Apparently, the year of the dragon is big news as having a baby in this year is believed to guarantee the family good luck in the years to come. Not to mention that the dragon baby, especially if it's a boy, is believed to be destined for much success and prosperity throughout his/her life. I've even heard of stories where babies born in the year of the dragon are invited over to neighbors homes so that they can play in the house and hopefully rub off some of their innate luck. Needless to say, I wanted to incorporate a dragon into the design but my freehand skills aren't quite up to par yet so I ended up with something that looked distinctly Asian (to me, at least) instead.
Xin Nian Kuai Le/Happy New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai/May you become prosperous!
What I Used:
Red: CND Scarlet
Gold: Color Club Gingerbread Man
Stamping plates: Bundlemonster plates 215 (for the fan design on the ring finger), 204 (for the fan on the thumb) and 221 (for the Chinese character that stands for luck)
How I Did It:
I have to be honest, creating the how-to graphic was harder than doing the actual mani! I didn't want anything too over the top so I went with this simple design with two accent nails. The fan design using gold and red had an Asian/Chinese feel to it that I thought looked appropriate. Maybe a layer of holographic glitter would make this even more festive! Also something interesting to note is that the Chinese character for luck or good fortune can be used right side up or upside down. Luckily, the meaning doesn't really change much. Right side up means "luck" or "good fortune" but upside down (as shown in the graphic above), it means "a shower of good fortune/blessings".
CND Scarlet is the absolute perfect classic red.
Posing with an inscribed bamboo plate we have at home.
(I'm honestly not sure what it says but it's supposed to be something good.)
I found the character "Fu" on the lai see!
The lighting wasn't very good but you can clearly see both accent nails.
It's nowhere near as dark red as it looks here.
In other news, I was lucky enough to be part of a group of women who tested and reviewed two Kiehl's products: Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate and Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Eye Cream last December. This was hosted by the lovely Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed in Canada and Kiehl's to provide honest reviews from real women who've used the products. I was (and still am!) very impressed with my experience with both. Click here to read my review (mine is the second!) and others' thoughts on the products. I really liked how each reviewer had different skin types and ages; pretty much most of the bases were covered!
Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Monday! Do you participate in the Chinese New Year festivities (we gave out our red envelopes last night)? What's your Chinese Zodiac? Have you tried anything from Kiehl's?
