Reindeer

Merry Christmas eve, everyone! And to those who aren't celebrating Christmas, happy late-December! This is my last Holiday themed post (aww) but I tried to make it a good one. I present to you: Reindeer nails!

You will need:

- Base coat

- White polish

- Light brown polish

- Black striper

- Dotting tool

- Dark brown polish

- Red polish

- Black polish

 Start off with a base coat, and then paint each of your nails white.

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

 Add little circles to the bottom half of each nail using the light brown polish.

China Glaze - Foie Gras

With the black striper, start with two stripes on each nail to create the antlers.

Art Deco striper - Black

 Draw a few lines coming out from each antler to complete the look.

With the dark brown polish and dotting tool, add little brown noses to each reindeer but the accent nail.

Essie - Little Brown Dress

 For the accent, use the red polish and dotting tool to create Rudolph's nose.

Rimmel - Blood Red

 Using the white polish and dotting tool, start the eyes.

Add a small black dot within each eye using the dotting tool once more.

Sally Hansen - Black Heart

At the last second, I decided to add some little ears to each reindeer. You can do this with a toothpick, small dotting tool, or just the polish brush.

There you have it! You can go ahead and add a top coat, but my camera decided to die on me before I had time to add one myself, and I was too lazy to take pictures afterwards (hehe, sorry!). But these nails are extremely easy, and they're great conversation starters. 

To stay tuned for my upcoming tutorials don't forget to follow here, 'like' on Facebook, and follow on Twitter. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful holiday!

- Muffin

Santa Nails

So Christmas is quickly approaching, and you have NO idea how you're going to paint your nails for the big day! You need something quick, easy, and sure to spread holiday joy - Santa Claus!

You will need:
- Base coat
- Green polish (or base color of your choice)
- Tan/skin tone polish
- Red polish
- White polish
- Dotting tool
- Top coat

Start off with a base coat, as usual! Then paint down a layer or two of your base color. I chose green because I thought it would look very Christmas-y with Santa's red hat, but you could really do anything. Since most of the base color will be covered up by the end, it doesn't need to be perfect, but make sure that it's solid. (Don't skimp on the extra coats!)

Sinful Colors - Envy

Now for Santa's head. Using a skin-toned polish, paint a nice little circle/semi-circle around the tips of the nails. The circle should go about halfway up each nail.

Essie - Sand Tropez

Next, it's time for the hat. Using a red polish, paint a hat-shaped triangle on the top of each Santa head. The point and the base don't have to be perfect; they'll be covered up with white polish later.

Kiss Colors - True Red

Using your dotting tool, add a dot of white to the top of the hat and across the base of the hat.

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

 Now add the beard, using the white polish and dotting tool again. I had to try a couple different things before I was truly satisfied with how the beards looked, so I'd suggest testing them on a note card before painting them onto your nails.

Using the dotting tool and black polish, dot on two eyes. Make sure they're not too big, like they were on my pinkie nail- I got a bit carried away with the dotting tool! Try to aim more for what the eyes look like on my ring finger.

Sally Hansen - Black Heart

Using the red polish again, dot on little noses for each Santa. Add a top coat and you're good to go!

Although Christmas is two weeks away, spread some holiday cheer early with these festive Santa nails. If you don't celebrate Christmas, you could easily turn these into cute gnomes by switching up the colors (although, I'll admit, gnomes don't really go with the season, but if you really wanted to...). 

If you'd like to see my upcoming Holiday-themed tutorials, make sure to  follow here, 'like' on Facebook, and follow on Twitter.

Thanks for reading! Happy holidays!

- Muffin

Candy Cane Gradient

Hey, fellow nail polish addicts! Happy December. My part of Illinois has had 40-70 degree weather for the past three or so days, and it feels nothing like winter here, but I still needed a nail design to suit the season! Behold, candy cane gradients!

My inspiration for these was actually pretty random. Has anyone seen that one blogger background with the gradient stripes? I saw that on another blog and thought, "hey. I'm going to recreate that on my nails." I was also determined to do a candy cane-themed manicure some time during winter, but didn't want to do the typical red and white stripes, so my brain just put two and two together and came up with candy cane gradient. Here's my tutorial!

You will need:

- Base coat

- Red polish

- White polish

- Scotch tape or striping tape

- Makeup sponge

- Top coat



 Start of with a base coat- you know the drill! Then add your red polish. This one is Gogo Girl from Sinful Colors. I'm not a huge SC fan by any means, but this red is the perfect Christmas color. It's also a jelly, so bonus points there!
And before I get any farther I'd like to apologize for the ugly shape of my first finger. It broke but was still attached by some threads, and I tried to glue it together, but it came off completely after a day or two *sigh* and I just couldn't bring myself to cut all of my nails down to even nubbins, so we're going to have to put up with seeing my sad broken nail for a while.

Sinful Colors - Gogo Girl

 Cut scotch tape into little thin strips and place them onto the nail, like in the picture below.

I wasn't able to photograph this complete step, because it was necessary to remove the tape quickly to prevent nail polish smudges, but I hope it's pretty easy to figure out. I put some of the white polish onto the makeup sponge, sponged a gradient on the nail with the tape, and peeled the tape off. And bingo, you have yourself a candy cane gradient!

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

That's all there is to it! You can repeat this on all of your nails or leave it on your ring finger as an accent. If you're prone to getting polish on your skin when you do gradients (AKA me), just use a small paint brush dipped into nail polish remover to clean it all up. Don't forget your top coat!

And there you have it! This one can be a little time consuming if you have to cut up the scotch tape and place it on each nail, so I'd recommend setting aside an hour to do this manicure, unless you have striping tape available. Show off your winter spirit with these bright candy canes, and make sure to eat some real ones while you're at it!

To see what tutorials I have in store for the rest of the holiday season, don't forget to follow here, 'like' on Facebook, and follow on Twitter.

Thanks for reading!

- Muffin