China Glaze Poinsettia

I haven't worn a red for some time so I chose China Glaze Poinsettia from the Let It Snow collection. Poinsettia is a gorgeous bright red jelly that fits in very well with the Christmas collection it's from.

I used Sally Hansen Tripe Strong for my base coat. Then I applied two coats of Poinsettia which applied like butter! Since it's a jelly after two coats there was still VNL but it actually didn't seem to bother me which is strange since I usually hate it. I finished off with a coat of Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat.

Now for the photos. As I said there is definite VNL that you can see in the photos.

China Glaze Poinsettia in Artificial Light

China Glaze Poinsettia in Natural Light

China Glaze Poinsettia in the Shade

I can't believe it took me this long to try Poinsettia! Since I had almost forgot about it the jelly formula was a pleasant surprise! I actually can't wait to use this with one of the new Spoiled glitters that I received from Sarah :) Jelly sandwich here I come!

China Glaze Glittering Garland

Every since it arrived I've been dying to try China Glaze Glittering Garland from the Christmas Let It Snow Collection. Glittering Garland is a dark green jelly base with yellow/green toned shiny microglitter. When I first saw swatches of it I was reminded of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle which I don't yet have but has been high on my Must Have list.

I had been hoping to wear this one for Christmas but didn't get a chance to change my manicure and so I took the opportunity to try it on now. I applied my usual Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat and then two layers of Glittering Garland. It was opaque with one coat but I decided to put on two in the hopes of longer wear. A coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast topcoat and my favourite Sally Hansen Quick Dry Drops and my manicure was complete!

These are the photo's I took in artificial light that night after completing my manicure.

 

China Glaze Glittering Garland in Artificial Light

 China Glaze Glittering Garland in Artificial Light

Application was smooth and there was almost no clean up. My only complaint is that I found that once I added a topcoat the microglitter was somewhat muted. However, the full effect of the yellow/green microglitter still came through clearly in the sunlight - but not in my photo's!

The next photo's were take the next day in the natural light. Although the microglitter was shining through like crazy every time I tried to take a photo the glitter wouldn't photograph unless it was blurry.You can get an idea of what the microglitter looks like from the photo's in artificial light.

 

China Glaze Glittering Garland in Natural Light

China Glaze Glittering Garland in Natural Light

I am an absolute sucker for greens, add glitter and I'm a complete goner! China Glaze Glittering Garland is currently my favourite green, it is just so pretty with all that sparkling green and in the sunshine it is simply gorgeous! If you don't have this one yet in my opinion it is a definite must have.

China Glaze Holly-Day

I removed my Velvet Bow manicure which went quite well especially considering I had a coat of Seche Vite and a Konad Top Coat to get through. I don't think my nails had ever been so rock hard! I didn't have any staining from Velvet Bow which surprised me since I come to expect it from most dark nail polish colours.

I decided to go with a green for my next Christmas themed manicured and ended up choosing another from China Glaze's Let It Snow Collection. This time I chose Holly-Day, a dark forest green creme. This weekend is new nephews Christening so it seemed like a suitable colour to wear.

As with Velvet Bow the application was very smooth and needed very little clean up. I used Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat followed by two coats of Holly-Day and then topped it all off with a top coat of Seche Vite.

I took some photo's in artificial light after applying the polish that night. At night it appears as a much darker green but still manages to be a gorgeous colour.

 

China Glaze's Holly-Day in Artificial Light

 

 

China Glaze's Holly-Day in Artificial Light 

The next morning we had actual sunshine so I took the opportunity to take some photo's in the natural light. In the natural light it definitely lives up to its name-sake, a vibrant holly green creme.

 

 China Glaze's Holly-Day in Natural Light

 China Glaze's Holly-Day in Natural Light

I LOVE this colour! The moment I saw Scrangie's swatch of Holly-Day it immediately jumped to the top of my Must Have List and I must say I am not disappointed. Green's have got to be one of my favourite colours to wear and Holly-Day is no exception!

China Glaze Velvet Bow

As Christmas is quickly approaching I thought it was time I started picking Christmas colours for my nails. Since I recently placed an order with head2toebeauty as a pre-Christmas treat for myself I decided to go with Velvet Bow from China Glaze's Let It Snow Collection their Christmas release. I used head2toebeauty's 5% saving coupon DEC05 which is valid until 31/12/2011 for anyone interested!

I just have to say how happy I was with my order. I ordered almost forty polishes and they were packaged in sets of 3 in China Glaze boxes with a few bits packaging material inside each box.

 

Then all the boxes were bubble-wrapped together and placed in a shipping box surrounded by more of that packaging material. I had read from others who had ordered from head2toebeauty that they had nail polishes arrive broken (which were later replaced when the customer emailed them) but I am overjoyed that all of mine arrived in perfect condition. So not only were they packaged beautifully but my packaged arrived about 9 days after placing my order! Traveling from the US to Australia, that's pretty impressive, considering the usual snail pace for mail.
 

Anyway now that I've finished gushing over my order on to the nail polish!I used Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat, my go-to base coat since I'm so impatient and it dries so quickly that I can start painting my nails in no time. I applied two coats of Velvet Bow, left it to dry then applied a top coat of Seche Vite Top Coat. As I'm impatient and one of those people who the moment they finish painting their nails manages to knock them against everything I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Speed Dry Drops to quickly set my manicure. I am absolutely in love with these drops! Not only does my nail polish dry extremely quickly but within minutes I don't have to worry about denting or scraping my nail polish as the surface has dried. Thankfully these drops don't seem to cause shrinkage from the tips of my nails like other dry drops do. I took the pictures the next day and unfortunately it's been rather overcast so this was the best lighting I could get.

Velvet Bow is a dark wine jelly colour that I absolutely adore! I  must admit I have quite a fondness for these gorgeous burgundy colours and I had no problems with the application, the formula on this was great.

So that was China Glaze's Velvet Bow from their Let It Snow Collection, my first nail polish to start me off into the spirit of Christmas!