Some Winter/Christmas Nail Art

Today I thought I'd share with you a mani that I re-created from another Instagrammer (I believe it was @judyrox). I don't know how she did it but I figured just by looking at her picture I could recreate it. I seen this and immediately thought it was so cute and I had to do this for Christmas. Well, I know it's not close to Christmas (we got a couple of weeks yet) but I thought I'd just give it a try this weekend and see how it turns out.

I had already had a base color on of Zoya Posh with a topcoat over that, as you can see in the pics that there is a little bit of growth but that is because I had been sporting Posh on my nails for about 5 days already and was getting ready to change my mani. I decided to use acrylic paints for this because I figured that it would be easier to work with, dry quicker, and I could easily fix it if I messed up.

The only tools I needed for this was a couple of different sized of dotting tools and a small striping brush. For the "snow" covered tips I just used a larger dotting tool dipped in white acrylic paint, I made a bunch of dots to cover the tips but not give me a clean line, that way it looks like snow. For the falling snow I used a smaller dotting tool dipped in the white paint. Then for the snow man I used my small striping brush to create the 2 round circles that were his body and filled them in. Then I took my brush (after I cleaned it in water and dried it on a towel) and used the black to paint his hat. Then I cleaned the brush again and used blue to make the scarf. Again with my clean brush I used the orange to make a very small triangle to be the "carrot nose". That one was really hard to do because it was so small but I think I did ok. Then for the eyes and buttons I just dipped a small dotting tool in black and dotted them on. After I was all finished I realized I didn't give him a mouth so next time I do this I will make sure I make him big enough that I give him a mouth smiling at everyone.

The acrylic paints dried pretty quickly so I didn't have to wait too long to apply the topcoat. I think it turned out pretty good and I will most definitely be re-doing this one for Christmas in a couple weeks. I am learning very quickly that using acrylic paints to create nail art is quite handy and I think I will be trying out more things. I'm not very good at free-handed nail art but I am getting better with each try. Sometimes if I try to do it later at night I find that my hand is a little shaky and I have to concentrate harder but I'm sure with practice I'll improve.

Stay tuned and I will have some more Christmas themed nail art to show you!!

Pacifica Super Hydrating Hand Cream

Today I am going to share with you a new hand cream that I have come upon and it has quickly become my favorite. I found these at my local Ulta one day while I was browsing and shopping for new makeup brushes. I love that Ulta has testers out on their products because I am very particular about my hand creams and lotions and I am super picky about the scents. My hubby is really sensitive to scents so I always try to get stuff that I know won't irritate him.

These are made with shea butter, almond oil and safflower oil. They are also paraben-free and just smell amazing. I picked up the Indian Coconut Nectar and the scent of this one literally reminds me of summer. You know what I mean, it has that coconut-suntan lotion smell that just screams summer! It is a warm, sultry blend of coconut and delicate creamy vanilla is pure ambrosia. I will say that the cream is thick and hydrating and doesn't leave my hands feeling greasy at all. I had tried a little bit of it from the tester on the back of my hand and was literally walking around Ulta smelling the back of my hand, I think the cashier thought I was a little crazy because I was still smelling my hand when I went to check out.

I loved that one so much that I had to make another trip to Ulta and pick up another one. At first I was just going to get another one of the same scent but I decided to try the rest of the scents and see if there was another one I liked. I had heard great things about the Tuscan Blood Orange scented one and smelled the tester. I put a dab of it on the back of my hand to see what it would smell like on me and OMG!! This one smelled amazing too!! The Tuscan Blood Orange isn't as strong of a scent like the Indian Coconut Nectar one but I knew I had to have this one too. This one is a delectable blend, juicy and spicy Blood Orange is offset with subtle strawberry and raspberry notes and grounded in fleshy mandarin and italian sweet orange.

Then I started smelling all of the rest of them to see if I liked anymore of them but I found that I didn't care for any of the other scents as much as I liked these two. This one has that same formula, it's nice and thick and hydrating without leaving you greasy. These hand creams are also listed as 100% vegan on Pacifica's site.

Here is a list of the ingredients for the Super Hydrating Hand Creams: aqua, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, capric caprylic triglycerides, polysorbate 60*, cetearyl alcohol*, glycerin*, butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) oil, glyceryl stearate*, sorbitol, stearic acid*, sodium PCA, olea europaea (olive) fruit oil, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, vitis vinifera (grape) seed oil, laminaria hyperborea (kelp) extract, tocopherol, xanthan gum, sodium alginate, cocos nucifera (coconut) water, iris pallida (sweet iris) leaf cell extract, leuconstoc/radish root ferment filtrate, ethylhexylglycerin, parfum (Pacifica's own with natural and essential oils). *vegetable source.

They retail for $9 for 2.25oz. and in my opinion that is a really great price for such an amazing product! If you get them at Ulta there is always coupons you can use on your purchase. You can also get them on Pacifica's site here. I also heard from another blogger that Pacifica products are also available at select Targets, sadly none of my Targets have them but at least I have Ulta!!