SWATCH SUNDAY — Icing Stores Santa Baby

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Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! & happy December 1st as well! The countdown to Christmas is officially on, so naturally it’s time to get SERIOUS about all things holly & jolly. This month, I’m going to be dedicating all my Swatch Sunday posts to polishes of Christmas past, which are my favourite to pull out during the holidays.

First up, I chose a shade that’s a few years old but is probably one of the most Christmas-y shades I own: Icing Stores Santa Baby. For those who don’t know what Icing is, it’s a accessories store owned by Claire’s–basically Claire’s big sister store–& during holidays like Halloween, Christmas, or Easter, they always come out with themed collections. This bottle of polish was originally released as part of their 2015 Christmas collection, & I’ve been pulling it out ever since!

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Santa Baby is a glitter topper — the base is clear, & it is packed full of an assortment of glitters in red, green & white, all ranging from tiny micro glitters to medium sized bar glitters. But the coolest part about this polish is that it is scented like peppermint/candy canes once dried, & it comes through even with a nice coat of glossy top coat to seal it in. Seriously… the barista at my local coffee shop commented on how cool this polish looked on my nails, & I literally was like “you have to smell them! It smells like candy canes!” I’m a little weird sometimes.

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For my swatches, I applied one coat of Santa Baby over Essie Wrap It Up, & sealed everything in with Essie Gel Setter to level my nails out. This is one of my favourite ways to wear this polish & the best option for showing it off in all its glory. Second to that, this shade makes for the most perfect glitter gradient which I’ve shown off in years past. I’d love to try to sponge it on someday, & maybe I will as like an accent nail with some peel off base coat if I’m looking for a one night kind of manicure. I’d be really curious to see what it looks like all sponged on.

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As you can see, it’s like Christmas-y confetti on the nails. How amazing is that? I just adore the different range of glitter styles packed into one bottle. It always makes me feel festive whenever I put it on, even if I’m feeling more Grinch-y than Elf-y! Instantly it is like my holly & jolly levels will begin to rise, no rum spiked egg nog needed at all.

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Sadly this polish is 4+ years old, so it’s no longer in production. I even checked online to see if there was a similar product available, but there doesn’t seem to be any Christmas nail polishes at all this year by them. So this is definitely one of those lock it in the vault kind of shades if you happen to have it as part of your collection, because it really is special.

Do you have any special to your Christmas polishes you pull out every year? Let me know what yours are, & stay tuned because I have more Christmas themed nail polishes to share with you this month!

Christmas Penguin accent nails!

Good morning lovelies! I’m back again, & I have another Christmas-y design to share… after all it’s only 3 more days until Christmas. (When did that happen?) Today’s look is a surprisingly easy look that I’ve done & redone over the years & always come back to.

I actually did this nails last weekend, but anyone else who works in retail this time of year probably understands the craziness which is my life right now… barely any time to breathe, let alone write a blog post… just counting down the days to my two days off over Christmas. It’s going to be GLORIOUS!

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Essie Grow Stronger
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Couture Top Coat
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Sprinkled With Love
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Make It N-ice
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Black Heart
  • Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Let’s Snow
  • Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Good Cheer-y
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Fiery Island
  • Small dotting tool
  • Small nail art brush (obsessed with my collection from www.nailstuff.ca

First I started off by laying Make It N-ice over Sprinkled with Love for a little extra sparkle…. because tis the season. & then I freehanded my little penguin over top on both my ring fingers to make my look more festive. I first saw this look on Pshiiit Nails (via Pinterest) & just loved how it looked so I needed to recreate. & obviously I had to add a little a festive Christmas-ness with some Santa hats!

My only complaint is that my top coat smeared my penguins a little. I’ve been testing out the Essie Gel Couture Top Coat & while the lasting power is amazing, it’s not my favourite top coat for putting over nail art because it does seem to smear designs. Guess I’m still on the hunt for the perfect one!

what do you think of this penguin design? Have you figured out what you’re wearing for Christmas? Let me know down below!

More Christmas Tree Nails!

Okay, so I think I’m obsessed with Christmas tree nail art. 🎄 I seriously can’t get enough of them. This time I created some Christmas tree stamped nails using a design I didn’t even know I had! I was trying to create something new, & discovered on this plate I reviewed from the Summer that there was this cute tree pattern–perfect for Christmas nails! So obviously it meant I needed to try it out.

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is manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald
  • Essie Tuck It In My Tux
  • Morgan Taylor Dreaming of Gleaming
  • Morgan Taylor Silver in my Stocking
  • Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate BPL015
  • Clear Jelly Stamper (also from Born Pretty)
  • NailStuff.ca reindeer studs

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I really, really love how these turned out. i think they’re just so pretty. I tried out my hand at double stamping using silver under the green, but it’s very subtle. However it did make Emerald Fitzgerald pop a lot more, since it’s a little thin for stamping. Also, can we talk about these ADORABLE reindeer studs from NailStuff.ca? I used a whole lot of top coat to attach them to my nail & they lasted a whole day easily. Also they’re the cutest studs I’ve ever seen.

what do you think of this Christmasy design? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Geometric Christmas inspired nails

Happy Tuesday! Can you believe it’s only 6 days until Christmas?! I hope everyone else is more prepared than I am–although I did get out some Christmas cards & finished the wrapping for my sister’s family, so I’m not completely behind. Today I have another simple Christmas design that looks just like wrapping paper!

For this design, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Nailtek 2 Foundations
  • Top Coat: Seche Vive
  • Deborah Lippmann Through the Fire
  • Ardene Ice Mist
  • Zoya Ray
  • L’Oréal Feeling Kilty
  • The Base Coat Vinyls Triangle Pattern Stencil
  • NailStuff.ca triangle stud — Gold Mixed Decoration Nail wheel
  • Small dotting tool (to fill in the triangles)

I’m not going to lie–filling in each individual triangle was kind of time consuming but it is totally worth it! I’ve always been a fan of geometric designs, & I just love how these look. A dressed up Christmas design. & the little triangle stud mimics the look of the pattern but could also be a stand in for a Christmas tree. I just think these are so classy–don’t get me wrong, I love all Christmas designs. But I’ve had fun this year creating different designs that aren’t your typical Christmas looks.

What do you think of this design? Would you wear these? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 🎄

Holo-day Nail Art

Christmas came early for me as I received a parcel from Wrenn Polish on Monday. I have swatches coming on Sunday of all three shades I received, but in the meantime how about some sneak peak nail art featuring one of these gorgeous polishes! I was feeling some untraditional Christmas nails for decorating our house, so I picked Enchanted, a stunning pink linear holo, & decided to make it Christmas-y. I’ve always dreamed of having an all purple Christmas tree! This is probably as close as my husband will let me get haha.

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: NailTek 2 Foundations
  • Top Coat: Seche Vite
  • Wrenn Polish Enchanted
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Troublemaker
  • MyNailsDid Christmas Tree Vinyls
  • Medium sized dotting tool

Can we just talk about how beautiful this polish is? If you read my previous post about the Wrenn polish shades I own, you’ll know I was very impressed with this Indie brand. Alissa makes just the most incredible shades & I love that they’re all inspired by her handcrafted jewelry. You’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out my thoughts on all three of the newly released shades I received, but spoiler I’m in love. The holo in Enchanted is beyond impressive. Even in the grey cloudy weather we’ve been having, it was hard not to stare at the shift. I have quite a few holo shades in my collection, but nothing like this!

If you want to get your hands on Wrenn Polish Enchanted, you can find it here.

So what do you think of these Holo-day nails? Do you have your Christmas decorations all up or are you last minute like me? Share your thoughts in the comments down below!

*PR SAMPLE* Some of these items were sent to me for review. However, all opinions are my own