Manis over the Holiday

I apologize for my lack of posts. I've acquired a terrible viral flu so I've been out of commission for the past few days. I have a few mani posts that I'm behind on so I'm going to feature two here. This first one is Sephora by OPI- Hollywood if I Could layered over Essie- Mint Candy Apple.

Sephora by OPI- Hollywood if I Could is part of the recently-released Jewelry Topcoats collection. It is filled with iridescent bar glitter!

You can see the different colors of the bar glitter in this picture taken with the flash. I applied two coats of this. There are also tiny pieces of glitter in this polish.

Here is Essie- Mint Candy Apple without the flash. It is a mint green creme leaning light blue. It is from Essie's Winter 2009 collection.

Here it is with the flash. This just needed two coats to be flawless. I'm a huge fan of mint greens.

My next combo is Glitzology- Island of Misfit Toys layered over OPI- Loyalty Islands Lilac.

Island of Misfit Toys is a unique one. It is filled with squares and hexes of matte multicolored glitter. It definitely reminds me of toys- especially Legos.

The formula on Island of Misfit toys was rather thick and I am only wearing one coat of it. I took this with me to do my nails on a trip out of town to visit family, so I didn't have any polish thinner with me. When I got back home, I put some thinner in it, and the consistency was perfect for me. 

OPI- Loyalty Islands Lilac is a really old one! It is from the South Seas collection of 1997.  I found this one in a salon. It has the old black label. The formula on this one was pretty thin, and it was rather streaky. I only used two coats since I was using it as a base for glitter, but I probably would have used three coats if I were to wear it alone. This picture was taken without the flash.

With the flash, you can see the lilac in this. This is such a pale lilac that it almost looks silver. It has a frosty quality to it, but I wouldn't categorize it as a frost; just a shimmer. 

Deborah Lippmann- Almost Paradise and Glitzology- Guardian Angel

For this combo, I layered Glitzology- Guardian Angel over Deborah Lippmann- Almost Paradise. This kind of reminded me of icing on Christmas cookies! I took this picture in a diner because I really liked the lighting.

This was my first time trying a Glitzology polish and it was packed with glitter! I am only wearing one coat of Guardian Angel over Almost Paradise. Guardian Angel had a clear base with gold shimmer, and red, pink, and white matte shards, and pink and white hearts! It was so unique. Glitzology polishes can be found in the Etsy Shop and retail for $8.50.

Here is a picture taken indoors with the flash.

Here is Almost Paradise on it's own. This was part of the Footloose collection during Winter 2011. It a spring green pastel creme. It reminds me of Essie- Navigate Her, but it has more yellow in it.

Here it is with the flash. The formula on this one was streaky; especially with the first coat. The second coat smoothed that out. 

My fiance got me a $200 gift card to Ulta for Christmas, so I went shopping!

Essie- Bonded (via Ebay), and Where's My Chauffeur? 

China Glaze- Swanky Silk, Want My Bawdy, No Plain Jane, and Creative Fantasy

Revlon- Heavenly and Girly and Sation- Pyramid Princess and Starlight Covers (given to me in a swap)

OPI- The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldeneye, Skyfall, and Tomorrow Never Dies

Pretty & Polished- Slime Time, Jessica- Cloud Mine (given to me in a swap), and Layla- CE 54 and CE 53

OPI- Gift Cards for Everyone!, Baby it's "Coal" Outside, and Wooden Shoe Like to Know?

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Some Blue Holiday Combos

I put together a couple of holiday-themed combos using blue. This first one is Amy's Nail Boutique- Frosty layered over OPI- Greece Just Blue Me Away

Amy's Nail Boutique- Frosty is a sheer light blue shimmery base packed with prismatic glitter, and various sizes of white and blue matte glitter. This polish was recently released as part of Amy's holiday collection. 

I used two coats of this and dabbed it around to make sure the coverage of the glitter was even. The formula was great! This mani was appropriate, since it was very cold outside. Amy's Nail Boutique polishes can be purchased from her Etsy shop.

Here is OPI- Greece Just Blue Me Away! before adding Frosty without the flash. It is a sheer light blue shimmer, almost a frost (which is why it paired so nicely with Frosty- get it?) I needed three coats of this in order for it to be opaque. It was a little bit streaky and one of OPI's "black label" formulas that I dustied.

Here it is with the flash. Greece Just Blue Me Away! is from the Spring 2004 Greek Isles collection so it's definitely an oldie. Although this shade is discontinued, it is still fairly easy to find for retail price on Ebay.

My next blue combination is Wet n Wild- Give Me a Price Quote layered over Color Club- Gift of Sparkle. Give Me a Price Quote was released in Wet n Wild's Coloricon Ice Ice Baby collection around the holidays last year.

Give me a price quote is a yellow filled with microglitter and bar glitter.

I only used one coat of it because I didn't want to hide Gift of Sparkle underneath. This would probably take about three coats in order to have full coverage. The bar glitter in this is really small.

Here is Color Club- Gift of Sparkle without the flash. It is a bright blue shimmer. This is part of Color Club's recently-released Winter Affair collection. This one is scented because I bought it at Sally's in an exclusive mini set. As much as I love scented polish, and smelly things in general, I really didn't like the way this smelled at all. It's supposed to smell like vanilla, but it didn't smell like that at all to me. 

Despite the smell not being pleasant, the formula was great. This applied in two even coats.

China Glaze- 5 Golden Rings and Wet n Wild- Diamond in the Rough

China Glaze- 5 Golden Rings is from the Holiday 2009: I Love You Snow Much collection. It is a gorgeous gold shimmer with microglitter.

The formula on this one was somewhat sheer and I needed to use three coats. It's a nice "work safe" gold- simple and elegant, not too glittery.

Now this one is the complete opposite. This is Wet n Wild- Diamond in the Rough. It is a charcoal gray glitter filled with prismatic hexes! It was pretty gritty just from the amount of glitter in it! These pictures were both taken indoors without the flash.

I used a coat of Gelous followed by a coat of Seche Vite to get a somewhat smooth finish. Although there was a lot of glitter, I used three coats because there were some bare spots.

Here's a blurred picture just to show the different colors!

This is what it looked like in indoor lighting with the flash.

Green and Silver Holiday Combos

I still haven't put much of a dent in most of my holiday-themed polishes, and Christmas is almost here! This is Zoya- Twila layered over China Glaze- Icicle. This picture was taken without the flash in artificial lighting.

This picture was taken indoors with the flash. Twila is composed of tiny blue prismatic pieces of bar glitter as well as silver microglitter. It was released in Zoya's 2011 holiday collection, Gems and Jewels. These bar-glitter type polishes can be worn alone: I've tried before with Rina and Kissy and both of them required three coats for full coverage. I really enjoyed the layering with this though. I only used one coat. Twila almost made the silver in Icicle look like a light blue.  Very wintery! 

Here is China Glaze-Icicle without the flash. It is a gorgeous silver foil! It was released in China Glaze's  2011 holiday collection, Let it Snow. Icicle only needed two coats to look flawless.

The next combo is Sephora by OPI- Come to Pappa-razzi layered over Color Club- Ho Ho Holly. Come to Pappa-razzi is part of Sephora by OPI's recent Jewelry Topcoats collection. It is filled with small pieces of copper glitter and larger pieces of black and gold glitter. I applied two coats of this.

Color Club- Ho Ho Holly is part of the recently released holiday Winter Affair collection. There are two versions of this collection, the scented one exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply, and the regular one. I believe the names are all the same, and a couple of the colors differ. I purchased a set of the scented mini bottles from Sally's This is a green shimmer- some shimmer particles appear to be gold. I liked the smell of this. It was reminiscent of pine, but it wasn't overpowering. It was like a sweet pine- if that exists! Tis picture was taken indoors without the flash.

F4 Polish- Who-ville over NARS- 15 Minutes

Here is F4 Polish-Who-Ville layered over NARS- 15 Minutes. This combo kind of reminds me of egg nog! Perfect for the holidays.

Who-Ville was recently released as part of the F4 Holiday collection. It is filled with small pieces of yellow-green matte and red matte hex glitter and some larger red matte hexes.

The glitter was very concentrated and I only used one coat via the dabbing method because I didn't want to cover 15 Minutes too much. 

I took a couple pictures of NARS- 15 Minutes because 1 it looks so nice and shiny, 2 the yellow looks different at various angles, and 3 it's a higher end polish, so I figured I'd get my money's worth by sharing with everyone! 

15 minutes is a pastel yellow creme. It was released in the recent Andy Warhol holiday collection. It reminds me of the Andy Warhol banana piece. 

Application on the first coat was streaky, but the second coat smoothed that out. NARS retails for $18 and can be found at Sephora. I don't own many yellows in my stash, and I enjoyed this one!

China Glaze- Glistening Snow

China Glaze- Glistening Snow was recently released as part of the Holiday Joy collection. It is composed of silver prismatic microglitter. I received many compliments on this and it is absolutely stunning!

This needed three coats to be opaque. China Glaze has come out with a few prismatic microglitter shades before. The ULTA exclusives from last year: Fireside Glow and Ultamate Holiday, I'm Not Lion and I Herd That from the On Safari collection, and also a couple from their new holiday collection such as Winter Holly. The texture was a little bit gritty due to the glitter, but it smoothed out well with a coat of each Seche Vite and Gelous.

Some new hauls!

Liquid Lacquer- Blue Pistachio mini, Amy's Nail Boutique- One of a Kind, Dollish Polish- Dino-mite Yoshi and The Koopa King

Liquid Lacquer Limited Edition Game of Thrones Collection! All of my bottles are marked 4/30. The Drowned God, Storm Born, Mother of Dragons, and Whitewalkers

Essence- Hunt Me if You Can, Sally Hansen- Radar and Shimmer, and ORLY- RIP

Utopia Polish- Paint Splatter, Amy's Nail Boutique- Frosty, Essie- Leading Lady, and Island Girl- Waikiki Sunset

Glitzology was having a 50% off sale so I ordered Guardian Angel, Steel City (My city!!!), Island of Misfit Toys, Neapolitan, and Bad Things (love True Blood)