Color Club Ho Ho Holly & X-mas Dot Mani

Christmas is bearing down on us with a fury as the days are just flying by faster than ever, it seems.  I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet.  Fortunately for me, I don't have too many people to shop for.  Is it awful for me to say that I'm waiting for December 21st to come and go before I start my shopping?  Yup, call me crazy, but it's true.

To get us in the holiday mood, I did my nails up in Color Club's Ho Ho Holly and then when I grew tired of it added a little dot magic for fun.  Ho Ho Holly is part of the Winter Affair Collection and to me, is the prettiest one of the bunch.  I picked it up at Sally's last month for under $5.  It really is a stunning green with lots of shimmer, shine and sparkle.  Very Christmas-y, indeed.

For this mani, I used Orly Bonder base, with 3 coats of Ho Ho Holly and topped with SV.  This polish went on very smoothly, no streakies - not too thick and not too thin.  Perfection in a bottle. I have to also add that it is wearing very well.  I'm on day four and am hardly showing any wear at all.  

After 2 days of Ho Ho Holly all by its lonesome, I decided to dot it out with some red and gold dots.  I'm not going to bother listing the colors I used for the dots, because you get the gist of it.  I have learned that laying out your dot pattern using a white dot base before layering on the color to the dot is best when using a darker base color or polish.  That way, the contrasting color dot can be sure to stand out as it's supposed to.  

I really like the way the dots came out on this one.  They're raised and look like little buttons or candy dots.  And I love how easy dot manicures are to do and yet they can have so much impact.  What do you think?  Are you going to X-mas decorate your nails this season?

Well that's about it from me, for now.  Happy Holidays!!!

Cleopatra in New York by Deborah Lippmann

There's not much to say about Deborah Lippman's Cleopatra in New York except when I saw it I immediately said "gotta have it!!".  Deborah Lippmann's website describes this polish as: gold studded black (glitter) new - limited edition!

Deborah Lippman really needs to start taking it easy on me.  I can't keep buying her polish because it will surely break me...but it's all soooo preeetty!!!  Ack!! What's a girl to do?  I always justify it by telling myself that at least I don't have a shoe obsession.  Shoes are waaay more expensive.  Fortunately for me, I don't currently have any other DL's on my "want" list or pinned so I can take a breather and so can my wallet.  For now.

Here's Cleopatra for you.  This manicure consists of the usual Bonder base coat, several coats of Cleo.  DL glitters seems to always be a cinch to apply, no need to use the glitter "splat" method (it's so glitter packed!) and dry time is no worry.  After drying, I topped it off with a generous coat of SV.

Is it just me or does DL have the lotsa-gorgeous glitter suspended in a colored base thing down to perfection? 

I purchased Cleopatra in New York on sale via Amazon.com for $16.00 which included free shipping.  What a deal!

Do you have any DL in your collection?  If not, do you think you will ever give her a try?  

Until next time.  ☺

Butter London - Scouse!

Oh my!  I do believe that my butter London nail polish collection is growing and growing!  They just seem to be coming up with color after color that I looove.

For this post I layered Scouse, which butter London describes as "Sheer, royal blue and indigo duochrome nail lacquer with pink, purple, and blue microglitter.", over Nina Ultra Pro's Cobalt.

The definition of Scouse is a "Brit slang referring to a person from Liverpool"

Cobalt is such a stunning color, and is HOT HOT HOT this season, but it is so hard to photograph, as blues usually are.  I did have to fiddle around with my camera and settings in order to get to capture it's "in real life" color, so please forgive the brightness of some of the shots. 

For this manicure I started with the usual Orly Bonder base followed by 3 coats of Cobalt and topped with a coat of SV to render it super shine-tastic.   I had to include a partial shot of the ring I wore with this mani, which is a sterling silver setting with a chunk of a Ming vase in it.  What can I say?  It matched perfectly. 

After I grew bored of Cobalt all on it's own I layered on 2 coats of Scouse to my mani and topped again with SV.  That's quite a few layers of nail polish, but it all held up very well. 

Scouse is an exclusive color that can be found only at Dillard's stores or via the butter London website and sell for $14.00 each.  Cobalt can be found at Sally's online store  for $4.19 with their beauty club card.  I picked mine up in person and believe it was actually priced at under $4.00 in store with my Sally's card.

Will you be jumping on the Cobalt band wagon this season?  Please do!

Until next time...

☺ 

Once Upon a Polish - Whosits and Whatsits Galore!

There are times when a nail polish makes you ooooh!! and aaaaah! more than the other polishes and this is one of those times and one of those polishes.  I came across this bad ass while I was perusing some other blogs and had one of those "I MUST HAVE IT!" moments and ordered it immediately.  This is a polish that a gal named Kimberly hand makes out of Tallahassee, FL.  Kimberly is a mad and brilliant nail polish scientist just based off this polish alone.  As you may or may not know, indie polishes are just as pricey, if not more so than name brand polishes and this lovely did not come "cheap", but as usual, I think it's totally worth it.  You can find Once Upon A Polish at Kimberly's Etsy store - Once Upon A Polish for $8.50 each + shipping.

This polish is described as "A mixture of matte coral, green, red, white, and blue glitter! "

It's a great layering polish and kind of reminds me of a Jackson Pollack painting, but much MUCH prettier and way more aesthetically pleasing.  I layered Whosits over Essence Black is Back, but I imagine it would look just as good over white, pink, green or red cream...or maybe even a cement gray.  I believe I used 3 steady, even coats and topped off with 1 thick coat of SV.  It's not really grainy or a top-coat eater kind of a polish either, which was a relief.

Now onward to the peektures!!!

Pretty sweet, huh.  What makes it so much more cool and interesting than your average polish is that it's more like a confetti polish vs a glitter.  It's not shiny or shimmery, which I like and it's like nothing else I have in my stash.  So what do you think?  Gonna try an indie polish any time soon?  

Until next time.

☺