Top 12 Manicures of 2012

I did this last year for 2011 and meant to get it done sooner for 2012, but better late than never! It's always fun to look back and remember manis you were really excited about!

These are all my personal favourites out of the manicures I did in the past year. :) It was so hard to narrow it down to 12, I looked back and really loved a lot of the manis I did this year! It was also harder than 2011 because I only started doing nail art in June of 2011, but this time I had a full year of designs to pick from! According to my count, I did 81 manicures in 2012!

These aren't in any particular order except going from earliest in the year to most recent!

Pop Art Hearts

 

 Pink Roses on Yellow

 Candy Pastel Gradient

 Diamond Jubilee

Cotton Candy Splatter

 Disneyland Nails

 Colourblock Meets Drippy

 Salt n' Peppa over Gradient

 Intricate Floral on Periwinkle

Pumpkin Tips

Peppermint Swirl 

 Blue Snowflakes and Dots

NOTD Jan 8/13 - ice cream and sprinkles

Somehow this is the third ice cream manicure I've done, but I don't feel like I've done that many....? Weird!

Anyhow, this is the first ice cream cone manicure I've done - this one was inspired by the super talented This is Venice! I am in looooove with how these turned out! I realized after I did them that they're probably pretty summery for a January manicure but who cares?! They look awesome!

  I used about eight-bergillion colours for this (give or take a few bergillion :p) so if you're curious about a certain shade, ask in the comments! :)

NOTD Jan 7/12 - glitter space

This could be termed the lazy woman's galaxy manicure as well! I just wanted to test out the new polish I picked up at Shoppers Drug Mart, Essence Chic Reloaded. In the bottle it is dark shimmery reddish purple with a little bit of greenish duochrome. The green doesn't translate onto the nail from what I can see, but the reddish-purple looks so cool on the nails I'm not even mad! It's shimmery but dark enough to be kind of vampy, but it doesn't stray into that so dark you need a spotlight on it to tell whether it's black or not kind of territory.

But I can never seem to leave well enough alone, so I had to add something - glitter! I used Wet n' Wild Kaleidoscope, which looks like a dark silver glitter but on the nails a lot of the pieces flash rainbow colours, and it's all various sizes of smaller glitter. These were hard to stop staring at!

In other news, I wanted to share the happy announcement that I will shortly be starting a new job! I took a course in the fall to qualify for my level 1 insurance broker/adjuster's license, and I just got a job at a brokerage! The start of a new job is always exciting, and the start of a new career is even moreso! :D

NOTD Dec 25/12 - Snowman!

The last Christmas manicure of the year! Always sad, there are so many cute Christmas manis to do but such a limited time to do them! This was inspired by a mani I saw at Polish Etc. I added glitter on top of the white to make it look like glittering snow!

Merry Christmas everyone!

NOTD Dec 24/12 - icy winter blues gradient

Just a simple winter blues gradient! It has a tiny blue flakies topcoat over it to make it look extra icy cold! I love how it turned out. :)

 Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, with Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue sponged on and Revlon Scented Polish in Colada Fizz on top!

NOTD Dec 22/12 - Christmas lights!

It's getting close to Christmas and I feel like I didn't even come close to doing all the Christmas manis I wanted to do! I guess some will just have to wait until next year. :)

These ones turned out great and were worth the bit of extra work they took! I think adding sparkles to the lights was a nice touch, it really made them stand out more.

The background colour is Barielle Date Night, if you're curious about any of the other colours just ask in the comments! :)

NOTD Dec 13/12 - Christmas presents

This is one of my favourite Christmas manis so far! Presents had been in my mind for a while but I wasn't sure how I wanted to execute them so I kept putting them off. I finally figured out how I was going to do it, and alternated several holiday appropriate colours and glitters. They are so cute!

The colours I used were Sinful Colors Envy, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, Sally Hansen CSM in Gilty Pleasure, Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, Essence Glamorous Life, and various striper polishes and glitters. Honestly, too many to list!

NOTD Dec 12/12 - Viridian snowflakes

I love snowflakes for a holiday nail design (if you hadn't already noticed) but I wanted something with a slightly less traditional colour this time.

I chose Illamasqua's Viridian, a gorgeous shimmery deep blue-green shade! See a swatch of it alone here. Then I added white snowflakes with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, and topped it with a holographic silver shimmer (NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Disco Inferno). Simple but pretty!

NOTD Dec 6/12 - snowflakes and dots

Another cute snowflake design! I know everybody does them but there are so many options for snowflake nail art and I think they're so adorable. This one features some cute contrasting dots in Christmassy colours. I did my right hand with just dots since drawing snowflakes with my left hand felt a little too daunting this time around. Usually my right hand is identical to my left hand, but I give myself a break now and then!

The background is good old Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, the blue is an Art Club striper I got in a set, the red is Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red and the green is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy.

Guest post at Ruby's Nails!

Hey guys! Go check out my guest post over at Ruby's Nails, featuring this mani! :)