More Festive Combos

I had quite a busy week, but I've been keeping up with holiday-themed mani combos and just have to update with all of them! This one is a combination of Zoya- Electra layered over ORLY- Au Champagne

Electra was just released as part of Zoya's Ornate holiday collection. It is filled with micro silver glitter and prismatic silver bar glitter. It reminds me of tinsel!

I only wore one coat of Electra because I didn't want to cover up Au Champagne too much. I really liked how it turned out! It reminds me of a white Christmas tree. Electra would probably need about 3-4 coats to be completely opaque on its own.

Here's ORLY- Au Champagne by itself with the flash. This one was surprising. It had a semi-matte finish; almost like a satin. I was only wearing two coats, but if I were to wear this by itself, I'd go for three.

This is without the flash. You can see the satin finish and the white shimmer particles. Au Champagne was released in ORLY's 2011 Holiday Soiree collection.

This next combination is composed of Seche- Collage Overlay layered over Joe Fresh- Mallard. I took a picture of it by my tree because it blended in so well!

Collage Overlay was just released as a limited edition shade by Seche. I purchased mine at Sally's. It is absolutely stunning and I have seen nothing like it. I recommend picking one of these up ASAP! It's filled with giant matte white hex glitter, large pink prismatic hexes, and prismatic silver bar glitter. I am only wearing ONE COAT of this stuff! It's so concentrated with glitter. I only had to dab it around a little bit just to make sure it was evenly dispersed. I also just realized that I'm holding my Seche Vite bottle in the picture instead of the Collage Overlay. Oops! At least it's the same company.

 

Here's Joe Fresh- Mallard on it's own before adding Collage Overlay. This picture was taken without the flash. I do not know much about this brand. I purchased this one from a blog sale- on the reasoning that I love greens and mallard ducks! I was very surprised with how great the formula and brush were because it was a mini bottle. The brush conformed to my nails so well! It was almost like a mini OPI brush (regular size, not the mini OPI bottle brushes). It is a darker green creme leaning blue. I love everything about it!

Zoya Storm

Zoya- Storm is absolutely amazing! It is a black filled with scattered holo particles. These holo particles reflect a prism of color!

Storm was released recently as part of Zoya's Ornate holiday collection. I've seen holo particles in shades like this get lost in the base color, but it did not happen with this polish at all.

Storm needed two coats to be completely opaque and it was so shiny!

Here's a picture of Storm indoors without the flash. The holo effect isn't as strong, but you can still see it.

Indoors with the flash. The removal of this was a breeze too! I was thinking that since it was black and had holo particles, that it would be difficult. I think I only needed one cottonball.

Sally Hansen- White Veil over OPI- Ali's Big Break

Here's a fun Christmas combo! This is Sally Hansen- White Veil layered over OPI- Ali's Big Break. It reminds me either of Santa Claus, snow, or a Christmas ornament.

White Veil was released sometime earlier this year and it is white matte glitter with some gold hexes. It is packed with glitter! I only needed one coat of it. I dabbed it around a little bit in order to make sure it was evenly distributed.

With the flash, you can see how some of the white glitter is transparent. It had a neat effect.

Here is OPI- Ali's Big Break on it's own. This was part of OPI's 2010 Burlesque holiday collection. It is a bright red, with some shimmery glass flecks. These types of reds are somewhat difficult to photograph. You can barely see the glass flecks in this picture. It applied with two coats. It's somewhat sheer and a third coat would have worked, but since I used it as a base color for the glitter, it wasn't necessary.

ORLY Le Chateau with Snowman Glitter

I have a fun holiday combo. This is ORLY- Le Chateau topped off with a Blue Cross snowman glitter. I was very pleased with how this turned out and wore it for a couple days. It reminds me of lights on a Christmas tree!

I purchased this Blue Cross snowman glitter last year around the holidays, but I noticed that they are selling it this year too. I saw some bottles of it at Rite Aid. I wish that these festive glitters had names. I only needed one coat of this over Le Chateau. I dabbed it around a little bit just to make sure the coverage was even.

Here is Le Chateau by itself before adding the glitter. This was indoors without the flash. Le Chateau is from ORLY's 2011 Holiday Soiree collection. I found this one on sale when Sally's was clearing out their holiday shades last year. I actually almost didn't purchase it because it looked black in the bottle, but it is actually a dark green jelly. I own nothing else like it.

With the flash, this looks black. The formula on this was great and it only required two coats to be completely opaque. It was so shiny without topcoat!

Since it's rather hard to see the green in the pictures, I thought I would show what just one coat of Le Chateau looks like. It's a bit sloppy since this was mid-mani, but you can definitely see the green here. It was a little bit streaky for the first coat, but the second coat hid that completely.

Wet n Wild- Believe Me it's Real

This is Wet n Wild- Believe Me It's Real. This was released in their color icon series around the holidays last year. I was lucky to pick up the set of these when they were on clearance. 

Believe Me It's Real is bright blue micro glitter with some bigger particles of purple glitter. The texture of this was pretty gritty, even with Gelous and Seche Vite. I also had to file down my nails because the mirco glitter hung off of them.

Overall this was very bright, unique, and long-lasting. 

Here are more new additions.

The Milani holographics were on clearance. I got the whole set of them with the exception of the silver because I already had it. The shades are 3D, Hi-Tech, Cyberspace, Hi-Res, and Digital.

New holiday Candy Lacquers and Pretty & Polished- I'm Not a Banana!

Marshall's finds: Sation- Calorie Countess, ORLY Color Blast- Ablazing Aqua and Twilight

Sephora by OPI- Hollywood if I Could, Caged Bird Lacquer- Rose Golden, and China Glaze- 5 Golden Rings

Butter London- Shambolic, Jack the Lad, Scuppered, Fairy Cake, and Fishwife

China Glaze- Running in Circles and Water You Waiting For, Seche- Collage Overlay, and Finger Paints- Santa's Magic

OPI Sugarplum Yum Duo

I have some gems to showcase today! This is the OPI Sugarplum Yum duo. I know these were released in OPI's 2002 Holiday collection, but I do not know if they came in a set. Regardless, they look fantastic together! Prepare to see a ton of pictures because this polish looked different in various types of lighting.

The Sugarplum Yum glitter topper s a very tiny scattered holo glitter. I only used one coat of it because I didn't want to take away from the beauty of the base color.

The duochrome effect on the Sugarplum Yum basecoat is very strong! I don't even know how to describe the base color. It's like a lilac/blue/pink with some gold shimmer. It's probably one of the most intense duochromes I own. I don't even know if it's technically called a duochrome if it flashes more than two colors. Multichrome?

Here's what it looks like indoors with the flash. It's almost like it's an entirely different color. I don't think the Sugarplum Yum glitter was intended to be worn for opacity. It's more of a glitter topcoat.

Duochrome glittery goodness without the flash.

I took a picture of Sugarplum Yum before adding the glitter topcoat. Indoors without the flash, it almost looks like a light purple with a pink flash.

With the flash, it's almost like a blue lilac color. Gorgeous!

China Glaze- Winter Holly

Here is China Glaze- Winter Holly from the newly-released Holiday Joy Collection. This is a great shade. It is a darker green micro glitter, filled with scattered holographic particles.

Since the glitter on this is so tiny, this needed three coats to be completely opaque. It definitely reminds me of a Christmas tree.

The wear time on this polish did not work well for me. I used a regular base coat, and some of it came off in sheets within 24 hours. This might wear longer on different people, but I didn't have the best experience. In terms of removal, it wasn't as difficult using pure acetone.