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. 

Finger Paints Paint Me Happy

I've been frequenting Sally's about once a week (it's a little treat I give myself after therapy) and a couple weeks ago purchased my first Finger Paints. I went with this pink (surprise surprise) and a goldy-pink glitter concoction (again, surprise).

Paint Me Happy is a warm melon-pink. Like most melon-pinks, it wouldn't photograph properly. In fact, I hate every single one of these pictures. My cuticles are dry, the nail polish looks lumpy because I woke up with sheet marks courtesy of a new top coat I'm trying that doesn't seem to dry EVER, and I have no idea why my fingers look so bloated and weird. Love the color though.

Here's a picture I got on my phone that's way more color accurate:

Much better. 

I did four coats (it's a little sheer) plus the nasty, evil top coat that just can't pull its pants up and dry like a top coat should. 

I'm just trying to get through the days lately. I haven't really felt like polishing my nails so I thought a color like Paint Me Happy would help.