Christmas Day Mani

Hello!  I hope that everyone who celebrated had a great Christmas!  My day was alright; it was my first year not being able to spend Christmas with my family, so it was a bit sad.  We did have a get-together with a few friends which was nice, but it just isn't the same as being at home.  However, those of you who follow me on IG (@emmaclarem) will know that I adopted my first-ever pet just over a week ago, which has definitely been keeping my spirits and excitement up.  I got a little 11-month-old boy tuxedo cat; he's such a cutie, and a total lap cat!  I love him to bits!  Anywho, let's get on to what you came here for - the nails!

I was a bit short on time (as always these days) so I decided to re-make my favourite Christmas mani from last year, with a couple little changes. 

My index and thumb started with a base of OPI Live and Let Die, and the rest have a base of Picture Polish Moscow.  My pinky got a coat of WingDust Collections Gilt-y Pleasure, while my thumb (forgot a picture - oops!) got two gold studs.  I added dots in Essie Good as Gold on my index finger, and then stamped with that same gold in the snowflake pattern from BM-323 on the remaining two nails.  All nails are topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.  

I really love the mix of patterns and finishes here; what do you think?  Do you have a favourite nail from this skittlette?  :)  

Yule Light Up My Life

Just a quick swatch post today with one of my favourite holiday looks to wear pre-December, since it's festive but doesn't absolutely scream Christmas.  Take a look!

This is one coat of Serum No.5 Yule Light Up My Life over one coat of OPI Live and Let Die.  Amazingly smooth and even application on the glitter (yay!), and it's topped with a coat of Seche Vite.  

This glow-in-the-dark glitter topper was part of last year's holiday trio set from Serum No.5, Lacquer Lust, and Polished by KPT, so unfortunately I believe it's no longer available.  Were you able to snatch up this beauty last year?  :)  It's definitely one of my favourite Christmas glitters! 

Guest Post at Nailed It

Today I'm posting over on Nailed It while Katy's away on vacation.  Click the picture to be taken to her blog for more pictures and the full post!  :)

Candy Canes

I'm back after a (long-than-anticipated) Christmas hiatus to show you my Christmas day nail art, and I've included a quick tutorial at the end of the post!  :)

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying.  After taping off stripes, I used Essie Macks for the red and topped the whole look off with two more coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the stripes.  

I say that this was my Christmas day mani, when in reality it only lasted the first part of the day.  Of course, thanks to Christmas and review packages arriving, I now have an obscene amount of untried polishes (and a storage rack!) so I had to paint my nails on Christmas day! 

Here's a quick picture tutorial for this look; it's pretty self-explanatory since I mainly made it to post on Instagram, but if you have any questions just leave a comment! 

My pile of untried and to-review indies has grown to the size of Mount Doom, so I'm planning to do a month of everyday indie polish posts.  I usually post sporadically so posting every day will be a challenge, but I'm really looking forward to it!  I hope you'll follow me along the way!  :) 

Silver Snowflakes

Another Christmas-y manicure today!  Christmas is less than a week away (*gasp*) and time for Christmas nails is is running out, so let's get right to it!  :)

I started with two coats of OPI The Spy Who Loved Me and one coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying before stamping the snowflake design from BM-323 with Essie No Place Like Chrome.  I finished the look by placing silver holographic glequins from the Born Pretty Store in the centers of the larger snowflakes, and applying one last coat of Seche Vite

. 

OPI The Spy  Who Loved Me is a gorgeous bright red with a goldish-red glass fleck/shimmer.  It applied so perfectly, and is a great holiday polish! 

I really liked this look and was planning on wearing it for two days, but I got a huge dump of indie nail mail the next day, so off it came!  :P  

Christmas seems to have come so quickly this year, and I'm going to try to get in as much Christmas nail art as I can!  I'm still stuck on what polish to wear on Christmas, but I'm not really sure how much it matters since I'm pretty sure I'll be getting some polish for Christmas and will probably do my nails multiple times that day anyways, haha!  

Have you decided what your Christmas manicure will be?  A favourite polish or nail art?  :)

Christmas Skittlette

Skitt * lette : a manicure consisting of two, or three, different accent nails on each hand. 

I just did my first skittlette manicure for a contest being hosted by Marta at ChitChatNails.  I've never tried one, and I decided to give it a go for the contest!  Take a look!

I used my three new Butter London polishes (thanks mom!) to create this nail art.  The magenta-plum creme is Queen Vic, the deep pink microglitter is Fiddlesticks, and the green is Jack The Lad.  The gold glequins are from the BornPrettyStore (code for 10% off: PPJ61) and the gold microglitter on my index finger is Orly Prisma Gloss Gold.  Sealed with two coats of Seche Vite (Fiddlesticks is a hungry one.)

I'm not really a pink person, but without question I'll make an exception for Fiddlesticks!  A rich-toned base with dark flecks and glowing microglitter?  Yes, please!  Queen Vic is an absolutely perfect two-coat creme, and Jack The Lad is such a stunner, although the gold glequins don't let the true beauty of this polish shine through.

I'm obviously not as talented at artsy pictures as Marta, haha!  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to come up with multiple different nails that would all look good together and form a cohesive look.  I have so much respect for Marta who constantly comes up with stunning combinations for her manicures! 

I'm looking forward to wearing all of these polishes alone, but I also really enjoyed wearing them together!  What do you think of my first skittlette?  :)

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

**Voting for Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Challenge Week 3 is open until December 12th! Don't forget to vote!  See my entry here, and click here to vote!**

I've had this nail art on my to-do list for almost a year now, since I first saw this reindeer nail art by The Nailasaurus last December.  Since Christmas is sneaking up on us so quickly and I've been diving into more freehand nail art recently, I decided to give it a go!  

I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  Everything past that was done with acrylic paint, except for Rudolph's nose which is China Glaze Ring In The Red. 

The reindeer may be looking a little worse for wear, my mom had the camera with her and I'd been wearing this for almost two days by the time I got to take pictures!  I touched it up multiple times, and I'm pretty sure I have at least three coats of Seche Vite on there... haha!

For those of you who are wondering, yes, I did do my other hand.  I took some pictures but the lighting was awful, so you'll have to take my word that the ones I painted with my left hand were only slightly deformed.

From thumb to pinky, left hand to right hand, I named them as follows:  Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Rudolph, Vixen, Comet,  Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Olive. 

You know, Olive the other reindeer?  ;)

Trim the Tree

This is the third and final week of Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Challenge, and the theme is "trim the  tree" (holiday decorations).  Since my water marbling skills have recently become more reliable, I tried a Christmas tree water marble!  

I started with a base of Essie Mojito Madness and marbled with that polish and China Glaze Holly-Day.  After marbling, I painted on China Glaze Twinkling Lights with a striper brush to decorate the tree.  I topped the tree with a star-shaped stud, and two coats of Seche Vite. 

I'm really glad that I was able to get all the nails looking *kind of* the same; I've really been enjoying water marbling recently!  My favourite nail was the index finger, so I'm borrowing a hand pose from Chalkboard Nails to better show that one.  ;)

I felt so festive wearing little Christmas trees on my nails!  These were very popular among my friends, who are now all asking me for Christmas nails!

Thank you all so much for your votes last week, my Christmas meme nail art placed third in the Week 2 vote.  However, it's not over yet!  I really need your help this week, you can vote for my Week 3 entry here!   I really appreciate every vote!  :)

I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas

Yes, it's official.  The Christmas manicures are starting here on Globe & Nail.  There's less than a month now until Christmas, so it's completely acceptable, right?  Right.  

This week is Week 2 of the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge, and the theme is "Gifts, Presents, Stockings, anything related to you getting the awesome things you want."  Since the list of things that I want for Christmas consists mainly of nail polish and my Hogwarts letter, I went a little outside the box with this one.  

I essentially painted everyone on Christmas morning.  Quite the feat, I know.  I was inspired by the exploitable meme "X ALL the Y!" which originated from the blog Hyperbole and a Half.  As far as I know, this was first done as nail art by The Nailasaurus, and has been floating around the internet ever since.

I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and then added all the details with acrylic paint and a super tiny paintbrush.  Two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth finish.  

This was definitely a departure from my comfort zone, because I don't often do freehand nail art.  Luckily, it turned out way better than I had imagined!  *shameless self-pride*

If you like my nail art, you can vote for my entry here!  Voting for Week 2 will be open until December 5th. 

KBShimmer Winter Collection

Happy Monday! (That's the two cups of coffee speaking.)  If you're not a caffeinated as I am, I hope I can brighten your morning with this gorgeous glittery post featuring fove polishes from the KBShimmer Winter Collection!  Let's get right to it! 

Hex Appeal was inspired by New Year's Eve in Times Square, and is a "navy jelly base with magenta, silver and blue hex glitters. Tiny micro bar glitters add a bit of pop."

Hex Appeal covered perfectly in two thicker coats.  Application required a bit of work; I first applied it normally to spread the jelly base, and then dabbed around to evenly disperse the glitters.  Two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth, glossy finish. 

I'm sure you'll agree that the extra effort in application is SO worth the end result though.  Isn't this a stunner?  Definitely one of my favourites from the collection! *drool* 

Next up, Candy Cane Crush is "is loaded with red and white hex glitters in many different sizes. This polish is scented with vanilla peppermint, for a classic sweet mint scent."

I layered one thick dabbed coat of Candy Cane Crush over two coats of China Glaze Holly-Day.  This one is a hungry glitter, even with two coats of Seche Vite it was pretty bumpy. 

I absolutely love the vanilla peppermint scent, I wish every polish smelled like this!  It's not overpowering at all (unless you hold it up to your nose and inhale like my sister did when I told her it was scented) and I could still smell it the day after applying two coats of top coat!  This is a very versatile polish: over green for Christmas, pink for Valentine's Day, blue for 4th of July, and red or white for Canada Day!

For We Three Blings "we started out with a micro iridescent gold and then added faux gold flakes. To finish this polish off, we then added several sizes of golo holo glitter." 

I layered one easy coat of We Three Blings over three coats of Essie Macks, and topped with one coat of Seche Vite.  You can see the gold holo on my blurred index and middle fingers. 

This gold top coat is stunning, and applied like a dream!  I had such a hard time deciding what to layer this over; on my high-tech plastic bag tester swatches it looked gorgeous over everything, especially all the rich jewel-toned shades!  The combination of faux gold flakes and gold holo is so beautiful! 

Cocoa Nut is "a chocolate brown polish loaded with berry colored glitters in several shades of pink. Micro gold adds a hint of shimmer and shine." 

This polish goes on beautifully, I honestly forgot that I was applying a glitter polish!  Two coats covers perfectly.  The polish is left with a slightly grainy finish even after two coats of Seche Vite, but I had multiple people tell me "Whoa that's so cool, it's textured!"  Why yes, it is cool, isn't it?  ;)

Cocoa Nut flashes some other colours too, which you can see in the bottle shot above.  It's such a flattering shade of brown.  In fact, this post is a little late because I didn't want to take it off and wore it for two whole days!  Another favourite in this collection! 

All Decked Out is "a forest green Christmas Tree inspired base loaded with a mix of colored hexes in various sizes, gold holo hexes and a scattering of gold holo stars, as we know all Christmas trees need to be topped with a star!"

This one applied like Hex Appeal, a little dabbing was required to spread the glitters evenly.  Two coats of Seche Vite smooths it out perfectly.  The stars were hard to get, but I went fishing to satiate my desire to have a star on every nail... hehe!  :)

I absolutely love All Decked Out, yet another favourite in the collection.  The forest green jelly base is beautiful and gives the polish so much depth!  I got so many compliments on this one (sometimes after shoving my hands at their faces... like an insane person..."Look! I have Christmas trees on my nails!!")  Yea, this polish got me pretty excited.  It's just so Christmas-y!  :)

Now I'm in a super Christmas-y mood, I've been writing this post while listening to Christmas music for the first time this year!  :)  (Click here for my favourite Christmas song. You know you want to.)

You can buy KBShimmer polishes on their website here, Etsy shop here, and on Harlow & Co if you're not in the US.  Like the KBShimmer Facebook page to keep up-to-date with new releases and sales! 

No Castle Mani Monday post today because there's no new episode until the Christmas episode next Monday, but I hope this post made up for it!  Overall, I'm extremely impressed with this whole collection.  There's something for everybody in there, and you can bet I'll be reaching for them a lot this Christmas season (and some of them year-round!) 

Do you have a favourite in this collection?  Did you order any of them when they were released last Friday?  Comments are early Christmas presents!  :)  

*edit: Voting for the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge is open until Wednesday.  Click here and vote for your favourite (or mine, up to you) ;) *

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided to me for review and my honest opinion.

Sugar Plum Fairy

Busy day today! Not quite sure why I'm trying to fit in a blog post, but here we go.  I spent my afternoon in the mall, being a Sugar Plum Fairy.  I danced my variation a couple times and my friends did other excerpts from The Nutcracker, and then we walked around, handed out candy canes to adoring children, and took pictures!

We're not normally allowed to wear nail polish for performances, but seeing as it was at a mall and my teacher was a wee bit more lenient, she said we could wear polish if it matched our costumes.  Me being the sugar plum fairy, I was wearing an extremely sparkly light plum-coloured tutu so I did my nails to match!  *Cue artsy tutu picture, thanks to my friend Danielle*

I didn't have a polish that perfectly matched, but it was pretty close in person!  I started with a base of Essie Nice is Nice, and used this method from Lucy's Stash to add the glitter gradient in Glitzology As You Wish. 

I'll have a post up sometime in the next week or two with a full review of As You Wish, along with four other awesome Glitzology polishes!  

My friend Alisha was doing the Arabian dance at the mall at the same time I was, so I did her nails to match her costume too!  Inspired by this manicure by Wacky Laki,  I used OPI No Room For The Blues, BM-315 in Essie Good As Gold, and BornPretty Store gold glequins.  

Now I've got to rush off to a fundraiser performance for Education Without Borders!  Check back on Monday for some drool-inducing pictures of the KBShimmer Winter Collection!  :)