Butter London Patent-Gel Review.

For the most part I'm very loyal to my Seche Vite top and basecoats. However, when I received the Butter London Paten-Gel Flawless top and basecoats I was very curious about how comparable to a gel manicure they could be. 

I usually don't keep a manicure on for more than a few days, making the long lasting aspect of a gel manicure unnecessary. But I decided to but these to the test during a week where I wanted my manicure to last through finals, Christmas shopping, and traveling home for the holidays. 

I gave the topcoat and basecoat an extra hard test by using them with all glitter polishes, which of course tend to chip very quickly. And I'm happy to say that after my week with this manicure my nail polish has worn a little bit at the tips and suffered very minimal chipping.

I wouldn't say it's quite like a gel manicure (although I've never had one myself) since they did chip a little, but I'll definitely be using these more in the future.

I also tried out a few new polishes (and polish brands that are new to me) for this manicure. I used Mr. Positivity and Atom + Eve from the Sephora Formula X collection and Jenna Hipp Flair Your Affair. I loved these polishes and they made for the perfect holiday manicure.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Candy Cane Heart Nails.

I decided to do my first holiday manicure of the season for a Christmas party last week. I did a bunch of Christmas designs last year so I wasn't sure what to choose until I was inspired by this candy cane hearts manicure. 

I chose to skip the faded look of my inspiration mani and opt out of the typical bright Christmas colors and instead chose darker, winter appropriate shades. The polishes I used for this design were Zoya Gemma, American Apparel Port, and a LA Colors gold glitter striping polish. The white was done with acrylic paint.

I received a lot of compliments on these and I thought they were just festive enough without being too much!

Born Pretty Plate QA19 Review.

The last few items I received from Born Pretty Store were ones I picked out in December, and one of the things I was sent along with those was the QA19 stamping plate, which is Christmas themed. Of course I ended up receiving the plate in the mail a day or two after Christmas, and it didn't end up getting much attention. I didn't want to end up doing a Christmas manicure in April, but I did think I'd test out the plate a little so I could still review it!

I was happy to find the images all stamped very clearly! Even though they're all pretty small (fourteen images have been fit on this one plate!) the details showed up clear and didn't get smudged together. I was really pleased with how this plate stamped, and I can already imagine plenty of cute manicures I could use it for when Christmas rolls around again. If you're interested in getting this plate to prepare for holiday season in advance, or want to buy anything else from Born Pretty, you can use the coupon code below to get 10% off any purchases! The plate costs just $2.99 pre-coupon code, and you can find all the other Born Pretty items I've tried, here.

And just for fun here are what my nails look like at the moment. There was originally going to be a little stamping too (not the Christmas stamps) but I was having some serious issues with the plate I wanted to use! The polishes are China Glaze Some Like It Haute and Purple Panic.

Holly Nails.

Merry Christmas! Today I decided to share my final Christmas design, the one I chose to wear for the actual day of the holiday. 

The base color is Orly Rage, and then I stamped the holly design from the BM-14 plate. I didn't have a green in the right shade for my stamping so I mixed the blue and yellow Born Pretty Store stamping polishes. The red is acrylic paint.

Christmas Tree Nails.

Today's manicure is probably my favorite out of all the Christmas designs I've done! 

I started with a base of Zoya Jules and then used striping tape and Wet n Wild Sagreena the Teenage Witch to add the tree.

The finishing touches were rhinestones for tree toppers, and a little bit of glitter (Milani Gems) for ornaments.

Holiday Dot Border Nails.

Added a dotted border over any base color can make for a really cute manicure, and it's a design I haven't done in a while. I posted another manicure with a dotted border back in May, but I decided it was time to revisit the design! 

And it works perfectly with a holiday theme.

I chose three very shimmery polishes, which adds nicely to the festiveness. I used China Glaze Swing Baby, Ahoy!, and Watermelon Ring.

Christmas Lights Nails.

Christmas lights are perfect for a cute and colorful manicure!

The base color I used is Color Club Perfect Mol-ten, and the black is Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. The red and green lights are acrylic paint, and the yellow and blue are BPS stamping polishes.

Holiday Rhinestone Ruffian Nails.

I think today's manicure is perfect for the holidays! It's quick and easy but just flashy enough. 

The green polish I used is Wet n Wild Sagreena the Teenage Witch, and the red one had no name or brand. The rhinestones which I tried to create a ruffian look with are from Amazon.

Reindeer Nails.

I tried to do reindeer nails a few weeks ago and didn't like how they turned out, so I decided to give them another shot. 

I did them a little differently and ended up being pleased with the results!

The base color is Zoya Jules, and the other polishes I used are OPI You Don't Know Jacques, OPI I Brake for Manicures, and Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. The red and the white are done in acrylic paint.

Sparkly Candy Cane Nails.

Candy canes are one of the best parts of the holidays and of course that means they deserve a little coordinating nail art. 

For this design I painted my nails with Milani White on the Spot and placed striping tape over my nails and then painted over it with an unnamed shimmery red polish. The finishing touch was a little bit of the silver glitter from Born Pretty Store that I reviewed here.

Christmas Sweater Nails.

Ugly Christmas sweaters are so fun, and they happen to translate perfectly into totally cute nail art! 

 For this design I used China Glaze Below Deck, China Glaze Watermelon Rind, and American Apparel Port.

Peppermint Swirl Nails.

Today's manicure was done the same way as this one from a few weeks ago but with a different source of inspiration and fun twist!

I went to see Katy Perry's new movie recently (I really enjoyed it) and couldn't help but be inspired by her costumes. They were all great, and of course I loved the candy theme. One of my favorite's was this (spinning) peppermint dress, and that's what I decided to be inspired by!

Although this design would be really cute for Christmas, I think the glitter and the swirl of fuschia help keep it from looking like a winter-specific manicure.

I did this design with acrylic paints, and the glitter is Color Club Starry Temptress.