Zoya Christmas Matte French Twist

I love Zoya's matte polishes.  I think I own almost every color they've made in the matte finish because they are just so freaking gorgeous!  Today's manicure was a no brainer.  I loved the trend that Zoya promoted earlier this year called the French Twist, so I decided to create a Christmas one using their matte colors: Verushka (green) and Posh(red).  You may remember the french twist look I did with Dove and Portia from August or the very summery citrus french twist I did in July with Pippa and Jancyn.  As you can tell, I'm a big fan of the look.  But now looking back I wish I would've added a little more design to this manicure.  Oh well!  Enjoy!

Pretty Christmas Party Nails

I had my company Christmas party last week, and I wanted a really classy ornate Christmas design on my nails for the event.  Here is what I came up with:

Check this out ^ I even managed to do the design on my left hand! 

Here are the steps I took:

1. Drew a diagonal french on each nail with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Silver Sweep.
2. Using a detailing brush, I created the cute little swirls in Zoya Verushka.  I followed this tutorial on Youtube to teach me how to draw the swirls.
3. After a coat of Seche Clear I added three little red rhinestones to represent some Holly Berries.

I love all the cute Christmas looks, but I think sometimes its nice to have a break and do something ~*fancy*~

Funny Story: I actually went and got a professional pedicure the day of my company Christmas party, and the ladies at the nail salon were studying my manicure HARDCORE!  They all couldn't believe I did it myself, and wanted to know how I did it of course!  ;) 

Gingerbread Men Nail Art Stamping Manicure

Two nail looks in one day, you guys are so lucky! For this look I wanted to play with some of the many Christmas designs on my nail plates. This little gingerbread man comes from BM222 (I just cleaned off the excess design that surrounds him to just get the gingerbread man, and then stamped him twice. The color I used is the Sonia Kashuk brown from my earlier manicure. The candy cane in the middle of the two gingerbread men are from a set of plates I got from Born Pretty Store. This stamp was also used on my Candy Cane Nails from a couple of weeks ago.  I used the Konad Red stamping polish for them.

I think this is a really cute design, and is a great example of how to use multiple images and changing the images that come with the plates can be used to compose a "scene"  Hope you are liking this huge influx of Christmas designs this week!

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Nails

Aren't these little guys cute?  I got the idea for them from IHaveACupcake on Youtube.  Watch her video for a tutorial on how to do some of Santa's other little friends.  For my reindeer, I used a brown from Sonia Kashuk for the base color, Zoya Amanda for the snout, the Milani Red Sparkle for the nose.  This whole design was created using a dotting tool. 

Christmas Sweater Nails

When I saw this pin on Pinterest, I fell in love!  What an awesome Christmas look!  Extra bonus: it came with a tutorial!  I'll be honest, this look was a challenge!  Mine definitely doesn't look as good as Never Too Much Glitter's I'm going to blame it on using nail polish instead of acrylic paint.  Here's hoping Santa brings me some for Christmas!

My base color for this manicure is Rimmel Gray Matter.  I used a white striper for the white parts, and a konad red stamping color for the red parts.  The deer and the snowflakes were stamped, not hand-done because I wanted them to look nice and so I could save some time. 

I know I'm the most inconsistent blogger out there, but I"m hoping to make that up to you with a TON of Holiday looks this week!  I've got a huge backlog of manicures, so I may be posting multiple times a day to give you some last minute nail art ideas!

Snowman Nails

Happy Friday!  Anyone have snow where they live?  If so, you might enjoy these cute snowman nails!

This look started with a couple of coats of OPI's Road House Blues.  Then I stamped the cute little snowmen from a stamp I got from Born Pretty Store.  The snowman on his own was cute, but didn't feel like enough, so I pulled out my dotting tool and dotted in some snow falling and some snow on the ground.  Then the look seemed a little too white, so I dotted in some Zoya Ivanka for the scarf to add a little color.

Candy Cane Nails

This cute stamp is from my favorite Nail Art Store, Born Pretty Store.  The red base color is Milani Red Sparkle.  This color reminds me of Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz!  Such a great Christmas color!

Snowflake Tips

Here is a swatch of my base coat, Revlon Blue Lagoon.  I achieved this look with two coats of Blue Lagoon, stamping from Konad plate m59 across the tips, and a coat of China Glaze Snow Cap to give the look even more shimmer.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here!

Let It Snow Winner

Congratulations Francesca (@Francivusk)!  Your package is going in the mail this week!

Is it too early for Christmas Nails?

If it is then let's call these Redskins nails! Because that is actually what I initially was thinking about when I did this mani. See, coming from the D.C. area I was raised a die-hard Redskins fan! Trust me, its one of the most depressing teams to be a die-hard fan of! So, to show my Redskins spirit, I wanted to create a burgundy and gold nail look, and when it was done it looked really Christmasy, so I held off showing it to you until now.

I started this look with China Glaze Sugar Plum, which I think was in CG's holiday collection last year.

Then I did some gold glitter sponging on my tips and moons.  I can never decide which look I like better.  The gold glitter I used was a combination of Sinful Colors Paris and Milani Jewel FX in Gold.

So, if it is too early for Christmas nails, pretend these are Redskins nails, and if you aren't Redskins fans, then pretend these are Christmas nails! :D

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone celebrating tomorrow!  Anyone know of any good Black Friday nail deals?  If so, please share! 

Also, don't forget about my two giveaways going on right now:  Free Jewelry Giveaway and China Glaze Let It Snow Giveaway

Free Jewelry Giveaway

My giveaway spirit isn't done yet!  I have another exciting giveaway for you!  I have recently started my own business as a Lia Sophia consultant, and I wanted to give my wonderful followers the opportunity to purchase some beautiful jewelry and potentially win an awesome pair of earrings!

$10 OFF ONLINE ORDERS*

1. Click here to start shopping
2. Enter "Moondancerjen Nails" as your hostess
3. Browse & shop for your favorite pieces

Customer Save Plan: Buy 1 @ regular price and get up to 2 at half price. Your most expensive pieces are ALWAYS half!

Once your order is received, I will apply your $10 discount and will call or email you to confirm before processing.

*Applies to orders of $100 or more

On top of that, everyone who places an order will be entered to win a pair of Voltage Earrings!

This giveaway and offer is only open to the U.S. and will end on December 9th!

Moondancerjen's Let It Snow Giveaway

Felt like having a little giveaway to kick off the holiday season, so I picked my favorite six colors from China Glaze's Let it Snow Collection to giveaway!

So, here are the rules:

1. This giveaway is open internationally, but please make sure your country will allow you to receive polish in the mail before entering.
2. There will be one winner, and he/she will receive the following SIX colors from China Glaze's 2011 Let it Snow collection: Twinkle Lights, Tinsel Town, Blue Years Eve, Glittering Garland, Ring in the Red, and Snow Globe
3. You must be a Google Friend Connect Follower to Enter.
4. Everyone has the chance to earn extra entries by doing the following:
1. Tweet about the contest, sample tweet: "I just entered @moondancerjen's Let it Snow Giveaway, and you can too at: http://moondancerjen.blogspot.com"
2. Like my page on Facebook.
3. Follow me on Twitter.
4. Add me to your blogroll
5. Blog about this giveaway
6. Give me some feedback or suggestions for my blog/facebook page/twitter feed, etc...

Zoya Cynthia gets the peacock treatment

I just adore Zoya's Cynthia. It is such a pretty murky blue-green color. I thought it would be a perfect shade to stamp these gorgeous peacock feathers on from BM212. I stamped the design with the Sally Hansen Color Quick in Turquoise Chrome.

As you can tell I tried the design going in both directions (one way on each hand).  I can't decide which I like better.  Feel free to sound off in the comments.  And tell me what your favorite color from Zoya's fall collection is.

NOTD: Plum Butterflies

Simple look for you today. Recently I went out and got a few colors from the Sally Hansen Salon Complete line. Last week I showed you the adorable Fairy Teal And today I have Plum Luck stamped over Plums the Word with Bundle Monster 205.

I think plum is such a fabulous fall color! I'm so existed that Plum Luck stamped so well! I'll have to keep that in mind for future looks!  This is my first time using this design, and I have to say, I love these bigger images Bundle Monster gave us in their latest set.

Gray Sparkly Matte Nails

What is it about Sparkly Matte nails that is just sooo hot? I pin looks like this all the time on Pinterest, so I thought it was about time that I tried it myself. I started with a base coat of Zoya Kelly. I LOVE THIS COLOR! It is srsly one of my favorite Zoyas.

On top of Kelly, I sponged this glitter from NYC called Starry Silver Glitter just on my tips to give it a bit of a gradient look.

And then of course, I took this look to the next level with a matte topcoat. Mine is by hard candy, but any of the others will do just as good.

Want to know why I haven't been posting as much lately?  Its because I fall in love with looks like this and wear them for days on end.  So stinking cute.

Neon Chevron French Tips

This post is from the vault, man do I miss my long nails! I can't wait until they grow back to this length! *sigh* I got this really cute Sally Hansen color recently (Fairy Teal), and I wanted to use it right away. So I did a free-hand chevron tip with Milani's Totally 80's accented with a black striper

I think chevron tips are a great way to change up the typical french manicures.

Crazy Animal Print Nails

Confession time: I have a very crazy pair of pajamas! And every time I wear these, I think omg I have to do a nail look inspired by these jammies! Here is the inspiration fabric:

And here are my nails:

This look was achieved by started with a white base.  I then sponged a light purple, a light pink, dark pink, and dark purple to create the gradient look.  Then, I used a black striper to draw the zebra stripes and the leopard spots. 

So, what do you think?  Did I match my inspiration well?  What weird things have inspired your nails lately?  Let me know in the comments!

Tiffany Box Nails

As you may know by now, Pinterest is my crack! I am on it all the time, pinning awesome things. I have a whole board of nail inspiration, and whenever I have no idea what I want to do with my nails, I always go there for ideas. That is where today's manicure comes from. I saw this adorable Tiffany Box inspired mani a long time ago, and decided to recreate it and put my own spin on it.

Base color is China Glaze For Audrey, which is just the perfect Tiffany blue. I free-handed the bows with a white striper polish.  I think this would be a fun look for the holiday season in different colors, so I hope it inspires you! Let me know what you think!  And if you are on Pinterest, comment with a link to your board so I can follow you!

New Announcement from Zoya!

2011/12 NAIL POLISH MUST HAVE: FEEL - Six full-coverge winter cream neutrals

FEEL Beautiful!

Every season the color experts at Zoya create dozens of new color collection options. This

year, one of those “secret collections” just had to be seen now rather than later. FEEL by Zoya

Nail Polish delivers six new, highly pigmented, full coverge neutrals for right now!

Zoya FEEL Collection

• Kristen (ZP591): Full coverage, gull gray cream
• Carey (ZP592): Full coverage, periwinkle gray cream
• Megan (ZP593): Full coverage, taupe gray cream
• Kendal (ZP594): Full coverage, rose quartz beige cream
• Kennedy (ZP595): Full coverage, pale french beige cream
• Avery (ZP596): Full coverage, blonde beige cream

Zoya is the new color of fashion...

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of harmful industrial chemicals

like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known

to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya FEEL as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion Zoya shades at

www.zoya.com. As always, each and every Zoya color is made for women so we

name them after women.

FEEL by Zoya

Sug. Retail $8.00 per 0.5 fl.oz. bottle (US)

www.zoya.com

Available November 15, 2011.

I am so excited about this collection!  I LOVE NEUTRALS!!!!!  I want them all!  What shade are you most excited about?  For me, I'm really feeling Kristen and Megan.  I hope the Trick or Treat deal Zoya had last night comes with some spoons for this gorgeous collection!

Halloween Week Day 4: Spider Web Nails

Hi guys! Hope you are enjoying this week of Halloween looks so far! Today I have another purple look for you:

Base color is "Let's talk" by Sinful Colors. Spider web and spider are from Bundle Monster BM13. I added a red rhinestone to the spider to make it look like a black widow and so it would stand out a little better on the purple background. What do you guys think?

Halloween Week Day Three: Creepy Skull Nails

Ok, so Monday, we had cute sparkly skulls, and today I'm going with creepy scary blood splattered skull nails! *insert evil laugh here*

The blood splatter effect was achieved by using red stamping polish with konad M70 stamp on white nails. The skull design is from a Nail Art Stamp set from Born Pretty. I added the red to the eyes using my dotting tool to make the skull even more creepy!

Hope you like this look!  Let me know what you think.

Halloween Week - Day Two: Witch Nails

Color is called Totally 80's (I layered it over white because otherwise it would take 5 coats to get this tone.) Black sparkly tips are from Love and Polish Charcoal from Forever 21. Witch Hat is from Bundle Monster 209 stamp and the little witches are from BM 13

Halloween Week: Purple Sparkly Skull Nails!

Starting off a week of Halloween nails with my favorite of the five manicures I've done so far.  For some reason, I think purple is the best color of fall, so I have broken the tradition of typical Halloween colors, and done not one, but two manicures with purple as a base!  LOL!  I'm such a rebel.

Base color for this look is China Glaze Flying Dragon (Neon) The skull was stamped twice on each nail from Bundle Monster 211 stamp with konad white polish, and then I filled in the eyes with my dotting tool using Milani's Purple Gleam. 

Hope you like this fun non-traditional Halloween manicure!  I can't wait to show you what I else I've created!  XOXO

Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Ribbon Nails

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I wanted to share some pretty special nails I created. This look started with a base coat of Zoya Portia. The pink ribbon was created free-hand using Zoya Areej (one of my favorite polishes of all time!), and then I top coated with Color Club's Starry Temptress.

As you can see, my nails are now nubbins!  You may see some more designs from the vault with longer tips, but sadly, I had some unfortunate breakies so frenchies will have to hold off until they grow.