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!!!

2011 Color Club Boho Collection (Part A)

I can't believe it's Sunday night already.  I vote for a 4 day work week, 32 hours - that's it!  Who's with me?!

So, in nail polish obsession news,  I made an unscheduled stop at my favorite Ross store here in Tucson yesterday, as I was wasting some time with a friend before going to see the movie Warrior at the mall.  In the short browse-fest, I scored Color Club's 2011 Fall Boho Collection (part A - they didn't have part B, but I will be casing my 4 nearby stores regularly to see if it magically appears) and the best part is, it was only $7.99 for 6 polishes and 1 top coat.  What a steal!!!  I should add that I found the Color Club Wicked Sweet Collection of scented polishes for the same price a couple of months ago at a different Ross. P.S.- I <3 you, Ross!  Granted Color Club isn't typically an expensive polish, but at a normal price of around $3.75 a bottle, this little gem was a definite savings.  And who couldn't be pleased with that?

Without further adieu...

And on the nails...

The colors are listed on the package as they are painted on my nails in order from pinky to thumb. 
I covered up Nomadic in Nude on the pinky finger with Red-ical Gypsy for this next pic.

Most items found at Ross are close-outs or slightly defective items, so of course I wondered what was wrong with these?  But I found these polishes are in perfect condition and are a brand-new just released line.  That makes me go "Hmmmm?".  The only defect I could find was that this collection came with a top coat vs the base coat which is what is described on the box they came in.

The colors you see in the above pictures are as accurate as can be (even the red!).  I am very happy with Color Club's formula in all the other bottles I've purchased before and this set didn't let me down one bit.  I didn't use a base coat for these pictures and I applied 3 coats for all of the colors with exception of Red-ical, which was only 2 coats.  Since I was merely doing a swatch set, I did not use a top coat and as you can see, these polishes are super shiny even without it.   Now, while some of you may find this collection to be a snooze fest, I actually thought all of the colors were very pretty and appear to be extremely wearable with just about anything.  I'm looking forward to wearing a full manicure in New Bohemian, Shabby Drab and Rad Nomad.  What do you think?  Now, if I could only get my hands on Part B...

Until next time.