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. 

Easter 2014: Pastels Till Ya Puke featuring Jenna Hipp & O.P.I.!

There's really only one thing you can say about a manicure like this:

Frankly though, I had a blast. I sat down last night with a bag of pretzels and some M&M's Bunny Mix and decided that I was going to do nail art. NAIL ART! And it was going to be the most fabulous, Easter-y nail art there ever was!!! 

Many pretzels, pastel M&M's and two glasses of Arnold Palmer spiked with a little whiskey later, this was what I came up with. Maybe it was the chocolate or alcohol, but I forgot along the way that I can't do nail art...or do it well, anyway. But I had some good, quality time with myself, had some delicious snacks and a really good drink (I rarely, if ever, drink) and it was a lot of fun. Plus I watched The Desolation of Smaug while I was doing it and I never, EVER say no to Jacksonian Tolkien. I won't get into how different the movie is from the book and all the liberties Jackson took, blah blah blah, because I don't care. The book is amazing. The movie is amazing, in a different way. I grew up on Tolkien and I think Jackson's interpretation was a lot of fun.

ANYWAY.

Obviously, I tried to do Easter egg nails. The thumb and ring finger sport polka dots, my tried and true stand-by. On the pointer I attempted to make those little Charlie Brown zig-zag chevrons with some intermittent dotting. Middle sports a flower (I think?); pinkie...STRIPES! 

On to the colors!!!

Lavender: O.P.I. Rumple's Wiggin': a nice light lavender with a DIVINE formula.

Yellow: Jenna Hipp Tweet Me: bright, lemony yellow.

Pink: Jenna Hipp Damage Control: a bright, saturated pastel pink; in the same color family as Pepto Bismol, but not nearly as intense.

Mint: Jenna Hipp Freshmaker: a really bright, intense minty blue/green.

Peach: Jenna Hipp Hashtag: creamy peach, pretty basic.

I'd read reviews on the Jenna Hipp pastel formula and the consensus was that at best it was temperamental and at worst a streaky nightmare. I actually had very little trouble with them! I can honestly say I've used much, MUCH worse. Sure, they streak, but that's par for the course with pastels. I did three coats for all of them and they came out nice and smooth and streak-free. If you do less, you will have a bit of streaking. 

Of course the one that was most striking and fun was Freshmaker, but my surprise favorite? Hashtag. Other than Van D'Go (or do I have Tart Deco...one of those anyway) I've never ventured into peach polish because I was sure it wouldn't look good. I'm pleasantly reminded that it actually looks quite nice on me! You can expect more peach manicures from me in future. 

So there you have it! If I have a stamper next year I will probably go with that, but if I get a set of good brushes, nail art is definitely something I'd like to practice more. :D

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I thought posting an actual bunny would be cute and also help me with my fear of bunnies. And yes. You read that right. I'm slightly afraid of bunnies. More specifically, holding a bunny. I'm not afraid if they're near me doing bunny stuff; I actually think they're super cute and will squeal. But when I'm asked if I'd like to hold said cute bunny, I get nervous. Why, you ask? The short answer is I read and watched Watership Down a lot as a kid, and if you've never read or seen it, all I can say is those are some brutal ass bunnies. 

Essie Mint Candy Apple

From the 2009 Winter collection? I have no idea because at that time I was eschewing any form of pastel polish; it was deep vampies all the way for me. Obviously I’ve come around. I own quite a few very beautiful pastels now, and usually save my vamps for fall and winter; I don’t remember actively deciding to wear my polish seasonally, but I’ll just run with it till I get bored and wear everything year-round again. I picked up Mint Candy Apple last month with a CVS coupon and serious swatch envy.

There’s really no need to go into the color-this one is famous. Pale mint-colored polish, great formula, nice and thin and creamy, with little to no chalkiness. I’ve noticed that it wears differently color wise on different people. It seems to pull blue on me; when my sister wears it, it becomes distinctly mint-green.  And surprisingly, no lobster hands! Mint greens are notorious for this, but not a hint of it!

This was three thin coats with Out the Door top coat (as of right now, my favorite top coat). I don’t think two thick coats of this would cut it, because it is a pastel, and despite the formula being nice and thin, you’re going to get patchiness. I applied it with extra care. I’ve become a habitual 3-coater in the few years I’ve considered polish a legit hobby.

I’d love to do some nail art with this one.