Happy 2011!

Happy 2011 Everyone!

Blogs of Note

It's the day after Christmas - I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays!

First today is Candy Coated Tips.  Jackie has medium length nails and also makes jewelry!  She has quite a bit of OPI which I love to see all the colors since I really got into polish "late" and don't own a lot of the great colors like the DS series.

Next is Chromatic Misadventures.  Claudia posts a large variety of brands and colors but I think she does post always in her house and not outdoors, which can lead to a bit of color discrepancy.  She has medium nails and was featured as a Top 50 Nail Blog by SpaBeautySchools.com

Last today is Cindy Blogs Nails.  Cindy has medium to short nails and blogs a mix of swatches and nail art.

Enjoy!

Christmas Manicure

Water marble before scrubbing clean up

I really went all out this year on my manicure.  Looking back, I think I needed to stick with one product line of colors - not sure... it was crazy fun to create but also super time consuming.


I started out with a base coat of Seche Natural.  Next I added one coat of China Glaze Cheers To You.  I did several test runs of what base color would look best and the silver in Cheers To You seemed to really make the colors pop.  Next I did a water marble of Zoya Edyta and Zoya Kym.  I did 3 drops of Edyta and 2 drops of Kym for each nail.  Because both are glitter nail polishes, you have to be careful with the way that the polish disperses in the water.  I did not actually swirl the polish because it kept falling apart when I did that, so I just went straight down with my nails in the best possible spot.  To keep my hands (semi) clean, I used petroleum jelly all over my nails down the joint but even then you can see I needed some clean up.  I finally ended with a topping of ManGlaze Matte-Astrophe Clear Matte Top Coat to give it a nice satin look.  Only problem with the matte was that it chipped a tiny bit in some places.


I did have issues with both my pinkies.  On my left hand, I just let it be, but on my right hand, I cheated and just laid down a base coat of Kym and added some swipes of Edyta.


Here's my left hand in the sun and then the shade.  The sun made the matte top coat look non-existent, but it was there.  I did the manicure on Thursday morning and just took all these pictures on Christmas Day, so it lasted a good while.

Next is my right hand, sun and then shade.  You can see how I cheated on the pinkie. 

Yay!  Water marbling checked marked off my list!

Merry Christmas!

Man have I been a slacker this month!  The holidays are always weird for me.


But I have this ridiculously excited renewed sense for the New Year!  The best part was hearing that my cousin is as into nail polish as I am (HI KAREN!) and it just reminded me why I love blogging.


Things to come here on Polish Galore:
-Pulling a new winner from my 500+ Followers Giveaway
-Holding my one year blogging Giveaway
-Pulling the winner of my Apothica Giveaway
-Having my Urban Decay Pigments Giveaway
-Loads and loads of nail polish!
-Posting my eyeshadow and pigments collection (TBA, I have more nail polish to review).


Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, Happy Holidays to all, and LOTS OF LOVE from me!

Ginger Kitty Designs - Giveaway!

I've been thinking about promoting other blog giveaways - just so you know what else is going on in the blogging world.  Kind of like a weekly "Blogs of Note" ... the idea isn't unique by any means - Concrete and Nail Polish routinely has a post on Mondays about giveaways (check out the one from December 20th).


So I'm blogging today about Ginger Kitty Designs because she's having her first giveaway - a beautiful necklace made from the super rare, hard to find, Essie Starry Starry Night nail polish.

Image from GingerKittyDesigns

Now SSN (as it's called) was before my nail polish time (that is, before I became interested in nail polish) but just look how beautiful that is!  I own 4 sets of Ginger Kitty Design earrings and I absolutely love them all (must review later!).


To enter this giveaway, please click here or on the banner below to be taken to her blog.  Good luck to all!