The Digital Dozen does Red, Green & Gold - Day 1: Sweater Print...again

Nothing to Disclose

Holy cow, I can't believe it's been a month since I took part in my first Digital Dozen challenge! They didn't kick me out after last month so today marks the beginning of my second challenge with this wonderful group and our theme for the week is Red, Green & Gold. Get ready for what will surely be a very Christmas-y week here on Wondrously Polished ;)

December Nail Art Challenge - Day 2: Lights

Nothing to Disclose

I've got another post for you tonight in hopes of getting caught up with the December Nail Art Challenge. I suppose some things never change because I'm positive that I was useless last year as well and was always behind. 

I was supposed to have my "Lights" themed look done between the 4th and the 6th but...well, it's almost the end of the 7th so clearly I'm not one for punctuality. 

I've been seeing tons of super cute Christmas Light manis floating around and that was my initial thought when I was considering the light theme. But I was talking with the boyfriend last night and we were discussing places we would love to travel and my bucket list includes Iceland. I started looking at things to do there and apparently you can take guided Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) tours! It was then I knew two things for certain: that I was in fact going to make it to Iceland one day and take that tour and that I was going to paint the northern lights on my nails for this theme...such meaningful epiphanies I have! ;) 

  

Aurora Borealis - Source

Landlia Polish - Swatches & Review

Press Sample

Hello, all! I'm sorry I've been lacking in posting. I've been...I'm not even sure what. Trying to find my sanity, perhaps? ;) But! Tonight I've got a great little indie brand to share with you all! 

Landlia Polish was created by the husband/wife duo, Shannon and Dustin, in an effort to create colors and finishes that weren't being produced by the big name brands...and I'm so jealous of this! I think we all know this frustration of not being able to find that perfect color and wish we could just make it ourselves. Thank goodness for indie makers like Landlia who help lazy bums like me fill out my collection with beautiful polishes. Shannon has been swatching on her Instagram @shan3270 for over a year so she knows what does and doesn't work when it comes to polishes...and she has some awesome nail art to boot :)

Christmas Tree

This was one of my favorites of the polishes I was sent. Christmas Tree is a green jelly with green hex, square, bar and micro glitters and has some large multi-colored round glitters mixed in as "ornaments" I'm assuming. I think this is such a fun polish for this time of year. The application was a breeze and easy to apply. The green jelly base of this polish is very sheer so I would definitely recommend using this over another polish, though I'm sure with enough patience you can build up the opacity and wear it on its own.

I decided to have some fun with this one so I did a green gradient as my base and put a coat of Christmas Tree on top of it, and yes, instant Christmas tree! My only complaint with this one was that I had to really fish the colored round glitter out as they sunk to the bottom.

One coat of Christmas Tree over a green gradient

December Nail Art Challenge - Day 1: Pattern

Nothing to Disclose

Way back in December of last year I decided to give a nail art challenge a try. I would never have thought that it would spurn this mad love of nail art, but I can fully attribute those nail art challenges to my improvement and advancement as a nail artist. They pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone and try things I never would have on my own and for anyone looking to improve their skill and range, a challenge is by far the best way to go about that. 

The Challenge I took part in last year was one put on by Californails on Instagram and I remember being so incredibly proud of the snowflake nail art I had created. I had just gotten my first set of nail art brushes and had finally figured out how to use it and I created this mani. I've decided to continue the cycle and participate (if I can!) in this year's December Nail Art Challenge as well! It's all done on Instagram using tags to show your looks but I really enjoy doing them. 

NPC 2nd Annual Holiday Nail Art Challenge - Day 1: Snow

Nothing to Disclose

I'm so excited for tonight's post if only for the fact that I'm doing nail art again! It's been far too long since I've gotten to be creative and it felt so wonderful to sit down with all of my polishes and just paint. 

Today's mani was done as an entry into Nail Polish Canada's 2nd Annual Holiday Nail Art Challenge! The first theme was "snow" and we could interpret that in any way we wanted. Sadly (or perhaps to those who dislike the snow, luckily), I don't live in an area that gets snow...but I love it. I am particularly fond of how snow looks piled atop branches and while browsing for inspiration, I came across an image of a red cardinal perched on a pine branch that was covered in snow. Needless to say, I fell in love with the contrast of the red, green and white of the snow and knew I had to do it. So, here is my "snow" themed look inspired by that image :)