Christmas in July

I haven't entered a nail art contest in a long time, but I came across one over at Jen's Nail Files with the theme of Christmas in July. Immediately, palm trees came to mind. Considering I love doing palm trees (this is my fourth mani with them), and I really liked the french manicure of Christmas presents that I did last year, I thought a combo of the two would be perfect!

So for this design, I applied:

1. 1 coat Beauty Secrets base coat
2. Gradient in purple, blue, and tan - Julep Charlotte, Julep Daphne & Orly Coffee Break
3. Sponged on top of blue and tan for shimmer - Pure ICE Splash & China Glaze Mega Bite
4. The art (with soley an itty bitty dotting tool) - first I put down the general shape/backgroud/outline with a plain black and added:
• Palm tree:
• trunk - Orly Coffee Break
• leaves - A swirl of Sally Hansen Grass Slipper, Sally Hansen Fairy Teal, and a scented green apple Blow Pop mini polish
• Presents:
• All the colors used, in no particular order, Sally Hansen Thinking of Blue, Grass Slipper, Fairy Teal, Zoya Savita (purple), Julep Sasha, Charlotte, Lauren, Rose, Daisy, Lily, Robin, Orly Blue Collar, Sinful Colors Gogo Girl & Finger Paints Laugh My Art Off
• Snowman:
1. body - Orly Coffee Break with China Glaze Mega Bite on top (arms are just Coffee Break alone)
2. nose - Julep Sasha
3. eyes, hat, coal buttons - L.A. Colors Art Deco Black with a strip of a nameless green Nail Star art polish on the hat
5. Topcoat - 2 coats Sally Hansen Inta-Dri

^Yeesh that's a lot of polish!^

Overall, I am pretty happy with out these nails turned out! ^.^ I'm not loving the black outlining, but I tried them once without it, and on top of a colored background, it was just too much and everything melted together with no definition. So, unfortunately, it was necessary.

Thanks for stopping by and everyone have a wonderful day!!