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

Read more »

#SPRINGNORULES: Green

First things first: Happy Sint Patricks Day everybody!

May you have food and raiment,
a soft pillow for your head.
May you be forty years in heaven
before the devil knows you’re dead

I've been a bad little blogger... the past couple of weeks, I haven't been blogging as much as I would have liked and the worst thing is, I don't even have a good excuse! Life just got away from me, with sunny days, my birthday last week and just plain no time to paint my nails, let alone write a blogpost about it. But no more! Today is the first day of a new nail art challenge some of my friends and I set up on Instagram.

Yes, that's right, No Rules, so no excuse not to participate! You can do as many days as you want or just a couple and if you're nail art challenged like me, get creative with color, stickers, water decals, just have fun with it!

For today, the theme is Green, perfect for St. Paddy's Day :D
I had some fun with it and created little leprechauns on my nails and I added a good luck shamrock, just because I could! I love this mani, but it's nowhere near perfect. Next time, I'll try to paint the little buckles a little higher on the nail and I've found I'm not the best at drawing heart shapes... but who cares? It's a no rules challenge, so no need to be perfect!

Will you join the fun? If so, please use #SPRINGNORULES to show your mani on instagram and if you blog about it, please leave a link in the comments, I'd love to see all your creations!

X

Read more »

Darling Diva Polish A Christmas Story

I know Christmas is over, but I really wanted to show you this gorgeous polish and I just didn't have time to show you earlier. This is one of my first indie polishes and I absolutely love it. I've allready show you it's sister as my favorite glitter for Mani Monday's some time ago. This is the same polish, only different colors, perfect for Christmas and with a name like this, it should be!

Darling Diva Polish A Christmas Story is a red and green  micro glitter in a clear base. It does have some holo micro glitter in it and this polish sparkles so much, I had a hard time getting a good picture.

Because of the clear base, it's a fairly sheer polish. You could get it opaque on it's own, but it would take at least 4 coats and you'll end up with a thick layer of glitter on your nail. It's better to layer it over an opaque base. I like this over a deep, dark, vampy red and for this mani, I layered it over 1 coat of China Glaze Naughty and Nice.

Darling Diva Polish is an Indie brand, made by Carrie in the USA. This polish was first released in 2012 as the name polish for her A Christmas Story collection. Darling Diva is available on Etsy, Llarowe and Facebook. She re-released A Christmas Story, so you should be able to get your hands on it, the only thing is that it has been reformulated and is now a bit more red.

What's your favorite Indie polish?

X

Read more »

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Only one day 'till Christmas! I can't wait! I'm spending it with family and friends, eating great food, sharing a drink and enjoying eachothers company. I've been rocking holiday colors all month (with a few exceptions here and there) and today I have an instant favorite for you. This is by no means a new polish, but it is to me. I only picked it up a couple of weeks ago, but I've wanted it for a long time.

China Glaze Glittering Garland was part of the Holiday 2011 Let is Snow collection and it was a limited addition shade. It is still available on sites like ebay, but be sure to have a good look around, because I've seen it listed for $ 20.

It's a gorgeous deep green polish with a green, almost golden looking micro glitter running through it. The glitter gives it a lot of depth and makes it the perfect holiday green.

The formula was amazing! Opaque in almost 1 coat, but I did 2 for the swatches. It dried really fast and flowed easily on the nail. I absolutely love it! I have a great love affair with green polish and this has made it to the top of my list as soon as I put it on my nails.

What's your favorite holiday green polish?
X

Read more »

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

Read more »

Deborah Lippmann Shake your money maker

'Tis the season, the season for glitter! I always love glitter, but this time of year I always go overboard. I normally just wear a glitter accent nail, but this month I'm all about the all over in your face glitter mani's. This polish is exactly that: gorgeous in your face glitter!

Deborah Lippmann Shake your money maker is a chunky green and gold glitter with smaller green glitter in a slightly green tinted base. The base is so light however, it almost looks clear.

Did I mention I hate the lighting this time of year?

The formula was really nice but because it's such a dense glitter, it's a little on the thick side. I layered it over a coat of Essence The green and the grunge and this is just 1 coat! It dried reasonably fast, but a little on the dull side, so a shiny top coat is a must. I think the gold glitter might actually be holographic, because it sparkles so much on the nail. Unfortunately I couldn't get this to show up in my pictures.

You can definitely get this polish to be opaque on its own in 2 - 3 coats, but you end up with a very thick layer of glitter on you nails. I prefer it layered like this. I looks like a mermaid discoball on my nails and I just can't get enough! My pictures don't do this polish justice at all, so I'd recommend checking this out for yourself.

Do you own any of the Deborah Lippmann polishes and if so, what's your favorite?

X

Read more »

#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

Read more »

Essence The green & the grunge

Today I have another polish from one of my favorite budget brands. I allready showed you a few of the new Essence colors I picked up during the 2 for 1 sale (The Boy next door and Prom Berry) and this is another one from that little shopping spree.

Essence The green & the grunge is a dusty forest green cream and is new to the Essence collection.

The formula is pretty good, opaque in 2 thin coats and it dries really fast and shiny, my pictures are without top coat. But I just can't get over the annoying bottles. I have said it before and I will keep saying it: the brush is a little too wide and I keep expecting to tip the bottle over because of the shape. But I deal with it because Essence has been coming out with some lovely colors and they are inexpensive.

It says "Colour of the year" on the bottle, but as far as I know, Emerald is the color of this year and although I really like this green, it's definitely not what I would call Emerald. It's just to dusty for that.

I wish Essence would come out with more new colors, because the ones I've tried so far are great!
And, while they're at it, please change the bottle, these are accidents waiting to happen!

X

Read more »

Mani Monday's: Favorite Green China Glaze This is Tree-mendous

I heard on the radio today that we can expect snow this week... snow! I feel like fall has only just begun, but when I looked at my calendar, I realized we're over halfway through November... Can you believe it? Christmas is only 5 weeks away! I can't believe how fast this year is going...

Time for another Mani Monday and the theme is Favorite Green! This was a hard one for me, I love green polish and own a lot. I was looking at my stash and just couldn't decide what to show you today, but with it being almost Christmas, I choose a fairly new polish, but one that I instantly loved because it looks like a Christmas tree on you nails.

China Glaze This is Tree-mendous is part of the Happy Holiglaze 2013 collection and it's a jampacked green and gold micro glitter. This has that gritty, almost liquid sand kind of finish, without it being a true textured polish, it has the same finish as last years Winter Holly.

The formula is really nice. It's opaque in 2 - 3 coats and dries really fast. It does dry a little dull, so a top coat is a must to get it to sparkle. I wasn't quite able to capture all the sparkle in my swatches, I'd recommend checking this out in person, because it's really quite gorgeous.

This is the only one I picked up from this years hina Glaze Holiday Collection. I liked the colors and am thinking about getting the other glitters, Put a bow on it and All wrapped up, but for the rest of the polishes, I just didn't think they were that special and don't even get me started on that white texture... That might quite possibly be the ugliest polish I have ever seen!

What's your favorite green polish?

X

Read more »

Halloweek: Dollish Polish Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake

I am a huge fan of horror movies, I can watch them anytime and I watch all types of horror. When I saw Dollish Polish was releasing a Halloween collection, inspired by horror movies, I was all over that! The entire collection has 8 polishes, but I only got 5 of them, because the other 3 didn't appeal to me. Today I have one of those polishes for you.

Dollish Polish Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake is inspired by Friday the 13th and even though the movie is not one of my favorites, I love this polish! Dollish' description of this polish is spot on:

Inspired by the movie, Friday The 13th, This Navy Blue jelly jammed-packed with hexagon & dots glitters in multi shades of Blue, Silver, and Turquoise giving the illusion of "lake-like" crystal water appearance on your nails, minus the crazy guy in the hockey mask.

I have to admit, this polish is a weird one for me. I normally really don't like sheer polishes, they annoy me and don't look good on my nails. But this one... This is a true jelly base and as a result, it is really sheer. I did 3 coats, and it's still not completely opaque. But, I actually love that about this polish! It looks like a jelly sandwich and fits the name perfectly! It's that perfect lake water color, blue with a hint of green, almost teal, packed with different sized glitter and large round holo glitter. Stunning!

The formula was really nice and it dried fast, but I did have to fish the large round glitter out of the bottle, after 3 coats of polish I had a total of 0 on my nails without fishing... jup... none came out on their own. They do make this polish special, so I think the fishing is definitely a must, but with a result like this, I really didn't mind.

I love this collection and will be showing the other ones I got very soon!

What's your favorite Halloween polish?

X

Read more »

China Glaze Zombie Zest

October is here and for a lot of people this means Halloween!
We don't actually celebrate Halloween here, but that's only a small detail. I love all the gore and gruesomeness that goes hand in hand with Halloween and my husband and I usually do a "really, really bad horror" movie night. One of our favorites is Dance of the dead, it's just so over the top bad, it's briljant! But I especially love all the Halloween themed polishes that come out this time of year.

Today I have a classic Halloween polish for you, I think I will follow up with just a few more and I might even get creative and try a few Halloween inspired nail arts. But for now, just a nice polish.

I always love my pretty/ugly colors, but I especially love them this time of year. They are something different than your ordinary polish and really make a statement on your nails. I have noticed that you either love pretty/ugly colors, or you hate them. I absolutely love them! (but a friend of mine keeps reffering to this polish as puke on my nails, she's crazy!)

China Glaze Zombie Zest is a murky olive green jelly packed with iridescent green, gold (and I even think I see a bit of blue in there sometimes) micro glitter... or is it shimmer... might even have some flakies in there... Oh boy, this is one hard polish to describe, I did my best, but really, you have to see this one in person.

Zombie Zest was part of the 2010 Awakaning Collection for Halloween and is, unfortunately, hard to get these days. I was lucky enough to be able to pick up a bottle, thanks to my friend Fleur. I wish I could get my hands on a back up, but no luck so far...

This is a great love for me. Definitely part of my top 10 all time favorite polishes. I absolutely love this little green monster. The formula however is a little on the thin and sheer side. It does need 3 coats to get opaque and you might have some cuticle flooding issues. Luckily it dries reasonably fast, so 3 coats is not a time consuming hassle. And the result is just gorgeous, well worth it!

3 coats Zombie Zest, 1 coat SV

My pictures don't do it justice, it's so much more alive in real life. Funny, for a Zombie polish to be more alive in real life *giggle*.

What do you think about Zombie Zest and those pretty/ugly colors?

X

Read more »