bearing down on us with a fury as the days are just flying by faster than ever, it seems.  I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet.  Fortunately for me, I don't have too many people to shop for.  Is it awful for me to say that I'm waiting for December 21st to come and go before I start my shopping?  Yup, call me crazy, but it's true.

To get us in the holiday mood, I did my nails up in Color Club's Ho Ho Holly and then when I grew tired of it added a little dot magic for fun.  Ho Ho Holly is part of the Winter Affair Collection and to me, is the prettiest one of the bunch.  I picked it up at Sally's last month for under $5.  It really is a stunning green with lots of shimmer, shine and sparkle.  Very Christmas-y, indeed.

For this mani, I used Orly Bonder base, with 3 coats of Ho Ho Holly and topped with SV.  This polish went on very smoothly, no streakies - not too thick and not too thin.  Perfection in a bottle. I have to also add that it is wearing very well.  I'm on day four and am hardly showing any wear at all.  

After 2 days of Ho Ho Holly all by its lonesome, I decided to dot it out with some red and gold dots.  I'm not going to bother listing the colors I used for the dots, because you get the gist of it.  I have learned that laying out your dot pattern using a white dot base before layering on the color to the dot is best when using a darker base color or polish.  That way, the contrasting color dot can be sure to stand out as it's supposed to.  

I really like the way the dots came out on this one.  They're raised and look like little buttons or candy dots.  And I love how easy dot manicures are to do and yet they can have so much impact.  What do you think?  Are you going to X-mas decorate your nails this season?

Well that's about it from me, for now.  Happy Holidays!!!

China Glaze Electric Beat Dot Mani

I'm really digging the whole dot manicure thing and trying to get the most out of all the nail polish I have and my tools.  The payoff is so good for such little effort.

I had picked up China Glaze Electric Beat at Sally's because it was on clearance and loved it so much, I couldn't bear to take it off, but at the same time I was getting bored.  So I figured the best was to get some freshness and added longevity to Electric Beat was to go dot.

I used Electric Beat as my base.

such a preeeetty blue!

Then picked out a few colors in my stash that I thought would compliment it. 

OPI DS Coronation, Revlon Blue Lagoon, CG Electric Beat, Butter London Victoriana

I used a piece of foil and folded it in half to make it a little more stiff and dropped a pool of the first color I was going to use, which was Blue Lagoon.  I dotted all my nails using the same polish keeping in mind the design I wanted and then let dry.  I keep a cotton ball with acetone on it in the corner of my foil to wipe the tips of my dotting tools so that they don't get globby.  If the pool of polish starts to dry, I just drop another little pool on the foil.  I noticed that applying the dots with the "side" of the tool vs straight down on the tip seems to be more effective in getting a nice dot shape.

Then I switched to Victoriana and finally Coronation.  I let everything dry completely before apply a topped of SV.  

Hope you like it.  

Until next time.  ☺

China Glaze For Audrey - Dot Manicure

I am loving my new dotting tools.  I found a blog, which I can't seem to find the link to, that used similar colors and this pattern, so I though it would give it a shot.  I am loving the result and have gotten so many compliments on this mani.  So much so, that I've been wearing the same mani since Thursday night.  Now that's a rarity!

Here we go!

I used Orly Bonder and two coats of For Audrey by China Glaze to start. I love For Audrey because it's that perfect Tiffany blue.  My bathroom towels are this color.  Just lovely.  

These are the colors I used for the dots.  I used them all pretty randomly and in random sizes.  No real planning other that what I wanted the shape of the pattern to look like. 

I topped it with SV and there you go.  Super easy, but delightful mani in no time.  

Hope you like it!

Until next time.  ☺

Copycat Dot Manicure - So cute I had to steal it!

I saw this manicure done by Sarah at Chalkboard Nails  (<-- click here and follow her Blog because she is AWESOME!) and I just had to nailjack it for myself.  You can see the instructions so simply and eloquently stated by Sarah on her Blog for more info on how to execute it.
I used the same tools, only different colored polish.  I had just received my dotting tools by mail via Ebay purchase the day before I decided to do this.  In other words,  I was a dot manicure virgin, so please excuse any mistakes you might see.  I do have to say, with this being my first go at it, that I did pretty good and can't wait to try another one.

 Here are the tools:
I bought these on Ebay for $1.89 and free shipping.  They came all the way from Hong Kong!

Here are the colors (you can find Essence @ Ulta for $.99 a little bottle):

I used some plain old tin foil to put the nail polish on to use for the dots.  Easy clean up.

And the results:

So simple and yet such impact.  What do you think?  Think you'll have a go at a dot manicure yourself?

Until next time.  :)