Orly Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

Let's (finally) finish up with all my Christmas manicures, shall we?  Well, technically I still have one more, but it's not actually a Christmas polish, it's just a polish I happened to wear before Christmas, so it's fair game for after the Holidays.  ;-)  I would've shown this to you in order, but I got so excited I just HAD to show you Smitten with Mittens and Party Hearty first.  You forgive me, right?  Excellent.

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is a deep blue-leaning pine green with a finish that falls somewhere between a glass-fleck and a foil.  I'm gonna say it's more of a glass-fleck.  Anywho, application was great on this one, although it did take a good three coats for opacity.  If you're a thinner coat kinda person you may need four.  I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, since Rach from stuff i (s)watched  loved it, but Piff from Polish or Perish hated it.  So, how did I feel about this one?...

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Meh.  Just completely meh.  Right in the middle.  I don't hate it.  I don't love it.  I like it okay, but not really that much.  It was nice and pretty and got a couple of compliments, but it just didn't wow me.  I think it may actually have been just a smidge too blue-toned for me.  From what I can tell, China Glaze Glittering Garland seems to be a warmer and more vibrant version of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, so I may need to try that one out.  You can see photos and comparisons of the two here from Cilucia.

I swapped for my bottle, but if you're interested in Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, there's great news!  As of a couple of months(ish) ago, it's part of the core collection at Sally's, so you can easily get your hands on this one.  I can't put my whole heart into recommending this one, but I know a ton of people are really fond of it.  Different strokes for different folks, right?  :-)

Well, in case I don't make it back here before the end of the week, I hope you all have a fun and safe and happy New Year!  :-D

Christmas Mani 1: China Glaze Party Hearty over butter LONDON British Racing Green

It's been 23 days since I posted :(.  Epic Fail.

They say the guide to successful change is to set a goal and then go public.  So I'm setting a goal today, and I'm going public so ya'll can hold me accountable.  I will post every day in January.  I have so many untrieds no, changing my mani everyday will be necessary just to get caught up.  Plus I really need to start making an effort to take better care of my nails and cuticles; I've really fallen off the band wagon!

So what better way to usher out 2011 by sharing with you my 1st Christmas mani, which I wore a few weeks ago in NYC for SantaCon.  For those of you that don't know what SantaCon in, thousands (I think) of people dress up as Santa and parade around NYC to different meeting points.  I decided this year to go as a Christmas Tree, complete with lights.  The costume was particularly a big hit once it got darker out and lots of children said "She looks like a Christmas Tree!", which led us to promptly give out my candy cane decorations.  We had a ball, and my manicure was just the icing on the cake.

Blending in with the kin!

I'm a Christmas Tree at SantaCon!

For this manicure, I started off with butter LONDON's British Racing Green, which Courtney reviewed here.  I'd have to say, Courtney did a great job showcasing this polish.  Its a beautiful forest green with shimmer.  I was really really happy with this polish, especially since it's been sitting in my untrieds since St. Patrick's Day!  I also thought it made a really stellar backdrop for China Glaze's Party Hearty, which Courtney just wore as well.  And while you may feel the need to skip on a $14 bottle of green polish when there are so many others out there, skipping out on Party Hearty would be very sad indeed!  Like Courtney mentioned, while it is discontinued, you can still find it.  And I urge you to look :)!

China Glaze Party Hearty over butter LONDON British Racing Green

China Glaze Party Hearty over butter LONDON British Racing Green

I'm a big fan of this.  I think British Racing Green is just the right shade for this combo.  I do like it better than Courtney's swatch of it over China Glaze's Jolly Holly.  British Racing Green can be bought at Ulta or off the butter LONDON website.  Party Hearty will take more work - heed Courtney's advice and snag this one off of Ebay!

Christmas Mani 2: OPI Silver Shatter over RBL Recycle

Happy 2012 guys!  While I should be kicking off the new year with my NYE mani, I'm a bit behind on posting from my 3 week hiatus, so I'm going to get caught up on those manicures first.

My 2nd Christmas themed manicure was the one I actually worse for Christmas Eve/Day.  In an effort to get through some more untrieds, I picked Rescue Beauty Lounge's Recycle and OPI Silver Shatter.  (I have Recycle thanks to the lovely Pam of Polish Police - Thanks Pam!) I think it turned out pretty good.  Recycle is a deep forest green creme, although I do feel like it's a little squishy.  Like a jelly/creme hybrid - barely.  This puppy went on nice and smooth and needed 2 coats.  Since I was topping it with Silver Shatter, I could have probably left it at one.  There is no sparkle or nothing to Recycle. Just straight up green.  I actually had been toying with the idea of adding Recycle to the blog sale, but decided against it.  I own about 6 green cremes that all seem to look the same, and Recycle is one of the darker ones.  Maybe sometime in January I'll show you it all by itself with some comparison swathes.  One thing to note about the pictures below, Recycle does not look black at all in real life.  It is VERY dark green, but it's obviously green.  I had a hard time getting the light to pick it up through the shatter.  It is darker than the bottle shot below though.

Silver Shatter on the other hand is AWESOME. :)  I really love these metallic shatters.  So much better than the other ones.  Silver Shatter went on super easy and shattered great.  You've got both hands in this picture below.  And be warned, I did tell you earlier my cuticles are a mess, so I photoshopped these so you guys didn't have to see the sad.

OPI Silver Shatter over RBL Recycle

OPI Silver Shatter over RBL Recycle

Close up of OPI Silver Shatter over RBL Recycle

I liked this combo a lot.  Recycle still isn't my favorite of the RBLs, but Silver Shatter is definitely a new love.  Recycle is discontinued, but there are plenty of other good green cremes out there.  I wouldn't bother tracking this one down unless you are a hard core RBL collector.  Silver Shatter is still very readily available online and in salons.  RBLs retail for $18 a bottle and OPI's will set you back $8.50.

See you all tomorrow!!!!! :)

A-England Tristam

Here is another polish from 2011, that made it's way into my life through the generosity and amazingness of my blogging buddy Courtney.  She, out of nowhere, sent me A-England's Tristam and Lady of the Lake!!!!!!!!! Seriously????? Words can not express how beautiful this polish is, and how thankful I am to Courtney for sending me this HUGE gift in the middle of my crazy, hectic, stressful month.  She is an amazing friend and person.

Tristam is my first A-England ever.  I've read plenty of blog posts about it and people just can't get enough of the formula and colors.  Now I know why.  Lets start with the formula.  Super smooth, flows like butter, self levels and cleans up easy.  A-England just might be my new favorite formula.  And then, there is the color.  Descriptions I read call it a sapphire blue, but I don't know, I totally see a dark purple-y blue when I look at this.  Don't get me wrong, I'm obsessed with the color.  I just see purple.  Weird...

Any way this "blue" is PACKED with holographic shimmer creating this great holographic effect.  I could see it in almost every light.  Unfortunately the camera wouldn't capture the beauty I saw under the Ott-Lite.  And I wore this when it was cloudy and generally cruddy outside, so no sunlight pictures here.  If you go back here at Courtney's post of Lady of the Lake, and take a look at the sunlight picture, that's what you get with Tristam.

A-England Tristam

A-England Tristam

A-England Tristam

Close up of A-England Tristam

Really?!?!?!  How can you not love this?  How can I not love Courtney?!?!  I mean I did before, but now she's got a new title of the Queen of Awesome-Sauce.  Did I mention that Courtney?  Queen of Awesome-Sauce! :)

Tristam is part of A-england's Mythicals collection.  You can pick this up from A-England's website or at Llarowe's.  Either way the polish will run you around $15 with shipping.  I suggest if you are into scattered holos, blues or purples, you RUN to buy this and Lady of the Lake.  You won't regret it :).

Until tomorrow!!! (Man this post has me pumped - Bonus points to whoever tells me how many exclamation points I used in this post - haha)

BEST. CHRISTMAS. POLISH. EVER - China Glaze Party Hearty

ONE MORE DAY!  So exciting!! The hubby and I actually exchanged gifts this morning, since we'll be  with family tomorrow AND since I got him an iPhone (HUGE upgrade from our crappy Blackberries).  I wanted him to be able to get it activated and set up before the big Christmas rush on Monday.  It's been funny to watch him trying to figure out how to use it!  Hehe!  

Ever since it debuted last year, I fell head over heels for China Glaze Party Hearty.  It's basically Christmas in a bottle with large red hexagonal, medium green hexagonal, and super tiny gold and silver round glitter.  It's chunky enough to build up to opacity on its own with 3-4 coats, but I love it best layered.  Over just about anything.  But I'm showing it here as one thickish layer over OPI Alpine Snow.    I probably should've gone a little lighter-handed on the glitter, but hey, it's Christmas, right?  :-)

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SO festive!  AH-MAZE-ING!  This look reminds me of those cookies you can buy in those huge containers at Christmas that are covered in white chocolate with red and green sprinkles on top.  I really don't think there's a polish out there that says "Christmas" better than this one!  It's amazing, and you NEED it!!  It looks great over just about anything, but here are two of my other favorite combinations:

Party Hearty over  (L) China Glaze Jolly Holly and (R) Color Club What a Drag!

Two totally different looks, but I love them both.  I was actually totally obsessed with wearing it over Jolly Holly last year.  I wore it like 3 times in one month.  It reminds me of red holly berries on a Christmas wreath!  Looks great over silver too - it'd be a great look for a holiday party!

Party Hearty was part of China Glaze's Holiday collection last year, so it's long discontinued, but it's still relatively available on eBay for around $10-$15.  A little steep for China Glaze, but I promise this one is worth it!  It's a Christmas staple for polish lovers!

Well, I've still got more Christmas-y polishes to show you, but I'll just have to catch up on that a little later.  I hope you all have a wonderful and happy holiday!  MUAH!

OPI Smitten with Mittens

Holy cow guys!  Sorry this took a million years to post!  Work's been super hectic as the year's winding down, and it's just really been kicking my butt.  I come home, eat dinner, mindlessly watch episodes of Star Trek:  The Next Generation with the hubby and get myself to bed.  I'm so just ready for this year to be over.  Bring it on, 2012!  Anyway, with Christmas literally just around the corner, I FINALLY had the opportunity to try out a super special polish that I've been hoarding for WAY too long (like, since last February...*facepalm*) - OPI Smitten with Mittens.  

It's a saturated jellyish red with flecks of gold microglitter.  It looks unbelievably amazing in the bottle, but unfortunately the gold just doesn't translate to the nail.  I guess the red jelly kind of blocks it out.  I know my photos are showing some gold flashes, but I promise you I haven't seen that for even one hot second in real life.  The application is perfect and flows as easily as I'd expect from a jelly.  The bad part is that it's super saturated, so the red can be a little hard to clean up.  I used two coats here.  Probably could've done a third for photos, but the patchiness didn't show up at all in real life.  

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Super pretty!  Perfect sparkly Christmas red.  It's gorgeous, and I'm definitely glad I found this, but with it's SUPER hard-to-find-and-highly-saught-after status, let's talk about just how worth it I think it is (totally just my own opinion).

Dustying - If you can find this at a local hair/nail salon or beauty supply (or heck, some people are even finding them at CVS!) for a decent price, I'd say definitely nab this up.

Swapping - Some people may be willing to swap this for easy-to-find stuff, but more often than not I think people want to swap hard-to-find for hard-to-find.  I definitely wouldn't swap your Essie Starry Starry Night or China Glaze OMG for this, but if you've got something of decent swap value that's just not getting the love it deserves, I'd say it may be worth exploring that option.

eBay - Prices for Smitten with Mittens right now on eBay are around $20-$25.  Sounds somewhat reasonable for a hard-to-find polish, but to be completely honest, I don't think it's worth that much.  It's beautiful and gets a ton of love from everyone (Muggles included), but for around the same price you can Merry Midnight from the same collection that I think IS worth $25, despite the fact that it has a close dupe.

So I'm a wee bit disappointed with this one, but even so, it's a very gorgeous polish.  I've gotten several compliments on it, and I'm glad I waited for the Holidays to break it out.  I can't wait for Christmas, and I've got my all-time favorite Christmas polish to show you guys next!!  :-D

Butter London West End Wonderland

Last weekend the hubby and I went to visit my parents in Richmond, Virginia.  It's a yearly tradition of going out to our favorite restaurant, The Tobacco Company for their AH-MAZE-ING blackened prime rib (yummmmmm!) and then riding around looking at tacky Christmas lights.  It's actually been WAY too long since we've been able to visit them at Christmas time, so we were long overdue, but I was super excited!

I wore this sparkly sequined golden top under a black blazer to dinner, so I thought it'd be the perfect chance to wear Butter London West End Wonderland.  It's a golden glitter made up of two different colors - your typical pale yellow old, and more sparse orange-y gold.  You can see both colors in these photos, and it's what makes it so special.  The texture is that super fine glitter (like Henley Regatta) that Butter London does so well and makes it easy to smooth over with just a couple coats of top coat.  You can definitely build this one to opacity, but it'll take you at least 3-4 coats.  I'd recommend layering it to preserve the precious! I used two coats of West End Wonderland over OPI Glitzerland.

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I'm really no typically into gold tones, but I LOVE this!  It's a more delicate glitter look (thanks to the fine textured particles), but it still sparkles out the wazoo.  I was actually surprised at how much I loved it, and I'd even say it seriously rivals OPI Spark de Triomphe for the title of my Favorite Gold Glitter.  I was head over heels for that one, so I think that says a lot.  I think it'd be perfect for Christmas or New Year's, and it's TOTALLY worth the price for me!

And now for the name!  Apparently (forgive me UK girls, I'm still learning here!) London's West End is akin to New York City's Broadway.  Makes perfect sense that its namesake polish is a golden sparklefest!

Ironically, Richmond, Virginia also has a "West End," and it just so happens to be where my parents live.  It's certainly not anything like Broadway (though there is a Broad Street!), but it IS where I had a fantabulous lunch date with Rach from stuff i (s)watched!  FINALLY met her for the first time!  We met for honey mustard (the food is just a vehicle for the dressing) at O'Charley's, which was decided upon based off a mutual fondness for the dressing that we discovered when Rach posted her review of Barielle Aura Angora.  Check out her post, and you'll understand why!

I had a blast at lunch with Rach, and she's every bit as funny and easy-going as her blog posts.  Surprisingly we didn't talk much about nail polish, but there was much discussed over the awesomeness of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and the Jersey Shore (only on our blogs would those three shows go in the same sentence) and the equally terrible turrible Two and a Half Men.  In short, she's awesome, but we all knew that anyway, right?!  :-D  Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents, 'cause we've got another stash swap coming up soon!!