KBShimmer Holly Back Girl

Happy Friday everybody!
Are you looking forward to the weekend as much as I am? I'm going to have drinks with friends on both days and I'm hoping to finally buy the perfect nude lipstick to go with my smokey eye for Christmas. I'm trying falsh lashes for the first time and boy, do I need to practice more! If any of you have the perfect nude lippie for fair skin, I'd love to hear them, I do need a bit of color though, pale colors make me look even paler.

Anyway, on to today's gorgeous polish :D

KBShimmer Holly Back Girl is Christmas in a bottle! A white crelly base, packed to the rafters with red and green glitter. Every time I see this polish or paint my nails with it, I catch myself singing I ain't no Holly back girl... Luckily, I really like that song!

The formula is really nice, it's opaque on its own in about 3 coats, but I like it best layered over just 1 coat of white, to get the base a really stark white color. It dries fast and the glitter come out easily, no need to fish at all!

As I said, I layered it over a single coat of white. It doesn't matter if that coat is patchy or uneven, the crelly base is opaque enough to even it out, it just makes the white stand out more. When applied without a white base, it looks a bit yellow in some lights and I prefer the starkness.

Isn't that a beauty? I haven't decided what my Christmas day mani is going to be, but this is on the shortlist! I love it on its own, but I also love it paired with red or green. However you decide to wear this polish, you'll end up with Christmas on your nails!

This polish (and other gorgeous polishes, like Run! It's the Coppers!) can be purchased on the KBShimmer website (US residents only) and Harlow&Co (international).

Have you decided on what to wear on Christmas Day yet?

X

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My top 10 Holiday mani's

'Tis the season!
Today I'm going to share with you, my all time favorite mani's to wear around the Holidays. I was originally going to do a top 10 polishes, but I just couldn't narrow it down to just 10 polishes and I really wanted to give you options for every type of mani I like to wear, so I decided on 10 mani's in stead.

This is in no particular order, I don't like any type of mani better than the other, it all depends on my mood what mani I'll go for. This is going to be a picture heavy post, so I'll stop blabbering and get on with it!

As I'm know for loving a nice red mani, let's get the red categories (yes, plural) out of the way!

10: Red cream

I red a good book, Phat Santa, Vermillion and All I want for christmas... is OPI

I think a nice, festive red cream is a must around the Holidays! You can go for bright, vampy, dark, sultry... what ever you like, but I tend to gravitate towards a true red, with blue undertones or a warm red cream.

9: Red with a golden shimmer

Smitten with mittens, Girl Friday and Vegas

I love the way golden shimmer warms up a red mani. I wear these polishes all year round, but I can't imagine the Holidays without at least a couple of red and golden mani's.

8: Red glitter

Ruby Pumps, Chyna and Cuts like a knife

What's a Holiday without some glitter? These are my all time favorites! I wear them on their own, if possible, layer them over an opaque base or do a jelly sandwich with them.


7: Holiday glitters

Party hardy, Seven levels of the Candy Cane forest and Holly back girl

Need I say more? Gorgeous jam packed glitters, that look like Christmas threw up in a bottle! I love them and can't get enough! The KBShimmer is a new addition to my collection and I will be doing a full review on it later this week.


6: Green 

Winter Holly, Live and let die, Holiday Splendor and Veruschka

I love a green mani as it reminds me of a Christmas tree. I wear these on their own or paired with one of the other polishes in this post.

5: White

Angel with a leadfoot, It's all about the glam and Solitaire

A white mani always looks so crisp and clean. Perfect to balans all the craziness of the rest of my mani's during this time of year. I love OPI's My boyfriend scales walls too, but I actually don't own a bottle at the moment, as I've gone through my entire bottle. Yup, used it up completely, untill there wasn't a single drop left. I am planning on picking up a second bottle soon, that's how much I love it.


4: Gold

My favorite ornament, Tomoko and Rocky

I'm not the biggest fan of metallic polishes, so gold (and silver, my next categorie) aren't my favorite colors to wear on my nails, but around the holidays, I love them in nail art or as an accent nail. Ornament and Tomoko pretty much stay on my nails for the entire month, I have a little obsession with these 2 polishes. They're basically the same, only Tomoko is a texture and Ornament is a micro glitter.


3: Silver

Do the Snowbot, Cha-Ching and Icicle

Like I said, I only love silver around the Holidays and only in nail art or as an accent nail. Except for Cha-Ching, I do love that one and have worn it on several occasions before, as an accent nail.


2: Black and red

Vampire Coven, Fright Night, Ants in m pants and Lubu heels

I have a problem when it comes to black jelly bases with red glitter... I own them in every single brand and every single size of glitter. If I see a new one, I can't help myself, I have to pick it up! They just look so... sexy on the nail, perfect for this time of year!

And finally, my last categorie!
1: Blue and white

Pacific blue, ..., Butler please, The outer edge and Fallen

I love a bright blue cream base, paired with a white gitter. It reminds me of snow on a clear skied day and I always hope for that kind of weather on Christmas Day, but sadly, it almost never happens...
So I just have it on my nails :D

What's your favorite kind of mani to wear around the Holidays?

X

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#XMASNORULES: Santa

I can't believe this is the last day of our little #XMASNORULES challenge. I had so much fun with all the different mani's and enjoyed seeing all of yours. The theme for this last day is, of course, Santa. I had so many ideas, all of them way to hard for me to do, so I opted for a relatively easy, but fun many.

I painted all my nails red, except my ringfinger and added a nice layer of snow and some snowflakes. On my ringfinger, I started with a green base and added Santa himself :D
I really like how he turned out. His eyes are a little bigger than I wanted, but that gives him kind of a hippy look, or am I the only one who sees the John Lennon glasses?

This might be my favorite of all my nail art attempts, it's just so fun and festive and I love my little Santa. I had an absolute blast and can't wait for next years challenge!

What was your favorite #XMASNORULES mani?

Happy Holidays!
X

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Mani Monday's: Red and Green

Happy Monday everybody! This weeks theme is Red and Green. I already did a red and green mani for my #XMASNORULES challenge and because I was a little busy the last few days, I almost did a repeat of that mani. But that felt like cheating and taking the easy way out, so I did do a whole new red and green mani.

I started with a red base and, to keep the Christmas theme going, added a green wreath with some gold ornaments and a nice gold bow. I think it ended up being a fun Christmas Red and Green mani.

We have a great group of Mani Monday's girls, if you'd like to join us, you're more than welcome! Please check out our Facebook page for all the information.

Did you do a red and green mani? I'd love to see your creation!

X

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Mani Monday's: Sparkles - China Glaze Party Hearty

Happy Monday everybody! Today's theme is Sparkles and to me, that can only mean one thing: glitter, glitter and just a little bit more glitter! With it being the holiday season and my recent purchase I only had one option for this week: China Glaze Party Hearty.

I have been on the hunt for this polish for so long, but wasn't able to find it, as it was a limited edition, part of the Holiday Collection 2010. A few weeks ago, one of my favorite webshops Enchantra posted a picture of this polish on their facebook page and they let me know it was still available in their shop! So I didn't hesitate and ordered it.

Party Hearty has large hex red glitter, smaller hex green glitter and silver and gold micro glitter in a clear base. It literally looks like Christmas threw up on my nails, absolutely gorgeous!

I layered it over a white polish to get the full effect of all the glitter. This is 2 coats and I actually think you could get it to be opaque on its own in 3 - 4 coats because it's so dense. I'm allready thinking of all the Christmas mani's I can create using this polish and this might be my favorite Christmas polish!

It was really hard to capture this polish in a picture and it's so much more sparkly in real live, but I did my best. I think I might need to invest in a better camera...

What's your favorite Christmas polish (or mani)?

X

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#XMASNORULES: Elves

Today's XMASNORULES theme is a fun one: elves!
I had so many ideas, but decided to keep it simple. When I saw this design on Youtube, I was sold! It was just so fun and colorful. I saw this design quite a few times, but I watched TotallyCoolNails video.

I think this turned out really well! What a relieve, after my previous disaster with nail art.

Are you joining our #XMASNORULES Christmas Mani Challenge?

X

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Essie Iconic Shades Gift Set

If you are just like me, you always have problems coming up with gifts this time of year. The big ones are usually easy enough, but those smaller ones always bite me in the you know what.
This year, Essie solved this problem and came out with a nice little set, perfect for all polish loving girls (and guys, if they like polish, why not?!) 

This beautiful set contains 5 mini polishes, all Essie best sellers and retails for $ 15,- so perfect as a stocking stuffer or under the tree. I love every single shade in this collection and I think Essie did a great job of making this a nice and versatile set.

Ballet Slippers, Chinchilly, Turquois&Caicos, Forever Yummy and Wicked

What's your favorite Essie color?

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#XMASNORULES: Holiday Movie

One of my favorite things to do during my Christmas holiday is snuggle on my couch and watch a Holiday Movie. They always make me feel so warm and cosy. But what were we thinking making Holiday Movies a theme for this challenge? Seriously, I had a great idea for today's theme and was really excited, untill I got started and saw what it actually looked like on my nails... I couldn't stop laughing and immediately took a picture to send to a friend. She tried not to laugh and tell me it wasn't all that bad, but even she couldn't hold in a chuckle...

After this big fiasco, I tried again, unfortunately with the same result. But I have to admit, I kinda like both my attempts. Not because they are gorgeous mani's, because trust me, they're not, but because I had such fun in the process.

So, instead of coming up with another idea, one that I could actually pull off, I decided to be a good sport and make you laugh by showing you my 2 Holiday Movies nail art gone wrong attempts!

The first movie is not really a Holiday Movie, but it is for me. I only watch this movie around the holidays and I absolutely love it! Bonus points for those of you who can guess the movie by looking at the following big fat fail!

You give up? I know, it's terrible, but still, I like it. I did my best and I have to start somewhere. I should have know I wouldn't be able to pull it off, I am the worst at drawing on paper, let alone on a tiny nail! But this is supposed to be the Corpse Bride.

After this fail, I decided to make my challenge a bit easier and try my hand at a character of an actual Holiday Movie. This is a black and white figure, so I thought this would be easy enough.... wrong! I managed to mess this one up too. But it is a little better than my bride I think.

Any idea which movie I was going for? If you guessed The nightmare before Christmas, you are totally right! Looking at the picture below, I thought it was going to be easy as pie, black, white, 2 eyes, 2 triangles for a nose and a mouth. Can't be all that hard, right? Goes to show I totally overestimated my nail art skills...

I hope you had a good chuckle, I know I did! Even though the result leaves something (well, a lot actually) to be desired, I still love both of these. Let's just hope that I get better with time and I can show you something nice next year!

What's your favorite Holiday Movie?

X

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#XMASNORULES: Gingerbread Man

I'm loving this challenge so much, everybody is creating so many gorgeous mani's and I'm really getting inspired to try even more nail art!
Today's theme was a struggle for me though, I had no idea what to do with Gingerbread man... I watched a lot of tutorials on youtube and googled my heart out, but I didn't find anything that I really liked AND was able to recreate. So finally, I just gave up and chose a very simple art.

It's just the Gingerbread man "suit". Frosting on the bottom and 2 little buttons on his belly. I don't like how this turned out at all! I really think I should have kept the frosting part a little smaller and the buttons... don't get me started!

Even the pictures are really bad, because my home made light box was demolished by my cat. Apparently it did something bad to Dinkie in the dark, because she got so mad at the poor little light box and literally tore it to shreds... No fixing that and I am now on the hunt for a proper light box. Suggestions are more than welcome!

Anyway, I managed to get a few pictures so I have something to show you.

I used China Glaze Street Chic for my base color, I had to, it's the only brown polish I own...
The white frosting is a striper, as is the red line.
The buttons are made with China Glaze Four leaf Clover and Phat Santa.

Let's quickly forget about today's theme and move on to the next one: Christmas Tree.
I should be able to get someting nice on my nails for that one!

Did you find Gingerbread an easy theme?

X

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#XMASNORULES: Red and Green

Today is the first day of the #XMASNORULES Christmas Mani Challenge and we start this month off with Red and Green. I chose a green that I always gravitate towards around Christmas. It's just so pretty and sparkly, Color Club Holiday Splendor.

For my red, I chose a true Christmas red, China Glaze Phat Santa. It's a red cream and I use it a lot in holiday mani's (and other mani's, because let's be honest, I just love this polish).

Because I love both polishes so much, I didn't want to do too much to them, I just want them to shine together, so I opted for a simple French tip. I think this is the second time ever I tried my hand at a French tip and it is nowhere near perfect, so be gentle :D

I love both these polishes and I love them paired together. They just scream Christmas to me.
I can't wait to see all the other #XMASNORULES mani's, I'm so excited about this challenge!

What is your favorite holiday polish?

X

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