The Classic Christmas Lights Mani

Happy weekend, everyone! I hope yours is going wonderfully so far :D It's been rainy here the past couple of days, but I don't mind--I rather like the rain, plus it's a welcome reprieve from the hot summer weather.

For today's nails, the title says it all. Painting Christmas lights on your nails is not a unique idea, but it's one I really wanted to do. I did add my own unique touch, though--I used a matte base and lots of clear coat to make the bulbs really stand out and look like glass! Check it out:

The background for my lights is two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Golden-I. Such a nice cool shimmery gold foil shade. I was hoping that this colour + a matte topcoat would look like OPI Love.Angel.Music.Baby, the gold satin-finish polish that was part of their Gwen Stefani collection. It's not quite the same as this...

(image from Nail Polish Canada)

...but I feel like it's close enough to satisfy what has been a lemming for a while. It's so hard to find all the OPI shades here!

Anyway, I used a green Sharpie fineline marker to draw on the cord for the light-string, then topped it all off with OPI Matte Topcoat. Once that was fully dry, I used a small detail brush and four polishes to create the lights: OPI DS Magic (blue), Orly Glowstick (yellow), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Emerald City (green), and an orangey-red holo frankenpolish. I tried to choose colours that were 1) true to the colours of the light strings we always had when I was growing up, and 2) translucent enough to let the bright gold base shine through and make them really look like they were glowing!

indoors with flash

Now for the fun part! I grabbed an old bottle of Seche Vite that's gone a bit thick, and started painting coats of it over just the bulbs, with the same small brush. It took about 3-4 blobs per bulb, but by the end I had a raised-up, shiny clear dome over each one, and I think it looks really cool. If I had clear gel it might have been even better (certainly easier since I wouldn't need as many coats).

Outdoors, partly-cloudy day

And another. At this angle you can see the 3D-effect bulbs :)

Outdoors in shade. I think my thumb came out best!

I can't stop touching these. The soft matte plus the little smooth bumps make for such an interesting tactile experience.

So there you have it--my first Christmas mani of the year! There will be plenty more this month, so have a lovely weekend and come back soon! xoxo