Layering: China Glaze Glittering Garland and White Cap

Hey guys! Did you have a good holiday? I've got a few more holiday combinations to show off, which should carry me to New Year's Eve, I think. Hope that's okay with everyone!

This layering combination is directly inspired by the lovely Salla, who has the best ideas! I just love her wonderful style.

So, I lied a little. I said I had finished up posting my picks from this year's China Glaze holiday collection - and I had forgotten the star of the show, Glittering Garland. I think this is the runaway hit of the collection, and you can see why. This is a sister of the very famous Emerald Sparkle, a forest green jelly with golden glass fleck. Gah. COULD this be a more perfect holiday polish? I don't think so! I love it of course. I used two coats of this, because I was going to top it with China Glaze White Cap, which is, though sheer, lovely on its own - a milky white shot through with gold. Seriously, if you don't have this, this is a gorgeous, gorgeous shade I'd highly recommend picking up, because it can spice up so many colors. Check it out! First shots are Glittering Garland on its own.

White Cap just really amps up the beauty of Glittering Garland, right? You can better see Glittering Garland if you click on the photos to enlarge them, though. It's a stunner on its own!

Layering: Orly Au Champagne and China Glaze Snow Globe

So, this combination is pretty much awesome - it looks like fairy wings! I love it!
Orly Au Champagne is from this year's holiday offerings, and it's a white shimmer. It dries to a satiny matte, so if you prefer shiny, just slap a top coat on top of it! It's pretty opaque at two coats. I then put a layer of China Glaze Snow Globe over the top of this - perfection. Snow Globe is previously from the collection of 50 glitters, but was re-released in this year's holiday collection too. It's a milky sheer base with opalescent flaky glitter. It's a great layering polish!
This came out so perfectly.

This is just perfection, to me. I've seen this done and I really wanted to try it out, and I'm glad I did! That last shot really shows off the pretty colors of Snow Globe.

Peppermint Bark

You guys all know what peppermint bark is, right?
I love that stuff. I wait all year for it, I swear I do.
I decided I wanted to do a holiday jelly sandwich, so I debated and debated what I was going to use as a base, and I decided to try out a white base. I ended up with Essie Marshmallow for the outer layers. Then I did a layer of China Glaze Party Hearty, and a layer of China Glaze Twinkle Lights from this year's holiday collection, and then I topped it all with Marshmallow. YUM. My nails looked like a super-festive peppermint bark!

And this is what it looked like without the top layer:

So anyway, with the camera at a macro setting, it shows off the glitter a bit better even with Marshmallow layered on top. If you're looking at it on your hands though, it's a little less obvious and more like the chocolate minty goodness - I just want to nom my nails lol! This is such a fun holiday jelly sammich.

Fourth of July!

Okay, so it's the Fourth of July weekend here in the United States - happy barbecue weekend, people! - and I thought I'd try to do another polka dot mani. I was thinking stripes, but I don't have the right color stripers, so I dug out some China Glaze polishes that I thought would be perfect - First Mate, Hey Sailor and Sophistication. Sophistication is an older polish that I found in a dusty, it's a pearly white that seems pretty sheer so I layered it over a basic white.
You guys already know I'm not the best at polka dots, right? Well, I haven't perfected it, but this is a cute idea, so I thought I'd show you anyway. All but my ring finger are Sophistication with polka dots of Hey Sailor, and I just did a straight up blue with First Mate for my accent nail.

If I could just get the hang of doing them evenly! Haha. Oh well, I think this is festive and cute, and if you have a steady hand with polka dots, it would be a lot of fun! I think one of Jen's splatter manis would be great for this holiday, too. As a matter of fact, Kari has a really pretty one here at Once Bitten, and Brooke did one here at Getcha Nails Did! I think these are great, too. What have you guys done for the Fourth? Let me know! Have a great and safe holiday.

Disclosure: China Glaze Hey Sailor and First Mate were sent to me when I had Magic Maid for the purpose of review. I purchased Sophistication by myself.

Nail Art: Neon Splatter

Okay, so a few days ago Jen at The PolishAholic posted a super cute neon splatter mani and tutorial. As soon as I snagged some straws I had to give this a try!
I used four polishes plus my base for this one. As a base, I used Revlon's Matte Suede shade, Powder Puff. It's a white with a hint of purple duochrome and it's super squishy! I should swatch this alone for the blog. The four shades I used for my splatters were China Glaze Sun Worshipper and Flip Flop Fantasy, and Sinful Colors Irish Green and Dream On. I think this could be cute for a spring/Easter type mani, as well as Jen's awesome blood spatter one.
One thing I want to say, do NOT use styrofoam plates for your polish drops. Eats right through, hahaha! I only had styrofoam on hand when I started, and I had to quit. What a mess. (You guys probably already realized this, but me - I can be a dingbat sometimes.) You'll see, too, that my poor Powder Puff has spatters of Dream On on the bottle! This got everywhere before I started to get the hang of it.

And a rare picture of my thumb - it's always kind of awkward to photograph with the rest of my nails. My thumb and ring finger were my two favorites in this one. I LOVE how squishy and neon and eighties this is. Where's my neon pink ripped off the shoulder shirt? My plastic bangles and earrings??

Orly Pure Porcelain

So, I did end up going back and getting three other colors from the Orly spring collection. Pure Porcelain is a stark shade, mostly white just tinged by pink. It almost looks like a pale beige in some lights because of this, I think. It reminds me slightly of Sally Hansen Complete Manicure Lavender Cloud, only not purple.

I like this color, but the application was troublesome. Streaky and hard to fix even after three coats? Meh.

It would be a nice shade for work.