A Pink Christmas

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I wanted to go the non-traditional route this year; so I made sure to do one xmas mani that wasn't all that Christmasy!

I painted my nails with Mod Lacquer Serenity and used some striping tape and OPI Alpine Snow for the candy cane stripes. Then I added some silver rhinestones in the shape of a Christmas Tree to my ring finger for festivity!

I hope you had an awesome Christmas with your friends & family.

xxx

NPA

Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas

Christmas Baubles

 China Glaze Winter Holly & Star Kin R.S.

xxx

NPA

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

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It's Christmas Eve and with all the Christmas food and family around it's certainly feeling festive around here!

 I've been eyeing up all the gifts under the tree and giving mine a wee shake when no ones looking... No clues yet, but I'm hoping for some polish!!!

Here are my Christmas Present nails:

 I used striping tape with China Glaze Ruby Pumps & Emerald Sparkle, then stamped on a gold ribbon with China Glaze Passion.

And from last year's Holiday Collections - on my middle and index fingers - Sation Feliz Navi-doll & Different Dimensions Sign Your 'X' On The Line.

I hope you're enjoying the run up to Christmas rather than stressing out!

xxx

NPA

Christmas Wrapping Paper Manicures

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We're 3 days in to December so it's probably about time for some Christmas nail art!

I did a couple of wrapping paper manis using designs from BM-423

Konad Special Polish Green & BM423 stamped over The Polish Well Wrath

I'm brilliant at the accidentally crooked stamping, right?!

China Glaze Passion & BM423 stamped over The Polish Well Evil Witch

I'm actually pretty stoked with this mani because I managed to get all but the ring finger relatively straight!!!!!

What are you doing to get in to the Christmas spirit? Any one just getting in to the Christmas 'spirits'? :)

xxx

NPA

My Secret Polish Elf Haul #1

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The NZ nail polish Facebook group I belong to did a Secret Polish Elf for Christmas this (last) year. We had an uneven number of participants so I volunteered to gift for two girls and got two gifts myself! Super doubly exciting!!!!

My first Polish Elf sent me 5 polishes off my wish list - talk about spoiled!

L-R Essie Leading Lady, China Glaze It's A Trap-eze!, Color Club Alias, Happy Hands I Just Blue Myself, Black Cat Lacquer Let Them Eat Cake

I've already posted Essie Leady Lady here, so on to the rest:

Happy Hands I Just Blue Myself

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I Just Blue Myself isn't even one of the better lines Tobias has, so you know Arrested Development is hilarious! This super blue tribute glitter is amazeballs! The two different shades of blue glitters are so bold and bright they are practically glowing! There's fine, small and medium hexes (some of which are holographic), short fat bar glitter and some squares too, in a slightly (possibly accidentally) blue tinted base. The base is thick though, which makes application a little trickier. Some polish thinner sorts that out and then you're free to 'blue yourself'.
I'd go for two layers of top coat because when I was wearing one coat of SV it wasn't perfectly smooth.

China Glaze It's A Trap-Eze!

 It's A Trap-Eze! I like, probably not as much as other people who were raving about it, but I'm sort of drifting away from my "Glitter, glitter, glitter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" stage, so that might explain it. In this pic, I'm wearing 2 thin coats, so the coverage is pretty good. The first time I tried IATE! out, I used thicker coats and just hated it! It was so lumpy and chalky, but with thin coats it looks 100% better. The formula is jam packed full of glitter, but it applies pretty darn easy. You'll probably only need 1 layer of SV too, because the glitter sits pretty flat.

Color Club Alias

 Alias is a smokey purple with multichrome glass flecks. They shift purple - pink - orange - green and you get an overall effect of a purple/green duochrome polish. The downside is that the formula is super thin, so you're better off layering it over a base colour. I wore 3 coats of Alias with 1 coat of INM Out The Door.

Black Cat Lacquer Let Them Eat Cake

Let Them Eat Cake has been a lemming of mine for MONTHS! So happy to have this mix of pastel and white glitter top coat! I paired 1 coat with Ulta Bam-Blue-Zled, a periwinkle blue creme. The pink, green and blue matte glitter looks gorgeous on top! It'd be perfect for a baby shower mani too!!!! The formula wasn't noteworthy and the bubbles were from my top coat (as in all the swatches - because my SV needed thinning!).

These are all winners, I'm so grateful to my Polish Elf!!!! The only let down was Akias, but I think I'll like it more over a black or purple creme.

Did you do Secret Santa for xmas last year? I'd love to hear what you got!


xxx
NPA

Christmas Day Nails 2012 - gold leaf franken

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Since it's just gone New Year's this Christmas post is a tad late, but I managed to wipe my New Year's nails from my SD card (I have no idea how!!!!!!! and they were so pretty!!!) so here is the mani I wore for xmas day.

Gold Leaf Franken over OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ

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This wasn't overly Christmasy but I really wanted to wear my gold leaf franken for the first time and I knew Mrs O'Leary's BBQ would make for a great base! It's my favourite vamp. I banged my nail while they were still drying so the dent in my ring finger is pretty rough!!!

Good news is my top coat went on really easily, no issues with bubbles like last time and I got some compliments from my family about it, yay! Even my mum likes the look and if you've been following me for a while you'll know that mum hates most of my polishes!!!

I've been really caught up in the Christmas and New Year polish sales! Have you? Now I'm very poor but so many polishes are headed my way :) Fingers crossed mum doesn't notice lol.

Oh and I think I'll recreate my New Year manicure soon so fear not!


xxx
NPA

China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection 2012: GLITTER ALL THE WAY, WINTER HOLLY & CHAMPAGNE KISSES

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After some weeks, I'm finally back with the rest of my glittery picks from the China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection.

First up is Glitter All The Way:

China Glaze Glitter All The Way

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Glitter All The Way is an amazing mix of fine gold, purple and red glitter and larger green hex glitter in a clear base. It's so festive and screams party time! I feel like it'd be great for New Years and Mardi Gras too.  Application was really good. I used 3 thin coats which gave complete coverage and the glitter lays very flat to the nail. I think I still used 2 layers of NYC GCS top coat to smooth it out, but it's not gritty at all.

China Glaze Winter Holly

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 Winter Holly is a mix of ultra-fine milled forest green, purple and holographic gold glitter. I didn't actually realise that it contained the purple glitter until I saw he photographs buy I can see that that's what makes Winter Holly so rich and pretty! This has a similar application to all the other same styled glitters ChG has released this year. I applied 3 thin coats for full coverage and a couple layers of Glitter Tamer to make it smooth and shiny.

China Glaze Champagne Kisses

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Champagne Kisses is a mix of ultra-fine golden and pale pink glitters. I didn't really notice any holo glitter in CK but there seems to be a very sparse smattering of them in the macro shot. Overall, it does look to be a champagne shade, but I don't love it. Maybe it's just a bit blah compared to the others? Application is the same as Winter Holly and you need at least 2 layers of viscous top coat to make it smooth and shiny.

Now Champagne Kisses may look very similar to the I'm Not Lion and I Herd That glitters from On Safari (Fall 2012), but it looks quite different in person. I'm compiling a list of comparisons I need to swatch this year (because I NEVER do those posts) and CK will definitely feature in one!

So I only picked up glitters this year, and I'm pretty pleased with all of them. Did anyone buy the creme and shimmers from Holiday Joy? If so, which ones and would you recommend them?


xxx
NPA