Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Nail Art Wednesday: Peppermint Candy Inspired Red and White Nails

One of the best things about the holidays are the Christmas treats that we can all rely on to appear every year. Now, I'm not particularly fond of eggnog (I'm thinking I have yet to taste a really good recipe for it and the one you buy in cartons just aren't the best) but the gajillion chocolate treats that pop up each year are definitely a big hit! One of my favorite drinks from coffee shops is their cafe mocha (no surprise there), but with a dash of peppermint, it suddenly says "Happy Holidays"! Isn't it funny how certain food/tastes convey different events? Like turkey is to Thanksgiving, so is peppermint is to Christmas! It happened that I was munching on a peppermint candy cane while brainstorming ideas for holiday nail art. This is what I ended up doing:

Peppermint Candy Canes and Peppermint Candy inspired nails

What I Used:
Red: NYC In a New York Minute Madison Avenue
White: Wet N Wild French White Creme

How I Did It:
 

I was really just experimenting when I did this and I had to work fast to make sure the polishes didn't dry until I'd done the swirling. If you're wondering, I particularly chose the polishes I used for their close-to-watery consistency as that makes it somewhat easier to swirl the colors together. Also, you'll need to work fast so it will be best to do one nail at a time.

I was hoping for a more peppermint candy swirl effect but since I randomly did the swirling, I also ended up with random patterns. In hindsight, it might've been best to start my swirling at the middle of the white dot in the centre and make strokes in a "C" curve towards the nail edges and repeat it, forming a radiating pattern of "C"s throughout the nail. That might give me the peppermint candy swirl effect I wanted.

Natural light/No flash
Not as messy as a water marbled mani but still fun in a tie-dye kind of way.

Natural light/With flash
Random but altogether not bad for a first try.

Posing with a (faux) poinsettia

With some (faux) Christmas greenery and red berries

Hammie says: Can you believe it's only 19 days till Christmas? Isn't it just so exciting?

6 comments:

  1. This is such a cool manicure! Haha, get it? COOL! ;) Oh boy...bad joke. (I'm a fan of bad jokes, actually.)

    I like this design because other people can replicate it, and it looks like the process of swirling would be fun in itself.

    Thanks for sharing this, Carmela! :)

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  2. Hahaha! Bad joke or not, I still thought it was funny. But then Hammie says I'll laugh at anything remotely funny so... :P

    Thanks so much, Mary! I was really just playing around and trying to see if I can recreate something similar to those water marble manis that I wish I could do. I've attempted them a couple of times and all I've ended up with was a big, fat mess. I really liked how this was more manageable and you still get the swirling of the different colors as they mix. I hope you try it! :)

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  3. I really like this look and your festive backgrounds in your photos! I'm also a huge fan of the "tutorial" nails. How CUUUUTE!

    I am a sucker for peppermint teas and especially peppermint lattes at Starbucks. Mint choc is also yum. Mint truffles. *salivating*

    I'm hoping to do a gingerbread mani and a hot choc and marshmallow inspire manicure sometime soon ;) lol

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  4. Wee, thanks so much Marta! :) I do try to make the backgrounds appropriate to theme I'm going for. I'm glad you like the tutorial graphics! They can take a bit more time to make but I find that when I can show actual photos of how I did it, it's a very good replacement visual aid. :)

    Ooooh, you're making me crave peppermint lattes! After Eight chocolate mints were the first that did me in.

    Those sound lovely! I'm particularly looking forward to the hot chocolate and marshmallow manicure. :D Can't wait!

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  5. REALLY like this idea. I know I could never do water marble, so this is a great idea. Wonder what other colors would work? Could you even add a third dot of a different color to the center???

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  6. Hi Shoshana! I know what you mean about water marbling. It's so messy the first time I tried it and it didn't come out as amazing as all the others I've seen, either! I think you can experiment with different colors. Neons are big right now so that might be something fun to try. Pastels would look pretty, too! Oh, you can definitely add a third dot of a different color. The most I'd go with is 4 dots tho, just because any more would mean too much polish and you'll end up having to remove excess from the sides, as well as a potentially way longer dry time. Hope that helps! :D

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