IT IS FINALLY CHRISTMAS MUSIC SEASON (happy thanksgiving)

I love Christmas music.  I don't think I can ever get sick of every hokey, oft-heard standard (except for Christmas Shoes, that song is awful).  But I keep myself from listening to it until Thanksgiving; it just isn't time for Christmas music until then.

So, let's celebrate Christmas music season with a holly jolly manicure!

I bought these Sally Hansen Rent the Runway polishes (Red: Rosey Shooter, Green: Green Rocket) way back in October, as I thought they, along with Glitter Gun (a gold) were PERFECT Christmas shades.  I layered them over Zoya's Hunter and Livingston (green and red respectively), to create a pitch-perfect holiday mani.

Jelly Time

Jelly sandwich time, folks!  I needed a little summer color today, seasons be damned!

Gorgeous!  I love this cantaloupe colored jelly, Zoya's Maya, with Maria Luisa in between.  Gotta love a subtle gold flakie peeking out from a lush jelly!

The greatest color combination of all time?

I threw these together on a whim a while back, just to see if they were brilliant or ghastly together.  My verdict? BRILLIANT!

The burnished burgundy-purple base of Revlon's Sugar Plum, with its hint of bronze, balances the pale indigo of Essie's Stroke of Brilliance just perfectly.  This combo just glows, it's an unexpected knockout.

Deep Purple Skittles

Purple: the color of royalty.  The color of spring, when bright crocuses pop up and peek at the sun.  The color of fall, when some trees change from yellow, to orange, to red, to a nearly livid purple.  The last, lingering color of a winter sunset. I love purple.

Zoyas one and all, from left to right: Valerie, Mimi, Mason and Daul.

Autumn

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."--George Eliot

Autumn is, and always will be, my favorite season.  From my birthday, to glorious fall colors, to the cool crisp weather that makes yardwork (my favorite form of exercise) so much easier, to apple season and more, I feel calmer, more fulfilled and more generally happy in the fall.

To celebrate, above are some perfect autumn nails; Zoya Cheryl as a base, a gorgeous cocoa brown glassfleck shimmer, with Candii Blossom Cosmetics Autumn Leaves as a matte glitter topper.  Ahh, crisp fall perfection!

Puttin' on the (Neutral) Glitz

Nude polishes are always a safe choice, a classy choice, and a simple, clean choice.

I like a little flash with my neutral nails, so I popped Nina Ultra Pro's Holographic Topcoat (ugh, buy this polish asap folks, it's amaaaaaaazing) over China Glaze Fast Track, with an accent of Spoiled's Jewelry Heist, and voila!

Luxurious Brocades from Maybelline

I spotted the Maybelline Brocades in a CVS recently, and snapped up three bottles posthaste.  This manicure layers Embelleshed Blues (dark blue) and Beaming Blue (light blue) over Zoya's Neve, a gorgeous purple-leaning blue.

The Brocades can lean a little lumpy if they're more than one coat, but with the layering over a base color they smooth out beautifully with a layer of topcoat.

The shimmer in Embelleshed Blues has a GORGEOUS green flash to it, and Beaming Blue is a light blue/purplish pink duochrome.  Both have larger blue glitters as well, giving these polishes quite an effect in a single bottle.

I'm back!

I've been a pretty lackadaisical blogger for a while now, but I'd like to change that!  I moved house, got a new job, got some chickens and have been working on increasing my fitness level as well, so I let blogging take a bit of a back seat.

I'm hoping to stick to a Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule.  As my polish collection has done nothing but grow lately, I've got even more to share.

Let's start with my current manicure:

I used Zoya's Jaime as a base, and jazzed it up with one of the new Maybelline Brocades, Gilded Rose, and Sally Hansen Glitter Gun from the Rent the Runway collection (see a fantastic overview here: http://nouveaucheap.blogspot.com/2013/08/spotted-new-sally-hansen-limited_22.html).

Application Notes:

• The application of Jaime was very nice; I still had visible nail line at 2 coats, but no streakiness or tricky application, which can be the case with a pastel like this.  
• Gilded Rose is just perfect; opaque in 2 coats, smooth even before you add topcoat, stunning.  I might just buy a backup.
• Glitter Gun was a shot in the dark for me, because a lot of the major brands kind of miss the mark with glitter mixes like this, but I was pleasantly surprised!  Simple application, not too much dabbing to place the glitter, and a free-flowing base that didn't gloop up.

I, much like Wendy Torrance, love pink and gold together. Gorgeous!