Best of 2012

Well this year has been a great one, considering it's the first year of my blog!!! I think things have gone well so far, and a big thank you to all my followers and new nail buddies!! You guys are great!!

So to commemorate, I've put together a Best of post. There are various "Best _" awards which I have given to different posts. But enough talking, and on with the nails!!!

UPDATE- 1/3/13: I know that the poll has not been working right, but I got it fixed, so please vote!!! (see the bottom of this post)

Best- Toes:

These adorable ladybug toes were definitely my favorite pedicure design of 2012!!!  To get an easy tutorial for these toes (or you could even make it into a manicure for summer!!) check out the post here.

Best- Stamping:

I actually haven't done too much stamping on this blog yet, but these orange nails were one of my best designs yet!! For a stamping tutorial, click here.

Best- New Technique:

Now I must say, while I did LOVE these icy ombre nails, I don't think they were my absolute favorite new technique. However, my first choice is actually my favorite mani for the year, so I decided to honor these (I mean, they were in 2nd place anyway :). Keep reading to see my favorite design of all!! Instructions for creating an ombre manicure can be found here.

Best- Halloween Design:

I REALLY loved these Frankenstein nails!! I just thought they were so cute, and the bright green and black were such a great color combo!! And not to brag, but these were definitely a favorite at my school! :)

Best- Swatch:

Do you recognize these?? LOL :) (And if you don't, just take a look at my previous post). I think this is one of my favorite polishes ever!!! Can you tell I like glitter? This also commemorates a very important moment in Polished history: my 1st GLITTER BOMB!!!! Okay, enough now... :)

Best- Simple Design:

I loved these Chanel nails so much!!! It was so easy to create as well, but it's a really classy and elegant design. The pearl strings were made with a dotting tool, and I freehanded the logo. My mom says that this is one of her favorite designs too. :)

Best- Tape Manicure:

We all know I love tape, but it wasn't hard to pick my favorite design!!!! While these nails remind me a lot of Ancient Greece, they looked great with my Robin Hood Halloween costume!! Check out this link for the tutorial.

Best- 3D Nails:

I thought this design was so pretty, but it's sad as it was created for the terrible tragedy in Newtown, CT. The white is to promote peace and nonviolence. I chose my white, 3D nail art flowers which are so cute and iridescent. I definitely adored this design, although the reason for it was so terrible.

Best- Cute Manicure:

The pastel colors did not show up the greatest in pictures, but I thought these little cupcakes were just too cute!!! My favorite part- the cherries and sprinkles (I used Bedazzled for the sprinkles :)!!!!

Best- Freehanding:

Now this manicure is definitely a close second for my favorite manicure of all!!! This Apollo 11 design was part of the Time Warp Challenge I did earlier in the year; the daily theme was a historical event, so I chose the moon landing. On my nails I painted: "1 small step for man, 1 giant leap for mankind", the Apollo spacecraft, an "11", the earth, and the American flag on the moon. Now I know the last photo doesn't show too much freehanding; it's predominately sponging with some freehanded stars; I just wanted you to get the whole look because I love it so much. :)

FAVORITE Mani of the Year:

Drumroll please...

Yes, I did make this photo extra large on purpose. :) And that's because it's my favorite!! If you hadn't seen this yet, I did this water marble for Labor Day (the post and tutorial can be found here). I just thought that the color combo was perfect, especially for a Patriotic holiday, and it was a major shock to have my first water marble turn out so well (in my opinion, that is :). My pictures turned out nicely as well (which does not always happen), and I love the sidewalk background. In short I LOVE THIS MANICURE!!!!!!

I think that's a wrap of 2012, now bring on the New Year!!!

Thanks so much!!
:) Trendy Tips :)

And finally, I have a poll for you all to see what you'd like me to do more of on this blog in the New Year. Please vote, I plan to listen to the results!!!
Click here to take survey

LDTTWC: Day 3- I Remember When

 Today's manicure I have been anticipating since before the challenge even started! The idea for the day is, "I Remember When,": design a manicure based on a historical event- well-known or personal. I'm pretty sure this one would fall under the VERY well-known category. :) So in case you couldn't tell, I chose the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Unfortunately, I was too young to witness it, but I've definitely heard about! And space stuff has always thrilled me.

Here is a "nail by nail blow" of this mani. :)

• First Finger: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Most people have heard these famous words, so in honor of Neil Armstrong (who very coincidentally just passed away a week ago), I painted a small step and a giant leap.
• Middle Finger: We have the Apollo rocket sailing through space surrounded by the stars; how exciting!
• Ring Finger: On this finger, I painted the number eleven to look like the moon too.
• Pinky Finger: And since all of the Apollo 11 astronauts were earthlings, I had to paint the Blue Marble somewhere! :) I even tried to make it look a little bit like North America as well as Central America. LOL :)

 And on this finger, I painted a half moon proudly displaying the American flag. I think I will call this design, "The Nail Armstrong" in honor of the first man on the moon.

 Now, I'm left-handed, so it is often VERY challenging to paint with my right hand. I knew to do this manicure while painting with my non-dominant hand would be a disaster so I tried out a galaxy nail design with stars on these nails.

I think the design is awesome, but it was so simple to do with a cosmetic sponge! I then added stars and streaks with a dotter and fine tip brush.

If you would like to try this design out yourself, here's a link to the tutorial that I used from, The Daily Nail: http://www.thedailynailblog.com/2012/08/galaxy-nails-nail-art-tutorial.html

Well this mani sure used a TON of polishes, so here they are:

• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out (black)
• Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening (yellow)
• Sinful Colors Nail Art in Sour Apple (green) and Hey Dear! (blue for flag and earth)
• NYC Long Wearing in Times Square in Tangerine Creme (orange)
• Wet n Wild Fast Dry in Teal or No Teal (blue for galaxy nails)
• Wet n Wild in French White Creme (white)
• Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Metallica (gray/silver)
• L'Oreal Creme in Infrared (red)

I hope you like this, "out of this world," manicure! And be sure to check out all of the other great designs!
*Trendy Tips*