ACNC Day 24: Recreate A Holiday Mani

Hey everyone

We've reached the end of the challenge. I'm so happy that I actually started and finished a challenge. It was super hard to do at times with my little one and having to paint every day. Especially while I work full time and had Christmas crap to do. I'm super proud of myself!

Day 24 was to recreate a Holiday Mani. My first and only choice for this one was IHaveACupcake's Christmas Nail Art on Youtube. You can view the tutorial here.

Polished Used: 

1. Zoya's America
2. Wet N Wild's Ebony Hates Chris
3. Essence's Wanna Be My Sunshine
4. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Jumpin' Jade
5. Orly's Prince Charming

ACNC Day 23: Rudolph

Hey everyone

I had so many plans for this mani, but I ended up not really using anything like I wanted. I did 2 reindeer and put red on one of the noses so it was Rudolph. Then I made Santa on the Thumb and elves on the index and pinky finger. It was a cute mani, my only problem was a forgot antlers. :)

Polishes Used:

1. Zoya's America
2. Color Club's Feelin' Groovy
3. Pure Ice's Magic
4. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
5. Milani One Coat Glitter's Gold Glitz
6. Wet N Wild's Ebony Hates Chris
7. Essence;s Glamorous Life

ACNC Day 22: Fruitcake

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These nails... I was dreading doing fruitcake nails. I honestly am not even sure what Fruitcake looks like, I had to google it. I was completely at a loss so I decided to just do a drip mani. I started off by painting my nails with Pure Ice's Magic. Then I took OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls and placed dots all on my nails. Using the same color I then made the drips. Lastly I took Essence's Glamorous Life, Wanna Be Your Sunshine, and Trust in Fashion to make the "fruits". And with a little bit of Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes for the highlights, my nails were done. 

The frustrating part? I was dreading doing these nails and once I was done with them, I loved them so much I didn't want to take them off.

ACNC Day 21: Water Marble

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Day 21 was Water Marble. I actually did this exact design using the exact same colors 2 years ago. I used Pure Ice's Siren & Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Green With Envy. I haven't done a water marble in quite a long time, but it was required so... :) 

It was quite difficult at first. I was originally going to do black and gray since it was "The End of the World", but I became to frustrated. And just for fun here's my old water marble from forever ago.

Oh geez. My water marbling has thankfully improved. 

ACNC Day 20: Candy

Hey everyone

I was waiting on this day. I watch Robin Moses pretty regularly and saw the tutorial she did on a Candy Cane nail. The tutorial is here. I really enjoy chevron nails and I wanted to try to do some tiny nail art. I think for my first try at following a Robin Moses tutorial. 

The Red is Zoya's America. The Silver is Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. The white is OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. To make the gray for the 3D effect on the bow and cane I mixed Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here with OPI's MBSW.

ACNC Day 19: Ugly Christmas Sweater

Hey everyone

I did actually finish this challenge on time. Just via Instagram. It's so much easier to post photos then to write up a full post. Hence why I'm late. Sorry about that. Anyway, December 19th was Ugly Sweater Day. Everyone was doing the exact same nail art, so I had to do something different. I tried my hand at my first Aztec Print using the tutorial from JauntyJill on Youtube. You can watch the video here. Then I wanted to try Sugar Spins so I used the tutorial from XOXOAlexisLeigh on Youtube. You can watch the video here.

I was inspired by Bill Cosby's sweaters to be honest. I just happened to use Christmas like colors. Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here for the gray. Zoya's America for the red. And OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the white of course. :)

ACNC Day 18: Classic

Hey everyone

Today is a day 18 and it's Classic. This really took me a second to figure out what I wanted to do. Then I decided I wanted to do a half moon, but what kind? I didn't want to just do a plain one. So I looked through a folder of my favorite nails I've seen on the web. I then found The Nailasaurus' half moon she did for the Tadashi Shoji Nail Art Challenge. I knew I had to try them. It's very rare for me to see a stamped design and actually have the stamp these days. I still need the 2012 Bundle Monster collection. This mani features Bundle Monster Plate BM21 from their 2010 collection. Today I'm going to also show you step by step how to do this mani. I'm quite excited and I hope you are too!

Start off with your base coat. Then cut hole reinforcers in half. Put them on your fingers one at a time right above your cuticle line. I used OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls to cover anything that wasn't covered by the hole reinforcers. 

I then used Pure Ice's Celestial along with BM21 to stamp the design on my nails. Pure Ice is the go to polish when it comes to water marbling and stamping. I'm not sure what makes them so different from the bigger brands, but they are perfect for these techniques. I couldn't recommend them enough. And they are so cheap too! 

Once they stamp is done remove the hole reinforcers. This will give you a clean line. If you have any leakage from under the tape use a little bit of acetone and just wipe it away with a Q-Tip or brush.

Now you can leave it like this if you want. If you have longer nails you could even do this as a french manicure instead of a half moon mani. But I wanted to smooth everything out. So I then used a nail brush from my Bundle Monster nail brush collection and traced the line of the half moon with Celestial.

I'm quite in love with these nails. I know I've said that a bunch throughout this challenge, but I'm quite happy with myself. I haven't really done my nails a whole lot since I had my son, so I was worried I'd lost my touch. I think I'm only getting better. I hope I've done Sam justice and you guys like these! If you attempt this mani using my tutorial please send me the link to your nails, I'd love to see them!