Unicorn of Winter

Last season I painted a Unicorn of Fall mani with a plump little unicorn full of the harvests of the season. Today I have for you a Unicorn of Winter full of snow, ice, and clear, crisp air. I started with a cool silver base, added some goldeen snowflakes, and finished with two unicorn decals and a bunch of rhinestones. The rhinestones are an interesting pain point for me. I used the ones I purchased from ebay in a wheel of silvery holographic shapes. The round rhinestones have a high profile and stick off the nail quite a bit. This is a boon if you’re using caviar beads with it, but I’m not. So it ended up looking kind of ugly in person. Sadly, this mani wasn’t destined to stay on my nails long so it didn’t bother me too much but I’ll remember this next time and use my baggie of flat back iron on rhinestones when appropriate. Crafting supplies are such a lovely resource. 🙂

#NailCraziesUnite – Gold Snowflakes
#NailArtChallenge – Ice Unicorn

• Base Polish:
  Zoya’s “Seraphina”
• Stamping Polishes:
  Essie’s “Good as Gold”, Mundo de Unas’ “Blue Navy”
• Advanced Stamping Polishes:
  Essie’s “Good as Gold”, Sally Hansen’s Triple Shine “Pool Party”
• Stamping Plates:
  Born Pretty BP-186 (snowflake ornament) and BP-L089 (ice unicorn), Mash-39 (unicorn rampant), XY-Merry Christmas 03 (snowflakes)

I’ve never used Zoya’s “Seraphina” before, but so many YouTubers have sung its praises that I felt I should buy it during Zoya’s 75% off sale. I’m…on the fence. It took three coats for somewhat full opacity, not bad considering the type of polish it is, but that’s more time before I can nail art on top. And I shouldn’t have tried layering another light-colored metallic on top of it. The gold snowflakes barely show. So partially my feelings on this are my fault because I am lukewarm about this nail art. And also it was already off my nails before I could walk around in different lighting and really enjoy its complexities. So I guess I’ll withhold judgement on this until I use it again. It is a beautiful polish, but I’m a nail artist so there are different requirements beyond beautiful color/finish and decent formula.

Well, that’s enough from me, how about some more Gold Snowflake manis from the #NailCraziesUnite FB group: