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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!

  Merry Christmas to all!  Hope everyone is having a wondering holiday with family and friends.  I had a really hard time deciding what to do with my nails this year for Christmas, but I really love what I came up with in the end.

Outdoors, sunlight
  For my Christmas Day manicure, I started off with two coats of one of my favorite reds, OPI An Affair in Red Square.  I stamped on some glitzy gold snowflakes using OPI Glitzerland and plate BM-323 to give just a touch of an interesting pattern to the background.  I then added a variety of designs using Konad special white and special black polish and plates BM-319 (snowflakes), BM-318 (snowman and ornament), and BM-323 (lace).  I added a few accents with Glitzerland and topped it all off with two coats of Seche Vite.

Outdoors, shade
  This is actually not what I originally set out to do when I started painting my nails, but the design sort of evolved over time and the result is festive and classy.  I like how the gold accents tie in with the barely-visible gold snowflakes in the background.  They are faint but enough to make you take a second look when you see the nails!  I love the little snowman and his black hat too.

  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!



Monday, December 24, 2012

Jolly Winter Holly

  Today I have for you China Glaze Winter Holly from their Holiday Joy 2012 collection.  This stunning medium emerald green is speckled with green, gold and scattered holographic fine glitter in a clear base.

Outdoors, indirect sunlight
  Unfortunately I didn't have the best day for snapping photos of this one outside.  You can see a little bit of the holo in the picture above, but the sun was just barely peaking out from the clouds.  Here is a slightly fuzzy, artificial light shot to get a real sense of the holo glitter.

Indoors, artificial light
  The holo in this makes it one of my favorite Christmas greens of my collection.  It applied well in three coats, not too thick or gloopy.  A bit on the gritty side, but not more so than other similar glitter polishes.

Outdoors, shade
  While you lose the holo in the shade, the green and gold combination still make this a gorgeous polish, and perfect for the holidays!  This is definitely one of my new favorite greens!

  Merry Christmas Eve to all!  Check back tomorrow for my Christmas Day manicure!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Holiday Sweater Nails!

  I stumbled across this lovely design idea on YouTube from So Long Kitty, and I fell in love with it.  Of course I had to create some sweater nails of my own, and I absolutely loved them!

Outdoors, natural light
  I started off with two coats of Zoya Sooki, followed by a layer of Deborah Lippmann's Addicted to Speed topcoat, and then came the stamping!  I used plates m59 (snowflakes), BM-214 (reindeer), and m57 (borders) with Konad Special White stamping polish.  This was a lot of stamping but the results were definitely worth it - what a fun and festive manicure!

Outdoors, natural light
  This is definitely a manicure I will be wearing again next year!  Or perhaps later this week... :)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Lovely Aurora and Giveaway Winners!

  Hello to all of my wonderful readers and Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve!  I'm just a tiny bit excited for Christmas, can't you tell?  :)  I am using some of my time this morning to sit down and really crank out some posts for this little blog, and am hoping (once again) to get things moving!  First off, what I know everyone was probably once waiting for but has now somewhat forgotten - giveaway winners!  Remember back in September when I launched the 2nd anniversary giveaway?  I am slightly embarrassed to admit that the winners were never drawn - third year of med school has been even more challenging than I anticipated!  Luckily I am loving every minute of it!  But finally, here are the long overdue winners of the giveaway!

1st Place... Anneke from Pin Point Polish
2nd Place... Olivia from Olivia Frescura
3rd Place... Abby

  Congratulations!  Winners will be receiving e-mails shortly to choose their polishes, and I will get them out ASAP.  Since it's been so long and it's right around the holidays, I will give you a week to respond but if I don't hear back by next Saturday I will draw a new winner so I can get these polishes out!  Thanks to all who entered!  Assuming I can keep things running over the next month or so expect another fun giveaway sometime around February!

  Now on to the polish of this post, the lovely Zoya Aurora.  This has got to be my favorite polish from the Ornate collection, the holo is stunning and the color is gorgeous.

Outdoors, evening sun
  Zoya describes this polish as "a full coverage, medium sugarplum purple flecked with a high concentration of micro fine diamond holographic glitter," which I think is a pretty good description of this one!  This medium red-leaning purple is such a pretty color, I want to go put this back on right now looking at these pictures.  This also appears to be the most intensely holographic of the Ornate collections.  This is 3 coats (although 2 was probably sufficient).  This also lays smooth and flat, which I liked.

Outdoors, evening sun
Outdoors, shade
  Still gorgeous in the shade, but this polish obviously shines in direct light!  If you were only going to pick one polish from the Ornate collection, this would be my choice.  I'll have the rest of my picks from this collection up over the next couple of weeks!