Secret Santa

**I've entered my Christmas meme nail art in Week 2 of Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Challenge.  Don't forget to vote here! Voting ends Wednesday, December 5th.**

Time for another Castle Mani Monday!  This week's episode is called "Secret Santa" and is the first Castle Christmas episode ever, so needless to say I'm super excited!  :)

I got the idea for this mani from one of the episode stills that was released; see Castle's shirt?  

I used my first DS OPI polish for the first time, DS Mystery.  It's a stunning deep brown-ish purple with gold micro-flakies, and an amazing almost-one-coat formula.  LOVE!  Artsy sideways photo, anyone? 

I stamped an image from BM-321 with Essie Good As Gold (probably my favourite stamping polish) and topped with one coat of Seche Vite.  The stamp doesn't really match his shirt as well as the paisley BM pattern would have, but I wanted to try an image that I hadn't used yet and I really liked this one.  

Yesterday I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to use Photoshop Elements to do my colour-correcting, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  Though I still need to find the exact skin tone that's as white as I am without making me look like a ghost! 

Unfortunately there's not going to be another Castle Mani Monday post for 5 weeks due to the show's winter hiatus, so look for a new one in January! What do you think of today's installment?  Will you be watching Castle and Beckett's first Christmas tonight too?  :)

Bond Gradient

**I've entered my Christmas meme nail art in Week 2 of Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Challenge.  Don't forget to vote here!**

Just quick post this afternoon, my sister and I are going to plug the computer into the TV and watch A Very Potter Musical!  I did this gradient mani last week using two of my new OPI Skyfall polishes, following this tutorial from Lucy's Stash. 

I started with a base of two coats of Live And Let Die.  This was the one polish from the entire collection that I knew I had to have, and it didn't disappoint!  I got the Bond Minis set, but I'll definitely have to get a full-size of this one!  (I did a jazz dance to a mash-up of Live And Let Die along with other songs from the Bond movies and Charlie's Angels a few years back, so I'm a little biased because of the name.)  ;)

I used OPI Goldeneye for the gold gradient; it gave a really cool effect with the foil polish!  I'm wearing Goldeneye as a full mani right now, so you'll see that on the blog soon. 

I was really backed up on indie swatching, but I've caught up this weekend!  I must have painted my nails at least twelve times since Friday, but it feels good to not have to worry about those!  Expect to see a couple more indie posts as well as lots of Christmas nail art over the next few weeks!  :)

Glitzology

**I gave my blog a Christmas makeover!  Leave a comment, let me know how you like it! :)**

Today I've got five unique polishes from a relatively new indie brand, Glitzology, to show you!  I found out about Glitzology in an indie polish group on Facebook when Stacy (the owner) announced her shop opening.  She was looking for bloggers to review her polishes; her glitter mixes looked so unique and I jumped at the opportunity!  Let's take a look.  :)

I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas

Yes, it's official.  The Christmas manicures are starting here on Globe & Nail.  There's less than a month now until Christmas, so it's completely acceptable, right?  Right.  

This week is Week 2 of the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge, and the theme is "Gifts, Presents, Stockings, anything related to you getting the awesome things you want."  Since the list of things that I want for Christmas consists mainly of nail polish and my Hogwarts letter, I went a little outside the box with this one.  

I essentially painted everyone on Christmas morning.  Quite the feat, I know.  I was inspired by the exploitable meme "X ALL the Y!" which originated from the blog Hyperbole and a Half.  As far as I know, this was first done as nail art by The Nailasaurus, and has been floating around the internet ever since.

I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and then added all the details with acrylic paint and a super tiny paintbrush.  Two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth finish.  

This was definitely a departure from my comfort zone, because I don't often do freehand nail art.  Luckily, it turned out way better than I had imagined!  *shameless self-pride*

If you like my nail art, you can vote for my entry here!  Voting for Week 2 will be open until December 5th. 

KBShimmer Winter Collection

Happy Monday! (That's the two cups of coffee speaking.)  If you're not a caffeinated as I am, I hope I can brighten your morning with this gorgeous glittery post featuring fove polishes from the KBShimmer Winter Collection!  Let's get right to it! 

Hex Appeal was inspired by New Year's Eve in Times Square, and is a "navy jelly base with magenta, silver and blue hex glitters. Tiny micro bar glitters add a bit of pop."

Hex Appeal covered perfectly in two thicker coats.  Application required a bit of work; I first applied it normally to spread the jelly base, and then dabbed around to evenly disperse the glitters.  Two coats of Seche Vite for a smooth, glossy finish. 

I'm sure you'll agree that the extra effort in application is SO worth the end result though.  Isn't this a stunner?  Definitely one of my favourites from the collection! *drool* 

Next up, Candy Cane Crush is "is loaded with red and white hex glitters in many different sizes. This polish is scented with vanilla peppermint, for a classic sweet mint scent."

I layered one thick dabbed coat of Candy Cane Crush over two coats of China Glaze Holly-Day.  This one is a hungry glitter, even with two coats of Seche Vite it was pretty bumpy. 

I absolutely love the vanilla peppermint scent, I wish every polish smelled like this!  It's not overpowering at all (unless you hold it up to your nose and inhale like my sister did when I told her it was scented) and I could still smell it the day after applying two coats of top coat!  This is a very versatile polish: over green for Christmas, pink for Valentine's Day, blue for 4th of July, and red or white for Canada Day!

For We Three Blings "we started out with a micro iridescent gold and then added faux gold flakes. To finish this polish off, we then added several sizes of golo holo glitter." 

I layered one easy coat of We Three Blings over three coats of Essie Macks, and topped with one coat of Seche Vite.  You can see the gold holo on my blurred index and middle fingers. 

This gold top coat is stunning, and applied like a dream!  I had such a hard time deciding what to layer this over; on my high-tech plastic bag tester swatches it looked gorgeous over everything, especially all the rich jewel-toned shades!  The combination of faux gold flakes and gold holo is so beautiful! 

Cocoa Nut is "a chocolate brown polish loaded with berry colored glitters in several shades of pink. Micro gold adds a hint of shimmer and shine." 

This polish goes on beautifully, I honestly forgot that I was applying a glitter polish!  Two coats covers perfectly.  The polish is left with a slightly grainy finish even after two coats of Seche Vite, but I had multiple people tell me "Whoa that's so cool, it's textured!"  Why yes, it is cool, isn't it?  ;)

Cocoa Nut flashes some other colours too, which you can see in the bottle shot above.  It's such a flattering shade of brown.  In fact, this post is a little late because I didn't want to take it off and wore it for two whole days!  Another favourite in this collection! 

All Decked Out is "a forest green Christmas Tree inspired base loaded with a mix of colored hexes in various sizes, gold holo hexes and a scattering of gold holo stars, as we know all Christmas trees need to be topped with a star!"

This one applied like Hex Appeal, a little dabbing was required to spread the glitters evenly.  Two coats of Seche Vite smooths it out perfectly.  The stars were hard to get, but I went fishing to satiate my desire to have a star on every nail... hehe!  :)

I absolutely love All Decked Out, yet another favourite in the collection.  The forest green jelly base is beautiful and gives the polish so much depth!  I got so many compliments on this one (sometimes after shoving my hands at their faces... like an insane person..."Look! I have Christmas trees on my nails!!")  Yea, this polish got me pretty excited.  It's just so Christmas-y!  :)

Now I'm in a super Christmas-y mood, I've been writing this post while listening to Christmas music for the first time this year!  :)  (Click here for my favourite Christmas song. You know you want to.)

You can buy KBShimmer polishes on their website here, Etsy shop here, and on Harlow & Co if you're not in the US.  Like the KBShimmer Facebook page to keep up-to-date with new releases and sales! 

No Castle Mani Monday post today because there's no new episode until the Christmas episode next Monday, but I hope this post made up for it!  Overall, I'm extremely impressed with this whole collection.  There's something for everybody in there, and you can bet I'll be reaching for them a lot this Christmas season (and some of them year-round!) 

Do you have a favourite in this collection?  Did you order any of them when they were released last Friday?  Comments are early Christmas presents!  :)  

*edit: Voting for the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge is open until Wednesday.  Click here and vote for your favourite (or mine, up to you) ;) *

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided to me for review and my honest opinion.

Sugar Plum Fairy

Busy day today! Not quite sure why I'm trying to fit in a blog post, but here we go.  I spent my afternoon in the mall, being a Sugar Plum Fairy.  I danced my variation a couple times and my friends did other excerpts from The Nutcracker, and then we walked around, handed out candy canes to adoring children, and took pictures!

We're not normally allowed to wear nail polish for performances, but seeing as it was at a mall and my teacher was a wee bit more lenient, she said we could wear polish if it matched our costumes.  Me being the sugar plum fairy, I was wearing an extremely sparkly light plum-coloured tutu so I did my nails to match!  *Cue artsy tutu picture, thanks to my friend Danielle*

I didn't have a polish that perfectly matched, but it was pretty close in person!  I started with a base of Essie Nice is Nice, and used this method from Lucy's Stash to add the glitter gradient in Glitzology As You Wish. 

I'll have a post up sometime in the next week or two with a full review of As You Wish, along with four other awesome Glitzology polishes!  

My friend Alisha was doing the Arabian dance at the mall at the same time I was, so I did her nails to match her costume too!  Inspired by this manicure by Wacky Laki,  I used OPI No Room For The Blues, BM-315 in Essie Good As Gold, and BornPretty Store gold glequins.  

Now I've got to rush off to a fundraiser performance for Education Without Borders!  Check back on Monday for some drool-inducing pictures of the KBShimmer Winter Collection!  :)

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

My third successful water marble was frustrating for all the wrong reasons.  It turned out very pretty and the marbling was problem-free.  Great, right?  Sure, until I go to take pictures and you can't see a thing because it's too subtle and my fingers are orange! **EDIT: Thanks to Jen, I'm working on figuring out Photoshop Elements to colour-correct my photos.  No more orange fingers!**

This nail art was so pretty in real life and I was determined to get somewhat-decent pictures, so I painted over the lines with more polish to make it stand out more.  It's marginally better. 

I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and marbled with Sinful Colors Cinderella and OPI Don't Tough My Tutu.  I then filled in the white with Essie Pure Pearlfection, and in an attempt to make the design more visible I went back over the blue with Cinderella. 

This nail art was inspired by snowflakes, and I think I captured it pretty well.  It was soft, delicate and shimmery, like a fresh snowfall!  :)  

That's the original picture right there, can't see a thing, right?  Anyways, I did this nail art for a contest, and I'd really appreciate it if you could go vote for my manicure here!  I'm working on swatches of some stunning polishes, and I'm so excited to show you soon!