'Tis the Season....

So, part of what prompted me to begin this blog was my online wanderings after painting my nails for the holiday season. Posting a photo of my Christmas nails to Instagram made me wonder how many other people do exactly the same thing every day!

As a word of warning, I took the photos in this post before I had planned on blogging, so beware crappy iPhone photos in crappy lighting. Future photos will definitely be more composed.

Keep reading to learn more about this look...

Christmas Nails '13

So, this is a simple manicure, sure, but it was fun and festive. As I'm only starting to rebuild a nail polish collection after living abroad for 5 years, I took a trip to Walmart to pick up a few good Christmas colors that I lacked.

My pinky, middle finger and thumb are painted using Salon Perfect Salsa Dance (Walmart, $3.98). It's a nice bright red creme nail polish that went on smooth and had a nice bright gloss to it.

My ring and pointer fingers were painted with Sinful Colors Garden Party (Walmart, $1.98). (I can't seem to find the color listed online, so am simply linking to the Sinful Colors collection), This is a cooler bright jungle green in a creme finish. It actually went on pretty opaque with one coat, but I put on a second to even things out.

The white I used for the polka dots is Sinful Colors Snow Me White (Walmart, $1.98), an opaque creme white that seems good for detailing. When I painted my full nails with the color, though, it seemed a bit streaky.

Once the nails were painted in their base color, I used a toothpick to create the dots since I don't yet have any dotting tools. To do this, take a toothpick and cut the point off, then dip the now blunt-end into the nail polish of your choice and dot away! I've since learned that you can do the same thing with the rounded end of a bobby pin.

All nails were painted over a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty (which also served as my top coat). while it isn't the best base and top coat you can use, it does in a pinch and, for the most part, kept the colors from staining.