Pink Peppermint

This manicure is sweet as candy, and scented like it, too – the red and white glitter topper I layered over a sugary pink gradient, KB Shimmer’s Candy Cane Crush, smells like peppermint!  Sweeeeeeeeet.

Last Minute 4th

Happy (evening of) the 4th of July, American blogging friends and nail art aficionados! These simple nails – nothing more than three coats of Mentality Nail Polish’s blue glaze topped just at my cuticles with KB Shimmer’s red and white (and peppermint-scented!) Candy Cane Crush – took next to no time at all, which is perfect if you have July 4th plans you’re dashing out the door to attend to and have no time to wait around for perfectly patriotic paws. Good Independence Day, all!

GeoMickey (31DC2014)

I skipped over yesterday’s theme of a delicate pattern in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, eschewing any new daintiness for a repost (on Instagram at least; sandra_fingercandy if you care to give me a follow) of a not-so-old manicure I did featuring my take on the Haunted Mansion‘s damask-with-eyes printed wallpaper. I never felt like those nails got enough love given how much work they were and how well I think they turned out, so I thought I’d give them another kick at the can while I took a day off from the Disney (I know, I know, can there be such a thing?)

But I’m back in the new swing of things with this angular mani for today’s challenge theme of geometric. I’m not sure how much Mickey looks like Mickey when he’s missing his iconic bubble ears, although I think the M-O-U-S-E still shines through. The addition of a few fingers’ worth of a red and white, hex-packed glitter, KB Shimmer’s Candy Cane Crush, helps keep this manicure squarely (heh) on the side of the geometric theme.

Cherry-Vanilla Cola Fizz

I wonder which is less toxic, actual cola or this manicure.

The inspiration for this jelly sandwich manicure came from an indie polish I used to covet that both looked like and was named after Cherry Cola. I say “used to” because Cherry Cola’s maker, Happy Hands Nail Polish, no longer seems to be in active business.

But I have a caramel-coloured jelly polish, Nfu Oh’s JS39, and a cherry-and-vanilla-hued glitter polish, KB Shimmer’s Candy Cane Crush, and when the two are combined in a syrupy and fizzy-looking jelly sandwich mani, it makes for a pretty convincing dupe. I especially like the way the little white bits in the glitter polish look like tiny bubbles rising to the surface of the drink.

Glittery 4th

Happy 4th of July, American nail art fanatics! And it’s a great day for nail art, too – lots of fun, festive designs kicking around the interwebs over the past few days (including my own vintage, deconstructed take on the American flag.)

Miraculously enough, I possess no red, white and blue glitter polish. Buuuuutttt, I do have a matte blue glitter (Formula X for Sephora’s TNT) and a scented, red and white glitter (KB Shimmer’s Candy Cane Crush) that make for a pretty fantastic and holiday-appropriate substitute when combined and layered over top a bright, summery polish like this one, OPI’s No Room for the Blues. The resulting effort is a fun, looks-harder-than-it-was, splatter-type effect that’s perfect for showing off, no matter what shenanigans you find yourself up to this 4th (and you needn’t tell anybody how easy they were; much like that dip recipe that everyone fawns over even though it’s nothing more than a tub of sour cream and four types of MSG, keep this one to yourself! Some secrets are not meant to be shared!)

Don’t Be So Negative

What’s black is white is red (all over?) in this simple, glitter-based manicure that flips between the dark and the light (with just a touch of peppermint-scented red, because hey, just like your nails, life’s not always black and white…nor does it always smell all that great!)

What’s Red and White and Minty All Over?

Here’s a sweet and simple, July 4th-appropriate manicure featuring the last polish in my KB Shimmer throwback haul (in that I finally caved and bought a couple of polishes from last winter’s holiday collection), Candy Cane Crush. It’s your pretty basic red and white matte glitter topper, with the twists here being a) it’s positively stuffed with itsy bitsy hexes, giving the polishes it tops a sort of splattered, speckled effect and b) it smells like peppermint-vanilla! Simultaneously refreshing and subtle, it has a sweet, pleasant scent, not a bit cloying like some of the more traditional scented nail polishes on offer (and here I’m thinking of the polish I once regrettably purchased from a junk jewellery store that smelled exactly like electric bubblegum on crack. Plus it was an ugly colour.)