Happy Christmas!

Or is that "Merry"?

At any rate, I hope that all reading this had a safe and pleasant Christmas Day, whether you went all out and celebrated, or just chilled.

Myself--I "celebrated" by making new polishes!  I hadn't designed any Christmas polishes since 2012 (and photos of them are around...somewhere) so I decided to help myself get into the Christmas spirit after a challenging fall, which consisted of relocating.

I knew I wanted to do a colorful, color-filled set, something bright and bold.  So in the end, I decided to go with yellow, green, blue, and red! Each polish consists of a mixture of at least six types of glitter, each.  One has a tinted base; the others have clear bases.  Three feature holo glitter; all but one feature round glitter of some type.

When I decided to name these, I thought, "Why not name them after some of the Christmas songs that pop into my head around this time of year?"

 

So, I called it the "Christmas Music" collection!

Left to right: Five Golden Rings, Ageless & Evergreen, Pretty Ribbons, Give Love on Christmas

Five Golden Rings is named after the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."  It consists of lots of holo gold and silver glitter in a variety of sizes and shapes, tiny yellow stars, little gold stars, and lots of yellow--"golden"--rings.

Ageless & Evergreen isn't named after a Christmas song, but the song it WAS named after has always reminded me of Christmas, maybe because the word "evergreen" reminds me of Christmas.  It's made up of about five different sizes and finishes of round dot glitter, smaller hexes, metallic glitter, and a handful of large pastel and neon hexes thrown into the mix.

Pretty Ribbons is named after a song I heard a lot growing up.  I'm not a fan of country music, but I can tolerate the song this time of year.  Why not use it for this polish, which consists of a shimmery blue-tinted base, with an assortment of blue glitters in different sizes and shapes, including light blue bows, and iridescent glitter?

Give Love on Christmas is named after a holiday song that I DO like a lot and play all the time.  It consists of crushed candy cane-esque red and white glitter, multicolored holographic glitter, and a few neon pink and red satin hearts.  I think this one might be my favorite of the four, and I can't WAIT to wear it!

I've swatched them all on a color ring, and I plan to swatch them for day-to-day testing on my actual fingertips soon.  Unfortunately, I couldn't label them, as I haven't yet located the power cord for my printer--it could be in one of the dozens of boxes I have remaining to unpack.  But the virtual labels are just as cute as real ones, I think!

New Summery Multi-Dot Topcoats

I've been making topcoats where all the glitter is the same size and shape for a while now (such as my homage to Minnie Style).  However, I've been seeing more and more of these polishes available commercial nail polish companies lately.  I have even purchased a few from Ciaté, Hard Candy, and Finger Paints.  However, it's always more fun and fulfilling for me to make my own!

This weekend I wanted to explore bright, summery colors.  As shown below, the polish with smaller glitter has red, hot pink, yellow, light orange, light blue, and light green hexes.  The polish with the larger glitter contains bright red, light blue, light green, pale green, yellow, and light yellow hexes.  Both are so pretty, and I've already worn them both!

In fact, right now, I'm wearing the one on the left.

This one was relatively easy to apply, and since I changed suspension base brands a couple months ago, I was able to get a good amount of glitter on the brush at once.  As a result, what is pictured is one coat over a reddish-orange L.A. Girl Disco Brites polish.

Time Flies!

I know it's been months since I've updated.  So much has been going on!  Back in July I traveled to Montreal, and spent a short while recovering from that trip before moving onto my next venture in August, which consisted of running back and forth between cities in an attempt to land a spot on a television show.  We eventually got to tape the show, but more on that later!  Maybe.

Last week I designed a few more topcoats; pictures and swatches coming soon.  Also, I have bought almost three dozen new types of glitter, the most recent of which arrived in the mail yesterday, and I'm looking forward to incorporating them into new creations.

Stay tuned!

Red, White, Pink: Revisited

I liked my red, pink, and white "dotted" topcoat so much that I just had to make another!  However, this time, I made a few changes.  I used metallic pink AND metallic red hexes in addition to the frosted white, matte pink, and matte red.  The difference is subtle, but still noticeable.

This is both polishes under flash.  The new version is on the left, and the original version is on the right:

This shot is no flash:

I actually did the second version (on the left) over a week ago.  Only I'm just now getting around to showing it!  I wore it the same day, but I didn't take pictures.  The next time I wear it I will.

By the way, I broke down and bought Minnie Style.  I just had to!

Comparison shot, with and without flash, of Minnie Style and the polishes it inspired:

Yet, at the end of the day, I think I like mine a little more.

Today's Mani

Today's mani: an unknown Color Club over a matte and satin glitter selfie:

I used a combination of bold and pastel glitters for this one, with a few flower shapes added to the mix.  This one got a lot of compliments, and application is a breeze; I didn't really have to "fish" out the flowers.

A suggestion about making glittery selfies: add a lot of glitter to the bottle, stirring as you go along.  And when you think you've added enough, add more.  And then when you think you've added too much, add more.

You'll thank yourself when you're trying to apply it.

This isn't a hard and fast rule, only a suggestion.  At times you'll want the glitter less densely packed in the polish, but for all intents and purposes, the more glitter the polish contains the better!