Finger Paints Santa's Little Topper

Hopefully this won't be my last Christmas manicure, but it's a distinct possibility since I'm working full-time this week, running errands, and doing the Christmas shopping. I have a couple ideas rolling around in my head, and I was hoping for a chance to try something new, but I would be okay with redoing my manicure from last year, which I really enjoyed. 

I tried a few times to photograph this exact manicure last season, but just never got the right light angle, or it would chip before I could get good pictures of it, or any other number of reasons I didn't get many good holiday manicures documented last year. Santa's Little Topper is such a nice, gentle, subtle Christmas glitter; it looks good over almost any color, but my favorite combination is with Essie Mint Candy Apple. It's sort of a pastel, marshmallow-y, retro Christmas combination. Or snowdrifts and birch branches and holly berries. Santa's Little Topper is, I believe, the only glitter I own that contains bar glitter, which I would never, ever own under usual circumstances because bar glitter offends every atom in my body. But I can overlook it in this case because it is so small and sparse. 

Another thing I like about Santa's Little Topper is that the suspension is slightly red-tinged, so it sort of changes the tone of the base. Mint Candy Apple is a little intense for me as a winter polish, but a thin coat of a clear, red-tinged topper like SLT and it becomes a little dirtier, and a little more grey, which reminds me more of snow. 

1 coat of Santa's Little Topper over 2 of Mint Candy Apple. A few of my little students like to see what new nails I have every week, and they really, really liked this one. 

Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

I am going to be honest guys...most of the holiday polish collections I've seen from major brands this year are incredibly disappointing. I will concede that there are a few pretty ones in the O.P.I. Starlight (I think that's what it's called) collection, but nothing I'm desperate to get my hands on. 

If I'm honest, my tastes run towards the classics. Rich, decadent red cremes, sparkly silver and gold, emerald anything...that's what I like to see. And since I didn't get it, I'm looking at past polishes for my fix. 

In my humble opinion, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is probably one of the most beautiful polishes ever made. Ever. And this is coming from someone who doesn't wear a lot of glass fleck. It's a beautiful, deep green that can look straight up emerald, or more teal (or blue spruce as I like to think of it) depending upon the lighting. On top of this, there are flashes of gold glimmer. It is just explosive in the sunlight. I come off as a vain idiot because I literally hold my nails to the light every chance I get. 

I took these pictures after about 5 days of wear. FIVE. I did this because I'm putting the new Essie Gel Setter top coat through its paces. And it's good. I love my European Secrets Rock Top Coat, but about a third of the way through the bottle I notice it shrinks my tips, which is incredibly annoying. However it does mask any and all bubbling and imperfections so I'm not eliminating it permanently from my top coat line up. 

3 coats of Christmas goodness, and Essie Gel Setter top coat. Y.U.M. 

L'Oreal Masked Affair

Sorry for the different locale, but the house is kind of crowded this week; granted, a grocery store parking lot isn't private either, but I'll take what I can get. 

I've intentionally saved Masked Affair for the Holiday Season, because it just has that kind of feel to it. It's a steely grey, lavender-tinged linear holo. Pretty much perfection. Formula was great, but I needed 3 coats for full-coverage-lately when I've been painting I've just done two (hooray for laziness!). I added top coat with misgivings, but I shouldn't have worried. 

The season is starting a little slowly for me. I've been sick as a dog the last couple weeks. It started out as a cold, developed into a wicked sinus infection, and then to top it off, one of the little nuggets that I tutor gave me some kind of viral eye infection. So I'm down, but not out. I'm planning on getting the tree out this weekend, and I may or may not have watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas 3 times already. And I've got a HUGE stash of Holiday polishes to get through. Last year I wore a lot but just never got around to photographing them. Hopefully this year will be different.