Greetings from the Great White North!

I hope everybody has had a wonderful holiday! I'm still on vacation in the Yukon, but doing manicures like crazy on all the gals in my family. I will have a few big posts when I get back in mid January!

I just wanted to pop in and do a "Woooopeee!!!" because I noticed this evening that I have reached 100 followers! Yay!! Thank you everybody for your support and for the comments. I REALLY appreciate them all! I have a few little things put away for my very first giveaway, which I will host as soon as I get back into the groove at home.

So exciting!

Happy New Year everybody!

<3
JQ

2 Christmas Manicures before I catch my flight!

Joyeux Noel!

This was last week's festive manicure! My take on Christmas holly and wreaths. I painted a white base, then stamped using my new Apple Green Konad special polish, then painted around it all with Essie's Lacquered Up. A few red dots for the holly berries!



My new friend Alikat came over for a manicure Monday and we had a nice evening visiting and painting and stamping. :) This is the Chrismtas mani I'll be wearing for the trip home! Hopefully it will get the gals in my family inspired for their own manicures! There are a few slumber parties in the works. :)


I was inspired by PHD 's red manicure with snowflake so I used it on my ring fingers. :)

Merry Christmas everybody! I'll be back again with blog posts in mid-January!
<3
JQ

Poinsettias with Rhinestones

Hello Jellos! I'm back before the holidays with another mani that I did yesterday.

I filed down my nails and squared them off again and I remembered how much I love them like this. Sure there's not much space but I can get through the days without chipping/breaking a nail and they look fairly cute.

I probably should have used bullion beads again because I was going for the poinsettia look, but I was staring forlornly at my rhinestone wheel wanting to use them so I caved. You can't really tell in the photos but the ring finger is actually darker green rhinestones.


I used 2 coats of Claire's Snow Ball for the base colour, then stamped using image plate # BM06 and Wet n' Wild Precious Metals Red Graphite. Then rhinestones and a topcoat!


My rhinestones didn't last much longer than a day before a few came off and I obsessively picked the rest off. *sigh* I have this love/hate thing going on. But I used a dotting tool and some emerald green polish to fill in the centers this morning and that got me through the day.

I just went out and picked up three new Konad stamping polishes in Yellow, Apple Green and Chocolate and I CAN'T wait to use them. I also caved and picked up Sally Hansen X-Treme Wear Rockstar Pink along with another Wet N' Wild French White Creme (base white and black are so essential for me). Eee!

Again Merry Christmas and if I have my way I'll be posting another manicure tomorrow afternoon!
<3
JQ

Two Christmas Manis!

Feeling the Christmas spirit yet? I know I am. I've been having more fun with sponges and Konad. :)

This first one I used 2 coats of Claire's Snow Ball for the base color, then sponged some Revlon Emerald City matte suede polish onto 3/4 of the nail towards the tip. Then I went over the whole nail using the plaid pattern from image plate plate m60 and Konad special polish in white. This made it look like the white at the base of the nail turned plaid over the green. Then I made little poinsettia flowers with Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar and I used some of my new gold bullion beads for the first time! When the topcoat went on all the hidden shimmer in the matte green polish popped up under the white plaid. Too bad I couldn't take a good picture of the glimmer on the nail but the macro on my camera is seriously lacking.



This is the mani I am currently sporting. I used 2 coats of Claire's Rain drops as a base color, then sponged on Sinful Colors Show Me The Way (pretty grassy green shimmer) 3/4 of the way up the nail. Then sponged Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar onto the tip of each nail, so the nail fades from grey at the base to grassy green to deep red. After this was dry I stamped using Konad image plate m60 with a plaid pattern. I used Sally Hansen Chrome Crystal so it pops. The photo doesn't do it nearly enough justice.




I wanted to leave everyone a note to say that I am getting ready to fly home to the Yukon for Christmas and won't be back until mid January. I hope to be in with at least one more post before the New Year but things might get too busy. I do hope to be doing a bunch of guest manicures while I am home for the holidays so I promise I will take photos for posts in the new year. Wishing you all the very best during the holidays and all year round. Merry Christmas! Peace be with you.

<3
JQ

Dusky Rose Paisley

Hi everyone!

Is it just me or is Christmas approaching at nearly the speed of light? Well this manicure wouldn't reflect that at all. I'm not sure why I didn't try a nice Christmas mani using this stamp, because I think it would look pretty stellar, but I have this addiction to Sinful Colors Vacation Time right now. There's probably all kinds of similar pinks out there but that's the only one of it's kind in my collection currently and I just adore it. It's my dirty dirty pink. :P


For this mani I used Sinful Colors Vacation Time as the base and sponged on a couple layers of Sinful Colors Tokyo Pearl at the tips.


I used Konad image plate #m60 for the paisley pattern, stamped using Konad special polish in Black pearl. I apologize for the blur in some of these photos.


Once I was done stamping I used Sally Hansen Intsa-Dri Anti-Chip top Coat to seal it up, and I didn't experience any smudging fo the stamped polish. Awhile ago I switched my Insta-Dri polish into a different empty polish bottle because the brush was wider and softer and I hoped this might help with the blur. Either I had magic touch this time or the brush is actually working. Any blur you do see is because I wasn't careful enough with my stamping and it moved a little before I drew away or because my stinkin' camera wasn't stable enough when I took the shot.


You might be able to see from some of the photos a hint of what the Tokyo Pearl does at the tips. It really got some depth when the top coat went on and it shimmers beautifully under the stamp. I can't wait to try this again with steadier hands! I really have to lay off the java.

Cheers!
JQ

A Giveaway I'm Entering

I can't say no and I wanted to let you know about it too!
TIRNAKLAR FORA is having a super awesome Booty Holographic giveaway. Check it out and enter here!
ENDS DEC 20 2010
Here is one of the photos:


Super cool! I'm making a Christmas wish to win! :P

Snowflakes

Happy Sunday! I'm a day late and it's more like a general winter themed mani rather than a Christmas themed one, but I'm diggin' it. :) When I go to my Christmas happy place it's almost always blue first.



Base colour: Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau
Sponge tips: Sinful Colors Love Nails and Revlon Top Speed Royal
Stamp polish: Sally Hansen Chrome Crystal
Image plate: BM14
Accents: I placed royal blue hex sparkles in the center of each snowflake and Cover Girl City Lights on areas around snowflakes for a little subtle glimmer.

Thanks for stopping by!
<3
JQ

80s Kisses

Hiya!

I'm sorry this post is very brief. It seems like things just won't calm down for us until after Christmas vacation. I had hoped to be able to set aside more time for the nail blogging, but as it is I spent a few hours on this mani yesterday and it was a bit too much time. I wound up botching my nails on my right hand because I thought it was dry enough. Oops. These were just taken this morning and even my left hand is a bit gummed. But I really like the effect and it reminded me how much I miss sponging. I think there'll be more of that through the holidays. As you can see winter is still having a drastic effect on my skin and cuticles. Ick.


I used Sinful Colors Cream Pink base colour, then sponged on SC Bali Mist at the tips. I stamped the kisses using BM02. The stamping polishes were Sally Hansen Chrome in Crystal and Konad Black Pearl.



Hopefully I'll have a new Christmas themed manicure on Saturday!

<3
JQ