Snowman Nail Art How To!

Hey everyone! I am avoiding packing for a road trip so I thought I'd post my latest holiday nails, snow men! Oh and share a picture of my latest Pandora bracelet, I got a snowman charm :-D

My little snowman came as part of a set:

I got this toy box full of mini holiday toys and they all play tunes or sounds. The snowman plays frosty the snowman, too cute. There was also an elf, reindeer and a Santa. I decided to do snowman nails. Onto the nail art!

The base for this look is Essie Lapis of Luxury.

To start with, I drew semi circles with a small nail art brush and OPI Alpine Snow.

Then on top of the snowman base, I drew circles for heads. I kind of stuffed the middle finger but not to worry, it will look fine later!

Then with the same nail art brush, I carefully drew a rounded square on top the head for a top hat, then some feet sticking out to make it look more hat shaped.

Then with an Orly dotting tool (the smaller end) I used black to dot the eyes. I believe the black I am using is one of the minis from one of those OPI Halloween mini sets.

Then using the closest orange I could find lying around I painted small triangles for the nose with the same nail art brush. This happens to be Yes, Your Lioness from the Sarfari Luxe mini set.

Then using the dotter again, did the mouth as dots (even though my snowman plush had a solid line, I think dots are cute).

More dots again on his body with the same small end of the dotting tool.

I personally thought my snowman looked cold so I gave him a scarf using Essie Pretty Edgy.

And lastly added some snowy dots in the background, and we're all done!

I finally jumped on the Instagram bandwagon and posted a piccy! I will be posting more throughout my holidays, so if you're into Instagram checkout thatleanne :-)

Now I mentioned I got a Pandora charm and this is it! I think they look similar, I just couldn't resist going in and having a looksy at some charms. I was going to get the tree but ended up deciding on the snowman instead.

The last time I shared my Pandora bracelet was back in June so I have a few more additions to share! Hmm let's see, I have acquired the snowman, a kitty cat from my mum for my birthday, a snowflake and a cameo butterfly. LOVE the cameo charms, they are so lovely. I picked that butterfly up in the shopping center in Santa Monica - the one near 3rd street promenade. I saw it and had to have it! I was short on suitcase space but still had cash to spend on my last day. Jewelry seemed to be the way to go!

I actually have the Pandora app on my iPhone and I spend a LOT of time there perusing charms. One day I will have a gold bracelet... one day!

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the post and are either on holidays or close to being on your holiday break! I am going to go finish packing now and wrap a few last minute gifts. I hope you all have a FANTASTIC Christmas/holiday and I will see you in the near future!

Choccy Gingerbread Men Nail Art!

Hi everyone! I don't know where the weekend went but as always it was too short! I ended up painting my nails with choccy gingerbread men on Sunday afternoon, they are the yummiest kind!

I actually started painting my nails with MAC Hangin' Loose with the intention of drawing holly but I don't know what happened, I just wasn't feeling it. I must have been hungry instead!

Anyway, to do these gingerbread men I started with a smart nail art brush and a drew the outline in OPI Alpine Snow.

Then I filled with Essie Mink Muffs with the same brush.

Then using an Orly dotting tool (the small dotting end) I dotted the eyes.

Then with the same nail art brush as earlier, I drew the mouth and the little bow tie outline.

Then I dotted the eyes lightly with the brush in black, filled the bow ties with green (Essie Pretty Edgy) and dotted two buttons. And for some reason drew a gingerbread house on my thumb :-P Some days I feel like drawing random things.

These were my inspiration! Well not exactly, Gloria Jeans ran out of the actual gingerbread men shaped gingerbread treats so I got choccy gingerbread trees instead. SO DELICIOUS.

I parted with the orange one to give to the bf and consumed this within seconds ;-D Yummy!

And completely off topic, I was watching Thanksgiving YouTube videos and I kept hearing about candied yams. And I was just sitting there thinking what are yams?! I googled and discovered some candied yam recipes (i.e. sweet potatoes). I must admit, the recipe sounded very strange to me. Sweet potato covered in butter, sugar and marshmallows? Then again I cannot judge, I come from Australia - the land of Vegemite :-D So I was willing to give it a try! I can't say we get ours 'yams' in a can so I boiled and mashed some sweet potatoes.

I have no idea how they are meant to look, taste or anything but this is how mine turned out. I had to google whether or not you eat them hot or cold. Google said either but after trying both I prefer cold. Either I grew accustomed to the taste and that's why cold seemed nicer or it really WAS nicer, I don't know. But something about marshmallows on a vegetable had me completely intrigued. So there you go. I added cinnamon but I don't know how much I should have added.

And lastly a random shot of what I was listening to today. I do not get sick of this song for some reason. I do not understand it or follow the lyrics but it's cool.

Well that's it for now :-) I am going on holidays shortly so I will be taking a little break over Xmas but I haven't figured out when exactly. I hope you all had an awesome weekend and I will see you next time!

Holiday nail art: Stockings!

Today I have a very pretty polish to show you - butter London Henley Regatta! I picked this up in Nordstrom (whilst on holidays earlier this year) but hadn't gotten around to wearing it until this week. I layered it over Illamasqua Viridian and drew some stockings to get into the Christmas spirit:

Henley Regatta is a glitter polish with a clear base but it's oh so pretty:

I only needed one coat to get this effect:

Viridian is gorgeous on its own but combined with this polish, it's downright gorgeous!

So as usual I started with the thumb nail and I wasn't really sure where I was going but I decided to draw my name on the stocking :-) I was slightly inspired by the coke name thing:

So to start, I outlined the stockings with a small nail art brush and OPI Alpine Snow:

Next I filled the tops of the stockings:

Then with Illamasqua Throb filled the rest of the stockings:

Then I wrote names for the rest of the stockings and all done!

And while I was in the festive spirit, I decided to dress up the dining table a little since we aren't having a Christmas tree this year (we're spending Christmas with the in-laws). I started with things I had lying around the house then I wanted to get some plates and cups so I went shopping. And Target was having a sale so I ended up redoing it like this:

I wanted to get a few more things but I am poor this Christmas haha. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the post and the stockings! I'm growing a nice collection of butter London polishes and no doubt I will expand the collection! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend and I'll see you next time!

Simple Holiday Nail Art Ideas feat. Butter London Holiday 2011

I was a bit naughty this week. I made an order online because I wanted a GWP. I initially justified it by buying a Christmas present for family, then I discovered the butter London Holiday 2011 polishes. Oh dear. I ended up buying two of the three and drawing these designs on my nails when I was swatching:

So I thought I'd share with you these two simple nail art ideas for the holidays! On the left we have Christmas trees and on the right snowflakes. These are using the two gorgeous glitters from the 2011 holiday collection:

On the left we have The Black Knight and on the right Tart With A Heart.

The Black Knight is a black base glitter polish (but needs 3 coats to get opaque otherwise it's a bit of a dark grey). It has magenta and blue glitter with micro silver flecks. So pretty. You could layer this over black to avoid the nastiness of trying to remove a glitter polish.

Tart With A Heart has a rosey champagne base colour with gold and slightly holographic glitter (larger particles than in Black Knight). Three coats are shown above but this is clearly meant for layering. So that is what I did for the Christmas trees:

I layered about two coats of Tart With A Heart over another of my button London polishes (from Nordstrom whilst overseas actually, not this week!) called Knees Up. Knees Up is a beautiful red that is very opaque (1-2 coats max).

So to start with I drew a little star with OPI Alpine Snow at the top of each nail with my usual nail art brush.

Then I drew the outline of the tree (messily as it's going to be filled) with the same brush. I did it in sections working my way down the nail.

Then I filled in with white. I originally planned to leave the design there (to keep it simple) but I wanted to add a bit more colour.

I drew another smaller tree inside the white with Essie Pretty Edgy to give it some colour.

Then added some brown for the tree base (Sephora by OPI, cannot recall the colour as it's not written on the mini!) and Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty for the star.

For the snowflakes I must apologise, I did not take progress shots (I didn't think I would post it!) but I did draw on a piece of paper how I was going to paint them:

Basically you start with a vertical line (1), then draw a wide X over it (2). Next the centre of the snowflake needs to have little half diamonds between each two lines (3). To finish, simply add two sets of short lines on each line (4). Done!

I thought I'd share my purchases this week! The L'Occitane gift set was ordered so I could get the Clarins GWP (the white bauble) which also came in red with white spots. I wanted that one :-( Then I went shopping after I got my package and picked up some herbal tea from T2. I plan to go back next week and pick up more presents from there, such an awesome shop. I also got a purple tin for the loose tea.

... and while I was in Portmans I spotted this on the $20 off rack. I saw it and had to have it. It was purple, I couldn't help myself. Now I need to stop spending and save!

Anyways I hope you enjoyed the post and are having a lovely weekend. See you next time!